OPEN AIR PREACHING IS EFFECTIVE

The effect of gospel preaching is threefold. On the one hand there are a few who hear the message of the Cross and receive it unto eternal life. There are many who hear the message and do not receive it, but stumble over it, and see it as foolishness, resulting in eternal death (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).

In the case with these two young ladies, it’s impossible to know how they will ultimately receive the preaching they hear throughout their life – unto eternal life or eternal death. Nevertheless, the preaching has GOD’s desired effect. It accomplishes exactly what He desires.

These young ladies listened to the preaching for at least twenty minutes before I engaged them. In the end, the gospel seeds were sewn. It’s up to our Sovereign Lord to do with them as He will – to eternal life or eternal death.

And that leads us to the third effect of gospel preaching – GOD IS GLORIFIED. No matter what, whether the lost person receives the preaching unto eternal life or eternal death, GOD is glorified in and through it all.

The Great Heart Changer!

This is the last encounter I had at the 2011 Paso Robles Wine Festival. I feel so sorry for this lady. There are times that I come away from a witness encounter like this and feel rather hopeless. This lady’s idolatry has so clouded the true character and nature of GOD that I say, “Lord, how can she be saved? I’m not getting through to her!”

The Word GOD tells us that Christ responded to a similar question and said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Here our Lord Jesus is speaking of The Great Heart Changer.

No matter how earnest you might plead with a person, no matter how theologically sound you might be, no matter if you’re able to answers every question someone might bring up in a witnessing encounter - you and I cannot change the hearts of man. We cannot even convict the conscience of man (John 16:18).

I was greatly encouraged by a short tract that I read by J.C. Ryle. He said, “…they seem as hard and insensible as the nether mill-stone! But we remember the Holy Spirit, and what He has done. We remember the Holy Spirit, and consider that He has not changed. He can come down like fire and melt the hardest hearts; He can convert the worst man or woman among our hearers, and mold their whole character into a new shape. And so we preach on. We hope, because of the Holy Spirit.”

I also found this short C.H. Spurgeon audio that I pray will be an encouragement to you dear Christian soldier.


Grace Gems

Keep heralding Christ crucified to those who are hard-hearted. There is hope for them not because of our preaching but because of The Great Heart Changer.

PART 1


PART 2

A Police Officer's Idolitry

This was our second stop around the perimeter of the fence at the Paso Robles Wine Festival. Brother Jeff addressed another group of people sitting in the shade behind the fence.

Make note that Brother Jeff is not "shouting." He is speaking with a gentle but firm tone. In spite of the fact that we were standing on public property (the middle of the street), and in spite of the gentle tone Jeff used in addressing these people, we were contacted by city law enforcement upon the request of event organizers because of a complaint of our volume.

It was quite aggravating to be honest. It seems that over the last four years that I've been involved in street preaching, police are shutting us down more and more. Why? In this case Officer Bigelow indicates we were not breaking any laws but that we just needed to leave the immediate area (the festival area which consisted of all the sidewalks and streets outside of the fenced off areas) if we were going to continue to preach.

If we chose to continue to preach in the area and in the manner we were, we could/would be arrested for "trespassing" and/or "public disturbance." I personally wasn't ready to die on this hill and go to jail -- especially since we had the option of continuing to reach people around the festival via tracting and 1-2-1 conversation.

Maybe we should have continued. Maybe our freedoms are being taken away because there isn’t enough of us challenging the law and taking these cases to court. I don’t have answers for what we should or shouldn’t do in instances like this. If you have an opinion, please let me know.

As you’ll see I did challenge the officer and asked to speak with his supervisor. In my mind I thought, “Why did you ask to talk with his supervisor?” I can't tell you even now what I planned on doing or even saying to Officer Bigelow’s supervisor. I knew we were fighting a loosing battle – we were done preaching there and speaking to his supervisor wasn’t going to change anything. But one good thing did come out of it. We had to wait for Officer Bigelow’s supervisor for approximately twenty-five minutes – giving us time to witness to Officer Rick.

In retrospect, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit orchestrated all of this for the glory of GOD (as always) and maybe even for the benefit of Officer Rick. Brother Jeff took Officer Rick through a few of the Ten Commandments. But Officer Rick didn’t seem to be humbled at all. Even though he admitted to breaking the Law of God, he figured since he confesses it in prayer – all is well and he’ll just continue to try to be a good person. But what you’ll hear come from Officer Rick (loud and clear) is his idolatry. His "god" isn't the God of the Bible.

One point of clarification I would like to make here. I responded to one of Officer Rick’s question about what GOD does or doesn’t do with young children who die. After watching the video, I wasn't very clear.

According to GOD’s nature He is absolutely merciful, gracious and kind. But according to nature of every human being, even children, no matter their age or level of understanding of GOD’s salvation plan, are sinners, deserving of death and Hell.

IF GOD RECEIVES AN INFANT OR YOUNG CHILD INTO HEAVEN IT WILL BE BY GRACE ALONE, THROUGH FAITH ALONE AND IN CHRIST ALONE. If God grants eternal life, forgives sins, and credits the righteousness of Christ to the account of a child, it will NOT be because the child is "innocent" and deserves it. I wish I would have made that clear as I responded to Officer Rick.

In the end officer Rick makes it clear that he despises the character and nature of the GOD of the Bible. Officer Rick seemed to have remained hard-hearted. I’ve thought about and prayed for Officer Rick many times since this encounter. My heart breaks for him and his family. If he remains in his sins, he is storing up for himself wrath in the day of wrath (Romans 2:4-9).

On the other hand there is much hope! I was very encouraged by this encounter because it may be that GOD will use is to save Officer Rick and set him free from the bondage of his sin. All this didn't happen by accident. GOD saved a wretch like me when I was dead in my sins and trespasses. I too was an idolater and He saved me in spite of who I was. Please pray that Christ would save Officer Rick to the praise of GOD’s glorious grace.

Don't forget to come back later and watch my last video encounter I had and the Paso Robles Wine Festival. Find out what the lady in this video means when she says, "I think of myself as a hollow 'L'."

Part 1


Part 2

Preaching to the Poor, Brokenhearted Captives

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:17-19 (KJV)

Brother Jeff, Brother Ben and I attended the 2011 Paso Robles Wine Festival. It was a beautiful sunny day and the park was full of people. I didn’t capture any footage of the size of the crowd within the event. I estimate there were no less than 800-1,000 people.

When we drove up to the event and saw the crowd gathered there, we were delighted. But we would soon find out that wouldn't even be able to get to them - at least in the manner we had planned.

We planned to enter the park and distribute Gospel tracts and engage people in 1-2-1 conversation – then finish the day out preaching on the streets near the event. However, the city had installed a temporary fence around the perimeter of the park. Needless to say our “plan” was altered by our Sovereign GOD.

Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
James 4:15 (NASB)

As you'll see, our plan was quickly abandoned and we started out the day preaching to the poor, brokenhearted captives through the fence. This entailed lifting up our voices so that people would hear the Good News. But lifting up our voices with the full counsel of GOD came with a price – being noticed by the wine festival organizers and ultimately city law enforcement.

Oh no!

But even this worked out to the glory of GOD. What follows is our initial effort reaching the people behind the fence with the Gospel.

Don’t miss my next blog entry because right after my preaching in this video, Bother Jeff preaches and the Holy Spirit orchestrates an a really cool encounter with an individual who was there to shut down our preaching.

2011 Paso Robles Wine Festival Outreach

This is a serise of short clips from our outreach at the 2011 Paso Robles Wine Festival. Come back later to watch the entire serise of video I'm, Lord willing, going to upload.

SLO Earth Day Outreach 2011

It was a joy to preach the gospel to the attendees of the 2011 SLO Earth Day event that took place at San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden (El Chorro Regional Park). Below is much of the video footage that I captured during the outreach. The first four videos document some of the bus stop preaching and the last video contains random clips from within the Earth Day event. Although the message we proclaimed wasn’t well received, we were very encouraged that many heard the Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As the blog entry and video I posted earlier this we indicated, the folks there were kind of snarky with us. But Christian, when the world resists you because of Who you represent, don’t be discouraged. When they don’t want to hear the Good News about Jesus Christ, don’t be surprised. The world hated our Lord, do you think you’ll be treated any different?

[Jesus Christ] was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name… John 1:10-13 (also read Matthew 10:16-30)

Share your faith today and don’t quit!

What Happened at SLO Earth Day 2011?

Last year I attended the 2010 San Luis Obispo Earth Day event to pass out tracts and evangelize 1-2-1. Only to find out that speaking of Jesus Christ wasn’t appreciated by some. If you remember, I was pretty much booted from a booth that I was invited into by Jarrod, a Jewish rabbi. The booth was there to promote “religious tolerance.” But when Jarrod began to disagree with the Jesus of the Bible I was presenting, a reverend lady got upset with my being there and ran me off.

My Brother in Christ Jeff Harrison and I attended the 2011 SLO Earth Day event last Saturday. Our intention was to go into the event and pass out as many gospel tracts as we could. Then just before leaving the event, we where going to read aloud, open-air style, from Matthew 26-28, participating in the Project Ezra: Mission Good Friday outreach.

But when we arrived in the parking lot, we found 20-25 people standing on the sidewalk waiting for a shuttle to take them into the Earth Day event. Our plans changed quickly and we decided to remain by the shuttle pick up point and preach open air to the groups of people that would form every 10-15 minutes. We did this for quite some time. We had the privilege of sharing the Law and Gospel to maybe a hundred people. Praise be to GOD! This video gives some indication as to how well we were received by them.

At some point we decided to go ahead up into the festival. It was interesting and sad. The blatant idolatry expressed there was appalling. It grieved me to see it - not to mention the witchcraft.

The summation of the outreach is this. These people desperately need Jesus Christ – just as I still do today. Thirteen years back, I would have been at this festival partaking in all manner of sin. Apart from the grace that I received through faith in Jesus Christ, I too would resist the Gospel and GOD’s people’s pleadings.

I’m always blown away just how irrational a sinner can be though. Lost folk might promote religious tolerance, or even say, “make love not war” or “give peace a chance,” while at the same time, gnash their teeth at you in hatred of the Light that you’re trying to share with them in hopes they’ll be saved. Wow some of these folks are snarky and intolerant of us sharing our faith.

By GOD’s grace, we persevered in the face of their resistance and we pray GOD was glorified and that these people were convicted of sin, or righteousness, and judgment and that they'll see their need for Christ Jesus.

Lord willing, later this week I’ll be uploading the videos from this evangelism effort.