Wow, yesterday witnessing was really awesome! I didn't plan on going out this week, but the Lord really put it on my heart yesterday morning that I needed to go out and share the gospel that evening. I was very blessed because it wasn't my usual "false conversion" encounters. Meaning, when I talk to people they usually proclaim that they are Christian, but yet do not understand the gospel, know what they believe, can tell me what to do be saved, or they even admit that they are not after I explain to them the law and the gospel.
Don't get me wrong though. People who think they are Christian need to have the biblical gospel shared with them as well. It's just rare sometimes to find people in the bible belt that are honest about their faith and don't just say they are Christian because they grew up that way or it is more of a cultural thing. We can't always be sure about somebody's salvation so we are to love and share the gospel with them regardless. People often say that we are not to judge, "just not, lest you be judged", which is referring to a hypocritical judgment if that verse is actually taken into context. But we are told to judge in a righteous way.
"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” - John 7:24
In the same chapter of the famous "judge not, lest you be judged" Jesus tells the disciples - "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will recognize them by their fruits."
"The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one." - 1 Corinthians 2:15
And it gives more details further into the verses. So there are instances in which we are to judge discerningly.
Anyways, my point of this post today is to explain that we need to be worshiping the right Jesus and understand that different religions have different views of who He is. Even those who claim to traditional Christian teachings can have the wrong idea of Christ. And if we have the wrong Jesus, it is the wrong gospel because it is all about Him.
What got me thinking about this was my encounter last night. I talked to a Zen Buddhist. I'm familiar with traditional Buddhism, but not Zen so he explained to me and basically said that he doesn't believe in Buddha as a deity (god), but he just believed it was in himself to go to a better place and reach the state of nirvana. He was well versed in the teachings of different religions, could quote scripture, and had a rehearsed argument on why he believed what he believed. After I explained the gospel to Him he said he believed that there was someone named Jesus who did good things, but not that He was son of God.
We got to the root of one of the issues when he said that he believes that all paths lead to the same place, which is very popular now. I told him if that I believe that I would turn into a cricket would I definitely turn into a cricket after I die? I also asked that if I thought the sun is blue and he thinks it's yellow then who is right. Am I right just because I really believe it's blue? It was basically a case of relativism, where someone believes that what is true for you is truth and what someone else believes is truth is truth for them. They make it sound fancy, but it's really silly logic. You just turn it back around on them to show the silliness of it. He saw my point and after some more discussion he asked me if he really wanted to be forgiven what he had to do. I explained who Jesus really was and the nature of God and the atonement. He actually mentioned atonement early and I explained why we cannot atone for our own sins and evil that we do. Zen Buddhism and all other religions is man centered and that there is a way that we work our way to heaven/nirvana or whatever that good place in the afterlife may be. Christianity is the only "religion" where you must completely surrender, repent, and put your trust in Christ instead of your own efforts.
The conversation was a real blessing because he showed genuine interest and actually knew what he was talking about even though it didn't make much sense once we unraveled it. The next conversation I had was with a group of guys, which was rather interesting. One guy was agnostic, one Catholic, one Mormon who was training another guy there to become a Mormon. We went through the good person test and then I explained the gospel (which is the most important thing to share with someone). The Mormon was well versed in a lot of his teachings, but the odd thing was is that he agreed with everything I said. I had to explain to my new Catholic friend how purgatory is not a biblical doctrine because that is what a lot will say where we go after death. To the Mormon I asked him if he had taken his two year mission trip yet (Mormons are usually required to take one). He said he was about to go in a couple weeks so I pleaded with him to check out the roots of his faith and gave him some points to consider.
Our terminology is the same in many ways, but there are different definitions to the same words. For instance, I brought up that the Mormon teachings believe in the celestial, telestial, and terrestrial heavens (they have three levels of heaven), baptism of the dead, becoming your own god, the origins of Joseph Smith. They also believe Jesus not to be the God-man, deny the trinity, and that Christ was the brother of Satan. He was a really nice guy and wanted to know more so we exchanged contact information and he wanted me to send him some links and info. on everything I was telling him. Please pray for him because the other guy with him there was also training to become a Mormon.
Overall it was a great experience. I love talking to people of different religions, especially when they actually practice and understand what they proclaim. The danger I see is that there are many people who are not Christian, are of different religions or have different system of beliefs (including atheists)know more about the Bible than many self-proclaiming Christians. More than ever we all need to understand and apply this truth...
"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect," - 1 Peter 3:15
Whether you go out and witness, hand out tracts, or just even claim to be Christian, this is a truth that we must all apply. One of the biggest dangers I see today is self-proclaiming Christians having the wrong idea of Jesus, which I had for most of my life. I believed Jesus to be someone who winked at my sin, would let me hold onto my secret sins, and live like hell Monday through Saturday and play church on Sunday because that somehow made me good or worthy. I was so wrong. Jesus is Lord of all. And to be born again meant that I wouldn't keep diving into sin because my heart had genuinely changed. That's what it means to become a new creature in Christ. You begin to hate the sins you once loved and love the things God loves. You repent, turn from sin, because of who you are sinning against, not because it makes you feel cruddy or you want to be "morally better". You trust in Christ instead of your own efforts for your salvation.
I want to wrap up with this. In my blogs I often discuss other religions. While I believe that to be vitally important you do not have to know all the things that I am talking about to witness or share your faith with someone. The most important thing to know is the law and the gospel. Apologetics does help and I believe people should be versed in it, but we have to understand what we believe and be able to share it with the lost as it says in 1 Peter. Just like I tell people when I share the gospel with them, I cannot convince you that Christianity is true. I can help you make some sense of it and show you why what you believe can't be right, but ultimately you have to repent and trust in Christ in alone for your salvation. He is the only way, the truth, and the life!
If you are interested in sharing your faith, want some resources, or have any questions in general please shoot me an message! I plead with you to please pray for all the people that heard the gospel last night. Pray that the Lord would save them, that they would repent of their sin and trust in the one true Savior. Thank you for reading!
In Christ,
Joey
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Evangelism and Aspasians
Life lately has been busy, but blessedly so! I had the pleasure and privilege of going to an event this morning to do some long over due evangelism. My first role is of course being a husband to my wife and father to my children, but it was good to hit the streets and spread the Gospel. I can't wait until my wife and children can come with me frequently. It's a little harder to tag along a three year old and nine month old. : )
I first want to say thank you so much for those who prayed for the outing. I believe the Lord was truly glorified! My church, Chisholm Baptist, had a booth setup with crafts, cookies, suckers, a presentation with the meaning of the cross, and information about our church, along with members and my pastor talking to those who stopped by. It was encouraging to see a church, especially mine, to take the time and effort to go meet and greet people.
The fair is called the Aspasians Fair...I'm assuming the name was coined from Aspasia the famous Greek/Athenian woman. Either way I know some of the Aspasian were doing their job well in monitoring, but for some reason they seemed to keep nitpicking at the church booth because the table stuck out too far, which it didn't compared to the others. I think it's just because it was a "church" booth while others were trying to sell things. Many still stopped by and received information though, which was great!
I mainly walked around and handed out Gospel tracts, engaging in one-2-one and group conversations with people. I decided to go with Big Money Tracts from Living Waters. These are really neat to use in parades and big events because they catch the eye of people, including curious Aspasians, and they either say something about it or ask for one. Some things you can say to others when using these are, "did you get one of these, did you get your big money today, and here's some big money for you, I wish it was real, but the message on the back is." The responses are often humorous. : ) It is always fun to be creative with tracts and it loosens people up to a conversation about their eternity. If someone says they are already a Christian, knows what it is and tries to hand it back, you can always say, "well could you please give it to someone that I can't reach, thank you!"
As I often see in Rockwall, I talked to three members of a large local church who told me they did not believe in the existence of hell and said they had to leave when we started discussing the 10 Commandments. This is an unfortunate trend I have noticed in the community over the past two years I have been witnessing, which just reminds me that the god of the Bible belt is not the God of the Bible. Much of preaching nowadays in many churches has been watered down to a seeker-friendly/sensitive Gospel, when in reality the only one a church should be seeking for is God. Anyways, I'll save that for another blog and another day! I would appreciate prayers for these boys and that the law would be a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ through the Gospel tracts they received. See Galatians 3:24
The biggest blessing for me was when I was walking down the street outside of the fair and saw a guy who was sitting alone. He looked kind of familiar when I approached him. I handed him a big money tract and he said that he got a million dollar bill from a guy at the Harbor who was talking to him and some others a while back. I asked him if it was me because I go out there pretty often and he said he thinks it was and I believe it was him as well. Either way I was very thankful. He told me that he feels as if God has changed his heart and he prays and reads his Bible because he wants to and not because he has to. We discussed the law a little bit more and talked about the evidence of salvation. We even prayed afterward that the Lord would open his heart more and continue to give him further repentance and trust in Christ alone. It was a real blessing! It was nice to have a church home to invite him out to!
I was also honored to meet and thank an older veteran for his service who was walking by himself. He received a tract and thanked me with a hug.
The last conversation I had was with an agnostic fellow who said that he thinks we probably just turn into dust after death and he doesn't really know what happens with things concerning the afterlife. He said he just lives his life one day at a time and is into truth. I explained that I am into truth as well and was able to provide him with the greatest truth! The conversation went really well and he seemed to really be interested and appreciated the encounter. Please pray for him and the rest of the people who received tracts and heard the Gospel. Pray that their hearts would be unhardened, the Lord would draw them to Himself, and that they would repent and trust in Christ alone for their eternal salvation.
Thank you so much for reading and I greatly appreciate your prayers as always!
In Christ,
Joey
Are you 100% percent sure you know where you are going? If not, please check out this link at www.needGod.com for an answer to the most important question or send me a message and I would love to talk to you about it. There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation my friend!
I first want to say thank you so much for those who prayed for the outing. I believe the Lord was truly glorified! My church, Chisholm Baptist, had a booth setup with crafts, cookies, suckers, a presentation with the meaning of the cross, and information about our church, along with members and my pastor talking to those who stopped by. It was encouraging to see a church, especially mine, to take the time and effort to go meet and greet people.
The fair is called the Aspasians Fair...I'm assuming the name was coined from Aspasia the famous Greek/Athenian woman. Either way I know some of the Aspasian were doing their job well in monitoring, but for some reason they seemed to keep nitpicking at the church booth because the table stuck out too far, which it didn't compared to the others. I think it's just because it was a "church" booth while others were trying to sell things. Many still stopped by and received information though, which was great!
I mainly walked around and handed out Gospel tracts, engaging in one-2-one and group conversations with people. I decided to go with Big Money Tracts from Living Waters. These are really neat to use in parades and big events because they catch the eye of people, including curious Aspasians, and they either say something about it or ask for one. Some things you can say to others when using these are, "did you get one of these, did you get your big money today, and here's some big money for you, I wish it was real, but the message on the back is." The responses are often humorous. : ) It is always fun to be creative with tracts and it loosens people up to a conversation about their eternity. If someone says they are already a Christian, knows what it is and tries to hand it back, you can always say, "well could you please give it to someone that I can't reach, thank you!"
As I often see in Rockwall, I talked to three members of a large local church who told me they did not believe in the existence of hell and said they had to leave when we started discussing the 10 Commandments. This is an unfortunate trend I have noticed in the community over the past two years I have been witnessing, which just reminds me that the god of the Bible belt is not the God of the Bible. Much of preaching nowadays in many churches has been watered down to a seeker-friendly/sensitive Gospel, when in reality the only one a church should be seeking for is God. Anyways, I'll save that for another blog and another day! I would appreciate prayers for these boys and that the law would be a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ through the Gospel tracts they received. See Galatians 3:24
The biggest blessing for me was when I was walking down the street outside of the fair and saw a guy who was sitting alone. He looked kind of familiar when I approached him. I handed him a big money tract and he said that he got a million dollar bill from a guy at the Harbor who was talking to him and some others a while back. I asked him if it was me because I go out there pretty often and he said he thinks it was and I believe it was him as well. Either way I was very thankful. He told me that he feels as if God has changed his heart and he prays and reads his Bible because he wants to and not because he has to. We discussed the law a little bit more and talked about the evidence of salvation. We even prayed afterward that the Lord would open his heart more and continue to give him further repentance and trust in Christ alone. It was a real blessing! It was nice to have a church home to invite him out to!
I was also honored to meet and thank an older veteran for his service who was walking by himself. He received a tract and thanked me with a hug.
The last conversation I had was with an agnostic fellow who said that he thinks we probably just turn into dust after death and he doesn't really know what happens with things concerning the afterlife. He said he just lives his life one day at a time and is into truth. I explained that I am into truth as well and was able to provide him with the greatest truth! The conversation went really well and he seemed to really be interested and appreciated the encounter. Please pray for him and the rest of the people who received tracts and heard the Gospel. Pray that their hearts would be unhardened, the Lord would draw them to Himself, and that they would repent and trust in Christ alone for their eternal salvation.
Thank you so much for reading and I greatly appreciate your prayers as always!
In Christ,
Joey
Are you 100% percent sure you know where you are going? If not, please check out this link at www.needGod.com for an answer to the most important question or send me a message and I would love to talk to you about it. There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation my friend!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
A Reflection
In the Facebook world everyone has been posting about their goals and agenda's for this new year, but I thought I would do something a bit different and reflect on the previous year, 2010.
This time two years ago the Lord graciously drew me to Himself. By His grace I was born again. I was convicted of my sin and how wretched of a man I really was. I was granted repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, He saved me. It was nothing of my own effort as I had nothing to offer an almighty, perfect, and holy God. It was also my second year to be involved in the proclamation of the Gospel through street evangelism and I can say in all honesty I have learned much and been humbled even more so throughout the year. Please understand that the purpose of this entry is not to draw attention to myself, but that God may be glorified through the work that He has done and I have experienced this past year.
It has been a great year of evangelism and growth for me personally. I have seen some of those close to me be drawn to Christ, which I am so thankful beyond words for. I now have a brother in Christ I am also thankful for that I have learned much from and we serve together under our King for His glory as we go witness to lost souls on an almost weekly basis. I believe I may have possibly been lead to a church home for my family that I have desperately been searching and praying for since the Lord changed my heart. This has also been a great year because my wife and I celebrated our 4 year marriage anniversary together with a new addition to our family, my beautiful daughter Ella Grace who is another blessing beyond words. I am also amazed at how much my family has grown in the Lord this year and how much information a 2-3 year old can retain! We are so thankful and pray that we will raise our son and daughter to be godly, caring, humble, and bold followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can say though that the most change in my life this past year has happened within the last couple of months. By God's providential will one night, while I was out witnessing alone, he established what I believe to be an eternal friendship with two of the most godly people I have ever been privileged to know. In one of my first blog posts concerning my testimony and the Ambassador's Alliance I expressed how beautiful and encouraging it was to be around true brothers and sisters in Christ as we trained, prayed, and served our King together in the streets during that weekend in LA. I also expressed in that post how I was grieved and heart broken that we all had to leave each other. I did not think I would experience that feeling again so soon.
Within these last couple of months I have been encouraged by example and exhortation from these friends and conviction from the Holy Spirit. I believe I have learned and will continue learning from these experiences and future experiences to come. I love my dear brother and sister in Christ and have been reminded how important relationships are and how sweet the fellowship of the brethren really is. This has been a great year. The Lord is awesome, He is sovereign, and He is truly glorious. I am so thankful for His mercy, His grace, and the fellowship He gives through Himself and His bride, the church. I don't mean the building, I mean brothers and sisters in Christ who are truly of Him. I have had many down-falls this year and a few of those being relationships and my prayer life. I am lousy at relationships other than my family and I hope to build them this upcoming year so that the Lord may be glorified in them. I also pray that my prayer life honors God and not my conscience.
My Facebook says I have around 3,000 friends and I receive about 20 friend requests a week on here. So one of my "goals" is going to be to significantly down-size my list to those of people I know either through school, witnessing encounters, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ...in other words, people I actually know. My hope is that I can be more of a committed friend through this venue of communication at least, as I have too often let things in the name of evangelism take priority over things in the name of God-honoring relationships.
So here is to another year. I pray that those of Christ, including myself, would love, honor, and give God the glory in every avenue of their life. To those who do not know Him, I pray that they would repent, turn from their sins and trust alone in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, for He is the only way.
Thank you so much for reading and I pray that everyone has a blessed year.
Soli deo gloria!
In Christ,
Joey Acker
This time two years ago the Lord graciously drew me to Himself. By His grace I was born again. I was convicted of my sin and how wretched of a man I really was. I was granted repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, He saved me. It was nothing of my own effort as I had nothing to offer an almighty, perfect, and holy God. It was also my second year to be involved in the proclamation of the Gospel through street evangelism and I can say in all honesty I have learned much and been humbled even more so throughout the year. Please understand that the purpose of this entry is not to draw attention to myself, but that God may be glorified through the work that He has done and I have experienced this past year.
It has been a great year of evangelism and growth for me personally. I have seen some of those close to me be drawn to Christ, which I am so thankful beyond words for. I now have a brother in Christ I am also thankful for that I have learned much from and we serve together under our King for His glory as we go witness to lost souls on an almost weekly basis. I believe I may have possibly been lead to a church home for my family that I have desperately been searching and praying for since the Lord changed my heart. This has also been a great year because my wife and I celebrated our 4 year marriage anniversary together with a new addition to our family, my beautiful daughter Ella Grace who is another blessing beyond words. I am also amazed at how much my family has grown in the Lord this year and how much information a 2-3 year old can retain! We are so thankful and pray that we will raise our son and daughter to be godly, caring, humble, and bold followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can say though that the most change in my life this past year has happened within the last couple of months. By God's providential will one night, while I was out witnessing alone, he established what I believe to be an eternal friendship with two of the most godly people I have ever been privileged to know. In one of my first blog posts concerning my testimony and the Ambassador's Alliance I expressed how beautiful and encouraging it was to be around true brothers and sisters in Christ as we trained, prayed, and served our King together in the streets during that weekend in LA. I also expressed in that post how I was grieved and heart broken that we all had to leave each other. I did not think I would experience that feeling again so soon.
Within these last couple of months I have been encouraged by example and exhortation from these friends and conviction from the Holy Spirit. I believe I have learned and will continue learning from these experiences and future experiences to come. I love my dear brother and sister in Christ and have been reminded how important relationships are and how sweet the fellowship of the brethren really is. This has been a great year. The Lord is awesome, He is sovereign, and He is truly glorious. I am so thankful for His mercy, His grace, and the fellowship He gives through Himself and His bride, the church. I don't mean the building, I mean brothers and sisters in Christ who are truly of Him. I have had many down-falls this year and a few of those being relationships and my prayer life. I am lousy at relationships other than my family and I hope to build them this upcoming year so that the Lord may be glorified in them. I also pray that my prayer life honors God and not my conscience.
My Facebook says I have around 3,000 friends and I receive about 20 friend requests a week on here. So one of my "goals" is going to be to significantly down-size my list to those of people I know either through school, witnessing encounters, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ...in other words, people I actually know. My hope is that I can be more of a committed friend through this venue of communication at least, as I have too often let things in the name of evangelism take priority over things in the name of God-honoring relationships.
So here is to another year. I pray that those of Christ, including myself, would love, honor, and give God the glory in every avenue of their life. To those who do not know Him, I pray that they would repent, turn from their sins and trust alone in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, for He is the only way.
Thank you so much for reading and I pray that everyone has a blessed year.
Soli deo gloria!
In Christ,
Joey Acker