WITNESSING ENCOUNTERS – 4/17/09

Hello beloved,

Friday, April seventeenth was a great night for my family and I.  Once again, after I got home from work, we packed up and hit Concord Mills to do some witnessing.  It was one of those nights when I really just wanted to stay home.  I was tired, therefore I was excited.  You know, it’s the times you really don’t want to go out, and can think of a million excuses why you should stay home; it’s those times when God does an amazing work.

Before we walked into the mall, we prayed that the Holy Spirit would prepare some divine appointments.  Well, as always, He answered.  Our first conversation didn’t go too well.  Of course that’s pretty typical.  I might be way wrong here, but it seems that sometimes it’s Satan that sends your first encounters to you to try to get you distracted and discouraged.

This time, it was with two boys who were obviously high.  One of them was a straight-up mocker, but I really pushed in to get the ear of the other.  I was able to keep the attention of the one boy long enough to go through the Ten Commandments, but then their friends walked up.  I greeted them and was met first by a kid named Dallas.  When I asked him what was up, he shot me a cheezy grin and let me know how messed up he was.  I explained to him that I used to have to do the same thing in order to go out and have a good time.

By the time I got back to the first conversation, it seemed he had forgotten what we were talking about.  I had finished by showing him that, if he died, he would go to Hell.  I went back to emphasize that, to make sure he knew what would happen to him if he died.  Then I did my best to move on.  I could tell that God had done all the work He was going to do at the time.  You are probably wondering why I would leave him in Hell without giving him grace.  Well, remember this: you always give the Law to the proud and grace to the humble.  He didn’t seem to really see the severity of his sin and was unwilling to humble himself.  Hopefully, when he sobered up, he thought about eternal things.  I’m sure our conversation stuck with him.

From that conversation, God led us to one of the most beautiful conversations I had had in a while.  It was with a boy named Jay and a girl named Kanesha.  They were obviously a couple.  It was funny how sure Kanesha was, when I first asked here where she would go when she died.  She was pretty sure that she would go to Heaven.  Jay, however, wasn’t too sure.  But, he didn’t really look too concerned about it either.  That would change as the conversation went on.

After going through the Ten Commandments, their countenance was beginning to change drastically; especially Kanesha.  I know I saw her eyes tearing up on a few occasions.  They both looked and seemed so nice on the outside, and it appeared that they believed the same.  After all, Kanesha’s answers as to why she was so confident she would go to Heaven was that she was a good person.  Now, she could plainly see, that that was not true at all.

With this young couple I made sure to stress how much God hates lust.  I hit on “hooking up” over and over.  I could tell it was getting to them.  I explained how Jesus finds lust to be the same as adultery.  And I made sure to stress that God’s Word states that no fornicators would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  I felt so bad for Kanesha because I could see in her eyes that she regretted giving away something so precious.

After I went through Judgment Day with them, it was revealed to them that they would go to Hell if they were to die.  I asked their age and explained to them how this particular day will change their lives.  For, today, their eternity had been revealed to them.  I was silent for a few seconds to let them think about that.  Silence can sometimes be a great tool when witnessing.  I then asked them if that concerned them.  They were eager to tell me that it did.

I then asked Kanesha, “Kanesha, what if today could not only be the day that you get the worst news of your life, but what if you could hear the best news of your life too?”  She looked up and didn’t have to say anything.  I explained to her what Christ died on the cross so she wouldn’t have to take the punishment for her sins.  They both heard the gospel, in it’s entirety that night.  I used several analogies to really make it stick with them.

When I could see that they understood what they must do to be saved, I asked them, “Aren’t you glad we had this talk?”  Kanesha said, “Thank you for talking to us.  You are very good at this.”  I love hearing that.  Not because I need the pat on the back, but because, what she was really saying was, “I finally found the truth. Thank you.”  I was sure to explain to her that it wasn’t me at all.  I told her how God arranged this meeting long ago.  I was just the guy he chose to use.  I explained to her that the main work of the Holy Spirit was to convict and lead people to Christ.  He was the one doing a good job.

I was so humbled to be a part of this work of God.  I asked Kanesha when she planned on getting right with God.  She told me that she would definitely do it that night.  I explained to her that no one needed to give her the assurance of her salvation except God.  So she needed to go home, get alone with God, and cry out to him until He saved her.  Of course I gave her the scripture in Romans 10:13, which says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

I left with the confidence that she would soon surrender all to Jesus Christ.  And I think Jay probably will too.  I gave both of them a “One Heartbeat Away” book, prayed with them, and moved on.  Praise the Lord!

Our last conversation of the night was with Lewis and Lelia.  Just by their countenance, I could tell something wasn’t right.  So, I asked them if they would be willing to help me with a project.  They, very kindly, responded, “yes”.  So, I asked them what they believed was out there after they died.  To be honest, I was expecting them to say “nothing”.  But, both of them confidently said, “Heaven”.  After a few more questions, they explained to me that they were Christians.  And, not because of their good works, but because of their faith in Jesus Christ.  The one drawback, which led me in a different direction than the one I usually take with Christians, was when Lelia told me she was around 95% sure she would go to Heaven.  Then she said that she had been going through some stuff.  When someone is not 100% sure, you can count on the fact that that person is struggling with something major.  It was my job to find out what that was.

So, I just through out the question, “Do you guys consider yourselves to be good?”  Of course, they both said, “Yes.”  And, of course, after we took the good person test, the both realized that they weren’t.  Throughout the conversation, I kept seeing a strange look from Lewis.  It seemed that he knew where I was going with all of this, so he just went along with it.  He knew something about Lelia that I didn’t know yet.  And I think he was praying that we could minister to her.

Well, after talking about Judgment Day, it came out.  She told us how she knew she would go to Hell because she could not get rid of her anger.  This girl had been hurt and I was pretty sure it was some sort of molestation.  When I get that feeling from someone, I try to be as sensitive as possible and that’s when I have to count on the Holy Spirit really doing a work.

She finally told us how she was angry at God for allowing such horrible things to happen to her.  You know, that is the hardest question to answer.  When someone asks, “If God is so loving, where was he when these things happened to me?”  My heart breaks when I hear that.  Though I have dealt with this question before, it is never easy to answer.  I paused.

I did my best to explain to her that God was, with all His heart, vehemently opposed to what happened to her.  That it is never a good day, for God, when things like this happen.  I told her that God is a just God and he will deal with this person.  He will bring this person to justice.

I tried to explain that her anger needs to be directed at Satan.  I told her how sin entered the world long ago and that it is sin that causes this stuff to happen. It is pure evil.  Though it might not look like it, the day will come when God puts an end to it.

In conversations such as these, I just try to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Lelia was crying on and off, so I just offered to pray for her.  After we prayed, I took Lelia to Romans 7:15-25.  I reminded her that she had told me earlier that she had tried and tried to stop being angry.  I explained to her that she could try for the rest of her life to stop being angry at God, but it she would never prevail over her anger.  I said, “Lelia, your deliverance will only come when you realize that your deliverance has to come through Jesus Christ.  That you cannot defeat your anger.  Only He can.”

Beloved, I am praying that God would use this conversation to heal the emotional scars of Lelia.  This kind of stuff should make us so mad at the Devil.  And the only way we can get back at him now, is by interceding for this girl; and by reaching out to other girls like Lelia.  She is at a fork in the road that so many, in her shoes have faced.  If she lets her anger win, her life will be one of misery.  Yet, if she lets Jesus fight the battle, she will be used mightily in advancing the Kingdom of God.

So, beloved, you know what you have to do now.  Please pray for Lelia.  Please pray for all of these people.  And please reach out to the Lost.  I’ll end with the words of Mark Cahill, “Every second, two people die.  By the time you lay your head down on your pillow tonight, over 150,000 people will have walked off into eternity.  So ask yourself this question, “Do you care.”  But ask yourself a much, much tougher question, “Do you care enough to do something about it?”

Thanks for reading this, beloved.

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

THE EMERGENT CHURCH: SUBMERGED IN DELUSION

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.  (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

Hello beloved,

Last Sunday, I was given the task of bringing, to my church, the definition of the Emergent Church.  At first, I thought that would be a pretty simple project.  But, after doing some studying, I have found that a narrow definition just isn’t that easy to give.  There is deception all around us, and much of this deception is clothed in the name of the church.  You have the seeker-friendly church, now known as the seeker-sensitive church; you have the prosperity gospel, the self-enhancement gospel, and so on.  They all have one thing in common: it’s all about “me”.  I wonder how Paul would have addressed these false gospels being taught today.  Look what he said to the Galatians.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷which is really no gospel at all.  (Galatians 1:6-7a)

I could address all of those for quite some time, but I’ve been asked to address what is called the Emergent Church.  The Emergent Church would boastfully distance themselves from all of the aforementioned deceptions.  In fact, they distance themselves from organized church altogether.  They consider themselves “missional”, which to them, means lowering themselves to the level of the culture so they can reach the culture.  They want to let the culture define what Christianity should be.  Some of there favorite words you need to keep an eye out for are: relationship, community, relevant, tolerance, social justice, and the list could go on and on.

Well, here’s my best shot at defining this heretical movement: The Emergent Church is, basically, a movement to rediscover Christianity.  The leaders of this movement are servants of the Devil.  There is no doubt about that.  The primary focus is to question and out-right deny the Scriptures.  They do not deny the divinity of the Scriptures, but claim that they are impossible for man to understand.  This opens the door for the leaders, and followers, of this movement to do absolutely anything they see fit; thus, becoming a perfect example of Judges 17:6.  When you remove God’s Word, everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

The Emergent Church is a very post-modern movement.  Post-modernism basically says that there may be truth, we just can’t know it.  They would say that truth may, indeed, come from God, but we just can’t know what it is.  So we embrace mystery.  It is completely contrary to what Jesus taught about truth; about the Scriptures.  All through the gospels, you will find Jesus teaching and preaching to the crowds saying things like, “Have you not read?  Have you not heard what the Scripture says?  Do you not understand the Scripture?”  He indicts them over and over and over again for their failure to understand the Old Testament.  One thing He never said to them was, “Oh, I understand why you are having such a tough time seeing how I am a fulfillment of the Scriptures. That Old Testament was not meant to be understood clearly.”  Oh no.  He never said anything of the sorts.

Let me give you some quotes that will show you where the Emergent Church is coming from.  These come from one of the main leaders of the emergent movement, Rob Bell, when he was interviewed by Christianity Today.

Clearly cultural relevance was part of the reason for planting a church whose worship team requires a bass player who can play “in the style of Jimmy Eat World and Coldplay.” No generation has ever been more alert to such nuances than the media-fed children of the 1980s and ’90s, who can sense uncoolness at a thousand paces. As Rob Bell’s wife, Kristen, tells CT in a joint interview after the service, “It’s a cultural jump for our friends to come to church. It’s a cultural jump for us, and we grew up in the church.”

But it quickly becomes clear that these Wheaton College sweethearts have more on their minds than just cultural adaptation. “This is not just the same old message with new methods,” Rob says. “We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life. Legal metaphors for faith don’t deliver a way of life. We grew up in churches where people knew the nine verses why we don’t speak in tongues, but had never experienced the overwhelming presence of God.”

In fact, as the Bells describe it, after launching Mars Hill in 1999, they found themselves increasingly uncomfortable with church. “Life in the church had become so small,” Kristen says. “It had worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped working.” The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—”discovering the Bible as a human product,” as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. “The Bible is still in the center for us,” Rob says, “but it’s a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it.”

“I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible,” Kristen says, “that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it’s in color.” (The Emergent Mystique – Christianity Today, 2004)

And there you have it.  This is the Emergent Church.  You can see in this interview, that it was all about experience and what worked.  Be very careful, beloved.  Just because something seems to work, does not mean it is of God.  Emergents are in love with the world, which the Bible says is the same as hatred toward God(James 4:4).  Therefore, in order to embrace the world, while serving their god, they have to do away with the clarity of Scripture.  Which leads me to a few Scriptures that perfectly address this.

“They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”  (2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12)

While the Emergent movement really ticks me off, it also excites me.  This is it.  I’m not saying that this is the religion of Babylon or anything.  What I am saying is that this new religion is an obvious fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2:11.  God is sending this delusion and they are believing the lie.  Things are coming into place so that, when the Anti-Christ is revealed, the people will have no problem believing the lie he presents.  Why?  Because the Word of God has practically been removed by the, so-called, church.  And don’t forget what we read in verse 10b.  “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” Beloved, as Christians, we should love the truth of God’s Word.  If we don’t, than we aren’t saved.  It’s that simple.  Had it not been for the truth, we would have never been set free.

Now, we’ll see, in John 3:19-21, that Jesus said the same thing Paul said in verse ten of 2 Thessalonians.

19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”  (John 3:19-21)

The main objective of this new movement is to do away with truth.  Why?  Because the truth condemns.  What is this condemnation?  “That light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” There it is.  Beloved, light has no fellowship with darkness.  Oh, darkness can claim to be light all it wants, but when real light comes into a dark room, the darkness has to go.

I’m going to give you a few more quotes by some of the Emergent leaders.  They will sound so off-the-wall that you might think, “We don’t need to worry about this.  Nobody will fall for this stuff.”  To refute that, all I have to do is take you to the nearest “Christian” book store.  You will find books like The Shack, Velvet Elvis, A New Kind of Christian, and many others that are jam-packed with the Emergent heresy.  And believe it or not, these are often the best-sellers.  Beloved, this thing is the real deal and we need to confront it.  As always, we need to engage the culture, less the culture engages us.

Before we get to the quotes, let me explain something to you.  The Emergent Church has given themselves that name because they boast that they have found a new way of doing church.  They want to do away with anything and everything that resembles order.  And they would boast that, in doing so, they are emerging from the old way of doing church.  The truth is, this stuff is nothing new.  In fact, it began in the garden.  Let’s go back to Genesis so we can see that this Emergent gobbly-goop began in the garden.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

There we have it.  Satans’ ploy has always been the same.  He always says, “Did God really say?” And that is exactly what he is saying through the Emergent leaders, such as Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.

This is a quote from Rob Bell’s famous book, Velvet Elvis, which you can buy at your local Christian book store.

“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if as you study the origin of the word virgin, you discover that the word virgin in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?”

Is that not exactly what the serpent was saying in the garden?  Now, we have to ask ourselves something.  What was the motive of the serpent?  Well, he just hates God.  His mission is to rob, kill and destroy as much as possible.  In the case of the Emergent Church, his mission is obviously tearing down the clarity of God’s Word, which will open the floodgates of sin.  Now look at a quote from Brian McLaren.

“The church has been preoccupied with the question, “What happens to your soul after you die?” As if the reason for Jesus coming can be summed up in, “Jesus is trying to help get more souls into heaven, as opposed to hell, after they die.” I just think a fair reading of the Gospels blows that out of the water. I don’t think that the entire message and life of Jesus can be boiled down to that bottom line.” (Brian McLaren, from the PBS special on the Emerging Church)

And where he is going with this is that Jesus was not primarily concerned with saving souls.  No, He was more concerned with making the world a better place.  Bringing peace on earth, ending poverty, saving the environment, etc.  Brian McLaren is a perfect example of how the Emergent movement is just liberalism wearing the cloak of “Christianity”.  Which, in fact, is not Christianity at all.  It is a rebellion against God Almighty!

Brian McLaren also wants to embrace homosexuality.  Homosexuality is one of the big issues in the Emergent Church.  They don’t want to take a position on it.  They would say that the Bible is not clear on this issue.  Beloved, it could not be more clear.  A homosexual will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  In Romans chapter one, homosexuality is shown to be a perversion that, when it occurs in a culture, begins to dominate the culture and is an evidence of God’s judgment and wrath.  That is exactly what is happening in America.  When the Emergent Church says that God’s Word is unclear on homosexuality, they embrace a lie from the pits of Hell.  The Bible is very clear on this issue.  They just don’t want clarity on it.  They want to run from the truth of God’s Word.  They want to run from the light because their deeds are evil.

Beloved, there are many heresies within the Emergent Church, but to sum it up, it is basically a blurring of the truth in order to do away with sin being called sin.  Christianity and the Word of God say, that things such as liberalism and feminism are a rebellion against God.  His Standard will always make homosexuality a sin against God.  It will always call abortion murder and it will always condemn the worship of false gods.  Well, the Emergent Church says that we need a new definition of Christianity which will embrace the rebellion of feminism and liberalism.  They want to find a new way to “do church” so that homosexuals and adulterers won’t feel uncomfortable for their sinful practices.  And if you do away with truth; if you do away with the clarity of Scripture, than the church becomes the culture and everyone does what is right in their own eyes.  The floodgates are opened to all the evil underneath the sun.

Now that we are informed of what this movement is all about, what should we do about it?  I think that the best thing we can do is tell everyone we can about this, especially Pastors and leaders of churches.  I have found out, first hand, that this stuff is being taught in churches without the knowledge of the Pastor.

Around three and a half years ago, I was invited to a small group meeting by a guy that saw me with my Bible at the gym.  He gave me the number of the guy that headed up the meeting.  It was basically fellowship all night, which is great, except Jesus was hardly on any of their lips.  At the end of the night, we finally had a Bible study.  The small group leader used Romans chapter 7 as his text.  He tried to say that Paul was somehow talking about how we should pray!?  Considering that God had delivered me from drug addiction about a week before this meeting, I was able to show the group what the passage actually meant.

Then, he went around asking everyone what the text meant to them.  This helped him bring his Rob Bell book into the meeting.  This was the first time I had heard of Rob Bell or Velvet Elvis.  He praised Rob Bell because he was willing to ask the question, “What if Mary was not really a virgin?”  He challenged his small group to think about these things and highly recommended the book to all of them.  Well, I had to pull him aside to show him the error of such a statement.

The reason I told you about this experience was because I believe this stuff is being taught in churches all over the country, with and without the knowledge of church leadership.  And this is a major problem, not only because it is flat out heresy, but because most of the church doesn’t have the discernment to see this as heresy.  An overwhelming percentage of the church severely lacks any trace of sound doctrine and theology.  I don’t mean that disrespectfully.  It’s just that most pulpits are telling stories and jokes, instead of expository preaching.  Remember that the prophet Hosea said, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)  That is exactly what is happening in the church in America.

So, beloved, it is time to sound the alarm!

Now, let me end with a few quotes from some of the Emergent Church leaders just in case I have not built a strong enough case yet.  I found alot of these quotes at the following website:
http://www.alwaysbeready.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=0

Rick Warren:
Rick Warren is not really an Emergent leader.  Not yet anyway.  But, he has definitely said some things that sound very “Emergent”.  He has developed a new Bible called The Poverty and Justice Bible, which highlights over 2,000 verses that supposedly deal with the poor.  Listen to Mr. Warren as he describes his great new revelation:

“I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God’s compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God. The church is the body of Christ. The hands and feet have been amputated and we’re just a big mouth, known more for what we’re against.”

If you go to the homepage, where Rick’s new Bible is being sold, you will find U2 frontman Bono saying that the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor. So, Rick might be right on a few things, but it is clear that he is going down the wrong path.  You can see that in the recent stance he has taken regarding homosexuality.

Tony Jones:
“We do not think this [Emerging Church Movement] is about changing your worship service. We do not think this is about…how you structure your church staff. This is actually about changing theology. This is about our belief that theology changes. The message of the gospel changes. It’s not just the method that changes.”

“I now believe that GLBTQ [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexuals, Transgender, and Queers] can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!), and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.”

“…my point in all this is that the doctrine of the Trinity is still on the table. Some people, it seems to me, would like for us to no longer debate certain ‘sacred’ doctrines — the Trinity, the nature of Christ, the nature of scripture, the nature of marriage etc. And these persons tend to get very jumpy when emergent-types discuss these sacrae doctrinae, especially in books and at conferences that are being taped. ‘This is dangerous,’ they say.”

Brian McLaren:
“I must add, though, that I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts.”

“We should consider the possibility that many, and perhaps even all of Jesus’ hell-fire or end-of-the-universe statements refer not to postmortem [after death] judgment but to the very historic consequences of rejecting his kingdom message of reconciliation and peacemaking. The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 67-70 seems to many people to fulfill much of what we have traditionally understood as hell.”

Rob Bell:
“The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can’t be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitively put God into words, we have at that very moment made God something God is not”

Dan Kimball:
“The old paradigm taught that if you had the right teaching, you will experience God. The new paradigm says that if you experience God, you will have the right teaching.”

Doug Pagitt:
“I’m writing with the assumption that most of you who are reading this book have concluded what I have:  Preaching doesn’t work…preaching, as we know it, is a tragically broken endeavor….The value of our practices—including preaching—ought to be judged by their effects on our communities and the ways in which they help us move toward life with God.”

The Shack:
Sarayu:  “Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence . . . Light and Good actually exist.”

Papa:  “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It is not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.”

Jesus(of The Shack):  “I am the best way any human can relate to Papa or Sarayu.” Note: this is saying that Jesus is the best way, not the only way to the Father(Papa is supposed to be God the Father in this book).

Beloved, there are many more quotes on how heretical this movement is.  I challenge you to do some research yourself.  I would even like to challenge you to confront your local Christian bookstores for selling and promoting this heretical movement.  And that’s what it’s all about right?  You have been educated.  Now, go and do something about it. Right?

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

WITNESSING ENCOUNTERS – 4/9/09

Hello Beloved,

I have been encouraged by those of you who have been challenged by the written accounts of my recent witnessing encounters.  It’s a real blessing to know that God is using them.  So the fruit keeps growing and growing.  As I’ve said before, I would love to help any of you find the resources you need to start going out and reaching the lost.

Last Thursday night was awesome.  Not only did we have some wonderful conversations, but my beautiful wife, Paige, went with me.  Olivia tagged along as well.  It’s been a while since Paige and I went witnessing together.  Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve gone since we’ve been married.  That’s going to change though.  What a wonderful experience it is to do ministry as a family.

Our first conversation was with two boys.  One was named Ahmed and I can’t spell, nor pronounce, the name of the other boy.  I was doing my typical survey approach, which I learned from Mark Cahill.  It’s definitely my favorite way to start conversations.  These guys looked like they were in a hurry, so I had to walk backward for a few seconds before they stopped.  I asked them my usual question, “When you die, what do you think is out there?”  Considering how the rest of the conversation went, they gave surprising answers.  Ahmed said, “Heaven”, while the other boy, we’ll call him Steve, said, “I don’t know”.  Ahmed also said that he believed in Hell.

We continued the conversation for a little while and it swung around to Judgment Day.  Some of the things that Ahmed was saying was starting to sound Muslim, so I finally asked if he would put a name on the god he believed in.  He looked at his friend and I asked him if the name of his god was Allah.  They both nodded yes.  Up to this point, Steve had been pretty silent.  When we started to talk about Islam, he started to speak up.  It was obvious that he hadn’t been in the states too long, because his english was not very good.

One thing you need to know when witnessing to Muslims is that they usually are very passionate about what they believe.  So don’t be surprised if they get offended.  The best way to get around this, however, is to speak to their conscience.  Muslims believe in the Law of Moses, so you can walk them through the Ten Commandments to avoid an argument.  That’s what I did that night.

The way I made that transition was by asking Steve if he believed himself to be a good person.  Of course, he said, “yes”.  A Muslim will typically say this because he believes that it is his good works that will get him into Paradise.  So, I took him through the Law of Moses and he failed miserably.  But, when we got to Judgment Day, he said he was sure that his god would have mercy on him.  He believed that his good works outweighed his bad. I could tell that he wasn’t going to budge, so I turned to Ahmed.

The faith that Ahmed had seemed a little shaky.  Remember I said that his “Heaven” answer was surprising?  Well, Muslims call it Paradise, so that gave me a clue that he wasn’t really sure what he believed.  I spent a few minutes showing him the validity of the Scriptures(OT and NT).  I gave him several biblical prophecy fulfillments and asked him if he knew any from the Koran.  He was unable to give me one.  It is very important to go here with Muslims.  They have been taught that the Scriptures have been tampered with.  It’s not that hard to prove otherwise, and if you study up, you can do this without taking too much time.

By the end of the conversation, Ahmed acted like he wasn’t buying it.  But, I’m not so sure about that.  I believe the Holy Spirit was working on him.  He heard the entire gospel and that’s all I can really do.  I don’t save people.  God does.  Pray for Ahmed and “Steve”.

From those two, I walked up to a young man named David.  I really enjoyed David.  I approached him with a gospel tract and asked him if he could help me with a project.  When I asked him what he believed was out there after he died, he said that he had never really thought about it.  Though I hear it often, I never buy that one.  Who hasn’t thought about eternity?  The truth was that he didn’t really want to think about it, because of the fear that he might not go to Heaven.  Normally, I would call him out on that, but his necklace caught my eye.

He had a really long necklace with a crucifix on the end of it.  I asked him what the man on that cross meant to him.  He said, “Ah man.  He’s everything to me.”  So I asked him if he believed the things that that Man taught.  He said yes.  Well, from there, I explained to him that Jesus taught about Heaven and Hell and that everyone would have to stand before God one day.

I then asked him the question, “David, if you were to leave the mall tonight and die in a car accident, are you 100% sure you would go to Heaven?”  His answer was that he was pretty sure.  So I asked him why?  He said he had done alot of good things and that he was a good person.  So, I told him about the standard of good that God has given us, the Ten Commandments.

I asked him, “David, have you ever told a lie?”  He said, “Yes”.  I asked him what that would make him.  He said, “A liar”.  From there I showed him some scriptures on how serious lying is to God.  If you have read any of my previous witnessing encounters, you know where I went from here.  I showed him that if you’ve stolen anything, you’re a thief; if you’ve looked with lust, God sees you as an adulterer; if you’ve hated someone, you’re a murderer; and if you’ve taken God’s name in vain, you have committed blasphemy.  He admitted to all of these things, yet I still didn’t see a whole lot of conviction.  But, I asked him anyway, “David, you have admitted to me that you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, murderous, adulterer at heart.  If God were to judge you today, would he say innocent or guilty?”  David actually felt pretty sure that God would find him innocent.

He seemed like a nice young man and he didn’t seem to think that his sin was that serious.  But, the next question I asked him opened his eyes.  Rather, the Holy Spirit opened his eyes.  I asked him, “David, have you always honored your mother and father?”  He said, “Yes”.  So, I said, “David, do you realized how dishonoring it is to your parents when you lie, steal and lust?”  For whatever reason, his countenance changed tremendously at this point.  It was like a light bulb went off.  He said, “Wow, I never thought of it that way?”  I said, “David, I’ve now shown you that you have broken six out of the Ten Commandments.  That’s not good is it?  But what’s worse is that the Bible says if you have broken one of God’s laws, you are guilty of breaking them all.”

From there, I explained to him how serious our sin is to God.  I told him how it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross.  I explained to him that the Man that meant everything to him, was nailed to a cross because of him.  You could see the Holy Spirit piercing David’s heart.  The beautiful thing about this was the certainty that I was not piercing his heart.  I was not convicting him.  God was.  It looked like he was about to cry.  I asked him how he felt about all that he had done to break the heart of God.  He said, “I feel horrible”.

Now, at this point in a conversation, my flesh always wants to comfort him and make him feel better.  But, I had better not do that.  It would be a sin against God to do that.  He’s not alright.  God is dealing with him and he has some business to take care of.  When I saw that he was broken, I asked him how old he was.  He was twenty-five.  So, I said, “David, do you realize that you have walked this planet for twenty-five years, and now, on this ninth day of April, 2009, you have finally found out that if you were to die tonight you would go straight to Hell?”  He didn’t respond.  I said, “David, you just found out the worst news of your life.  But, what if I told you that I could also give you the best news of your life?”  I could see that he was dying to know that that was.

In many of my witnessing conversations, I use the analogy of being convicted of robbing a bank.  The jury is in and you are guilty.  The judge sentences you to life in prison or a 1 million dollar fine.  So, I used this with David.  I asked him, “David, do you have a million dollars?” “No”, he said.  “Well, then how are you going to have to pay for your crime?”  David knew he would have to do the time.  “That’s right, David.  And the only way out is if someone stepped in and paid your fine.”  So I explained to him that when you are found guilty in God’s courtroom, the only way you can pay for your sin is an eternity in Hell.  I said, “But David, do you realize that you could spend billions of years in Hell and never pay for a single sin?  There is absolutely nothing that you could ever do to atone for your sin.”  I then said to him, “David, do you realize that Jesus has already paid your fine?  Right before you are cast into Hell, He stood up and said, “No, that one is mine.  I’ve paid his fine, let him go!”  I said, “David, Jesus paid your fine.  He took your punishment on the cross.  All your sin was laid on His back and yet His sacrifice can do nothing for you if you do not repent and trust in Him.  You need to turn from your sins.  You need to realize that your good works will not save you on the day of wrath.  Only the blood of Jesus can wash your sins away.”

I then went on to explain, more thoroughly, why Jesus died on the cross; what this act of love accomplished and how He rose from the grave.  When I go through this with a lost person, I always get him to repeat what I told him about repentance and faith.  You could see that he really got it.  I believe that David has gotten right with God since our conversation.  I gave him a “One Heartbeat Away” book and we parted ways.  Beloved, please pray that David gets saved if he hasn’t already.  If he has, pray that he would grow in his faith.

I hope you have been challenged by these witnessing encounters.  I ask that you would please pray for these individuals.

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

WITNESSING ENCOUNTERS – 4/3/09

Hello beloved,

I really want to jot this story down before it slips my mind.  Brent and I went witnessing, at Concord Mills, last Friday night.  It’s crazy how things can go so differently from one week to the next.  The week before, I was astonished at how easy all of the conversations went.  People were so open to hearing the truth.  Well, for the most part anyway.  This week, however, it was much harder to penetrate their hearts.  The beautiful thing in that, though, is that God doesn’t measure our success.  He measures our faithfulness.

The first guy I talked to, outside of Hot Topic, looked at the tract I handed him and asked, “What’s this?”  I told him it was a gospel tract and asked if he would help me with a project I’ve been working on.  The first words out of his mouth were, “You’re wasting your time.  I’m an athiest.”  My response was, “Oh, I’m definitely not wasting my time.”  We started to talk a little when his friends came out of the store.  We shook hands and parted ways.  It might not have seemed to go to well, but he did leave with a tract.  You never know what God will do with a Gospel tract.  Never leave home without them.

I had quite a few conversations on this night.  I met a few Christians.  Believe it or not, these are sometimes the best conversations and the best opportunity for a heart to be changed.  If they truly are Christians, I like to share some scriptures with them on our call to evangelize.  My favorite is Matthew 7:13-14, which says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” I then get them to look around the mall and ask them what the application of this scriptures says about all these people at the mall tonight.  They usually understand it but hesitate to say it, “Most of these people will go to hell if they die tonight.”  This tends to get a reaction of concern.  So, then I ask them, “Does this concern you?”  The answer is usually, “Yes.”  But, then I’ll ask a question I learned from Mark Cahill, “Does it concern you enough to do something about it?”

At that point, you just share with them how to do it.  I’ll get them to “act” like a lost person and I’ll take them through the Ten Commandments.  This is great.  If they truly are saved, it gives them a lesson on how to biblically share their faith.  If they aren’t saved, they will fall under conviction and you will be able to explain to them why Jesus really died on the cross.

So, that’s a little about the conversations I had with Christians.  Let me share a conversation I had with a professing athiest, named Chris.  Chris was around twenty-five years old and had been in and out of prison for the last six years or so; mainly for dealing drugs.  I handed him a tract and asked him if he would help me with a project.  He said, “sure”.  He didn’t seem to enthused though.  But, the question I asked next, got his attention.  I asked him, “What do you think is out there, on the other side, when you die?  When you take your last breath, what do you think will happen to you?”  He tried to tell me that he had never really thought about it.  It’s hard to believe, but I get that answer alot.

After a few more questions, he admitted that he had thought about it before.  He said he didn’t think anything is out there.  “When you die, you just die.  That’s it.”  Then he told me he was an athiest.  So, I asked him, “You really don’t believe that there is a God?  How do you think we got here?”  His answer was the typical, “We just did”.  I then pointed at the construction of the mall; all the architecture and windows and asked him, “What is the proof that there was a builder of this building?”  He said that the building was the proof that there was a builder.  So, I then asked him him, “When you see a beautiful painting, what is the proof that there was a painter of that painting?” Of course, he said, “The painting is the proof”.  So I then asked him, “If this building proves that there was a builder, and a painting proves that there was a painter, would you not have to say that creation is proof that there is a Creator?”  You could almost see the lightbulb go off.

I now had Chris’s attention and a little of his respect.  Several times in our conversation, he alluded to using reason to explain everything around us.  I had him there.  Over and over, I showed him reasonable evidence that there is a God.  I showed him reasonable evidence that the scriptures are infalliable.  I then reasoned with him some more.  I asked him if he was 100% sure that there is no God.  As he answered, “no”, I explained to him that he’s not really an athiest.

I was then able to reason with him about Judgment.  You could see that, for the first time, this stuff was making sense to him.  As soon as I got him to a place where he believed that there might be a Heaven and Hell, I took him through the Ten Commandments.  I didn’t use the typical “Good Person Test”, which I normally use.  I just explained to him that if he lied one time he was a liar; that if he ever stole something, he was a thief; had he ever looked with lust, Jesus sees him as an adulterer; and that taking God’s name in vain is called blasphemy.  To show him that these sins are much more severe than we think, I told him how all liars will have their part in the lake of fire; that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; that no thieves or adulterers will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.  I then explained to him how awful it was that he ever took God’s holy name and used it as a curse word.

Well, it’s a beautiful thing what the Word of God can do to the proud heart of a professing athiest.  By this time, Chris had a much different countenance.  You could see that the Law of God had humbled him.  I asked him if he had any idea what God had done for him so he wouldn’t have to go to hell.  He didn’t know.  I could tell he was understanding what I was saying.  Being that Chris was someone who had stood in front of a judge a few times, I gave him the Gospel in a court room setting.  I asked him, “If you had been convicted of robbing Fort Knox, and the judged sentenced you to either lifetime in prison or paying a one million dollar fine, what would you have to do to pay for your crime?”  He said, “I’d have to do the time.”  I said, “That’s right.  Unless someone stepped in to pay your fine.  And just like this court room, you will be found guilty on the day of Judgment; in God’s courtroom.  The difference is, there is nothing you could ever do to pay your fine.  You’ll have to go to Hell for eternity.  And for eternity, you will never even begin to pay for your sins.  But, the beautiful thing is, that Jesus has already stepped in to pay your fine.  As he was nailed to the cross, He took all of your punishment and paid your fine in full.  However, none of that does you any good if you do not recieve Him.”

So, Chris heard the Gospel loud and clear that night.  Did he respond?  Not at this point.  But, a seed was planted.  He explained to me that he now knew what he needed to do, but he just wasn’t ready at this point.  We talked a little longer and I shared with him a little of my testimony.  It was a good conversation.

I also wanted to add something that I found very cool about the talk I had with Chris.  His friends came up to him several times during our conversation and eventually walked off.  You could tell that Chris had someplace to be, but he was far more concerned about eternal things.

I would ask all of you, to please pray for Chris.  And I also want to encourage all of you that I am not some great evangelist.  I’m just a simple little Christian living out his faith.  Do I have all the answers?  No.  Do all of the conversations go well?  Absolutely not.  But, God hasn’t called us to be talented or to be successful.  He has just called us to be faithful.

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”  (Matthew 25:21)

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

P.S.  I hope that you have been pricked in the heart by these stories.  Please, if any of you want to know how to share your faith, please contact me.  I would love to help equip you.

WITNESSING ENCOUNTERS – 3/28/09

This is just an account of some of our witnessing encounters, at Concord Mills, on the night of March 28th, 2009.  We always pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us as we get in to conversations, for we know that we can do nothing apart from the Power of God.  He always shows up, but last night seemed especially powerful.

The first conversation of the night wasn’t going too well.  Or, at least, it didn’t seem to be.  I approached Dan and Ashley, and started in on my survey approach. I learned this from Mark Cahill.  I just handed them tracts and then asked them if they would help me with a project I’m working on.  They said, “sure”. I asked them, “What do you think is out there, on the other side, when you die?  When you take your last breath, what do think will happen to you?”  I got two answers, one of which I won’t repeat.  Dan said, “Heaven and Hell.”  Ashley, who gave me the somewhat vulgar answer, believed in reincarnation and obviously had a bone to pick with God.

Usually, when someone says, “reincarnation”, I’ll show them why it doesn’t make sense.  But, this was hard because she doesn’t even except the traditional view of reincarnation (where you come back as a lower creature if you’re bad).  She believed that you are just recycled and there is really no such thing as good or bad, and no judge to determine what you come back as.  I tried to go through the ten commandments, early on, but she wasn’t having it.  So, we just talked. (There are many people you’ll run into who might intimidate you by there appearance, but these are usually the ones who want to open up more than others.)

Eventually, she opened up and shared with me that she was raped at the age of five.  She asked, “What kind of God allows that to happen?”  That’s a tough question to answer.  As I started to explain to her that sinful man was responsible, and not God, she really didn’t want to hear it.  Well, the conversation just wasn’t going well at all.  She was being a mocker, so I just gave her a “One Heartbeat Away” book and started to leave.  I explained to her that I was not trying to shove my religion down her throat.  I just wanted to give her an opportunity to hear the gospel.  She said, “I’m not buying your book”. I said, “I wouldn’t want you to. It’s a gift, but only if you read”. When she saw that I didn’t want her money, nor was I trying to get her to come to my church, her countenance changed.  She could see, in my eyes, that I was really concerned for her.  I don’t know who said it, but I always try to remember this saying, “People aren’t going to care what you know until they know that you care.”

I could see that something had struck her in the heart.  The beautiful thing is, it had nothing to do with me.  I ask that you all pray for this girl.  Pray that she would read the book and be converted.  She said that she would read and that she would email me to let me know what a piece of trash it was by the time she got to page forty.  Well, I still haven’t heard from her.  I pray that she is under deep conviction.

I had several good conversations this night, but the last one seemed to go better than the rest.  I spoke with a couple of guys named Josh and Gary.  When I asked them what they believed in, as far as an after life, they both said they believe in “Shangri-la” and “Hell’s Pit”.  This comes from a religion called “juggaloism”.  If you are unfamiliar with this, it’s a religion founded by a heavy metal band, known as the “Insane Clown Posse”, or “ICP”.  They told me it was basically the same as Christianity; just worded differently.

I explained to them that one major difference is that Juggaloism began thirty years ago, while Christianity began over 2000 years ago.  I went with it though.  You don’t want to blast what someone believes.  You should listen to them.  God will give you a door to share the true Gospel.  I finally had an opening, so I asked them, “Have you been good enough to make it to Shangri-la?”  They both said they hoped so.  I then explained to them that God had given us a moral standard of good called the Ten Commandments.

Well, we went through a few of them until I could reveal to them that they were both lying, thieving, murderous, blaspemous, adulterers at heart. (It wasn’t really me doing the revealing. It was the Holy Spirit.)  I showed them that, if they died tonight, they could be 100% sure that they would go to hell.  At this point, Josh got a little argumentative, but Gary was really taking it in.

The Holy Spirit took us down a few rabbit trails, and that was fun.  I was able to talk to them about how our schools have lied to them about the Christian foundation of this nation and then a little about creation vs. evolution.  I also got to show them how the Bible has not been tampered with.  Gary was soaking it in like a sponge.  One of the trails I went down led to my testimony of how I was delivered from ten years of addiction to narcotic painkillers.  Gary said, “I’ve been clean for four days now.”  He had been addicted to pain killers as well.  He explained to me that he was having the headaches and severe pains in his body due to the withdrawals. I’m so glad he told me this, because I was able to give the hope he had been searching for.

That hope came from Romans chapter seven.  I read, for him, verses sixteen through twenty-five; interjecting experiences I had gone through.  Gary was so willing to respond to the gospel.  He knew that Jesus Christ was the only way.  I ended up giving him a book; leaving my name and email address on the inside page.  He said he was going to read it.  You might ask why I left without getting him to pray the “sinners prayer”.  Beloved, I let God deal with salvation.  If they want to receive Christ, I’ll pray with them, but I don’t try to talk them into it.  God is dealing with Gary and he will repent when it is time.  I am praying that he will read the book and see his sin for what it is.

Beloved, please pray for Ashley, Gary and Josh.

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant