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.

Street fishing...Literally

I wonder if this is what goes through people mind when I tell them I am going street fishing.




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My new high.

This Friday I spent my evening a lot different than I use to. My BC (before Christ) Fridays were spent partying, drinking, getting high and well you name it. This Friday I spent my time handing out tracts and talking to people about the gospel of Christ. Thank you Richie and his group for inviting me to go out with them to the Highlands in Arlington. It was a great time. I also loved meeting new brothers and sisters of the faith. It was such a better high than I use to get. I use to stay up all night getting high and the next day feeling like junk. This morning I felt great. Oh what a joy it is to serve our God. It is the least I can do for a God that pulled me out of a pit of filth that i put myself in. It saddens my heart to think of those people who are still enslaved to the worlds pleasures. Only 5 years ago if you came up to me on the streets I would have blown you off, because I believed I was a Christian all the while spending more money on dope than most people spend on food. Then like Paul said the Law showed me my sins and killed me. Thank God he loves the scum of the earth. I am proof that He does. I can't wait to go out again. What a high! To God be all the glory. I hate to think where I would be right now if He hadn't have saved me.

I was open air preaching and didn't even know it!

Wow! God is so GOOD! I am overwhelmed with what an awesome God we serve. He has done so many great and wonderful things I don’t know where to start. We had a team of 7 go out last night and share the gospel. It was a lot of fun, but before I start I want to back up a little. About 2 months ago our Pastor, Pastor Ken shared in church about a witnessing opportunity he had. He mentioned while sharing with the whole church how he wants to be motivated by love and compassion for the lost, rather than just a sense of duty or obligation. That really spoke to me. I had to examine myself, are my motives pure, loving, having genuine compassion and concern for the lost? I must confess there were times my heart was not right, I wanted the glory for the outcome. I would encourage you to ask yourself this question, what is your purpose in sharing your faith? My purpose (especially after examining my heart) in sharing my faith is to bring God glory! God can draw those He wants without our help. But He gives us the privilege to help Him. We are His instruments here on earth. That should motivate us! So as I share this adventure remember to God be the glory. It is Him working in me, that I am able to overcome the fear of man and share my faith.

We all met at Wal-Mart and then car pooled to Arlington. We started out tonight splitting up into groups at a large out door shopping center. There were a lot of people just mingling around. We handed out several tracts and spoke to a few people about the gospel. We headed back to Cedar Hill just before nine.

As we made our way back to Cedar Hill Wal-Mart we parked and were getting ready to leave. I saw a huge group of High School guys (Probably half of the football team from Cedar Hill). I was eager and wanted to give ALL of those boys a gospel tract. I caught them and started handing out Million Dollar tracts. When I first approach them there where about 10-15 of them. After I started talking to them another 10 guys showed up. So I had to RAISE my voice so that I could be heard. I didn’t even know it but I was OPEN AIR PREACHING!! I took them through the law, talked to them about judgment and shared the good news of the gospel. I wasn’t really nervous until Pastor Phil, Richie, Michelle and Gary came over to listen. But what did I expect I was surrounded by about 20-25 young teen boys. It was a very exciting night and I have to say this is an adventure I will NEVER forget. Before last night I never had a desire to Open Air and now I am thinking maybe I CAN do this. Trust me when I say this, if you had told me 2 years ago that I would be standing in a Wal-Mart parking lot sharing the gospel, almost SHOUTING I would have laughed. I want to make sure that our God receives ALL glory I am a fallible person serving an infallible God. My goal in sharing this with you is to encourage you. Let this challenge you and allow God to use you in ways you never knew possible.

At His Feet,
Renee

Sowing on Sabbatical

Just because I'm on sabbatical doesn't mean I won't be out sowing seeds (talking to people about the reality of sin, death, judgment, and God's Grace). I don't consider that only a part of my job, but also a part of my personal life.

Last evening Michelle and I, along with Richie F., Renee F., Javier J., and Gary K. went to the new Highlands outdoor shopping mall in Arlington for a witnessing outing. As we drove together we prayed for boldness, clarity in our speech and for divine appointments. As always the LORD was faithful. We broke up into teams of two and after 75 minutes or so we met up to tell our stories. Each person was indeed bold in their witnessing and the LORD did provide appointments.

My divine appointment was with Cheryl. Cheryl and her (girl) friend were sitting at a table outside an ice cream store enjoying some ice cream in a cup. I approached them with Million Dollar Bill tracts. Then transitioned the conversation quickly to spiritual matters by asking them if they thought they were good enough to go to heaven. Cheryl responded that she thought she was. I then pulled out two Ten Commandment coins and aksed if I could ask them a few questions to see if they were indeed good enough. They agreed and off I went through the commandments.

After confessing to be lying, theiving, blaspheming, adulterers at heart, they agreed that they would be in trouble on jugment day if God didn't forgive them. Cheryl then said that she was glad that God was a forgiving God. I then began to talk about the necessity of repentance--that without repentance there is no pardon. After several stories and illustrations I asked them if they had repented of their sin and turned to God. Cheryl admitted that she had not done so. I then asked her what was keeping her from doing so. I urged her to repent of her sin and turn to God and place her trust in Jesus. I asked her to carefully consider all that I had said to her.

And as I parted company with them, I looked Cheryl in the eyes and said, "Make sure before you close your eyes tonight you tell God how sorry you are for you sins and that you are repenting and turning from them to him, and ask his forgiveness. If you do, He will forgive you and give you eternal life rght then." Then, I said that I wanted to see her again when we get to eternity. With a big smile on her face she thrust her hand out to shake mine and she thanked me for talking to them.

When you learn to speak to a person's conscience, rather than to their intellect, you can make an eternal difference in a stangers life in just 5 or 10 minutes!

Recent Evangelism Pics

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WHO CARES?

Click on the link below to check out the article by Salvation Army founder General William Booth that inspired this painting.

http://www.lastdaysministries.org/articles/whocares.html

Overcoming My Fears

When I first heard about Way of the Master a few years ago, it really intrigued me because I had always felt the need to share my faith, but I didn’t ever feel equipped. I worried about getting into intellectual battles that I couldn’t win and getting stumped with questions I wasn’t ready for. I needed some sort of outline or idea of what to say before I started a conversation about eternity. Tracts definitely help a lot because they give you a way into the conversation and act as an ice breaker if you don’t know how to start. I also enjoyed the survey technique we used today more than I had expected. I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but it seemed to work pretty well with the few people we got to share with. It was easier to talk with people when you had your questions written down right in front of you. I think this would be an easy ice breaker for witnessing just about anywhere, but I know it works well going door to door.
I am a pretty shy person and talking to strangers doesn’t always come easily for me. In the last year or two I have become more outgoing, but it still scares me to death every time I go out and share my faith. Each time I go out it gets a little bit easier. This morning I prayed for courage and boldness in speaking with the people that I met. I asked God to completely take away that fear because I knew it was not from him. And he did. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. I know that I will probably get nervous the next time I go, but it was encouraging to be able to get past that fear and share the truth with a few people. I can tell that God is using many different things in my life to help me get out of my comfort zone and allow myself to be used by him. I now realize that being shy or having a quiet personality is not an acceptable excuse not to share your faith. If I can do it, anyone can. :)
Amy

Door to Door: August 11, 2007

Today was a great day of evangelism; Renee, Amy O'Ferrall, and I went out for two hours knocking on doors. We went to the neighborhood directly behind the church and had a great time sharing the Gospel with those who God allowed us to talk with. It was an honor to be out today bringing glory to the Father as we were faithfully to sow the seed of Gospel.

We knocked on quite a few doors today; we got rejected, we knock on numerous doors with no one home, and we were fortunate to talk with about six people about eternity.

As I was walking from house to house and made several trips to go get the car I had lots of time to think. I thought about what the needs were going to be in the future as we continue to maintain this door to door evangelism ministry. I was doing some research on door to door evangelism before going out and one of the suggestions that are given is to offer the people in which you are talking with some free yard work, painting, or other handyman work around their house. The information that I read stated that most people won't take you up on the offer but before you offer any type of service/outreach you need to have a team ready and in place to do these things if the need arises. Needless to say we didn't offer any of these services but I thought in the future we should. I began to think about the army and some of the different types of units that comprise it. You have armor and infantry which are on the frontlines in the heat of the battle, you have artillery which provides fire support for the armor and infantry, you have the engineers who build things or clear the way for the frontline soldiers, and you have forward support which provide things like vehicle maintenance, food, fuel, bullets, etc.

With these thoughts in mind I began thinking about what we would need to make this evangelism ministry more effective. We certainly need to enlist more frontline soldiers; I am trusting God that He is raising up laborers; this is our infantry. If we are going to offer outreach types of services we need an outreach team(s), ready to go, to provide what ever it is these people may need or request; I equate these to engineers. We need people committed to pray for the evangelism team every time we go out; this is our artillery. We also need support so that we can have gospel tracts, Bibles, door hangers, water, babysitters who volunteer their time; those who help out in this area are our forward support. People can help by donating time, water, finances, etc.

This is not something I see coming together overnight but as we are faithful to God's calling we can create a fighting force that works together to reach out to the community around our church and the communities in which we live to see lives changed and transformed by the power of God for His glory as we work together to see the church and our communities break forth in revival.

Crime vs Art