Josh stepped out in faith to talk to a gentleman who "seemed" interested in our sign. Josh walked over to him and I heard a small dialogue between them. From my perspective Josh had a very confused look on his face and at one time attempted to call me over but the gentleman declined me coming over. After a few short minutes, Josh walked back to our area with a strange look on his face. Before he could tell me what the guy said, the guy came over and said one of the weirdest, demonic things I've ever heard come from someones mouth. I know you are probably interested in what it was, but for the sake of our ears, I'll spare you...let me just say I have NEVER heard such a comment come from someones mouth, nor do I think I ever will. IT WAS WEIRD! Praise God for Josh's boldness!
We talked to a couple we had encountered the day before. We asked if they did any thinking about what we discussed with them . They said they had and even humorously said they would be willing to hold our sign for us. I actually might take them up on the offer. I even made mention to pay them to hold the sign....imagine the conversations they will hear, how many times they will hear the gospel, if they hold the sign for a few hours for $20! I'm sure we'll see them again.
One couple came up to Erik and asked if we had any bibles they could have, without hesitation Erik gave them his bible (eventually we spared Erik's bible and gave them one of Josh's).
A word of encouragement/exhortation/suggestion: Just because someone says they like your sign, "God bless", "keep up the good work", "I'm a christian"...etc, DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD ASSUME THEY ARE A CHRISTIAN. What I mean is this. We have many people throughout the day who will commend us for spreading the word, "preaching", etc. However, at times I think "oh, they are a christian, I probable don't need to talk to them". We need to talk to these people too. According to Jesus, "Many will say to me on that day 'Lord, Lord' and I'll say to them, 'Depart from Me, I NEVER knew you". My point: don't just assume someone is a christian because they tell you they are. Talk to them. Ask them about the sign, ask them when they got "saved" and "how did that happen", ask them how their "walk with the Lord" is doing, ask them if they need any prayer, etc. A little "prodding" and there will be times you will find that the person is just a self-professing christian with no "fruit" to accompany their proclamation. They are deceived and therefore need to repent and believe just like an "unbeliever".
An example of the above happened yesterday when a girl approached us, thanked us for being out there, said she like her sign, and adamantly said she was a born-again christian, "been one my whole life". She left and later walked by us again, so I approached her again because we suspected she wasn't a christian. As I talked to her for the next half-hour or so, I learned she has been addicted to drugs (on and off) her whole life, her mother (who she told us was a "strong" christian) was an alcoholic and drug-addict, and she admitted to me that if she died today she would go to hell. Now that doesn't fit her earlier statements of being a "born-again" christian. I really tried to be honest with her letting her know I was concerned for and her salvation. I didn't tell her she wasn't saved, but I let her know in so many FIRM words that I have no assurance that she IS saved. Be honest with people...it's called loving your neighbor as yourself. I prayed with her, got her contact information so Tina could call her, and went back to my "sign guys".
The "sign guys" were talking with a Dad and his daughter who were both christians. All of us were very encouraged by talking with this man. In fact, he stayed with us, talked to people, for several hours. So much so that he got a parking ticked because his meter ran out! He lives in Ladysmith, WI and connected with one guy he talked to. He will be staying on contact with that gentleman, and I think Erik too. PRAISE GOD!
Now, remember the self-proclaimed "satan-worshipper" I tried to talk to earlier in the day? Well, he never left the wall (about 15 ft. away from us) for over an hour. He just sat there (within listening distance sometimes but FOR SURE within the distance of reading the sign over and over again). I only gave him an occasional thought as I saw him standing over by the wall. We were approached by 2 guys who passed out some "rave" fliers to us. As we were talking to them, the "satanist" came into our circle and said (with his mohawk), "Yeah, I've got a question for you....how come YOU believe there IS a God?".....BINGO! Now, what better question can someone ask you...EVER! At this point I was like a kid in a candy store. I thought, "did he really just ask me that question", "is this the same guy who over an hour ago told me to 'bug off' and now he is SINCERELY asking me 'why do you believe in God'?, to say the least, I WAS PUMPED! I engaged in conversation with him about the creation/creator (God), the miracle of life, healing, etc, my testimony, and our moral conscience of knowing right from wrong. I think I could write a book about this conversation because we covered everything from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22! HE KEPT ASKING QUESTIONS. He wasn't rude, he wasn't being sarcastic, he was just being sincere. I listened to his beliefs and he listened to mine. At one point I told him, "you know you are a hypocrite", he said, "why is that"..i said "because you call yourself a satanist but you do not believe the bible"..he said, "yeah"...i said, "the only reason you know anything about "satan" is FROM THE BIBLE and the bible says satan came to kill, steal, and destroy, why aren't you trying to kill me?"...he said, "well i don't believe all the bible nor do I believe all the satanic bible"....AH HA (I thought) he's doubting his "faith"...I said "well why would you be a professing satanist IF you don't COMPLETELY believe the book that confirms your god's existence"...he didn't have an answer. Don't be afraid to challenge people's way of thinking, reasoning, etc. Often times I like to try to get the person to doubt what and why they believe what they believe. If you can get someone to doubt what they believe, you can often times get them to AT LEAST consider what you believe (the very fact that you are so confident about your belief, will give them doubts about their lack of faith in what they believe). So the conversation went on and on and on. He kept saying, "I have one more question" about 10 times! IT WAS GREAT. He had a lot of great questions and hopefully I was able to give him the BIBLICAL answers. When it was all said and done, WE BOTH thanked each other for a great conversation and he admitted he "really learned a lot from" me. We exchanged contact information and I plan on emailing him very soon. His name is Tim, please pray for him.
As the day went on, we had a gentleman come up to us who in the end, was a born-again christian. HE WAS SUPER ENCOURAGED BY US, as we were by him as we talked with him. He wants to fellowship with us, do bible-study with us, and come out on the streets with us. He is on fire for the Lord and wants to be around other christians who have the same passion. His name is Vincent, please pray for him and us.
As we were packing up to leave and walking away, a group of about 5 girls stopped us and said, "hey what's that sign mean"...i thought, "are you kidding me, that's the second best question a person can ask you (#1 is 'why do you believe in God'), this sign thing is AWESOME!"....i said to them, "why don't you tell me what it says to you"...not much was said by them but one of them said something about "how can anyone know God since on one as seen him"...just then in the back of the group was a little, tiny girl (maybe 20ish yrs old) with 2 lip rings, dyed hair, and (would you believe it) a self-proclaimed SATANIST..she said (rather loudly) "how can you prove there is a God if you can't see him"....i thought, "i'm really beginning to like these satanists!", so I started in with the creation/creator, miracle of life, my testimony, and our moral conscience of right and wrong. It actually started to get a little heated because she ADAMANTLY hated God because, according to her, she was "raped, molested, and abused" by her father yet when she prayed to God that he would stop, he never did. She assumed there wasn't a God, or at least if there was one she hated him for not answering her prayer. She said she hated God for it and hated her father for it. Now understand this, I am not into sugar-coating things nor am I trying to "be nice" for the sake of being nice. I care about one thing: telling this girl the truth whether she likes it or not. Now of course we do this out of love for God and love for people and we do this in as loving way as possible AND we all might have different ideas about what "a loving way" is. So I said to her...."I'm sorry your dad did that to you, that's terrible, BUT that is a really selfish thing for you to do. You hate God because he seemingly didn't answer your prayer? You were asking God to take care of you for selfish reasons, AND since He didn't, you chose not to believe in Him and/or hate Him for it? How about the fact that he has given you life, the world to look at, the very eyes to see, nose to smell, tongue to talk and taste...and the list can go on. You see, you hated God before God didn't answer that prayer. You hated Him because he chose to reject Him from the very beginning. The bible says we know God exists by the simple creation (universe, earth, people, etc) YET we reject Him none-the-less. Even if God would have made your father stop doing those things, you still would have found other reasons to reject God (i remember listing some reasons)...I then told her this, "remember what your dad did to you when you were younger. he had a craving for sex and took it out on you. now here you are dancing naked in front of a bunch of men all for the money. they can't touch you. they want to but they can't. you flaunt yourself in front of them, rub yourself on them, and do anything and everything that you can to turn them on only so they will give you money. did you ever think that just maybe you are throwing full on a fire"..she said, "what do you mean".. i said, "do you think that just maybe some of these guys go home, all turned on wanting sex but couldn't get it from you, they are going to release that tension one way or another..i guarantee it. so they go home with a 'heated-fire' continued to burn (maybe even greater) by you and then do the same thing your dad did to you? did you ever ONCE think about those girls when you were trying to turn these guys on for money? did you ever think that maybe just ONCE the money you made that night was money used to get turned on, go home, and molest/rape someone?"...IT'S HARD BUT IT'S THE TRUTH! We live in a wicked, wicked, world. Sin is everywhere and we NEED to confront it head on. Call sin what sin is...DISGUSTING and an Abhorrence to God!
At this point her friends had left and it was just her and I. She seemed to understand what I was saying and said..."i'm not a good person...no one is...i'm a stripper!"...i said, "that contradicts what you said earlier (earlier she said she didn't think there was a "right" and "wrong" or a "good and "bad"), why would you call yourself "bad" if you don't think anything can be bad or good"...she said, "things are only 'bad' or 'good' if you think they are...i said, "so your father thought it was good to rape/molest a girl between 3-14, was he right?"...she didn't answer...i said "OF COURSE NOT, no one thinks raping/molesting a kid is ok. ma'am i am really sorry what your dad did to you, but the least of your worries should be about your dad and what he did. You are not a bad person because you are a stripper, you are a bad person because you've rejected God over and over again. You are an enemy of God and God is your enemy."...she, just like the other satanist, started asking some REALLY GOOD QUESTIONS. We basically went from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. I'm telling you people, don't' be afraid to be hard, firm, direct, and to the point. I always hear people say, "I wish people would just be honest with me, I hate when they sugar-coat things"...YEAH..."treat your neighbor as you would yourself!" I want people to be direct and honest with me (if what they say makes sense and it's not just their opinion with no factual evidence), so I try to do the same (it's not always easy but I find people are way more receptive to talking if you are just honest, people can see a phony from miles away!). As we continued to talk I asked her this question, "since I've been talking to you about God, your sin, His wrath, His judgment to come, your destination if you died today, etc, are you the least bit concerned IF what I say is true?"...she said, "yes"...AAAAHHHH BINGO...I then said, "do you think God would just create all people just to send them to hell?....she said, "no"...neither do I because the Bible tells me so"...I then shared with her the story of Jesus. I wish you all could have been there when I read John 3:16 to her, "FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE". As I quoted that scripture to her I looked her right in the eye. For the first time in our conversation, I saw something in her. SHE WAS LISTENING! Her eyes began to well up, she took a deep swallow (the kind you take to keep from crying)...I read that verse over and over again (probably 3-4 times)...and continued with the FULL gospel message. She never cried, but I saw it in her. She heard, I believe, for the first time...THE GOSPEL! It was amazing. We went from being heated to being cordial. She was honest. I was honest. I asked her if she had any questions..she said "no". I let her know that I would do ANYTHING to help her out within my power BUT I was sure to give her mine and tina's name, and she gave us her name and number. We shook hands and went our separate ways. I called Tina and gave Tina the girl's contact information. Tina called her cell phone and left a message. Please pray for her, her name is Nicole.
As we were leaving and walking up the hill, we ran into one more guy. His name is Scott. At first I thought he was being sincere. He talked to Erik for a while and then just broke down crying, about his wife, kids, job, life, drinking, etc. He said he wanted to get on his knees and pray, which at first I thought was a good idea. But as we knelt down, I smelt alcohol like never before. In fact, even today I still get a whiff of it in my nose...it makes me sick. Before we knelt down I did not think the guy was drunk, BUT HE WAS. We decided not to pray with him because I felt he, just like Nicole, wanted God to make his life better (fix the marriage, get the kids back, stop the drinking, etc). This may sound harsh but God is not interested in how your personal affairs are going IF you are not a christian. All God cares about IF you are not a christian is IF you will repent and believe to become a christian. And if you do, there is NO GUARANTEE your life is going to get "better" as you see it. We could have prayed with him (and maybe we should have) but what if God didn't "fix" those things and now we might have a guy who "hates God" because God didn't make "his life all better"? Erik suggested we get the guys contact info, write him a letter, and meet up with him when he is sober. VERY GOOD WISDOM, ERIK!
So that was Day 2! Another day on the streets of Duluth, MN.
1 comment:
good stuff
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