Saturday 11-27-10

There were a lot of people out on the streets to share the Gospel this past Saturday night. The Festival of Lights parade came down Mill Ave, and after that there were still quite a few people hanging around, but they disappeared over time as it gets "cold" here at night.

Tom and I met up with Jean, Leigh, Joe, Luke, Anne, Marcus, Jennifer and Dan. We distributed a few tracts and did some Open Air preaching.

There was a Christian woman there who used to have an evangelical cable TV show, and who witnesses to a lot of homeless and hurting people on the streets. She and a friend (husband maybe?) didn't agree with the "Law to the proud, Grace to the humble" concept that we were using. They thought that we should be telling everyone how much Jesus loved them and that they could be forgiven. That's a great idea, and exactly what we do, AFTER we explain the NEED for a Savior, otherwise it makes no sense. It would be like giving someone the cure for cancer who had no idea that they actually had cancer. But if you describe the symptoms, give the details of what can be expected and then explain the results, then it will make sense and they will be ready for the cure. These people wanted to do it backwards, which would just seem confusing to me. There are far too many luke-warm, "carnal Christians" in the world today that are going to be in for a rude awakening per Matt 7:22-23. I think we'll stick to the Biblical way of witnessing.

We decided to call it a night early, since there weren't too many people out and headed to a nearby Taco Bell for some fellowship together.
Luke was witnessing to an unbeliever, and when we decided to take off, we invited the man to come with us.
He wasn't really interested in discussing spiritual things or taking any tracts, but decided to meet us there anyway. He said that he was surprised that we'd hang out with the likes of himself, but I told him that's exactly what we come out there for. I didn't catch his name, but God knows who he is. Please pray that the Lord would work in his heart. We'll probably see him out on Mill again.

Soli Deo Gloria

Wednesday 11-17-10

Tom, Heather, Linda, Sherry, Chad, Cole, Jean, Anne, Jennifer, Jill and I met a few others to evangelize on the local college campus on Wednesday. We had 2,000 tracts to give out and had some good one 2 one conversations with some of the students at ASU.

As I was setting up my white board, a guy named Anthony stopped by to talk about the trillion dollar bill tract. He felt that everyone had already heard the message on there and would like to have seen something from the Bible that he didn't already know. I challenged him on this, and asked if he knew the Ten Commandments. Of course, he stated that he did, and actually did pretty well, getting five of the ten on the spot. Most people can't remember more than about three. I gave him a coin with the Ten Commandments on it, and explained that the message on the tracts was the Gospel - the message of hope and what people needed to know in order to understand their need for a Savior. I told him there are many interesting stories within the Bible, and if people would read it, they would find those other things that he was looking for.

Garan saw my sign asking people if they considered themselves to be good, and really liked what we were doing. He had heard of WOTM a couple of years before in LA, and had been looking for more information. I gave him the website (http://WayoftheMaster.com) and a couple of CDs to check out.

Tom talked to a few people, and the campus atheists set up nearby. We didn't have an opportunity to do any Open Air, but we distributed tracts and had quite a few conversations.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 11-13-10

Interesting night on Mill Ave. Brandt was talking to one guy – Ryan was his name, I think. But the man got mad when he wasn’t allowed to hold the mic, so he gave the PA a good kick and walked away. Later he stopped by the corner in a car to mock us, then got stuck in traffic so we were able to get his license number.

One of our friendly neighborhood atheists called out on their bullhorn that it was a “divine appointment” that our PA was kicked. Isn’t that awesome? They have finally admitted belief in the divine, they are no longer professed atheists, but simply agnostic, not knowing whether there is a Creator or not. Just like the person who would look at a building and wonder whether or not there was a builder.

We brought the turtle duck out, the replica of a transitional species. The Skeptic Tank is not impressed with our sense of humor.

Another guy, who generally hangs out with the skeptics, talked with us for a while. He thought that all religions are basically the same, teaching “play nice.” I don’t think that’s necessarily true. He says it’s just the extremists who commit violent acts against others. However, when someone who professes to be a Christian, commits some violent act against someone else, the Christian community condemns that action and that so called believer, because that is not what the Bible teaches. Under the New Covenant, we are told to love our neighbor and pray for our enemies.

But when a terrorist attack is committed by a professing Muslim, there is one of two reactions. Some are dancing in the street, rejoicing in the destruction of their enemies, and the other reaction is complete silence. I have not heard of anyone standing up and condemning terrorist actions, and that’s because that is exactly what their religious book commands.
When Marcus got out a Qur’an to show this, the guy decided to walk away, not wanting to hear it or see the proof (try Surah 9:5, if you’re interested).

There were some other “street preachers” down the road from us. I hear they were from New Orleans, traveling around the country with signs and preaching fire and brimstone in front of the bars. As I understand it, they were telling people that they were fornicators and whores and that they were going to hell.

Nowhere that I could find in the Bible does it tell us to mock and call people names. This doesn’t sound like caring or love to me, but simply hatred, much like the Westboro “Baptists.” This gives a bad name to others who are attempting to share the Gospel Biblically, through dialogue and preaching the full Gospel.
You see, fire and brimstone by itself is not the full Gospel. And neither is the warm, fuzzy love only Gospel. God is loving, but He is also full of wrath at law breakers. We are to warn people, and to ask them to judge themselves by God’s standards, not condemn them and call them names.

As Tom was doing some Open Air Trivia, one of our atheists was shouting out the answer to the question on his bullhorn. Interestingly, no one seemed to notice. Not that we care if they give the answers, we want people to get them. But it was interesting that he shouted out the answer multiple times and no one took advantage of that.




Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 11-06-10

Saturday night on Mill Ave wasn't real busy, especially compared to last week. Still we got some tracts out there. We set up our sign asking, "Are You A Good Person?" which seemed to attract a few people (you can see a pic in the Photo tab).

Brandt has a good sign asking which religion is correct, giving a list for people to choose from (there's a pic of that one, too). This tends to get some good conversations started.

Pastor BJ came out with a few people from his church. Tom and I had a class there a few weeks ago, it was good to see them out there again.

I did some Open Air trivia and had a young woman come up for the Good Person Test, to find that she wasn't as good as she thought when judged by God's standard, and I explained the Gospel and the need for a Savior. We gave her a couple of tracts and it seemed to make sense to her, better than it had before.

We talked with a guy named Adam, who seemed to have some Christian background, and just discussed some theology and different belief systems. We left him with a few tracts to look over later as well.

The atheists came out later to proclaim their lack of belief, which still just amazes me. That people would have such a hatred that they would come out to oppose something that they claim doesn't even exist. That sounds really close to insanity to me.

A man named Dwayne came up as we were getting ready to leave, to give an encouraging word and thank us for being out there preaching the Gospel.

Soli Deo Gloria

First Friday 11-05-10

You'll have to push the pause button on the music player on the right in order to listen to the Ten Commandments being given by 8-year old McKayla in the video below.



We passed out tons of tracts and had some great conversations with people who were walking by. McKayla handed out tracts faster than I could keep up. May the Lord be glorified in all that we do.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 10-30-10

I helped Tom out with a WOTM Crash Course on evangelism on Saturday. We do these about once a month to get more people equipped to witness per the Great Commission, so if you know of anyone that will be in the Phoenix area that would like to check it out, let us know. It's a free class and every Christian should know how to share the hope within them (1 Peter 3:15).

Mill Ave was interesting, being Homecoming and the Saturday night before Halloween. I brought out the turtle duck (a replica of an evolutionary transitional life form). This is actual PROOF of macro evolution. I don't mean proof as in actual evidence, but rather, it's an acronym that stands for Pathetic Reaching Onto Obvious Fraud.

Our local atheists were not impressed with my creative teasing of their Darwinistic religion. Shawn said it was stupid and I agreed with him completely. He didn't have any sense of humor at all tonight. They seem to be able to dish it out but don't really like us dishing it back. We love those guys though, please keep them in prayer.

I talked to a guy named Bradley for a while. He claimed to be a Christian, but had a lot of arguments and questions that would suggest that maybe he wasn't. He said he'd be back with more question, so hopefully we'll see him again. Pray that the Lord would work in his heart this week, convicting him of his sins and drawing him to repentence.

There were tons of people and some wild costumes. One guy was dressed as Jesus and heckling the street preaching, so I dragged my cross over near him and asked if anyone had a hammer and some nails.
He didn't really want to talk with me. I suppose that's about the last thing a guy making fun of Jesus wants to see is a big wooden cross brought over to him. Maybe it starts to feel too real at that point, maybe he begins to realize a small part of what Christ went through in providing us a way to avoid the hell that we deserve, while he is out there mocking Him.

We didn't have too many one 2 one conversations this night, but we handed out a lot of tracts. As Tom and I were leaving, a woman ran up asking if the cross we were carrying really worked. I explained to her that it was just a sign (it says "Are You Ready?" on the cross beam) and that it asks the question, are you ready to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account for your life. Apparently, she had seen a cross on some sort of paranormal TV show and thought it was some sort of good luck charm. She said she'd had some bad things happen in her life recently, and we explained the Gospel to her. I'm not sure if there were drugs involved or if she'd just been having a hard time in general, but she took off after a little while. I think she was looking for a quick change in luck, rather than a true change of heart and lifestyle. May the Lord work in her and draw her to Himself.

Then I met a guy I used to work with. I hadn't seen him in a while, and he asked what I was doing out there. When I said I was doing some street evangelism, he looked as though he were suddenly caught in a trap and would like to be anywhere else but there. We spoke briefly and he went on his way before any spiritual matters could be brought up. Tom and I left Mill Ave around 12:30 or so.

Soli Deo Gloria