2011 Floyd Family Pictures

I am very excited to post a few of our favorite pictures from a recent photo session with my friend and our family Photographer, Rhonda. This was Rhonda's 9th year taking pictures of our family. Here is her website;
http://rhondaprobstphotography.zenfolio.com

Witnessing to Family, it's fearfilling for sure!!

If you have heard that witnessing to family and friends is hard, they are not lying!! I will have to give you some details so please hang with me. My sister Rhonda and her boy friend John came for a visit just before Thanksgiving. Rhonda is moving to Illinois to live with John. Rhonda has been living in Houston. We (my husband and I) have shared the Gospel many of times with Rhonda in the past. She has listened to Hell’s Best Kept Secret and True and False Conversion. Although this was our first time meeting John.

Since Rhonda called to tell me that she was moving to Illinois and they would be stopping by for a visit. I felt like we needed to share the Gospel by opening our mouths and speaking the TRUTH. (even though Richie was the one who did most of the talking) I started praying A LOT!! It is hard to share with family and friends. But I knew this is the most loving and compassionate thing we could say or do for them.

As we sat down to have dessert I asked John, what kind of religious back ground does he have? He shared that he went to church some as a child but not much. The influence he has had with church has made him out to feel dumb and stupid, because he didn’t know much about the bible. He also shared that he saw a lot of pretenders in the church.

Richie presented the law and gospel in a testimonial way. Richie told John how he looked at the 10 commandments and explained how it’s a mirror. The law does not save us but merely shows us how sinful we are. Richie told John he was going to share with him a true biblical gospel message. Richie explained the Cross, repentance and putting your faith and trust in God. John was very receptive, although my sister seemed to be a little put out. She never said anything, but her body language spoke volumes. I think she was concerned we would address their sin of living together.

We explained that we love them so much, that is why we share this with them. Richie and I cried buckets for what God did that night. Don’t know about you but talking to a stranger is fear filling, but talking to a family member is that much more fear filling. I have been learning to overcome the fear of man, in all areas of my life not just in evangelism.

Let this encourage you to speak the truth to your loved ones this Christmas season. Please pray for John and Rhonda's salvation. Thank you!!!

Looking to our Great King,
Renee

The Gospel According to Islam

This is an article by John MacArthur which I thought relevant to our evangelism endeavor. We must be sensitive to Muslims and learn more about them, their culture, and religion so that we might be effective witnesses for the Gospel. See the picture and my notes below.

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the already ecumenical climate in America has reached new heights. In an effort to distinguish between the extremist Muslim terrorists and the mainstream Muslim population, the media has called for an even higher level of tolerance and acceptance of the religion of Islam than usual.

In a 2002 issue of Newsweek, for instance, religion editor Kenneth Woodward asserts that “mere tolerance of other religions is not enough” and that “even the acceptance of other religions as valid paths to God is insufficient” (“How Should We Think About Islam?” Newsweek, December 31, 2001 / January 7, 2002, p. 104). According to Woodward, “the most important theological agenda of the new millennium” is for committed Christians, Jews, and Muslims to “find within their own traditions sound theological reasons for valuing other faiths without compromising their own” (ibid., pp. 104-05).

Sadly, the influence of this sentiment can be seen even in the church. In fact, in a relatively recent Christianity Today article, Wheaton College professor James Lewis recommends that Christians “seek Muslim prayer partners and together beseech the true, one and only God to have mercy on us” (“Does God Hear Muslims’ Prayers?” Christianity Today, February 4, 2002, p. 31).

When evangelicals capitulate and attempt to soften the offense of the gospel in this way, they blur the lines between the god of Islam and the God of the Bible. But now is not the time for blurring lines. Now is the time to draw lines—lines between truth and error, and between the one path to heaven and the many paths to hell.

Islam rejects the Trinity and the God of the Bible, insisting instead that Allah alone is the one true deity. It denies that Jesus is God, that He died on the cross, and that He was raised from the dead. Instead, say Muslims, Jesus was but one of thousands of prophets sent by Allah, the greatest of them being Mohammed. In other words, Jesus was merely a man.

Islam rejects the salvation of forgiveness through Christ, teaching that only Muslims can be saved. According to the Koran, if a person follows Islam and does enough good deeds to outweigh the bad, Allah may allow him to enter paradise, but even then he can’t be certain. The only sure pathway to heaven is killing and being killed in jihad, a holy war.

Islam gives lip service to the Bible as a holy book, but it undermines and denies every fundamental doctrine about sin and salvation taught in the Bible. In fact, Islam today is the most powerful system on earth for the destruction of biblical truth and Christianity—thousands of Christians are dying under Islamic persecution, especially in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia.

Clearly, Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Both claim to be the only true way to God, but both cannot be right. There is no atonement in Islam, no forgiveness, no savior, and no assurance of eternal life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope; Islam is a religion of hopelessness.

Making these kinds of distinctions may not be politically correct, but it is critical if the purity of the gospel is to be protected. Put simply, there is no salvation outside of Christ. When this truth is compromised, the gospel is abandoned—and so is the only hope that we can offer to those who are not our enemies, but rather our mission field.



I was having a great time talking with this Muslim family until my wife took a picture; no fault of Renee's. It was dusk and the flash went off, as soon as the flash went off the young man in the picture next to me went from willing to listen to very defense and no longer want me around. I apologized for offending them and politely bowed out of this witnessing encounter. Up until the picture I was engaged with these people; a word to the wise if you are witnessing to Muslims don't take pictures unless you can be sure they will be unawares.

Like father like daughter

One Friday evening I went out "fishing" with Richie and Renee who I meet on www.adventuresinchristianity.com and a group from their church. I talked with a young lady who was standing alone. I asked if she was with someone. She said she was with her dad. So I began talking with her about her beliefs. She said she believes that all people go to heaven after they die. I said across the board, everyone, no matter what. She said "thats just what I believe" I explain to her why that is not possible by taking her through the law. While I was still in the courtroom with her, so to speak, her dad walked up. So I started talking to him about the same thing. I asked him what he believes happens after you die. He said word for word what his daughter said. All go to heaven, no matter what "thats just what I believe". It was like I was talking to the same person and having the same conversation over again.
Finally I got to tell him that only those who are forgivien by Jesus will go to heaven everyone else will go to hell. He was like yea Jesus that's what I meant. I explain to him that is not what he said at first. He stared getting upset with me. So I let them go about their business. Of course not with out a million dollar bill.
The moral of the story is what you believe does affect your children. She was just as lost as he was. She had the same twisted beliefs he did. It was the blind father leading his blind daughter. Not a good thing. Be sure of what you believe. If you are squishy in your belief know that your children will be as well. If you have a low view of God chances are so will your children.
Final word of encouragement to all the fisher men and women. When you witness to someone you are not only witnessing to that person you are also witnessing to thier children as well. And possibly their childrens children. So be encouraged get out there and make a difference for Christ. God can use you to change the direction of generations to come.

Rescuing them from the flames

"The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners, and love to his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the stout, brave fireman, who careth not for the scorch or for the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity hath set his heart. He must, he will pluck such a one from the burning, at any cost and expense to himself."
- Charles Spurgeon -

Who was the firefighter that Charles Spurgeon saw to get his analogy? Probably a member of the London Fire Brigade, dressed in nothing more than thick wool pants with suspenders and a thick woolen shirt along with a helmet to protect his head; having nothing to protect his lungs from the searing black smoke. With little regard for his own life he went about the business of rescuing perishing souls from burning buildings; braving the heat, smoke, and other dangers of the fire. This man whom Spurgeon saw was not like the firefighter of the 21st century with his fancy protective clothing, SCBA(breathing apparatus), composite helmet and, steel toe fire boots.

Will you be like this firefighter that Spurgeon so eloquently describes and care not for the scorching heat, the thick black smoke, and the dangers that you’ll face but rather disregard your own wants, desire, and needs(die to yourself) and plunge yourself into the raging fire so that you might pluck from it those who are perishing.

Let us be about the Lord’s business, shaking off the fear that binds us, and pray that the Lord would give us a personal Pentecost each and every day; may the Lord Bless you as you go about His business of seeking and saving the lost. That the Lamb that was slain might receive the reward of His suffering.

Stop sitting in the fire truck gripped with FEAR, stop making excuses on why you can't do this, but rather get out of the rig and start rescuing those who are perishing!

WOTM "The Firefighter"

ARE YOU READY To Die For Jesus?

The Barracks or The Battlefield

"Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier." 2 Timothy 2:3,4 (NASB)

"A barracks is meant to be a place where real soldiers were to be fed and equipped for war, not a place to settle down in or as a comfortable snuggery in which to enjoy ourselves. I hope that if ever they, our soldiers, do settle down God will burn their barracks over their heads!" Catherine Booth (wife of William Booth founder of the Salvation Army)

I was recently reflecting on my time in the United States Army and remembering what it was like. For those reading this post you may not know that I was a combat soldier; combat soldier? yes if I were still in the army and in Iraq right now I would be on the front lines engaging the enemy. I was fortunate though to have never seen combat. We would spend weeks at a time training as if we were at war; this meant we had to go the "field" and play war games. While we were in the field we would be given an opportunity to come back to the barracks to get a hot shower and maybe a little rest but it wouldn't be long before we would have to leave the barracks and go right back to the training; were it seemed like it was always a hardship. It was either hot and muggy during the summer time or cold and wet during the winter time.

How can this speak to us a Christians? We must get out of the comfy cozy barracks and get on to the battlefield. We must discipline and train ourselves to be soldiers of Christ Jesus. The primary tasks that we have been given by our LORD is to seek and save the lost, to go and make disciples (other soldiers who are disciplined), to preach the Gospel to every creature. If we remain in the barracks than we aren't obeying the voice of our commander. We must endure the hardships that are involved with being a soldier and be intentional about the LORD's work.