Month: August 2023

Break His Legs!

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Photo by jack atkinson on Unsplash

Break His Legs!

Around six years ago or so, my wife went out witnessing with me a few times. Several of my closest friends and even some acquaintances have done the same and just like my wife, they all say the same thing. They just can’t handle the God-mocking, blasphemy and cursing. At first, I didn’t understand this attitude, but after years of street witnessing, I have come to realize that God hasn’t called all of us to be street evangelists. I really thought so when I first got saved. I thought if you are truly saved, you would be out here witnessing. But now I realize that not everyone can handle the God-mocking, blasphemy and cursing. My friends and I that do street ministry don’t like hearing these things either, but we understand that lost people will act like lost people. But I want to share about one time when my wife was with me and she prayed, “God, break his legs!”

If you knew my wife, you’d know that she is one of the most gentle, kindest people that you’ll ever meet. I can’t even kill most bugs in our house. She only wants me to kill flies or ants, but any other bug, she wants me to catch it and take it outside. I’m sharing this with you because her praying “God, break his legs” was very out of character. But that’s how upset she got about a blaspheming, God-mocking young man that was skating around me. I was open-air preaching one Friday night in downtown Springfield, Mo about six years ago and it was truly a circus-like atmosphere.

Like An Annoying Mosquito Or Gnat

While the young man was skating around me, trying to distract me while he was cursing me and blaspheming God, there was a God-hater in a pickup truck right in front of me that kept revving his engine and backing his truck up, rocking it on the curb in front of me. Frankly, I was more worried about the guy in the truck. His tailgate was down and I was preaching on a step stool. All I kept thinking was if he jumps the curb and comes at me, I’m going to jump up into the back of the truck instead of letting him hit me. Thankfully, he never did back fully at me, but I was leery of him. So, he was my main concern at the time. The guy on the skateboard was tough to listen to his blasphemy, but overall, he was more like an annoying mosquito or gnat.

But my wife saw it differently. She didn’t perceive the guy in the truck as a threat at all (maybe because I had a different viewpoint in that he was going to come right at me if he really jumped the curb). But the annoying skateboarder really upset her over him constantly blaspheming God. That’s why she prayed, “God, break his legs!” Again, this is very out of character for my wife, but I think it shows that she had righteous anger over him blaspheming God.

After the night was over and we headed home, she confessed that she prayed that way. I was shocked. I said, “Honey, we aren’t like the sons of thunder (Mark 3:17); the apostles James and John that wanted to call down fire from Heaven against those that opposed the Lord.” She just continued that the blasphemer made her so angry. Then she said that she doesn’t know how I handle the God-mockers and haters all the time. Again, I don’t like it either, but it’s just to be expected when you do street ministry. All we can do is share God’s truth with them and pray that God will break their hard hearts of stone instead of their legs.

Go On To Hell

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Go On To Hell

One of my all-time favorite preachers is Rolfe Barnard. Brother Barnard brought it when he preached. I’ve listened to over 400 of his sermons online. But when I recommend him to my family and friends, they all say the same thing. They can’t take the yelling. I admit that I hate it when he yelled, just because that’s when he was trying to make the main point and I can’t hear what he saying because he’s yelling too loudly. But in the next breath, he’d plead “Why don’t you come to Jesus” and you can hear the pleading in his voice. But one of the most shocking things he’d say is “Go on to Hell, that’s where you want to go anyway.”

Brother Barnard used to preach a lot of revivals back in the 1950’s and 1960’s and I believe the Holy Ghost convicted many souls back that then. He tells the story that one time he was asked to preach for 3 or 4 weeks and the only condition was that he couldn’t give an altar call until the end. Rolfe readily agreed to that. He believed that we tried to soothe unbelievers with an easy-believism salve when they needed was to fester and be convicted by the Holy Ghost. So for three weeks he preached his heart out and at the end of each night he’d end by saying, “Go on to Hell, that’s where you want to go anyway.” We’ll after 3 weeks of being convicted by the Holy Ghost, people couldn’t stand it any longer and they begged Brother Barnard to give an altar call which he finally did.

Star Dust And Other Nonsense

I’m relaying this story because I think I’ve only ever used that line one time while out witnessing. I was witnessing with some friends on the square in downtown Springfield, Mo and a cocky Atheist started talking to me. I’m not an apologist. I don’t have the patience for it. No, I’m an open-air preacher and a street evangelist, but no apologist. I don’t like getting into long debates. I just want to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll listen to your star dust theories and that everything came from a tiny dot that exploded, etc. But after you tell me what you believe, I want to share the glorious Gospel with you.

That night, this Atheist told me that we are all just star dust and other such non-sense. I kept trying to steer him back to Jesus, but he kept wandering off various rabbit trails. So after about 30 minutes or so of this, I finally said, “Look, it’s obvious that I could talk to you till I’m blue in the face and you aren’t going to change your mind. So have a nice life. Eat, drink and be merry and then go on to Hell because that’s where you want to go anyway.” You should have seen the look on his face. He started stammering around saying, “You can’t say that?” “Why not?” “Because you’re a Christian!”

I explained to him that what I was saying is was true. Nothing I said or was going to say was going to change his mind. The Bible says unbelievers know that God is real (Romans 1:18-22), but they pretend that He isn’t because they love their sins (John 3:19-20). Because they don’t want to be responsible to God (Matthew 12:36). So they act like God doesn’t exist. But they know that He does exist and they know that they will be accountable to Him. The young man walked away still saying that I couldn’t say that to him. But I did and who knows, maybe God wanted to shock him out of his complacency. Again, I don’t think I’ve ever used it any other time, but I did that time.

Religious Stuff

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Religious Stuff

Ministry Update August 7, 2023

Praise God that Michael and Anand witnessed downtown last Friday night. Here’s the update Michael provided: “Anand and I walked around and attempted to pray for and talk to a few people in the square and gave out tracts. We walked down our normal way after that and continued handing out tracts.

There was one family that came out of a place that I think was an art studio. It was a man and woman with a maybe 10-12 year old girl. I don’t know if they were parents or grandparents, but the man refused a tract and the girl asked “what is it?” And I said “it’s a gospel tract”. She said “what’s that?”, I said something like “it talks about Jesus”. The man said “it’s religious stuff” and the woman told her “just take one” so she took one. After that Anand and I prayed for the girl, that God would save her and her family. I think it’d be good for us to continue to pray for her.” Yes, we pray that God will save the little girl, her family and the others that received tracts Friday night.

(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share their faith in Jesus with others)

Righteous Indignation

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Righteous Indignation

I think it was around 7 or 8 years ago that I was witnessing downtown in Springfield, MO and I was pleading with unrepentant sinners to repent of their sins and turn to Christ and live. About that time, a young man walking away from me and across the street, turned around and made an obscene gesture and started gyrating like he was having sex and yelled, “This is my god!” To the day I die, I believe that it was truly righteous indignation that filled me at that moment. I fully believe this.

So, I stopped my message and replied to the young man that his god can’t save him. That he’s sowing the wind, but will reap the whirlwind and I kept going on quoting various Bible verses to him. But admittedly, my tone wasn’t the best. In fact, I was angry with the young man. I was filled with righteous indignation and I was sharing truth with him, but not in a Christ-like manner. You’ll never guess what happened next. My boss happened to drive by at that exact moment. He and his wife had eaten dinner at a downtown restaurant and they were driving down the street at the exact moment.

My Boss Only Saw My Reaction

On Monday, my boss told me that he saw me open-air preaching downtown Friday night. To which I replied, “Oh really.” He said yes, and boy you were really letting somebody have it. I told my boss what the young man said and did and my boss said he understood why it upset me. But he pointed out that he didn’t see or hear the young man. All he saw and heard was me yelling at the young man. I have to admit, it was a great lesson for me.

Yes, I was filled with righteous indignation over what the young man said and did. But my tone was not Christ-like at all. It was also a good lesson in the fact that others don’t always see the whole picture. They may only see part of it. Kind of like when a ref sees the second player retaliate during a game, but misses the first offender. Do I always respond with kindness and gentleness to mockers? Sadly, not always. But I do always pray that I won’t return evil for evil or reviling for reviling while I’m out street witnessing (1 Peter 3:9). Just sharing my experience with other evangelists so hopefully you won’t make the same mistake that I made.