Gospel Proclamation at the Everett Train Station

This morning, God gave us the opportunity to enjoy about an hour and a half of beautiful, sunny weather at the Everett Train Station.    I'm surprised that I haven't spent more 'fishing' time there, because as I recall now, the Everett Train Station has been a consistently favorable place to share the Gospel with people.

Three of us (Dennis, Thomas and myself) met at 6:00am in front of the Everett Station, and spent some time in prayer and the Lord was very good to us.   After that we spent a little time in watchfulness to figure out a good location to 'lift up our voices', as it says in Isaiah 58.

We walked out to the island where buses drop off and pick up commuters.   While people wait for their buses, they queue up, in quite an orderly fashion.   We waited for the line to accumulate eight or ten commuters, and we prayerfully stepped up on the box and 'broke the sound barrier'.

Each turn we had on the box, we really only had enough time for one Gospel message to be spoken, before the next bus arrived and the commuters boarded.   It was kind of humorous, that I was interrupted a couple of times by the sound of train bells and buses arriving.   I was blessed though by how gracious the commuters were and how intently they listened.   There were no hecklers, but there was one man who threw down the Gospel tract he was given and grunted loudly as the Gospel was being proclaimed.

It turned out to be an ideal morning and as well as open air preach, we got to talk one-to-one with several people.   I was blessed by a commuter giving me the thumbs up as I explained what it meant to be 'born again', and at another time by a commuter filming me and then giving me the thumbs up as he boarded the bus.   Here's what I had planned to say this morning.   It was tough to say it all because as I got to the Good News portion of my message the bus had arrived and the people were boarding the bus...

As I'm sure, many of you know, on Saturday, May 12th, Everett City Council Member Drew Nielsen died in a rafting accident on the Green River. This past Sunday hundreds of people gathered right here at the Everett Station to honor his life.   I would just pray for comfort and healing for the family and loved ones left behind by his tragic, untimely passing.

This ought to serve to remind us all of our own mortality and that we need to make sure we're ready to meet our Maker at any time.   We all have an appointment with death and after that, comes the judgement.    The Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, and it says “the wages of sin is death.”  That’s probably offensive to you and I understand that, so let me rephrase it and put it another way and see what you think.   God created you in His image.  You are a special and valuable creation of God.  As such, since He created you in His image, in some small way you represent Him.   And if you’ve ever lied, you misrepresent Him as a liar.    If you’ve ever stolen anything, you misrepresent Him as a thief.   But it goes even deeper than that, If you’ve used God’s name in vain, you would be a blasphemer, because when you say OMG or GD or use Jesus name to express disgust, you’ve made the name of God who gave you your life and everything that’s good, worthless by dragging His name through the mud... .  Finally, Jesus said you’ve heard it said of old that you shall not commit adultery.  We know adultery is when you cheat on your spouse, and as bad as that is, Jesus said, if you even look at another person, to lust after them, that you have committed adultery already with that person in your heart.   You probably picked up on it, but these were four of the Ten Commandments, and if you admitted to breaking any of them, when you stand before the Judge of the Universe, you’d be guilty, just like the rest of us.  And because you’d be guilty of crimes against a holy and righteous, eternal God, the punishment is an awful and horrible, eternal punishment.   And that’s called Hell and I don’t want that for you, and God certainly doesn’t want that for anyone.

That was the “Bad News”, now I want to sum up the the Gospel, or the Good News of what God did for us guilty sinners, so we wouldn’t have to suffer the punishment for our sins.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4: Jesus Christ died for our sins fulfilling what had been written about Him in the Scriptures.   He was buried in a tomb, but he was raised from the dead on the third day fulfilling what had been written beforehand.

Romans 6:23b  "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 5:8,  "God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"

Romans 10:13  "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

Romans 10:9,10  "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart one believes, unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe (trust, rely upon) on Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life.


God bless...

A Bunch of Round TUITs

This morning, we went, really early to Snohomish High School and handed out tracts.    It was a really wonderful time of being able to encourage, joke with and hand tracts to the high school students.

They were all very nice and respectful.   Too bad they grow out of that.

God bless...

164th Street Artesian Well Open Air

The water from this well is brought to you courtesy of the Alderwood Water District.  This well goes by a couple of different names; it is called Well No. 5 or the 164th Street Artesian Well.   The well itself reaches to a depth 400 feet and is encased to approximately 120 feet.  The water flows out of the pipe at a rate of about 10 gallons per minute, and its source is an underground aquifer, which is a water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand and gravel, which filters and purifies the water.

By way of trivia, we humans can survive only around three (maybe a max of five) days without water (and that’s in the best of conditions).    The Mayo Clinic says you need about 10 cups of water a day, but if you were marooned on a desert island or stranded in the blistering heat of a desert without water, within a day or two you’d become delirious, extremely ill, and within another day you’d fall into a coma and die.

I’d like to draw a parallel between our vital need for water to live, and our need of forgiveness from God to have eternal life.  It is true, we’re all going to die someday.  On that day, we’ll stand before our Maker and give an account of our lives.  And if you’ve ever lied, or stolen or used God’s name in vain, or broken any of the Ten Commandments, you would stand before the Judge of the Universe guilty.   And because you’d be guilty of crimes against a holy and righteous, eternal God, the punishment is an awful and horrible, eternal punishment, and that’s called Hell and I don’t want that for anyone, and God certainly doesn’t want that for you.  But some would say, if my good deeds outweigh my bad, then I’ll make it to heaven.  Or, I’ve heard others say, “I ask God for forgiveness”.   Try either of those in a court of law, say “judge, it is true I’m guilty as charged, but I’ve done a lot of good deeds, and I’m really sorry”.   Will you drop all the charges against me?  The judge, if he’s an honest and good judge will say, “I’m glad you’re sorry, you should be and it is a noble thing that you’ve done those good deeds, but that doesn’t influence me or have any bearing on the verdict.   He would be bound by the law to execute justice.   The same goes with God, (in fact to a higher degree).    But God, the Judge Himself, has satisfied justice for us, so that we won’t have to suffer the punishment for our sins...

The Gospel goes here...

I’d like to just leave you with the words of Jesus. He said, "Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Fellowship with a Fellow Evangelist

This afternoon, Thomas and I were blessed to have the opportunity to spend some time with pastor Andrew of Faith Baptist Church Everett.   We sat out on the sidewalk cafe of Starbucks in Everett, and had a wonderful time encouraging each other and sharing stories.   Then we prayed for each other and Thomas and I went over to the Everett Train Station.

We had a wonderful time handing out 'Round TUIT' tracts and sharing the Gospel message with people.

Please remember Smiley in your prayers... He is a homeless guy, who is getting married tomorrow.

We actually had a number of wonderful conversations.   I spoke with 19 year old Brad.   He is a very athletic, tall young man.  He is a product of the world today, believing anything and nothing at the same time.   We had a good conversation and I had the privilege of sharing the Law and the Gospel with him.   He wouldn't accept a Gospel of John though, which was a little disappointing.   We parted with a handshake and warm 'good by and thanks for talking with me.'

I have much gratitude toward God who not only has saved me (suffice it to say, God reached way down to lift me up.), but He has also used me to share the Gospel message with those who would hear it.

God bless...

An Evangelistic Miracle

Yesterday, the LORD provided many opportunities to share the Gospel.   From 1:00pm till about 3:00, I headed out with the Calvary Everett Street Team.   Normally, we have church fliers (kinda like invitations) that we hand out door-to-door, in a local neighborhood.   Yesterday, we didn't have any fliers, but we did have our  Gospel tracts, so we decided to go to a neighborhood almost directly east of the church, toward the river. We also decided, to use the following approach as we went door to door; "Hello, may we share the Gospel message with you?", as residents opened their door to us.   We did get the opportunity to hand out quite a few tracts that way, but for the most part, people said, "no thanks" or "not interested".   We were encouraged by a Christian gal who opened her door, while restraining a very large Doberman Pincer, by the neck.

Then we transitioned from a very new tract of attached homes, to an older neighborhood, and we saw some women saying good bye to some other women getting into their car.   Thomas, having his 'go for it' attitude, approached them and started giving the women in the group Gospel tracts.   Well, come to find out the women had just had a bridal shower, and one lady (who was an Assembly of God ministerette) asked us to pray for the soon-to-be grandson-in-law, and for several members of her family who were straying from the LORD.   It was very encouraging to pray for this lady out in the middle of the street.

Then, we talked to Chip who was out mowing his front lawn.   As Thomas approached the man, and the conversation started, a little deceivingly, I thought were talking to someone who was interested in hearing the Gospel message.   It turned out, Chip was atheist/agnostic, but supposedly had believed in God earlier in life (he was 54 now), but he had asked the 'hard questions' and had done some thinking and investigation on this issue and now he wasn't convinced there was a God, and he certainly didn't accept the Bible as true.   Encouragingly, though, we had a very good, extended conversation with Chip, and Thomas had the opportunity to present things for Chip to consider.   We parted warmly, with a hand shake and continued on.

Then we went to a multi-level apartment complex, and again, went door-to-door handing out Gospel tracts and talking with people.  We even met a pagan, guy who was helping another guy move into the apartment complex.   I got to give him a Gospel of John, and encourage him to come to know the one true God.

I haven't even gotten to the miracle yet...

Later in the evening, after going in to the prison with our prison ministry team...

We went to downtown Everett, to the Comcast arena, hoping to catch the crowd exiting after the Roller Derby event.   But our timing was off, so we did some street witnessing to people coming out of a high school prom that was being held at the arena.   Then we walked up the street, hesitantly, toward the area where all the bars and clubs are located.   We changed our minds about delving into a mass of Cinco De Mayo drunks, so we crossed the street and made a U turn, and encountered quite a few people walking down the sidewalk or waiting, or just hanging out.   We got to pray for Ruth and Peto (James), and pray for their freedom from alcohol addiction.

We spoke to three early twenties girls who were dressed very nicely, while they were apparently waiting outside for a club to open.   They had some knowledge of the Gospel but were gearing up for what looked to be a night of partying.   That made me sad.

Then, as we continued on, I got into a very long conversation with Miranda, who was a young woman. She also had some knowledge of the Bible from her youth and upbringing, but she like so many others in our world today, had questioned and come to the point of rejecting God, and dis-believing in Him.   I had the opportunity to give her some things to think about, and challenge her worldview.   I was able to speak to her conscience using the Ten Commandments, and then was able to convey the good news of forgiveness in Christ.   Finally, I just expressed how valuable she was to God, that he became a man in Jesus and died on the cross for her.   She said, she appreciated us doing what we were doing, and she hoped that someone else turned to God and believed, but she didn't.   We parted warmly, with a handshake and went our respective ways.

Here's the miracle...

Then we went for a late night (about 9:30 or 10:00 pm) meal at Denny's in Everett.   While we were eating, we saw masses of people streaming from the Holiday Inn, across the street, into the Denny's, and also to a Chinese restaurant across the street.    There happened to be a convention of Zumiez store managers (all of the people were young and had the 'skater' look about them.)   We handed out many tracts and Thomas had a great conversation with Tony, who had read much from many different religions, and although he was not accepting what Thomas was saying to him, was willing to dialog, for quite a while.   We were encouraged by the conversation, and we hope and pray that Tony will come to the knowledge of the truth.   [But my conclusion/opinion is that Biblical Christianity is too 'restrictive' for Tony's lifestyle.]   It is too bad that people don't see the freedom that comes in Christ.

God bless...