This man needs prayer. His name is John Short, an Aussie missionary caught with Christian literature in North Korea. He faces potentially 15 years of hard labour.
Tag Archives: evangelism
Missionary Quotations: William Booth1
“Go straight for souls, and go for the worst.” 
One Woman’s Stand Against the Lie of Chrislam
This link was blocked from American YouTube. This German woman is a true hero of the faith. At an interfaith concert where Chrislam was being promoted she alone stood, and proclaimed “Jesus is Lord!” as everyone else sat. Click on link below to see what she did.
“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow HIm, but if Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a word.”
594 of His Last 600 Sermons Wesley Preached on the Street
Here is a list of the “persecutions” that I have personally suffered whilst street-preaching:
- Been called an “idiot” to my face
- Been mocked and ridiculed
- Been leered at
- Been outright laughed at
- Been screamed at to “shut-up”
- Been heckled
- Rude gestures made at me
- Blasphemies and curses screamed at me
- Having the cord of the PA system pulled out while I preach
- People taking photos of their friends standing next to me
- People trying to rip the microphone out of my hand
- Another PA system turned up loud to drown me out
- Man putting his arm around me
BIG DEAL
Maybe it will get worse, I don’t know. Maybe if you went out you would be beat up or put in jail or worse, I don’t know that either.
But what I do know is that there is a whole generation out there going to hell. HELL.
(Do you really believe it?)
And why are they going to hell? Largely because of:
- Our fear of man
- Our excuses
- Our feebleness in following Christ
- Our “ministries” and church mindsets
- Our busy lives
Why are we just letting Satan do whatever he pleases?
And that IS what he is doing. If you don’t believe me, go out there and see for yourself the kids on drugs, the alcoholics, the homeless people, the business people spending their lives coveting, the girls wearing hardly clothes for attention. Go to your nearest city and just sit and observe.
Open your eyes and open your heart.
That man with tattoos on his face, Jesus died for him.
That kid wandering aimlessly, Jesus died for him too.
That young woman with skinny legs and a hole on the inside of her elbow, Jesus shed His blood for her too.
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)
You know, I’ve seen it with so many Christians, myself included. We are so nice and polite. We don’t want to offend people. “Best not to cause waves by shoving the gospel down people’s throats….”
And meanwhile the devil rubs his hands in glee and dances all over our craving to be accepted.
Jesus never told us to be gentle with the devil. He never told us to accommodate him in any way or let him walk all over us. No sir.
He did in fact say: “Behold I give you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing in any wise shall harm you.” Luke 10:19
One of the most powerful and effective forms of spiritual warfare is to preach the gospel. Go to the sinners, don’t preach to the converted. Get to where the sinners are and preach your heart out.
“Preaching is not a profession, it’s a passion” said Leonard Ravenhill.
Let’s get so full of the Holy Ghost fire that we are constrained by the love of Christ to take the good news of the Kingdom to the lost.
Let’s stop being cowardly, let’s stop being polite and comfortable, let’s meet the devil head on and give him something to worry about!
You can read more about what happened as I street-preached tonight here
Watch this for inspiration:
In Jesus name
Amen and Amen
Doing Church vs a Hell-Shaking Life
“
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” (CT Studd)
Sitting passively in our favourite seat in a comfortable building every Sunday…Is this really what Jesus intended when He said,
“The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.”
or
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)
or
“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:19)
or
“”All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19,20) ?
Hmmm….. not sure that’s what our Lord meant. I think He had adventure in His mind, entailing both extreme hardship and extreme joy for His Church as it continues His work in seeking and saving the lost.
When I look at the Church in general this not what I see.
What do I see?
What does the world see?
And what does Christ Himself see?
I see predominantly a group of middle-class people driving expensive cars to a big, lavish, comfortable church on Sunday morning. They sit and clap at the right time, they worship and praise and feel joy sometimes when the music reaches its crescendo. They might hear a short message from the Word of God. It may be inspired by the Holy Spirit or it may be a self-help motivational talk with the Bible as a convenient back drop.
I see a people whose comfort and convenience cannot be upset or unsettled.
I see a people who will not be disturbed for the sake of the lost on their way to an eternal hell.
When I think of the early Salvation Army getting pelted with rotten tomatoes and eggs as they marched into villages preaching the gospel, or I think of the Wesley brothers riding on horseback over miles and miles of countryside to take the gospel to the poor, my heart breaks and I wonder how it is so that we have lost our Lord’s heart.
Is there anyone that weeps over the lost multitudes on their way to hell?
Who will go out into the battle and warn them?
Are there any that even care?
I have found that when I speak or write on this topic it is the one that upsets Christians the most. It is the topic that causes the most offense to Christians and the one that brings the most resistance. Often I hear in response, “Well if Jesus tells me to go then I will, but He hasn’t told me.”
Actually He has. Read the Great Commission. He didn’t say that to a handful of evangelists, He said it to His followers. Each one. Unfortunately there is no way around it.
You don’t have to go to the city streets, but you do have to go to the lost. There are people in your life, whom God has put around you, who do not know the Saviour. If there is no heartfelt grief for the lost in your heart, nor desire to see them saved, then check your heart. Go to the foot of the cross and ask Christ why not. For this is His very heart.
If you’re upset or offended by this post of mine, then I think that may be a good thing.
God bless you
Once Upon a Moonlit Night…..
Tonight was the first time I’ve been street preaching for a while.
Having recently lost two people I love within four days of each other, my life has obviously taken a rather different turn for a while.
But tonight I felt ready to go back out. It’s funny how when you haven’t done something for a while, it suddenly becomes all big and scary. All day I’ve been nervous about going into the city tonight. The thought of going out there and shouting out a message that is generally unwelcome to most people made my stomach churn. I thought of how I used to love going out there and couldn’t really remember why that was.
But I felt I should go, even though I didn’t really feel like it, if that makes sense.
I put my I-phone music on shuffle as I drove into the city. I said to the Lord something I’ve never said before :
“Lord,” I said, “Whatever song randomly comes up first, I will take as a message from you.” Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures…
Franz Family “Wherever You Are” came on:
“But the will of God won’t lead you,
Where the grace of God can’t keep you
You will never be out of His care,
Remember that the Lord’s already there….
Wherever you are,
Wherever you’re going
God is right there beside you, seeing and knowing
Wherever you go,
He already knows
What lies ahead
And what’s behind
You’ll always find He’s never too far from wherever you are.”
Wow. Ok thank you Jesus.
My usual 40 minute trip into the city took 1.5 hours tonight. It was raining and there was heavy traffic. But I felt there was something God had for me when I got there and so I sung and prayed.
However 1.5 hours later, trying to find a car spot, on the verge of tears, I almost turned around and went home. I said to God,
“Please help me, I need this night to be easy Lord.”
After I’d parked the car I walked down to the station where we preach. Standing at the corner waiting to cross the busy road, I realized I hadn’t been there for over 2 months. I looked at our “spot” across the road and I felt like I was coming home.
…..An uncomfortable, dysfunctional home yes, but home nonetheless.
That surprised me.
I crossed the road and at that very moment a girl came over to me and asked me:
“What makes you come out here to do this?”
We had a beautiful conversation. She was only 16 years old, and currently homeless – couch-surfing between her dad’s and a friend’s place. And in the city at night, all by herself. She looked as if she’d been through a rough time. Yet she was so lovely and soft and tender still, still a child. Poor kid.
I shared my testimony with her, how God set me free from a cult, from depression, from anxiety, from a hard and cold heart. How He has changed me, how He loves me, and how He loves her. I shared the precious gospel with her. She got tears in her eyes and said that she hopes she has the strength to find Jesus too one day. She said she was just so tired.
“You know what” I said, “You don’t need strength. Just come to Him as you are, He will not turn you away. He said for all who are weary and heavy burdened to come to Him and He will give them rest.”
She asked me :
“How do I find Him..?”
We prayed together.
I cried for her on my way home, beautiful child that she is. I felt His compassion for her. How greatly He loves her and is calling her home.
And I remembered why it is that I love going out there.
But…I have two questions:
How many more of these kids are out there?
and
“Who will go?”
Feeding Others
holyforchrist777.blogspot.com
“Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?…” (Luke 12:42)
Following on from Being Fed, after the revelation of my own true state of spiritual starvation, through the depression I suffered, something very interesting happened. I would like to explain the spiritual principle that has been revealed to me.
God opened my eyes to see my true state of starvation. I was shattered by the knowledge that I could no longer rely upon myself –in any way. My body let me down, my mind let me down, with all my own resources at an end all I could do was cling to was Him. But this knowledge led me to a deeper relationship with Him, one in which I knew I needed to be fed and in fact that was the only hope left for me. He fed me with the Bread of Life and kept feeding me as I spent time with Him.
Then what happened next is the interesting point:
God then led me to start feeding others.
Because pride in my self, my abilities and strengths had been broken, I began to have a greater sense of compassion for others whom were struggling. A desire rose up in me to help others because of what I had been through myself. Out of that desire our food pantry ministry was born four years ago, in which we give out food parcels to people suffering food insecurity both in the Body of Christ and in the community.
And then, after some time, another hunger began to take hold of me, that was to “feed the multitudes” through street-preaching. This one came as a real surprise to me as the thought of preaching the gospel on the street to passersby absolutely terrified me! I remember the first time I went out there. I was so scared that I was shaking and I wondered why I was doing this to myself. Through the terror though there was a fire burning within me. I was so well-fed, I just had to share some of this food with others.
It somehow didn’t seem right for me to keep feasting when I knew there were others
pastorsponderings.org
out there who were starving. Just as Christ broke the bread and poured out the wine as a symbol of His life being poured out for us, He also calls us to be as broken bread and poured out wine for others. Being broken bread and poured out wine hurts. It’s not easy and it’s certainly not comfortable. Often it is difficult and something we would not typically choose to do ourselves. But Jesus is still moved with compassion for the great multitudes and just as He said to His disciples then, He says to His disciples now: “You give them something to eat”. (Mark 6:34 & 37)
If we look at the Apostle Peter’s life we can see this spiritual principle at work. Peter, at first, couldn’t see his own spiritual bankruptcy. Even though He had been with the Lord for about three years, seeing Him minister, learning from Him, Peter still didn’t really know his need of God. Self-confidently he had declared “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33) When the moment of truth came however, Peter betrayed Christ and denied Him three times as Jesus had foretold he would do. Peter was heartbroken. I believe in that moment his own true state was revealed to him. He saw the emptiness within, the starvation of his soul-poverty and he was broken by the knowledge. The revelation of his impoverishment caused him to retreat and return to the career from which Jesus had called him – fishing. In John 21 we see Jesus in His amazing mercy seeking out Peter in his failure. He calls out to Peter and the others with him, and look what He says, “Children, have you any food?”
Jesus immediately gets to the heart of the matter – do you have any food? Are there any inner resources left in you on which you can depend? Or have you come to the end of yourself? Have you seen your need of me yet?
The disciples are, of course, thinking merely in the physical realm, but nevertheless their answer is true both physically and spiritually – “No”, they have no food.
So what does Jesus do next? In His grace He provides the food they weren’t able to provide for themselves, and, as is God’s way, it is in abundance. “…and now they were not able to draw …in (the net) because of the multitude of fish.” (v 6).
He feeds them. “Come and eat breakfast,” He says (v12), and He “came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.” (v13) He came and fed them – but only after they had seen their need of Him.
Immediately after they are fed Jesus seeks to restore Peter. Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him three times and each time after Peter declares his love for Him, Jesus says “Feed my lambs”;”Tend my sheep” and “Feed my sheep”. Why would Jesus single out Peter, the disciple whom had been the one to verbally deny Him, to feed and tend His precious sheep? It’s because of this spiritual principle – Peter had now seen his own bankruptcy and been broken by it. More so than any of the others he had seen his inner emptiness and it was because he could see it that he was ready to be used. Jesus could not entrust His sheep to merely anyone. He needed someone who had seen their own need, and therefore would be sensitive to need in others. He needed someone who knew that without God they could do nothing and would therefore be utterly dependent upon Him. Peter would not be a harsh and unfeeling shepherd, He would now truly love and care for the Master’s sheep because his own pride and independence had been broken.
Watchman Nee said “When once your back is broken you will yield ever after to the slightest touch from God.”
So to sum up:
- Here in the West we are spiritually starving. Starved of eternal relationship with our creator, the source and sustainer of all life, we seek temporal satisfaction elsewhere. We often don’t know that we are starving. In some cases this revelation can only be achieved through painful experience.
- Once we see our true state of starvation, through God’s intervention, we then naturally seek to be fed.
- God then uses us to feed others through the broken bread of our lives
It is my hope and prayer that this post has encouraged you to seek after the only true source of life and satisfaction –Jesus Christ, the Bread of life. If you already know Him I pray that you will seek Him in greater measure and that ultimately you will share Him with others wherever He may lead you. I will conclude with a quote from D.T. Niles:
“Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.”
God bless!
Grace and Truth 