Love and Seduction

"The language of love and the language of seduction are the same. The one who wishes a girl for a wife and the one who wishes her for only a night both say the words "I love you." Jesus has told us to discern between the language of seduction and the language of love, and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin from the real sheep."
- Richard Wurmbrand in the book "Tortured for Christ"

I found these words powerful as I'm reading through this book. This was written 30 years ago, but we deal with the same thing in different forms in the church today.

We have the emergent church, the prosperity gospel, charismatic chaos and all sorts of heretical doctrines being taught be false teachers. Satan doesn't care who or what you worship, as long as it's not the one true God of the Bible. Read it every day, so that you don't find yourself deceived.

Saturday 10-16-10

Tom, Catherine, Ronnie and I met Joe, Marcus and Jennifer out on Mill Ave for some Saturday night evangelism. We handed out a few tracts and Tom did some Open Air Trivia. A guy who had been sitting near by in Renaissance Festival clothes, had the correct answer for Tom's trivia question for a dollar, and decided to take the Good Person Test for $5.

His name is Andrew, and it turned out that he wasn't as good as he had thought, once he was compared to God's standard rather than man's.
Tom took him through the Gospel and spent some time explaining it to him. Although Andrew claimed to be a Christian, this explanation made it more clear of his need for a Savior, and we left him with a few more tracts to look through later.

I talked to a guy named Shane, who was homeless and trying to find his way back to Seattle. He claimed that he'd had an argument with a friend, and thought things had gone so badly that he could lose his life through all of this. I don't know all the details, but please keep him in prayer. He seemed to have some background in Christianity, but still considered himself to be a good person. So I took him through the test, explained the Gospel and told him that he has to be made right with God before he leaves this world.

Tom had been talking to a homeless woman named Jessica, and we prayed for her there on the street. She had recently become homeless and is trying to keep custody of her son.

A woman with multiple piercings in her face came over to talk to me for a while. She claimed to have had a Christian background, but now believes in all kinds of religions and pagan stuff. She thinks she can keep from being deceived by Satan, yet she is very lost. I'm not really sure why she wanted to talk to me, as she really wasn't interested in making any changes in her life. Just wanted to tell me about herself, so I listened and explained that there are false teachers within the church, but that doesn't invalidate the truth. She mentioned her tattoos of a pentagram and an inverted cross, and I told her that anyone can be forgiven and saved, but she really wasn't very receptive.

Our atheists had brought out their free clothes for those in need, and also brought some sandwiches from Jersey Mike's for anyone who was hungry. This goes to show that, while feeding and caring for the homeless are good works to be done, it is NOT evangelizing. We had some good discussions with Rocco and Shawn, as well as a few other atheists that stopped by.

I talked with a guy named Brad. He'd been drinking, but had some good knowledge of the Gospel. However, we know that believing isn't enough (even the demons believe), and I talked with him for a while. I explained the need to repent, turning away from sins, forsaking them and trusting fully in Jesus Christ. Then we talked about the fact that we do good works - not in an attempt to earn our way into Heaven - but out of gratitude for what God has already done for us, in His love and sacrifice to pay the punishment for our sins because we are unable to.

It was a pretty good night of evangelizing.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 10-09-10

Saturday night on Mill was interesting. A man named Tracy stopped to answer some of the trivia questions we were asking, and agreed to take the Good Person Test, even though he said that he wouldn't consider himself to be a good person. There are very few who don't (Prov 20:6). I took him through the questions anyway, and gave him a more specific understanding of the Gospel. When we had finished, he said that he was a Gospel singer and asked if he could sing a song. I held the mic for him so he could play guitar and he was pretty good. Here's a picture of Tracy.

Later on, while Tom was Open Air preaching, a group of zombies went by. They had bloodied faces and shirts, and one of them laid on the ground so the others could drag him through the crowd and past the front of our stool. I guess they were out a little early for Halloween.

While we were playing with the light illusion, tossing red lights back and forth, people stopped to see how we did it. Twice people said that they would sell their eyes for $500,000. Sane people won't normally state such a thing, I asked them what they would do then, see the world? One of them said he'd go buy some other eyes. Money really is an idol that enslaves mankind, especially young people who've had too much to drink.

Tom talked with Shawn, one of the skeptics who likes to come out and oppose our preaching, and we spoke with Rocco for a while as well.
Most of the atheists we find on Mill Ave actually enjoy having these type of discussions. Even though they disagree with us, they are willing to debate, ask questions and give their own perspective for why they don't believe. I've found that many of them have a background in some sort of religion. Whether it's a false religion such as Mormonism, Catholic tradition, or just some entertainment based church, they've had just enough to become an innoculated backslider.

I've often heard the complaint that they've been reprimanded for questioning the belief system, most likely because those they asked didn't have the answers and didn't want to take the time to look for them. But there are answers out there, and we shouldn't just disregard the questions. I've actually had my own faith strengthened while looking up answers to some of the questions or statements posed by our atheists on the streets.

I hope to see our friends from Tree of Life Community Church out again in the future. Tom and I have recently taken them through the WOTM Crash Course and they came out to see these principles in action on the streets, even handing out a few tracts while they were there. Thanks to Pastor BJ Drebert for opening up his church and allowing us to teach there.
We continue to pray for more workers (Luke 10:2)

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 10-02-10

Tom and I met Alan and Ronnie out on Mill for some witnessing.

A few kids stopped by for the Open Air Trivia questions. I was able to take Alex through the Good Person Test, while his sister and a couple of others listened in.

After that a blond woman walked over to see what was going on and to ask more about what we were doing. I talked to her a bit about what we were doing out there and she asked what church we went to. I explained that we all go to different churches and come out to share the Gospel according to the Bible. I took her through the Good Person Test and gave her a "Are You Good Enough to Get into Heaven" tract. Then she mentioned that she was Mormon and seemed to think that we believe the same things. I was talking to her a bit about the differences, when some other guys came up to ask some questions. I talked to them and the lady I had been speaking with disappeared. At least she had a tract before she left.

The three guys seemed to be unbelievers, but were open to discussion. They had some good questions and I answered the best I could. I didn’t catch their names, but I’ve seen them out there before, and will probably see them again.

A guy named Larry, who seemed a little tipsy, claimed to have had some sort of prison experience and said he knew God and lived for Him. I was able to share the Gospel briefly with him and he went on his way.

Over all it was very busy on Mill Ave this Saturday with people celebrating Oktoberfest. We distributed a lot of tracts and had quite a few conversations.

Soli Deo Gloria