Post a comment
Five of us spent the afternoon in Pismo Beach on Sunday. It was another beautiful day and there were lots of visitors to our Central Coast.
One young lady from a local church has been faithfully meeting us at the pier to pray for the souls of the individuals we speak to. The other four were sowing seed, engaged in one-2-one witnessing. We even spent some time preaching open-air to the crowd God gathered.
Before starting, we prayed that God would gather the people to hear the Gospel, that He would save souls, and that His name would be honored and worshipped for who He is and what He has done.
God gathered a large group to hear the open-air Gospel presentations. We have experienced God prepare hearts in this atmosphere of prayer, His Word being read aloud and proclaimed in the public arena.
I recently heard an excellent quote from Scottish preacher, George McCloud: “I simply argue that the cross should be raise at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles but on a cross between two thieves – on the towns garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek. At the kind of a place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and solders gamble. Because that is where He died, and that is what He died for, and that is what He died about. That is where church-men ought to be, and what church-men ought to be about.”
After the Gospel is proclaimed and God’s Word is read, the one-2-one conversations seem much easier. All you really have to say is, “hey what do you think about what that guy said?” And you’re away! These individuals are not monsters they don’t bite and they actually seem to appreciate having someone talk to them about spiritual matters.
Having said that, and as I said in a previous post, my fears still nag me. I saw a couple approaching and they “looked” like they were going to eat me alive. I thought, “Maybe I should just let them pass by and not say anything.” But it happened so quickly. The first “monster” was female and she looked ferocious. The second was a male and appeared to be thirsty for my blood. Their expressions terrified me as they drew closer.
I held my breath, smiled and put my hand out, offering a tract and said, “hey did you get one of these?” The female took the tract without taking my hand off. Lori was receptive to the conversation – I was so relieved.
The other “monster," David was a bit reluctant to say anything. But he did say something like, “dude, you got the wrong guy to be talking about God and religion…” He refused the tract and his body language made it obvious that he wanted to get away fast. I thought for a moment that he would walk away leaving his girlfriend Lori there with me – he didn’t.
Lori and I began talking about her background. She had some sort of Christian background but she had “no use for church or church people.” David jumped in and said that he had many family members who were Christians. He also indicated that they were always “bugging me about going to church.” In an agitated way, David said he believed in a god and Heaven – but not Hell.
David was extremely self-righteous and very hard to reason with due to the fact that he continued to justify himself with the typical arguments. ‘I don’t think God will ultimately punish me because I’m not that bad…, There are so many hypocrites in the churches…, How can you believe the Bible…, etc.’ These are the same arguments I used before God saved me. David said, “yea, I’m a sinner, but so is everyone else.” He didn’t understand His personal sin before God.
It is imperative that the Law proceeds Grace to a proud, self-righteous individual like David. Open up God’s standard – the Ten Commandments to them: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28 & Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer 1 John 3:15
Even in light of God’s standard of righteousness, David and Lori both stayed very hard (as least as far as my eye could see). I didn’t speak of God’s mercy, love, or forgiveness through the sacrifice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because they didn’t see their need for Him or forgiveness. Why? Because they figured, in their spiritual blindness, that they at heart are “good.”
We continued to talk about God’s standard – I emphasized our immense guilt before an eternal, infinite GOD, who is holy, righteous, good, and that He can’t just let us get away with sin.
After explaining God’s law to them for fifteen minutes or so, they were silenced. They stopped trying to justify themselves. Even the hardness of David began to soften. At first David was blasphemous, and very agitated about the topic of our discussion. The same hard to talk to, hard to reason with guy, was silenced under God’s law and maybe for the first time felt guilty before God.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Romans 3:19
What made this obvious was a few soft words form David’s mouth. You want to know what he said? At the time, it almost brought tears to my eyes. David said softly, with his head literally hanging down, “so what was that that you gave to Lori?” He was speaking of the gospel tract. I choked a bit and with pleasure gave him a tract AND… A Bible…Can you believe that?
I then had the greatest of all privileges - sharing the Gospel with this couple. I magnified the LOVE AND MERCY OF GOD, FORGIVENESS OF SINS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, repentance, and faith toward THE one and only Savior Jesus. With great passion I poured it on as best as I knew how. David and Lori, those two big “monsters” heard the gospel on Sunday and in the end were very receptive.
Maybe it wasn’t the first time they heard it, or second time, or the tenth, it doesn’t matter how many times, what matters is they heard it and have the opportunity to respond in repentance toward God. HE is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Father, in order that Your great name be honored, praised, and eternally worshipped, save David and Lori. You are a merciful God and You sent you Son Jesus Christ to do the work of redemption for the souls of men. Great God of Peace, forgive their sins and call them out of darkness into Your marvelous light. And Father, please forgive my initial attitude towards David and Lori – they are not monsters but lost people. Remind me to continue to intercede for them and increase my love for them. Don’t let my weak mind forget this great lesson. AMEN
I met another very nice couple on Sunday. Listen to this podcast of a wonderful conversation I had with a very nice young lady named Jenae. Her boyfriend Mark was also by her side, although very quite. Jenae’s father is in the background too – you’ll hear him make comments every so often in the background.
Jenae is from San Luis Obispo and hasn’t much of a Christian background. She was very kind to participate and be interviewed. Jenae said something that I have heard others say before. Like I said, Jenae hasn’t had much of a Christian influence in her life but when I asked her “What do you think God is like?” God’s Words are true beloved! Her response was straight from Scripture. She said, “powerful.” What passage of Scripture does that remind you of?
For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: Romans 1:20
Saints, please pray for the salvation of Jenae and David.
Please also pray for Richard. Richard is 27 and just got out of prison because he was using and dealing heroin. His mom and dad are Christians and are heartbroken over Richard’s choices in life. Richard is a very bright young man with an eight-year-old son. Pray for the salvation of his soul. Pray that Satan and his drugs would be kept from Richard so he can work to provide for his son and be a father for him.
|
