Remember

Remember as you walk by that person on the sidewalk and your eyes meet, you smile and say, "How are you?" without really meaning it.

When you walk by that person on the street, or step into the elevator with a coworker.

When you are standing in line at the grocery store with people in front of you and behind you, and when you step up to the cashier to pay.

Remember when you go through the drive thru to pick up your lunch, when you wave to your neighbor as you pull into your driveway.

As you wait in line at the DMV or sit in a restaurant waiting for your dinner, on the bus, on a plane, or anywhere else you come into contact with other human beings.

Remember that the gate is small and the way is narrow for those who find eternal life (Matt 7:13-15 ). That most people you will come in contact with throughout the day are likely on the wide road to destruction.

So, just remember these three little words. Say them out loud, whisper them under your breath or say them silently in your mind as you glance into the eyes of other people. These words aren't really meant for them anyway, they're meant as a reminder for you, to convict, to remember and remind yourself to say something else, rather than what is said by your silence or your meaningless small talk or greetings that you don't really mean.

Quietly say to them, "go to hell" if you're not going to share the words of eternal life with them as you are commanded by the Lord. And be ready to explain to God one day, why you called Him Lord but refused to follow His commands (Luke 6:46, Rom 14:12 ).

It's been said that there are sins of commission and sins of omission. We're pretty familiar with the sins of commission - the things you do which you shouldn't, but the sins of omission are the things that you don't do which you should, such as obediently sharing the Gospel as every Christian is commanded (Matt 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 10:42 ).

If you consider yourself to be a Christian, you need to learn to share your faith. At least carry around a few Gospel tracts, learn to quickly share the hope within you (1 Peter 3:15 ). Get yourself equipped to share the Good News with others, Biblically.

Go to Way of the Master.com and learn what you need to do. If what you find there is unbiblical, then walk away from it. But if you find it backed up by Scripture, then you need to get into the battle.

If you are afraid to witness to others because they might be offended, try this. See if it is less offensive to go ahead and say to them, "go to hell" because that's what you're saying by keeping the knowledge of eternal life from them.

Saturday 12-18-10

Saturday night was a busy night. There weren't any more people than normal and it seemed like it would be pretty slow. But our "Are You A Good Person" sign brought a lot of curious people by on this particular night.

Alan even did some Open Air preaching (see photo).

First, a homeless guy named Robert or "Roach" as he preferred to be called, stopped to prove that he was indeed a good person. He said he lived at some sort of church shelter and read his Bible every day. We went through the Good Person test in order to show that, by God's standard (the Ten Commandments), none of us are good. If we were, or could somehow work our way into God's favor, then we would have no need of Jesus Christ as our Savior. I gave him a tract, but he didn't seem to be convicted or take our conversation too seriously, still holding to his own self-righteousness.
Later on, he walked by again, bragging that he was going to go sin. So much for being "good" I guess.

As Robert was leaving, another homeless guy named Rodney came up to take the test. He seemed to feel that he was a good person as well, and did not believe that the Bible commands us to obey our government leaders (Rom 13:1-3), even after I read it to him out of his own Bible. He seemed to have a lot of bad theology and held to it very stubbornly. But we had a good discussion anyway, and I hope some of it will sink in. I gave him a tract to look through later as well, that will take him through the Ten Commandments very thoroughly.

Another man named Dave also stopped because he saw our sign, and wanted to find out if he was a good person. He found that he wasn't, and that God requires perfection, but that He has provided a way through Jesus Christ.

Later a group of girls were looking at the sign and we asked if they would like to go through the test. They agreed and we went through four of the Ten Commandments (concerning lying, stealing, blasphemy and lust). Two of them didn't like the conviction they were feeling and quickly left, but Katrina and Leslie stayed to hear the full Gospel and seemed to be seriously considering the things they heard.

The wooden cross that we carry out with us also generated a lot of questions or comments as we carried it through the street. It's a little over six feet tall, made out of 4x4's with the words, "Are You Ready?" printed on the cross bar.
People will ask, "Ready for what?" and I'll tell them, "Ready to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account for your life." Some will say yes, and then I ask if they've kept the Ten Commandments. Others read it and say they were born ready, and I tell them they were not, but most of those are not willing to stop and discuss, they just make their comments as they continue on their way.

There was a Mormon that Marcus knows and has spoken with before who was hanging around. He even went through the Trivia questions and the Good Person Test with Tom, and when we were leaving, he wanted to carry the cross. This was very interesting, as I know that Mormons do not like the cross as a symbol (I learned that when I went to a Mormon friend's wedding wearing an earring with a small cross on it). I asked him about this, and he said they considered it idolatry, but he insisted on carrying the big wooden cross through all of the crowded areas on Mill about halfway to the car.

I'm not sure why drunks seem to want to steal the cross when I set it somewhere. As I've mentioned, it's over six feet tall and weighs 22 pounds. But I set it down and a group of drunks walked by, and sure enough, one of them had to stop and pick it up. I told him that was probably less than half the size of the real one, and he decided to leave rather than be preached at.

After that, Marcus, Tom and I went to Taco Bell for fellowship and to discuss the conversations we'd had over the night.

Soli Deo Gloria

Merry Christmas

You'll have to press pause on the media player to the right to listen to this song and watch the awesome video below.

Saturday 12-11-10

Dan, Tom and I met out on Mill Ave and found a DJ set up at our usual spot. They were doing some break dancing on a large tarp they had set out on the sidewalk. No matter, they gathered a crowd, and we gave them tracts.
Joe, Alan, Sean, Courtney, Marcus and Jennifer met us out there a little later.

Our atheists set up nearby, but didn't hang around long when they realized that no one could hear their speaker and there was no preaching going on. We were mostly handing out tracts and having one 2 one conversations until later. Every time the DJ took a break and restarted with more break dancing, they had a new crowd to give tracts to, so this worked out well. They hung around for 3 hours or so, then packed up.

Then Tom was able to do some Open Air preaching, starting with some trivia questions. Angelica and JJ stopped and went through the Good Person Test.

Meanwhile, a guy named "Sideshow" (who I mentioned in an earlier post) came up to talk with Marcus. He looked different from the last time I had seen him, and he said that he was clean and sober, and had been going to church. That was a huge change from the last time I had seen him, and he even took a tract to read through later. Praise God and please keep him in prayer that the Lord will continue working in him and remove the bad influences that are still in his life.

I talked with a man named Lorenzo, who stopped when I handed him a tract. He knew he'd been doing some things wrong, but still considered himself to be good overall, so I took him through the Good Person Test.
He really seemed a bit convicted, even before I spoke with him. He said that he was a Christian, but was straying from the faith, and he asked for prayer for himself regarding that, and for his girlfriend Amanda, who is pregnant. I explained the Gospel and the need to turn from his sins in repentance and told him I would keep them both in prayer.

Tom talked with Chris and Tyler, a couple of young guys who had heard the street preaching before and had stopped by to offer encouragement. They were possibly interested in going to one of Tom’s classes later on. Praise God, and we continue to pray for more workers (Luke 10:2).

We all stopped off at Taco Bell afterwards for some fellowship before heading our separate ways home. The people working the late shift there remember us and always ask for more tracts. Courtney took the opportunity to talk with a few guys that were seated at a table next to us - I love this guy, he never stops!

We got home pretty late, but well worth the time in being out sharing the Gospel.

Soli Deo Gloria

Saturday 12-04-10

It was kind of slow on Saturday night on Mill, with the tents from the Festival of Arts still set up in the streets, but we still distributed a few tracts and had some good conversations with people.

Tom, Dan and I were playing with the light illusion, throwing lights back and forth and it caught the eye of a group of teens. They stopped to see how it was done and Tom started talking to them. Meanwhile, a couple of security guards also stopped, because they had seen it from a distance, so I talked with them. The guy didn’t seem real interested in the Gospel, he was too busy trying to be funny, or give strange, mystical type answers to the questions, while the girl with him seemed much more receptive. However, when they had to go, I offered them each a tract with more in-depth information, and she refused, saying she was already good, but the guy took one and said he would read it. It’s not always obvious how God is working in a person’s heart as we’re talking to them.

Tom also talked with two guys named Christopher and Andre, who allowed us to film them going through the Good Person Test. You can view that at Tom’s blog soon. tillthenetsrful

On the right is our new guy – Courtney, who’s not really new to evangelism, as he has been sharing his faith with tracts and talking to people on the light rail, but he is new to coming out on Mill with us.

He was handing out tracts and talking with people all night. When our atheists showed up, he talked with them for a long time. When we left, he stayed to talk with them longer. 

Soli Deo Gloria

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