Blessed More Ways Than One

Blessed More Ways Than One

Ministry Update June 10, 2018

Friday night it was a real blessing to have Rich join Kelly, Conner and I witnessing downtown. Rich and his family have been living in China for nearly three years and they just got into Springfield on Wednesday and I’m sure he was still jet lagged. Now that I think of it, Rich witnessed with Kelly and I at MSU just a few days before he left for China in August 2015. So he came back and joined us the same he joined us before he left. But Friday night we were blessed more ways than one. 

Rich started us off open-air preaching right off the bat and he wasn’t preaching hard. He was sharing truth and pleading with unrepentant sinners. Oh, but the natives were restless as the saying goes. I lost track, but I think he had around seven mockers. People walking nearby yelling out, drivers and passengers yelling from cars. In fact, two passengers in one vehicle both heckled as they drove by. Then a guy toward the end of his message really started heckling.

Bullhorn Heckler

When Rich finished up, the guy just kept going so I hurried up and started bringing a message while he was still heckling. He continued for a little while. Then I also had a few people yelling that were walking by or driving by. But then a guy came out of the Gillioz Theatre and yelled through a bullhorn for people to not to listen to the guy on the corner. He said that I’m a liar and then he blasphemed God.

After that guy was walking with two other people and he was yelling across the street. He jumped on his skateboard and rode right up to me holding a baseball bat in his hand. I didn’t know if I was about to get a beat down or what, so I just asked him if he had a question. He thought I was talking about binding sin but I was talking about sin abiding on those who have not repented and surrendered to Jesus.

Our Flesh Sins

He basically tried to justify his sins saying our flesh sins. When people go here, they generally are trying to say that we all sin, Jesus died for our sins, so we can sin freely. Interestingly though, I asked him if he believed Jesus meant it when He said unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. He said that he believed that. I also asked him about Jesus’ very first message where Jesus said we are to repent and believe the Gospel. He said that he believed that.

Then it sounded like he’s still in some type of rebellious sin against God. I tried to reason with him that we are not perfect in this life, but we can defeat alcohol or drugs or sexual immorality or whatever our sin of choice is, if we truly repent and trust Jesus. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be victorious. I did hand him a tract that asks “is Christ Your Lord?” before he left. I hope and pray he does and may the Lord convict and convert him.

Man Asked For Money

During this time, Kelly and Rich were talking to guy named Steven. Rich had to go on, but Kelly talked to him for quite a while. Steven first asked for money (and he also asked Conner for money later on). Kelly didn’t give him any but talked to him. He told Kelly that he’s living in sin, so Kelly talked to him about that. Steven also said that his girlfriend is doing things that she shouldn’t be doing. May God open both their eyes to their sinfulness and God’s Holiness. May the Lord grant them repentance and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because of the circus-like atmosphere, Conner brought a message about many people trying to defend and justify their sins. Then Kelly preached about Do Not Judge from Matthew 7:1. I loved how he pointed out when Jesus said take the log out of your own eye before you try to help your brother take the speck out of his eye, that we can live a log free life. I hadn’t thought of it in that way.

More Blessings

Conner and Kelly had hecklers too. So when I say that we were blessed more ways than one, the other way were blessed in addition to Rich joining us was by all the hecklers. Kelly even pointed this out in his message: Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake (Matthew 5:11). So we were all blessed Friday night because of the hecklers.

But the blessings didn’t end there. While Conner was preaching, I tried to hand tracts to three people walking by. The woman took one, but two guys didn’t. But one of the guys turned around and told me that he knows Kelly. Later on, this same friend came back by while Kelly was open-air preaching. Then for an additional blessing to end the night, we had a dear friend that we haven’t seen in a while come over and talk to us. She didn’t realize that we are witnessing there one block East of the square. Hopefully, she and some of her friends can join us sometimes witnessing downtown. It truly was a great night lifting up Jesus and we really were blessed more ways than one.

Blessings Earlier In The Week

I guess this was really a week of blessings. I was greatly blessed to go to lunch with a young man named Bo that was in Springfield visiting from Texas. He’s 21 years old and on fire for the Lord. I first met Bo years ago when he was 13 or 14 years old. I remember the first time he stepped up on a box and open-air preached. We’ve stayed connected through Facebook when he moved to Texas and we pray for each other. But Tuesday we had a wonderful lunch, catching up and asking each other theological questions. Iron sharpens iron and it was a lot of fun.

Then I was l blessed to have Bo join me witnessing at Planned Parenthood on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it was busy as usual. There were eight cars that came or went, but mostly stayed. I brought a message and anytime someone went in or came out, I’d plead with them to go to the Pregnancy Care Center on Primrose for help. We were met with total apathy, except for one woman who mouthed off as she walked inside with a friend. She also gave us the finger as she went in. I had to go back to work, but Bo told me that he wanted to go door knocking at the apartments behind Planned Parenthood. He texted me later that he had several good conversations. Praise God for that. May God convict and convert lost souls for His honor and glory.

(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others. Time is short. Redeem the time. Plead with people to repent and believe the Gospel. Jesus implored people to do so.)