hate

I Hate You!

Ministry Update July 10, 2022

Praise God there were nine of us witnessing downtown Friday night. It was really hot out, but it wasn’t too bad in the shade. Trevor and his family brought new witnessing signs that had just arrived the night before and they are great signs. Trevor started off open air preaching after we all prayed and right off the bat he had a mocker that said something before ducking into a store. A little while later the mocker walked by with a group of his friends and yelled at Trevor, “I hate you. I hate someone telling me what to do.” This didn’t shock us because non-believers don’t want to submit to the authority of God. They don’t want anyone telling them what to do. Nevertheless, as Christians, it is our duty to share the Gospel with this lost and dying world. Hell awaits all who die in their sins; who die without Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Uptight About Drinking

Keven ended up talking to two different guys that needed prayer. So he brought them over (at different times) to where Elly and I were standing. The first guy wouldn’t give us his name. Keven prayed for his prayer needs. Before I could pray the guy prayed for us. After he finished praying, I asked him if he was a Christian. He proceeded to say yeah f-ing aye. I told him that I wouldn’t have put it quite like that and that as Christians we aren’t supposed to let any corrupt communication proceed from our mouth (Ephesians 4:29). Then he said curse words in the bible didn’t mean cuss words today. I didn’t go down that rabbit hole.

We talked some more and Elly quoted him Scripture about how we aren’t to be sexually immoral, drunkards, etc. He got a little uptight about the drinking part, but she explained that the Bible doesn’t say you can’t drink, you aren’t supposed to get drunk. Keven had given him a tract before we all talked and Elly was able to get a tract into the woman’s hand that was with him. I just kept circling back to repentance and faith in Jesus and talked to the man about Psalm 51, where David writes about true repentance. But instead of receiving this, the man goes off on what a sinner David was. Yes David sinned, but he greatly repented. David was a man after God’s own heart. But instead of understanding that part, the man just wanted to justify himself by saying David sinned. We pray that the man and the woman will read the tracts and that God will open their eyes to their need of Jesus.

Christian In Name Only?

Then shortly thereafter, Keven brought Christian over for prayer. Keven prayed for his prayer needs, better housing, a better job and some sort of transportation. I prayed that God would save Christian if he isn’t really saved. After we prayed, I asked him if he was a Christian, not in name, but truly a follower of Christ. He said that he had been closer to God in the past, but when life is tough, he drifts away from God. I pointed out that we live in a fallen world and we aren’t promised an easy path. That our salvation doesn’t depend on our physical circumstances. We talked about repentance and surrendering our lives to Jesus. Keven had also given him a tract already and I encouraged him to read his Bible daily.

Trevor got into a long conversation with a man. The guy said that he believed in the Bible, but then tried to twist everything that he said was from the Bible. Joshua was there with them at first and heard the guy say that the problem with Christians is they twist Scripture to say what they want. As the guy started doing that, Joshua called him out on it he was doing exactly what he accused Christians of doing. But Trevor patiently shared truth with the guy. At the end of the night, Joshua got into a good conversation with another man toward the end of the night.

Mockers And Encouragers

We had some drive by mockers as well as one drive by encourager. One passenger yelled from the back of the car and even got half way out of the vehicle to keep yelling as the car drove away from us. I gave a tract to a guy on a bicycle. He stopped and I asked him if he knew Jesus. He said he was from Afghanistan. So again I asked him if he knew Jesus and replied that he knows a little English. I just encouraged him to read the back of the tract. But while I was asking him if he knew Jesus, a guy walking by spoke up, “Jesus is Lord.!” I said Amen to that. The same guy that said Jesus is Lord came back by later on and had a conversation with Elly. The guy appeared to be a fellow believer.

At one point, I was holding one of Trevor’s signs and a guy was walking in my direction. Before I could hold out my arm to give him a tract, he walked toward me and reached his hand out for one. That rarely happens. Elly offered tracts to several women and they all refused. Following them was a little girl and Elly asked her mom if she could give the girl a tract and the mom said she could. Praise God for that. As usual, the fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ was as sweet as the evangelizing. Thank God for Trevor, Elly, their girls, Keven, Joshua, Tyail and Reed for coming out to share the Gospel Friday night.

(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the glorious Gospel with others)