Come Witnessing With Me

I live and work in Marshalltown, Iowa, a small Midwestern town about 45 miles north-east of Des Moines. Come walk with me as I hit the downtown area over the lunch hour to pass out gospel tracts and look for gospel conversations. The 28 minute audio starts out with a young lady who was getting into her car just as I was getting out of mine, who said her allergies were "killing her." I hesitated, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to get her a gospel tract.



Courthouse in downtown
Marshalltown, IA

Looking west from the corner of
Main Street & Center Street

You'll meet the "Abstract Lady" (really, that's her job) at the 10:40 mark, and we end with an in-depth gospel conversation with Javier, starting at the 14:11 mark.

Come pound the pavement with me for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

If you don't have YouTube you can get the audio HERE.

Answering "The Problem of Evil" Excuse

Mary and I got down to the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market on Saturday. Many gospel tracts went out, and I used the argument from my atheist antagonist (see previous post) from a week ago: he said that if he saw a rape going on, he would stop it, and that God sees all these rapes going on and does nothing to stop it. In general, it is the question regarding the problem of evil.

(Photos: view from corner of 4th & Court where I spoke, looking east on Court - you can just see the box I stand on near the light pole (left). And, the view (right) looking north up 4th Street.)




Sometimes people might say it something like this: "If God is all powerful, He could get rid of all evil in the world. But, evil exists in this world, so either God is not all powerful, or He doesn't care about evil." And this is supposed to somehow "prove" that the God of the Bible does not exist, or is merely on par with any other "god" out there. 

The atheist who uses this excuse couldn't be more wrong! 

Why?

Well, how do you get evil without God?

Okay, I hope I made you curious...click HERE to listen to the audio, complete with just a little bit of rather poor heckling (you just can't get good hecklers these days!).

And, just for fun, I threw in an answer to the old "Who Made God?" smokescreen, with a tip-of-the-hat to Dr. Walter Martin.

Mary helped these two Middle Eastern ladies (wearing headscarves),
and made sure they got CONTRADICT gospel tracts!

The Bible teaches clearly that all who claim to be atheists, skeptics, free-thinkers or agnostics actually do certainly know the God of the Bible, but they are holding that truth in an unrighteous manner. God says He has revealed Himself to all men everywhere (Romans 1:18-22), and that these philosophical excuses will not hold up on Judgment Day. I presented this message with the hope that any who were impressed with these faulty arguments would be challenged to think about it, and I pray that many would repent & believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, please pray for gospel ministries everywhere, and those laboring in the harvest field. We appreciate it! Paul.

The Adversary

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

1 Corinthians 16:9

 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12 

I took a half-day of vacation on Thursday, July 3rd, and hit the downtown corner of Marshalltown to hand out tracts and share the gospel. I took my FREEDOM IN JESUS witnessing cross and, with permission from Mr. Zamora, leaned it up against the wall of his store near the corner.

The Budweiser delivery man was making his delivery when I took this picture. He was working for the King of Beers, and I was working for the King of Kings!

Handed out quite a few tracts to people walking to & from the downtown restaurants, and had a couple of brief conversations with some folks. But an interesting thing  happened around 12:40 or so: a man pedaled up on the sidewalk, and came over to stand next to me with a yellow legal pad on which he had written, "I'M WITH STUPID." Turns out this was the guy that butted in on a gospel conversation I was having with someone at the Octemberfest festival 2 years ago, claiming that Carbon dating proved the earth was millions of years old.

Now, carbon dating can do no such thing (half life of radioisotope C14 is around 5,600 years, so if the whole world was C14 it would be undetectable by 100,000 years). He walked away that time shouting "SCIENCE" over his shoulder, and he distracted from the truth I was sharing that night. 

Well, that's what he was here to do on Thursday: he said if he could just prevent one person from taking a gospel tract, he was successful.

I tried to engage him in a conversation, asking how he could know truth without God, but he could not seem to even focus on having a conversation. It was distracting him from distracting me, I guess. He wanted evidence to prove God exists. I told him he knows God exists, because God has revealed himself in him (Romans 1:18-20), showed him that he was relying on his ability to reason to determine truth, but that he could not prove that his reason was valid, apart from God. I did give him evidence for God (information, which cannot arise from matter, infused into every living cell in the form of DNA), but the problem is that he will just go home, Google "Information Science" and "DNA", and get some atheist rebuttal to this evidence to use next time he finds me out on the streets.

See, God has already given all men everywhere enough information so that they can turn to him. It's not that they DON'T have the information, it's what they do with the information the DO have. What we do is turn away from the 1 True God, and we worship idols or idolatrous ideas about God that are not consistent with scripture (Romans 1:21-32). This man does not want to believe in God...He doesn't want there to be a God. The anger and maliciousness in this man's heart appears to be way beyond what I normally see out on the street, and it is very likely that he is either directed by demonic forces, or is possessed by a demonic spirit.

But I know that this is a spiritual battle. 

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 

This man is not the enemy: Satan & his forces are the enemy, and this man has had his mind blinded (2 Corinthians 4:3-4), and I am praying that he will repent and turn to Jesus Christ before he steps into eternity. So I am asking brothers and sisters in Christ to do the following:

• Please pray with me for this man, for his deliverance and turning to Jesus Christ.
• Pray for me, that I would represent Jesus Christ well in the face of this opposition, and for wisdom from God that my adversary will not be able to gainsay (Luke 21:15). 
• Pray that the gospel witness will not be hindered by this man's efforts. He is mean-spirited and nasty, and may go to great lengths to disparage the gospel of Jesus Christ along with me.

Will you join with me in prayer? 

If so, please leave me a comment on this article - it would be a great encouragement to the believers here to know others are battling in prayer with us.

Thanks, and may God richly bless you who have turned to Him, who is life eternal (John 17:3).

Paul

 

Celebrating Freedom in Jesus Christ

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

John 8:34-36

Our new "Liberty Pine"

Friday, July 4th, 2014.
Here in the United States of America, we celebrated our 238th year of independence from British rule, and it was a beautiful summer day here in Iowa.
To commemorate the day, we planted a white pine in our back yard, and christened it "The Liberty Pine." Long may it grow.

Mary and I did some shopping together and enjoyed the holiday. At Younkers, I happened across an LED light set on the yellow-dot sale table, and I put them to use later that evening by putting them on my FREEDOM IN JESUS witnessing cross and hitting the street corner by Wal Mart - my usual Friday afternoon spot - for a little twilight evangelism.

Marshalltown does have 4th of July fireworks at the fairgrounds, but there is no public area close by that you could do public ministry. Traffic was light, but in the hour I was out there, I gave away 6 Bibles, along with some tracts and "God of Wonders" DVD's. Had an excellent gospel conversation with a young woman named Jenny, and her parents Anna Maria and Rudolpho. Jenny walked over as I was packing up, just after this picture was taken, and asked for a Bible. Whenever a Bible goes out, the gospel goes with it. Jenny was of the opinion that most everybody goes to Heaven when they die.  I said, "No Hell?" She thought only really bad people went there, so we went through a few of the 10 Commandments to show how we are all guilty and deserving of Hell. I explained the simple gospel message, and it was a joy for me to show her 1 John 5:11-13 in the Bible I gave her. As a former Roman Catholic, I was taught that it is a sin to say that you know for sure you will go to Heaven when you die. But God's word tells us that, indeed, you can know that you have eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that just awesome? It is to me.

Please pray for Jenny, Anna Maria, and Rudolpho, that they would truly understand the gospel, and join us who have turned to God and placed our faith in Jesus Christ alone.