Is That The Weed Card Or The God Card?
Ministry Update September 3, 2017
On Monday August 28, 2017, I witnessed at the University of Missouri with Jeremy, his brother Joshua and his son Joseph. We handed out tracts and the three of us guys brought open-air messages. While I was handing out tracts, one student walked up to me and looked at the Gospel tract in my hand and asked “Is that the weed card or the God card?” I replied, “the God card” to which he said naw, he wasn’t interested. He walked over to the guy gathering marijuana signatures for a petition to get marijuana on the ballot in November. So, I yelled after the student that weed can’t save you. Only Jesus saves.
We handed out hundreds of tracts and got into conversations with the students. Joshua even witnessed to the guy collecting marijuana signatures. Jeremy had a great conversation with an atheist and their discussion drew a crowd of 10 or 15 students. He also talked to a 70 year old man who has been evangelizing at MU for 10 years. He used to do open-air preaching but can’t anymore because of his lack of vocal strength. Jeremy also met a fellow believer named George who helped Jeremy talk to students.
The first message I brought was how so man students that rejected tracts said, “No, I’m good.” A student across the way listened to most of the message. But my best conversation was with a young lady named Janell. She is a Jehovah’s Witness and while I was bringing a message about the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:18-23, Matthew 13:36-43. Janell came up and interrupted me and wanted clarification if I really said that everyone either goes to Heaven or Hell after they die. I assured it that is the case and you can see it from the parable that I just read. She smiled and said I should go to jw.org. I politely said no thanks. She really thought I should check it out.
You Don’t Believe In Jehovah?
So then I said so you are a Jehovah’s Witness and she said yes. She said you don’t believe in Jehovah? I said I believe in Jehovah, but not in Jehovah’s Witnesses. She then said that she believes in God the Father and that Jesus is His Son I said I believe in the God of the Bible that reveals Himself as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I asked her why the New World Translation changes John 1:1 from the Word was God to the Word was a god?
She didn’t answer and marched on to Bible verses in the Old Testament that she says proves that people who die are just in the grave, that they aren’t in Hell. I quoted Her verses in Matthew 5 and Mark 9 where Jesus talked about Hell and the worm dies not and the fire is never quenched. She thought those were just referring to the grave.
How Can A Dead Man Talk?
Then I directed her to Luke 16:19-31 and asked her how the rich guy lifted up his eyes and cried out to Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water because he was tormented in that place. How could a person in the grave look and feel? And how can a dead man talk? How could he be so tormented that he begged Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his five brothers? Janell didn’t answer these questions, but continued on with other verses that she says proves Hell isn’t a place of everlasting fire and torment.
I really like Janell and I appreciate her passion and zeal for what she believes in, but unfortunately she worships a false god. Not the God, the Trinity of the Holy Bible. She texted me some JW videos. I will watch them and reply back accordingly. But all I can think about is how come true followers of Jesus can’t be this sold out for Him when they have everlasting life? Why is it real Christians aren’t as zealous for the true Messiah as Janell is for her false god? Lord God, please raise up more laborers for the harvest.
The Biggest Question DVD Outreach at Missouri State University
On Wednesday August 29, 2017, eight of us from Crossway Baptist Church handed out 600 of The Biggest Question DVDs at MSU. We are very grateful for Trisha Ramos with Wretched TV/Radio for sending these to us for free. After that, we handed out 1,500 Crossway Gospel tracts and two of our group handed out 500 of their own tracts. Jerry shared the Gospel in Mandarin with a Chinese student. He has an app on his phone that clearly and concisely states the Gospel in many different languages.
Carla had several good Gospel conversations. She shared the Gospel with a young man that said he used to attend Crossway Baptist Church, but he’s walked away from his faith. Then Carla shared her faith with a couple of Chinese students. After that, she walked by me talking to a young man that said he wanted to navigate his own way. He told her that he was going for an accounting degree and she asked him if he thought just navigating his own way in business after he graduates would work in accounting since that is a job of precision and accuracy. She literally walked with him to his class sharing the Gospel with him.
What Do You Believe?
Vinton handed a young girl a tract and she asked him what he believes and even though she kind of caught him off guard, he shared the Gospel with her. After that she said that she’s looking for a church. We hope and pray that she visits Crossway Baptist Church. Greg, Connie, Joe, Darlene and I mainly handed out DVDs and tracts. Connie did notice some of the DVDs were tossed in the trash, so she snagged them out and “recycled them” by handing them out again.
I had one student ask me what the biggest question is and I said where will you go after you die. She replied Heaven. I asked her how you get there and she said that you ask God for forgiveness and trust in the Lord. Another young lady saw the tract and exclaimed “I go to Crossway” to which I replied good. One student said “No, I’m good when refusing a tract.” So I asked him how good are you to which he said “I’m good enough.” Then I tried to question him some more and he said “Leave me alone, I’m a preacher’s kid.” I apologized to him and said I’m not trying to aggravate you, but I was a false convert for 33 years and I just want people to understand that it takes repentance and faith in Jesus to be saved.
Thank You For Sharing Your Faith
Another student walked by me and when I tried to hand him a tract, he turned back and said “what is it?” I showed him the tract and he said “I go to Crossway Baptist Church.” I said great. He started to walk on, but then he turned back around and walked up to me and said thank you for sharing your faith here on campus. I thanked him for saying that. I catch a lot of flak for open-air preaching at MSU, especially from professing Christians, so I genuinely appreciated him taking the time to say thanks for coming to the school and sharing the Gospel. We don’t share the Gospel for to seek any praise from people, but a little encouragement amidst all the mocking and scoffing is nice to hear.
Why Do You Do This?
Then Friday night Matt from my Sunday school class and his son Jayden joined me witnessing downtown. We started off at the corner of St. Louis and Jefferson. While I was open-air preaching, they were handing out tracts across the street. Andre was walking by, so he stopped and stood beside me while I brought the message. I don’t think he knew my friends were across the street, so he stood next to me like a security guard. I really appreciated that he did that.
After finishing the message, Matt, Jayden and I walked up to the corner of South and McDaniel and handed out Gospel tracts. Jayden handed out several Route 66 tracts that I had left from before and Matt and I handed out Crossway Baptist Church tracts. Several people told us that they go to Crossway.
Why Do I Do This?
One man stopped and thanked us for being out there. Matt handed a young man a tract and when he realized what it was, he turned around and tossed into the trash can that was right behind Matt. We didn’t realize it, but there were four or five girls following this young man. One of the girls stopped and said, “Why do you do this?” Why do I do this? That’s like asking me why do I breathe or eat. This is a street evangelists dream question.
Why do you do this? I go out and share the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ because God saved me 10 years ago while reading the Bible. God revealed to me that I was a sinner and that He is Holy and Jesus Christ is the only Savior. The young lady’s name is Antonia and she told me that her mother used to be a Christian, but something bad happened. I told her that I was sorry to hear that.
Then I was able to share that God made this world perfect and put Adam and Eve in a perfect place and only gave them one rule – don’t eat the fruit of this one tree. One of Antonia’s friends said that she would have eaten the forbidden fruit too. I agreed with her friend that we all would have done so at one time or another, because we are all sinners. We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory.
We Are All Sinners And Need Salvation
That was a perfect segue into the fact that we are all sinners and we need salvation. That salvation is found in Christ alone. I got to share the Gospel with Antonia and her friends. Some of them were horsing around and joking, but Antonia was listening for sure and I think a couple of the other girls were listening too. After I shared the Gospel I asked Antonia if she had a Bible at home and she said they do.
I encouraged her to not take my word for what I was telling her, but for her to read it herself. She mentioned earlier about many different religions. I told her that Jesus said He is the only way to God the Father. This exchange was the highlight of the night. It was a long week and I literally had to drag myself downtown. Not that I didn’t want to go, but I was really tired. After talking to Antonia though I came home energized.
Please join me in praying that God will save Janell the Jehovah’s Witness at MU, the preacher’s kid and the other students at MSU and Antonia and her friends from downtown. May the Lord grant them repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please remember that these updates are given to encourage Christians to share their faith with others.