Post by messengermicah on Dec 15, 2008 18:47:15 GMT -5
Testimony: This is from a student who has heard us preaching at North Florida for the past three years. This student has always been supportive of our preaching and has kept in contact but I did not realize our preaching had made an influence on them until this past visit.
I would first like to thank you for coming to my campus for the past three years now and proclaiming the Word of God to me and my fellow students. Upon our first encounter three years ago, my understanding of “sin” was somewhat different than yours. I had always been a church-going religious man, but your message really struck me to find out if my viewpoint on sin was correct. I remember going home that night and pulling out my Bible to read the scriptures you quoted in the free speech area. At that specific moment, I realized that I had met a true disciple of Christ who was spreading the TRUTH about sin and God’s commandments. Your visit really inspired me to become a true Christian that the Bible commands us to be. During the week, I would be so eager to report back to the free speech area to learn more, listen, and ask questions. Your memorization of scripture and technique of dealing with non-believers inspired me to read the entire New Testament and spread the truth to my family/friends that had an incorrect view of sin and God’s commandments. Through your consistent visits to my campus the past three years I have had the motivation to continue reading the Bible and witnessing to many non-believers I encounter during my college career. May God bless you and your wife and may you both have a high rank in Heaven! Thank you!
E.B.
University of North Florida
Wednesday November 19, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I spent the day driving to a new location. In the evening we went to a local church service where we were staying.
A young man from North Carolina had contacted me a few weeks ago about doing a project and wanted to meet up with me. He drove down from North Carolina to meet us and spend the next day with us on campus.
We had a time of fellowship and discussion after the church service.
Thursday November 20, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:40 AM and met the young man doing the project.
I began preaching on the free speech lawn around 11:55 AM . I immediately gathered a small crowd that continued to grow. It was a good time of preaching and answering questions and the lively crowd grew to around 70-85.
Soon a polite police officer showed up and told me he was getting complaints from people having a meeting in the building near where I was preaching. He said I needed to either lower my voice some or move down to the designated free speech spot. I had preached in that spot before and did not want to go there so I told him I would do my best to keep my voice down.
I lowered my voice and continued preaching but soon a student showed up and began trying to steal the attention of the crowd and drown me out by reading from the satanic bible.
Due to the noise from this student reading the satanic bible and trying to distract the crowd it was hard to keep my voice down. I began taking a few steps backwards every few minutes to try to move the crowd away from the building and further into the free speech green.
This worked well and I had no further problems with the police. As time wore on the crowd became more rowdy and less attentive. The student reading from the satanic bible was a distraction to some of the students. He would read on and off during the time I was preaching.
By 2:00 PM the crowd size had come down from 70-85 to around 25-30. At 2:15 PM I took a restroom break and then sat down in my chair and began to dialogue and answer questions with the students.
This was a great time as the students asked good questions and listened attentively. Several remained all day long. I continued dialoguing and answering questions until 3:45 PM .
Sister Elizabeth, the young man doing the documentary and myself had a great time of eating together and fellowship after leaving the campus. He then headed back to North Carolina and we headed back to where we were staying.
Friday November 21, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : It was a cold day for Floridians today (in the low to mid 50’s) even though it was clear and sunny.
Due to the cold weather and being it was Friday (a fairly slow day for this campus) I was not expecting to preach to large crowds but still thought it was important to preach to small crowds anyway.
I began preaching around noon and as I pretty much expected I had small groups of 5-15. I preached to these small, civil groups until 2:00 PM and then had a good discussion with a male Catholic student who had good questions and listened intently. He left by saying he was going to study and look up what I had been telling him.
Sister Elizabeth and I left the campus around 2:30 PM .
Saturday November 22, 2008-Jacksonville , Florida : I had been contacted by a student from the University of Central Florida who wanted to do a phone interview with me for a school project. The student asked me very good questions from about 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM and listened as I gave long, thorough scriptural answers. She promised she would show me the finished product.
Sunday November 23, 2008-Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I attended church services in the church where we were staying and I preached in the evening service on “Advancing the Kingdom of God” from Matthew 6:10.
Monday November 24, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus and I began preaching around 12:05 PM . The crowd gradually built up to around 70-85 and was somewhat rowdy.
The police showed up again and politely told me they were still getting complaints about the preaching disturbing classes. I immediately backed up into the green about 25 yards.
This initially caused me to lose about 2/3 of the crowd soon after I backed up. Those who remained sat in the grass and listened and asked questions. The crowd gradually built back up again to around 60-70 and it was a very productive time of preaching and answering questions.
Around 2:30 PM I took a short restroom break while Sister Elizabeth preached. She maintained the crowd size and answered questions.
I took the crowd back over around 2:45 PM . After I took the crowd back over it gradually dwindled to around 15-20. I stopped preaching around 3:30 PM and continued answering questions of the 10-15 students surrounding me until around 4:30 PM .
November 25, 2008-November 30, 2008: Sister Elizabeth and I did not preach on campus the two days before the Thanksgiving break. We have gone on campus these days in years past but it is very difficult to get much going because most students are heading home for the holiday and are preoccupied.
December 1, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : I had planned on preaching on campus today but did not. The Saturday night prior I had a stomach virus and hardly slept. On Sunday afternoon we drove back to the church where we were staying.
Waking up this morning to pray before going to campus I kept dozing off and falling asleep. I told Sister Elizabeth we were not going to campus this day. I went back to sleep and slept until 1:30 PM . I took the day to recuperate.
December 2, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus before noon but we had to take care of a notice we had received for parking in the wrong area.
I began preaching around 12:25 PM . It was another very cold day for Floridians. To avoid any noise complaints I went back to preaching in the spot where I preached the first time I visited this university. I never received any complaints at this spot.
I always had a few listeners but the crowd size stayed small for about 45 minutes. Soon the crowd gradually built up to 60-80 as students began sitting and standing around the grass area. It was a very productive time of straightforward preaching and answering questions. I preached until around 3:35 PM and took a restroom break.
When I returned a few minutes later about 25-30 students were waiting for me. I talked to them and answered questions from them until just after 4:00 PM . The weather was getting cooler and most of the students had gone by this time.
December 3, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Today was warmer than yesterday (mid 60’s). When I arrived on campus there were Hare Krishna’s banging drums and singing in the spot where I had preached yesterday, so I moved closer to where I had received the complaints only I stayed further back in the grass away from the sidewalk and the buildings.
I began preaching at 12:10 PM and immediately began to gather a small crowd. The students sat in the grass and listened and the crowd grew to around 40-70.
A student who attends this school, has heard me preach here since 2006, and credits my preaching with showing him he was a false convert and was instrumental in helping lead him to a true conversion experience had been on hand several days listening and supporting the preaching with a friend of his (this is a different student than the one who wrote the above testimony).
Around 1:15 PM I turned the crowd over to the friend of the student who had been influenced by the preaching on this campus. This friend of the student was on hand listening and watching for hours each day.
He preached and answered questions for about 5 minutes and did an excellent job.
I continued preaching from 1:20 PM to 3:00 PM to civil crowds of 40-80. The students sat in the grass, asked good questions and listened attentively.
At 3:00 PM I took a brief restroom break and came back with a chair to sit and answer questions. Around 15-25 students sat around waiting when I returned back.
Just as I began sitting around the students in a chair answering their questions as they sat around in the grass, a fellow campus preacher from North Carolina , named Gary Birdsong came over and said hello to me. Brother Gary has been preaching on college campuses for over 20 years and has done an excellent job of consistently preaching at North Carolina Chapel Hill. I believe his consistent preaching there over the years is why that school is one of the better schools to preach at.
Brother Gary told me he had been there all day talking to students on the other side of the green. He told me he thought I was somebody else. We agreed to try to get together for dinner later.
I continued to answer the students’ questions until around 4:00 PM . During this time the group became infiltrated with some Church of Christ disciples who go around the country trying to convert students to their particular church.
Early on, I suspected they were Church of Christ because they wanted to talk about water baptism and was it necessary for salvation. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and was very patient with them and acknowledged that if one is truly a follower of Jesus Christ and obeys His commandments then he must follow the command to be water baptized.
I explained to the listeners that repentance, water baptism, etc. were all conditions of salvation but none of these things in and of themselves saved us. Only Jesus Christ and His blood can save and forgive sins (Matthew 1:21 , 1 John 1:7).
As they continued to try to focus on this discussion after we had already dealt with this question I asked them if they were Church of Christ and they said they were not, but then later they admitted they were. I guess these guys think you can be a liar and still go to heaven if you are baptized by the Church of Christ . The all admitted having sin in their lives.
I rebuked them sharply for being dishonest and claiming salvation by grace alone but then adding water baptism to the “grace” alone. I guess it is grace alone when it came to the issue of sin but not grace alone when it comes to water baptism. It then becomes grace alone + water baptism= salvation.
I then ignored them and answered questions from the remainder of students and the Church of Christ disciples left and announced they were having a Bible study after I left.
I left the area around 4:00 PM and continued having a discussion with the student who was the friend of the one converted through the preaching and the younger brother of the student converted through the preaching. I continued talking to them until around 4:30 PM .
Brother Gary and I were not able to get together for dinner this evening but tentatively agreed to preach together the next day.
December 4, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus in the free speech area around 11:40 AM . Brother Gary was already preaching and was building a decent sized crowd of around 30-35 students.
A student from the day before who was trying to justify his living in sin and claiming to be a Christian approached me. I was glad he did, because I wanted to continue my discussion with him.
We moved away from the preaching and continued our discussion but this student was not at all open to the truth of scripture and what it has to say about living in sin and still claiming salvation. No matter how many scriptures I gave this student or tried to reason with him he seemed only concerned with justifying his rebellion and disobedience to God.
Around 12:15 PM two police officers approached us along with Brother Gary. It seemed the free speech green had been reserved and the people who reserved it wanted us off the green. The police seemed to really like us and were very cooperative. They told us we could try anywhere else we wanted and if there was a problem they would come back and talk to us.
We agreed to try a spot just across from the free speech green. There was no foot traffic at this time and no crowd but there were plenty of people in the free speech green lining up to be tested for AIDS by the mobile vehicle.
Brother Gary said he wanted me to begin preaching. I began preaching around 12:25 PM and continuing my discussion with the young man trying to defend his sinful lifestyle. My discussion with him was the center of my preaching focus. He kept heckling me and asking me questions so it worked well.
If the people who had us removed from the free speech green did so because they did not want to hear us then their plan totally backfired. In the new spot we were close to the building across the free speech green and my voice was reverberating and bouncing all over the university. I am sure everyone anywhere near the area could easily hear me clearly.
I began to get a few other hecklers and soon students came around and began to sit in the grass and listen. Soon the hecklers settled down and I began to get some good questions but most of the time the students just sat and listened attentively. I believe the Spirit of the Lord was dealing with many of them.
Around 1:25 PM the crowd was up to around 50-60 and I turned the preaching over to Brother Gary.
Brother Gary continued preaching for the remainder of the afternoon to civil, attentive crowds of around 40-80. I had some excellent discussions on the sidelines with students I had talked to from past meetings and earlier in the week.
Around 3:45 PM Brother Gary stopped preaching so he could start heading back to North Carolina . The three of us had a great time of fellowship over dinner before he left.
I would first like to thank you for coming to my campus for the past three years now and proclaiming the Word of God to me and my fellow students. Upon our first encounter three years ago, my understanding of “sin” was somewhat different than yours. I had always been a church-going religious man, but your message really struck me to find out if my viewpoint on sin was correct. I remember going home that night and pulling out my Bible to read the scriptures you quoted in the free speech area. At that specific moment, I realized that I had met a true disciple of Christ who was spreading the TRUTH about sin and God’s commandments. Your visit really inspired me to become a true Christian that the Bible commands us to be. During the week, I would be so eager to report back to the free speech area to learn more, listen, and ask questions. Your memorization of scripture and technique of dealing with non-believers inspired me to read the entire New Testament and spread the truth to my family/friends that had an incorrect view of sin and God’s commandments. Through your consistent visits to my campus the past three years I have had the motivation to continue reading the Bible and witnessing to many non-believers I encounter during my college career. May God bless you and your wife and may you both have a high rank in Heaven! Thank you!
E.B.
University of North Florida
Wednesday November 19, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I spent the day driving to a new location. In the evening we went to a local church service where we were staying.
A young man from North Carolina had contacted me a few weeks ago about doing a project and wanted to meet up with me. He drove down from North Carolina to meet us and spend the next day with us on campus.
We had a time of fellowship and discussion after the church service.
Thursday November 20, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:40 AM and met the young man doing the project.
I began preaching on the free speech lawn around 11:55 AM . I immediately gathered a small crowd that continued to grow. It was a good time of preaching and answering questions and the lively crowd grew to around 70-85.
Soon a polite police officer showed up and told me he was getting complaints from people having a meeting in the building near where I was preaching. He said I needed to either lower my voice some or move down to the designated free speech spot. I had preached in that spot before and did not want to go there so I told him I would do my best to keep my voice down.
I lowered my voice and continued preaching but soon a student showed up and began trying to steal the attention of the crowd and drown me out by reading from the satanic bible.
Due to the noise from this student reading the satanic bible and trying to distract the crowd it was hard to keep my voice down. I began taking a few steps backwards every few minutes to try to move the crowd away from the building and further into the free speech green.
This worked well and I had no further problems with the police. As time wore on the crowd became more rowdy and less attentive. The student reading from the satanic bible was a distraction to some of the students. He would read on and off during the time I was preaching.
By 2:00 PM the crowd size had come down from 70-85 to around 25-30. At 2:15 PM I took a restroom break and then sat down in my chair and began to dialogue and answer questions with the students.
This was a great time as the students asked good questions and listened attentively. Several remained all day long. I continued dialoguing and answering questions until 3:45 PM .
Sister Elizabeth, the young man doing the documentary and myself had a great time of eating together and fellowship after leaving the campus. He then headed back to North Carolina and we headed back to where we were staying.
Friday November 21, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : It was a cold day for Floridians today (in the low to mid 50’s) even though it was clear and sunny.
Due to the cold weather and being it was Friday (a fairly slow day for this campus) I was not expecting to preach to large crowds but still thought it was important to preach to small crowds anyway.
I began preaching around noon and as I pretty much expected I had small groups of 5-15. I preached to these small, civil groups until 2:00 PM and then had a good discussion with a male Catholic student who had good questions and listened intently. He left by saying he was going to study and look up what I had been telling him.
Sister Elizabeth and I left the campus around 2:30 PM .
Saturday November 22, 2008-Jacksonville , Florida : I had been contacted by a student from the University of Central Florida who wanted to do a phone interview with me for a school project. The student asked me very good questions from about 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM and listened as I gave long, thorough scriptural answers. She promised she would show me the finished product.
Sunday November 23, 2008-Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I attended church services in the church where we were staying and I preached in the evening service on “Advancing the Kingdom of God” from Matthew 6:10.
Monday November 24, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus and I began preaching around 12:05 PM . The crowd gradually built up to around 70-85 and was somewhat rowdy.
The police showed up again and politely told me they were still getting complaints about the preaching disturbing classes. I immediately backed up into the green about 25 yards.
This initially caused me to lose about 2/3 of the crowd soon after I backed up. Those who remained sat in the grass and listened and asked questions. The crowd gradually built back up again to around 60-70 and it was a very productive time of preaching and answering questions.
Around 2:30 PM I took a short restroom break while Sister Elizabeth preached. She maintained the crowd size and answered questions.
I took the crowd back over around 2:45 PM . After I took the crowd back over it gradually dwindled to around 15-20. I stopped preaching around 3:30 PM and continued answering questions of the 10-15 students surrounding me until around 4:30 PM .
November 25, 2008-November 30, 2008: Sister Elizabeth and I did not preach on campus the two days before the Thanksgiving break. We have gone on campus these days in years past but it is very difficult to get much going because most students are heading home for the holiday and are preoccupied.
December 1, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : I had planned on preaching on campus today but did not. The Saturday night prior I had a stomach virus and hardly slept. On Sunday afternoon we drove back to the church where we were staying.
Waking up this morning to pray before going to campus I kept dozing off and falling asleep. I told Sister Elizabeth we were not going to campus this day. I went back to sleep and slept until 1:30 PM . I took the day to recuperate.
December 2, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus before noon but we had to take care of a notice we had received for parking in the wrong area.
I began preaching around 12:25 PM . It was another very cold day for Floridians. To avoid any noise complaints I went back to preaching in the spot where I preached the first time I visited this university. I never received any complaints at this spot.
I always had a few listeners but the crowd size stayed small for about 45 minutes. Soon the crowd gradually built up to 60-80 as students began sitting and standing around the grass area. It was a very productive time of straightforward preaching and answering questions. I preached until around 3:35 PM and took a restroom break.
When I returned a few minutes later about 25-30 students were waiting for me. I talked to them and answered questions from them until just after 4:00 PM . The weather was getting cooler and most of the students had gone by this time.
December 3, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Today was warmer than yesterday (mid 60’s). When I arrived on campus there were Hare Krishna’s banging drums and singing in the spot where I had preached yesterday, so I moved closer to where I had received the complaints only I stayed further back in the grass away from the sidewalk and the buildings.
I began preaching at 12:10 PM and immediately began to gather a small crowd. The students sat in the grass and listened and the crowd grew to around 40-70.
A student who attends this school, has heard me preach here since 2006, and credits my preaching with showing him he was a false convert and was instrumental in helping lead him to a true conversion experience had been on hand several days listening and supporting the preaching with a friend of his (this is a different student than the one who wrote the above testimony).
Around 1:15 PM I turned the crowd over to the friend of the student who had been influenced by the preaching on this campus. This friend of the student was on hand listening and watching for hours each day.
He preached and answered questions for about 5 minutes and did an excellent job.
I continued preaching from 1:20 PM to 3:00 PM to civil crowds of 40-80. The students sat in the grass, asked good questions and listened attentively.
At 3:00 PM I took a brief restroom break and came back with a chair to sit and answer questions. Around 15-25 students sat around waiting when I returned back.
Just as I began sitting around the students in a chair answering their questions as they sat around in the grass, a fellow campus preacher from North Carolina , named Gary Birdsong came over and said hello to me. Brother Gary has been preaching on college campuses for over 20 years and has done an excellent job of consistently preaching at North Carolina Chapel Hill. I believe his consistent preaching there over the years is why that school is one of the better schools to preach at.
Brother Gary told me he had been there all day talking to students on the other side of the green. He told me he thought I was somebody else. We agreed to try to get together for dinner later.
I continued to answer the students’ questions until around 4:00 PM . During this time the group became infiltrated with some Church of Christ disciples who go around the country trying to convert students to their particular church.
Early on, I suspected they were Church of Christ because they wanted to talk about water baptism and was it necessary for salvation. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and was very patient with them and acknowledged that if one is truly a follower of Jesus Christ and obeys His commandments then he must follow the command to be water baptized.
I explained to the listeners that repentance, water baptism, etc. were all conditions of salvation but none of these things in and of themselves saved us. Only Jesus Christ and His blood can save and forgive sins (Matthew 1:21 , 1 John 1:7).
As they continued to try to focus on this discussion after we had already dealt with this question I asked them if they were Church of Christ and they said they were not, but then later they admitted they were. I guess these guys think you can be a liar and still go to heaven if you are baptized by the Church of Christ . The all admitted having sin in their lives.
I rebuked them sharply for being dishonest and claiming salvation by grace alone but then adding water baptism to the “grace” alone. I guess it is grace alone when it came to the issue of sin but not grace alone when it comes to water baptism. It then becomes grace alone + water baptism= salvation.
I then ignored them and answered questions from the remainder of students and the Church of Christ disciples left and announced they were having a Bible study after I left.
I left the area around 4:00 PM and continued having a discussion with the student who was the friend of the one converted through the preaching and the younger brother of the student converted through the preaching. I continued talking to them until around 4:30 PM .
Brother Gary and I were not able to get together for dinner this evening but tentatively agreed to preach together the next day.
December 4, 2008-University of North Florida - Jacksonville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus in the free speech area around 11:40 AM . Brother Gary was already preaching and was building a decent sized crowd of around 30-35 students.
A student from the day before who was trying to justify his living in sin and claiming to be a Christian approached me. I was glad he did, because I wanted to continue my discussion with him.
We moved away from the preaching and continued our discussion but this student was not at all open to the truth of scripture and what it has to say about living in sin and still claiming salvation. No matter how many scriptures I gave this student or tried to reason with him he seemed only concerned with justifying his rebellion and disobedience to God.
Around 12:15 PM two police officers approached us along with Brother Gary. It seemed the free speech green had been reserved and the people who reserved it wanted us off the green. The police seemed to really like us and were very cooperative. They told us we could try anywhere else we wanted and if there was a problem they would come back and talk to us.
We agreed to try a spot just across from the free speech green. There was no foot traffic at this time and no crowd but there were plenty of people in the free speech green lining up to be tested for AIDS by the mobile vehicle.
Brother Gary said he wanted me to begin preaching. I began preaching around 12:25 PM and continuing my discussion with the young man trying to defend his sinful lifestyle. My discussion with him was the center of my preaching focus. He kept heckling me and asking me questions so it worked well.
If the people who had us removed from the free speech green did so because they did not want to hear us then their plan totally backfired. In the new spot we were close to the building across the free speech green and my voice was reverberating and bouncing all over the university. I am sure everyone anywhere near the area could easily hear me clearly.
I began to get a few other hecklers and soon students came around and began to sit in the grass and listen. Soon the hecklers settled down and I began to get some good questions but most of the time the students just sat and listened attentively. I believe the Spirit of the Lord was dealing with many of them.
Around 1:25 PM the crowd was up to around 50-60 and I turned the preaching over to Brother Gary.
Brother Gary continued preaching for the remainder of the afternoon to civil, attentive crowds of around 40-80. I had some excellent discussions on the sidelines with students I had talked to from past meetings and earlier in the week.
Around 3:45 PM Brother Gary stopped preaching so he could start heading back to North Carolina . The three of us had a great time of fellowship over dinner before he left.