As a note of apology: All week long, we run, run, run with work that’s necessary and a variety of ministry activities that we believe glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then, we typically go out soul-winning Friday nights and Saturday nights – going to bed late, then getting to church for the morning service, and hopefully a nap and hopefully an evening service. And so far, we haven’t gotten our praise reports out as soon as we would like to. We are working on sending our praise reports out sooner. Thank you to our prayer partners and soul-winning partners. God bless you!
Last Friday night was so encouraging. We tried some new ideas and really had great success. It was raining during the prayer and fellowship time, but we made use of the covered area in front of the elevator. Then the rain basically stopped when we got down to the streets. David and Paul had a bunch of beneficial conversations using the WOTM Ten Commandment coins; the biggest blessing for us was the conversation with a 24 year old guy named Ben. Upon request from Scott and Patty, here is a bit of a description of how that went. David started off the conversation with the coin and told him it was a water proof gospel tract. Then as he lingered for a second David asked him if he had any spiritual beliefs. He replied sadly that he doesn’t but he used to believe in Jesus. But he also said that he had really been doing some thinking on that subject recently.
So we shared with him and he agreed that our sin really is a big offense to a holy God and that we are all very much sinners and far from God. We jokingly explained the evolution of a concrete building, which we had a good laugh at and he admitted that he knows very clearly that there must be a God. He told us a little bit of science that he knew that confirmed how complicated and intricately God has designed us and that was clear proof that there must be a God. Then he told us that he has a life-threatening illness and he was so glad to hear someone explain those things to him. From this point on he was softly crying a bunch as we kept talking with him. We talked for another maybe twenty minutes or so. We shared with him the parable of the soils in Matthew 13 because he thought he had accepted Christ as his Savior but he knew that his life didn’t match up with that, so he was very concerned. He knew he was trapped in some sins. A few days before he had gone surfing and just sat down at the beach and was asking God if He was real and why things were this way and if God could help him. He said that he seemed to fit more in the third kind of soil where he received the Word, but he cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches had overrun his life and he hadn’t really accepted Jesus as Savior and as His Lord.
We also shared some analogies him with about being diligent to seek God. That if he left his Bible collecting dust, he would be robbing himself of really knowing God and knowing how to understand life and be obedient to God’s point of view. And if he continues that way we told him we were not sure that he is saved, and he agreed that he is thinks he probably isn’t but he seems really close to committing his life to Christ. He was going to meet some friends, so we invited him to come back and talk with us again. Before he left, we gave him one of each of the tracts and a gospel of John and things to go read that would reaffirm with even more Scripture those things that we were talking about, and we gave him ‘Hell’s Best Kept Secret’ and ‘True and False Conversion’. As he left he seemed to feel like he had his pockets full of gold.
Your friends and co-laborers,
David and Barbara, Steven, and Paul
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Also, a few thoughts/ideas from Steven:The past few times I have gone street-witnessing, I have tried something new, something different. Last Saturday, I used a mic to do this, this week, I just used ‘Let Freedom Ring’ gospel tracts and a notepad. (A special thanks to Chris Owens for getting this idea started!)
I mingled with the crowd and handed out the tracts and said ‘Let Freedom Ring. Did you get one?’ If they took it, I said, ‘Hey we’re also taking a survey – What is freedom?’ It was surprising to me that a lot of people wanted to give their opinions. Depending on the reactions, I would interact with them and then ask them ‘What is Ultimate Freedom?’ I would let them answer and work with them, and then mention the latest statistic, 10 out of 10 people die. So, then I pointed out that because we are going to die, then the freedoms we enjoy here aren’t going to last forever, and that as I see it, spending eternity with God is the ultimate freedom, because He is perfect, loving, beautiful! Then, I asked them how someone gets to Heaven. I would let them respond and then lead them toward the point where I could take them through the 10 Commandments, pointing out that the 10 Commandments is God’s standard of perfection and that if we keep those, then we can get to Heaven, if not, then we have a problem… A lot of people that I talked to thought that apologizing or confessing sin saves us, I pointed out to them that if a criminal is standing before a judge, and he apologizes, the judge still has to issue judgment, there are still consequences for the crime, and if he is a good judge he will still issue the judgment. I would take them through the 10 Commandments and then use the illustration of a criminal in a civil court who owes $20,000 that he can’t pay, and that as he’s being led of to prison, someone he doesn’t even know, goes up to the judge and pays his fine for Him. Then, I pointed out that the man wasn’t freed because he was sorry, but because his fine was paid. If they had further questions about it, explain about how we are going to have to jump out of a plane at 20,000’. If we are going to have to jump, are we going to just hold onto the parachute or put it on? We are going to put it on! It’s the same thing with us and God, we broke His Law and He paid our fine, if we receive it. Then on several occasions, I read John 8:31-32 to them : “If you abide in My Word [obey Jesus’ teaching], you are truly My disciples [followers] and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” – pointing out that knowing God’s truth sets us free, and salvation is more than just believing in Jesus. Right before Jesus explained that we shall know the truth and the truth will set us free, Jesus pointed out that we have to follow Him – following Jesus is part of getting eternal life. On a few different occasions, I mentioned how 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” Then I pointed out that if we truly repented and accepted what Jesus has done for us, then God will be building something new in us – a hunger for Him and His Word. If that’s not there, then we need to check to see if our prayer was genuine. I then talked with them more and/or gave them more information if they were interested and thanked them for talking with us and wished them a nice evening.
It was amazing to me to see how many people were willing to talk to me and many people loved giving their opinions! It was also very encouraging to see the ‘RCCR principle’ (Relate Create Convict Reveal - Relate: relate to the person in with natural things, Create: an opportunity to present the gospel, Create: remind them that we have all broken the 10 Commandments (God's Law) and that we all deserve justice-punishment, Reveal: tell them the good news that Jesus paid our fine-debt if we just receive it) work in this too…
a servant of Christ, Steven
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