Finishing with Joy

Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles that Paul's desire, despite his sufferings for Christ's sake, was that he might finish his course with joy (Acts 20:24). Today that part of scripture really hit me. I said to myself, "Me too." I really, really want to finish my own course here on planet earth with joy.

I want to finish well, with joy, though I know that joy and trials just seem to go together in living for Jesus Christ. It did for the Lord in his earthly ministry (Hebrews 12:2); it did for Paul (above), and Peter writes of it (1 Peter 1:6-9).

And not only that. I want my wife Mary and my children to finish well, with joy. I want my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to finish well. I preach the gospel open-air and witness to friends and neighbors, because I want them to be found on THAT DAY safely in Jesus Christ, so that they will finish well. With joy!



So much in scripture speaks of encouraging and helping one another, reaching out with a helping hand to pick someone up when they've fallen; to challenge one another to press on through the promised trials and tribulations of this life (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5, for example), because of the promise of the life that is to come. Just ahead for the believer is joy unspeakable and full of glory!

That's the reason for this website. Whatever circumstance in life this finds you, I hope what we publish here is a helping hand, an encouragement, or a challenge to live more fully for Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, until we go to be with Jesus, or he comes to catch us away. Let us know if we can help or pray for you in any way. Maranatha!

The "Cancer" of Sin in the Soul of Man & the Cure

Made it out to the Farmers Market on Saturday (10/8/16), and Chuck from Des Moines met me down there to help pass out tracts to our friends and neighbors on a lovely Fall day in Iowa

View from north-east corner of Court Ave. and 3rd Street

As October is breast cancer awareness month, I used our experience with Mary's cancer diagnosis & treatment as a springboard to speak on the "cancer" of sin that we all have: how the Holy Spirit used the word of God to diagnose our condition, the cure found in the person & work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the need for everyone to take this information and make an informed decision.

Here is the audio:  LINK

Afterwards: taking a break under a tree by the Walnut parking ramp

Oktemberfest 2016

The Lord gave us good weather last weekend, and we were able to go out in our little city of Marshalltown, Iowa, to pass out gospel tracts and witness to our friends and neighbors at the annual Oktemberfest festival on the city square.

Vendors setting up in front of the Court House on Friday, 9/22/16. The rain was just letting up, and the weather was warm & dry for witnessing later that evening.

I was able to finish a project I had thought about for a long time, but never got completed: a light-up witnessing cross to use in the evening. I found some 10-foot battery powered LED mini-lights, and I made some small boxes from scrap wood. I cut some Lexan for the faces, sprayed the back side with frosted glass spray, and had my local sign shop make the "JESUS" and "SAVES" from translucent vinyl. I mounted this all on my largest witnessing cross, and it all came together just  in time for Friday evening.

On Friday eve, Nathan Sleyster and his 9-year-old daughter came from Des Moines, as well as our Farmers Market friend Chuck, but Frank Chirco was not able to make it for the first time since we started going out, and I was very bummed!  Aquila Sletten and his friend, Blake came out, and David & Anna Leigh Heckart, all from Marshalltown. We were out from 6:30 - 9:00, and then came to our house where Mary had a huge victory meal waiting for us. On Saturday evening, Mary & I went out, and we had some great gospel conversations with both fellow believers and lost folks. Mary gave out just a ton of tracts...I thought she was taking too many when we parked the car, but turns out she had to go back for more!

We thank the Lord for the opportunities he gives to reach out to those around us with the hope of the gospel, and are now praying for the many seeds sown at the festival. If the Lord gives us another year, and health & strength to labor in our little corner of his harvest field, I can't wait for next year! BUT...none of us is promised another day, so let us encourage - "provoke" - one another to the love & good works mentioned in Hebrews 10:24, to take advantage of every opportunity to point a lost world to the one-and-only Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

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.