Ministry Update February 28, 2016
We Are All Saved
On Wednesday February 24, 2016 I was finishing up my message at MSU and the gentleman to the right in the picture walked up and said that it wasn’t necessary to yell at people. I asked Aaron to go ahead and start preaching, since I was done, I’d talk to the guy. He is a professing Christian who says that we don’t need to yell out the Gospel because we are all saved. I was still holding my Bible from open-air preaching and I asked him to show me where that was in the Bible. Then I asked him if he believed the Bible and he didn’t answer. He repeated that we don’t need to yell at people. I suggested that he forget about the yelling, that it was just him and I talking and I asked him if he believes Revelation 21:8 that all liars have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone, again he didn’t answer. He just put his hand on my shoulder, smiled and said that we are all saved and he walked away. I told him that if he really believes that then he’s calling Jesus a liar. He just kept walking away.
The Spitter
Please notice in the picture above the guy riding the bicycle. He had actually ridden up close to Aaron and he spit in his direction as he rode by. He didn’t hit Aaron, in fact he missed by two or three feet. But obviously he didn’t want to hear the Gospel. Later on I noticed a guy sitting on a bicycle sitting there listening (farther up the sidewalk). I don’t know if it was the same man or not, but it may have been.
Vile Atheist Girl
Aaron was still preaching when a wicked, foul-mouthed, vile atheist girl walked up cussing a blue streak. She was upset and yelling about our yelling at people. (I guess unrepentant sinners never see the irony of their own hypocrisy. While people yell and scream judge not, they are judging us. When they yell at us for yelling, they are doing the same thing they are accusing us of doing).
She yelled, cussed and stomped around. She said that we don’t need the Bible because we already know right from wrong. I told her we do know right from wrong because we have a God-given conscience. She didn’t like that. Aaron was preaching away about sin and the need for repentance. She didn’t like that so she told me that there was no such thing as sin. I probably shouldn’t have said this, but I asked her if I raped her would that be a sin? She said it wouldn’t be a sin sin, but that it would be wrong and that she’d do some wicked things to me. Obviously I was just trying to get her to see that there is sin, but I admit that I could have used a better example.
She kept arguing with me and telling me that we were stupid because there is no God. I asked her to turn around and look at the library. I said could you believe that the building just appeared without a builder? She said that would be stupid to believe that. I told her that she proved my point. If we are smart enough to know that it takes a builder to build a building shouldn’t we realize that it took someone to build everything, the universe and us? She told me that she doesn’t believe that there is a God. I told her just because we don’t believe something doesn’t mean that it’s not real. I told her a car could come barreling down the sidewalk right at us out of control, we could stand there and say that it’s not real, but that wouldn’t keep the car from crashing into us.
She didn’t like that example and another student walked up and told us that we weren’t going to sway each other. They both started telling me that we should just talk to people. So I gave them a scenario. I said ok, suppose I had just been sitting on the bench near where we were standing and I asked them if either one of them would have stopped to talk to me. They didn’t answer, but both kept saying we weren’t going to reach anybody by yelling at them. I assured them that we talk loudly so more people can hear the message, but we aren’t yelling at anyone. The vile atheist girl left and I gave the other student a tract before he walked away.
Encouragers
Aaron kept preaching and I started handing out tracts. A young man who has encouraged us before was sitting on bench and listening to the preaching. He walked up to me and shook my hand and then he walked over to Aaron while he was preaching and shook his hand. Later on another student walked by and I handed him a tract. He thanked us for being out there and said that he knows it can’t be easy to keep witnessing with some of the student’s mocking us all the time. Then he said I guess it proves we are in the last days to which all I could say was Amen.
Do You Ever You Talk To People?
A worker at MSU walked up to me and said that he had to clock in or out (I don’t remember which), but quickly he wanted to say that we are doing this the wrong way and that we should just talk to people. I told him that Aaron talked to a young man for 45 minutes last week. Many times open-air preaching leads to talking. He said that he preferred to just talk and again wanted to know if we do that. I assured him that we do. He gave me his card and I gave him a Gospel tract. Hopefully I will get a chance to call him and go have a cup of coffee and talk. He likes to talk about religion and I like to talk about Jesus.
Listeners
Earlier when I was bringing a message a student stopped and she listened to part of the message while she was waiting on her friend. Then when Aaron preached, a young man listened to most if not all of his message. I gave him a tract but didn’t engage him in a conversation because he was listening to the preaching. Then after Aaron finished up, he walked over and gave the young man a tract too.
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Love Your Neighbor
Then on Friday night Aaron and I were joined by Erica, Diana and Elise. We sang several hymns to start the night. Then I stared off with a message Love Warns. One guy walking on the sidewalk across the street yelling about how we are doing it wrong. A little while later a truck drove by and the woman in the passenger seat yelled “love your neighbor.” I assured her that I was loving my neighbor because love warns. They drove by again and she yelled again.
Then they stopped around the corner and came over and started talking to Aaron. She kept insisting that we weren’t loving people to Jesus. At one point she even pretended to faint. When I finished up then Aaron started preaching and the woman that had yelled and talked to Aaron started talking to Elise. She was telling Elise that the Assemblies of God wouldn’t approve of our method. Maybe she really thought that would make us pack it up and go home, but we ignored her and kept witnessing. One of her friends took a tract from me before they left.
The Cry of Jonah
Aaron brought a message called The Cry of Jonah. He pointed out how much Jonah had to suffer before he surrendered to God’s will. Then he also pointed out how Nineveh, which the Bible describes as a great city, a city of 120,000 people repented through fasting and wearing sackcloth. But most of the people in Springfield aren’t confessing and forsaking their sins. Many people think that they can profess Jesus with their lips while at the same time continuing headlong in their sins.
Aaron also asked where are the Jonah’s of our day? Where are the men of God who will stand up and preach the Word? He also mentioned mentioned Leonard Ravenhill’s book Sodom Had No Bible. He pointed out that we have the Bible today so we will be more accountable at The Judgment than Sodom will be. When he mentioned that I yelled that I had some Bibles and I gave out three Bibles before his message was over. Sadly, one guy walked by with his family and when I tried to hand him a Bible he said that he didn’t believe in that tomfoolery. Oh, one day he will wish that he would have believed. He will wish that he had gotten right with God, but it will be too late on that great and terrible day of the Lord. We ended the night singing more hymns but I want to echo Aaron’s plea: where are the Jonah’s that will cry for Springfield to repent?
(These updates are provided to encourage believers to share their faith in Jesus Christ with this lost and dying world. Our Lord and Savior came to seek and save the lost. Are you crying out for lost souls? Are you pleading with sinners to get right with God? Say you need some Bible verses? Well, read Mark 16:15, Matthew 10:27, Acts 1:8, Acts 8:5, Acts 8:12 and Romans 10:14 to name a few. Preach the Gospel. Share your faith in Jesus Christ. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Will you be one of the few?)