Wanna Get High?

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/17/8370150-support-for-legalizing-pot-hits-all-time-high

Support for marijuana legalization is at an all time high (no pun intended).  However, so is depression.  What bothers me is that there is that Marijuana is still considered a schedule one drug, which means that it:

"(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."


In other words, this drug has ZERO positive effects.  Oh sure it might help you relax (until the paranoia sets in), and might make you laugh (at things that really aren't funny), but pretty much all of us also knew (or currently know) someone who has become so addicted to the drug that is has negatively affected their lives in numerous negative ways.  


I am convinced that deep down, people use this drug to escape reality and fight a sense of emptiness or depression (whether they know it, or accept it or not).  


People who abuse this drug want to feel good, they want to get high. All of us want to feel good, to get a "high" if you wiil...


But... 


To quote the Christian Rap Group Frontlynaz: "WHAT'S HIGHER THAN HEAVEN?!?!"


I can tell you as a person who was saved by Jesus Christ, there is no better feeling than knowing that no matter what happens, heaven and Christ is waiting for me.  I want to tell you about heaven and how to get there.  But before I can do that, I need to tell you about the harsh reality.


God has standards (laws) that he requires us to obey.  I'm sure you have heard of the ten commandments.  Let's take a look at just a few of them:


Have you ever stolen something?  Lied?  Used God's name as a cuss word?  Lusted after someone?  If you have, that means you are guilty of breaking God's laws.  So if you died right now and stood before God, that would make you guilty.  And since God is a good judge, he wont be bribed by our "good deeds" and must make sure that justice is served.  That means that if you are found guilty, He must send you to hell.


How does that make you feel?  Does that scare you? It should.  


...But there is good news....


2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for your sins.  He willingly sacrificed Himself, taking the punishment that you (and I) deserve so that we have the opportunity to be with Him in heaven forever.


Isn't that great news!?!  You are probably asking yourself, "What do I need to do to be saved from hell and to get into heaven?".  God knows that we will constantly struggle with sin and trying to do right rather than wrong.  So all he asks of us is that we repent (change our mind and attitude about our sin, desiring not to sin anymore) and believe in Jesus Christ and we can be CERTAIN that we will be saved.


I hope this makes sense to you.  Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.  I also highly recommend watching the video in the upper right hand corner of this webpage for a video explanation of the good news of Jesus Christ.


God bless you!


Kneel

Waterfront Outreach: 10/15/11

...Yes He is...

Today we had quite a turn out downtown (at least on the evangelists side of things).  There were nearly a dozen people there with the intention of sharing the gospel in one way, shape or form.  I finally got back up on the box for the first time since July and, though it was scary, it felt really good.  

Carlen got up to preach first this morning and I couldn't help but totally dig his sweatshirt.  He preached a very biblical message and it struck me how kind he was in the middle of his sermon to help a lady get a leaf out of her hair.  I know it seems like a small thing, but I think him doing that really shows his heart for how he cares about people, weather it is helping them with a small aspect of their physical appearance, or giving them the life saving message of the gospel.

After Carlen, I got up to preach.

I hadn't preached since late July and in another state, so to say that I was rusty was an understatement.  I tried tying in the "Occupy Portland" movement with my own spin by using "Occupy Heaven" as a tie in.  Foolishly, I tried to depend on my own cleverness instead of simply preaching the gospel, and my preaching suffered because of it.  I should have a video of it posted here soon.  Kind criticism and advice is welcomed. 

Justin  got up and preached after that.  Jared was confronted by someone asking where Cain got his wife (a common objection that is easily answered).  I only caught part of it because I was talking with my friend Jared, who came out for the first time to witness (praise God for his willingness and spirit!) and ended up talking to a man named Todd for quite a while.  Todd's father is having some major health concerns at the moment, so please keep him in your prayers.  Also keep Todd in your prayers as he is wrestling with his faith at the moment.

It was a great day to be down there and I can't wait to try out the prayer stand next week.  My mother (bless her) has the flu and was unable to finish the sign.  

If you would like to join us one day, let me know.

God bless you!

Kneel

Gleefully Excited About the Prayer Stand

(This prayer stand isn't the one I built.  I will be posting a picture and instructions on how I made mine in a later post.)

Tomorrow I go out to the streets of Portland to witness for the first time in almost three months.  It has been a long time since I have witnessed on the street, and I am going with a new tool: My own home made Prayer Stand.  Ever since I fist heard about the prayer stand in late July, I have been dying to get one.  Finally after two months of gathering funds, materials, ideas and help from various places, I will finally get out there with my buddy Jared and my dad to witness to the lost at the "Occupy Portland" site.

I am very excited to see what happens over the next few months with this project.  My hope is that, without committing the sin of pride, I can lead and encourage other believers to get out there and share their faith.  My church has been very supportive and I hope that I can honor them with my behavior as a servant leader.

I remember my first time sharing my faith in public was pretty scary...and incredibly rewarding.  The very first person I had approached was a homeless man in his late 20's - early 30's.  It was obvious that he has been without a shower for a while and told me that he had a past of serious drug use and that he had killed someone.  I'm not kidding.  Not that I want to read to much into things, but in retrospect, I wonder if the enemy wanted him to be my first experience to scare me off.  Now it did scare me, but the leading I feel from the Lord is so strong, that I don't think anything could stop me.  I feel like my life's purpose has finally been discovered.  It's like I finally know what God really wants me to do...and i'm totally hooked.

Please pray for me, Jared and my father that we would all honor God with our behavior.

Kneel

Rest In Peace Al Davis

Al Davis passed away this weekend.  I must confess, I CAN'T STAND THE RAIDERS!  But I do have Al Davis to thank for the NFL as I know it today.  He was THE reason why the NFL and AFL merged 41 years ago.  Without him, my beloved Seahawks might not have ever come into existence.     

When I think about the Raiders, two phrases come to mind: "Commitment to Excellence" and "Just win, baby!".  I can't help but think that these phrases are somewhat contradictory.  "Commitment to Excellence" has a very noble sound to it.  Excellence.  Commitment.  These are two things that are now rare in a society today that emphasizes "Do whatever feels good" or "That might be true (excellent?) for you, but it's not for me.".  It emphasizes the fact that there is something objectively excellent and that we should be committed to it.  I couldn't agree more.  

However, the flip side is the "Just Win Baby" slogan.  "Just Win Baby" speaks to doing whatever it takes to win (even if it means cheating or playing dirty).  This seems to be the antithesis to "Commitment to Excellence".  Is that not inconsistent, maybe even hypocritical? 

I don't bring this up to take shots at a dead man.  Anything but.  I bring this up to exemplify the fallenness of human nature.  Even a man who, I would think, would agree that there is objective right and wrong would admit that in his life, did things that were wrong.  I am guilty of this as well.

I pray that Al Davis had a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and that I will get to meet him in person one day in heaven.  But we must all face the reality that some day, we will stand before God and have to make an account for the times that we weren't "Committed to Excellence" in our lives and fell into sin.  

What will you say on that day when you stand before God?  Will you try and depend on some "good" things you have done so that God will overlook the bad?  The bible tells us that our good deeds are "filthy menstrual rags" to God.  We can never do enough good things to undo the bad things we are guilty of.  If a serial killer tried to get out of murdering 10 people by telling the judge that he saved 15 people from a house fire, does that make him innocent of murder?  No.  Justice must still be served.

Our only hope lies in faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12).  I urge you, please turn from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins.

The Amazing Power of Biblical Gospel Tracts

PLEASE watch the video above (and watch all of it).  This story is amazing and shows how a simple, humble but God honoring and enduring ministry can make an amazing difference in the world.  

A man came by the house tonight from the United States Veteran Mission tonight.  It was right as my wife and I just sat down to a wonderful meal.  He was asking for donations and so we decided to help him out.  While I wanted to get back to dinner as soon as possible, I still felt that I wanted to share the gospel with this man.  Luckily, I never go ANYWHERE without my million dollar bill gospel tracts. 

I was able to hand it to him, give him the gospel and let both of us get back to what we were doing. 

These tracts can be handed to cashiers, given to waiters and waitresses (ONLY WHEN A GENEROUS TIP IS INCLUDED!), hidden in stores and used just in basic street evangelism.  

Biblical gospel tracts can be EXTREMELY powerful.  But the important thing is that the message is biblical. A tract that says "Jesus loves you.  Ask Him into your heart." is probably not going to get the job done.  People need to know the seriousness of their sin before needing Jesus will make sense.  

The following are some wonderful sources for effective, biblical gospel tracts:

Living Waters

Pin Point Gospel Tracts

Custom Tract Source

I encourage you to start using them however you feel God leading you to use them.  Not only are you sharing the gospel, but finding new ways to use them can be kind of fun. 

God Bless,

Kneel

My very first time open air preaching: Luke 23

My very first time open air preaching.  It is NOT easy to do.  But it is even harder for me to suppress the urge to share the gospel.

Something I have learned about open air preaching since this time is how important it is to pray and to have others pray for you.  When I went to the Ambassador's Academy, I tried open airing a few times, and every time I did so with no prayer or very shallow prayer, my preaching was awful.  I would forget things, you know important things, like the Resurrection (duh?).  But when I really prayed, had others praying for me, and relied on God and not myself, the message was much better.

I really encourage you to get out there an try it, at least once.  It is scary but also incredibly satisfying to literally shout the gospel to a dying world.  Radically obeying God IS radically satisfying!

Tomorrow is NOT promised

On our way to dinner tonight, Jenn (my wife) and I saw a pretty bad wreck.  There were a couple fire trucks, an ambulance and a few cop cars.  We couldn't see everything, but Jenn said that she saw the jaws of life being used.  NOT GOOD.  We prayed for the victims and the emergency workers in the drive through of the McDonald's and a thought crossed our minds:  Just a few minutes earlier, we had been debating about where to go for dinner.  That COULD just have easily been us trapped in a twisted hunk of metal.  Honestly, part of me wished it was me because I know I am saved (not because I am good or anything, but I know that I am secured by God's grace). 

It's scenes and events like these that should really make us think about our time here on earth.  James rightfully compares life to a vapor that is here for a while and then disappears.  It only confirms for me all the more that we have got to take our life here, both our hardships and successes, with a grain of salt and realize how incredibly insignificant they are in comparison to the breadth of eternity.  I'm not talking about the kind of response that we all have when we see something like this, because, let's face it: we have all seen something like this and then say "Wow, makes you think." and five minutes later we are watching TV back in our comfortable little american world.  

We need to REALLY take it to heart and let the ominous reality of eternity, the afterlife and the righteous judgement of Christ and do something while we still have the chance.  I don't think any of us want to come to Christ when we die, if we indeed are saved, and tell Christ we weren't helping the poor or witnessing to the nations because a really good football game was on that day or there was a sale at Macy's.  How shameful that would be to say to our maker?

Let's get out there and serve our Lord folks.  Let's stop talking.  Let's start doing.

Heart: Crying

The only way that I can really properly describe my emotions when thinking about evangelism is like my heart is crying.  Crying in two different ways:

1. Crying for the lost.  Knowing that so many people in my life do not have a relationship with Christ is heartbreaking.  My desire to keep relationships with these people does hinder my boldness in speaking to them.  I feel so convicted in not speaking out more to them.
2. Crying out to share the gospel.  I have a passion to share the gospel with others more than anything else in my life.  I desire to share with everyone: friends, family, coworkers, young people, old people...everyone.  

It is never fun to go share the gospel when rejection or persecution are so common (yet so mild in comparison to so many places around the world), but, in the words of REO Speedwagon, "I can't fight this feelin' anymore!".

Does anyone else out there feel like others look at them like "You are obsessed with evangelism?".  My only thought is "How are you NOT?!?".  I know I can't judge the hearts of professing believers, but man, it shocks me how few people who claim to believe that Jesus is the only way can just not talk to people about it.  Maybe it is because I am young christian (Born again March 2007); full of energy.  I don't know.  I just feel so compelled.  

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Are you a good person?

Are you a good person?  Good enough to get to heaven?  This is the basic strategy I take when evangelizing.  People must see the seriousness of their sin before the gospel can ever be considered "good news".

180 Movie

Outstanding video on the abortion issue.  Truly a must watch.