At Calvary!

My congregation on 4th Street and Court Avenue 7-28-12

Oh, the love that drew salvations plan
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!

This song was in my mind and on my heart while preparing to speak at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market this morning. I used the stories of heroism from the Aurora, CO theater shootings to talk about the One who sacrificed all to redeem us from the consequences of our sins against a Holy God: the Lord Jesus Christ.

Other brothers were down at the Market earlier, but we tend to shoot for somewhere around 9:30-10:30, and it was after 10:30 when we had our feet on the street, so it was my faithful evangelism partner and wife, Mary, and myself.  Had one rather poor heckler - a young woman - she shows up around the 17:14 mark on the audio. By poor, I mean she didn't speak up, nor stay around to discuss her point of view. It was pretty common fare, but it put some passion in my preaching, I can tell you. Its all on the recording....

Listen to the audio HERE.

I just want to say that God really demonstrates His care for me when open-air preaching: every single time someone comes up and makes some snide remark, or mocks the preaching in some audible way, God seems to bring someone up to say "God bless you" or similar. Sometimes from seemingly nowhere! Today, it was two persons, and I think you can hear it on the recording. It was great: as the heckler woman walks away, there's this little, grandmotherly lady standing there with a smile in her eyes. She looks at me and says, "I'm not offended; Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior." Wow! Thank you, Father, that you care for your children so faithfully. He is Awesome.

Are You Ready?

Thanks to brother Paul Latour, I had some new Are You Ready gospel tracts ready to go on Friday. The news of the tragic, senseless shootings at the Aurora, Colorado cinema in the early hours of Friday morning emphsize the urgency of Christians to reach out to our friends and neighbors, and yes, complete strangers, with the message of the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was solo down at the Des Moines Farmers Market this morning. The Lord gave me 2 places to stand and deliver the gospel: Bail Bonds on 4th Street, and then the 'ol Crosswalk on Court Avenue between 4th and 3rd - the place we first (rather timidly) broke the sound barrier and open-aired the gospel at the Market four years ago.

Here is a link that second message, Are You Ready? (Click Here)

Thanks for your prayer support for those who go out and share this vital message with a lost and dying world.

Market Day: Religion #1 Source of Wars & Violence?

Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Lord gave us a nice, warm day and a place to publically proclaim His word to our friends, neighbors and fellow Iowans in Des Moines. I was able to gather some good material from Matt Slick of CARM, along with Living Waters resources, to put these thoughts together. Just click on the link below to listen to the message. Your feedback and prayers are appreciated.
Enjoy!

LISTEN

Shadow of the Cross

Got to hit the Marshalltown Farmers Market in front of the Courthouse again after work. Looked like the same number of vendors today, but the heat kept some customers away (check out the photo at the end of this post, taken as I was leaving the Market). But still had several good conversations for the hour and fifteen minutes I was out there. Gave out several tracts, a 180 DVD, and a pocket New Testament. Of the conversations, one was from a lady who was interested to know what church I was from, and who asked questions about those who have never heard the gospel.

That is an interesting question, and one I love to address, because we hear it a lot out on the street, and because most people use it as an excuse to reject the God of the Bible, and the Bible altogether. I responded with the teaching from Romans 1:19-20, that God has revealed himself to all men everywhere, so much so that we are all without excuse. And I also included that fact that God also has written his law in our hearts, Romans 2:15. It is a false starting point to ask, "What about those who never heard?", because God says he has given ample information to each man through creation and through conscience. God draws men to himself through this general revelation, and the evidence from scripture is that those who respond to this general revelation, God will move heavan and earth to send them the message of the gospel. He did this in the case of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, and in Peter's retelling of the account, he says,

Acts 11:14 "Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved."
So its not that they don't have the information they need, its what are they doing with the information that God has given them. And what men do is choose to follow false systems of religion, instead of bowing the knee and submitting to the God they are aware of. Greg Kokul has a great piece on this on his website, Stand to Reason, www.str.org.

The other good conversation was with a believer who really understood the use of the law to bring the knowledge of sin, and was very encouraging to me. God has used people like this just to come along and be a blessing, for which I am truly thankful.


May God encourage YOU to reach out to the lost with the hope of eternal life that is Christ Jesus. Like Mark Cahill has well said, the one thing you won't be able to do in Heaven is to witness of the love and mercy and goodness of the Lord Jesus to a lost person - the time to do that is right now!

Yankee Doodle Pops Outreach

For years it's always been just Tony and I walking the streets sharing the gospel either at Court Avenue area, Grey's Lake, or other places where we thought would be a good fishing hole.  As we went we prayed that one day we would be the start of a movement in the local church to get together and share the gospel as one body.  It was pretty cool that for Yankee Doodle Pops Tuesday we saw that come true with more than 30 young soul winners willing and ready to go to the streets to share the gospel from the Downtown Church of Locust Ave in the East Village. I can't wait to do it again and strengthen the body so that they would be bolder and stronger witnesses for Christ.   

As a soul-winner in America, I have a special heart for the men and women of the Armed Forces.  When I have the opportunity to open-air preach I always thank those who serve (and have served) in the armed forces so that I can have the freedoms to do what I do.  So tonight I decided to witness to the Army personel guarding the big guns that were fired that night. 

In inquiring the first soldier, he said he was Greek Orthodox.  Usually when I have no idea about a particular religion, I inquire about how they get to heaven.  He mentioned that he had to do alot of good works, and things that he had to do.   I took him directly to Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:4-8, 11:6.  He was quite unconvinced, and needed to go.  But said that he would check out the website at the back of the tract. 

The next two soldiers I talked with were sitting by a cannon.  I gave them the tracts and said that it had the million dollar question on the back.  "If you were to die today and stand before God and He asked why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?"  The younger smugly was wondering why God would ask a question, but I said it was to peak his intrest.  But when going through the 10 Commandments his countenance changed, and he became terrified.  When I was about to share the good news, his superior officer broke up the conversaiton and he had to go.  I told him as he was leaving that there is good news, and to look at the tract and the gospel of John I gave him. 

I sometimes wonder maybe I shouldn't give the good news right away, and let people stew over their sin, and the consequences of them.  Maybe this is one of those days.  Hope so.