Hi
Well Saturday night came and the regular crew (Jason, Luke, Mark, and myself), headed down to Deep Ellum. Frankly, it was a very frustrating night. The devil was definitely working hard against us, not only on the people down there but on myself. It seemed like everyone we talked to was very closed off and unresponsive. Jason and I teamed up and we talked to several people one of whom was named Rene. Jason stopped to talk to her and she asked that we not talk to her because she had had a bad experience with someone that night who tried to talk to her about the Gospel and they were very abrasive, hard, and unkind. It reminds me that the Word of God is like a double-edged sword but that we should speak the Truth in love. I don't know the people who talked to her and whether they were truly abrasive or she was just convicted by the Holy Spirit. Either way it was a good reminder that we represent the Gospel and how we come across to people leaves them with an impression of how Jesus is. That doesn't mean we can be afraid of hurting people's feelings or sugar coating the Truth but that we should speak the Truth in love.
Shalom
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Witnessing to Elvis
Jason's Report:
Four of us last night, Mark, Luke, Anne, and I. We were all kind of tired and none of us felt like going. Feelings however, can be quite misleading, as every single time I have gone down dragging my feet, I always come back with something to click my heels about. Tonight was no exception, although it was frustrating at the same time.
Anne and I joined ranks, and Luke and Mark set off together. Many more people on the streets tonight than there were the last couple of weeks. After passing out quite a few tracts, we struck up a conversation with Jacob and Sonny, two guys hanging out in front of one of the tattoo parlours. Jacob didn't seem too keen on the tract that we had given him, but I pressed on and took him through the good person test. He still didn't seem to be all that enthusiastic about the conversation, but a little ways into the conversation he did claim that he was a Christian and that he was born again. Keeping in mind that it's extremely easy to call oneself a Christian in our country, and being convinced from experience that many people that profess Christianity don't actually know God, or they have an idolatrous concept of God, I went on to talk about the essence of what it means to break the second commandment.(Idolatry) The teaching of scripture would be that it's humanity's nature to commit idolatry by shaping a god in our minds (the place of imagery) that we feel comfortable with, a god that has our moral standards, a god in our image, but a god that is not the God of Truth. (Romans 1:18-25). If our concept is in conflict with the God's character and nature, which he has revealed through his Creation, through his word, and through our consciences ( the word conscience means "with knowledge") then there are only two options: We are wrong about what God is like, or the Bible is wrong. The God revealed in the Bible is a God of Justice (Due 32:4), Righteousness (Psalm 111:3), Holiness (1 Samuel 2:2) and Truth (Psalm 119:160) (I didn't have these verses at the time, looked up the scriptures while writing this) How in the world could God change simply because you or I conceive him to be a certain way? Idolatry is just a way to be comfortable with your sin. A golden calf has no moral dictates so when that's your idea of God, you can do what you want. Tragically, it's the oldest sin in the book, and the bible warns that Idolatorers won't inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 5:5) I think that was laying it on pretty heavy, because he responded with a slight amount of contempt by saying " Do you have any idea what you're talking about?. I cheerfully told him I did (if only because it agrees with the bible) .
Sigh.Sometimes conversations with people who profess to be Christians are the most difficult since it's often where we experience the most opposition when trying to share the biblical gospel. You would think that a Christian would rejoice that the Gospel is being preached, but many whom we talk to that profess to be Christians often have nothing but scathing criticism about the method or the spirit in which it's being done, which runs contrary to what Paul said in Philipians 1:15-18
We also talked to people with the following names. Elvis (hence the title of this post), Rene, Will, Fred, Derrick.
Four of us last night, Mark, Luke, Anne, and I. We were all kind of tired and none of us felt like going. Feelings however, can be quite misleading, as every single time I have gone down dragging my feet, I always come back with something to click my heels about. Tonight was no exception, although it was frustrating at the same time.
Anne and I joined ranks, and Luke and Mark set off together. Many more people on the streets tonight than there were the last couple of weeks. After passing out quite a few tracts, we struck up a conversation with Jacob and Sonny, two guys hanging out in front of one of the tattoo parlours. Jacob didn't seem too keen on the tract that we had given him, but I pressed on and took him through the good person test. He still didn't seem to be all that enthusiastic about the conversation, but a little ways into the conversation he did claim that he was a Christian and that he was born again. Keeping in mind that it's extremely easy to call oneself a Christian in our country, and being convinced from experience that many people that profess Christianity don't actually know God, or they have an idolatrous concept of God, I went on to talk about the essence of what it means to break the second commandment.(Idolatry) The teaching of scripture would be that it's humanity's nature to commit idolatry by shaping a god in our minds (the place of imagery) that we feel comfortable with, a god that has our moral standards, a god in our image, but a god that is not the God of Truth. (Romans 1:18-25). If our concept is in conflict with the God's character and nature, which he has revealed through his Creation, through his word, and through our consciences ( the word conscience means "with knowledge") then there are only two options: We are wrong about what God is like, or the Bible is wrong. The God revealed in the Bible is a God of Justice (Due 32:4), Righteousness (Psalm 111:3), Holiness (1 Samuel 2:2) and Truth (Psalm 119:160) (I didn't have these verses at the time, looked up the scriptures while writing this) How in the world could God change simply because you or I conceive him to be a certain way? Idolatry is just a way to be comfortable with your sin. A golden calf has no moral dictates so when that's your idea of God, you can do what you want. Tragically, it's the oldest sin in the book, and the bible warns that Idolatorers won't inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 5:5) I think that was laying it on pretty heavy, because he responded with a slight amount of contempt by saying " Do you have any idea what you're talking about?. I cheerfully told him I did (if only because it agrees with the bible) .
Sigh.Sometimes conversations with people who profess to be Christians are the most difficult since it's often where we experience the most opposition when trying to share the biblical gospel. You would think that a Christian would rejoice that the Gospel is being preached, but many whom we talk to that profess to be Christians often have nothing but scathing criticism about the method or the spirit in which it's being done, which runs contrary to what Paul said in Philipians 1:15-18
Phi 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.Even if we were preaching Christ for the wrong motive, according to Paul, just the fact that Christ is preached is occasion to rejoice, yet so many in deep ellum who profess to be Christians don't see it that way. That's where saturating our points with scripture can be so effective, especially with someone who is making the claim that the're a Christian. I often see two reactions to this. Either the person becomes really agitated or critical of what you're saying (convicted perhaps?) , or the word of God begins to really command their respect. I believe the latter was the case with Jacob at the end of the conversation. Please pray for him, since it was really hard to discern what the sate of his heart really was. "For out of the mouth speaks the abundance of the heart." (Matt 12:34)
Phi 1:16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
Phi 1:17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Phi 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,
We also talked to people with the following names. Elvis (hence the title of this post), Rene, Will, Fred, Derrick.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Verbose Religiosity
Report from Jason:
Deep Ellum wasn't nearly as busy as normal. Just three of us tonight, Mark, Dorothy, and myself. Dorothy is from Germany and was here in Dallas as a foreign exchange student a couple of years ago, and she's been back to visit this summer. She went out with us a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to come again before she returned to Germany.
Last week on the drive back from Deep Ellum we had a discussion about what being led by the spirit means. One of the main points of discussion was, how much a person should be led by the spirit when witnessing or sharing the Gospel? Before we set out on the streets we always stop to pray and ask God to give us boldness and courage and trust that he'll be with us to lead us to the specific people that he wants us to talk to. You see, I don't very often experience a situation where I see a person on the street and I feel aware of a distinct impression that God wants me to go talk to that person. My assumption is that everyone needs to hear and understand the truth, and so I operate off that assumption, and trust that God will honor the faithful sharing of his word. I assume this because one of the fundamental doctrines of orthodox Christianity is that the Spirit of God isn't going to contradict the scriptures, and with that in mind I read Matthew 16:15 and it tells me, "Go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every creature." This is a very straightforward statement. You could say, "Well, but Jesus was talking to his 11 disciples at the time," BUT, if we claim the name of Christ, then WE ARE ALSO his disciples. The word "Christian" is just a name that people eventually started using to refer to anyone who was a disciple of Christ. (See Acts 11:26) Mark Cahill puts it best: "If they're breathing, they need Jesus."
That still leaves the question when witnessing to someone. How much is the spirit of God involved in the matter, and futhermore, how much will we or should we tangibly perceive the spirit of God's involvement or prompting? When we had our prayertime before we set out last night, I kept some of those questions in mind and asked God to demonstrate his faithfulness by using his spirit to guide us and prompt us, and impress us to say something off the wall if necessary, so that we could see evidence of his faithfulness.
Usually we split up into groups of two, but since there were only three of us, one of whom was a girl, we all stuck together. Mark got in several conversations right away, so Dorothy and I mostly passed out tracts (e.g. 1, 2) while we waited for him. I passed out a tract to (Brandon?) and immediately he told us that he was a pastors kid and he knew he shouldn't be out in Deep Ellum that night. I told him that we were also out in Deep Ellum and the important thing was our reason and motive for being there. He was so affected by our small act of giving him a tract that he thanked us several times with this stricken look on his face, as if God had been prompting his conscience all night and all we had to do was give him a tract at the just the right time to complete the process of the holy spirit breaking him down. Pray for Brandon
While Dorothy and I were standing passing out tracts, a fairly large guy dressed in black with slicked back hair walked right up to us and asked us what we were passing out. He was the bouncer for the club that we were near and was concerned that we might be passing out literature about another club and stealing their customers cheerfully told him that it was a gospel tract and placed one firmly in his hand. As soon as he found out that we weren't out to steal his customers he walked away satisfied, unfortunately before I could initiate a conversation, but still with the tract in his hand.
That's when the people we talked to started to get weird. We encountered some people who were quite "religious", and QUITE talkative. The first one was Alan. Alan was a black fellow who was by himself leaning up against a tree on the street, so I popped up in front of him and asked him if he wanted to see a magic trick and held up the curved illusion tract. His enthusiasm about seeing the trick left something to be desired, but I preceded anyway and he was mildly entertained by the optical illusion. Alan considered himself to be a good person, so I started questioning him with the good person test. Right about the point where I asked him if he would be innocent or guilty before God if were he to stand before him on judgment day, Alan immediately began to steer the conversation away from that topic and onto Dorothy and I. He began spouting this nonsensical theory about Adam and Eve and the interrelationship between Man and Woman and how woman could perceive and see things that man couldn't, and because of that Dorothy was "Wisdom" and I was "Knowledge" and a lot of other really far out wacky things. I'm finding it difficult to recall the gist of what he was trying to say now, since Dorothy and I were and still are at a loss as to what exactly he was going on about. It was very difficult to get a word in edgewise, since he kept asking us questions and didn't give us a chance to question his incredibly convoluted premise. I kept trying to swing the conversation back to his responsibility before God, and at one point he told me that I just didn't give up and that I was a fighter, so apparently he was hearing some of what we were saying, but we were unable to really get a dialogue with him after that point. He didn't claim to specifically be a Christian, but he mentioned God's forgiveness several times and claimed to be forgiven by God, but we could sense his unwillingness to discuss that with us, since that was "between him and God". Apparently our tenacity in sticking with the guy through all his incomprehensible religious philosophizing won his respect because he FINALLY wanted to hear the rest of the explanation of the Gospel and the analogy I had started about a good judge in a human court being bound by the law to do justice, but, unfortunately some of his friends arrived right at that moment and ruined any further chance to continue explaining what it was all about. I believe Alan was under the influence of alcohol, and so were his friends that arrived, and the whole conversation made me think of this verse from proverbs. "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has fighting? Who has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long at the wine, those who seek mixed wine. Proverbs 23:29-30. Pray for Alan, he did keep the tract(s) that we gave him.
Then there was Raymond. Raymond saw us handing out tracts and decided it was his duty to ensure that we had the "anointing" to be out witnessing on the street. He reminded me of some of the televangelists that you see all the time on T.V, yet he had a sense of sincerity about him that the majority of televangelists lack. Raymond monopolized the time to tell us everything he had learned about how necessary "the anointing" was and how your your witnessing would fail without it. I suspect he initially thought that we were just some kids out doing our duty for our church and not necessarily really all that committed. As the conversation wore on and we kept agreeing with him (at least with the things he was saying that were clearly scriptural), I think he realized that we esteemed God's Word above anything that he was telling us. Then he calmed down a little bit and the one-way conversation became more of a dialouge.
In addition to the anointing, Raymond was very much into prophecy and so he had something of a "prophecy" for each of us. This was how his "prophecy" for me went.
On our way back to the Car, a guy approached us and just began to pour out his heart. Apparently he could tell we Christians, he must have seen the tracts in our hands. His name was Terry and the way he spoke indicated that he was under so much conviction about his sin. He had been drinking at the time, as indicated in his eyes. He asked us to pray for him and then walked with us all the way back to our car. The best comparison to describe him would be to liken him to the Tax Collecter in Jesus' Parable of the Tax Collecter and the Pharisee. (See below)
Deep Ellum wasn't nearly as busy as normal. Just three of us tonight, Mark, Dorothy, and myself. Dorothy is from Germany and was here in Dallas as a foreign exchange student a couple of years ago, and she's been back to visit this summer. She went out with us a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to come again before she returned to Germany.
Last week on the drive back from Deep Ellum we had a discussion about what being led by the spirit means. One of the main points of discussion was, how much a person should be led by the spirit when witnessing or sharing the Gospel? Before we set out on the streets we always stop to pray and ask God to give us boldness and courage and trust that he'll be with us to lead us to the specific people that he wants us to talk to. You see, I don't very often experience a situation where I see a person on the street and I feel aware of a distinct impression that God wants me to go talk to that person. My assumption is that everyone needs to hear and understand the truth, and so I operate off that assumption, and trust that God will honor the faithful sharing of his word. I assume this because one of the fundamental doctrines of orthodox Christianity is that the Spirit of God isn't going to contradict the scriptures, and with that in mind I read Matthew 16:15 and it tells me, "Go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every creature." This is a very straightforward statement. You could say, "Well, but Jesus was talking to his 11 disciples at the time," BUT, if we claim the name of Christ, then WE ARE ALSO his disciples. The word "Christian" is just a name that people eventually started using to refer to anyone who was a disciple of Christ. (See Acts 11:26) Mark Cahill puts it best: "If they're breathing, they need Jesus."
That still leaves the question when witnessing to someone. How much is the spirit of God involved in the matter, and futhermore, how much will we or should we tangibly perceive the spirit of God's involvement or prompting? When we had our prayertime before we set out last night, I kept some of those questions in mind and asked God to demonstrate his faithfulness by using his spirit to guide us and prompt us, and impress us to say something off the wall if necessary, so that we could see evidence of his faithfulness.
Usually we split up into groups of two, but since there were only three of us, one of whom was a girl, we all stuck together. Mark got in several conversations right away, so Dorothy and I mostly passed out tracts (e.g. 1, 2) while we waited for him. I passed out a tract to (Brandon?) and immediately he told us that he was a pastors kid and he knew he shouldn't be out in Deep Ellum that night. I told him that we were also out in Deep Ellum and the important thing was our reason and motive for being there. He was so affected by our small act of giving him a tract that he thanked us several times with this stricken look on his face, as if God had been prompting his conscience all night and all we had to do was give him a tract at the just the right time to complete the process of the holy spirit breaking him down. Pray for Brandon
While Dorothy and I were standing passing out tracts, a fairly large guy dressed in black with slicked back hair walked right up to us and asked us what we were passing out. He was the bouncer for the club that we were near and was concerned that we might be passing out literature about another club and stealing their customers cheerfully told him that it was a gospel tract and placed one firmly in his hand. As soon as he found out that we weren't out to steal his customers he walked away satisfied, unfortunately before I could initiate a conversation, but still with the tract in his hand.
That's when the people we talked to started to get weird. We encountered some people who were quite "religious", and QUITE talkative. The first one was Alan. Alan was a black fellow who was by himself leaning up against a tree on the street, so I popped up in front of him and asked him if he wanted to see a magic trick and held up the curved illusion tract. His enthusiasm about seeing the trick left something to be desired, but I preceded anyway and he was mildly entertained by the optical illusion. Alan considered himself to be a good person, so I started questioning him with the good person test. Right about the point where I asked him if he would be innocent or guilty before God if were he to stand before him on judgment day, Alan immediately began to steer the conversation away from that topic and onto Dorothy and I. He began spouting this nonsensical theory about Adam and Eve and the interrelationship between Man and Woman and how woman could perceive and see things that man couldn't, and because of that Dorothy was "Wisdom" and I was "Knowledge" and a lot of other really far out wacky things. I'm finding it difficult to recall the gist of what he was trying to say now, since Dorothy and I were and still are at a loss as to what exactly he was going on about. It was very difficult to get a word in edgewise, since he kept asking us questions and didn't give us a chance to question his incredibly convoluted premise. I kept trying to swing the conversation back to his responsibility before God, and at one point he told me that I just didn't give up and that I was a fighter, so apparently he was hearing some of what we were saying, but we were unable to really get a dialogue with him after that point. He didn't claim to specifically be a Christian, but he mentioned God's forgiveness several times and claimed to be forgiven by God, but we could sense his unwillingness to discuss that with us, since that was "between him and God". Apparently our tenacity in sticking with the guy through all his incomprehensible religious philosophizing won his respect because he FINALLY wanted to hear the rest of the explanation of the Gospel and the analogy I had started about a good judge in a human court being bound by the law to do justice, but, unfortunately some of his friends arrived right at that moment and ruined any further chance to continue explaining what it was all about. I believe Alan was under the influence of alcohol, and so were his friends that arrived, and the whole conversation made me think of this verse from proverbs. "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has fighting? Who has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long at the wine, those who seek mixed wine. Proverbs 23:29-30. Pray for Alan, he did keep the tract(s) that we gave him.
Then there was Raymond. Raymond saw us handing out tracts and decided it was his duty to ensure that we had the "anointing" to be out witnessing on the street. He reminded me of some of the televangelists that you see all the time on T.V, yet he had a sense of sincerity about him that the majority of televangelists lack. Raymond monopolized the time to tell us everything he had learned about how necessary "the anointing" was and how your your witnessing would fail without it. I suspect he initially thought that we were just some kids out doing our duty for our church and not necessarily really all that committed. As the conversation wore on and we kept agreeing with him (at least with the things he was saying that were clearly scriptural), I think he realized that we esteemed God's Word above anything that he was telling us. Then he calmed down a little bit and the one-way conversation became more of a dialouge.
In addition to the anointing, Raymond was very much into prophecy and so he had something of a "prophecy" for each of us. This was how his "prophecy" for me went.
RAYMOND: You've had thoughts about becoming a pastor recently, you know that you're going to be a pastor don't you.Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that God doesn't have a plan for me to a pastor. All of my delighting in him just hasn't produced that desire yet. (Psalm 37:4) Perhaps I'm just jaded by all the of-the-wall "prophesies" coming from Tel-evangelists. Or perhaps what I understand from scripture presents the idea that in order to be a true prophet who speaks on behalf of God, the things you prophesy MUST come to pass. Otherwise it's plain you're not speaking on behalf of God, and under OT Law there was a severe pentalty for falsely speaking a word in God's name. (See Duet. 18:20-22 below)
ME: Actually that's not something I've put a great deal of thought into, and I wouldn't say that I've ever really actively considered it.
RAYMOND: Err...But the thought has crossed your mind, right?
ME: I suppose it could have
RAYMOND: I can see that you're going to be a pastor.
ME: Oh..OK...Well if that really is God's desire then he'll certainly open the doors to make it happen.
Deu 18:20 But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.But back to the report. By this point it was getting to be quite late, so in order to close out our conversation with Raymond, Mark asked him if he wanted to have some of our tracts, since OUR main purpose for being there was to be witnessing. Generally with the long-winded relgious types, we've found it often helps determine whether their heart is where their mouth is by offering them tracts and/or asking if they would like to join us in sharing the gospel. After all, if they've got all this time to talk to us, then surely have the time to share the gospel with someone. :) Their response to that offer gives us a good idea of how concerned they are for the lost and how willing they are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus to seek that which is lost. Raymond did take the tracts from us, which was a good sign, and before we left we all prayed together. Please pray for him, he is a Katrina Evacuee and is on his way back to Lousiana to return to his home and his sister (who is already there.)
Deu 18:21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah has not spoken?
Deu 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah, if the thing does not follow nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
On our way back to the Car, a guy approached us and just began to pour out his heart. Apparently he could tell we Christians, he must have seen the tracts in our hands. His name was Terry and the way he spoke indicated that he was under so much conviction about his sin. He had been drinking at the time, as indicated in his eyes. He asked us to pray for him and then walked with us all the way back to our car. The best comparison to describe him would be to liken him to the Tax Collecter in Jesus' Parable of the Tax Collecter and the Pharisee. (See below)
Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-collector.Until next week.....
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed within himself in this way: God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice on the Sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Luk 18:13 And standing afar off, the tax-collector would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but struck on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Jason's Report:
Mark and I started off by having our weekly chat with Tom, one of the parking attendants in Deep Ellum. He is a Christian and he shared with us a great story about God's provision. Earlier this week he didn't know how he was going to be able to afford gas because most of his income is currently going to pay off some debts. A day or two ago a friend just randomly showed up at his door and offered to fill his car and pay for half of it, (i.e. a$1.5o a gallon for gas). The friend had no previous knowledge of Tom's financial situation nor that Tom wouldn't have been able to afford a full tank of gas. (Which he desperately needed) Tom was beaming as he shared God's provision with us. Mark and I were, of course, greatly encouraged by this.
We stopped outside of a restuarant to talk to a guy and his friend David. I gave them some tracts and used the optical illusion tract to strike up a conversation. It became apparent that David was a Christian (or professed to be - he had a beer in his hand and I couldn't tell if he was partly drunk. Whenever people I talk to people who profess to be Christians, I've learned to withold judgement, because often later in a conversation a person will let off a string of profanities when we start talking about sticky things like the ten commandments, or they'll intently oogle every scantily clad female that walks by during our conversation without any qualms of conscience at all, which isn't strong evidence that God is living in them.) David was, however, extremely receptive to what we had to say, and agreed with just about everything we said, and all the scriptures that we shared. He acknowledged the need for a Christian to share their faith as much as possible, and mentioned that he shared his faith with all his friends. The guy with David had to leave in middle of our conversation but I managed to get several tracts in his hand and took him most of the way through the good person test.
I approached Stephanie, a girl who was sitting outside of one of the novelty shops and started up a conversation with her using the curved illusion tract. The tract really broke the ice and then she agreed to go through the good person test. She answered yes to the four questions I asked her (Have you ever told a lie, have you ever stolen something, have you ever looked with lust and committed adultry in your heart, taken God's name in vain and hence admitted to be a liar, theif, adulterer, and blasphemer according to God's standards.) Stephanie had strong convictions against stealing from someone she knew, but had no qualms about stealing from a store where no one was directed affected personally. I reasoned with her about God being a righteous judge and used the analogy of her standing before a good judge who was bound by the law to inflict the punishment the law demanded, which really made sense to her. She seemed somewhat relucant to talk more after going through the Ten Commandments but when I described what Jesus had done for her, comparing him to a friend who had come into her trial and sacrificed everything he had in order to pay her fine, her demeanor changed and I noticed that her eyes were beginning to become teary eyed and when I asked if what I had said made sense and if she understood. I encouraged her to read the Bible and see if it backed up the truth of what I was saying.
The most incredible conversation of the night was with Jamal and D'shane (I think that's his name, but we'll just call him "D"). They were sitting at the side of the street just hanging out so I approached them with the curved illusion tract which was a big hit which allowed me to get into a great conversation. I made the point that our senses and our eyes can be fooled by little things like optical illusions, but none of us want to be decieved about big important things, such as what happened after we die, to which they agreed. I discussed with them how the scriptures talked about mankind being deceived, and how so many people believe that they are good enough to go to heaven or good enough to earn God's favor, and then went right into the Ten Comandments and the good person test to show them that as Scripture says, "there is none good, not one" and that Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice to pay for their sins. It's an apt descritption that the eye is the window to the soul because the change in D's eyes halfway through the conversation conveyed that the Holy Spirit was using our words to have a deeply profound impact on him. A person's eyes can convey so much of the temperment of their heart. Often when I' witness to people and conviction sets in on the person, they start to divert their eyes as much as possible because their conscience is shouting at them and it makes them uncomfortablebeing that vulnerable. I can often sense, however, that something is happening in addition to conviction when their eyes lock on to every word you're saying and they convey in a way that can't be described with words, that they're really stricken and sobered by the truths that you're presenting. (the more scripture I use, the the more often this happens ). D seemed so humbled by what we were saying and when we offerred to pray for him, he was more than willing to comply. I just poured out my heart right there on the street for God to reveal himself to D that night and grant repentance and change D to make him a new person in Christ. Please pray for him!
Mark and I also talked to two black guys, one of whom had quite an extensive Christian background (Baptist) . We actually got in this conversation somewhat by accident, since just prior, Mark had been across the street from me talking to some people near a couple of the clubs that were blaring realy loud music . When we re- joined ranks he was describing to me how he had to basically shout at the people he was talking to because of the music was so loud. He then imitated how loud his voice had to be. This distracted the two black guys in front of us, who thought Mark was shouting at them. I guess we figured they might already be mad at us so we hurried to catch up to them, quickly apologized saying we weren't shouting at them, and then asked if they wanted to see a magic trick, which they did. I showed them the curved illusion tract, and they loved it, so then I brought up Christianity by asking if they had a Christian background, and this opened up the opportunity for us to share for about 5-10 minutes with them. The one who had an extensive Christian background was familiar with all the scripture that I mentioned, and he told me flat out that he knew it but was not living it at all. It was like he knew the truth, but woudln't come to terms that the truth really could and would set him free from his sins. He was very open to everything we said, I think God had done ALOT of sowing in his life, since he certainly had a certain amount of respect for the word of God. I encouraged him as much as I could to sell out all to God, since he agreed and admitted to us that he was in the luke-warm category. Iterestingly enough God put him in our path because we passed him on the street about 3 more times during the night.
Wow. What a wonderful night, I'm really in awe of God's faithfulnness. Thanks for praying!
Mark and I started off by having our weekly chat with Tom, one of the parking attendants in Deep Ellum. He is a Christian and he shared with us a great story about God's provision. Earlier this week he didn't know how he was going to be able to afford gas because most of his income is currently going to pay off some debts. A day or two ago a friend just randomly showed up at his door and offered to fill his car and pay for half of it, (i.e. a$1.5o a gallon for gas). The friend had no previous knowledge of Tom's financial situation nor that Tom wouldn't have been able to afford a full tank of gas. (Which he desperately needed) Tom was beaming as he shared God's provision with us. Mark and I were, of course, greatly encouraged by this.
We stopped outside of a restuarant to talk to a guy and his friend David. I gave them some tracts and used the optical illusion tract to strike up a conversation. It became apparent that David was a Christian (or professed to be - he had a beer in his hand and I couldn't tell if he was partly drunk. Whenever people I talk to people who profess to be Christians, I've learned to withold judgement, because often later in a conversation a person will let off a string of profanities when we start talking about sticky things like the ten commandments, or they'll intently oogle every scantily clad female that walks by during our conversation without any qualms of conscience at all, which isn't strong evidence that God is living in them.) David was, however, extremely receptive to what we had to say, and agreed with just about everything we said, and all the scriptures that we shared. He acknowledged the need for a Christian to share their faith as much as possible, and mentioned that he shared his faith with all his friends. The guy with David had to leave in middle of our conversation but I managed to get several tracts in his hand and took him most of the way through the good person test.
I approached Stephanie, a girl who was sitting outside of one of the novelty shops and started up a conversation with her using the curved illusion tract. The tract really broke the ice and then she agreed to go through the good person test. She answered yes to the four questions I asked her (Have you ever told a lie, have you ever stolen something, have you ever looked with lust and committed adultry in your heart, taken God's name in vain and hence admitted to be a liar, theif, adulterer, and blasphemer according to God's standards.) Stephanie had strong convictions against stealing from someone she knew, but had no qualms about stealing from a store where no one was directed affected personally. I reasoned with her about God being a righteous judge and used the analogy of her standing before a good judge who was bound by the law to inflict the punishment the law demanded, which really made sense to her. She seemed somewhat relucant to talk more after going through the Ten Commandments but when I described what Jesus had done for her, comparing him to a friend who had come into her trial and sacrificed everything he had in order to pay her fine, her demeanor changed and I noticed that her eyes were beginning to become teary eyed and when I asked if what I had said made sense and if she understood. I encouraged her to read the Bible and see if it backed up the truth of what I was saying.
The most incredible conversation of the night was with Jamal and D'shane (I think that's his name, but we'll just call him "D"). They were sitting at the side of the street just hanging out so I approached them with the curved illusion tract which was a big hit which allowed me to get into a great conversation. I made the point that our senses and our eyes can be fooled by little things like optical illusions, but none of us want to be decieved about big important things, such as what happened after we die, to which they agreed. I discussed with them how the scriptures talked about mankind being deceived, and how so many people believe that they are good enough to go to heaven or good enough to earn God's favor, and then went right into the Ten Comandments and the good person test to show them that as Scripture says, "there is none good, not one" and that Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice to pay for their sins. It's an apt descritption that the eye is the window to the soul because the change in D's eyes halfway through the conversation conveyed that the Holy Spirit was using our words to have a deeply profound impact on him. A person's eyes can convey so much of the temperment of their heart. Often when I' witness to people and conviction sets in on the person, they start to divert their eyes as much as possible because their conscience is shouting at them and it makes them uncomfortablebeing that vulnerable. I can often sense, however, that something is happening in addition to conviction when their eyes lock on to every word you're saying and they convey in a way that can't be described with words, that they're really stricken and sobered by the truths that you're presenting. (the more scripture I use, the the more often this happens ). D seemed so humbled by what we were saying and when we offerred to pray for him, he was more than willing to comply. I just poured out my heart right there on the street for God to reveal himself to D that night and grant repentance and change D to make him a new person in Christ. Please pray for him!
Mark and I also talked to two black guys, one of whom had quite an extensive Christian background (Baptist) . We actually got in this conversation somewhat by accident, since just prior, Mark had been across the street from me talking to some people near a couple of the clubs that were blaring realy loud music . When we re- joined ranks he was describing to me how he had to basically shout at the people he was talking to because of the music was so loud. He then imitated how loud his voice had to be. This distracted the two black guys in front of us, who thought Mark was shouting at them. I guess we figured they might already be mad at us so we hurried to catch up to them, quickly apologized saying we weren't shouting at them, and then asked if they wanted to see a magic trick, which they did. I showed them the curved illusion tract, and they loved it, so then I brought up Christianity by asking if they had a Christian background, and this opened up the opportunity for us to share for about 5-10 minutes with them. The one who had an extensive Christian background was familiar with all the scripture that I mentioned, and he told me flat out that he knew it but was not living it at all. It was like he knew the truth, but woudln't come to terms that the truth really could and would set him free from his sins. He was very open to everything we said, I think God had done ALOT of sowing in his life, since he certainly had a certain amount of respect for the word of God. I encouraged him as much as I could to sell out all to God, since he agreed and admitted to us that he was in the luke-warm category. Iterestingly enough God put him in our path because we passed him on the street about 3 more times during the night.
Wow. What a wonderful night, I'm really in awe of God's faithfulnness. Thanks for praying!
Hi! We are Gregg, Jason, Anne, Luke, and Mark. Every weekend we go down to Deep Ellum, in downtown Dallas, to witness and share our faith on the streets. The purpose of this blog is to journal our experiences so that you, our brothers and sisters in Christ, can pray for the people that we interact with each week. May this blog and the work that He has called us to do honor and glorify God.
Anne's Report:
Last night we went out around 11:30PM, prayed, and set out down the streets of Deep Ellum two by two. Luke and I paired up and Jason and Mark paired up. Every week we talk to multiple people but there's always that one person that God sends your way who makes the whole night worth while. Last night that person was Peter. He is 21 and a Jew from Russia. Peter and a group of friends were hanging out and Luke and I stopped to give them tracts. We waited while they read them and Luke started talking to some of the guys while Peter asked me a question about the tract. We began to talk and soon Luke joined the conversation. Peter was very open and we talked for about a half an hour. He seemed convicted and at the end of the conversation I asked him what he was thinking. Peter replied that he has recently had multiple people in his life talk to him about God, such as a fellow soldier during basic training, a coworker, and now us. I responded that I did not think that it was a coincedence to which he quietly and thoughtful replied "yeah". It was a great conversation and I could see God working in his heart and wooing him. Please pray for Peter that God will continue wooing him and that Peter will soon become part of the family.
Anne's Report:
Last night we went out around 11:30PM, prayed, and set out down the streets of Deep Ellum two by two. Luke and I paired up and Jason and Mark paired up. Every week we talk to multiple people but there's always that one person that God sends your way who makes the whole night worth while. Last night that person was Peter. He is 21 and a Jew from Russia. Peter and a group of friends were hanging out and Luke and I stopped to give them tracts. We waited while they read them and Luke started talking to some of the guys while Peter asked me a question about the tract. We began to talk and soon Luke joined the conversation. Peter was very open and we talked for about a half an hour. He seemed convicted and at the end of the conversation I asked him what he was thinking. Peter replied that he has recently had multiple people in his life talk to him about God, such as a fellow soldier during basic training, a coworker, and now us. I responded that I did not think that it was a coincedence to which he quietly and thoughtful replied "yeah". It was a great conversation and I could see God working in his heart and wooing him. Please pray for Peter that God will continue wooing him and that Peter will soon become part of the family.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Welcome to the Streetlight Ministries blog! Join us from week to week as we share our experiences from the streets of Deep Ellum, illuminating hearts and minds to the true Light of the World.Mat 10:27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Joh 8:12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
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