AM/PM OpenAir 2

Blessings and joy came to me on Thursday morning, around 7:15am, back at the AM/PM outside Cascade High School. I prayed, and prayed that the LORD would help me to return to the high school students, that hang out and smoke at the AM/PM before school.

I showed up at around 7:00am, and rehearsed my message, but when I finally began to speak, much of what I had prepared, came out in a different order, and I couldn't recall some other things, but the theme of this message was Righteousness. Before I started to speak to the students, I handed out Ten Commandments pennies, and told the kids, these are "fire retardant" Gospel tracts.

When I got started preaching, the kids were very interactive and asked me questions ranging from "how did you know we were here in the morning?", to "Why would God create marijuana, if it didn't have some good use?"

I am hopeful and praying that the LORD will reach the hearts of these high school students.

>>> here is the text of the message <<<
Good morning. My name is Keith R. You're probably wondering why I'm here talking to you. You may be saying to yourself, "I wish that crazy guy would go away." I know how this looks, believe me I do. I have two sons in high school, and one in junior high. I'm a software engineer at Philips Medical Systems in Bothell. So I could be at home or at work, but the reason I'm here is because I care about you guys. I'm not asking you to join a church, and I don't want your money. All I ask is that you judge me by my words and my motivation, and just take a few moments and listen to what I have to say.

What I've done is examined my own life and my mortality, and I realized I'm going to die some day. We all have to die. Ten our of ten people die. What do you think happens when you die? Do you just cease to exist, and your body rots in the dirt and becomes worm bait. Or, do you believe in heaven and hell? If you believe in heaven, how do you think someone gets there? The Bible does say that it is appointed for man once to die, and then comes the judgement. So we all have an appointment with death. Then we stand before God who will judge us. The Bible also says, that God is going to judge the world in Righteousness. Are you righteous? Would you consider yourself to be a good person. You know the dictionary defines "good" as moral perfection. Are you morally perfect? Let's look at ourselves in the mirror of the Ten Commandments and see our condition.

The second commandment is "You shall not make for yourself an idol, you shouldn't bow down or worship anything other than the LORD." Have you ever made a god for yourself; one to suit your own agenda? Maybe you believe in a god who is only love; one that would never punish someone for breaking the law. Then you've made an idol for yourself. Last week, someone asked if marijuana was a sin. If you believe in a god that says marijuana is okay, then you've made an idol for yourself. You're worshipping a false god. The true and living God does not condone recreational drug abuse, so unless you're a cancer patient on chemotherapy, or have severe glaucoma, there's no good reason for you to be using marijuana.

The third commandment is "You shall not use the name of the LORD in vain." Have you ever taken the name of God, Jesus Christ, and used in in place of a four letter filth word, to express disgust? If you have, that's called blasphemy, and it is a very serious crime in God's eyes. This is very disrespectful, how would you feel if I used your mom or dad's name in this way. You wouldn't appreciate it.

The fifth commandment is "Honor your father and mother." Have you always been respectful and obedient to your parents or guardians? Who hasn't, we've all fallen short in this area.
So, if you've admitted to breaking these laws, then you're an idolatrous, blasphemer, and you're disobedient to your parents. You have to face God on Judgement Day. Would you be innocent or guilty? If you've admitted you're guilty, do you deserve heaven or hell? The Bible says, "the wages of sin is death", and "the soul that sins shall surely die", and "The guilty will by no means go unpunished." The proof that you're guilty is that you're going to die. On the other hand, God say's in the Bible that He isn't willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

If you desire to have eternal life, and go to heaven when you die, you need righteousness; that is you need to be made right with God. 2000 years ago God did something for you to take away your guilt, and give you righteousness. God became a man in Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin. He never once broke God's law the Ten Commandments. But the perfect, sinless one was crucified. He was nailed to a cross, where He bled and died. He didn't stay dead though. Three days later, He rose from the dead and defeated death. So how do you receive the righteousness that you need to go to heaven? Two words: Repent and Trust. Repent means that you tell God you are sorry for your sins, but it also means that you turn away from your sins, and turn to God for mercy. Then you need to trust in Jesus Christ to save you. Don't just believe in Jesus, put your faith in Him like you'd put your faith in a parachute, if you were on an airplane that was going to crash.

If you do that, you will pass from death to life. God will forgive your sins, and will give you a new nature with godly desires. God will grant you the gift of everlasting life. The Bible says, "blessed are those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness, for they will be satisfied. If you're hungry for righteousness, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and he will give you the righteousness you need. Thanks for listening. God bless you. Have a great day at school.

God bless...

AM/PM OpenAir Before School

I'm very excited about something the LORD used me for this morning, and I just want to tell someone that might be interested. By way of background, I've only OA'd once, and I had a prepared hardcopy that I read from. So the effectiveness was questionable. Anyway, on Friday of last week, I had to take my wife's car to the dealer for some repairs. As I drove to the car dealer, around 7:00am Friday morning, I noticed a huge group of high school kids gathered at an AM/PM gas station mini-mart, which is located adjacent to their high school (Cascade HS in Everett, WA). I thought and prayed LORD, is this an opportunity? So I staked out the AM/PM yesterday, and witnessed not only the same huge group of kids congregated outside the gas station mini-mart, but there was a policeman arresting a Goth kid. I thought, oh dear LORD, these kids need You. So I planned and prayed to go OA this morning to the kids. I felt that the LORD had given me an assignment to go preach to the high school students, but when I got there this morning about 7:10am, I got so scared, I felt frozen. There were about 50 students outside smoking and talking, etc, I had the hardest time getting out of the car. I grabbed a stack of PocketTestaments, and prayed my hardest that the LORD would help me overcome my fear. I got out and preached to them about the real "Final Exam" that we all have to take some day. They were very interactive and responsive. They came up individually while I was preaching and asked for Bibles and I gave them all away. I was kind of bummed though, because they lit a couple of the Gospels on fire. Then after I finished, I handed out a stack of about 50 Million Dollar bills.

Here is the Text of the Message...
Good morning, My name is K. R. I've been given an assignment to speak to you high school students. So if I could have your attention for a few moments, I'd like to share a brief but important message with you.

Now, I know that you are all high school students at Cascade High. And I know that at the end of the semester, your teachers are going to give you Final Exams. I want to talk to you about a Final Exam that we all have to take. At the end of our lives, we're all going to have to stand before God and He's going to examine our lives. The stakes for this exam are no less than your eternity. So lets see how you'll do on that day. I'll give you a pre-test, and you can grade yourselves.

God is going to judge you based on whether or not you've kept the Ten Commandments. Take the 9th Commandment for example, have you ever told a lie. What would that make you? A liar some girl responded. The 8th Commandment, you shall not steal. Have you ever taken anything that didn't belong to you? What would that make you? A stealor, the same girl responded. I said , the steelers are in Pittsburg. I heard a few chuckles. I said you'd be a thief. The 7th commandment, you shall not commit addultery, I know probably none of you are married, but adultery is cheating on your wife, but Jesus said "if you've even looked at another person to lust after them, you've committed adultery already with them in your heart. And the 6th Commandment, you shall not murder. I know none of you have committed murder (a couple of guys raised their hands jokingly.) I said but Jesus said if you've even hate someone you're guilty enough to deserve the judgement of hell.

So if you've admitted to breaking these Laws, you'd be a Lying, Thieving, Adulterous, Murderer at heart. Those are only 4 of the 10 Commandments, there are 6 more where those came from. You have to stand before God on Judgement Day, and you'd be guilty. What would you deserve. "Hell", a couple of the guys responded. Yes, and hell is forever.

God doesn't want you to go to hell, and I don't want you to go to hell, so how do you avoid hell? God requires 100% perfection on the Final Exam of life and there are no re-takes of that test.

But you can receive forgiveness for your sins. 2000 years ago, God became a Man in Jesus Christ. Jesus was born of a virgin. He lived a perfectly sinless life. But they crucified Him. They nailed Him to a cross where he bled and died. They buried Him in a tomb, but three days later He rose from the dead and proved He has the power over death.

Jesus didn't die for anything He did wrong. He died to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He took our guilt, and shame and punishment upon himself on that cross. He purchased forgiveness for us. Now to receive that forgiveness, you need to do two things: Repent and Trust. Repent is Bible talk for change your mind. You need to change your mind about sin, and turn from your sin and turn to God for forgiveness. Secondly, you need to place your trust in Jesus Christ to save you. Its like this, if you were on a sinking ship, you wouldn't just believe in the life-boat, you'd put your faith into the life-boat and get into it.

So get right with God today. None of us know when we're going to die, so don't wait till its too late. Place your trust in Jesus Christ and repent today; don't wait.

God bless you and thanks for listening to me.

God bless...