We had a great time of preaching at the Tea Party here in town.  Well, we did not preach AT the Tea Party, but at the main gate of the park it was held at.  So as the people came and went, we got to read scripture and preach the gospel.  Robert brought his cross and we “tag teamed” in getting up on the wall and preaching.  It was scary, fun, interesting and AWESOME!   There is nothing quite like sharing the gospel in this way.

There were a few folks that thanked us for doing this and many mockers too.  A lot of high schoolers from across the street came over and a few of them heckled us and mocked what we were doing.  The hecklers were good as it drew a few more people over.  All in all, it was a great day of glorifying the Lord in the proclamation of His Word.  There were many who heard the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation, as we preached the cross and Him crucified.  Many were convicted and mouths were stopped by speaking to their conscience through the law of God.  Many took tracts too, including the high schoolers.   

One woman walked by and yelled that no one will listen to us and no one will be saved by what we were doing.  Well, maybe not.  I did respond that the gospel is the power of God to salvation( Romans 1:16 ), not us.  But all the results are God’s job, not ours.  We have been faithful in proclaiming the gospel to many who will never go to church.  It has been said that one open air preaching session can reach more of the lost in one session than most churches do in a year.  But it is not up to us for the results.  One sows, one waters, but only God makes it grow( 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 ). 

Well, we had a great time visiting family in Illinois and getting up at 3AM on Friday to witness to the Black Friday shoppers.  There were incredible crowds in the hundreds at each store we went to.  Some people had been camping out in front of Best Buy for 3 days before the doors opened for Black Friday, so we had tons of opportunities to hand out tracts and preach the gospel. 

Our first stop was Kohls at 3:30am.  We handed out tracts and I preached.  The springboard used was a Christmas Quiz and I handed out $1 bills to the winners and a stuffed animal that I had bought last year after Christmas for 80% off and used it for the grand prize.  Then I asked if Santa Claus were to determine if you were “naughty or nice” based on the 10 commandments, how do you think you would do?  Everyone said..not very good.  From there the gospel was preached.  One of the employees confronted me about soliciting, and I told here that I as not selling anything, but was actually giving out money.  Then towards the end of the presentation, the store manager came as asked me to move down to the other store, so we finished up in a few more minutes and moved on.  There were some people that came up to us when we were done and thanked us for doing what we were doing.

We then moved to other stores as the morning progressed.  I did preach in front of Gordmans until my amplification pooped out.  Another place we went was Best Buy.  There were huge crowds there and tons of police, so we just handed out tracts.  The picture below was in the next morning paper and shows Connie handing out tracts to people in line at Best Buy.  Looks like many are reading the tracts too!

     We went to Phoenix over the weekend and got to witness downtown with a group of other evangelists.  The hotel transport van dropped us off right next to a group of folks open air preaching on the streets.  We got to hand out tracts and share the gospel  with a few folks…… this is a picture of one of the guys preaching.

     We made it to the DMV again today to preach the gospel.  My turn this time.

I went to LA last year to the Ambassadors Academy and did some street witnessing.  Tony Miano is the head guy, and he was great.  This video is indicative of the craziness you can encounter on the “left coast”.

We have been preaching alot lately at the DMV.  Me, Robert and Maritza take turns each day and then we hand out tracts afterwards and talk to the people that have heard the gospel.   As I have said before, there is NOTHING like preaching in the Open Air.  It is scary, and fun and different each time.  I got a heckler yesterday (yeah!) who wanted to know if participating in a war was murder.  I mentioned the fact of a “just war” and told him that I would talk to him after finishing preaching.  Afterwards we talked a bit and then he yelled out to the crowd that,  ”no one cares about what we had to say”.  To that I looked at everyone and said that I cared enough to be here and share with them, and that yes, I believe that God cares and they care.  It was intense.

When I preach, it is different that a 1-2-1 encounter.  But I think it is important that you use the law of God.  This is necessary because the fact that sin must be made personal to everyone.  It is certainly true that pretty much everyone considers themselves to be a good person and this must be confronted, for how will they know what sin is without the law(Romans 7:7)? 
When preaching, I pretty much use the following outline.  Parts of the outline were taken from the book, Two Ways to Live, but I have added a few things due to the importance of speaking to the conscience(Romans 2:15).

1. God the creator: He is holy, righteous, loving, just, and good.  He rules humanity under His authority.
2. Humanity rebels in sin, and breaks the laws of God. (These laws, the 10 commandments, are described). Humanity wishes to run things their own way.
3. Because God is good, He judges humanity and those who sin(break his laws -1John 3:4), and the penalty for sin is death and hell(Romans 6:23).
4. So how can a perfectly just God forgive a sinner?  For in heaven, no sin will ever enter it(Rev 21-27), and God must punish sin, and is in fact, angry and hates all those who sin(Psalms 7:11, Psalms 5:5). But in His love, God sends Jesus to die as an atoning sacrifice to satisfy His righteous wrath.
5. In His power, God raises Jesus to live as ruler and judge.  And each person will be judged once they die, and because of what Jesus has done, God can forgive us.  We can be made to be perfect in His sight(have Christ’s righteousness and perfection in God’s sight- 2 Corinthians 5:21).
6. A challenge to repent and believe(trust) and become a new creation in Christ.  One who is a child of God(John 1-12) and is born again(John 3:3). 

That is it!  Who is next to preach?!

Beautiful day to preach the Good News to the folks at the county courthouse.  We found out that Friday was the slowest day of the week, so the crowd was relatively small.  But we are faithful to follow God’s command to preach the Good News and we trust that His Word will not return void.  To Him be the glory.  I got to preach open air for the first time this year and we handed out tracts.  Robert got into a great 1-2-1 discussion afterwards, and he was able to open up the Word and show how Jesus was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  This is a picture of Robert afterwards….please pray for this soldier, that he will be saved. 

We are planning on meeting again at the courthouse this Monday morning.  Please join us.

I have been listening to an open air preacher from Australia lately.  Audio of some of his preaching is on THIS website.  I love the way he just starts out declaring the authority of the bible (the WORD OF GOD), and his focus on the attributes of God. He makes God the focus and not ourselves. That God is lifted up and glorified.   He also makes the statement that some may be offended, but God and His Word is light and the darkness HATES the light.  There is no question about God’s standards and our standing before Him.  And how He is just and right to judge us guilty on the day of judgment. 

Some may say that this preaching to too harsh, but God in His sovereignty already has chosen those who will be saved.   For we are not born again by seed that is perishable but imperishable, that is, by the living and enduring Word of God(1Peter 1:23).  For faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the Word of Christ(Romans 10:17).  This guy is certainly …NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL, for it is the power of God to salvation, for those that believe(Romans 1:16).

May God bless your visits with family and friends this Christmas.  And that you may get a chance to share the “reason for the season”.

Also, something that you might want to do is pick up a stuffed animal when they go 75% off, after Christmas.  I use them all the time as prizes when open air preaching.  It is amazing what kind of stuffed animal you can get for a few dollars.     Have a great and blessed Christmas!

We are planning on joining a bunch of fellow seed sowers this weekend at the Festival of Lights parade.  We will be handing out a bunch of tracts and (hopefully) preaching open air.  Please join us if you can or pray if you can’t.  Website for the parade is HERE.   

Contact us for info, or call Robert Gray   719-659-8588