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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Egghead and Carrie

Location: Downtown Chattanooga

After passing out a few Gospel tracts and trying to get loosened up (I was really nervous as I started out this morning), I stopped Johnny as he was walking down the sidewalk. He kept referring to God as his “higher power”.

So I finally stopped him and ask, “Is your higher power the God of the Bible?”
“Yes, He sure is.” He told me.

We kept talking but he couldn’t understand, at first, why God will not just forgive you if you asked. So I asked him if a judge would forgive him if he raped and murdered someone but said he was sorry and he wouldn’t do it again. He said “Well, maybe if it’s just your first offense and if you didn’t have a prior record.”

“What?! A judge would let someone go for murder and rape? No, Johnny if a judge is a good judge then he must make sure that justice is served and people are punished for their crimes. Right? How much more just do you think God will be? How much more angry do you think God will be a murderer than a human judge?”
“I see what you mean now” He said.

As Johnny and I parted ways I passed an older gentleman who was wearing a suit and tie on his way to work. I stopped him and offered him a Smart Card gospel tract. He said “What is this?” I told him just put your thumb on the card and if you’re a good person it will turn green. “Oh, I see.” He said, “I don’t like these judgmental things.” Then he quickly walked away. I thought to myself, “If you think I’m judgmental just wait until Judgment Day, pal” I’ll be praying for him.

A few blocks away I pasted by a young lady who really looked bad. She had two black eyes, a swollen face, and cuts along the side of her chin and face. I passed by and told her hello, but I felt a nudging from the Holy Spirit to talk to her. I disobeyed and she passed by. I prayed, “Lord I’m so sorry if you give me another opportunity to speak with her I promise I will.” Well, about 15 minutes later she was sitting down at a table with an old man reading a book or something. I was hesitant about talking to her because I was thinking that maybe she was beat up by the guy sitting at the table with her and he might try and mess me up too! Just then I thought about some advice from my friend Keith Higgins from http://www.savedfromwhat.org/ . Keith told me that Satan uses our assumptions against us to make us think people will not want to hear what we have to say or that they are going to be hostile to us.

Keeping his advice in mind I went over the table and introduced myself to them both. The old man’s name was Egghead and the lady’s name was Carrie. Egghead was drawing on a notepad so I asked him if he would show me what he was drawing. Egghead and I exchanged some 1-liner jokes and Carrie began to tell me what happened to her. She told me that she was drunk, high and was with her boyfriend who was messed up on crack. He freaked out and told her the cops were coming (they weren’t). She took off running in the dark and fell off of a 6 foot high wall. Not only did she damage her face, but her left leg was hurt, multiple teeth had been knocked out, and on top of that she is having surgery done next week on her jaw. The doctors are going to have to break her jaw and wire it back shut again. I witnessed to her with Egghead speaking up every once in a while. She told me that she did not have a Bible. So this weekend I am going to buy her one and take it to her downtown on Monday morning. Please pray for her. I spent about 30 minutes with them this morning. This is what I call a Divine Appointment.
Ty

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Always Be Ready - Jehovah's Witnesses

Be sure and check out the "What's New?" section or download here. I have just finished an outline of the DVD teaching "The Jehovah's Witnesses" by Always Be Ready Ministries. It's taken alot of work to put it together so I hope you enjoy, learn, and reach out in love to our deceived friends. Thank you.
Ty

Monday, June 30, 2008

Downtown Evangelism

Location: Downtown Chattanooga

For some reason this morning I felt a little bit rusty during my normal witnessing routine. I kept plugging away though and trying to find people to talk to. I was blessed to have been able to talk to as many people as I did this morning. I first talked with two couples at the bus stop. Couple #1 was a pretty straight forward chat. The boyfriend didn’t seem to be too crazy about what I had to say, he didn’t say too much at all. Couple #2 was a great talk. I had to talk so loudly to overcome the roar of the buses that I felt like I was almost open-air preaching.

Until today I had never spoken to a Jewish person out on the streets. This morning I was able to speak with Aaron. He wasn’t a strict Jew but he said that he did go to synagogue to show respect to his parents. I took him through the Law of Moses and we talked about how the Old Testament speaks of a lamb sacrifice. I also told him that John the Baptist called Jesus “The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. I also read parts of Isaiah 53 to him that speaks of the Messiah. This was a great eye opener for me, something else to study and learn.

Walter and I had a good chat. He was a professing Christian but wanted to know why people worship on Sunday when the Sabbath is Saturday. I asked him to read Colossians 2, and to look at the Book of Acts and notice what day of the week the disciples began to meet together. Lastly was Edward. After I presented Law and Grace to him he told me that he was glad that we ran into each other because he needed a wakeup call. Whether I “feel” on or off my game, so to speak, I will continue to preach the Gospel to honor and glorify God.
Ty

Friday, June 27, 2008

How will the scales tip for you?


Ty

Monday, June 23, 2008

John Travolta Takes a Million Dollars


Ty

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Fishing with D.I.R.T.

On Saturday of this past weekend I was finally able to meet up with a few of my evangelists friends. Keith Higgins from http://www.savedfromwhat.org/ and Josh Rogers were heading out to Hamilton Place to help train a group of teenagers as they shared their faith inside the mall. An organization called D.I.R.T. was heading up the event. The DIRT crew helps train youth groups for community service, worshipping, and evangelism. Keith and Josh were kind enough to invite me to go out with them to witness and help train the youths that were participating. The three of us got to the mall a little early so we began to witness to the shoppers. I was able to spend some time with Keith as he shared the Gospel with a group of 4 teenagers, 2 Hispanic guys, and a Jewish woman from Israel. Listening to Keith witness was amazing. He actually spoke Spanish to the Hispanic guys. I didn’t know what to do. I was about to just shake hands with the guys and send them on their way when Keith began to speak to them in Spanish. He said something like “Trust God and believe in Jesus Christ”. I couldn’t believe it!

The Jewish lady that we spoke with told us that she had seen Passion of the Christ and it was difficult for her to watch and that she had also been to church a time or two while here in America. Keith spoke to her about the Hebrew Scriptures which spoke of the Messiah. He pointed her to prophecies concerning Jesus and asked her to keep in touch with him. Again, amazing to hear…

Most of the time that I go out to witness I go alone. So it was so refreshing and encouraging to be with people who see the urgency in telling people about Jesus. I know Keith and Josh are both busy men but it would be an honor to serve Christ with them again. I have so many ideas for outreaches here in the Chattanooga area. God is beginning to open up doors, big doors. Pray that I will be faithful to Him.
Ty

Friday, June 20, 2008

Justice or Grace? Your choice...

Now that Riverbend is over I am getting back in the saddle of going downtown to share the Gospel with the folks of Chattanooga. This morning I was feeling a little rusty but I quickly got back in the swing of things. The very first thing I noticed where two Jehovah’s Witnesses passing out their Watchtower literature to people sitting at the bus stop. I reached into my tract wallet and realized I had left my Warning tracts at home. “Oh great!” I thought. Now what? So I sat down beside one lady and gently asked a few questions about her spiritual beliefs and warned her of the Watchtower magazine. These two JW’s were walking down the sidewalk giving this junk out to everybody they found. “That’s enough! I’m printing a ton of warning tracts and I’m going to cover downtown with them.” I thought to myself.

I was witnessing to a young man named Chris when a JW came up to us and offered a Watchtower magazine. Chris took it, but I asked the man “I’ll take one but if you will wait a few minutes we can talk about your literature you’re giving out.”

“What’s wrong with my literature?” He said.

“I didn’t say anything was wrong with it. I said if you will give me just a minute we can discuss what you have there.” I replied back. He just turned and walked away down the sidewalk. After I was finished witnessing to Chris I told him who the JW’s were and what they believed. I asked him to not read the magazine but to put it in the trash. He smiled, took my tracts, and left the Watchtower book behind. So I picked it up and put it where it belongs…in the garbage!

I was witnessing to someone standing on the sidewalk when a young lady walked up to us and handed us both a “Smart Card” tract. I stared at it for a moment. I couldn’t believe it! I just got tracted by a Living Waters tract. Cool! I said “Hey wait a minute!” and I showed her the tracts that I had in my hand. I reached into my backpack and gave her about 70 to 80 of the giant 100 dollar bill tracts. I also asked her to go to my website and email me. I was so shocked this happened. God continues to awe me with the blessings that He hands out. My prayer is that God opens doors to create a Chattanooga based evangelism team and I need evangelists to do that.

I noticed Darryl sitting next to the entrance of the courthouse downtown. I passed a tract to him and asked if I could sit down for a talk. Darryl said something really interesting to me. When I was going through the Law with him I said “Ok, Darryl I’ve given you the bad news now here is the good news.
He said “Yes, please give me the good news!” He was truly convicted. He knew that if God had judged him right them he was headed for Hell. It turned out that Darryl was at the courthouse because he had to turn himself in. He told me he had to pay attention to this because the Lord was trying to get his attention. Wow! How cool is that? The Law did its work in bringing the knowledge of sin and judgment to him. He wanted the good news of the Gospel because he knew that he would be helpless before God on Judgment Day. The Law of God truly lead us to the foot of the cross (Gal 3:24). It is there that we see Jesus not as our condemning Judge put as our faithful Savior.
Ty

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Take The Plunge!


How many of us would jump into freezing water to save our child if they were drowning? What about if it was a loved one in the icy water? A complete stranger maybe? I would hope that any of us would plunge into the sub zero temperatures to save anyone. It would be the ultimate betrayal if we just sat still while someone drowned before our very eyes. The condition of the lost is much the same way. Put aside your own fears and hesitations. Who do you know who isn't saved? What are you waiting for? How would you feel if he or she was snatched into eternity and gone forever? Don't put off what you know you must do. Further the kingdom and tell someone of the risen Lord today!
Ty