No Excuse!

Ever think or say to yourself something like this? "I wouldn't even know where to start or what to say when it comes to sharing my faith." I know I have said it. I actually think that that was a more prevalent excuse I used than having a fear of man or even rejection. Let's look at Proverbs 22:12 The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful. Perhaps your not knowing what to say to start a witnessing conversation is in direct correlation to your acting disobedience of not doing it? Listen guys and gals, don't confuse your not wanting to do something with not knowing where to start. You don't need to worry about what you will say when you share the gospel message. Let's look in Ephesians for your encouragement with this. Ephesians 6:19 tells us, 'Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,' Paul clearly shows that he leans on the Lord for what he will say when sharing the gospel. That is what we need to do. If you try to do it on our own, it's probably better that you don't know what to say anyway. If, however, you rely on words to be given to you by God when you pray for them, what do you have to worry about then except listening to His command to share the gospel? Remember, you aren't going to say anything that will send a non-believer to Hell. They are already on their way there apart from Jesus anyhow. Stop having your words frustrated by disobedience and share your faith today.

Mark 13:10-11 (New International Version)

¹⁰And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. ¹¹Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

Immediate Obedience

I was reading through the Gospel of Mark today and a verse jumped out at me. Mark chapter 5 verses 18-20 read, 'As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.' This man was saved from so much and he showed how much he appreciated his salvation from demon possession by being immediately obedient to the Lord. Are we saved from any less? Is being saved from the flames of Hell and the weeping and gnashing of teeth any less worthy of our faithful gratitude towards Jesus? Amazingly only about 2% of people saved from a terrible eternity in Hell go and tell people what Jesus has done for them. That's an amazingly low number of people who actually care enough about the lost to share the gospel with them. What's more amazing is the the 98% of "believers" who refuse to obey the 2000+ year old standing order of the Lord to go out and make disciples (Mark 16:15). It reminds me of the Songs of the Lukewarm Church listed on wayofthemaster.com and that modern gospel hit, "It's my Secret What God Can Do." Do you fear sharing because you don't know enough? Did this man in Mark 5 have time to read the Bible or take an online course before sharing? Did the woman at the well go through some extensive evangelism academy? Absolutely not! They were just so grateful to God that they just had to let people know what He had done for them. What's keeping you from doing the same? Stephen went to the grave to share the gospel in the book of Acts yet 98% of the modern day supposed Church won't even go next door to give their neighbor the Good News. I was in the lifeboat praising the Captain(Jesus) but not obeying His command to reach down and save the people drowning in the water just last year guys. It's a stagnant existence for a believer. Don't be like the pre-crucifixion Peter who followed Jesus at a distance. Be like the Peter in the book of Acts who preached the gospel and was on the front lines for the Lord. Don't be cold in this aspect of your faith. Be on fire with a passion for the unsaved. Be like our Lord and Savior who came to seek and save that which was lost. Let Him be your example. Don't wait for anything and let nothing get the way of sharing your faith with someone today. Obey Him immediately.

Revelation 3:16 (New International Version)

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Commitments?

At some point in your life you may have heard the results given about how many people got saved at an outreach or a crusade. "90 bazillion people showed up and 8 bazillion of them made commitments to Christ." There's a good chance that the biblical gospel was never shared. The evagngelist may have gone up there with a message of a wonderful plan, filling a God shaped hole in your heart, or even promises of Gifts of the Spirit and a better life. That will get numbers if that's what you are looking for. Inevitably, if you run into one of these people who have made a "commitment" based on a non biblical gospel, which is no gospel at all, they will tell you that they aren't living like they should, or that they need to get back to church, or something like that. The problem is that people are being told, "Just make a commitment" or "ask Jesus into your heart" or "accept Jesus." Walking with the Lord is not as easy as that and Jesus accepts us, we don't accept Him. Not only that, people can't appreciate what they are being saved to because they haven't heard what they are being saved from. If the biblical gospel was preached, not leaving out sin, future Judgment and punishment in Hell, you may not get numbers. Why? Because people have to humble themselves and admit they are not a good person. They have to concede they are sinful and ask for forgivness. That's nowhere near as easy as making a commitment to a wonderful plan for their lives. Let's look at this from another angle. Say you get married. That's a commitment to your spouse. If you are out with your friends all the time, away from home, or looking at other people with lust, if you act on your lust by cheating on your spouse, or if your spouse feels unloved, the initial commitment is worthless. In the same way, if you are not born again, repentant and soundly saved; if you are not spending time with God in His word and in prayer; if there's no evidence of your faith by your works; what's the point of the commitment? What's the point of getting others to make this same superficial commitment? To pad your eternal resume? To have Jesus as an insurance policy of salvation in case it's all real? Let me tell you, He is real and He should be our example. He came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to save sinners, which I am the worst. We are called by Him in Mark chapter 16 to make disciples. Is that anywhere on your list of things to do today? How important is your commitment when you won't even obey one of God's greatest commands to His followers. Maybe you are sharing your faith. Are you doing it biblically? Are you going for numbers or commitments? If you are going for numbers and decisions please don't bother. If you are doing it biblically and in loving obedience to the Lord, keep up the good work. We don't want to make backsliders with a commitment based on promises that may not come true and I'm pretty sure we don't want to be false converts who are told, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Whatever you do, do it for the Lord. If you are doing it for the Lord it should be done biblicaly, including sharing the gospel. Go for planting the seed. That is a success. False numbers and false converts are not a success at all. If you are a follower of Christ, make a real commitment today. Make a commitment to see your sin as exceedingly sinful so you can truly appreciate the Hell you were saved from and to share with other Hellbound people this truth without compromise. If you are not saved today, I will not tell you to make a commitment. I tell you repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ who died for every lie, theft, lustful look, and hateful thought you've ever had. He rose again on the third day defeating death to give those who repent and trust in Him eternal life. We don't know when we will die. If you wanna call repenting and trusting in Christ a commitment, go ahead. Call it what you want to but do it today before it's too late. Do this because you feel truly sorry that you've sinned against God. Don't do it as a backup plan while trying to live life as a good person. Don't do it because you think it could be one of the ways to Heaven, do it because He is the only way to get to Heaven. Do it because He nailed His commitment to you to the cross.

John 14:6 (New International Version)
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Weeds...

So today while I was tending to my yard and pulling some very large, ignored weeds. God gave me this message to share with you all.

Weeds are like sin, that come into your yard (life) whether you fertilize or not and do not require any assistance or food from you to grow and quickly take over your yard or life. If we do not keep our life protected, maintained and focused on Christ

Sin can quickly come into our lives.

You see weeds are prickly and drown out and kill the good things they are around. While they do not require extensive root systems, some do have deep roots. When we think we have pulled it out we really only took the surface portion. Weeds just need a place to grow, doesn't matter if it's rocks, mulch or grass. Sin is the same way, if your guard is not up it will quickly take root in your life.

You see weeds are ugly just like our sin in Gods sight. God doesn't want us to just scrape and remove the surface portion of our sin, He wants us to go for the roots, dig deep to find that root and make sure it gets removed all the way from your life.

When we remove the weed from the ground it cannot sustain on its own and quickly shrivels and dies.

This is how our sin is and we need to not get lazy and relaxed in our walk with Christ. We need to perform spiritual weeding of our lives and make sure we have the Tree of Life growing in us.

Let me encourage you to examine yourselves daily and keep your roots firmly planted in our Creator. Do you have any weeds that you need to remove from your life?

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Rocking on the River

So tonight I got to be a part of 31 evangelists who went to Front street mall in Cuyahoga Falls to share the Gospel with an estimated 8000 people that were supposed to be there.

I knew big things were gonna happen tonight because there was a lot of adversity in getting there to begin with... traffic, construction we think an accident then 3 parking garages later and several streets down we found a parking spot.

We started handing out tracts and Paul who rode with me got up on the box and did a great job and had someone heckle him for a little bit and you would see people stop and listen to responses.

Beth and Aaron also got up on box to preach and several people gathered to listen while others made rude comments as they passed by.

One amazing thing was a 12 year old boy, Isaiah who stopped Beth after she was done and wanted to know how to get right with God and Beth was able to talk and pray with him.

 

I did not get on the box but I did get to have several really solid conversations in a one to many scenario and passed a lot of tracts out. A lot of people heard the Gospel tonight!

Tonight after Paul and I were done I needed dinner so I went to Little Caesars to get a ready made $5 pizza for my 10'o clock dinner and I ran into an old friend who I have been praying for over the last 2 years. He was with his girlfriend and I was able to talk to them for about 40 minutes and share the Gospel with them and answer some questions they had. I invited them to Church on Sunday as I will be preaching and thought thy might be more comfortable coming when they know someone there.

Praise God, pray for all the seeds that were planted tonight. Pray that God uses this night to soften hearts and reveal Himself to them.

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