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...

More Than We Could Ask or Think

God was very gracious to us tonight.   Not only did we get to see the beauty of His creation in the sunset from Mukilteo beach, but we also had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a number of people.

We walked the path from the parking lot to the end of the beach, and handed tracts to people as we walked.   The curved illusions were well received by some kids.  We had nice brief conversations with a few people along the way.   One thing that Thomas does to get people to accept tracts is to make a complementary comment about what someone is wearing.  We crossed paths with a couple of young men, and Thomas commented on the tee shirt one of them was wearing, which read something about 'Tennis'.   The young man accepted a tract and said something about "yes", he does play tennis for some high school team.

It was so encouraging as we stood near the Mukilteo Lighthouse, to watch as Thomas shared the Gospel with four early twenties people (1 guy and 3 girls). It was so interesting to watch the countenance of the young man change after he admitted to having lied.

As we made a full circuit and were heading back into the park we encountered the two young men (one of them with the 'Tennis' shirt).   I said, "we've already given them a tract.", and Thomas said, "I like to ask people if they've read the tract".   So we did, and got into a conversation with them.   This turned out to be the standout conversation for the evening.   The one vocal young man was a well researched, 15 year old atheist Jansen and his friend's name was Anton.   There was great opportunity to express God's care and concern for them and the solution to their sin problem.

There were many, many others who heard the Gospel message tonight.  It was so wonderful to be able to have such a warm reception to the Gospel as it was tonight.

God bless...

Terrified and Shaking

This evening, while my wife and sons and I were downstairs in our den watching TV, I hear a kinda loud car pull up beside our house (we live on a corner).   I got up and went out the back doors and looked over the fence to see three young men get out of a Jeep and head onto the greenbelt trail.

I went and grabbed my wallet, cell phone, put on my shoes and grabbed some million dollar bill Gospel tracts.

I went down and had a very congenial conversation with Steven, Kip and Tyler.   I had the privilege of sharing the Law and the Gospel with the young men.

I had my brother Thomas on the cell phone listening to the whole conversation.

The whole time I was shaking in my boots.

God bless...

God is a God of Order

Yesterday morning, we arrived at the Burger Master parking lot early, around 6:00am, to wait for Cascade High School students to arrive at school.  We chatted, then prayed, and by 6:30, we were anxiously waiting but no students.  In fact, we were ready to leave and go try the Everett Train Station, when, off in the distance would could see a faint trickle of backpack wearing students.

We got out of the car and strolled over toward the gate of the High School.   There's a big concrete platform, right off the sidewalk, inside the path that leads to the gate.   Before any students began to approach, I carefully laid 5 Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts in a line, on the concrete platform, to use as teaching aid.

Then, when the first young man, Drew, hesitantly walked up, I said, "Hi, have you gotten one of these, and I handed him a Gospel tract."   And I asked him, see those bills there on the ground?   He said yes.  I asked him, do you think the wind blew those there, like that; Do you think those bills were arranged like that by accident, or do you think someone put them there on purpose?   He said, 'someone did it on purpose.'   Then I asked, "How do you know that?"   He said, 'well, because their in order and in a row'.   Then I said, "with that thought in mind, what about you, do you think you came about by accident through evolution or do you think you were purposefully, intentionally created by design?"    He thought for a moment, and said 'evolution.'   Then I said, "think about your eye for a moment, your eye has millions of light sensitive cells 'arranged' in the back of your eye, connected to nerves, that transmit information to your brain for you to see.   Do you think that came about by accident, or do you thing God created you by design."   He said, "God created me."   Then I began to ask Drew what he knew about God, if he had a Christian background and where he thought he would go when he died.   He was a very thoughtful, young man, and he had lots of questions, one that was very touching, "if God is good, why did he let my brother die?"   I said, "tell me a little more, how did your brother die?"   He said, "he died just after childbirth."   I said, "I'm so sorry."  I said, "ultimately, God is in control of when we die, and I'm very sorry that your brother died, but he's in heaven now with God."   Then Drew said, "He can't be if we're born in sin."   I said "there is biblical president, that babies who die, go to heaven.   When King David's son died shortly after birth, he said, "I will see him again."  I said, "we are all saved by grace through faith, but God's grace extends to children who never had the chance to live life."   I said, "I just want to encourage you, you will see your brother again, if you go to heaven."  Then I had the opportunity to confirm the Gospel message, and explain how to receive the gift salvation by repenting and placing his faith in Christ.   I asked him when he was going to do that, 'He said he already had by going to church and confessing his sins and being baptized.'    So I took a little more time to explain that church, baptism and confessing sins are all good things, but according to Jesus, salvation is a free gift, we can't earn by doing anything, we can only receive it by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.    It was time for him to get to class, so we parted with a handshake.

Then I got to talk to a few other people, who seemed in a hurry to get to class, but they graciously listened to the briefest of Gospel messages.

Next, Conner came up and I talked to him about the arranged bills on the ground and evolution and just as was telling him about salvation, all of a sudden I heard someone screaming at us, you cannot be here on school property.  We've had parents complaining about this, you must cease and leave right now.  I said, "this public sidewalk that I'm standing on is school property?"   He said, "yes, you must be 1000 feet away from the school."   He started to call the cops, and we left.  While we were leaving we handed out our 'illegal' Gospel tracts [my term], to the rest of the students as they were heading toward the gate.

Finally, I got to speak with Shila about the Gospel message.   She warmly received it and I encouraged her to get right with God, before another day goes by.

Please pray for Drew, Conner and Shila.

God bless...

Really Interesting Appointments

We met some really interesting characters today as we went through Everett, inviting people to the special Resurrection Sunday service at the PUD theater.

First, there was Clarence who showed us his Dept. of Defense Armed Forces ID, and told us about his days in the Viet Nam war, and all the medals he had won.   We told him about the God who gave His life to save us from our sins.

Right next door to Clarence was Wendy, who was a friend of Thomas and Whitney's.   She invited us into her home, as she was holding little baby Aspen (no older that a week or two.)  Thomas inquired how Kevin (Wendy's husband) was doing; she said 'not so well'.   We also got to meet her son Alex who was over sitting at the kitchen table eating something.   When we decided it was time to leave, I asked if we could pray for Wendy, she gladly accepted.   So we just knelt there in her living room and asked God to bless her life and her children and her relationship with her husband.

Mo (short for Morris) and his friend answered the door completely intoxicated.   We invited them to church and gave them Gospel tract (Million Dollar Bills) and Mo said, "I have a real million dollar bill."   Which he went and brought to show us.   Yes, he had already been given a Million Dollar bill Gospel tract.   Which led us into sharing the Gospel with Him.   He said he had received Jesus into his heart.  I asked Mo if it had made any difference in his life.   He acknowledged, no, it hadn't.   I asking him if he understood what was the missing information, that would help him to receive eternal life and a changed life from God. He wanted to know, so I told him that he needed to repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness of sins, and he said, yes, that was what he needed.   We shook hands and parted after encouraging him to really repent, and commit his life to Jesus.

God bless...

You Don't Have To Go Oversees for International Missions

...just go to the Comcast Arena on a night when they are having an international gymnastics competition.

We had a wonderful evening handing out lots of tracts, to people from as far away as Texas, China, Russia and Bulgaria.

Thomas and a Chinese Contingent

We even had a very encouraging chat with an Everett Police officer who was on bicycle patrol.  He gave us pointers on what we could and couldn't do, and he encouraged us for what we were doing.

We even got a 'Lutheran' gal to sing Amazing Grace, after she finally accepted a couple curved illusion tracts.   She sang the first two verses, I'm not kidding.

Praise God for the opportunity to hand out hundreds of tracts to young and old alike.   Please pray that the Lord will bring the harvest from the seeds that were planted.

We capped it off with a very nice witnessing encounter with elder Holz and elder Ogilvie of the Mormon Church.   We got to share the Law and the Gospel with them and encouraged them that they should put their trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior and that the Bible was completely trustworthy.

God bless...

Kids, Don't Try This At Home or Not A Scratch

Last night, after a wonderful evening with the prison ministry team, I got a text from my evangelism partner, Thomas, asking if I wanted to go out street witnessing.   He had seen tons of people at the Alderwood mall and he had also noticed there was a large crowd at the Comcast Arena for a Silver Tips game.   We decided to go to the Comcast area and see if we could hand out some tracts and engage some conversations as people left the game.   Little did we know that we were in for quite an adventure.

First, while at the Comcast Arena, there was Gage, a very interesting, street smart, if not slightly out of touch with reality person.   It was amazing though how the God's Spirit pierced through it all and touched this man's heart.  We had the privilege of sharing the Law and the Gospel with him, and he was actually very receptive.  We even invited him to church, and who knows, we might see him there.

Next there was Brandon. He was part of an Own Your Own Business convention happening concurrently with the Silver Tips game, in a convention hall in the upper level of the Comcast Arena.   It was as if Brandon was drunk with greed.  He too though, was either a little out of touch with reality, or just so much more quick witted than me that we had a little bit of a hard time connecting on the most important issue in life; 'where we'll spend our eternity'.   At the end of our conversation, Thomas quoted a very apropos scripture verse with him; "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul."  We encouraged Brandon to find and crack open his Bible, which he admitted, it would take him some time to find.

Then we headed west on Hewitt because we saw a lot of people outside of the local bars, smoking.   Boy did things get interesting from there on.    Most people welcomed the Million Dollar tract (with the Million Dollar Question on the back: "Where will you go when you die?).   We handed out tracts to groups of people, and kept walking past a couple of bars.  We spoke with a gal named Charmaine  who said she was a Christian and that she went to church (she named some nearby church), while at the same time she was pretty buzzed, and puffing up a storm.

Did I mention the Satanic Heavy Metal music coming out of the bar we had just passed by.

Next, we stopped and talked to people directly outside of a bar and began talking to a guy with two gals.  The one gal who really engaged the conversation was named Candice. She was catholic, and she said she was Christian, while at the same time admitting to being drunk.   She even showed me a tattoo on her wrist of First Peter 3:8.   I went through the Law with her when I heard someone from behind me tell me to leave their patrons alone, I couldn't talk to them and had to leave. I protested mildly, but thought better of it and left.   As we were leaving though we gave Gospel tracts to as many people as would accept them.   All total for the evening, we handed out about 200 tracts between the two of us.

Also, there were several street people (men), I can't remember their names, but we stopped, witnessed, encouraged and prayed for them.   One had a bloody and bruised face from literally being 'falling down drunk', the night before.

I know this post is way longer than normal, but there are two more incidents I'd like to share.   First, we crossed the street and headed back toward our starting point.   We encountered a group of black men outside a bar, and we started talking to a young man and shared the Gospel with him.   He was pretty mellow but at the same time, pretty intense (I know that doesn't really make sense, but that was my perception of this young man.) He was pretty open to dialog and we had the chance to share the Gospel with him, but when Thomas pulled out the Curved Illusion tracts, and showed the guy, he became very irritated and said, "get that magic away from me."  He said, "drop the magic stuff", I can deal with the Gospel but not the magic. Thomas tried to explain it was only an optical illusion, but to no avail.   We moved on.

As we continued to hand out tracts all along the way, we came to another bar, and Thomas engaged the bouncer who was Jewish. When the bouncer had to attend to something a couple of guys came up and we gave them Million Dollar tracts.  The one guy, tall, thin, late twenties was really drunk. Bear in mind, I realize it is mostly unfruitful to engage a drunk, but this guy asked what it was I gave him.   I told him it was a Gospel tract.  When he didn't know what that was, he asked me to explain.  When I told him that Gospel meant 'Good News about how to go to Heaven when you die.', he started saying over and over again, "Have you been there?", as he kept jabbing his finger into my chest.  We actually tried our best to extricate ourselves from the situation, but he kept going on and on.   Finally after we got his name out of him, I said, "Jason, I love you and care about you." He quieted down and turned and went into the club.

So, the message from last night was, 'Kids, don't try this at home'.   Finally, through it all, God kept us safe and we were able to witness to people who were literally inside the gates of hell.   To be quite honest, at this point in my life I'm quite sheltered and I didn't realize how spiritually dark it becomes after dark in downtown Everett.  But we each got home safely and 'Without a scratch.'

Everyone Needs a Morning Like This

We went and did some early morning witnessing today outside Cascade High.

When we first arrived, we were wondering whether or not today was a normal school-day, but about 6:40am, high school students started walking toward the school gate.

We got to speak directly, one-2-one with at least a dozen kids and we (and the Gospel) were really well received. I had several opportunities to extol the greatness of our God, by explaining how the infinite God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ.   After sharing the Gospel with a really likable young man named Jacob, he said he was going to put his faith in Christ as soon as possible. Please pray for Kayla, Emily, Sage and there were others that heard the message of salvation.

I also got to encourage several Christian young men in their faith and walk and spur them to share their faith with their friends at school.

All in all, this morning was a huge blessing.

God bless...

Friday the 13th, Open Air at Dick's Hamburgers

It was kind of interesting to note the various spiritual battles that took place last night as we proclaimed the Gospel, "Open-Air" at Dick's Hamburger's last night.

First was fear. I wanted to run. I wanted to hide. I prayed. It took everything in me to step up on that box. Then once I got started, some guy intentionally kept triggering his car alarm while I was preaching.

Finally, the battle against apathy of our onlookers.

Encouragement came in the form of applause when we finished.

Praise God. What follows is what I had planned to say. I don't know how many points I hit, I was so nervous I couldn't think. When I was done, I didn't even remember what I had said, but here's what I had planned on saying in my ultra-brief open-air 'message':

Woohoo, I got my Dick’s hamburger.  
You know that old saying, “eat right, exercise and you still die”.
Hi, I'm a Christian and I want to tell you about something.   
I love life and value it highly, and I’m sure you do too.
But the sad fact is that we’re all going to die someday.
God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness;
that's the standard, 'righteousness' means he's going judge the heart.   
Lying is evil in God's eyes (if you’ve lied that would make you a liar)
and stealing is wrong (if you taken anything that isn’t yours that’d make you a thief)
but it goes even deeper than that, Jesus equated lusting after someone who isn’t your husband or wife with adultery.   
He equated hate with murder and if you’ve used God’s name in vain, that’s blasphemy.   
This is very serious and it leaves us all in big trouble on judgement day.   
We want to avoid hell, so trust in the Savior.   
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead on the third day.
He commands everyone to repent and trust in Him as savior.
That’s the Good News, Jesus took the punishment we deserved.
Repent and trust Him today God will grant you the gift of eternal life.

A Triple Shot of Encouragement

Three times, in three different ways, I was encouraged yesterday. In the afternoon, going out with the Calvary Everett street team, I got to chat with a gal, who said she would come 'try out' church on Sunday.

Thomas and Dennis across from a small church in Everett

 In the evening, with the MSU prison team, we had a great evening of worship and prayer with the inmates. Finally, when I got home (we live on a corner lot), a couple guys were parked beside our house in a Ford Ranger; which usually means they're waiting for a drug dealer. I grabbed a couple Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts, and walked over to the truck. I said Hi, how's it going, what's up, what's your guys names, etc.   The responded, a little hesitantly, I'm sure they were thinking who is this guy?.   I told them my name, and then they asked what I was doing. I told them I lived right here, so they seemed maybe a little re-assured.  Then I gave Sean and Kip each a tract, and their eyes lit up and they chuckled as I said to them "Don't spend it all in one place".   They asked what is this, and I told them it's a Gospel tract, which led right into me sharing the Law with them. They admitted if they died in their sins they would be guilty, and if they got what they deserved, it would be hell. But it was a little disappointing when I asked if that concerned them, they just kinda shrugged.   I asked them how old they were; they said 17.  I said you can go into any cemetery and find lots of head-stones of 17 year old's. I said you guys are wearing seat belts for a reason; because accidents happen. I said none of us know the day of our death, and this is very serious.  I said this is so important, there's nothing more important than your eternal salvation.  Then I explained the Gospel to them of how Jesus died on the cross for their sins and how he rose from the dead on the third day.  And that God commands everyone to simply repent and trust in Jesus as their savior (and I explained the Bible term Repentance as turning away from sins and turning to God for mercy.) I gave the example of putting on a life preserver when you're on a sinking ship as trust. Finally, I said, will you consider what I've told you.  They said yes. I said okay, have a nice evening, God bless you guys, and I left.


God bless..

Black Friday is a Wonderful Time of Year

The Lord cleared the skies for us this morning.   It was pouring, until we got out of the car, which kept our Gospel tracts from being a soggy mess.   We handed out over 300 tracts, and talked one-2-one to dozens of people.   It was a great time of sharing the Gospel with people, and it really lightened the mood when I offered them candy canes or smarties.   We were also encouraged by several Christians when they saw what we were doing.

Praise God!

A Time of Refreshing

It was so refreshing to talk with a gal today, who was receptive to the Gospel. She had a cursory understanding of the Gospel. She tracked with everything we told her about the grace of God that was offered to her by way of Christ on the cross. She admitted not only that she would be guilty if she stood before God, and that if she got what she deserved, it wouldn't be heaven, but she made a commitment to read the Gospel of John.

 I think we had a couple of other refreshing conversations, as we meandered through downtown Everett, this afternoon. We even spent some time at the "Occupy Everett" encampment at the Snohomish County seat, where we got to spend a long time with Don, the athiest.

 God is so good, to have honored us with the task of sharing the Gospel with people. "There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we are saved."

 God bless...

 P.S. we definitely weren't fair-weather evangelists today... brrrr!

Out With The Calvary Everett Street Team

Saturday before last, going door to door with the Calvary Everett Street Team, was a truly wonderful experience. No doors slammed in our face.

We had the opportunity to speak at-length with Liz. Her first remark, when we invited here to church, was no thank you, she would never go to church. You almost wonder if someone is joking when they say something like that. Anyways, I got to share the Gospel with her in testimonial form.

Then Denise, Thomas and I went to downtown Everett, and handed out tracts and spoke to several people. We even went into a small art shop, and gave the proprietor a tract and tried to witness, but she would have none of it. The reason we went into this art shop, was that they had a piece of 'art' in the window, depicting a bunny rabbit, all bloodied and battered on a cross. It was very blasphemous and offensive.

I'm looking forward to more outings with the Calvary Everett Street Team.

God bless...

Where's the Shrimp?

A few weeks ago, I got a text from our prison ministry band leader, asking me if I would be interested in performing with the band at 'Shrimpfest' over Memorial Day weekend. At first, I thought it was a joke. But I thought, how could this be a joke... Sure enough, there is such a thing as Shrimpfest. Likewise, the prison band had been invited to perform for two hours.

I put my tongue in my cheek, when I told people, we got our first paid gig. I thought the pay was going to be free admittance to Shrimpfest. Well, in fact we did get a check to split amongst the six of us, but we decided to return the money and earn some heavenly dividends.

The gig turned out beautifully in every way. We were afraid that the possibility of rain might dampen the situation, but the LORD rolled back the clouds and gave us warm, sunshine the whole time.

The music was VERY well received. I saw lots of people bee-bopping to the music. We played a bunch of worship songs as well as a bunch of Christian songs you'd hear on the radio. The cutest thing was a man who wheeled his son (or grandson) in a stroller guy up in front of the stage and the little tot was bouncing around in his seat, just enjoying the music.

Also, my heart was touched when a gal came up with her son, between songs, and complimented our music (in a strong southern drawl), and asked if we had any CD's out. That was very sweet of her.

It was a real blessing and a privilege to stand on stage with a bunch of real musicians. As always, Bill carried us... He is extremely gifted!

God bless...

Winning Evangelization at Comcast Arena

Tonight, Charlie Sheen is in town doing his stand-up routine at the Comcast Arena. This provided a great opportunity to hand out Billion and Trillion dollar bills to the event-goers.

We were met with mostly warm, receptive responses. Dan was able to share the full gospel with several people and we prayed for one drunk guy to overcome his addiction.

There were lots of TV cameras and radio stations represented at the event. I even had the privilege of handing a gospel tract to Sabra Gertsch of KOMO 4 news.

Praise God. All glory goes to Him. By His goodness and mercy he blessed us and protected us tonight as we went to the streets to proclaim the Gospel.

God bless...

Last Night Was Just Wow!

Ron, Wayne and I went to Mukilteo beach last night to hand out gospel tracts and do some evangelizing. We had intended on going to the Tilted Thunder Rail Birds, roller derby at Comcast Arena in Everett, to do the same, only, my bad, I got my schedule wrong, and we missed that by a couple of hours.

[The night before, Julie and I had driven by the mukilteo lighthouse and beach, and noticed how packed it was and we thought, boy what an opportunity for evangelizing.]

The LORD went before us in every way last night. The parking lot was full, but we got a spot right up in the front. We got out of the car, gathered our tracts and Gospel's of John (which we get for free from http://www.pocketpower.org).

We handed out at least three hundred tracts among the three of us and at least a couple dozen Gospels of John. As well, we had the privilege to have in depth conversations with around twenty different young people. We were totally blessed!
All the conversations were really amazing, to have people basically let us preach the gospel to them, but one stands out in my mind.

We were on the sand, talking with an early twenties couple. They were a really nice couple (very handsome and polite). After sharing with them for a while, Mark tried to justify himself by saying something to the effect, "won't God let someone into heaven, although they sinned, if they do a lot more good things." I was able to share with him how that was an attempt to bribe the Judge, and there would still be justice to serve. He seemed to understand what I said. I asked him to consider what we had talked about and encouraged him to read the Gospel of John. He said he was going to read it.

All in all it was very encouraging. We even saw Daniel Lefotu and Chris McAuliffe. Daniel was stoke about the possibility of doing a Rap outreach there.

God bless...

Keith