5 Year Old Passes Out Tracts

Yesterday was a beautiful day, probably one of the (if not THE) nicest days of the year. Mild temps., little to no wind, and a small blanket of cloud cover to keep us from burning up.

It was an exciting day because two new people came out with us. Rob Skutevik and Nick Olson. They've been wanting to get out with us for some time, but job and other priorities seemed to be hindering them. So to say the least it was exciting to have them join us. Rob and I have done a lot of street-witnessing in the past together, so it was great to be in the battle with a tested warrior who I knew well. It didn't take long before Rob was back in prime-form battling for the Gospel. There is one picture in the slide show of him talking to a couple of people.

Another neat thing about yesterday is that Rob brought 3 of his kids with and for the most part they stayed around us to listen in on the conversations. At one point, I asked the girls if they wanted to hand out tracts, and little Gabbie (only 5 years old) was pumped. She was AWESOME! Very few people will take tracts from us, however put a cute little five year old girl in your path handing you a piece of paper...I don't think ANYONE can resist. And they didn't. She passed out about 10 tracts...more than most professing christians do in a lifetime!! Way to go Gabbie (see the inserted picture of Gabbie with the tracts).

Nick and Josh went to Little Angies while Rob and I stayed at Park Point. Rob and I were able to have a few good conversations with both believers and unbelievers. I believe seeds were sown and watered, and now God can do the increase.

Since Park Point was not as packed at it seemed, we decided to pack up and head to the Marine Museum area of Canal Park..and boy was that a good move! The canal park area was pretty packed.

I started with a conversation with several young christians on a mission trip. I asked them what I needed to do to be saved. Their response floored me because it was not the typical, "say this prayer", "ask Jesus into your heart", "admit you are a sinner", etc. Instead it was, to me, a very biblical response. In short, Repentance and Faith defined as a complete submission to Jesus, not just as your Savior BUT AS YOUR LORD. Believing in His death, burial, and resurrection and conforming your life to follow His will (i.e. obedience). And this was from a kid about 12 years old! Way to go youth leader!

I talked with the youth for about 20 or 30 mins during which time a professing believer approached and was questioning our method of evangelizing. I've written on this topic before, but let me mention again that "success" should not be measured on the response to our message, but rather if our message is biblical and if we are making disciples (in the long run - God saves them, we then make disciples). We MUST get over the idea that an "offensive" message is not productive. There is NO biblical support for such a statement.

Matthew 28:19-20
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mark 16:15

And He [Jesus] said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Here is something we get from a lot of people in regards to our "offensive" message. They say something similar to, "This fear tactic, hellfire and brimstone preaching might work for some, but others it will just turn off". Now, please read that statement again. Notice what is bold. Do you see the self-deception in this statement. The person is literally saying that our method DOES work from some people, but that we shouldn't be doing it (that is generally what their main point is - stop your message/method it is turning people off). The problem with this thought is this. If our method/message DOES work from some people, what would come of those people if we stopped doing our method/message? What if we stopped just to reach the people that need a different method/message? Do you see the deception behind this? I don't doubt for one minute that these people are being sincere, but they really are not hearing what they are saying. If we stopped, those who NEED our message/method would not get it, therefore leaving them high and dry. If we started to reach the other people, could we not say that our "success" is just as comparable to our first approach - some people are "listening" and others are "not listening"? It's foolishness. Just preach the TRUE BIBLICAL message in a style that is supported by the prophets, Jesus, and the New Testament Church.

Mark 6:10-12
And He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. "Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them." They went out and preached that men should repent.

I will stand on this truth...there is FAR MORE biblical references to open-air preaching, street-preaching, door-to-door preaching, and preaching judgment, sin, righteousness FIRST talking about the Love of God. Now, no doubt they are all tied together BUT the Love of God makes NO SENSE if we do not talk about the others first. I'll stick to what the biblical example is and when God brings me a relationship with a non-believer, I'll share the same message. There are far too many people who are not hearing the TRUE message because we as an evangelical church are failing in the Great Commission, relying on our "relationships" with unbelievers as a means to evangelize. By the way, what if you share the truth with your friend and they get offended...were you "successful"?

John 6:59-61
These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?

The rest of the day was met with a few more good conversations. One in particular was as I was leaving. A girl by the name of Mandee approached me and was very excited about us being on the streets. She has a heart for street-ministry, was not offended by our method/message (meaning she thought it was right on), and stressed a desire to join us in the future. AMEN!

Ephesians 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think