We had 13 Christians come out to witness with us tonight.  Praise God. 

Pastor Ron Burks from Bethesda Christian Fellowship  came out and brought some of his older children and members from his church, 7 in all. 

GNN Seed Sower Michael Borich, and Leann St. Clair (my wife), as well as Alexis (my daughter), myself, Richard Molina and his friend Jeff Wooden came out to pass out gospel tracts, witness one-2-one and open-air preach.  We had 2 open air preaching sessions tonight.

We gathered, prayed and then decided to do open air preaching first thing.  Normally we will give away money or stuffed animals to folks when they answer trivia questions.  This will draw a crowd, then we select someone to take the "Good Person Test".  

Tonight however, I believe God was leading me to do an open-air without any trivia questions, without passing out any gifts, etc.  to start out with.  I grabbed my Mini-Vox PB-25 speaker system and jumped up on the wall of the water fountain at Park Central Square and began open air preaching.

I explained that I had something to say to everyone, something which might offend some people.  However, over the years, tens of thousands of American soldiers have given their lives to protect our freedoms, one of which is the freedom of speech. 

What kind of person would I be if I be if I saw a blind man walking towards a 300 foot cliff and didn’t do anything to warn him of the danger?!?  In the same way, the Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of many people, and what I would like to do is help them to see.  The two things that I am going to use is their conscience and the Word of God - the 10 Commandments.  

As soon as this was said, a young man walked quickly up to where I was, started talking and jumped right up to where I was on the wall of the water fountain, trying to debate and talk about other things, to keep me from preaching.  His name is Michael.  He is an atheist, wore a pentagram button on his President Bush t-shirt that had horns on it, with the word “Satan” written under President Bush’s picture.

I asked Michael to step down from the wall and I would talk with him.  We debated a few moments, then I stopped and continued on with the preaching.  Ron and Leann began talking with Michael, the atheist.  Then another young man with many piercings walked up and began heckling and asking questions.  I just continued on with preaching and ignored him.  Satan was getting riled up tonight.  Praise God.

We went through the Good Person Test, basically taking everyone listening through the 10 Commandments to see how they compare to God’s standard.  They might see themselves to be good people, but how do they stack up to God’s standards. 

Have you ever told a lie?  If you tell even one lie then that makes you a liar.  The Bible says that all liars will have their place in the lake of fine.  Have you ever stolen anything?  If so, that makes you a thief.  The Bible says that no thief will enter the kingdom of God.  Have you ever used God’s name in vain?  That is called blasphemy.  The Bible says that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.  Last question, the 7^th commandment says do not commit adultery, but Jesus went as far as to say that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

So, if you’ve admitted to breaking these four Commandments, then God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous adulterer-at-heart, and one day you will stand before Him on Judgment Day.  On that day, will you be innocent or guilty of breaking God’s Law?  We’ve already established that you would be guilty.  Next question, will you go to heaven or hell? 

Well, if you are guilty of breaking God’s law, you will be on your way to hell.  However, God does not want you to go to hell.  God provided a way for you to be forgiven.  What must we do?  We must repent and trust in Jesus Christ.  We broke God’s law and Jesus paid our fine.  The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

And, For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.  If we repent and believe/trust in Jesus, God will create a new heart in us and we will be changed from the inside out.

After the open air, I spoke with Josh, who used to be the pagan, wiccan studying, pentagram wearing atheist friend of ours down at the square.  He said that the Bible we gave him last week was missing somehow, so we gave him another one.  He said he would read it.  He is going to church and trying to do better, he said.  Please pray for Josh.  He has stopped doing some of the “bad things”, but he still needs to repent and trust in the Savior.

Leann and Ron were still speaking to Michael, the courteous atheist.  Michael was raised catholic.  I think he has been hurt by “religion”.  He had some very derogatory things to say about God.  They reasoned with him for a while, took him through some of the law, but he didn’t seem to understand the importance of repentance, and he didn’t want to bow his knee to anyone – especially God.  However, when I did another open air later tonight, he was the volunteer that I took through the 10 Commandments in front of the entire crowd.

While Leann, Alexis and I were walking around passing out tracts we walked around the bus station.  Michael Borich was there speaking with a gentleman in a motorized wheelchair, with a wagon tied to the back of it, using it like a trailer to haul around his belongings. JR is a man who has diabetes and has had to have one leg amputated.  He was drinking (and driving his wheelchair) tonight.  I really like JR.  He is the type of man who has a rough and gruff exterior, but that is primarily for show.  I have relatives like that.  We were finally able to get a word in edgewise, and took JR through the law.  He did not believe in the importance of needing to repent, although he did kind of believe in needing to “believe” in Jesus.

JR would be interested and really thinking about heaven and hell one minute, then go off on a rampage about God, this or that, and tell me certain things were not in the Bible, even when I gave him the Bible reference.  He made comments about God that I will not say in this newsletter.  Michael and Leann had to chase JR down later when his wagon came untied from his motorized wheelchair and tie it back on for him.  Please pray for JR, that the Holy Spirit would convict his heart, because I don’t know how much time he has left on this earth.  Michael prayed for JR before we left him.  

We decided to do another open air preaching time.  This time we gathered a crowd by asking trivia questions and giving away stuffed animals that our teammate, Michael, brought.  I then asked for a volunteer so that I could find out if they were good enough to go to heaven.  

Michael, the courteous atheist volunteered.  The first time tonight that we spoke with him, we were unable to get through a lot of witnessing because of the many discussions” about various topics were being thrown around.  However, during this time, Michael answered all the questions and admitted to being a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer-at-heart.  He would be guilty on the Day of Judgment and on his way to hell.  He didn’t quite believe in all this, but I told him that doesn’t matter.  One day we will all die and stand before God in Judgment.

If I step out into the highway and say I don’t believe in trucks, my belief is not going to change reality.  And, in the same way, Michael will stand in front of a holy and righteous God, the One who will judge him and give him what he deserves if he believes in it or not. 

Michael took the stuffed animal in the same way that we have to reach out and take salvation.  We must repent (turn from sin) and believe (trust) in Jesus Christ to save us.  We broke God’s law and Jesus paid our fine.  We spoke with Michael more that night.  He said we were “pretty cool” about things, not like many of the people that come down and rail on them. 

The reason we are “pretty cool” is that we listen and show everyone respect and love them.  We still tell the what the Bible says and don’t pull any punches.  However, non-Christians seem to appreciate that and respect us for it.  Praise God! 

One thing I wanted to mention about my wife, Leann, while she was out tonight, a man came by and offered her a beer.  When she refused it, he offered her drugs.  It was a wild night tonight. 

Brad - First Open Air Preaching of the Evening