2021 Holiday Stroll Gospel Outreach in Marshalltown, IA

Today is our Holiday Stroll gospel outreach in downtown Marshalltown. We are setting up inside and out front of the Stepping Stones Bookstore on Main Street, giving away hot chocolate and over 700 holiday-themed gospel messages. It's taken Mary and myself a month of planning and effort for a 4-hour window of opportunity to present Jesus Christ yet again to our community...our Jerusalem. The weather looks good: in the low 50's and looking like 39 degrees at 8PM when we finish up. We hope for a lot of people to be out on the streets.

I confess at this point I am weary in the work, but not weary of the work, as Dwight L. Moody once said (if I'm remembering this right). Jesus Christ and His gospel are worth it, and the souls of precious men & women, boys & girls are worth it.

This is what we do. It's who we are.

We are Christians. Come join us!

Gospel Outreach on Halloween

We are praising God for the 300 gospel tract-candy bags that were handed out to trick-or-treaters on Thursday evening. As you can see from the snow in the picture below, it was cold this year, and that kept some folks from coming out, opting for indoor activities.

Set Up and Ready To Go!

So I got out my insulated Carhartt's and my old felt-pack boots, and set up at our "borrowed" home at 1108 Main Street. Basically, the same setup as last year, with the light-up "JESUS SAVES" witnessing cross that really stood out as the sun went down.

"One Way"

It was cold, but clear; the wind died down and it really wasn't that bad...I was colder 2 years ago when we tried this at our house, and I was sitting inside our garage.

 Please pray for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes, hearts, and minds of the children, parents, grandparents...whoever might get their hands on one of the gospel tracts we placed in the candy bags. We were not celebrating Halloween, after all, but rather using it as a way to get the gospel into the hands and homes of our neighbors here in Marshalltown.

Notes (above) put in the bags (below)

I personally don't believe God saves people against their will, and our job is not to save them, but to deliver the truth of the gospel and Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit's job is to bring conviction of sin and the need for the Savior, and then it is the lost person's job to either receive or reject the Savior. 

So pray that God would do everything possible to bring understanding of the gospel message, that they would see their need and see Jesus Christ as the Savior God sent into the world for sinful man;  that they would "think again" (repent) and turn to God for the forgiveness of their sins by trusting in Jesus alone as their Savior.

Also, pray for any believers who may get one of these tracts:

• That they would be encouraged in their walk with the Lord
• That they would live boldly for him, reaching out to the lost around them, rich in good works, and telling everyone about Jesus Christ and the gospel.

Looking east down Main Street-part of our mission field

Thank you to my church family at Solid Rock Bible Church for helping with getting the gospel tracts, candy, and helping make up some gospel tract-candy bags. A big thank you to Mary, who helped fill many of these bags starting back in September! Thanks also for praying for the people who live here in Marshalltown.

Solid Rock Bible Church family helping to make the gospel tract-candy bags

Maranatha!
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