Post by Jeffrey Olver on Jul 15, 2006 17:25:35 GMT -5
Today Jason Kirkover, myself and a few other individuals (Titus, Shep and Kristin) went to Lake Holbrook in Mineola Texas to preach the Gospel once more. It was HOTTTTTTT! I've preached for hours straight before and barely started sweatingm today just STANDING there, I was pouring sweat! Yech
The lake has become a very good "fishing hole," please pray that everything works out in our favor with the police and the DA.
There was a couple small barbeques on the beach - but most everyone was in the water - understandably because of the heat! (probably close to a hundred folks out today). We set up a milkcrate ('cause we didn't have Jesse's Super Soap Box ;D) at the edge of the parking lot and I began to preach. As I preached the others handed out tracts and spoke one*on*one with people.
I started by preaching about the Kingdom of God from Matthew22 and tied it in to how many of them live in such a way to fall under the King's wrath or to be cast into outer darkness because they do not have on Jesus Christ.
As I began to address the rejection of God's invitation to turn and live through sin, people began to grow rather uncomfortable - one young man began to cuss and tell me to stop talking about people's sins.
After a bit, Brother Jason got up to speak and he preached the Gospel nice and strong - which got a rise out of the same fellow who cussed at me. When Jason touched on the issue of hypocrisy, calling out the man's sin, he threatened to beat us both up. In a strange attempt at justifiying sin, the man claimed he was a Baptist, not a Christian.
A lady came up to try and dissuade Jason from arguing, but he showed her what exactly we were doing through the Word.
After a short while a group of men holding cans of beer approached Jason and began to warn him about 'judging.' But the more Jason preached the Word, the more of their heart was revealed through their lips in obscene talk, justification of sin and profanity - especially one fellow who claimed more ardently than the rest that he was a Christian.
When I got up to preach again another young man who had occasionally shouted something my direction approached to cuss at me and try to explain how I was disturbing the peace. He claimed to be a Christian as well, but the more I explained scripture, the more he hemmed and hawed around it until he finally took his last ditch effort and made the claim he probably would not say infront of his pastor "Do you know how many times that book has been rewritten." I rebuked him, and showed how he was caught in his sin; then he and the girl he was with began to say I was making everyone on the beach angry. When I asked if they were speaking for everyone on the beach, they avoided the question.
They began to walk away and I preached about the cross of Christ...The man stomped back up to me, showing me the huge cross tattoo on his arm. "Sir," I said "It's not enough to wear a cross, you have to bear the cross." and I explained Jesus' command to deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow Him. He said he did, laced with profanity.
All the while I was speaking to these folks a Hispanic pastor approached Jason and gave us some amazing encouragement! Confirming that it is, indeed, hard to preach in a place like where we were at - but it needed to be done! Some people at the beach knew him, and they had raised their voiced in complaint a few times towards us, but I think when they saw the pastor encouraging us, they calmed down and listened more attentively.
Before leaving the pastor said, "You give them the Gospel. You give it them hard." Amen!
As I spoke about hypocrisy, a police officer showed up and I had to step down and speak with him. It was the usual complaints. I reassured him we were just preaching from the Bible. He understood, but very politely asked us to call it a day. Not wanting to strain our relationship with the Mineola PD or the county DA and the work we are trying to accomplish; I was more than happy to comply.
We handed out a few tracts, swapped information with some people who approached and said that they listened the entire time and were very encouraged and blessed - even said they want to bring more people out to listen to the preaching...and then we packed up and headed home.
Brothers and sisters, please, please, please pray for the legal situation here at this place. There is wonderful potential for a great work to be done!!! We desire that the doors would stand wide open for the Gospel to go forth - and that revival would spark in this dry little biblebelt town.
The lake has become a very good "fishing hole," please pray that everything works out in our favor with the police and the DA.
There was a couple small barbeques on the beach - but most everyone was in the water - understandably because of the heat! (probably close to a hundred folks out today). We set up a milkcrate ('cause we didn't have Jesse's Super Soap Box ;D) at the edge of the parking lot and I began to preach. As I preached the others handed out tracts and spoke one*on*one with people.
I started by preaching about the Kingdom of God from Matthew22 and tied it in to how many of them live in such a way to fall under the King's wrath or to be cast into outer darkness because they do not have on Jesus Christ.
As I began to address the rejection of God's invitation to turn and live through sin, people began to grow rather uncomfortable - one young man began to cuss and tell me to stop talking about people's sins.
After a bit, Brother Jason got up to speak and he preached the Gospel nice and strong - which got a rise out of the same fellow who cussed at me. When Jason touched on the issue of hypocrisy, calling out the man's sin, he threatened to beat us both up. In a strange attempt at justifiying sin, the man claimed he was a Baptist, not a Christian.
A lady came up to try and dissuade Jason from arguing, but he showed her what exactly we were doing through the Word.
After a short while a group of men holding cans of beer approached Jason and began to warn him about 'judging.' But the more Jason preached the Word, the more of their heart was revealed through their lips in obscene talk, justification of sin and profanity - especially one fellow who claimed more ardently than the rest that he was a Christian.
When I got up to preach again another young man who had occasionally shouted something my direction approached to cuss at me and try to explain how I was disturbing the peace. He claimed to be a Christian as well, but the more I explained scripture, the more he hemmed and hawed around it until he finally took his last ditch effort and made the claim he probably would not say infront of his pastor "Do you know how many times that book has been rewritten." I rebuked him, and showed how he was caught in his sin; then he and the girl he was with began to say I was making everyone on the beach angry. When I asked if they were speaking for everyone on the beach, they avoided the question.
They began to walk away and I preached about the cross of Christ...The man stomped back up to me, showing me the huge cross tattoo on his arm. "Sir," I said "It's not enough to wear a cross, you have to bear the cross." and I explained Jesus' command to deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow Him. He said he did, laced with profanity.
All the while I was speaking to these folks a Hispanic pastor approached Jason and gave us some amazing encouragement! Confirming that it is, indeed, hard to preach in a place like where we were at - but it needed to be done! Some people at the beach knew him, and they had raised their voiced in complaint a few times towards us, but I think when they saw the pastor encouraging us, they calmed down and listened more attentively.
Before leaving the pastor said, "You give them the Gospel. You give it them hard." Amen!
As I spoke about hypocrisy, a police officer showed up and I had to step down and speak with him. It was the usual complaints. I reassured him we were just preaching from the Bible. He understood, but very politely asked us to call it a day. Not wanting to strain our relationship with the Mineola PD or the county DA and the work we are trying to accomplish; I was more than happy to comply.
We handed out a few tracts, swapped information with some people who approached and said that they listened the entire time and were very encouraged and blessed - even said they want to bring more people out to listen to the preaching...and then we packed up and headed home.
Brothers and sisters, please, please, please pray for the legal situation here at this place. There is wonderful potential for a great work to be done!!! We desire that the doors would stand wide open for the Gospel to go forth - and that revival would spark in this dry little biblebelt town.