Bridge is out

 🌉🚘🌉🚘🌉

A preacher was driving home one night with his wife and two daughters in the car. It was dark, raining and intensely so and the pastor could hardly see past his headlights. ☦

On the way he had to drive over a huge bridge. There were posted signs  

*"DO NOT PICK UP HITCH-HIKERS."*

By the base of the bridge, there was an institution for the criminally insane and sometimes people would escape from it and try to catch a ride. 

On this night, as the pastor slowly approached the bridge, a man suddenly appeared in the headlights. 

He was soaked, standing in the middle of the road, frantically waving his shirt over his head and screaming.

The preacher's wife cautioned her husband, 

"Oh please don't stop, try to drive around him!" 

But the car was too close, the man was unavoidable, except to stop or drive over him. 

As soon as the Pastor stoped, the man slapped his hand down on the hood of the car and continued screaming, at the top of his lungs, unabated. 

The preacher felt something in his spirit, looked over to his wife and told her to lock the door after him and to not unlock it until he had returned.

 

His family understandably perturbed and crying, pleaded with him not to get out of the car. 

He opened the door and stepped outside... He was immediately soaked from the rain. 

As he approached the man, all of a sudden he could make out what the man was screaming,

*"THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT! A BUS JUST WENT OVER INTO THE WATER!!!"*

As these words registered in the pastor's mind, he looked back in the car at his wife and two daughters. He wrapped his arm around the man and wept in gratitude. 

The preacher stood there with the man for the next half-hour in the middle of the road, waving his jacket above his head screaming to warn other commuters.

*"STOP!!!!! THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"*

For a lost and a dying world, 

*"THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"* 

For a people heading to a Christless Eternity, ☦

*"THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"*

Where are the men and the women who will stand in the middle of the road and forbid people, not to perish?

*_HELL HAS OPENED IT'S MOUTH WIDE AND SADLY MANY ARE SPEEDING INTO IT_*

*THE BRIDGE IS OUT* 

Breaking Bread

Several years ago, a friend and I were dining in a restaurant's outdoor seating area. As we neared the end of our dinner we noticed a man watching us from the pavement. His clothes were dirty, his face haggard. He walked up to us and with a cracked voice said, "When you finish your meal, if you have any leftovers, would you mind if I ate them?" We invited him to sit down, and we asked the waitress to bring him a grilled chicken and butter pasta entrée. For the next half hour, he told us bits of his story.

As we chatted, there were many truths we could have shared with the man. There were many wise, Biblical words we could have offered. It was obvious to us, however, that what this man needed most was a square meal and genuine conversation with people who cared about who he was - people who were interested in learning the sorrows that had led to his current condition.

After Jesus' resurrection, several disciples returned to fishing. But they weren't catching anything. In a surprising encounter, however, Jesus called out to them from the shore. He instructed them to cast their nets on the opposite side of the boat. They did, and  "they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it." (John 21:6) When they landed their boat on the shore, a charcoal fire with fish cooking over it awaited them. "Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish." (John 21:13)

I can imagine many things Jesus could have offered. Perhaps a rebuke for their faithlessness in the days surrounding His crucifixion. Yet, as a traditional prayer states, the "blessed Son made Himself known to His disciples in the breaking of bread."

Wherever you're hungry, God will meet you there.
- Winn Collier