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

Reply to All...Do'h!

I had an interesting situation at work today.  A female coworker sent out a joke email to the office (with no ill intent) that had a bunch of random charts and a couple of them very midly sexist (like: "Husbands, you know something's wrong when she says nothing's wrong.").  In fact, they were so mild that every other female in the office (my wife included) thought they were funny and liked them.  I "responded to all" (That usually precedes a bad situation...and this one was no different) and said that I found one especially humorous.

One female coworker who I have worked with for five years replied essentially saying that she was upset with how often emails like this are circulated and that they are just reinforcing stereotypes.  My first thought was "Chill out, it's a joke".  But then I started to think about it: How would I feel if people started circulating e-mails that started taking shots at Christ, Christians or the Bible?  I would be LIVID.

I reflected on the situation and started to think about the old tried and true phrase "What would Jesus do?".  Well first of all, he wouldn't have sinned as I did.  Secondly, he would have thought first about the feelings of this woman who is precious and made in the image of God.  I decided to respond and apologize and the situation was resolved peacefully. 

I think erring on the side of caution in cases like these is the way to go.  We shouldn't be afraid to offend others with the core message of the gospel (when done with love), but we should not go out of our way to offend others just because we can.

Let us constantly be trying to be reflecting Christ for His glory and the salvation of others.

On a side note, please pray for my humility.  Pride is such a hard sin to battle.

God bless you all!

Kneel

Steve Jobs: An Amazing Life...but what now?

I heard about Steve Jobs passing yesterday and had some thoughts.

As much as I dislike Apple, Jobs' ability as a visionary and leader cannot be denied. He truly changed the world and his contributions will be recognized and impact our world for generations. He was extremely wealthy, respected and influential.

...but, for him, that is all gone now...

Now he has come to know the reality of Jesus Christ. His 56 years making an impact on earth are now just a puff of smoke and now comes judgement. Now he must answer to God for his sins. His only hope is that Christ will vouch for him to avoid eternity away from the presence of God.

I do not claim to know the man personally, nor can I make an authoritative judgement as to where the man is now.  But in doing a little research, I have to to find out the man was Buddhist.  That mean's that if he died a Buddhist, without saving faith in Christ, his empire and legacy are no comfort to him where he is now.  Now he has the eternal regret of not knowing Christ to bare on his soul.  I say this with sadness as I desire that no one be without God for eternity.  I take no joy in my estimation (that is a guess not a statement of fact) that Steve Jobs died without saving faith in Christ

But, regardless of the sadness I feel, I can not deny scripture and what it teaches:

1) ALL of us have sinned. NONE of us (myself included) are "Good people".  Don't believe me?

2) We ALL will be judged by God one day regardless of what we believed or if we believed in God. (Hebrews 9:27)

3) Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the ONLY way we will escape God's wrath.  (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, John 8:24)

4) We are called to repent and believe, and my prayer is that if you have not already, that you will one day.

May lives be changed for the glory of God and the salvation of souls be achieved from Mr. Jobs' passing.

Kneel

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!

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.