Post by messengermicah on Mar 25, 2009 12:05:31 GMT -5
Received this testimony from a University of Florida Student recently:
For background, as a kid I was brought up Christian and once I was old enough to attend service, my parents took me to church nearly every Sunday. I’ve always believed in God and the Jesus is my savior, but as a little kid, church obviously wasn’t the best part of my week. To make a long story short, our church ended up being really corrupt: They built a new church which was really big, but didn’t have the funds to complete it, so nearly every week their sermons were about donating more money to the church. Then to top it all off, the minister in charge got brought down in a big adultery scandal with one of his secretaries and all this, so by the time I was a teenager, I was alienated from Christianity, and filled with mistrust.
I always professed to be a Christian, but those words and my belief in Jesus were about all I had. Here at UF, I started wanting to try to develop my religion, but I was still filled with mistrust about organized religion, so I set out on reading the bible on my own.
There are many reasons why I come to listen to your preaching and why it makes me extremely happy to see you around. I was basically a fair weather Christian for a while, I would use god when it was convenient to give me a leg up, and that was about it. Your message was basically the only one I heard that expressly said “It doesn’t matter if you believe, if you REALLY believe, you actually serve god.” After having explored the bible and listened to what you said, I know that your message is 100% supported by biblical text.
I don’t claim to yet be leading a sin-free life, sometimes old habits are hard to break; but I am working toward stamping out the sin in my life and dedicating myself to the glory of god. And this leads to many other reasons why your preaching is so enriching. Sometimes it’s easy to think “well, maybe god doesn’t REALLY care if I sin, I mean, I can just stop later” so it’s always good to get a jolt out of my selfish apathy from your very potent message. Further watching you gives me the vision of what I hope to someday possess. You really have to boldness of a lion to defend the word and preach it even when the situation seems hopeless. I also hope to be as biblically versed as you are, so that I can refute the false beliefs of my fellow Christians without having to search and search to backup what I want to say.
That also leads to another reason I so much love when you’re around, when the crowd grows to immense size, sometimes I basically piggyback off you, and move in the crowd discussing the word and beliefs with those who are listening. I try to help bring fellow Christians around who might be afraid of the real message. I feel god has endowed me with many gifts to spread his word (I have a quick mind, and I’m extremely well versed in both science and religion), and since I don’t’ yet have your boldness, you basically provide me a little place to both listen and learn, and to teach to some who are unsure of their faith.
So, essentially, those are the main reasons your teaching has such a profound effect on me. You helped me to start on the path of actually walking the walk, not just talking the talk. You show me how the word can be spread, and what I really should know, and then you provide me with a ready-made opportunity to speak to a few people out of the 100s you gather. Hopefully someday I will have the courage to actually preach the word, but right now this small-scale teaching helps to better confirm to me that I’m at least on the right path. I don’t agree with EVERYTHING you say, but as to the biblical message, I feel you are totally on point.
I hope that gives some more insight into the effect of your preaching, I hope I wasn't overly wordy. Always happy to have you at the UF, and hope you come out again soon.
Thanks,
Jason
Tuesday March 3, 2009-University of Florida - Gainesville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I drove several hours up from the Tampa area to preach on this campus. We arrived on campus slightly after 1:00 PM . I do not bother to try to begin preaching on this campus before 1:00 PM because there is so much noise in the preaching area from a noisy symphony of bells that ring.
It was somewhat on the cool side as I began preaching.. I began preaching around 1:30 PM . It took a little time but soon I gathered a good crowd of 25-40.
For the remainder of the afternoon, I preached in a straightforward manner to crowds ranging from 25-40. The crowds were civil and sober acting (for the most part), asked good questions and listened attentively. I preached until around 4:00 PM .
FORGIVENESS WITHOUT REPENTANCE?
Sister Elizabeth had talked to two students who claimed last Friday night there was a Campus for Christ sponsored event which had 3,000 of the student body in attendance. The female student said they sang songs and had a Mr. Joel give a sermon/talk. Sister Elizabeth asked, if Mr. Joel preached repentance? It took about two minutes while she reflected, then she asked the male student with her. They finally both responded, NO he never mentioned that.
SIN IN THE CAMP
From 4:00 PM until around 5:15 PM , I answered questions from a group of about 5-15 students. Some listened very sincerely, asked good questions, and seemed to be seeking the truth. Others seemed bent on defending their freedom to keep on sinning while maintaining a relationship with God and right standing.
I found out why later as the two main “sin defenders” who claimed to be Christians walked away holding hands. They then gave each other a passionate kiss on the lips.
The temperature continued to drop on this already “cold for Florida ” day.
Sister Elizabeth and I left the campus around 5:15 PM . We had a good discussion with one student who walked most of the way to our vehicle.
Wednesday March 4, 2009-University of Florida-Gainesville , Florida : It seemed today was going to be a big day. One young man who had filmed me preaching at University of North Florida last November (2008) was driving down from North Carolina to film again. In addition to this, the group who had filmed me preaching at the University of Central Florida a few weeks ago was driving down from Florida State University to film more preaching..
Sister Elizabeth and I drove to campus with the young man. It was great weather for preaching today. I began preaching around 1:30 PM.
There was a male and female student playing cellos promoting their upcoming symphony near the free speech area. I tried to move far enough away from them to not interfere.
I was gathering a few listeners when the Vanilla Ice/Rick Astley dancer from a few weeks ago showed up again and began following me all around dancing. A crowd of around 200-220 formed but as soon as the dancer departed most of the crowd did also.
INTOLERANT HOMOSEXUAL CELLO PLAYER
About 20-30 listeners stayed and continued asking questions and listening. Soon the cello players started playing their instruments near my small crowd and making it difficult to preach. I truthfully told them they could not get their own crowd or anyone interested in listening to them so they had to come and try to steal the crowd I had. I also made it clear to them I saw them in the area and moved far enough away from them so I would not interfere.
It turned out the male player was a homosexual and that was the reason he was so intolerant, disrespectful and tried to stop me from exercising my first amendment rights. My rebukes to them worked and not only did they leave but thereafter, I had more listeners.
The crowd continued to grow and build throughout the afternoon from this point on until it reached around 170-180. It was a great time of preaching. I had lots of opposition from territorial jealous “christianettes” who kept claiming they sinned all the time but it did not matter because Jesus covered their sins. They claimed to live unrighteous lives but it did not matter because there was none righteous (Romans 3:10 ) and we are made righteous based on what Jesus did.
JESUS DOES NOT FORGIVE UNREPENTANT SINS
I told them God’s forgiveness is conditional (Luke 13:3,5, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19), that our sins are only covered and cleansed as we obey God (1 John 1:7, Acts 3:19), and if we are made righteous then we live righteous (1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:7).
The dancer showed up again but this time he was a big hindrance and distraction as the crowd size was already large and interactive. I rebuked him and commanded him to leave in the name of Jesus and he took off.
In spite of all the heckling and opposition it was a great time of preaching. I noticed many familiar faces in the crowd listening intently, some of which were former hecklers.
I continued preaching to the large crowd until around 4:00 PM . By now some of the opposition subsided and the crowd size began to dwindle down. I stood upon one of the planters and began to answer questions. The sin defending “christianettes” played a guitar and sang songs behind me now that the crowd had calmed down and was sincerely seeking the truth.. It made me wonder what the motives of these “christianettes” were.
I answered questions until around 4:30 PM . It seemed it was a good day of filming for both parties filming. Another young man walked almost all the way to our vehicle asking questions.
That evening I preached in a church for about 45 minutes on “The Suffering of a Christian” from 1 Peter 2:19-24.
Thursday March 5, 2009-University of Florida - Gainesville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth, the young man and myself arrived on campus just after 1:00 PM and I began preaching around 1:30 PM . It was another day of great preaching weather.
HYPOCRITE INTERFERES
Today, I began to gather a crowd fairly quickly. Soon, I had a crowd of around 30-40. It seemed the day might really take off but throughout the afternoon I preached to crowds from 30-80. It was another good day of mostly answering questions and straightforward preaching. I think the day could have been better but earlier in the meeting a hypocrite showed up with his Bible and tried to steal the crowd throughout the day.
Many times I would be preaching and making points to attentive listeners and this guy would interrupt, jump in front of me and start preaching about how we are all sinners, Paul sinned all the time, Jesus covers all our sins as long as we try to live right, etc.
HYPOCRITE COMES UP WITH GOOD POINT TO JEWISH STUDENT
He made one good point though to a Jewish student who could not understand the differences in the Jewish scriptures from Jesus first coming and His second coming. The hypocrite read from Daniel 9:24-27 about Messiah being cut off.
Later, in the afternoon the crowd size stayed about the same size but there was little foot traffic. It was obvious many of the students were leaving for their spring break.
BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS
Around 4:00 PM one young girl brought me a list of so called “Bible Contradictions” that she wanted me to explain. I have seen lists like these before and have never found any genuine contradiction although upon first glance it may seem to be a contradiction. I wanted to continue preaching but the crowd demanded I deal with the list.
I took the list and sat down while several of the biggest hecklers, skeptics, atheists, etc. followed me. I began looking at several. I could not give immediate explanations for all of them but promised I would study them and get back to them. They told me I needed to reject the Bible because I could not answer all the questions on the list.
I told them I had utmost confidence in the Bible, had seen these supposed “contradictions” before and always found a perfect explanation after more careful examination.
I debated and discussed with these students until around 5:00 PM and then left the campus.
For background, as a kid I was brought up Christian and once I was old enough to attend service, my parents took me to church nearly every Sunday. I’ve always believed in God and the Jesus is my savior, but as a little kid, church obviously wasn’t the best part of my week. To make a long story short, our church ended up being really corrupt: They built a new church which was really big, but didn’t have the funds to complete it, so nearly every week their sermons were about donating more money to the church. Then to top it all off, the minister in charge got brought down in a big adultery scandal with one of his secretaries and all this, so by the time I was a teenager, I was alienated from Christianity, and filled with mistrust.
I always professed to be a Christian, but those words and my belief in Jesus were about all I had. Here at UF, I started wanting to try to develop my religion, but I was still filled with mistrust about organized religion, so I set out on reading the bible on my own.
There are many reasons why I come to listen to your preaching and why it makes me extremely happy to see you around. I was basically a fair weather Christian for a while, I would use god when it was convenient to give me a leg up, and that was about it. Your message was basically the only one I heard that expressly said “It doesn’t matter if you believe, if you REALLY believe, you actually serve god.” After having explored the bible and listened to what you said, I know that your message is 100% supported by biblical text.
I don’t claim to yet be leading a sin-free life, sometimes old habits are hard to break; but I am working toward stamping out the sin in my life and dedicating myself to the glory of god. And this leads to many other reasons why your preaching is so enriching. Sometimes it’s easy to think “well, maybe god doesn’t REALLY care if I sin, I mean, I can just stop later” so it’s always good to get a jolt out of my selfish apathy from your very potent message. Further watching you gives me the vision of what I hope to someday possess. You really have to boldness of a lion to defend the word and preach it even when the situation seems hopeless. I also hope to be as biblically versed as you are, so that I can refute the false beliefs of my fellow Christians without having to search and search to backup what I want to say.
That also leads to another reason I so much love when you’re around, when the crowd grows to immense size, sometimes I basically piggyback off you, and move in the crowd discussing the word and beliefs with those who are listening. I try to help bring fellow Christians around who might be afraid of the real message. I feel god has endowed me with many gifts to spread his word (I have a quick mind, and I’m extremely well versed in both science and religion), and since I don’t’ yet have your boldness, you basically provide me a little place to both listen and learn, and to teach to some who are unsure of their faith.
So, essentially, those are the main reasons your teaching has such a profound effect on me. You helped me to start on the path of actually walking the walk, not just talking the talk. You show me how the word can be spread, and what I really should know, and then you provide me with a ready-made opportunity to speak to a few people out of the 100s you gather. Hopefully someday I will have the courage to actually preach the word, but right now this small-scale teaching helps to better confirm to me that I’m at least on the right path. I don’t agree with EVERYTHING you say, but as to the biblical message, I feel you are totally on point.
I hope that gives some more insight into the effect of your preaching, I hope I wasn't overly wordy. Always happy to have you at the UF, and hope you come out again soon.
Thanks,
Jason
Tuesday March 3, 2009-University of Florida - Gainesville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth and I drove several hours up from the Tampa area to preach on this campus. We arrived on campus slightly after 1:00 PM . I do not bother to try to begin preaching on this campus before 1:00 PM because there is so much noise in the preaching area from a noisy symphony of bells that ring.
It was somewhat on the cool side as I began preaching.. I began preaching around 1:30 PM . It took a little time but soon I gathered a good crowd of 25-40.
For the remainder of the afternoon, I preached in a straightforward manner to crowds ranging from 25-40. The crowds were civil and sober acting (for the most part), asked good questions and listened attentively. I preached until around 4:00 PM .
FORGIVENESS WITHOUT REPENTANCE?
Sister Elizabeth had talked to two students who claimed last Friday night there was a Campus for Christ sponsored event which had 3,000 of the student body in attendance. The female student said they sang songs and had a Mr. Joel give a sermon/talk. Sister Elizabeth asked, if Mr. Joel preached repentance? It took about two minutes while she reflected, then she asked the male student with her. They finally both responded, NO he never mentioned that.
SIN IN THE CAMP
From 4:00 PM until around 5:15 PM , I answered questions from a group of about 5-15 students. Some listened very sincerely, asked good questions, and seemed to be seeking the truth. Others seemed bent on defending their freedom to keep on sinning while maintaining a relationship with God and right standing.
I found out why later as the two main “sin defenders” who claimed to be Christians walked away holding hands. They then gave each other a passionate kiss on the lips.
The temperature continued to drop on this already “cold for Florida ” day.
Sister Elizabeth and I left the campus around 5:15 PM . We had a good discussion with one student who walked most of the way to our vehicle.
Wednesday March 4, 2009-University of Florida-Gainesville , Florida : It seemed today was going to be a big day. One young man who had filmed me preaching at University of North Florida last November (2008) was driving down from North Carolina to film again. In addition to this, the group who had filmed me preaching at the University of Central Florida a few weeks ago was driving down from Florida State University to film more preaching..
Sister Elizabeth and I drove to campus with the young man. It was great weather for preaching today. I began preaching around 1:30 PM.
There was a male and female student playing cellos promoting their upcoming symphony near the free speech area. I tried to move far enough away from them to not interfere.
I was gathering a few listeners when the Vanilla Ice/Rick Astley dancer from a few weeks ago showed up again and began following me all around dancing. A crowd of around 200-220 formed but as soon as the dancer departed most of the crowd did also.
INTOLERANT HOMOSEXUAL CELLO PLAYER
About 20-30 listeners stayed and continued asking questions and listening. Soon the cello players started playing their instruments near my small crowd and making it difficult to preach. I truthfully told them they could not get their own crowd or anyone interested in listening to them so they had to come and try to steal the crowd I had. I also made it clear to them I saw them in the area and moved far enough away from them so I would not interfere.
It turned out the male player was a homosexual and that was the reason he was so intolerant, disrespectful and tried to stop me from exercising my first amendment rights. My rebukes to them worked and not only did they leave but thereafter, I had more listeners.
The crowd continued to grow and build throughout the afternoon from this point on until it reached around 170-180. It was a great time of preaching. I had lots of opposition from territorial jealous “christianettes” who kept claiming they sinned all the time but it did not matter because Jesus covered their sins. They claimed to live unrighteous lives but it did not matter because there was none righteous (Romans 3:10 ) and we are made righteous based on what Jesus did.
JESUS DOES NOT FORGIVE UNREPENTANT SINS
I told them God’s forgiveness is conditional (Luke 13:3,5, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19), that our sins are only covered and cleansed as we obey God (1 John 1:7, Acts 3:19), and if we are made righteous then we live righteous (1 John 2:29, 1 John 3:7).
The dancer showed up again but this time he was a big hindrance and distraction as the crowd size was already large and interactive. I rebuked him and commanded him to leave in the name of Jesus and he took off.
In spite of all the heckling and opposition it was a great time of preaching. I noticed many familiar faces in the crowd listening intently, some of which were former hecklers.
I continued preaching to the large crowd until around 4:00 PM . By now some of the opposition subsided and the crowd size began to dwindle down. I stood upon one of the planters and began to answer questions. The sin defending “christianettes” played a guitar and sang songs behind me now that the crowd had calmed down and was sincerely seeking the truth.. It made me wonder what the motives of these “christianettes” were.
I answered questions until around 4:30 PM . It seemed it was a good day of filming for both parties filming. Another young man walked almost all the way to our vehicle asking questions.
That evening I preached in a church for about 45 minutes on “The Suffering of a Christian” from 1 Peter 2:19-24.
Thursday March 5, 2009-University of Florida - Gainesville , Florida : Sister Elizabeth, the young man and myself arrived on campus just after 1:00 PM and I began preaching around 1:30 PM . It was another day of great preaching weather.
HYPOCRITE INTERFERES
Today, I began to gather a crowd fairly quickly. Soon, I had a crowd of around 30-40. It seemed the day might really take off but throughout the afternoon I preached to crowds from 30-80. It was another good day of mostly answering questions and straightforward preaching. I think the day could have been better but earlier in the meeting a hypocrite showed up with his Bible and tried to steal the crowd throughout the day.
Many times I would be preaching and making points to attentive listeners and this guy would interrupt, jump in front of me and start preaching about how we are all sinners, Paul sinned all the time, Jesus covers all our sins as long as we try to live right, etc.
HYPOCRITE COMES UP WITH GOOD POINT TO JEWISH STUDENT
He made one good point though to a Jewish student who could not understand the differences in the Jewish scriptures from Jesus first coming and His second coming. The hypocrite read from Daniel 9:24-27 about Messiah being cut off.
Later, in the afternoon the crowd size stayed about the same size but there was little foot traffic. It was obvious many of the students were leaving for their spring break.
BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS
Around 4:00 PM one young girl brought me a list of so called “Bible Contradictions” that she wanted me to explain. I have seen lists like these before and have never found any genuine contradiction although upon first glance it may seem to be a contradiction. I wanted to continue preaching but the crowd demanded I deal with the list.
I took the list and sat down while several of the biggest hecklers, skeptics, atheists, etc. followed me. I began looking at several. I could not give immediate explanations for all of them but promised I would study them and get back to them. They told me I needed to reject the Bible because I could not answer all the questions on the list.
I told them I had utmost confidence in the Bible, had seen these supposed “contradictions” before and always found a perfect explanation after more careful examination.
I debated and discussed with these students until around 5:00 PM and then left the campus.