GOD’S GRACE…TO SUFFER

What if our modern day TV preachers were faced with the decision that all of the apostles were faced with?  Over and over, they were warned to stop preaching in that Name.  They were beaten within an inch of their lives many times, yet they continued to lift up the name of Jesus.  For all but one of them, this faithfulness ended in a martyr’s death.  The only exception was the Apostle John who was boiled in oil and somehow survived.  He was then banished to the island of Patmos where he died of old age in a prison camp.

Not only did the apostles face incredible persecution.  There are historical documents testifying of women, who rather than denying their Lord, were forced to watch their own children thrown to lions.  To many of us, these are just stories, right?  But take a moment to put yourself in their shoes.  What if you were given that choice?  The truth is, you will never know what you would do unless put in that situation.  All we can do is die to ourselves every day, in order that maybe, just maybe, God would give us the grace to stand in that day.

Dying to ourselves?  Ha!  Where are you going to hear that preached today?  We live in an age, where the prophets are not teaching us to deny ourselves and follow Christ.  They are not teaching us to take upon ourselves the responsibility of the birthright.  No.  They only appeal to our own monstrous lusts.  “Get your blessing!” they cry.  In essence they are proclaiming, “It’s all about ME!”  And now, a generation has risen up, who deny their birthright, and follow after the blessing.  How foolish we are!

Where are the true prophets?  Where are the watchmen?  Where are the men of God, that will tear down the arguments of these foolish preachers?  The message is not, nor has it ever been, “How to live your life to the fullest!”  No.  Quite the contrary.  The message of the gospel has always been, “How to die well!”  You will find that all through the Scriptures.

I could give you a long list of these false prophets who claim that the gospel is all about life enhancement.  Likewise, I could give you a long list of true prophets who preach the true gospel; that the only way to find your life is to lose it.  However, for the most part, both are to blame for the awful state of the church.  And both are to blame for the awful state of this nation.  While the false prophets are leading the sheep astray, many of the true prophets are leading the sheep…nowhere!

God has given us His Word.  He has given us many resources to study His Word.  He has given us great minds to learn and teach His Word.  But He has also given us our bodies to do His Word.  James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” We love to listen to His Word.  We love to learn and teach His Word.  But, when it comes to doing, we leave that to the professionals.  You know those people who are actually “called” to do that.

“That’s not my calling”, is the popular excuse for not standing in the gap and building up the hedge.  Many Christians are deceived into believing that God has set apart a small group of people and has “called” them to fight the more “controversial” issues.  This is ludicrous.   I once fell into the category of those who believed this lie.  Therefore, I say with no shame that this idea is dead wrong.  Just look at Luke 10:25-37 to see that God is calling all of us to love all of our neighbors.  There is nothing we can say to justify our apathy.

Why are Christians so ignorant of this battle?  Simple.  The shepherds have been bought; hook, line, and sinker; by itching ears.  You think it won’t cost him much the moment he dares to take his congregation to an abortion clinic?  You better believe it will.  It won’t be long before half of his church is gone.  What does that tell you about the flocks of this land?  Simple.  They are not converted.  They are just pew-warmers with humanistic theologies and materialistic lifestyles.

What’s the answer?  Repentance.  The shepherds of God’s house need to repent.  Judgment begins in the house of God and, until the shepherds repent, His house will continue to crumble.  The prophets must make a commitment to God, surrendering all that they are, completely dying to themselves, and take their congregation with them.  As the battle heats up, this might mean loss of pastorates, loss of incomes, possibly even loss of lives.  But is our God not worth it?

He certainly is.  I truly believe that this nation is heading to a total moral collapse.  I believe that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.  And, sadly, I believe that it will come to the place that we will have to make the decision: our lives or the gospel.  Beloved, although everything inside of me desires to live, I would be honored to be nailed to a cross, upside-down, if it were for the sake of my Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

I say that now.  I can only hope and pray that, if presented with that opportunity, God’s grace would carry me through.  Until that day, I will consider my life as nothing, dying daily to my flesh, and continue to lift up the name of Jesus.

OSA NATIONAL EVENT – LAS VEGAS – DAY 5

Visiting Central Christian Church – Sunday Morning

We got set up around 8:30am and cranked up the sound system at around 10am.  The word was being preached and a great sign ministry was set up right outside the church parking lot.  Everyone going in and out had the opportunity to take a tract explaining what we were doing there.

You might ask, “What were we doing there?”  Well, this was not a dead church, nor was it an apostate church.  No, this was actually a very good church.  Just that morning, they brought in the poor to feed them.  We were not rebuking them for sin, nor were we, by any means, protesting this church.  We were simply trying to open their eyes to the responsibility that they have of standing in the gap on behalf of their unborn neighbors.

The message was simple.  We thanked them for the great example they set of truly loving their neighbors.  However, they were either not aware that God considers unborn babies their neighbor, or they were completely aware, yet were firm believers that any abortion ministry is just “not their calling”.  Unfortunately, we found out that it was the latter for their Pastor.  He actually told his congregation to “have nothing to do with us.  They were not invited here and just want to stop traffic.”  Would you believe he preached a message about Jonah running from the calling of God.  Ironic?

We hope and pray that; through the preaching, the tracts, and the signs; they will repent of their apathy.  Praise God.  We actually got to meet some that did.  But, as God’s word will soften some hearts, it will also harden many.

As expected, there were some irate parents, but I don’t think we quite expected some of the responses.  During the second wave of cars (the first service was letting out and others were coming in for the second service), two men and a young boy came out.  They were upset that we had the graphic pictures out there.  I thought that the one guy was going to attack me.

Well, instead of attacking me, he decided he would pick on a twelve year old girl (Macie).  He walked right up to her and tried to rip the sign out of her hand.  If you know Macy, you know she didn’t need my help.  She was able to fend off the irate “Christian”.  They decided that they would go tell the cops about the horrible thing we were doing.  The cops were on our side.  So, after letting us know how sinful we were for being there, he stormed back into the church.

However, the other man, that came with him, seemed humbled a bit.  He was actually the one with the young boy.  You could see that God was working on their hearts.  They took some literature and went back as well.  I pray that they would respond to God’s call.

Brother Cal was able to have a long conversation with another man.  He was much more cool and collected than the first guy.  I think the conversation went pretty well.  After Cal talked with him for a while, Chet was able to talk with him and had an opportunity to pray with him.

We set up all of the signs and preached for two separate waves of traffic.  Thousands were able to hear and thousands could see the pictures.  So, they could see and hear.  I just pray that they would now repent and join the battle.

Here is an awesome praise.  After we shut down, a man named Mark walked up to me.  He was holding a tract in his hand and started by saying that he agreed with what we were doing.  He was behind us 100%, but just wanted to clear some things up.  He was confused.  Apparently, the pastor had some negative things to say about us and he didn’t understand why.  After reading the tract and chatting with us for a while, he gave us a great word of encouragement: that he would be joining us on the streets.

Well, you hear that from time to time, but they usually don’t show up.  Praise God, Mark was at our rally that night.  And he joined us on the streets for the rest of our time in Vegas.  It was obvious that God had pricked his heart and opened his eyes to his unborn neighbors.

He gave testimony, on Tuesday, of how he was able to share the truth about abortion to his small group, at his church.  He said that several in the group repented somehow taking part in abortion.  Praise God.

That’s a perfect example of why we visit evangelical churches.

OSA NATIONAL EVENT – LAS VEGAS – DAY 4 (AFTERNOON)

Visiting The Abortionist’s Houses – Saturday Afternoon

The first house we visited was actually a condo.  We put the fliers on the windshield of most of the cars and then left.  The cops showed up on our way out.  The amazing thing about that was how nice the police officer who spoke to us was.  He actually thanked us for being so peaceful.  And get this, he smiled and gave us a thumbs up.  And our government wants to call us terrorists.

Our second mission was notifying Robert Gatlin’s neighbors that he makes a living killing children.  He happens to live in a gate community.  You would think that would make this mission close to impossible.  But not when you serve the same God that broke Peter out of prison.  I use that example because that is the story some of us thought of as we exited safely from the gated community.  It was truly a miracle.

When we arrived, we pulled into the parking lot across the street to gather everyone and come up with a game plan.  When we pulled into the initial parking lot, there was no one waiting at the gate to the community, but while we waited for everyone (maybe ten seconds) a teenager pulled up to the gate.  Pastor Mark waited no time in darting across the street to pull in behind him.

The teenage boy was having difficulty getting in.  Apparently, there was some sort of malfunction.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.  Frustrated, he called someone on his cell phone to get a code to open the gate.  He got out of his vehicle, typed in a code and the gates swung wide open.  Normally, a gate will only stay open long enough for one car to get through, but we had enough time to get four cars through(including the teenager’s car).

We went straight for Gatlin’s house.  Pastor Mark and Shelley went to his door while everyone else was going door-to-door passing out flyers that read, “Adopt An Abortionist.”  His wife answered, and though it took her a little while to realize what was going on, when she did, she quickly shut the door.  Between that encounter and two irate neighbors, we had a pretty idea that it was time to get moving.

Pastor Mark gave the order to get all the flyers out as quick as possible.  Now, I only wish I had a video of the following two or three minutes.  You would have thought that the Connecticut team and they Yoder’s had been practicing this mission for months.  I remember walking up the street and seeing them dart from door to door, zig-zagging across the street.  It was such an incredible sight.  I was so blessed to be a part of this team.

When all the flyers were passed out, we headed for the gate.  Shelley prayed that the gate would be open when we got there and we would be able to leave peacefully.  Guess what.  As we pulled to the gate…it was already open.  We didn’t have to lose stride at all.  Pastor Mark pulled out.  Looking in his rear view, he said, “Come on, where’s Lackey?”  Lackey pulled out.  He said, “Ok now, let’s get the Yoder’s out.”  Boom, the Yoder’s pulled out.  He hit the gas and we were out, praising the Lord all the way home.  We were probably no more than 200 yards down the road when the police drove by.  They were on there way in…we were on our way out.  Praise God!

That would be a great way to end the story, but I have to tell you about a short conversation we had with a young lady at Wendy’s. (We had to have our victory Frosties)  Unfortunately, I don’t remember her name.  As I ordered, I gave her a tract.  She asked me what it was, so I told her it was about eternity.  She said, “Oh, I don’t want it.  I don’t believe in God.”  She really didn’t open up to me much, but I did convince her to take the tract.

Well, I planted a seed, and then Shelley watered it.  Apparently, she opened up to Shelley much more than she did to me.  I know that the words God spoke to her through Shelley made an impact.  My prayer is that she would soon come to repentance.  Please pray for her.  I don’t remember her name, but God knows her.