Grace and Truth

…all the words of this life…

Tag Archives: Faith


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Day-time Street Preaching

Misc 051

Yesterday morning I went into the city to street preach with two other women.

Every kind of opposition was thrown against us beforehand to try to stop us from going, including the fact that my five year old son came down with a severe case of croup on Monday night and was still sick yesterday.  Praise God for mothers though, mine looked after Tom while I went into the city.  I was reminded of CT Studd’s words: ” ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the Devil fears and hates”….

 

But we got there.  It was a completely different ballgame to open air preach during the daylight hours.  At night time there are a lot of homeless people, youth hanging out, as well as people going home from work and others out for the night.  During the day there were older people, there were high school students on excursions with their teachers, there were tourists and group outings.  I felt conspicuous setting up the PA on the little raised area at the front of the station.  During the day, there is nowhere to hide, no cover of darkness at all.  You are very much out there.

 

It was my friend W’s first time out on the streets.  She was a complete natural.  After the three of us prayed together she immediately started going over to the people sitting on the steps and handing out tracts.  I began to preach after a moment of panic wondering in my new PA was loud enough.  It was, as long as I held the mike pressed against my chin.

 

After a while I thought that it is easier preaching during the day because nobody screamed at me to “Shut up” or anything worse.  What a breeze. I saw people laughing and mocking of course but people were quite polite.  That is until I went over to a nicely dressed couple after I had preached, to talk to them and saw that the opposition was in fact there, bubbling away just as fierce, but hidden under a well-dressed facade.

 

“Your literalism is wrong,” he sneered at me, “everything you say is wrong.”

 

We talked for a little while.  it was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had.  I can honestly say I have rarely spoken to anyone who has been so bitter and angry.  And he used to be a pastor for 20 years.  Scary. As we parted, he still spitting venom at me, Holy Spirit gave me the words to say to him: “And yet, Jesus, knowing that you were going to reject Him, still died for you…”  He shook his head and walked away.

 

That was just one experience though.  We had a good time. The Word went out and seeds were sown through the preaching, conversations and hundreds of tracts that were handed out.  At one point as I was preaching, some high school students out on an excursion, gathered in front of me and listened, much to their teacher’s consternation.

 

I’d like to thank those who were praying for us.  I thank God for the Body of Christ.

 

As we left the city and were driving home, W said to me, “I feel my whole life was building up to this point.  I am a different person.”

 

The preaching of the Word not only changes others, it changes us.

Hallelujah.

 

 

 

 

 


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Hmmm..considering the black box

I am now the proud (also excited and a little scared) owner of this black beauty….

IMG_2606

I am excited because it means more autonomy as a street-preacher.  Also it means not having to rely on others’ and their equipment which will allow me more freedom.  It means that I can now go out during the day time as well as the night. But mainly it’s because owning this little baby is the consolidation and the establishment of a vision God gave me for my life years and years ago….

I remember the first time I ever saw an open-air street preacher.  I was walking through the city with my boyfriend (now husband) Matt.  We were out for a lovely day, strolling in the sunshine, holding  hands.  I saw this young guy with black hair standing on a little ledge at the bottom of an Anglican cathedral. He was holding a black Bible and reading from it.  There were three gothic youths standing around him listening respectfully.  Something about him, about what he was doing, laid hold of me.  It made no sense to me whatsoever, that he would stand there and do that, I mean to read from the Bible in public and not care what anyone thought of him was a foreign concept to me.  Yet I was drawn to him. I really wanted to stop and listen, but I couldn’t.  I don’t know why.  My legs just wouldn’t stop.  I couldn’t do it.  I kept on walking, but I kept looking back.  I remember the primary feeling I had for him was respect, because my primary thought  “That is something I could never do“.

After many experiences and years had gone by, there was one day when God gave me a vision of myself standing on a busy city street during the day and preaching.  Yes, preaching. No one was more astonished at the vision than I was, believe me.  It seemed so random that I actually dismissed it from my mind as an impossibility.  However I couldn’t dismiss it from my heart, because God had put it there.  It kept popping up, and popping up, and popping up until God must have decided that I was especially thick, and He had to make it very clear to me by calling me to go out to the road, (as I’ve detailed in “The Call” post).

So whilst I have been preaching in the city on Friday nights for two and a half years now, to be able to preach during the day is new to me.  This Friday, in fact, is when I will be starting this new adventure with a small group of ladies.  So it is very exciting that a vision which God gave to me years ago, as of Friday, will be brought into existence.

(I just want to take a moment here to encourage you to hold on to the dream or vision God has given you for your life.  And the more of an impossibility it seems to you, the more God will get the glory for it.)

However, it is also very scary to be the owner of this black box.  Why?  Um, because street preaching is scary.  Yes, I still find it scary.  I still get the shakes from nerves.  I still wonder why I am doing this to myself every time I drive into the city.    (That is, until the fire of God begins to burn so deeply within my soul that I just HAVE to preach, have to warn, have to share Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  And the fire burns up the fear of man. It drives away the shakes and the fear…oh my friend – God is good, He will never leave you stranded – just try Him.)

It’s also scary to be entrusted with this responsibility.  The black box seems to stare at me from its solid position at my feet as if to say “You do realize that with me also comes more accountability, don’t you?  Don’t  you take me lightly now….”

I don’t ever want to take it lightly.  I want to appreciate more and more every day what my Jesus has done for me and is still doing for me and will continue to do for me.  He is my Lord and Saviour, He is my life, He is the reason for my being.  He is the love of my life.

Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have, and ever want to be…

God bless you

 


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Ha! Love it….

“It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners, as it is in captive nations today. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their terms. It was a deal: we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching; they were happy beating us – so everyone was happy.”

Richard Wurmbrand


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Tonight’s F-f-f-freezing Street Preaching 14 June 2013

flinders st

Christian – do you know that most high school and uni students think that the Theory of Evolution is a proven scientific fact?  Do you know that they don’t even know it is called the Theory of Evolution?  It has somehow along the way become simply “Evolution” and accepted as fact.

Christian – do you know that most heavy metal rockers are intelligent, deep thinkers who do not fit into society?  That these “outcasts” are angry at a world that they can’t fit into and are open to the gospel.  Some of the best, most articulate conversations I have had are with these guys.

Christian – do you know that most Westerners who accept Buddhism and its teachings do so because they think it’s all about peace and love and have no idea of the real teachings of the Seen Ha, karma, the wheel of suffering and reincarnation.

Christian – do you know that most youth are looking for direction?  That they cover up their fear with mockery.  Do you know that if you persist with them as a mother or father would and speak the truth (even hard truths) to them in love that the mockery and fear will break away and they will come to respond to the gospel and even respect you for it?

Christian – do you know that a lot of people will actually thank you for taking the time to speak to them on the street?

 

“Preach abroad…It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has damped the work of God, which never was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.”  John Wesley

 

Love & blessings to you


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Fortress by Robin Mark

“That this love pursued us is a mystery
For the heart is base
And You are holy
Yet the streams of mercy
That flow over me
Will afford me grace to stand in glory

Where with men and angels
Where with slaves and kings
I will sing my praise to You alone

For there’s no heart greater than the Father’s heart
And there’s no love sweeter than the Son’s

Hallelujah, to my King
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Jesus Christ my Everything”

Praise God for Jesus!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdzgwIErio

 


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A Sower Went Out to Sow

Said Jesus:
“Behold, a sower went out to sow…”

out to sow
out to sow

a sower went out to sow
and walked on down the road.

His eyes beheld the pastures
the sun beat on his head
he saw some dirt rocky,
he saw some dirt red.

But to him
it mattered not
what the ground
consisted of –
whether dry and dusty
or even full of weeds,
for where-ever he walked
he simply
scattered
seed.

From his breast/ into his hand
the precious seed was passed

but not for long
did he hold on
for that seed was soon cast

cast far
cast nigh
cast low
cast high

that seed was not spared.
For the sower knew
that fruit only grew
when that precious seed was shared

(The “seed” is the “word of the kingdom”, Parable of the Sower Matthew 13:1-23)


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Warning: only read if you want to be challenged

LR preaching

“Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”
William Booth


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God’s Vision for You

Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Proverbs 29:18

If God has given you a vision of something He wants to do through you, then He wants to encourage you to keep going.   Don’t be distracted or discouraged by the voices around you.  When God births something through His Spirit and gives us a vision of what He wants to do, then no matter what comes against us, we must hold onto that vision and keep pushing through by faith.

If you do not yet know God’s will for your life or if you feel that God wants to bring you into your calling, then I would like to share with you what I have learnt:

1.  Get into God’s presence and seek His face until you know FOR SURE that this vision He is calling you to is from Him and is for you.  Do not speak to other people or seek human opinion.  Speak to God and seek Him only. Ask Him to confirm it to you through scripture and the Holy Spirit and then wait.  He may not show you immediately, but if you are patient and truly seeking His will for your life, then He will show you at the right time.

“Indeed, let no one who waits on you be ashamed…Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; On you I wait all the day.” Psalm 25:3-5

(Important note: to “wait” on God is not passive – rather it is active, keep seeking Him.)

2.  Once God reveals to you His vision for your life and confirms it through the Word, then ask Him for any specific instructions or guidance.  It may be His will for you to hold on to the vision for a bit and wait till He tells you to move.  We should never advance before God tells us to.  Conversely we should never hold back when He tells us to move.

In 2 Samuel 5:17-25 the Lord not only gave King David instructions on how to defeat the Philistines, but also when to carry out His instructions, ie “when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly.  For then the Lord will got out before you….” (verse 24)  In battle strategy, when is just as important as how.

3.  Only speak to other people about the vision God has given you when it is absolutely settled within your own heart.  And even then only speak to the ones He directs you to speak about it with.  When Jesus revealed Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus He immediately showed Saul the vision and calling He had for his life “…For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness….” (Acts 26:16). Paul did not speak to other men about it.  He didn’t even speak to the apostles about it. Instead, Paul says “But when it pleased God….to reveal His son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood…” (Galations 1:16).  Paul instead went to Arabia for an extended period. He needed time alone with God to establish this vision within his heart.  God also need to prepare Paul for his life’s work, by learning dependence on God, rather than man or on himself.

You need to settle the vision with God and within your own heart before you bring it out into the open.  This is because, unfortunately, as soon as other people know what God has spoken to you, inevitably it becomes subject to human opinion, discussion and negativity.  Even the well-meaning and godly can be used by our enemy to bring discouragement and doubt.

I have had the below image in my mind all morning and felt I should create it.  Here are some potential obstacles that the enemy will put in the path of God’s vision for your life in order to prevent its occurrence :

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(I hope you can see it, I’m still new to blogging!!)

Never forget that God chooses “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God (chooses) the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He (chooses) the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)  Therefore do not be surprised if the vision He gives you:

  • seems impossible to you or others
  • is contrary to your personality and nature
  • seems to go against common sense

4.  The final point is – to keep going.  Keep your eye on God, not yourself or others. Keep praying. Like Paul, do not be “disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19).  No matter what the enemy throws at you, regardless of what doubts and fears you may have, or what other people say, if something has been birthed of God and by His Spirit, if we keep going on by faith, then nothing can stop it.  If a door has been opened by God, then no man can shut it (Revelation 3:8).  Let’s not shrink back, let’s move forward in faith – despite the outward circumstances, despite our weaknesses and inadequacies, and despite what others may think.

“For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” 1 Corinthians 16:9


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Over my morning coffee…

coffee

I used to think that God has a special place in His heart for the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless – and He does.  But actually it is more than that.  When God says to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the outcast to your home, to spend yourself on behalf of the poor (Isaiah 58) it is not just that He is being kind, it is because this is the very essence of WHO He is.  This is God Himself, reaching down to us in our poverty, our need and our sin.  When God came to earth as the man, Jesus, this was the ultimate act of sharing with the poor, serving the needy and clothing the naked.  He could have stayed where He was, in the light and worship of glory, but He didn’t.  He spent Himself on behalf of the poor, by coming to this dark, sin-sick, broken world.  He not only identified with humanity by becoming clothed with human flesh, He went further.  By His death on the cross He was numbered amongst the transgressors and although He never sinned, He took the punishment in the place of the transgressors of His divine law – you and me.  This was the ultimate act of intercession.  This was the ultimate act of giving.

Even a cursory reading of the Bible will show God’s heart towards the widows and fatherless, the oppressed and needy.  Although we can never atone for the sin of humanity, that was His work alone, He does call us to share the burden of those who have been forsaken, trampled and broken.  To allow ourselves to see suffering and need and not to walk on by.  As Jackie Pullinger says “love looks like something”.  Love can be sharing your food with the hungry, helping out a single mother, even inviting someone in for a coffee.

God is not interested in self-serving religion or religious activities that are devoid of His heart.  In Isaiah 58 He condemns those who fast because “in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your labourers…Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?” (verses 3-7)

Of course it’s not easy.  It’s not easy and it’s rather uncomfortable to allow yourself to see and identify with human need.  It wars against our fleshly nature which is constantly crying out to us “Comfort! Convenience!”

It’s been hard for me.  I am not going to pretend that I have found it easy.  The hardest part for me has been the intrusion upon my own time. I am naturally a bit of a hermit at heart.  I like my own time and space, and my own company.  But because we have a food
pantry that is operated from our garage we do often have people turn up unexpectedly and at inconvenient times.  In particular God has used one lady with serious mental health issues to crucify my flesh.  It has been painful.  From the start the Holy Spirit told me to never reject her, even in my heart.  That has been hard and I admit, I have not always been able to do it.

But today again she came.  I invited her in for a coffee.  We spent a lovely time together and she ministered to me by singing songs the Holy Ghost had given her.

“I refuse to give up

I refuse to give in

I keep hanging on to the King of Kings

The Lord of Lords…”

As she was leaving my home she turned to me and said “Thank you for always making me feel welcome.  Don’t’ ever lose that.  It is so important to people who have been rejected.”

OH God, help us to hear the cry of your heart and to do it! To become people of action, rather than just of words! To do something, anything!

Love looks like something.