Just say the magic words....????

Treading carefully,

Good-O-Meter

The Word wins

This past Friday at a local event we were able to bring the Word to many people. For the first time in a while, I spoke to many Believers who really encouraged us.

One of the first couples I spoke to were very interesting. The lady, recently from Russia was enjoying the Million Dollar Bills and her eyes brightened when I gave her a Russian tract. We find that having tracts in different languages is a real ice-breaker. The fellow with her said he was a Messianic Believer and was Jewish. I explained I was also was a Jewish Believer and we had a great conversation.

A lady with her son came over to take the Good Person test. I started with the son and asked him if he lied or had stolen anything which he admitted to. The mom interjected “he has been forgiven of everything”. I then asked, “When he stood in front of God would he be guilty or innocent?”
He admitted to being guilty and I said God was a just God and would have to send him to either Heaven or Hell and since you said you were guilty – where would you go?
The mom grabbed the boy and said “he has been forgiven and we are leaving” The boy pulled back and wanted to hear the rest of the story….The Word won and he heard the Gospel.

A local assistant pastor at a Presbyterian church came over to encourage us as well. He said something that is so true and most churches – his church does little for evangelism and many in the church don’t stray out of their comfort zone.

All in all a great night with the 6 evangelists and our Pastor coming out as well.

A Taste for Blood.

As soon as I got to the event Saturday night, Dennis took me aside to let me know about a guy he had just met. He described this guy as 'having a taste for human blood'. Hmmmm. OK. He told me that he had tried talking to him but the guy told him that he had demons. Dennis said he was very unfocused and then he walked away.

Well, I watched him for a while. He seemed drawn to the kids at the event...not good. I told some of our fellow evangelists who were out that night and we prayed for him. All I could think of was that he was someone's child. I continued to watch him and then told one of the guys, EC that I was 'going in'.

As I walked near him I could see that he was absolutely filthy. His nails were all very long and you could immediately see dirt under them all. I also noticed that he had numerous scabs and sores covering his body. As I got closer I saw human bite marks on his exposed skin. I wondered how he compared to the maniac of Gadara.

"Hey, I like your shirt!" I said. "What's the cross for?"

"It's what Jesus did. See the skulls? They are death!!" He had a very strange look in his eyes while we talked.

"Yeah. What about this other cross? What's that about?" I asked. He mumbled something unintelligible. "Can we talk? Do you have time? You seem like a very interesting guy. Let's sit here."

He consented and we sat down. I told him my name and he told me his. He said he was 19. (I am going to change his name in this blog for his sake.)

"Do you live around here Tom?" He told me he did. He also told me that he was raised in 'the system' of foster care since he was very young. He told me that he had been sexually abused and mentally abused. He can not read or write.

"Then they threw me out on the street, now I live with my real Mom." As he spoke you could see he was under great pressure to try and focus. He was very aware of everything around him and yet he didn't look directly at anything.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that." I told him. "I want to ask you some questions. Do you think you could answer some for me?" He nodded. "Where will you go when you die?" We talked a bit about the reality of Heaven and Hell. Tom didn't like the thought that he might end up in Hell but told me he didn't think he could go to Heaven because of some of the things he had done. I won't relate those things here.

"When Jesus hung on that cross He looked far into the future and saw your face, Tom. The Bible says that He bore all of our sins. He knew each one you would commit and He decided to pay for every one of them." At various points in our conversations I could see his muscles constrict and he would seem to go into a trance-like state.

"Do you believe that everyone has demons?" he asked me.

"No. But I do believe that some people have demons." I told him.

"I have demons." he said. "I see demons and angels and other things that people don't see." He quickly stood up and asked if I would come with him to go see a guy.

"Why do you need to see the guy?" I asked, fully aware that I had friends all around me but was not going to go beyond where they could see me.

"I want to get a cigarette." he said. At various points during the evening he would simply stand up and change the subject.
After he got the cigarette we walked away from the crowd a bit so that he could smoke it. "I tried to kill myself, I slit my wrists. I got hit by a car and thrown halfway into a parking lot." I thought of the father who took his demon-posessed boy to Jesus. (Luke 9) I found myself praying that the Lord would speak to this boy through his fog.

"I'm a destroyer! See that bicycle over there?" He pointed quickly at a bike across the parking lot. "I could tear it down and make weapons out of it! I can make a weapon out of anything." He told me that he sometimes fought even though he didn't want to. "I put the last guy in a full-body cast. When I was in jail I bit a huge hunk out of my arm because I didn't want to fight." Suddenly he got up and walked toward our booth.

Dayna was sitting on the slope behind the booth and I could see she was praying for us.

"Let's go sit over here with my friend, Dayna." While we sat with her I told Tom that the only one who could speak to God about his sin would be him.

"Yeah, I know. I talk to him alot." he said.

"The only thing He wants to hear from you is complete surrender." At this his eyes became wild and I could see the muscles in his arms and hands completely contort them. "Only you can do it and it may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life." Dayna prayed as we talked. "If you think this is something that you can do then go ahead."

Tom talked a minute about how he could never close his eyes here. We told him he was safe and that the Lord would protect him if He made Him Master of his life.

"Have you ever played 'chicken' with a semi-truck?" he asked us.

"No."

"Well, I have and we were about this close when we finished" he measured about a foot's space.

"Well, you can't clean yourself up, Tom. You have to go to God and ask Him to cleanse you from all of this filth and sin that we talked about."

"Yeah, I know. I want to do that." he said.

"Do you need Jesus?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Can you say it?"

"Yeah." he answered but never said it.

"Tom if you want to talk to God go ahead." I invited. "I will pray for you and then you pray, ok?" He nodded.

I prayed out loud while Dayna prayed silently for us. Tom stared straight ahead with wild, staring eyes. His hands were contorted again and he looked as though he was fighting himself.

He bowed his head and started mumbling gibberish. He kept it up for a few minutes. Then he suddenly stood up and walked away from us.

I walked down to him and said, "Tom did you pray?"

He was very angry now and said, "Yeah I was praying in tongues, don't you know that?" And then very calmly he said, "They have crosses over at that table and I want one but I don't have any money."

We walked over to the table with him. The crosses were made from nails bound together with wire. He chose a purple one and Dayna bought it for him. The lady showed him how to adjust the leather and he put it around his neck. He stood still for a moment holding onto it.

"That cross won't protect you, you know that don't you? Only Jesus can save you, Tom".

"I know."

We parted ways and he took my hand twice saying thank you each time.

Please pray for him. God knows his real name.

Friday Night at the Street Festival...

We have a monthly street festival here called Friday Fest and it brought out its usual lost people. There were many opportunities for us to witness and preach the Gospel. We had our “Are You a Good Person?” booth set up to invite people to take the Good Person test.


The event starts
around 6P and it’s best to talk to the folks early in the evening. There was the family of Wiccans who avoided us but were polite when declining the Gospel tracts. There were the “Christians” who did not want to take a tract because they were going to Heaven. So when asked if they knew others who were not going to heaven, they walked off in a huff.


There’s a local church that gives out red bracelets with the phrase “Living Dangerously” – they say that this bracelet helps them to identify with Jesus. Many folks I talk to with these bracelets actually tell me that they are going to heaven and hold up their arm with their bracelet. It as if the bracelet is getting them to Heaven. I asked them how they are getting to heaven and get told that they know Jesus or they have accepted Jesus or something other than what Jesus really did on the Cross. My point of this is while talking to a lady and her pre-teen son; she said she was going to Heaven. I asked how and she said she goes to this particular church but forgot her red bracelet tonight. Wow – I thought if one of the bracelet believers died without the bracelet on – where do they go? It’s between them and the Lord if they are truly saved.


I gave a Trillion Dollar bill (we use both millions and trillions now – inflation of course) to a man and the conversation started.


“Here’s a trillion dollars for you”


“What is it?”


“It has a Gospel message on it with the trillion dollar question – will you go to Heaven when you die?”


“I hope so, and I want to ask you something – who told you about the Bible and who tells you what’s in it?”


“God tells me as it is His Word?
A few other questions back and forth and he was pushing to get into an argument about something but not sure where it was going yet.


“My brother committed the ultimate sin and committed suicide and cannot go to Heaven”


“You or I don’t know where he went, that is between him and God and you don’t know what happened between them, even to the end” I knew this was leading to an argument as he was getting louder and into my face a bit more. “You need to be more concerned where you are going when you die. If your brother went to Heaven, then you better be sure you are or you will never see him again, Are you Catholic”


He smiled, and said he was born Catholic and that it is the only church and there is no way I can stand out here and know what the Bible says because you must be told by someone with greater knowledge than me.


My reply, “I have been told with someone greater than me – God through the Holy Spirit”
Off he went and then got stopped by Jennifer…..

Wes and Justin showed with their cross and started to open air preach. It went OK and only a few people getting upset with the Truth. I was led to preach as well.


All in all – several tracts and some Bibles now in the hands of people who need them.
By 9 O’clock we were all pretty well mentally exhausted and all had big days on Saturday, we shut it down and went home….