Need Prayer?

Really excited to get out and minister the gospel in the out-of-doors with my new sign. I started giving away Bibles in 2013, when going out with my witnessing crosses, which has led to many gospel conversations. I really get to talk to many people about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to help them understand about salvation by grace alone, apart from works.

I've been considering other ways to reach out to my neighbors here in Marshalltown, Iowa, and decided on offering to pray for people's needs. Again, it may open doors for conversations about who Jesus Christ is, how we may be delivered from the consequences of our sins through His finished work, or to encourage a brother or sister in the Lord through the trials & temptations of this life.

A big thanks to Ginger at Sign Creations for making the Need Prayer??? vinyl decals to add to the Free Bibles sign. We went with the colors for Iowa State University & The University of Iowa. I am so pumped, I wanted to go out this afternoon with the new sign, but around 4 PM  it was only 12 degrees (F) out there, and dropping, So, praying for tomorrow around 12 Noon at the Wal-Mart corner...the forecast is predicting some snow earlier, but should be finished by then and a balmy 23 degrees. If you know & love the Lord, and are in the area, stop by and join me!

Maranatha!
Paul

First Day Out....

First day out in 2014 with a Witnessing Cross and our free Bibles. It was a balmy 38 degrees (F) here in Marshalltown, with a brisk wind, but compared to the sub-zero weather we've been enjoying, it was a great day to get outside and share the gospel. As usual for a Sunday at noon, I was at the corner of Merle Hibbs and Center Street, in front of Wal-Mart.

Had a young man named Josh stop by bringing some coffee, which was really nice, yet Josh did not know the gospel and hoped he would be forgiven some day. God allowed me to share about sin, judgment, Hell, and the wonderful gospel of grace. Another brother, Devon, stopped by and encouraged Josh to listen to the message of hope we have in Jesus Christ, and invited him to a Bible study he attends on Wednesday nights...same one my son Alexander's been going to.

Josh was extremely open to God's word, took a Bible and a "God of Wonders" dvd,gospel, wall  and a tract. He longed to be forgiven, to the point of tears, and now he knows how he may be forgiven, fully & freely, because of what Jesus Christ has done. He sounded excited to get to that Bible study on Wednesday, and I'm excited to see the Hloy Spirit working in Josh's life, and am praying for his salvation and new life in Jesus. Wow!

Glory to God, and I wish you all boldness, compassion, love, wisdom and holy zeal, as you reach out to your community for our Savior.

Paul V.

Twins & Mother Saved From Planned Parenthood!

Yes!!!
Thank you, Father God!

My heartfelt expression after reading how Rebecca Rizzi turned away from killing her unborn children, coming out of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Tempe, Arizona, and speaking with the faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who were there for her.

Sherry Pierce holding Olivia Grace & Kara Shea

And thank you, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, for your love:

• Love for our God and Savior Jesus Christ, not just in word, but in deed
• Love for those dear souls who come to these places of death, blinded and deceived by the Adversary, the father of lies

Thank you that you were and are there, despite the scorn & mocking directed at you by this world system. The name calling, the ridicule, the apathy, the lies, the disgust....

Thank you for following in the footsteps of Him "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb 12:2). "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." (Heb 13:13)

I pray for Rebecca, that she come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that she can raise her little ones, Olivia and Grace, to come to know and love him, too.

Read about it HERE.

Meditation of This World

Meditation is all the rage, now. New Age teachings from Hinduism have been mainstreamed in our society. Pragmatism rules the day, the attitude, "Well, it works, doesn't it?" So we embrace everything from acupuncture to hypnosis to Reiki healing techniques, as long as "it works."

I was reminded of this when checking Refdesk.com the other day. See the Hindu monk in the saffron robe in the middle of the picture? The title of the article says, Meditate the Pain Away, with yet another scientific study on the benefits of meditation. Wonder why they never list the side-effects and the perils of meditation?

I was in my doctor's office recently, and saw a calendar put out by the local hospital showing a woman sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, hands positioned, meditating. But the meditation promoted by this world is anti-meditation, according to the word of God. The meditation of this world, whether in Hindu yoga, or in contemplative or centering prayer of the Emerging/Emergent Church, is going within, emptying of the mind, entering what they call "thpe silence." For the purpose of experiencing the divine self, or experiencing God. You will experience something, something supernatural, but it will not be the Biblical, one true God.

God never tells us to look within, for we are told that within us dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18). The heart of man is not innately good, but innately evil (Jeremiah 17:9). Going within is going the wrong way, and does not lead to God, away from God and to the god of this world, Satan, dressed as an angel of light though he may be, still Satan at the end.

Don't look within, look above!
The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, teaches us something about meditation:

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 

Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

(1 Timothy 4:15-16)

David fills the Psalms with examples of true meditation:

My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.

(Psalms 119:48)

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

(Psalms 19:14)

God teaches us that meditation is not an emptying, but a filling of our minds, with the things of God. By doing so, we will be strengthened in our faith, and we will walk in the truth. So let me encourage you to be in God's word daily, and to chew on it, rolling it over in your mind, understanding and learning from it. That's the way a Christian meditates. By doing so, we'll be strengthened in our inner man, and be ready to be light & salt in this lost and dying world.

Maranatha!



Fighting Anti-Semitism...with Truth

Sheree & Perry Trotter

Back in early November, I wrote a post entitled, "Anti-Semitism is Not Absurd." A news article about a modern example of anti-Semitism commented that it was "absurd"; I stated it was evil and devilish. This morning, by way of The Berean Call's "Search the Scriptures 24/7" radio program, I discovered Perry Trotter, and his production of a work called              
Shadows of Shoah.

Please visit their website: shadowsofshoah.com

From the website....

Project History: While visiting friends at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, Israel, in 2008, Perry and Sheree Trotter interviewed and photographed seven Holocaust survivors. More recently they met and photographed nineteen survivors in cooperation with Sydney Jewish Museum and Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre and a smaller number here in New Zealand. At time of writing they have photographed over thirty five survivors. Shadows of Shoah photography and interviews will continue as long as there are survivors living.

Why is this important? I've been involved in public ministry for about 18 years now, since coming to faith in Jesus Christ back in 1995. Early on I ran into people - strange people - who held strange beliefs and philosophies. I can remember very clearly one man I was witnessing to on Shelden Avenue, the main west-bound street in the downtown area of the college town of Houghton, Michigan.  He classified people into groups by their eye color: blue eyes being superior, dark brown Semitic eyes being the lowest and most inferior, and shades in between being a mongrel mixture. He made some comment about mud...some strain of Aryanism perhaps? Since I was preaching on the street at the time, I used that as a springboard to show that it wasn't eye color or skin color, but a problem of sin that separates us from God, and that God will accept any person of any eye or skin color, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad that is true?

As ambassadors for the King of Kings, we need to expose lies and theological error when we encounter it. If you are reaching out to the lost world around you, as Jesus commands, you will run into this. Find and use resources to be prepared to answer or respond properly, speaking the truth in love, so that the error is exposed, the truth is made known, and ultimately, that we present the truth of God's word so that others understand and come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus.