Ministry Update November 8, 2015
“Aren’t all references to homosexuality in the Bible referring to rape?” asked Brandon. After talking to him for nearly an hour we got around to his sin that he doesn’t want to give up. Prior to this, he asked every question that he could think of. During our conversation, I kept trying to bring him back to the fact that he will stand before God on Judgment Day and none of these burning questions that he has today will matter at that time. He will give an account of every sin in thought, word or deed that he’s ever committed and questions about those who have never heard the Gospel will not be part of the discussion on the great and terrible day of the Lord.
But back to his question, no, not every reference in the Bible about homosexuality is talking about rape. It’s not about rape in Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27 nor in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. These passages are very clear that it is wrong for man to have sexual relations with a man and it’s wrong for a woman to have sexual relations with a woman. It doesn’t matter if the government approves it or not. Homosexuality is a sin and God’s word is very clear on this. In fact, Romans 1 says that it goes against nature. Romans 1:18 also says that unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness. I told Brandon that he is living proof of Romans 1.
Before Brandon started asking whether homosexual references in the Bible are strictly condemning rape, he admitted to me that he likes men and that he’s not willing to change. I ended my conversation with him warning him that he will give an account on Judgment Day for all of his sins. I went through some of the 10 Commandments with him and then pointed out that the Bible says that he will be without excuse (Romans 3:19). I begged him to repent and put his faith in Jesus. I asked him if he has a Bible at home and he said that he did. I asked him if he would read the New Testament and really read it humbly, asking God to reveal the truth to him and he said that he would. I hope and pray that he will. He also took a tract from me and an invite card to Crossway Baptist Church.
Brandon came up and talked to us when a whole group came up and were heckling Aaron as he preached. It started out with one heckler and quickly swelled to several of them at one time. They were asking some crazy questions too. But one very vocal young man was trying very hard to interrupt the preaching. He was a professing Christian who gave us the usual “you are doing this wrong,” that we should be loving people to Jesus. He said that Jesus hung out with sinners and that he wouldn’t judge people.
I pointed out to him that Jesus called sinners to repentance and we are loving people by doing the same. He didn’t agree with me and then he shocked me when he said that he attends a bible college in Springfield. I said “have you been drinking tonight?” and I knew the answer before I asked because he was very intoxicated. He said “yes.” I started to quote him wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging but before I could finish the verse, he interrupted me and said that he knew that he was sinning. He was the typical professing American Christian that we run into on the streets. They believe that Jesus died for our sins, so that means we can sin freely because He forgives our sins. They are missing repentance and faith in Jesus and they will miss Heaven some day if they don’t repent and believe the Gospel before they die.
Before Aaron preached, I started out with a message “Are You Damned?” and I brought it after we sung several hymns. When we first got to square a group of people were standing in our spot, so we set up across the square. But before we were finished setting up, a young woman walked over to us from the group and offered us some cider. They said that they had just finished having an ask an Atheist a question gathering. So when I started my message, I said it’s too bad that we missed their gathering because I wanted to ask Atheists the question: are you damned? One young man yelled “I don’t know, am I?” So I quoted Mark 16:16 which is says if you don’t believe then you are damned. This brought several hecklers over and they were going crazy. (Aaron said that I stirred them up Friday night, but I just brought the message that God laid on my heart).
I stopped and answered a few questions, but after a while, I just started preaching again. Aaron went over and started talking to a group of four or five people. He especially talked to one young woman in the group for probably close to 45 minutes and a couple of the other hecklers stayed and listened too. In fact he talked to them so long that I finished my message and after 10 or 15 minutes of dead air – no preaching, I jumped back up on the step stool and read Romans 1 and part of Romans 2. So over all we had a good night. Any time we get into one to one conversations, that’s a good thing and when Aaron was preaching, there were so many people asking questions that he actually stopped open-air preaching and it turned into more of a question and answer session. Oh we pray that God will convict and convert lost souls. May He bring to their minds the truth that they heard and may He draw them to Himself.
On Tuesday November 3, 2015, I joined Allen, Aaron, Jimmy and a few other guys at MSU. I was only there on my lunch hour, but they were there all afternoon. I handed out around 200 tracts and talked to one man named Josh. Allen had witnessed to him a few weeks ago and when I left, Aaron had a long conversation with him. Aaron challenged his world view and had Josh thinking about some things when they left. They sang some hymns and preached that afternoon. May God save students and faculty at MSU.
The day before, Jimmy, Sarah, Aaron, Diana and Elise and I witnessed outside Planned Parenthood. We admonished the workers for the blood of babies on their hands and pleaded with them to walk out of the abominable place. We had one supporter stop and encourage us and had a couple that pulled into the parking lot and they were vile and obscene. The woman stayed near the car flipping us off and making other crude gestures, but the man came over and got right in our faces. He argued that Jesus would never do what we were doing and then later on he claimed that God isn’t real. These people crack me up. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t argue that Jesus – the Son of the Living God wouldn’t call people to repentance and then later on argue that God doesn’t exist. When your world view isn’t based on God’s Truth, then you have no consistent world view.
A good Christian friend of mine asked me why we witness outside of Planned Parenthood because they don’t do surgical abortions there. I have to admit that I used to have this same attitude until a friend of mine who does witness outside of murder mill in Arkansas pointed out to me that all Planned Parenthood offices offer the morning after pill. The morning after pill is an abortive pill. Secondly, non-surgical Planned Parenthood offices refer women to murder mills where abortions are performed; so all Planned Parenthood offices are evil, they are abominable and they all need to be shut down. That’s why we stand against these places of death and we stand for life. That’s why we pleaded with the workers to come out of the darkness and into the light. We implored them to choose life instead of choosing death.
These updates are given to encourage Christians to share their faith in our Lord with others. You may never stand on a box on a street corner and proclaim the glorious Gospel, but you can share your faith with others. You can share your testimony with family, friends and co-workers. You can hand out tracts to strangers. You can invite others into the kingdom of God. Will you obey our Lord and Savior? Will you share the Gospel with this lost and dying world?