Judge or Savior
The “Stop” on Friday night and Sundance Square on Saturday night yielded some great conversations about the Gospel. After one open air session without an amp, my throat could not handle more. The Lord was faithful and sent me the following. I had a smart whipper snapper who tried to hold onto his Catholic belifes (Carlos). Another sinner while intoxicated tried to tell me he was a Christian and Hector (a city worker) heard from the Scriptures that he can know if he has eternal life. Chris, was glad to talk to me even after I had tough questions about his Catholic beliefs. A trucker who was very surprised that the “sinners payer” could not be found in the scriptures. The Lord is gracious to unbelievers but, they are running out of time. Determine to tell at least one person this week about Christ, the wrath of God, eternal life in heaven and hell. Finally repentance, faith in Christ alone. There are no second chances after this life is finished. The next breath you take IS YOUR SECOND CHANCE>
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Greenwich Village Spills into Dallas
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that wins souls is wise, Proverbs 11:30. Praise the King of heaven, the glorious Lord and Savior. Last night the opportunity to lift up boldly the name of Jesus Christ through the Gospel was our privilege to proclaim. In Dallas, Texas, there was a gathering by LGBT to celebrate the riot that had taken place at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn over forty years ago. This was a “celebration” to celebrate the riots by homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, and bisexuals that rebelled against the New York police. This was their claim for a call for their “rights”.
Early in the evening as we were handing out tracts within the blockades, we were told to remain on the opposite side of the street by a female detective to which we respectfully complied. A little while later, a police officer told us that we could not use amplification to preach. But, praise be to God Almighty, the detective that had previously asked us to remain on the other side of the road approached us and informed us that we could use our amplification to preach. She obviously had rank over the cop who had endeavored to shut us down. Believe me, these small occurrences are completely of the Lord. Dallas police officers are not ever courteous to us. Yet this time one of them was kind and actually allowed us to speak, a right that we are quickly loosing in America. Maybe this could be a start of a new policy. We praise our eternal King whose name will be proclaimed everywhere!
A Sprinkle of protesting
Here is a description that was pulled from the internet of a man by the name of Dr. Sprinkle, (who was present Sunday evening). “Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009.”
Another excerpt from the Dallas Morning News, (who was in error in their reporting) says, “And as the crowd prepared to march through downtown, with a few protesters going bullhorn to bullhorn for attention, Dr. Sprinkle turned from the past and looked toward the future.” More accurately the statement should have said “airhorn” (by an LGBT protestor) to “amplifier” from open air preachers, NOT protestors. This man, Sprinkle mocks God. He needs salvation from Jesus Christ.
The open air preachers had not protested anything. They were declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the message from the Word of God to a known group of people who will one day die and be swallowed up by hell itself for eternity. This is a sobering thought–lives lost for all eternity, unless they choose repentance in Christ Jesus.
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Who are you, oh Christian? Do You Proclaim Christ? Do You Know How?
Christian, if you say you love Christ, proclaim Him as Lord and Savior of your life! Once that is confirmed, go and do it everywhere you find people, GO!
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Go check out this article at Apprising Ministries
The emergence christian movement is leading people away from the Truth.
This is what I think is the driving factor in why many people call themselves Christians and know nothing about the Gospel. You see the polls like this one, “Rauber, 35, and Cruz, 26, are examples of people in a recent Barna Group survey that found that three out of five U.S. adults who don’t attend church are self-described Christians.” If I talked to “Rauber and Cruz”, I doubt they could explain the Gospel. Many are like them, they think Christ is their Savior but, they know nothing about the Savior, the very person who is the Gospel is the very person they do not know. Go on, read a little about “emergence christianity”.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/04/1993434/survey-finds-that-christians-might.html#ixzz0q6nJ22df
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Listen to the Gospel in the Pashto Language Reaching Afghanistan
This is what I found when looking for people who witness for Christ in Afghanistan. Below is part of a tv show featuring callers saying what they want to say about the host, Christ and other related subjects. Listen to the last call, very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/afghantv#p/a/u/0/DrPfLNP38IQ
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Let me intoduce two more evangelists who travel the country preaching Christ.
Don is from Hampton VA. Mike is from Long Island NY. Mikes current headquarters is Hampton VA at Don’s place. Don had to leave Sunday afternoon while Mike will take off tomorrow for the Ambassadors Academy in California.
Tim Crawford and sons, John Speed, Carl Kalbelfliesch, Robert Gray, Duane Seabearg, and Mike took off to the DART station next to the West End in Dallas.
Psalm 119 conference that Don and Mike attended was kickin. 120 people split up into four groups after the conference and covered the metroplex with the Gospel of God.
Because some of the outreaches were in Dallas, Mike was introduced to Dallas’ finest face to face. Semper Fi!
Don and Mike at Ron's house prior to the Benny Hinn carnival
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The Heavens are Telling of the Glory of God
God says more in one Psalm than man could say his whole life. In His splendid Psalm God Calls the sun a Strongman. This strongman rejoices to run its course. At the same time the sun rejoices, some professed Christians will not open their mouth to tell “dead” people about True Life in Christ Jesus.
Ian Brown out of Londonberry Ireland has gotten my attention with his discriptive sermons. This one is from Psalm 19. Enjoy: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=31909616440
The Strongman
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Memorizing the Word (The Living Word)
Saved From What Ministries Keith Higgins memorized the book of 1 John. This is part 1 of 2 from his utube account.
15Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Good use of your time and efforts Keith, it is not wasted time.
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Ministry Logo, from Death to Life at the Cross
Is there anyone out there who is willing to chime in on the new logo. The ekg line is moving from the right to the left. I noticed many different ekg read outs on the internet. My thinking is that there is no one way to express an ekg. Besides, this is a logo and not an exact representation. Tell me what you think.
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False Seekers, Test Yourself
Are you a seeker of the Messiah on this Sunday Christians celebrate His death and resurrection?
These are the very words of Christ from the book of John chapter 10.
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
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Is That True of Yours?
“Oh my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost is almost entirely neglected.”
Oswald J. Smith
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Do You Claim to be a Christian? Be Careful.
What Evidence do you Claim for knowing Jesus the Messiah
What is a solid foundation? What is a tried and true belief? When you start to call on Christ as Lord and Savior, then you leave those things (sins) that separate you from Him. You will love those things He loves and hate the things He hates. Being a true Christian means being like-minded in all things pertaining to Christ, and may even require sacrificing those things which make us individually struggle with sin in our lives. But while only the Holy Spirit can verify a true change of heart, there is a certain measuring rod by which one can examine their own heart as to whether or not they are a true believer. The things that we have talked about previously form the foundation by which one can claim to be a Christian, and the Bible contains everything a person needs to truly live rightly by that claim.” Know this, that the only way you can claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is if He has claimed you as His own. How do you know He has done this? Read the book of 1 John several times until you understand it. Then you should pray for His mercy and grace on your life. God’s Spirit will bear witness with yours. A good time to start is now.
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Grace Trumps Perversion in Miami
Everything about the Super Bow
l festivities was nothing short of wild. The Saints and the Colts would compete in one of the most watched Super Bowls of all time. My Super Bowl three-day weekend was spent with like-minded brothers in Christ. Two days were spent all day long, from early in the morning to around ten o’clock at night, on Miami Beach, not as a tourist, but evangelizing. Then on game day we were out even earlier doing street evangelism. Talk about rewarding! It is beyond description!
The atmosphere on Ocean Drive just off the beach can only be described as rowdy, undisciplined, unruly or riotous. I think the main reason for this was that approximately 80% of those there were Saints fans–the sin factor was up more than usual if you know anything about New Orleans, the Saints and Mardi Gras then you would understand the height of the sin factor that I am endeavoring to portray for you. Getting in and out of the “party” area required a lot of patience due to the incredibly thick traffic. Once our vehicles were able to arrive, it was time to pull out the tracts, New Testaments, the Bibles, our Bibles, and the amps. The days were long. Our bodies were weary, but our spirits were joyous and extremely grateful for the encounters the Lord was bringing our way.
Throughout the time down in Miami I was privileged to meet and speak with numerous people, but I will just briefly share four conversations with you. They were with Gory, Parish, Patty, and Ronnie. 
Gory, was a young man that had a mouth full of gold teeth. I guess that’s normal for the younger set. I explained the Gospel to Gory. At the end of our time I asked if I could pray for him. He agreed. We prayed! Our time of prayer was right there in the thick of all that bare skin, drunkenness, cussing, and whatever you could imagine. Prayer knows no boundaries!
Parish was a police officer that guarded the Tide (soap) demonstration (huge area). As we conversed he reflected on when he, a black man, had not been allowed onto Miami Beach. He too, amidst all that was going on listened to the whole Gospel presentation.
Then there was Patty a loner. She was a young woman that could have graced the cover of any Vogue or Cosmopolitan magazine. She had a sharp mind, yet she was a wanderer, hitch hiker, one that would rather remain as invisible as possible. She roamed about with her dog and a beaten up guitar.
As we were talking, I could tell by the scars etched in her face that she had been beaten a few times. In the course of the conversation she told me she had been raped by a pastor, a pastor that her parents trusted. The rapist pastor would only get a few years in prison and still claim to be a “Christian”, and this would cause distrust in people like me. Now here I come along and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to this one who has been beaten and raped by someone who proclaimed the same thing. I could have given up and just left her with a tract and claimed Ezekiel 33:9. NO WAY! Would I actually go to Miami to proclaim the Gospel just to leave this woman with a tract? I could not live with myself, especially knowing I had, on this particular day, been provided a day Christ set aside for a time like this. I had as much time as I needed to exegete some of the text for her.
I let Patty talk for awhile. I wanted her to know I actually cared and would listen. I told her that before I left I had to make absolutely sure she understood the TRUE GOSPEL, not a false, self-serving gospel from the mouth of a lying rapist. I began by asking her if God were to take her life that night would she be ready. Her answer was, “I don’t know for sure, but I think I am.” Interesting I thought. I jumped to 1 John 5 where God tells us that we may KNOW we have eternal life. I went through the Law so it would convict her of sin (Romans 7:7). I explained why God must punish sinners. When I quoted Hebrews 4:12 and related what joints and marrow were, she smiled and said, “I know what it is, I hunt.” (She hunts with a bow.) I explained that there was no goodness within her that God would accept. All her greatest achievements in anything good would be a stench to a Holy God. Before I moved on to the Cross (Grace), I made it clear to her that she had to understand her sins would never be cleansed by anything she could do. She had to have righteousness from someone else. (An alien righteousness).
Patty listened intently as I explained clearly the Cross (Grace) and of Christ who suffered and died at the hands of men. How He endured suffering, humility, loneliness, pain, and agony. But, all His suffering in our eyes was as nothing compared to what His Father did to His Son. Isaiah 53:10, “But the LORD was please to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering. ..” Now because God was satisfied to crush His Son, and the wrath we deserved was canceled forever for those that repent, turn to Christ as Lord and Savior. Turn from your sin and turn to Christ. He will change your blindness to sight, your deafness to hearing, and your heart of stone to a heart of flesh so you will have a new ability to please Him. God justifies the ungodly. He would look on you as though you had never sinned (whether in the past, now in the present, or in the future) and He would look on His Son as though He became sin (even though He never sinned). At this point, He makes you a new creation (1 Corinthians 5:17).
This is just a condensed version of at least an hour’s conversation on the Gospel alone without the other things I mentioned. At this point I asked her one more time if she died that night if she thought she would go to heaven? Would she be able to stand before a holy God? She came back with the same reply (a bit more certain than the first time), “I think I am.” I replied, “Okay, only the Lord and you know what is in your heart.” I pulled out a New Testament and put my wife’s and my name in it with our phone number. She was thankful.
Patty began getting nervous as the sun would soon be getting ready to set. She explained she needed to find a place to sleep. She turned down our offering of finding her shelter insisting she would be fine and thanked me again. Later that evening, Jose (one of the men on my evangelism team) and I were on Washington Avenue, the street parallel with Ocean Drive, when we saw Patty again. I asked if she found a place to sleep. She pointed to a little patio area between two buildings where she would be hidden until the morning.
Finally, on Super Bowl game day there was Ronnie, a limo driver. He just happened to be hungry at the same time that I was hungry. I ordered a Godfather’s mini-pizza (which happened to be in a gas station), and then turned to look for a table to find that all were occupied. I asked him if I could sit at his table. Of course, because God ordained it, Ronnie said, yes. He was from Canada. He spoke French and claimed to be an atheist. As we conversed, I informed him why I was in Miami, to preach and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He asked me who Jesus Christ was. I told him that was simple. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Ronnie, in his raspy, hard core voice replied mockingly, “Son of God, eah! Son of God, Son of God, that’s all you say is the Son of God.” I responded, “The Bible very clearly says that only Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus is God and only God forgives sin.” By the end of our 30 minute conversation, we were friends. He even smiled at me. Not only friends, but he agreed to read the book of 1 John in the Bible that I gave him. I opened it up to 1 John and showed him three and a half pages. I said, “Look you could read this in 15 minutes.” He said, “Three pages, that’s all? Yes, it is simple, huh?” Furthermore, I pointed out and said, “There is more in these three pages than I could tell you in a life time!” (Big smile) Again, I could have given Ronnie a tract and claimed Ezekiel 33. No way, no way, no, no, no way! Back up for one minute and think through this. Order food, get the food, no place to sit, I sit with Ronnie an atheist who sits with a proclaimer of the Gospel. Coincidence? No way! God wanted Ronnie to go home with His very words to read it for himself. Think about that for a minute. An atheist holding a Bible because I feared God more than man! I have more true joy in doing this than anything else! No one will ever talk me out of doing this!
Once the Super Bowl started we packed up our evangelism gear and headed back to base camp. Once at camp we packed up our belongings, loaded up the van and made our trek back toward the French Quarter in Louisiana to confront more sinners. God is so incredibly good! I have many reflections of sadness at times and yet indescribable joy from our Miami trip! I know my Lord does much better than I to convert a sinner to His saving faith. God is indeed faithful.
One week has past and this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were filled with activities here in Dallas for the All Star Basketball game. On Sunday it was extremely cold–I do mean, frigidly cold. The only question you need to ask yourself while at home, nice and toasty warm is this, “Will sinners be out there?” If the answer is yes, then the evangelist should be out there to meet them because hell is not cold! To make it short for a testimony, I share this sure fire moment. On the corner of a busy intersection of foot traffic and auto traffic I was reading Isaiah 40 aloud. I was getting all kinds of reaction from “Idiot” to “Preach it brother!” This one man of great stature (a modern day Goliath) walked up to me. I looked up because I could not ignore him. I looked into his eyes and knew he was not to be feared for there was kindness in his eyes. I greeted him with a hearty, “Howdy!” He said that he really appreciated that I was reading from the Scriptures and to keep it up. He shook my hand and gave me a “God bless you” and went on into the game.
I praise my Lord for allowing me to do the work He set up for His chosen. Many new friends were made that were
Pit Stop in Louisiana
strangers to start. I guess that’s real friendship evangelism.
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Just getting back from Miami. The saints beat the Colts. Will post something later about the trip.
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Sound the Alarm Against More Liberalism
From Apprising Ministries
PHIL JOHNSON ON THEOLOGICAL LIBERALISM
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Jan 27, 2010 in AM Missives, Current Issues, Features, Theology
As a Bible-believing Christian, it’s quite likely that more and more as you listen to what’s being taught in your mainstream evangelical church, you are sensing something is “off.” 1) you’re right; it is. And 2) at Pyromaniacs recently Phil Johnson has done the Church a service is exposing why.
He’s put together a couple of recent posts which are must-reads if you what to know what’s going on, and why even the mainstream of the visible church is only paying lip service to the proper Christian spirituality of Sola Scriptura. First, a few days ago in The Lie of “Liberal” Theology Johnson explains:
Liberal is such a benign-sounding term. The word itself means generous, open-handed, large-hearted, charitable. The synonyms commonly used to describe radical ideologies reverberate with positive overtones: “latitudinarian,” “progressive,” “forward-looking,” “free-thinking.” And the antonyms are all Scrooge-like words—”miserly,” “bigoted,” “narrow-minded,” “reactionary.”
Those semantic connotations disguise the true nature of liberal theology. When Christian doctrine is subjected to liberalizing influences, the inevitable result is a profoundly destructive drift that weakens churches, breeds skepticism, and quickly trades away the gospel for a differently-nuanced message. The long view of church history provides ample proof of that… (Online source)
Johnson also tells us:
This month’s 9Marks eJournal analyzes the subtleties and dangers of liberalism—especially the quasi-evangelical neo-liberalism currently vying for control of the evagelical movement. You must read this issue of the journal. Print it out, download it to your Kindle, or have someone read it to you.
Full disclosure: I wrote an article for the issue. Carl Trueman’s article is short but potent. I also loved Jonathan Leeman’s article. There are many such highlights—but the entire journal is must-read material. Take some time with it. (Online source)
And then a couple of days ago in A Thumbnail History of Theological Liberalism: The Lie of “Liberal” Theology, Part Two Phil Johnson explains:
Persons beset with the spirit of liberal religion invariably try to present themselves as cutting-edge visionaries. But liberalism is neither fresh nor progressive. Look at almost any era of church history and you will find the liberal spirit alive and well in some form or another… (Online source)
This is essentially what I told you in the Apprising Ministries article . And, although I don’t really know Phil Johnson personally, I can tell you this; I’m very glad he’s covering these issues for you because Johnson knows exactly what he’s talking about when he goes on to warn you:
Virtually every significant evangelical institution that embraced any degree of modernism soon abandoned evangelical principles. And practically all of them became empty shells of what they once were.
The legacy of such movements is clear—or it ought to be. No good has ever come from the liberalizing tendency. It is rooted in a way of thinking that is hostile to the authority of Scripture; it inevitably corrupts the simplicity of the gospel of grace; and it fosters skepticism and (in the worst cases) rank unbelief. (Online source)
I’ll tell you again; the truth is, what we are really dealing with in the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—that’s now morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—with men like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell is actually a new form of liberal theology—a postliberalism i.e. Liberalism 2.0. Keep in mind here that the Emerging/ent/ence Church is quick to remind us that we live in a postmodern culture; and remember now, liberal theology was also known as “modern” theology.
What’s invading mainstream evangelicalism is a new hybrid, and highly subjective, postmodern approach to Christianity. But all these new Gnostics have really done with their secret knowledge gained through Contemplative Spiritualiy/Mysticism, under the guise of the spurious Spiritual Formation, within the EC ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard is to come up with a postliberal theology, which will kill the mainstream denominations just as dead as the original liberal theology once did the mainline denominations.
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The Gospel within a Doctrinal Statement
Every so often I will read the doctrinal statement of churches, schools, organizations and other institutions as is this one is from a school of theology. This is what part of a doctrinal statement looks like. Usually if a person wanted to join a church or institution that had a doctrinal statement, the person would have to sign a statement of agreement or agree audibly.
Sometimes though as a person grows to maturity in Christ, that person might want to read again the doctrinal statement they signed or agreed to when maturity was lacking in themselves. Sometimes it will get to a point where the agreement becomes awkward and you may have to put up and shut up or “move along”. This may be a hill to die on.
I like this partial statement and the whole one from where I copied it. Notice how it refers to the God Head three in One.
By His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus made a perfect atonement for sin, by which the wrath of God against sinners is appeased and a ground furnished upon which God can deal in mercy with sinners. He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse in our place. He who Himself was absolutely without sin was made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The Lord Jesus is coming again to his earth, personally, bodily, and visibly. The return of our Lord is the blessed hope of the believer, and in it God’s purposes of grace toward mankind will find their consummation.
The Holy Spirit is a person, and is possessed of all the distinctively divine attributes. He is God.
Man was created in the image of God, after His likeness, but the whole human race fell in the fall of the first Adam. All men, until they accept the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, are lost, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, hardened in heart, morally and spiritually dead through their trespasses and sins. They cannot see, nor enter the Kingdom of God until they are born again of the Holy Spirit.
Men are justified on the simple and single ground of the shed blood of Christ and upon the simple and single condition of faith in Him who shed the blood, and are born again by the quickening, renewing, cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, through the instrumentality of the Word of God.
All those who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Lord, and who confess Him as such before their fellow men, become children of God and receive eternal life. They become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. At death their spirits depart to be with Christ in conscious blessedness, and at the Second Coming of Christ their bodies shall be raised and transformed into the likeness of the body of His glory.
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Joshua and the Battle of Lust?
- Tom Sadowski open air preaching
Saturday night Tom, Tim, Jon, and I went out to the Dallas Cowboys playoff game. Let me reiterate something here, the new stadium was custom built for open air preaching! Exterior glass walls leaning at an angle almost funnel like. Big at the top and then smaller at the bottom. The sound from an amplifier will bounce downward to the ground where people are hoopin it up. Jerry Jones is the billionaire that built the biggest stadium so we would have a great place with thousands of people to preach. Jerry still fails the good person test though.
All four of us preached, and all four of us were heckled. I believe when a person feels he has to say something to us to try to jostle us, he is feeling the “pinch” of his conscience. It is a kind of conviction that provokes action. Only their action is verbal (most of the time) and loud. Because a heckler disagrees with what he hears, he feels compelled to let everyone else know what he thinks. If we would leave Christ and the Scripture out of the open air sermon, we would not ever be heckled, only praised.
Hecklers are one side of the coin. The other is the conscience of those who call themselves Christians to give us the proverbial “high five”. Because we have a vantage point up high on a bench, most of the time we see them coming. You see the rowdiness in their action as they cross the street. You then see that they hear the Word and that they notice what we are doing. When they pass by, they too have to say something to soothe their conscience. I am not saying this is good or bad. I just think it is interesting to see conviction on both sides.
After we were there for some time, in those cold temperatures, I was finally able to talk to a man named Joshua. I do not know about you, but when I hear a Bible name I wonder right away why they have that name. In the case of Joshua, his father was a pastor! Why so much passion? Let me tell you. When the questions bite into their conscience you get a lot of information as though you were in a confessional (gross).
Once I knew his name and his father’s profession in life, I asked him, “If God took your life tonight would you be ready?” Shaking his head at the same time, without much hesitation, he said “No”! I stared at him for a second to let it sink in deeply. Not knowing how much time I had with him, I had hoped he learned something from dad. I knew I probably did not need to explain sin but, I went to the Ten Commandments as soon as possible. The Commandments showed him his sin. I then asked if he was concerned at all about not being prepared for eternity. He was. I said, “Don’t you know the wrath of God abides on you right now?” I told him I would be scared if I were him. He said yes he was scared.
He began feeling convicted. He said that he would be looking for a church soon. He mentioned that his girlfriend attends church. She was not just any girlfriend, but a Dallas Cowboys Dancer. I did not know of any such thing. Anyway, I knew from this information that this man was not going to attend church anytime soon. This is what I mean:
8 Passing through the street near her corner;
And he takes the way to her house,
9 In the twilight, in the evening,
In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10 And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
11 She is boisterous and rebellious,
Her feet do not remain at home;
12 She is now in the streets, now in the squares,
And lurks by every corner.
13 So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a brazen face she says to him:
14 “I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.
15 “Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.
16 “I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt.
17 “I have sprinkled my bed
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 “Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
19 “For my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;
20 He has taken a bag of money with him,
At the full moon he will come home.”
21 With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
22 Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
23 Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Joshua asked if I knew of a church in Denton. I did and mentioned Denton Bible Church. He told me he had to meet with a friend. I said I understood. Joshua knows the Gospel today because someone was willing to freeze off their south ends and open their north end and explain it, talk it, with passion and urgency. Joshua must repent and ask God for mercy unless he should go eternal torment.
NOTE: I know one man personally and some from afar who explain eternal torment, hell, and lake of fire to mean to be separated from God. This is a disservice to say it like that. Scripture does not say “your are going to suffer by being “separated” from God. Scripture is clear, you will suffer because you will burn in the lake that burns with fire. God does not need our help to make His word softer to the ear.
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Open Air Preaching? Who Listens Anyway?
No one listens anyway, do they?
Read what Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892), wrote:
You that preach in the streets, go on preaching Him. I saw a man preaching the other day with no creature but one dog to listen to him, and I really thought that he might as well have gone home. But I met with a story yesterday, which I know to be true, and it showed me that I was making a mistake. There was a woman who for years had been is such dreadful despair that she would not even hear the gospel.
She became very ill, and she said to one that called on her, “You sent a man to preach under my window 3 months ago, and I got a blessing.”
“No,” the friend said, “I never sent anyone to preach under your window.”
“Oh,” she said, “I think you did, for he came and preached, and my maid said that there was no one listening to him. I did not want to hear him; and as he made so much noise , my maid shut the window, and I lay down in bed; but the man shouted so that I was obliged to hear him; and I thank God he did, for I heard the gospel, and I found Christ. Did you not send him?”
“No,” said the good man, “I did not.”
“Well,” she said, “then God did. There was nobody in the street listening to him; but I heard the gospel, and I got out of my despair, and I found the Savior, and I am prepared to die.”
Fire away, brethren! You do not know where your shot will strike, but “there’s a billet for every bullet.”
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