The Gospel Proclaimed through USA Today...today.

If you've ever done any extensive traveling and stayed in some nice hotels, you  have undoubtedly received a free copy of the USA Today newspaper. This morning's paper was a rather pleasant one. As I was in a training class, my lab partner showed me the direct center of the paper. It was a full page ad sharing the entire gospel of Jesus Christ with the entire world. 

Most newspapers wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole, and I don't think any amount of money would have changed that. There was an web address attached to this ad: https:amen3053.org, to which it links a site called the Amen Missionary Church, and the entire page seems to be written in Korean. I don't know anything about this church. The gospel shared is totally solid. I checked the Watchman Cult List to see if they were in there and they were not. But I guess that's my cynicism talking.

This got me thinking though. Is it that easy to do? Think about it. This church gave probably a boat load of money to put this ad through. Nothing stopped them. They just did it. So seriously...what's stopping other churches from doing this? What's stopping churches from putting billboards up, running TV commercials, or radio programs on popular stations? What's stopping churches from pulling money together to share Jesus Christ with the world? For the most part...nothing. But we tend to think that it probably can't be done so why even try. Isn't that our problem most of the time? We think that it can't be done, so why try. "They're not going to listen to what I have to say so why bother."

We should look at this and be encouraged. We can turn our "cant's" to "can's" and our "why's" to "why not's". Let us put ourselves out there and just try something for the Lord. Anything done in the Lord's name, for the Lord's glory, will not be done in vain. So praise the Lord for this church. Pray many come to the saving grace of Christ. I hope many people in hotels read this and look up the verses in their Gideon Bibles in their rooms. How awesome is that!!! 

Do People Have to Get Mad When You Share The Gospel With Them?

The 18th century Methodist preacher John Wesley told his evangelism trainees that, "...people should either get angry or get converted." I often wonder if that is the correct way to win souls to the Lord.

I agree though that people should be uncomfortable with the Lord. There should be a level of uneasiness when it comes to the creator of the universe who has the power not only to end my life, but also cast my soul into hell (Matthew 10:28). Even more uncomfortable than if we met the President of the United States. Conviction goes along way. But I got to thinking, did Jesus feel the need to always make people mad or converted? From what I read in the scriptures that wasn't always the case. No. He didn't intend to make people mad, it just happened. The anger didn't come from anything that Jesus intentionally said, the anger came from the one who received it. Their hearts.

Just like Jesus, it's not the goal of the preacher to make people angry. Anger is just the reaction of the person listening to the gospel. When I share the gospel, open-air-preach, share one-on-one, I'm not intentionally looking around and saying, "Now who can I piss off today?" But anger is just one form of emotion out of many from people who hear the good news. Along with anger came offense (Matthew 15:12), joy (Matthew 13:20,44), sadness (Mark 10:17-22), thankfulness (Luke 19:1-9), etc, etc, etc.

Why am I saying this? Because I really don't want to piss people off. Why? Because I want the Lord to be heard and not be the one that keeps that from happening. This happened when I met with the two Mormon Missionary boys Elder Leavy and Elder Crook. You can read what happened in my meetings HERE and another time HERE. After I decided not to continue the Precept Inductive Bible Studies and to focus on evangelism and discipleship, I prayed that the Lord would show me what I should do next and these two show up on my doorstep 10 minutes later. But after talking with them I just wanted to love these guys and really care about them. I love talking with Mormons, but in the past I wonder if the missionaries in the past really listened. I don't know, and will probably never know. But what happened while I was meeting these guys for two months by just loving these guys in truth, and sharing truth in love.

• They shared me their first names (John Leavy and Chandler Crook). 
• They took tracts from me and read them. 
• They enjoyed being there, and knew that I cared. 
• They got a better and honest understanding of what Christianity is, and what belief in that looks like. 
• They know and can describe the Trinity better than any of their professors or Bishops. 
• They didn't freak out when I brought out my Quad (Mormon standard works in one book). 
• I gave them both a Gideon Pocket Testament, kept them, and read them. 
• We had a dialogue and it was not a monologue. 
• In the end I gave them my card with my email and phone, and hugged each other. 

But these things happen when we both listen. Yeah, there was an agenda. They wanted to make me Mormon, I wanted them to see what it really means to be a Child of God. But we moved past it (or at least I did). What happened? They have a new and honest view of what a Christian is, and maybe they will consider reading the bible more, the Book of Mormon less; learning more about Jesus, and less of Joseph Smith. They told me that Christians have thrown them off of their porch. Cussed them out, damned them to hell...and so on,..and so on. Jesus cared, even for the Pharisees. I need to be like Jesus. I need to care, and to love like He loves. And I hope they contact me. I really do.