Alien and ATM
Ministry Update May 22, 2016
We encountered a couple of strange ones while witnessing downtown last Friday night. One man didn’t want to tell me his name so I called him Alien. After Aaron , Diana, Elise and I sang several hymns (actually three of us sung while Elise played the violin), I brought a message about praising Jesus. In one part of the message I said Heaven would be like Hell to those who hate God because in Heaven we are going to praise Jesus for all of eternity.
Right after I finished my message three men walked up, two of the three were recording me. I handed all three tracts and the one not recording said that he wanted to be saved. I could tell by their demeanor that none of them were serious, especially not the one who said he wanted to be saved. But I engaged them in conversation anyway. This same guy wouldn’t give me his first name so I called him Alien, since that’s was on the front of his t-shirt. He wanted to talk about science and I wanted to talk about Jesus.
Can Gays Go To Heaven?
We both believe in science, we just have differences of opinion of what constitutes real science. I asked him if he’d ever read the Bible and he said that he’s read the Torah because he was raised Jewish. I pointed out that there are over 300 prophesies about Jesus in the Bible and most of those are in the Old Testament. I gave him an example, but all he wanted to talk about was carbon 14 dating (which is unreliable) and whether gays go to Heaven.
I assured him that gays are just like all other unrepentant sinners (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) and that no unrepentant sinner will go to Heaven. Even though I ran through some of the sinners listed in these verses, all he wanted to talk about was the fact that gays won’t make it. I reminded him that I gave him a whole list of sinners that won’t make it and that I wasn’t picking on gays.
Heaven Would Be Like Hell to Alien
Alien and I talked for a little while and then he said that Heaven would be like Hell to him if he made it there. I told him that he just missed my message earlier and that was exactly what I had said. I told him that he proved my point. He was a very proud God mocker so I wasn’t gentle with him (God resists the proud, so why do we think we have to handle them with kid gloves?) But I let him know that Hell will be very different than what he envisions. He won’t be partying with his friends and having a gay old time. It’s a place of torments. I told him what I heard an old time preacher say one time that he believes people in Hell will not only suffer physically, spiritually and emotionally, but also mentally.
This old preacher said that he believes since God is a thorough God, HE will punish the wicked by reminding them of every time they heard the Gospel and rejected it. I told Alien won’t that be Hell to you, to hear my words and every other time that you heard God’s truth and rejected it, hearing that over and over again for all of eternity. I don’t know if God will punish the unrepentant sinners in this way, but if He does, He is just to do so and it would truly be torment to them for all of eternity. That pretty much ended our conversation. Aaron was patiently waiting to preach because these three men came up to me right as I stepped off the box. At that point I encouraged Aaron to go ahead and preach. I do pray that God will break Alien’s hard heart as his two friends.
ATM
Then Aaron brought a message about repentance and what biblical repentance really is. He pointed out from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that biblical repentance includes: 1. Humbling yourself. 2. Praying to God. 3. Seeking the Lord’s face. 4. Turning from your sins. It is humbling to submit to the Lord Jesus. You have to recognize that you are sinner and that He is the only Savior. While he was bringing his message, several people came up near to him including a young woman holding a sign that said: ATM Inside. I realize that I’m getting older, but if that had some hidden message to it, I don’t know it. We’ve had sign carrying hecklers many times in the past, but that’s the first time that I’ve seen that one. She did take a tract from me, even though two of her friends refused them.
We sang a few more hymns to end the night and Elise played the violin for us. After we finished up, I noticed a young man to our right singing along with some of the words. So I went over and handed him a tract and commented that I saw him singing along. I asked him if grew up with a Christian background and he said that he did. I asked him if he was still a Christian and he said that he was. He then said that you can’t un-be one. I said Amen. I only ask because sometimes people will claim that they used to be a Christian, but aren’t anymore. We agreed that you can’t not be a Christian if you truly were one.
About that time his friend walked up so I gave him a tract. The first guy noticed my million dollar bill tracts (I had given both of them Seek and Save the Lost tracts), so I gave both of them mdb tracts too. I asked the first guy where he goes to church and he said that he doesn’t have a church right now. So I gave him a card for my church – Crossway Baptist Church and also gave him a card to Freeway Ministries. I asked them if they were familiar with Freeway – both Friday night and Saturday night ones and they both said yes.
Parking Lot More Important Than Babies
Last Wednesday, Aaron, Brian and I witnessed at Planned Parenthood. There were several cars in front of the building when we got there. We sang a few hymns and then Aaron and I both brought messages. While we preached, a worker inside came to the door and recorded us. We only had a couple of people walk by us while we were there and Brian and I took turns giving out tracts.
While Aaron was preaching , the guy from the used children’s clothing store, two doors away from Planned Parenthood, the same guy who called the cops on Aaron and I in the past came up to Brian and I all handshakes and smiles wanting to make sure that none of us parked in his parking lot ( a lot by the way that he shares with several other businesses). I assured him that none of us parked there. But as the parking lot Nazi walked away, happy that we hadn’t intruded on his space, I thought how sad, twisted and wrong it is that this man’s only concern is his parking lot and not about the wickedness going on two doors from his business and I remind you that his business is selling used children’s clothing.
So Planned Parenthood is killing off his potential future customers through the morning after pill as well as referring women to places across the state and neighboring states that perform surgical abortions. How wicked is that? It reminds me of Romans 1:32. I believe this man will be just as guilty on Judgment Day as the actual workers at Planned Parenthood over the vicious murders of little babes because of his complacency and his indifference over the deaths of precious image bearers of God. The whole time, all he was worried about was his parking lot. This is sick and twisted and he will suffer unimaginable pain along with the Planned Parenthood workers, unless they repent and believe the Gospel.
(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others. Time is short and the days are evil. Share the Gospel with this lost and dying world while you still can)