Good afternoon Saints,
Thursday afternoon was an exciting time of witnessing! (By witnessing, I mean passing out tracts, one-on-ones, and preaching) Troy & I met at GSU where, to no surprise, we found a barren wasteland void of souls. We chewed over that and decided it best to find a crowd. So we ventured to the mall to meet Ken, Josh, and two of Josh’s youth! Brian (ketchup-man) and Andrew (Bob). I can’t tell you how it warmed my heart and encouraged me to see these young guys coming out to preach the gospel. It’s good to know that their are some teenagers who care amidst the undgodly society of heathen kids who don’t! It did my heart so well to experience that with them.
We started out in front of the mall and Bi-Lo Grocery Store. It was slim pickens, but none the less better than nothing. (here I am complaining about lack of crowd when I should be thanking God for people period!) So we then ventured onto Wal-Mart parking lot amidst the burning hot 100 degree sun! Boy it was hot, but we went remembering Hell is gonna be even hotter, and we don’t want them to go there. Troy and I stood outside in the heat while Ken, Josh, and Brian & Andrew ventured inside to stuff merchandise with tracts. You never know who God might lead to find a tract. Next time you try on some dress pants, there’s the gospel in the pocket. Next time you get a birthday card, there’s the gospel. Next time someone purchases beer (college students), it’s saturated with gospel tracts in the handle holes! You cannot escape the gospel, not even at Wal-Mart. Afterall, they are the “Savings Place”, and so help us God, we want to keep it that way! (ha!)
Troy and I passed out tracts and about 60% of the people took them. It’s tough giving out tracts in the hot sun as people are merely focused on getting into the a.c. and buying things! But we had some bites. The highlight of the trip for me was when I was leaving and said my goodbyes to my fellow witnessing brothers, I walked out the front door. And to my surprise, heard someone talking about a movie I really love. I used it as an opportunity to start up a conversation and give out some tracts. As soon as they saw what it was, one guy immediately left, threw his in the trash, and walked into Wal-Mart saying “Atheism is the best man”! Then another gave up and left….but two stayed! Thank God because the two that stayed must have needed to stay! One was a professing Christian named BILLY, and his unsure friend was TOMMY. I immediately addressed Tommy because he seemed very apathetic and focused on looking cool. So I proceeded to address TOMMY’s conscience through God’s Holy Law and show how his idea of being “good” was different from God’s idea of Good.
TOMMY started out very uninterested, but as God’s Law took effect you could see his countenance begin to change. As Ken looked on behind me, and Josh and his youth prayed for Tommy & I, Tommy began to see his sin for what it is and for how it offends God (at least it seemed that way). Once I felt that Tommy could understand his wretched and hopeless state before God, I administered God’s grace to him in hopes to offer him the amazing free gift of salvation. (I never push for a decision or a “sinner’s prayer” but challenge them on the urgency of repentance and faith & trust in Jesus Christ and His shed blood only!) Tommy had to go quickly so he was often rocking back and forth while smoking a cigarette. But God is more powerful than an important meeting or a tobacco addiction. It was obvious at several times that Tommy had to go…..but for some ‘strange reason’ he decided to stay as long as possible. Praise God because the youth (Brian & Andrew) got to stay and here a full witnessing encounter. And even though Tommy had to leave abruptly and suddenly near the end of our conversation, I really felt that God was dealing with his heart on how important it was to get right with Him today! As Tommy was walking away, I told him remember the Bible says “today is the day of salvation”! And then his Christian friend said “thank you”. Ken and I both encouraged and challenged him to continue to work on Tommy! Tommy was late for heading home to receive a call from him probation officer. Please pray for Tommy that he’ll see his awesome need for Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord!
It’s so amazing how powerful the name of Jesus Christ is! His saving message can be preached anywhere; from Wal-Mart parking lot to an alley on the street. And people can decide to heed His call anywhere! May we continue to take advantage of our constitutional rights before we LET them strip it away! Please pray continuously saints for God to raise up more laborers who are convicted about their lack of service in Christ to motivate them to DO! And pray that God will continue to raise up a harvest that is in dire need of gospel saving seeds! Love you all, and until next blog, DO SOMETHING TO FURTHER HIS KINGDOM!
Any Day Now……
Fruitful Musings 
It was awesome to see Brian and Andrew out with us last week. We are going through the Way of the Master Foundational Course right now in the youth group and I thank God so much for their willingness to pass out tracts. Brian is already starting conversations with people. He loved the episode where they asked people if they could name ten beers (most could). They then asked how many ten commandments could they name. Few got more than 2 or 3 correct. Brian has asked these questions of people already.
It is so refreshing to see people who claim to be Christian that are eager to deny themselves and go out of their way to preach the gospel. After all that is what we are to do. The Christian life is not the easy, comfortable, worldly life that most professors live. It is about coming out of the world and its influence (being holy) and frequently laying aside what we would want to do, to do something for someone else and especially God (denying yourself and taking up your cross daily). That’s what God’s Word says to do.
I pray that we will all work harder at being holy and denying ourselves daily for the glory of God Almighty, for the sake of our spiritual lives, and for the eternal welfare of others.
–Josh
Josh,
Yes indeed it was! What an encouragement to see them out there at that age! I wish I would have been introduced to Way of the Master or any evangelism tool early on….it may have saved a lot of wasted time and heartache! 20/20 Hindsight! May we continue to be bound by the commandments of our Father…afterall we are bought with a price we are not our own! We must serve Him! The best way to serve Him is to tell the world about Him. If Brian and Andrew can continue to see that, than praise God! May their passion spread like wildfire throughout the youth group of Friendship Baptist Church.
To Brian & Andrew: Love you guys and may God bless you as you seek to serve Him daily. And go out and witness constantly brothers….every chance you get!
May we seek indeed to be Holy and Righteous, as our King is!!
Great report Jonathan. There are souls to be won, so go forward for the cause of Christ!!! Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly [is] plenteous, but the labourers [are] few;
Mat 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Rob,
I thank God for you and Josh and the encouragement! The ’cause of Christ’ is the only reason we are here on this earth! I believe there are two important things to “do” in this life: 1) Become born-again by Holy God through Jesus Christ, 2) Witness about it and God’s Word to others! That’s it. Those two things glorify God! Every christian service and ministry should have it’s primary goal as preaching the gospel to the Lost world! Nothing else is a worthy cause. Some say, well my ministry is mowing the church grass and cleaning the lawn curbing. My ministry is saving starving sea turtles and picking up trash for the community! Great! But what does that have to do with the gospel. Let the lost world “save the whales”, because they care greatly about ‘mother earth’! But Christians need to be different from the world anyway; let’s be different in our purpose and cause of living! Let’s preach Christ crucified and that ONLY! Praise God, amen brother Jonathan! And yes, Rob, the harvest is too plenteous and the workers are too few! It’s sad really! Let’s come together in Christ for the cause of Christ to glorify Christ by bringing others to Christ! Whew Whew Whew! Praise God,