Four Corners

“Yet remember, though He condescendeth to reason, to persuade, to [call], and to beseech, still His Gospel hath in it all the dignity and force of a command. If we would preach it in these days as Christ did, we must proclaim it as a command from God, attended with a divine sanction and not to be neglected, save at the infinite peril of a soul…

’Repent ye’ is as much a command of God as ‘Thou shalt not steal.’”

–C.H. Spurgeon

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This was the rolling marquee that greeted my group as we walked into the 'Four Corners' area of Atlanta.

The marquee said something like this, "First Baptist church of Atlanta welcomes The 500 evangelists ready to go minister the Gospel in fulfilling the Great Commission."

The marquee was a huge encouragement for our group of about 30 or so that had made our way from the “Deeper” conference to the heart of Atlanta to share the Gospel with the lost.

After everyone had made their way to the meeting point in front of the Hard Rock Café, we gathered together for prayer and headed out in pairs or groups of three.

My team included my oldest son and my always faithful witnessing partner from the last couple years.

We were able to talk to several folks over the next few hours and hand out a lot of tracts.

We met one interesting older woman who believed that she had never committed a sin that would keep her out of Heaven. When pressed on this, she said that the only sin she had ever committed was telling ‘little white lies’. She assured me that the only reason she even told these lies was to protect people of keep harm from coming to them.

I asked her if she had ever taken anything that was not hers…. No.

I asked her if she had ever used God’s name in vain…. No.

Always kept the Sabbath day…. Yes.

Always put God first….Yes. Always loved God with your heart, soul, strength and mind…Yes.

Ever committed adultery….No….lusted after anyone….No.

Always honored her father and mother…Yes.

Ever hated anyone….No.

I said ma’am, you may be the most perfect person I have ever met in my life! Then I asked her if she had ever coveted anything; ever wanted something that wasn’t hers.

Yes…….but I didn’t take it.

AHA! (no I didn’t really say that)

I said ma’am, the Bible says that if you break just one of the Commandments you are guilty of breaking them all. I then gave her the link in the chain analogy.

I asked her if she were to die today and stand before God, would she be innocent or guilty of breaking God’s Law. She said innocent because she has never committed a sin that would keep her out of Heaven.

I explained to her that God is holy and just and must punish all sin, no matter how trite or meaningless that sin seemed to her.

She then told me to believe what I wanted to believe and she would believe what she wanted to believe. I told her it’s not a matter of if I believe it or not, what matters if it is true or not. Either the Bible is correct and God will punish sin or the Bible is not truthful concerning the nature of God and His holiness.

That’s when she looked down the street and told me that she was waiting on the bus and that it should be here any minute.

I tried to take a little more time by explaining to her that there was nothing she could do to earn her way into Heaven by trying to be a good person. I told her that if there was something that she could do that could earn her way into Heaven, then she could have reason to boast about her salvation. I explained to her that only by repenting of her sins and putting her faith alone in Christ could God accept her and allow her in His Kingdom.

She again told me to believe what I wanted to believe and she would do the same.

I asked her to make sure she carefully read the Gospel tract tonight and consider thoughtfully everything we talked about.

We shook hands and departed.

We had many more conversations and I trust that God’s Word will not return void with the people we spoke to but accomplish His perfect will concerning them.

Deeper!

I'm sure I won't be posting anything until at least Sunday. My oldest son and I will be heading down to Woodstock, Georgia to attend the Deeper conference tomorrow morning.

The conference itself will be awesome, but what I am really looking forward to is participating in the 500.

About 500 street preachers and evangelists will head down to Atlanta after the Saturday conference to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the masses. I will be on team #1 which will be stationed at the 'Four Corners' area that includes the Hard Rock Cafe and Hooters.

Please be in prayer for the 500. Pray that thousands will hear the Gospel and that God will save many for His glory.

Dawg

Hey Wayne, was that you I saw holding a cross....

That was the beginning of a Facebook posting on my wall Friday evening when I got on-line to do a quick check of my email before hitting the sack.

I took off work a little early Friday and went home to quickly change into some shorts and a t-shirt before heading down to Town Lake parkway to debut the cross for the first time.

I'll have to admit that during the 35 minute drive to this high traffic spot I was getting second thoughts about just standing in one spot for an hour holding a cross that said, "Are You Ready".

I don't know if the enemy was giving me the doubts or if it was my flesh telling me how foolish this was going to look to lots of people.

When I got to the location I took out the cross, centered up the horizontal beam and tightened down the wing nut. I nervously (why was I nervous???) walked over to the public side walk and faced east toward the onslaught of vehicles traveling toward me.

I was shaking. I was already sweating. I held up the cross and proceeded to stand in that one spot for the next hour.

Several times over the next hour I counted the number of cars that passed me in one minutes time as they traveled the 35-45 mph down the parkway...55...58...49...63...61...59...61.

I stood there motionless with my baseball cap and sunglasses. Sometimes traffic would stop at the light and then the vehicles would start stacking up. Occupants of the cars and trucks would just sit there and look at me and the cross.

Sometimes someone would toot the horn and without moving my head I would follow with my eyes and they would give me a 'thumbs up'. One person appeared to give me the finger.

After about 15-20 minutes a group of kids (13-14 years old) with skateboards in tow came walking towards me. As they were about to pass me on the sidewalk, one kid asked the question; "Ready for what?"

Eternity I answered.

He said he wasn't ready for eternity. I asked him if he would like to know how to be ready for eternity and he said he didn't plan on dying today. I asked him if he knew when he was going to die and he answered by asking me if I was smarter than a fifth grader.

That got a good laugh from his buds and they hurried on past the crazy guy with the cross.

Time seemed to go by pretty fast as I stood there. I kept my mind busy with prayers for the people who saw the sign as well as reciting some Scriptures that seemed to just pop up.

At the end of the hour I folded up the cross and headed back to the car. Much later that evening when I checked my emails, I came across one that said, "Hey Wayne, was that you I saw standing on Town Lake parkway with a cross that said, "are you ready"?

Yes, that was me. I didn't think I would be recognized with the ball cap and the sunglasses. Not that I was trying to hide...I just wanted the cross to be the focus; not me.

Over 3,200 folks in cars and trucks and motorcycles saw the question.

Not a bad debut!

Holiness

“In proportion as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be powerful.”

Charles Spurgeon

Rejection Collection Challenge -

Challenge from Ray Comfort

When giving out tracts, the law of averages means that with every rejection you are getting closer to being accepted, and it indicates that you are doing something to reach the lost. One sure way to get no rejections is to do nothing to reach the lost. No one will reject you, and one sure way to get rejections is to try to reach the lost.

So, I changed my attitude recently and when my first rejection came, I was expecting it. Instead of it being like a sword through my sensitive little heart, I said, "Great. Thanks!" and thought, "There's my first one...I was expecting it." The experience made me laugh.

Here's a challenge for those of you who are as sensitive as me. We will send a free Season Three to the person who gets the most rejections between now and September 10th. Just count the tracts you give out, keep a count of the rejections, and then work out the percentage of rejections.

Don't forget to send the statistics to us
along with your name and address:

rejectioncollection@livingwaters.com

"Are You Ready" - Ready!

After reading about a couple passionate street preachers (Tony Miano from the LawMan Chronicles and Paul Latour from The Word Street Journal) and their zeal for creating an evangelism tool with the words, "Are You Ready" boldly painted on 4' by 3' cross, I knew that this ole North Georgia boy could find a few uses for such a tool in the deep south.

I gave a call to one of my witnessing partners who has all the tools Tim the 'Toolman' Taylor could ever dream to have and set up at his house to cut some boards and drill a hole. A couple other of my witnessing buds came by and supervised the project.

We didn't get to do the lettering last week as someone : ) forgot to bring the stencils.

My goal was to have my wife (the steady hand ) paint the letters on this morning and I would go down to a busy section of road and debut the cross.

Unfortunately a kidney stone had other plans for me today.

After a few hours of unwanted pain I got the materials together for my wife to put on the lettering. She did a great job but the time had already slipped away from me and the goal of heading down to a busy road in Woodstock, Ga.

That's Ok....next Saturday!

What would Ted Kennedy say to us now?

From Tony the Law Man

Do you profess to be a Christian, yet after hearing the news of Kennedy's death do you see it as an opportunity to celebrate, or to tell an off-colored joke, or to make a political statement? Well, if as a professing Christian you don't regularly share your faith with the lost, this would certainly explain why. After all, it's what comes out of the mouth that reveals the condition of the heart.

And for those Christians who are obedient to Christ's command to preach the gospel to the entire world, if you too are making light of Kennedy's death, don't you see the hypocrisy in the behavior?

While pundits and others from every political and spiritual persuasion will have much to say over the next several days about Ted Kennedy's life and legacy, if Ted Kennedy could say anything to us right now it would be this.

"Don't miss heaven."

Ted Kennedy's understanding of who God is and what God requires of every person is now perfect. No longer limited by the fallibility of a finite human mind as we are presently, Ted Kennedy's theology is now perfect. Regardless of where you believe Ted Kennedy is at this moment, I am confident that his plea to his fellow man would be, "Don't miss heaven."

My hope is that as he made the long and painful journey from life to death to eternity, Ted Kennedy came to genuine repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Although I saw Ted Kennedy as an enemy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, my hope is that I will one-day see Ted Kennedy in heaven.

Lord, help me to love my enemies.

What about you? Where will you spend eternity? Have you ever thought about it? Do you care?

You will one-day die and stand before the Creator, Almighty God, whom you've denied and mocked. He will judge you according to the perfect, moral standard of His Law. If He finds you guilty of so much as one lie, or one theft, or one greedy desire, or one selfish act, or one lustful look, or one hateful thought, or one blasphemous utterance; He will find you guilty of breaking His Law. The sentence you will receive will be just and good: eternity in Hell.

Your arguments against the righteous justice of Almighty God, my King, are irrelevant. My King is sovereign. You are not. And any man who tries to defend himself before the Great White Throne of the Creator and Judge of the Universe has a fool for a client.

God, who is rich in mercy, who is loving and kind, has provided only one way for you to escape His just and holy wrath. This is your only hope, whether you believe it or not.

Two thousand years ago, God the Father sent His Son to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ--fully-God and fully-Man, but without sin. Unlike you and me, He never once violated the Law of God in thought, word, or deed. He couldn't. He was God in the flesh--the sinless Lamb of God. He was born of a virgin, just as the prophet said He would be, 750 years before His birth.

Thirty to thirty-three years into that earthly existence He voluntarily went to the cross. He suffered, shed His innocent blood, and died a horrific death. The Bible says that he was so badly beaten and mutilated that He could barely be recognized as human. He suffered and died, taking upon Himself the punishment you and I rightly deserve for violating God's Law. Three days later He rose from the dead and forever defeated sin and death. Unlike the false gods of every other religion on the planet, Jesus Christ is alive and He will return at a time of the Father's choosing.

What He commands of you is that you repent--that you turn away from and forsake your sin; and that you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Jesus said that unless a person is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God. If God causes you to be born again, then when you die and stand before Him, instead of receiving what you deserve for breaking God's Law (which is eternity in hell), you will receive what you don't deserve (which is grace, and mercy, and everlasting life in heaven, with Jesus Christ).

So, repent and believe the gospel while my King has given you time. Please, I beg of you, don't miss heaven.

I believe Ted Kennedy would agree.