Ministry Update January 24, 2016

Cold Cold Cold!

We witnessed downtown Friday night and it was cold cold cold . It was 23 degrees outside and with the wind chill it felt like 8 degrees. Aaron, Diana, Elise and I sang a few hymns and then I brought a message Leave Out the Law. While I was on the box, a young man holding a bongo type drum came up and told me that I should tell people about God’s love. I told him that I was telling people about the disease before I told them about the cure. Then he said God loves everybody. I asked him where’s that in the Bible. He couldn’t quote the verse. So I asked him about Psalm 7:11 that says God is angry with the wicked every day and Psalm 5:5 that says God hates all workers of iniquity. Amazingly he said that you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say. I said, no you can’t. It’s black and white. There is no gray.

So then I asked him if believed unrepentant sinners go to Hell when they die. He wouldn’t answer so I asked him again. Then he just said Jesus died for all of our sins. I reminded him that he didn’t answer my question. Then Aaron told him that he would make a good politician. Then I told the young man that I was going back to preaching and Aaron could talk to him. About that time two other guys came up and started yelling at Aaron. They were making such a loud ruckus that I could hardly talk over them and I was using my Akers amplifier. They exchanged words with Aaron and I kept preaching. It must have looked like a three ring circus to anyone walking by. Sadly, the young man and possibly the other two may be demon possessed. It was quite bizarre and they were all cussing and getting radical.

Spiritually Dead and Cold

Then Aaron brought a message about how spiritually dead and cold many Americans are. He preached from Romans 1 and basically pointed out that many American’s have been reprobated by God. They have run so far and so hard away from God that God no longer strives with them. While he preached, a few people yelled at him from out of their car windows as they drove by.

Then we were “blessed” by Sergeant Ringgold stopping in his squad car across the street. He held his cell phone out of the car window and it appeared that he was using a decibel meter app on his phone. Even though he was measuring too closely and with an unreliable meter, he did it anyway. Then he did a real fast u turn right in front of Aaron, I guess to make him think that he was going to do something, then he just drove away. It  has been months since we’ve seen Sergeant Ringgold, but evidently he’s back and he still hates God’s word and he still hates Aaron. But thank God, Aaron never missed a beat and preached right through the excitement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cussing Professing Christian Trying To Throw Tract Away

After that he was still preaching and the rest of us were handing out tracts. Two guys walked by us and I handed one of them a tract. He said thanks and walked by me and tried to throw the tract in the trash, but he missed. I asked him why he did that. They kept walking and I don’t know if they said something to Aaron as they walked by or not, but started preaching to them. They didn’t like it so they walked back and confronted Aaron. The main, mouthy one was the one who tried to throw away the tract so again I asked him why he did that. He mockingly said why, is it my ticket to Heaven? I said no it tells you the Gospel.

This man professed to be a Christian. He said that he was saved two years ago. I said if you are really a Christian, why wouldn’t you give the tract to someone else? He mouthed off some more and mouthed off to Aaron and then cussed so wickedly that I can’t even begin to talk about it here. This man is the epitome of the typical American Christian. They are counting on a one-time prayer or a one-time emotional moment to save them and they continue living their life for the devil. I’m not picking on this man; I used to be just like him until God truly, mercifully, graciously saved me eight years ago. Oh, may God wake up these cold hearted, sleeping souls. May He draw these lost souls to Himself.

Stop Thief!

If all of this wasn’t enough excitement, Aaron was finishing up his message and a thief walked by and stole his Bible right out of his hand.I was on the other side of Aaron at the street corner, but I started yelling for the guy to stop. Aaron and I chased after him. I kept yelling Stop, give him the Bible back and after a little ways he did stop and hand it back to Aaron. I told the guy that he needed to repent because no thief shall inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10). We ended the night singing a few more hymns. Earlier while Aaron was preaching I had a man walk up to me, he took a tract in his left hand and held his right hand out and shook my hand. He was thanking us for being out there proclaiming the Gospel. But mostly it was a cold cold cold night and many hard hearts were even colder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Cold Day

Wednesday was also a cold day, around 28 degrees when Aaron and I witnessed at Missouri State University.  I had a couple of people mouth off a little bit as they walked by, but mostly it was just apathy. Again, many hard hearted people who were even more spiritually cold than the cold weather. There was one young man who sat down and listened to most of Aaron’s message. When he got up to leave, he walked over to me and shook my hand and took a tract. Then he walked over to Aaron who thanked him for listening and gave the young man a hug. May God bless the preaching and the tracts that were handed out. Oh, may God save some of these young people.

These ministry updates are given to encourage Christians to share their faith in Jesus. If you can, go out street witnessing or go out and pray while others are witnessing. Stand in front of abortion clinics and plead with women to spare their child’s life. There is a tremendous spiritual battle raging all around us. Are you in the battle?