Using Music to Preach The Gospel

We did Christmas caroling at work last week.





Have you ever read the words to 'Angels We Have Heard On High' or 'Joy To The World' or 'Silent Night'... Wow are they powerful.


We also did a new Chris Tomlin song called, 'Immanuel [Hallowed Manger Ground]'.

God Bless...

Something to Learn on Black Friday

We embarked on an early morning evangelism adventure, on Friday, November 27, 2009. We left for Kohl's at 3:30am so that we could pass out tracts and witness to the deal-seekers by the 4:00am opening time.

I dropped off Steve near the front door, and went and parked the car. By the time I parked the car and walked back to the head of the queue it was just a minute or two before 4:00. I was a little disappointed, we had arrived so late, the actual conversations were few, but amazingly, as the doors opened, and people streamed past me, I handed out all 200 tracts I was carrying.

After I handed out all my tracts, I went and found Steve, talking with a couple of gals. He was showing them the Law, but they weren't really engaging in the conversation. It seemed though, that the Holy Spirit was convicting them, because like so many, all these gals could do was respond with a 'guilty chuckle' as Steve went through the Ten Commandments with them.

After that, we went over to Best Buy. There were (I'm guessing) five or six hundred people in line, maybe more. We started at the end of the line and handed out tracts and engaged people. Here's where I have something to learn. I need to learn to how to wait, rather than moving on, right away to hand out another tract. I need to press people to find out, if they know what a Gospel tract is and if they are open to me sharing the Gospel with them.

The first discussion I remember was with Andrew. He was a really nice college aged guy, who had indeed (seemingly sincerely) been seeking God and inquiring of Christians about God and faith. He did cling though to a form of self-righteousness. We had a very good discussion with him though.

Then we spoke with Tim, who also seemed like he was seeking God. He was separated from his wife, but he was trying to get back with her and they were supposedly going to go to church together next Sunday. We shared the Law and Grace with him too. We tried to be encouraging to him, and we prayed for him and for his marriage to be restored.

Then we spoke with Arba and Franklin and their friend. They were Catholics, so we had no problem engaging them on the subject of God and faith.

We probably spoke with several others, but the last encounter was kind of humorous. As we began to witness to a Hindu couple, the doors were opened and the line began to move ahead of them. The guy was hustling the gal to move ahead. I went into speed-witnessing mode and presented the Gospel in less than 60 seconds.

All-in-all, it was a very encouraging morning, and we had some very good encounters. Praise the LORD for guiding us to people, whom He had prepared and softened their hearts ahead of time. It was a joy and an honor to stand with a brother so gifted in sharing the Gospel and to share the Gospel myself, during the early morning of Black Friday, 2009.

God bless...

The God Mobile

Here's a picture from the Evergreen State Fair at the Monroe fairgrounds.

God bless...

An Opportunity To Preach The Gospel At Lunch

I got the opportunity to literally preach the Gospel yesterday at lunch, in the cafeteria, here at work. It is often strange how the topic of 'religion' will morph into the topic of eternity, salvation, judgement and hell.

Charlie was talking about how he was camping with some people in Utah, at Lake Powell one summer when it was 110 degrees in the daytime. How all the other people were partying and drinking all night, but when the sun came up, it was too hot to stay in the tent, so you had to get up. He couldn't understand how people kept going when they were staying up so late and getting up so early. He hadn't been drinking though, and people were asking him if he was Mormon, and he said, 'No, I just didn't drink' and shrugged his shoulders.

When the topic of Mormonism was raised, my boss, Rahul (a Hindu), said, 'Keith, what's the deal with Mormonism, they don't drink, they don't drink coffee, etc.' I said, "I really don't know about the coffee thing." Then Rahul said, 'is Mormonism Christianity, or an offshoot of Christianity, or a derivative of Christianity?'. I said, "Its a derivative of Christianity."

Then Rahul asked, 'What about all these other churches that I see, like Methodist, and Presbyterian, what are they?" I said, "those are Chistian churches, they just vary in form of worship and church government, and things like infant baptism and such. But the core beliefs. about Salvation (how to go to Heaven) are all pretty much in agreement."

Then Charlie piped in and said, "some of those churches believe in pre-destination, others don't. With pre-destination, they believe you don't have to do anything to go to heaven". I said, "I don't think they would say that."...

[Since that I found myself talking about salvation, I thought to myself, okay, here you go, and I went into explaining salvation and how God became a man in Jesus Christ, and what He did on the cross to die for our sins. I got to explain Judgement, Heaven, Hell, sin and the Law. Boy was I nervous. I don't know why, but that sure did get the adreneline going.]

Anyways, no one was believing what I was saying, but I was blessed to have the opportunity to share the Gospel. They were peppering me with questions, about Hell and Judgement.

Praise the LORD for the opportunity. Pray that their hearts will be softened. I hope I said the right things. I do care for their souls and pray for their salvation.

God bless...

Whew, Did We Get Soaked

last Friday evening, Ron and I went to Everett Memorial Stadium, to hand out tracts before the high school football game. We got there early enough, but the entrance where we are allowed to stand at is not heavily trafficked. We did hand out maybe a couple of dozen tracts between us, during the 45 minutes or hour that we stood there. The LORD did give us some boldness, or maybe He used to rain to embolden us, either way, it felt good to hand out tracts and talk to the few people we did.

Then we decided to go over to the Comcast Event center, because we had driven past it earlier, and noticed there was a Silver Tips game that evening. The rain became even more intense. Ron didn't bring a hat, and although I had a hat on, I was wearing a UW hoodie, that grew longer and longer throughout the evening as it became more soaked with water. Here too, the rain just solidified our commitment to hand out tracts to as many event-goers as possible, even if the tracts were of the soggy variety. It was quite an encouraging evening, I pray that the LORD will send us on more adventures like that one.

God bless...

Drug Deal (A Wad of Money on a Stump)

By way of update, I encountered the friendly neighborhood drug dealer on the 'green-belt' trail, that was mentioned during our meeting. He was actually mid deal with money sitting on a stump and a bag of marijuana in plain sight. I took a picture of the car that had pulled up and the license number (244 SVW) and even told the gal, who was still occupying the car, that a lot of drug activity goes on right here, please don't come back.

I called the police, but they didn't come. I did receive a phone call, an hour later and explained what happened, the kid's name, and address where he lives and the license number of the car.

Then sometime later, another car pulled up to his house, with the loud boom-boom music going so I went out to take a picture of the car and (if possible) the license plate, and I was acosted by the drug dealer's step-father. I told him the police had been called, because I had encountered his son doing a deal on the trail earlier, and he didn't believe me. He said his son had just returned from the doctor with his mother. Well, almost two hours had passed since the initial encounter, but because I had been out doing yard-work, I had mistakenly thought that only half an hour had passed. So the step-father disregarded what I said and walked away.

When I did receive a phone call from a police office, regarding my report, the officer said he would go have a talk with the resident and step up patrols in the area.

This is very disconcerting.

One Person is Worth It

Yestday morning, from 10am to 2pm, I was back out at the Evergreen State Fair, witnessing from within the GodMobile.

What a bunch of 'Hard-ground hearers'.

Except... one gal, Chelsae, came up, dressed kind of in a hip-hop style (not if that is a correct characterization of her style, but anyways.)

She was kind of hesitant to answer the questionaire, and seemed like maybe she was just testing me to to see what I was going to say. Anyways, I went though the flip chart with her. She asked one question, when I told her it wasn't enough to believe in Jesus mentally, it needed to be a belief in her heart. After I explained that kind of faith and trust, using the 'parachute analogy', she said she understoold.

I got to the invitation part of the presentation, expecting her to say she wasn't ready or no or something else, but she said, yes, she would like to receive Jesus Christ as her savior. I prayed with her, and encouraged her to get into a good Bible believing church, off she went.

Praise the LORD!

God bless...

Evergreen State Fair

I spent 6 hours preaching the Gospel from within the GodMobile at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, last Saturday evening.

The standout encounters were three in number.

First, Kurt and Andrew came up to take the test. First Question, "Do you believe you will go to heaven when you die?" Kurt answered, "No". I asked why, he said because I don't believe in heaven. When I die, they will bury me in the ground and that will be it." he said. That began what was a pretty tense discussion, from Kurt's side. He got pretty hot with me a couple of times, and Andrew had to tell him to calm down. All of this while, Kurt and Andrew hugged and held onto each other, like a boy and a girl would do. I took Kurt through the Ten Commandments, and showed him that he was a liar, thief, blasphemer, and adulterer at heart; without having to draw upon his by this time open gay lifestyle. As he continued to try to incite me to anger by asking me if I had seen the movie "Religulous", I said, "no". Andrew had begun to talk to Randie. As I continued to engage Kurt, I just tried to express how valuable he was to God. That God in Christ had demonstrated his love for him; that even though he was an admitted sinner, that Christ died for his sins. While this discussion was going on, lo and behold Andrew had been given the Gospel by Randie and he received Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Wow! Pray that Andrew will walk away from that lifestyle.

Another time, an early twenties gal came up, put her hands on her hips and said, (not confrontationally, but matter of factly) I don't believe in heaven and nothing you can say would persuade me. Well we spent quite a while engaging her, again, expressing the Gospel in love, but at some point I felt led by the Holy Spirit to say, "What in your life experiences has brought you to this belief?" She said, "I've experienced deaths", as she teared up a little. We talked a little longer, and she said, "My partner died." I said, "I am so sorry." She teared up and walked away.

Lastly, the Catholic teenage gal named Sarah. What a sweetheart. I spent time explaining the Gospel to her. Mostly confirming what she already knew. At some point I asked her if she believed what I was telling her, and she answered, "yeah, every word." Wow, what a blessing.

Other than that there were lots of atheists, agnostics, JDubs, etc.

God bless...

Keith

Cage Fighting Inside, Spiritual Battle Outside

Jerry and I went to the Comcast Events Center on Saturday evening, August 15th.

Jerry's approach was to carry a clipboard, and invite people to take a survey that would then feed into a documentary he will make. The survey asked if people believed in God, the Bible and the Devil. After the each person (or group) finished the survey, he asked for an e-mail address so he could follow up and invite them to participate in the documentary eventually. The documentary format will be to put people with like beliefs into a room with (some additional information related to God and the Bible) and film the people's dialog and see if they came out of the room with any different perspective than what they started with.

I, on the other hand, began handing out Million Dollar Bills. It went really well. Except, within about 15 or 20 minutes, a security person from the Events Center came up and asked what I was handing out. I told him Gospel tracts, and he told me I had to go across the street to hand them out. I complied, but thank God, prior to that I had a GREAT one-on-one encounter with a young guy. I handed the young guy a Gospel tract and he asked, "what is this?" I told him, "It's a Gospel tract." He asked, "What is a Gospel tract?" I said, "it tells you how to go to heaven when you die. Can I tell you about it?" He said, "sure". I went through the Law and then after a little persuasion, he admitted he'd not only be guilty, but that if he got what he deserved, it wouldn't be heaven. I used the our legal system as an example and that seemed to make sense to him. Anyways, you know it went well when we were all finished talking, and we parted with a handshake and a smile and he said thanks for talking with me.

I ended up handing out about 200 Million Dollar Bills. Now that's a 'Stimulus Package'.

Praise the LORD.

Wow, Two Weeks in a Row

Lake Stevens Aqua Fest and then Clark Park Outreach.

It was wonderful to have the privilege of sharing the Gospel message with so many (mostly young) people. One standout was the discussion with the 'Agnostic', who I hope went away with something to think about.

The Clark Park Outreach looks like a great model for a future event a Willis Tucker Park Amphitheater.

The future is also bright with UFC cage fighting at the Comcast Events Center on August 15th and then the Monroe Fair later in August.

God bless...

Keith

Impressions From An Outting

Ron and I went out Saturday evening, July 11, 2009.

We started at the artesian well on 164th. We stayed there only about a half an hour, or so,. There were very few people (suprisingly, given the temperatures that day). The standout people from the time there were a couple who were originally from Romania. The man was wearing a mechanics uniform from a local BMW dealership. When he realized we were handing out Gospel tracts, he kept saying things like, "I believe God", and "God good!" and "God make everything... garden grow vegetables, water, plants, everything." He was a real blessing to us.

Then we went over to the skate park in Mill Creek and witnessed to Taylor, Justin and Cody. They engaged us. Taylor said he had a Christian up-bringing. Cody said he had absolutely no Christian background at all. Cody wasn't sure he would go to heaven when he died, but he didn't want to know beforehand. So we asked him to listen in, while we went through the "Good Person Test" with Taylor. It went really well. We explained the Gospel; the good news that Jesus was the way to get to heaven. At the end, we were sure to emphasize to Cody that he needed to Repent and Trust Jesus. We lightly pressed them, and asked when they thought they were going to make sure about their eternity and follow Jesus. They weren't sure, so we explained they shouldn't wait, because no one knows when they will die. We parted with a handshake, and we thanked them for talking to us.

Then we went into the skating area and witnessed to three other young men. One of them was involved in church. We focused our attention on Chad who was a nice guy, once we started to talk with him. (I was a little apprehensive before we started talking to him, because he was dropping the F-bomb to his friends.) Anyways, Chad was very engaged and gladly listened to everything we had to say. Although he admitted to being a Liar and a Blasphemer and an Adulterer at Heart, he thought he'd be innocent when he stands before God on Judgement Day. We explained guilty versus innocent and he seemed to understand. Then we explained the Gospel to him and he listened intently. Again, we pressed him, and asked when he thought he would Repent and Trust Jesus, but he didn't know when he was going to receive Christ as his savior.

So, the main impression from the evening was it was great to talk to people, and the young men at the skate park, and I hope the the LORD will water the seeds we planted and bring forth the fruit of salvation in their lives.

God bless...

Bringing Compassion to the Mean Streets

Ron, Matt and I went to the Everett train station on Friday evening. The LORD lead us to several people that needed all kinds of help. Next time, we ought to take sandwiches along with us.

Many youth, living on the streets are so willing to talk and spend some time with you. Its a real blessing! We got to witness to several youth... they just love the million dollar bills.

Pray for Justin, as we were witnessing to him, he was eating a Rice Crispy bar. After he finished eating, he started coughing and coughed up some blood. We quickly concluded our witnessing efforts and went right into laying on of hands and prayer.

What a really rewarding evening, capped off with dinner at an Indian Curry Bistro cafe.

Praise the LORD!