There's a First Time For Everything

Saturday afternoon, Breanne and I went door-to-door in Ron's neighborhood. I can say that it was a very encouraging excursion. It wasn't a huge investment in time or stress, but it hopefully it will bear eternal fruit and the LORD was blessed.

We approached the mission from a "We're out sharing the true meaning of Christmas" perspective. We were handing out Million Dollar Bills and saying, "It's not about money, but there is a Million Dollar Question on the back, about what happens when we die. Most people were gracious and accepted the tract, but didn't have time to converse. I think only one door got slammed in our face.

One interesting encounter was, when I walked up to a guy on a ladder, putting up Christmas lights. I said, "We're giving out novelty Million Dollar Bills." He said, "What is it?" I said, "It's a Gospel tract." He said, "You're republican?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "no thanks."

What does republican have to do with anything???

Anyways, it was a very chilly afternoon weatherwise, but the sun was out, and the Son was shining His love into our hearts and out through our lives.

God bless...

Finishing Up The WOTM Basic Training Class

Well, it has been a real big encouragement to go through the WOTM Basic Training course.

Hearing other's stories and seeing other's growth has been so uplifting.

Too bad we didn't get more people involved but maybe we'll do the WOTM Intermediate Training course.

This is the first "Home Group" of any kind that I've been consistently involved with and as with any Home Group, the fellowship and accountability has been such a blessing.

God bless...

High School Football and The Everett Train Station

Ron and I were handing out Tracts from 6:45 to 7:45 at Everett Memorial stadium. It was sprinkling but not cold. Since we really got there a little too late, we didn't hand out as many as possible, but it was a big blessing to hand out the tracts to fans as they entered the stadium.

Then, we went to Starbucks and got a coffee. While chatting I suggested we go to the Everett Train station.

We went inside to go to the restroom, and saw someone sleeping in the stall. When we came out, we were verbally acosted by the older Asian lady who was severely stooped over [I'll leave the editorializing to you]. Then we went to the outdoor bus-stop waiting area and handed out several tracts. I got into a one-2-one with Kamal, a Muslim guy from Jamaica. Kept hammering home the ten commandments. He said he had lied, lusted, dishonored his parents by taking drugs and hadn't put God as number one in his life. He admitted after some time, that he would be guilty when he stands before God. I asked him if he knew what God did for him so that he didn't have to go to hell. He said no. I shared the Gospel with him. I encouraged him to get a Bible.

As we were leaving, we were handing out more tracts, and I loaned my cell phone to a girl. A dischevelled guy came up and saw us and said "church". I said Yes, we're from church and I handed him a tract. He handed it back and said God hated him because he had tried to commit suicide the night before. We said, "No, God loves you." And we prayed for him right there. Ron gave him some money and got his phone number, so someone from Ron's church could contact him.


God bless...

Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival

Last weekend, there was a festival at the Mukilteo Lighthouse. I didn't make it to the festival, but I did meander down the beach and hand out tracts, and there were a couple of interesting incidents.

First there was an older woman and man seated on a park bench. I handed the woman a tract. She said what is it? I told her it was a gospel tract. She said, I won't be able to read this, I said, I know, you need really strong glasses to read it. I noticed she had glasses around her neck. She began to read the tract out loud (and I mean loud.) I walked down the beach, and handed out several more tracts. As I came back and passed the man and the woman again, she was just finishing reading the tract and she was reading John 3:16. [The LORD uses unexpected means to get His message out.]

Next, there were three late teens or early twenties girls scavanging on the beach. When I tried to offer one of them a 101 of the Funniest One Liners tract, she asked what it was, when I said "Its a Gospel tract", she declined. When I tried to offer her a Million Dollar Bill, she declined. I said, your going to miss out on your first million. As I began to walk away, she said, "I didn't earn it." And I responded, "you can't earn salvation either."

As I was going home, I thought I'd go by the water well, and hand out some more tracts, but as I passed the well it was very dark and I didn't feel comfortable, so I kept driving. As I got near to Bothell Everett Hwy, I thought, maybe I should go by the Mill Creek skate park. I was nervous, but I felt like the LORD was saying, "You may be the only light those kids see in that place tonight." So I went there and witnessed to Christian, Luke and Devin and about 15 kids gathered around as I handed out Round Tuits and Million Dollar bills. They had to leave after only briefly speaking with me because the girls in the group had to get home for curfew. I told them to scoot, that I didn't want them to get in trouble. After they left though, Luke said, "Hey, talk to me some more, I'm open..." I witnessed to him and he prayed a simple prayer of repentence on his own. LORD bless him and keep him.

God bless...

Please respond if you want to join in!

Just so you know, I'd love to have additional seed sowers come along with me on my witnessing excusions, but right now, I don't have a real structured "team" per se. I've been contacted by a couple of others from MyFishingHole.com, but so far, nothing has materialized. I've been going out to my personal fishing holes (sometimes with a brother from our Prison Ministry Group "Forgiven Choices) about every other week this summer.

I will be co-teaching an 8 week home-group based version of The Way of the Master on Friday evenings, starting on Sept 14, with a brother who attends a different church.

Tenatively, here are some ideas for upcoming outreaches
1. Evergreen State Fair - Monroe Fairgrounds - Aug 23 through Sept 3.
2. Feed Homeless in Seattle and/or Everett
3 Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival - Sept 1-2
4. Weekday early-morning or lunchtime outing to Snohomish County Court (witness to Jurors or others transacting business.)

God bless...

Edmonds Tasted Sweet

I went to the "Taste of Edmonds" festival a couple of weeks ago, and it was really nice. I handed out a hundred or so tracts, and got into a long one-on-one with a Buddhist man (I think he was originally from Russia.)

It was a real blessing to watch people giggle as they read the "101 of the World's Funniest One Liners" tract.

Several people had their spirits lifted by the "One Million Dollar Bill" tract.

God bless...

The Worlds Greatest Optical iLLusion

I went to Mukilteo beach and handed out about 50 of the "Worlds Greatest Optical Illusion" tracts (from http://www.livingwaters.com) last night. The LORD is reaching out to people from all kinds of backgrounds. There were some muslims that accepted tracts, some native Americans, and some Asians. God loves all people.

Two interesting things: 1) a nerdy guy said, "hey, this is the blah, blah, blah spiral, when he saw the front of the tract."

2) after walking down the beach, and handing tracts to most people, as I walked back the other way, I noticed several people reading the tracts. That is just a wonderful blessing.

God bless...

International Fight League

Ron and I handed out about 250 tracts. Again, a warm smile and a hearty "Have a great time at the fights tonight" made the tracts easy to give away. At one point a guy slapped a couple of tracts out of my hand as I tried to hand them to him. It was my fault, I didn't realize he was serious when he said he didn't want the Million Dollar Bill and I tried to hand him a Zero.

At one point, the Will-Call line backed up, and I felt led by the Spirit to begin preaching. What I began with immediately drew in hecklers and one gal began to blaspheme heavily as the topic turned to eternal matters.

Here's what I said...

Since 1979, there have been approximately 30 deaths, due to professional boxing.

There are conflicting numbers regarding Ultimate Fighting. Some reports say there have been no (zero) deaths due to Ultimate Fighting, others say that two to four deaths can be attributed to ultimate fighting.

More people die from car crashes and drinking, and other things. My point is that everyone has to die someday. Death is the only 100% statistic. Ten out of ten people die. So the million dollar question you want to be asking yourself is, "Where will you go when you die?" Are you good enough to go to heaven?

Would you consider yourself to be a good person?

Have you ever lied? That would make you a liar. Have you ever stolen anything? That would make you a thief. Have you ever used God's name in vain? That's called blashpemy. Have you ever looked at someone with lust? That would make you an adulterer of the heart. If you've admitted to breaking these four of the ten commandments, then by your own admission you'd be a lying, thief and a blasphemous, adulterer at heart. When you stand before God on judgment day, you'd be guilty, just like the rest of us. Because you'd be guilty of crimes against God, you'd deserve hell. But God doesn't want that for you. Neither do I, that's why I'm here, because I care about you.

But God did something so that we can avoid hell. 2000 years ago, God became a man in Jesus Christ. Jesus was crucified on a cross to pay the penalty for your sins. When he died, they buried him in a tomb, but he didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead and defeated death; he conquered death once and for all.

Now, if you will repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ, God will give you the gift of salvation and eternal life. Please don't wait, don't put it off, there's nothing more important than your eternal salvation, and none of us knows the day of our death, so get right with God today.

Thanks for listening and God bless you guys...

God bless...

24 Hours of Praise was Glorious

God bless Rob for initiating the 24 Hours of Praise at our church this Friday and Saturday.

God bless those weary souls that were still singing and praying at 4:00am when I came on duty. All went well, except for the last song, in which I played, "Ancient of Days". Boy do I need more practice with that one.

Thank God for Pastor Kelly and Pastor Jerry and their faithfulness.

God bless...

Making Plans Concrete

I'm looking to solidify what was tentative.

Anyone want to meet at Everett Train Station from 5-6pm on Friday afternoon?

Let me know.

God bless...

Tentative Calendar of Upcoming Events

Tracting Snoho County Court

There were a number of jurors wandering around, as well as many others scurrying to transact business. The Seven Dollar bills went out well. One late middle-aged juror, handed the tract back to me and said, "no I don't want the Gospel." Very sad...

All in all, it was a beautiful way to spend the lunch time. It was sunny, but still brisk.

God bless...

LinuxFest Northwest

Seven Dollar Bills go over well with geeks.

It was neat talking with various rock stars of the Linux world.

Tim Maher - Consultix (SPUG fame)
ActiveState - Perl
etc.

And it was a nice time spent with my son.

btw, here's what I might have said, if I'd have gotten the chance:

Hello, if I could have your attention for just a moment. My name is Keith and I'm a software engineer for medical company in Bothell. Just a thought for you while you enter the expo. One axiom of software quality is "The earlier in your SDLC that you discover defects in your software, the easier and cheaper it is to fix them.
That same principle is at work in our daily lives. Example, what is one of the first things you do in the morning when you get up? You probably go look in the mirror to see what damage was done the night before, so you can take corrective action.
You can even extend this principle to life in general. Think of it like this, when you die, and we're all going to die; death is the only 100% statistic, we're all going to have to face a final-inspection. I know this isn't something we typically talk about or even think about too much. Our tendency is to wait until its too late to think about these things.
But, the million dollar questions are, "Where will you go when you die?" Are you good enough to go to heaven? Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
We can do early testing, and examine ourselves in the mirror of the Ten Commandments and know how we'll do on judgement day. So here goes. 9th, 8th, 3rd, 7th.
When God reviews the syslog of your life, will you be innocent or guilty? If you've admitted to violating any of these four of the Ten Commandments, (and there are six more where those came from), then you'd be a lying thief and a blasphemous adulterer at heart. You'd be guilty like the rest of us. Because you'd be guilty of crimes against a Holy and Righteous Eternal God, the punishment is an awful and terrible eternal punishment, and that's called Hell. But God doesn't want that for you, so God solved that problem...for us.
Two thousand years ago, God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. God entered the human race in Jesus. He was born of a virgin and he lived a sinless perfect life. But they crucified Him. They nailed him to a cross where he bled and died a horrible death... not for anything he had done. He died to take your and my punishment upon himself on that cross. Its like this, you and I did the crime, and Jesus paid our fine. After He died, they buried him in a tomb, and three days later he rose from the dead. He defeated death once and for all of us.
Now, we can go to heaven not because we're good enough or could ever deserve it, but because we can be forgiven because our fine has been paid. The Bible says there are two steps you must take to receive that forgiveness. First is repent. That's just Bible talk for change your mind. Change your mind about sin, and turn away from it and turn to God for mercy. Step two is Trust. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection as sufficient payment for your crimes.
When you do that God will give you the gift of eternal life. You'll pass from death to life, from darkness to light. God himself will take up residence in your life. That's what it means to be Born Again.
This is the true Open Source. Salvation is open to anyone and Jesus is the Source of life. Please don't wait, don't put it off. There's nothing more important than your eternal salvation, and none of us know's the day of our death. So get right with God today.

God bless...

The Blue Man Group Concert

On Friday evening, Ron and I went to the Blue Man Group concert at the Everett Events Center. We handed out over 400 tracts. We were blessed by the responses. Interestingly, as we warmly greeted the concert-goers, they were eager to receive the tracts. In fact, the tracts almost gave themselves away. Praise the LORD.

God bless...

Time Warp

Halloween 2006 -- I love to hand out tracts to trick-or-treaters. I handed out 25 tracts from http://www.customtractsource.com. Whew, the young ones loved them. They reached for them over the bowl of candy.

God bless...