A John the Baptist kind of Love

I remember as a young teenager sitting in the adult service at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, OK, and hearing Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty tell sort of a parable that to this day makes the Evangelical side of me want to hop in my car, drive to the nearest public location with a mega phone, and quote John 3:16 or something. Anyways... here's the just of what he said:
Say you're driving down the road one night and it's so dark the only light shinning are the headlights from your car. As your lights shine ahead, you notice a bridge crossing sign off to your right. You slow up a bit, just out of a feeling that maybe you should, and soon you begin crossing the bridge. The lake below is pretty far down and you realize how high up you are! It's an old bridge but looks pretty solid and plenty wide. All of the sudden you slam on the brakes as you see ahead that the bridge is broken in half and there's nothing to stop you from going clear off the edge, which you almost do. After coming to a complete halt , you get out and see that you were just a foot away from death! Wheew! Back in the car now, you put yourself in reverse and get off the bridge as fast as possible. Now that you're going the other direction, you're feeling pretty good- so thankful to be alive, you say a prayer to God and try to relax. Soon you see a faint light up ahead coming towards you, It's another car- and it's headed in the wrong direction- straight towards that bridge! You have options now... Let them figure it out for themselves, ignore the other car- not your problem. Or, you could stop and try to block the road, flag them down, do anything, do whatever it takes even, to get their attention and tell them they're going the wrong way and headed for destruction.
The follow up of the story is that we all have to acknowledge that the good news is so good because it saves us from the inevitable spiritual death and separation from God that those who don't have Him will experience if they don't turn the other way. It is out of great love that John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." When we tell non believers that we are all deserving of death and Jesus came so we can have life, but we must choose that Life- that is Loving! Those who don't have the Lord will experience the great punishment - something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy if I had one.
On the flip side... I want to share an experience with you that I had in D.C. about 6 years ago. I was with Sam walking around the Washington Monument, when we heard a man yelling at people from a homemade pulpit, Bible in hand, shouting, "God hates you evil sinners, and you're all going to Hell if you don't repent!" He was pointing to random people waiting to go up the monument and yelling at them, calling them whores and thieves, snakes, foul smelling waste, and all kinds of wicked obscenities." With my face beat red, I pre-apologised to Sam for the embarrassment I was about to cause him. I made my way up to the pulpit and asked the man if I could speak with him privately. A group from his team began to move in closer to see if I had come forward to give my life to Christ... um, no. When the preacher gave me his ear, I told him - as close to his microphone as I could manage, that God loves these people! He hates sin but loves the sinner, I went on to tell him that he should not call people names, knowing nothing about them or their lives. Then I turned to the crowd and shouted, "Jesus loves you and He died to take away your sin so you can have life!" Immediately this man put the microphone to his mouth, got right up in my face and said,
"You evil daughter of Jezebel, you dirty woman who caused Adam to sin, you will burn in hell with the rest of those who belong to Satan." (No, I am not kidding) Then I was grabbed by several men and brought away from the crowd so that demons could be driven out of me. ... Finally, getting a little worried, Sam came over to see if I was OK, and they pulled him off to the side to talk to him as well. When we were able to walk away I yelled once more, "Jesus LOVES you!" as loud as I possibly could. I'll never forget that day. Part of me was glad that someone would have the guts to remind people that there's a hell, but I was outraged that my Jesus was being portrayed as a hater of sinners! Quite the opposite... or He wouldn't have died so painfully on our behalf.
How we tell others the good news is important, but pretty simple. If we know and say the words of Jesus- we can not go wrong. May we not misinterpret His life, His truth, His salvation, or His love! How can we as sinners saved by grace misinterpret true love once we've experienced it? We must keep returning our eyes to the word of God and be faithful to proclaim it with courage like John the Baptist, knowing and showing that, "It is the LOVE of God that draws man to repentance."