Do I have the right to Command???

I now attend a Christian college (Asbury). But biblically I know most of those around me are not Christians, they have just put on a mask & learned what to say & do when being watched. Its all head knowledge, their isn't a deep heart love for Christ like they have for the world or sports or reputation. So, when I hear them speak of Christ, the gospel, Christianity, etc. it is as if they have made a decision to better themselves and sin is reduced to bad choices we need to overcome. This will of course effect the way you share the gospel. It leads to depending on methods rather then simple truth, building friendship to replace gospel proclamation.

Which brings me to my point: can I command someone to repent & believe the gospel? Or should I merely make suggestions & give advice? I think the issue is authority & understanding if I actually do have a right to do this. Lets examine what Paul spoke to those unbelievers on Mars Hill:

"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."(Acts 17:30-31)

Paul commanded unbelievers to repent because God commands unbelievers to repent. In love, we also have the right & authority as ministers of the gospel. God saves men, not our methods, not our programs, or personalities or charm. With complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel we are to faithfully preach the word. Men have rebelled, sinned, hated their Creator and made gods to suit themselves. Men are ruined & headed for destruction so with the love of God in our hearts we must command them to turn from their evil ways and be restored in Christ. Let us be faithful to God, who alone deserves all praise & glory.

Here's a video from Paul Tripp that may help you.....our task is hard but is the most important thing in the world, we deal with souls.

First witness in Wilmore

The Lord blessed me & opened the door to witness to a youngman, Adam, a few days ago. He hangs out with a group of teens I see all the time in this area. I've actually been able to give them tracts but hadn't got to have any conversations until.......I was shooting ball at a local park when Adam got dropped off and started shooting with me (THE DOOR) and then soon began to talk to me about basketball (GOD OPENS DOOR). I then asked him if he attended church anywhere & futher explained the gospel.

A pivotal point in the conversation was when I began to explain that the way of salvation is through a narrow gate & on a hard path. Jesus said this & many other hard sayings to discourage the half-hearted followers & make it crystal clear that salvation is absolute & will cost you everything. I've heard that you can understand this verse as the gate being so narrow that one cannot bring anything threw it with him. Nothing, no secret sins, no half-hearts, etc.... You can no longer be Lord of your life. You must surrender all to Christ & follow where He may lead. I would never want to be unfaithful to God in sharing the gospel or to give a unbeliever false asurrance.

Adam really seem to take our conversation seriously. I pray he does.

Updates from Wilmore, KY

Well Amanda & I have been in Wilmore, KY for over a week and are really enjoying the area. I've got to hang out with my new coach at Asbury College, Will Shouse, and I'm really excited about the upcoming season. Amanda and I are going to Wellington Church tomorrow so we're pretty excited about that. I actually went out to eat with their youth pastor, Blake, a few days ago and had a great time of fellowship and getting to know him a little better. The campus and parks out here are beautiful....it truly is 'Mayberry, USA' out here.

Yesterday my pastor from Auburndale Baptist Church & His whole family came up to visit us. Amanda & I had such a good time with them & their kids. I already miss them & Auburndale Baptist Church. I'm ready to start working out with the basketball team and hit the books hard. I can't believe I'm here to finish my degree and play basketball at Asbury College....crazy! God is faithful and good to his children, I know I don't deserve this. I'm sure these next few years are going to fly by. In the mean time I'll stay on my knees in God's Word and work hard for God's glory at whatever I put my hand too.

As far as evangelism....its kind of different out here. Everybodies 'churched'? I told Amanda 'its like moral town, USA out here'. Nothing like street evangelism on Bardstown Road with the Jude 23 Network. I may have to go into Lexington to find a more diverse spot. I'll just pray for grace to witness to those God brings along my path. But one encouraging witness encounter I had back in Louisville seems to have developed into something. A few weeks ago the Lord open the door for me to share the gospel with a former teammate from high school. He seemed to really take to heart our conversation so I gave him Mark Cahill's book, "One heartbeat away" and just prayed that God would move in His heart.

I got an email from him the first day I got to Wilmore that really encouraged me. He told me he's been reading the bible and has nearly finished 'One heartbeat away' and its blowing his mind. He had a few great questions about the faith and said he had been thinking about spiritual things but nothing really clicked until I witnessed to him and gave him the book. I'm praying that God will open his eyes and I've told him that God requires everything from him with the offer of eternal life & a cross. For now I asked him to read the parable of the soils in Luke 8 so that he understands his situation. 3 out of 4 people heard the word and fell away, but only one soil heard, understood & then produced fruit. I don't want this young man to fall away and decieve himself, I want him to repent & believe the gospel.

Preaching Christ! the Living water

This was a special night, perhaps my last one with the Jude 23 Network because I'm moving to Wilmore, KY this week to attend college. Lord willing I'll be back in the future to labor with these precious people that I love so much. My first witness was with a group of four teen (18/19 yr. old) guys who had a little head knowledge of the gospel. They listened and were very open with me as I laid the 'foundation' to bring in the gospel. I wanted to let them know that being a Christian is a supernatural work of God, through faith, that can be seen by the fruit of one's life. 'Without holiness no one will see God' so I challenged these guys to look at their daily lifestyle in light of God's Word. Do you see a continual, not perfect, but a constant growing in love, purity, holiness and seperation from the world to God? Or are you growing in your friendship with the world & the things of this world?

Brandon & Nick

Soon I began to talk with two young men, Brandon & Nick, who have actually talked with John on couple other occasions. Hoping to water the seed that John has been sowing I engaged them in their conscience. As we began they said they didn't believe in God or Christianity and were loosely spewing profanity left & right. Over the next hour or so I began to see their hearts soften and their minds began to understand the heart of the gospel. That Christ is the only way because He is the only sufficient sacrifice for sin. All men are sinners and will pay for all their sins in hell unless God rescues them Himself....which He did!!!! In the person, in the life & in the sacrifice of the only righteous man to ever live (Jesus Christ: fully God & fully man).

These guys had questions about what is true repentance? and how can one know they're saved if they still sin? I explained that true repentance & faith is a gift from God which comes with a new heart, a new Spirit and with new desires to love God & hate sin. A true Christian isn't left on his own! No, God makes him a 'new creature' who now has the ability to fight against sin with his new heart & the Holy Spirit because sin, death & Satan has been defeated for us by Christ. Sure we may stumble, but we don't stay there because conviction will come and we now despise sin because we don't want to grieve our new treasure & life (Jesus Christ). When Christ died on the cross he paid for all the sins of believers (past, present & future) so that we can have peace with God and overcome sin, not continue in it. Brandon & Nick said they respected me for admitting my failures & the Jude 23 Network for sharing the gospel with them.

These guys even agreed with me that they felt guilt and little satisfaction in their lifestyles of sin. That it gave them enough pleasure to keep them coming back, but I told them their is One who is the bread of life & the Living water......eat! drink! and you will hunger & thirst no more! "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. " -Jn 6:35. The Prophet Jeremiah's cry was 'Stop drinking the world's dirty empty jugs of water that can not fill you when you could drink from the fountain of living water'. I told these guys what the bible says about them: That their spiritually dead, blind, slaves to their sins and cannot see the beauty & glory of Christ. That is whats stopping them and amazingly Brandon & Nick agreed with me?!!!! They said they know they're sinners and would go to hell if they died, so all I could do was tell them to just repent & trust Christ. Come as you are, let God clean you up. Even Christians on their best day deserve to go to hell (no one is good enough to deserve heaven) only trust in the person & work of Jesus Christ.

I think God really blessed His Word preached because it seemed at least theses two guys were rocked by us just lifting up Christ. We just proclaim Christ crucified and resurrected and hope the Spirit will convict and draw men to repentance. I pray and hope to see Brandon & Nick in heaven one day. Lord do this for Your own name sake.

Friday Night Evangelism: Men are spiritually dead

According to the bible all lost-unregenerate men are:

-spiritual dead in their sins

-sinful by nature & objects of God's wrath

-blinded by Satan to the gospel of the glory of Christ

-wicked, evil, God-haters, arrogant, etc.

-unable to submit to the law of God

-and they love the darkness rather then the Light (Christ)

Wow! Is that hard for you to believe? Well its true and only points to the glorious truth: Men are great sinners who are in need of Christ the great & only savior! Knowing these truths leave me absolutely helpless & hopeless when I share the gospel with the lost. I cannot hope that they would see Christ as beautiful because they're blinded by Satan. I cannot hope that they would invite Jesus into their hearts because they hate Him & love the darkness. I cannot hope that they would submit to Christ because they don't have the moral ability. All I can hope for is that through the preaching of the gospel God would send the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sins, regenerate them with a new heart, open their spiritual eyes & ears and raise them from the dead unto life in Christ!

Michael the apostate

I witnessed to a young man named Michael, who 'tried' to be a Christian but after many years of frustration he decided he was an athiest. It took a while to break down some walls but I finally got him to understand that repenting & trusting in Christ is not merely an intellectual decision but a supernatural work of God in a persons heart. Where a man is now spiritually raised from the dead (regenerated) and transformed into a new creature with a new heart that loves this God who he formerly ignored & hated. Michael admitted that he had broken God's law, was gulity & deserving of hell and even understood the work of Christ on the cross (absorbing the wrath that we deserve as sinners). But then he said an amazing comment, "Sure I can believe, & I have in the past, this stuff about Jesus in my mind but I can't make my heart love him when I don't! I don't believe it in my heart and I don't think I should have too." Wow, this backs up everything the bible says about the lost and this comment affirms why I'm a calvinist. I told him my hope is that he would consider our talk seriously and that God would open his eyes to repent & believe the gospel of Christ.

Athiests who prove the Bible

I witnessed to a group of 6 teens who were very hostile and angry with the gospel message. For one, they thought God was unjust to send 'good' people in other religions & unreached tribesmen to hell if they don't believe in Christ. I explained that people don't go to hell just because the don't believe in Christ (the devil believes in Christ!) but rather people go to hell because they're sinners. Men may try to do good works to earn their way to heaven but what about all the sins they've commited in their lives? Is God just going to over look those? Never, God is completly holy & just, therefore he will not look over any sins but all sins will be punished. For example, if a man commits a crime & is guilty but says to the judge, 'what about all the other good things I've done in my life?' The judge will say thats good but you must still pay for the crime you've commited. It may seem noble to do good works but God demands perfection & the only way we can be perfect is if Christ pays for our sins (through his death) and we get his perfection/righteousness through faith. They went on to say that I was arrogant to claim Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. But I told them that the message of the cross is foolishness & offensive to them because they are spiritually blind & dead. I pleaded with them to repent but they only buckled against the gospel.

Friday Night Evangelism: Propitiation & Mr. 502

I knew this night of evangelism with the Jude 23 Network was going to be full of great witnessing & even hostile people....why? well before I hit the streets, my daily bible reading led me to Ezekiel 2, where God appoints Ezekiel to preach to a rebellious people. God gave him the Word which he was to proclaim (whether people listened or not). God told him not to fear the people, God also empowered him with the Spirit and told him only to preach the Word which he received. This sounds alot like Paul in (1 Cor. 15:1-4). That's our duty.... better yet, our privilage...to depend on God, empowered by the Spirit to go out into the world (Bardstown Rd.) and preach the gospel which we've recieved & have been saved by.

Propitiation?
Most Christians don't know what this means, well you should because its one of the most important things God did on the believers behalf. Propitiation means that (for all Christians) when Jesus was on the cross he satisfied the wrath of God and paid the just penalty for sin that God demands. Thats right, rejoice! Sin must be dealt with but God himself, on the believer's behalf, vindicated his justice & justified the sinner by condemning Christ in our place. So whats that have to do with Bardstown Rd? Well I had a great witness with two guys named Adam & Nick. I took them through the law and then to their just punishment (hell) and then began to explained the work of Christ on the cross. I said, "just as on earth when you break a law you must be punished, Christ went to the cross and".......then an amazing thing happened! Adam's eyes opened and he looked at me and said, "Christ paid our punishment for sinning". Yes! Yes! Yes! I yelled...inside my head. They seem to really 'get it', I just pray that they biblically repent & believe in Christ. I gave them some materials & tracts, I hope that seed fell on good soil. And by the way, no, I didn't have them repeat 'the sinner's prayer', I just told them to repent...like Jesus did.

Mr. 502 (rapper)
I also witnessed to Donny, a young aspiring christian rapper (or at least a professing Christian). As we talked I could tell he had a Christian backround but he was very unsure & shaky about his faith. Its all the same to me, I took him through the law then explained the gospel. I really think it helped Donny alot, he was very thankful for our conversation. As we were exchanging emails, he gave me his demo CD and told me he raps. He said alot of people get offended by what he says but he felt he needs to appeal to the world so that they'll listen to to him. I told Donny to be careful, without holiness no one sees God & a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. I'm dealing with a local pastor here in louisville right now on this issue. He uses worldly-sensual marketing schemes (even pornography) to advertise his sermons & church. We are to reach the world but not be like the world. The world doesn't need to be affirmed, they need to be told to repent, deny themselves & follow Christ.

Its a joy to herald His gospel & tell sinners of the glory of Christ. Christians I hope you pray with me for more laborers to be raised up. People want joy and to treasure something that will satisfy them....they're just dead in sins and looking for it in bars, clubs, movies & malls. Let's go to them outside our safe church walls & be the church! "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." (1 Cor. 3:7). These are individuals I had a chance to witness to & will be praying for:

-Derek & Jay (believed in a God but had no knowledge of who He is)
-James (soft heart, great witness)
-Alex (agnostic, made him really think)
-headband kid (really made him think despite his mocking friends)
-Amy (Lesbian)
-James (homeless guy)
-Donny aka Mr. 502(shaky with his faith but wants to rap for Christ)
-Nick & Adam (They seemed very convicted & understanding of Christ's work on the cross)
-Alley/Audrey/Lori (teens who never considered eternal consequences until today)
& many others that I gave gospel tracts too!

I Thank God I was ready....out of season

Be ready at all times, in & out of season, to share the gospel…the hope that is within us… that allows us to live the way we SHOULD live. The ‘hope’ in Christ as our future reward, biblically, should help us overcome the fear of death, sacrifice comforts for the good of others, boldly share the gospel to the lost, forgive, grow in holiness, forsake worldly pleasures, etc. This hope compels me to examine my life & heart before God’s word to check myself as well as my motives. Paul exhorts us to be ready at all times to share the gospel; this doesn’t just mean have your testimony ready or an organized evangelism plan. It means live it out; when no one is looking & when its not always convenient.

One way God has helped me ‘live out’ my walk is through meaningful prayer with purpose. I do pray for opportunities to serve & share the gospel but what about those blown or missed opportunities that happen many times? There is a homeless man I have seen all over town, especially within a few miles of where I live. I’ve seen him asking for money at stop lights, walking everywhere and I think I even saw him downtown once. Well I drove past him at a stop light not long ago & decided to pray for him, for his soul & that, Lord willing, I may get to share the gospel with him.

A few days ago Amanda & I rented “The end of the spear” and as we walked out of the store there he was!!! The homeless man I prayed for was in my grill asking for change! I ran to my car and got a dollar & a tract and was so excited to be able to finally share the gospel with this man. His name was Phillip too, he listened intently as I witnessed to him and I pointed to my church (which was down the street) and invited him to come. The commission is to ‘go’ but be ready if God sends them to you.

Pray for Phillip, not that he gets more change but that he would be changed….in Christ. That he would repent & believe the gospel…so that the Lamb would receive His reward.