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FIRE TRUCKS DON'T PLAY LULLABIES There are different views on exactly how we need to give the gospel to sinners, so there are different views on which tracts are the best ones to use. I guess one extreme is to literally jolt the daylights out of people with a strong and forceful approach while the other extreme would be to simply pray for them and "wait for an opening." Hopefully, most of us park somewhere in the middle.While there are special cases where a more gentle and positive approach is best, I do believe the average sinner today is in a passive state of mind and needs to be jolted a bit. Okay, A LOT. While some might call this "scaring them away," it's probably more fair to call it WAKING THEM UP. The average church today is NOT waking anybody up, so you'll stand out like Elijah on Mt. Carmel, if you do, and that's a GOOD thing. At the end of the day, you can honestly say, "I gave them the truth and didn't compromise," and not too many Christians get to say that these days.This doesn't mean that you have to be rude or any kind of a nuisance. Just be honest and sincere, much like a doctor would be honest and sincere when giving you the bad news that you're sick and then the good news that there's a cure. Even when hearing or reading a more bold advertisement concerning cancer or COPD, I've never felt offended, only that they made their point and sometimes quite well.I believe this whole "scaring them away" argument stems from the idea that we are supposed to WIN them immediately. When we don't win them immediately, we think that we must have "scared them away" with the wrong approach, etc. Far too many Christians today are grossly naive and have no clue about the spiritual climate in which we are laboring. Most sinners today are NO WHERE NEAR receiving Christ. This ain't Philadelphia, Dorothy. We are on stony ground. The open door has been slammed shut and the sinners have settled down to a long Laodicean nap. They must be awakened to the reality of their sinful state, to God's holiness, and to the fact that Christ is their only hope. This "raise your hand, if you want to go to heaven" stuff saves no one. In fact, it damns souls to hell by the millions. PEOPLE MUST BE AWAKENED, and there is no disgrace in being the spiritual Paul Reveres of our generation. In the day of judgment, I'd rather be judged for waking up just one sinner than for singing useless lullabies to thousands. " . . . Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man . . ." (Col. 1:27-28)