Great Conversations

Great Conversations

Ministry Update September 3, 2022

It rained all day Friday but quit around 5:30 pm or so and we only had few drops of rain while out witnessing and it didn’t start raining again until I was headed home. Chase, Austin, Joshua, Reed, Tyail and Michael joined me witnessing Friday night. Before we got started, Chase and I talked about him brining a message after I brought one. But the night was full of great conversations and Chase didn’t even get a chance to open air preach. But he was ok with that because Chase understands that we open air preach to get people to come over and talk to us and he had so many conversations that he didn’t get to preach.

I had a couple of drive by mockers while I was open air preaching and Michael was nearby handing out Gospel tracts. During that time, Joshua was in a conversation across the street and Tyail was holding her Jesus sign nearby. Reed was on another corner handing out tracts and Chase and Austin were handing out tracts and talking to people on a different corner. During my message, a guy walked up to me and said, “Take the bag.” I replied, “What’s in it?” He repeated take the bag and that time I told him that I wasn’t taking the bag. Then he smirked and said it was full of dog poop.

45-Minute Conversation

Then the guy walked across the street to where Chase and Austin were standing and Chase asked him if he had a minute to talk. The guy said something about that Christian stuff and Chase said that’s what he wanted to talk about. Amazingly, the guy stayed and talked. At one point the guy wanted to go change his shoes and Chase walked with him. They ended up in a 45-minute conversation! Toward the end, the guy again complained about the open air preaching. Chase pointed out to him that they’d just been talking about the same things all that time.

At another point, Chase was talking to one guy and Austin was talking to a different person. This was Austin’s first time street witnessing, but he really wanted to get into conversations and he did. Throughout the night, Chase and Austin continually got into conversations. About half way through the night of witnessing, Joshua and Michael went over and talked to a group of homeless people. Michael had brought some food, so they handed out food and got into Gospel conversations. Reed told me that he handed out more tracts Friday night than he’s handed out since he’s been out witnessing with us. A guy driving a yellow Mustang stopped at the corner told Tyail that he liked her sign. Her sign has John 14:6 on it.

What Is It?

I handed a tract to one guy who told me that he’s a Christian. So I asked him how he came to faith in Christ and he said that he was “born into it.” I told him that Jesus says that we must be born again (John 3:7). Unfortunately the guy didn’t want to talk so he walked away. Hopefully he will read the tract. Later on, everyone else had left and Tyail and I were about to call it a night when three guys walked toward us. I handed all three of them tracts and one guy named Ryan asked, “What is it?” I told him that it’s a Gospel tract that tells you about Jesus. I think I asked him if he knows Jesus and he said that he does. Then I asked him how he became a Christian and he said at a Bible camp.

About that time his friend Nick spoke up and said that he’s not a Christian, but that he’s a spiritual person. He prays to God, but doesn’t know which religion that he wants to go with. I asked him if I could explain the difference and he said sure. I told Nick that the other religions were man trying to work their way to God and Christianity is God reaching down to man. The false religions have you trying to earn your way to Heaven, usually by doing more good than bad, but Christianity is us surrendering our lives to Jesus. Then I explained how we’ve all sinned and how Jesus took the punishment for our sins as He hung on the cross. How He died for those of us who repent and surrender our lives to Him. Nick asked what that looks like and I explained that too.

What Does Repent Mean?

Then the third friend jumped into the conversation. His name is London and he’s from England and named after the city London. He was a bit of a talker, but I tried to share truth with him while I could. During this time, Ryan started talking to Tyail. He basically tried to justify his sins, such as getting drunk and other things. Tyail did a great job talking to Ryan. After a while, I had a chance to talk to Ryan again and I asked him what it means to repent because he basically kept saying that he does what he wants and asks God to forgive him. Surprisingly, Ryan had a good definition for repentance, so I gently pointed out that what he says he does, doesn’t demonstrate a repentant person. He was surprisingly honest and said that he knows that he’s not repentant. He’s young and he’s going to do what he wants to do and live his life his way.

At one point during the discussion, Ryan also said, “My god” would do this or wouldn’t do that. Again, I gently pointed out that the god he worships isn’t the same god as the God of the Bible. He recognized this, but repeated that he’s going to live for himself. I just impressed upon him that he’s being honest, but that he really needs to repent and trust Jesus.

Nick jumped back in the conversation at that point. Since Nick and Ryan both told me that they pray to God, I asked them if they knew that God, the God of the Bible doesn’t hear their prayers? They were both shocked when I said this and they wanted a Bible verse. I couldn’t immediately find the one I was talking about, but I directed them to John 9:31. They both read it and were shocked. (The verse I couldn’t find there on the spot is Proverbs 15:29: The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous).

I just kept repeating how important it is to repent and surrender our lives to Jesus. All three guys said they read the Bible so I highly encouraged them to keep reading it to see if what we were telling them is true. Again, it was a great night of witnessing, full of great conversations. We consider a conversation a great conversation when we get a chance to clearly share the Gospel and the other person understands what we are saying. That’s all we can do is share truth. Salvation is of the Lord.

Hail Satan

On Wednesday, I planned on just handing out tracts and praise God, hundreds of tracts were received by students. Again, I say planned, because my plans got changed a little bit. As I was handing out tracts, an MSU student that was leading around a group of new students or prospective students and they intentionally steered them away from me. But they stopped the group in the shade within earshot of me, so I took the opportunity to bring a short message. The student may have kept the new students from the opportunity of receiving tracts, but the students got to hear about our Lord and Savior anyway.

Earlier, one student took a tract from me and promptly walked over to a trash can and threw it away. It was right on top and still clean and in good shape, so I retrieved it and handed it out again. Another student had thrown one on the ground. It wasn’t raining or anything, so I was going to leave that one where it was lying. But as I was open air preaching, a student stopped and picked it up, smiled and nodded his head at me and I nodded back. Then he walked over and threw it in the trash and yelled, “Hail Satan.” I pleaded with him to repent and turn to Christ. He won’t be mocking God on Judgment Day. I hope and pray that this young man will surrender his life to Jesus before he dies a rebel and ends up in Hell.

(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others. We never know whether people will receive or reject the words of life, but we are to tell others about our great Lord and Savior. Salvation is of the Lord.)