For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
(Psalms 103:11)
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
(Psalms 103:13)
The Lord gave us a wonderful day down at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market today. It was our first time out this year, and we were really blessed to be able to share the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ yet again with our friends and neighbors out on Court Avenue.
The place was packed, but we got a sweet parking spot in the Walnut Street parking ramp, and the north corner of 4th & Court Avenue (in front of Bail Bonds) was wide open, with a string quartet playing beautiful music softly on the south side of the intersection.
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| Adam & Bob |
You can listen to the audio HERE.
Lots of encouragement from the believers out in the Market, including Adam and Bob, a couple of brothers who came up afterward and blessed me, not only with their encouraging words, but by praying for me. Thank you Lord, for the love you show to us through the body of Christ! By the way, Adam shared a bit of his testimony with me, and turns out he knows my preaching buddy, Jim Bagbey. Later, via email, I asked Adam to share a his story of how he came to know the Lord Jesus, which I have included at the end of this post. Please check it out.
Time is short, and none of us knows when we'll be launched out of here and into the glorious presence of our mighty Savior. Let's exhort one another to love and good works, and live for Him who did die on the cross to rescue us from the consequences of our sins.
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| Will you love their souls enough to set aside your fears and tell them of Jesus Christ, mighty to save? |
Adam's Testimony: I was addicted to pain killers for most of my adult life. Through good genes I was given the ability to make people like me, and used that character as a way to manipulate people to get what I wanted. Outwardly appearing worldly success contributed as well.
In 2006 I had a small business partnership as a (then) Qwest agency. The agency would pay us up front "spiffs" to obtain new business as well as residual income for those customers we kept in our base of business. I met with Mr. Jim Bagbey at his office in 2006 and convinced him to use my service. He was attracted to the price structure but even more attracted to the fact that he would have a direct point of contact that was local in case he had any issues with his phone service (phones aren't usually very important to business owners until they lose their service, and we all know what a hassle it can be to try to dial an 800#.)
During our meeting Mr. Bagbey asked me a question: "If you were to die today, where would you go?" "I would go to heaven, because I go to Church" I replied. He spent the better part of two hours evangelizing to me that day and explaining the importance of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Although my heart was un-receptive, I figured that my spiff was going to be about $1200 for his signature so I went along with it.
A couple of weeks after he signed up he had some issues with his phones. His issue would require hours of my time and I had already gotten my $1200 and didn't think it was worth 8% of $400 a month for me to take the time to give him the service I had promised just weeks earlier, so I flaked him off.
I received an email shortly after that that said "Adam, I want you to know that I love you, but I feel that your integrity is off. Please stop using my name as a reference, I no longer wish to have you as my agent".
6 years later in 2012 my addiction to pain killers had spiraled so far our of control that I began stealing to obtain my drugs. I ended up in jail on May 3rd and got on my knees and accepted forgiveness and eternal life on May 13th, 2012. Two days after I made that decision I went to the Bible study in the jail and there was Mr. Bagbey volunteering his time to lead it. I got to apologize to him and we stayed in touch while I was away and now attend Church together at Walnut Creek South.
