Miscellaneous Musings

Today turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, just perfect for...cleaning our the garage! Not the most fun thing to do, but very necessary when your garage looks like ours, I will kindly spare you the details. :-)

Our back yard.

This is "Joyce" my cat and I.

These pictures were actually not taken today, but the day was a lot like this!

I am looking forward to the fast approaching time when I will be able to start my vegetables indoors. Up here we cannot plant outdoors until June. I like to start my seedlings, eleven to fourteen weeks early, in order to give them a good start and hope for produce more quickly.

I am finally sewing the jumper I had cut out long ago and am really enjoying it! The fabric is a type of blue denim and the pattern has four pleats, which I absolutely love. I will have to look for more patterns with pleats or make some up myself, I don't think it would be too hard to add pleats to a regular dress or skirt pattern. Anyone with experience have suggestions?

We were at the abortion clinic again on Monday where seven mothers went into the building to destroy the lives of their babies. One girl was probably just fourteen or fifteen and seemed very scared, but her mother was with her and so she did not stop to talk with us. How can a mother do that to her daughter? Perhaps it was for rape or incest, but killing the innocent child does not take away the pain and trauma, it only makes it much, much worse. The adults in that girls life will have to give an account of their actions before The Judge of all the earth some day, that thought alone should cause them to tremble.

We went to the UMD again for a couple of hours. My Mom had a good conversation with a young atheist who, after hearing the gospel, accepted a Gospel of John saying that he will read it and consider what he had been told!

One guy walking by, began to curse and swear at Josh and Michael and then at our Lord Jesus. Josh answered with, "God bless you." and Michael with, "Thank you for the blessing!"

Another guy walking by spit at Josh and Michael. These things really are blessings!

"Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12

And:

"But I say unto you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to them who hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you." Luke 6:27-28

My Grandma is now in physical therapy and is slowly recovering. This is a hard time for her as she cannot remember things very well because of the trauma from the operation. It is frustrating to her, as I am sure it would be to anyone. Thank you so much for praying and please do continue to pray for her salvation.

Colossians chapter One has been a great blessing to me lately, what a packed chapter! One thing I keep thinking about is verse eleven: "Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."

It is one thing to learn patience, another to learn longsuffering, but "patience and longsuffering with joyfulness"?! Wow! I need to be abiding in Christ Jesus so that He can produce this fruit in me. In Him all fullness dwells, He is the one I want to be around. Since we become like who we hang around, I want to 'hang around' Jesus, to be in fellowship with Him all throughout the day. I must confess that my thoughts often wander to less important things, then I realize with a start that it has been several hours since I consciously spoke with my dearest friend. Oh why, do I do this? I love to be near Him and I love talking to Him and yet I find my mind wandering. Oh, may He draw me closer to Himself! How patient He is with me, what a kind and compassionate Savior. "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:13-14

Thank you Lord Jesus.

I have been training my dog Abby, here are some pictures and a video! I am using a "tug" which is a piece of burlap type material used to build drive and focus. As you can see, Abby thinks that this is all a game and to a point, it is at this time. Eventually we will get into more advanced training.

Day of Mercy - Part Two

Read Part One first!

"And there they preached the gospel." Acts 14:7

After the abortion clinic we went to the University of Minnesota Duluth, where Steve and Josh had already been for an hour with a gospel sign. We joined them and the three guys began taking turns preaching to the crowds of students coming off the busses. Sue, who we had talked to on Friday, came by again but did not want to talk to my Mom and I. Instead she talked to Steve and Josh who were answering questions and giving the gospel to a group waiting for a bus. She asked them, why did they want to go to Heaven. Steve answered, "Because God is there." She mentioned needing something more and Steve asked "Why would anyone want anything more than God?" She seemed to be on the defensive and we hope that this is because of God's conviction in her heart. We have been praying for her.

God really does prepare us for the particular people He will bring for us to share the gospel with. He brings the ones who have the questions and needs which He has prepared us to answer. It is very comforting to know this, but amazing to experience. My Mom and I were handing out tracts, when an older man began talking to my Mom about how "turned off" he is by "all this born again stuff." He shared his story of a wound inflicted by a loved one claiming to be born again and how he did not want anything to do with being born again, because of it. My Mom was able to share with him a similar experience of hers and told him that we cannot blame God for other peoples actions. At that he seemed to soften and wanted to read one of our tracts! Please pray for Tim (name changed).

As one group of students got off of a bus, I noticed a young man who was looking at our signs. I walked over and handed him a tract, which he took and immediately read from cover to cover. I asked him what he thought about it and he said that he had grown up hearing that God is not as "harsh" as we were portraying Him. I explained the gospel to him using an example Steve had been using, which I think is really good. We can see how much God loves us by looking at Jesus on the cross, that He would take our sins upon Himself and suffer for us like that, the just for the unjust, shows how much He loves us. We can also see how much God hates sin by looking at the cross. When Jesus, God's first begotten son, hung on the cross bearing our sins, God, His Father, crushed Him. Isaiah fifty-three says that in pleased the Lord to bruise Him. God hates sin so much that He poured out the fury of His wrath on His own Son when He was bearing our sins. If God would do that to His own Son, what will He do to unrepentant, unbelieving sinners?

Bryan (name changed) asked what "repent" means. I said "It is a turning away from sin, to God." then explained a little what that means. He wanted to know who he could contact later and talk more about this stuff, so I motioned Steve over who began telling Bryan many of the same things I had already said but in more detail. Bryan asked if he could be saved today! Steve told him, "Yes! The Bible says "Today is the day of Salvation!" Bryan asked if it was not too late for him, because he had lived a rough life. Steve told him that God is merciful and that Jesus bore all his sins on the cross. Bryan said he has many questions, because it is all so new to him. He said that he had been an atheist and that he had just recently started seeing his need for God and had begun to read the Bible. He said that his Dad is an "evangelical Catholic" and that just then he had been on his way to talk to a priest, because they told him that he had to go through classes to get baptized. But he had seen our sign and thought he should talk to us first! Steve told him that he should steer clear of the Catholic church and that one reason for that was even in what Bryan had just said. They told him he needed to go to classes to be baptized, Steve explained, "Jesus said that we need to repent and believe, then be baptized." there is nothing about needing classes in the Bible. Steve offered to take Bryan out to lunch some day soon where they could talk more about all of this, they exchanged contact information and I pray that they will be in touch soon.

I cannot explain what it was like to see someone so tender to the gospel, someone on whose heart God has been working, someone who is on, what I would say is the brink of salvation. We could just see God working on him and I did not want to say or do anything that would turn him away from the Savior. As Steve was talking with him I was strongly impressed that we needed to pray for him before he left. Just before he left, Steve asked him if we could pray for him, then asked me to pray! God is so good!

Please pray for Bryan! Pray that God will save him and will not let the enemy snatch him away.

After that, a guy with a sign came out. His sign said: "Bob loves you, no not like that, embrace Bob" He was an atheist mocking God and the gospel. My Mom spoke with him and found out his name is Saul (name not changed) We pray that God will turn him to be like Paul.

Shortly after he came out, five girls went across the street from us with their own signs which said: "Doesn't God love everyone?" and "I will think what I want", "This is a School, not a Church, keep it to yourself" and some others. Steve began preaching to them, then my Mom, Josh and I went over to talk with them and my Mom gave them the gospel. They claimed to be Christians who did not like our message and did not believe you need to repent to be a Christian. My Mom explained that repent and believe are tied together, you cannot have one without the other and be saved. We left them and Steve went over to them and began preaching very earnestly.

Meanwhile, more atheist had gathered around Saul. They began to mock preaching and to mock God. One falsely accused Michael, turning away, Michael began to pray out loud, thanking God for being counted worthy of false accusation for His name's sake. My Mom and I began to pray out loud, praising God and reading the Bible. The spiritual battle was intense.

We crossed the street to stand with Steve and Josh and to hold signs while Josh caught the action on video camera. Their lawyers have told them to keep the video camera rolling while on the streets, so that if someone does something to hurt us, or the police act against the law, we will have evidence. By this time a crowd had gathered around Steve and more signs had been brought out, one of which said: "I will forgive you for $1" Steve told the guy holding it, "The goodness of God is that His forgiveness is free!" At one point in his preaching, Steve said, "We are out here to warn you. If you were in a burning building, it would be the loving thing to do to warn you. That is what we are doing." A guy on the edge of the crowd said, "You're out here to warn us?" He seemed surprised. We gave him a tract which he took away with him. He seemed to be in a very serious state of mind. As I watched all this taking place and saw Steve pleading with these people and reasoning with them for their souls, I thought "This is the goodness and mercy of God!" 1 Corinthians 1:21 says: "For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Also read through to verse 31 !

Another guy began asking Steve some very good questions, which Steve used to preach to the crowd. This guy talked with Steve for a long time! I did not get to hear how it ended.

Still another guy talked with my Mom for a good while, asking many questions. He was very surprised when she quoted Psalms 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." He had never heard of that before. Neither had he heard that you can be saved at once ( as in 2Cor. 5:17 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.") and do not need to work your way to Heaven and eventually hope to get it right in purgatory. Please pray for him as well.

One lady told me that she is a Christian but thinks our message should be "more loving". I mentioned what I had just read in Mark chapter one, before Jesus even got His disciples, He went all throughout Galilee preaching, "repent, and believe the gospel." She said that He did not tell people like the adulteress that they were going to hell. (For the record, we do not say to specific people, 'you are going to hell', we tell who the Bible says are going to hell. Using verses like, 1Cor. 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:19-21) I told her that those people already knew. The Jews knew the law, they did not need to be told that they were sinners, had broken God's law and were under God's wrath. They needed to be told that the Messiah had come and to believe. Later when Paul preached to the Greeks, he went to the public places and debated with them, beginning at creation, then to the law and finally to the cross. If people do not know their sin and their need for a savior, Jesus will mean nothing to them. He will need to be as He is now being portrayed in most modern evangelism, an accessory to your life, someone who will help you and give you good things. What we have lost is the understanding that these people, who have no concept of the Bible, the Laws of God and the history of those who obeyed and those who did not, do not know they need a savior. We must begin where Paul began, at creation and take it from there. Remember that tribe in Papua New Guinea? Our nation has become much like those people.

O.K. I did not quite say all of that to this lady, the gist of it was there though and after I was done she said, "I guess I see what you're saying. God bless you!" Then she left.

This was the longest time we have been out pleading for the lost, to date, eight hours! With a one hour break in between. We got cold! We praise God for the opportunity and for His direction throughout the day! I cannot tell you how happy and excited we were on our way home! When we obey the Lord, it sure makes us happy! Perhaps one thing American Christians are lacking is the joy and happiness in obedience?

"For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be a burden unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:9

About My Grandma and More Witnessing Opportunities

This past Wednesday we received news that my Grandmother needed to have triple bypass surgery, the next day. Her heart was so bad that the artery on one side is completely blocked and the other is eighty-five percent blocked. So, on Thursday morning she had the operation. We praise God that she made it through and is beginning to do a little better, though she is still in the ICU. She is in Illinois so we are not able to be with her, which is hard, especially for my Dad. Thankfully, my two Aunts are with her. Please pray with us for her salvation, God is able to bring her to Himself.

On Friday we were at the abortion clinic early to plead for the babies lives who were appointed to die. When one young mother and her mother parked their car across the street, my Mom went over to offer them information. The young woman rolled down her car window and said she would call the police if my Mom did not leave. My Mom told her that her baby is a person, then showed her a picture of an aborted baby. This made the babies Grandmother jump out of the car and tell my Mom that she would call the police, my Mom told her "Go ahead, I'm not doing anything wrong. This baby is your Grandchild!" Then my Mom showed the young mother, through the closed window, some pictures of developing babies. She looked at them, then began to cry. Her mother jumped out again, yelling at my Mom who continued to calmly answer, "This baby is Your Grandchild." They then drove away and they never came back, as far as we know! We hope and pray that the child was spared. God knows.

When we were done at the abortion clinic, we went to the University of Minnesota Duluth with Josh for a witnessing outreach. We held two gospel signs, while Josh and Michael preached.

One student made his own sign to protest us, which said: "Don't Worry God Loves You No Matter What". Josh had a good conversation with him and found out that he believes the teachings of a certain professor who takes all the "good out of different religions" and believes that, not the "bad". Josh was able to ask some very pointed questions showing the faultiness of that faith and expounded on the resurrection of Jesus as difference between other religions and the Bible. We pray for this young mans salvation.

Remember the lady I talked to on Tuesday the Twentieth? That short conversation had made me think more about our obedience to the gospel versus trying to make the gospel more appealing to the carnal mind. She came back to talk with me this Friday, I'll change her name to Sue.

She told my Mom and I that she is a pantheist, believing that everything is god and that god is everything. My Mom gave her the gospel, which Sue clearly could not understand. She does not believe in life after death and thinks that life is an end in it's self, because it is so "full and beautiful". My Mom explained to her that she is in the darkness and does not know it, using the example of a room that is slowly growing darker and you do not know it is so dark until you turn on the light. We told her that what she believes does not change the way things are, that in the end she will stand before Jesus who is the judge and she will confess that He is Lord. We said that people have so many ideas about the way things are, but what really matters in the end is what God says about things and whether or not we obeyed Him.

At one point I asked her, "Why are you alive? Where do you come from?"

She answered, "From my parents."
"In the beginning where did it all start?"

"With the Big Bang."

"Nobody knows who started that?"

"No, there are some theories, but no one really knows."

"God tells us what happened. He was there, He tells us what He did. You see, the Bible is a history book, written by God who made every thing."

She wondered how anyone could not believe in the big bang and said "Evolution is so beautiful."

"Millions and Billions of years of death, bloodshed and cancer, is beautiful?" I asked.

"Yes, it is."

"By what you are saying, you are showing me that you are in darkness. It does not matter what we tell you or if we are able to answer all your questions and explain everything to you, you would still not believe unless God opens your eyes. It has to be God who shows Himself to you."

She left then but short while after leaving she came back saying that she had thought of some more questions.

She asked, "Does God ever change?"
"No, in His Word He tells us that He never changes."

"Do people change?"
"Yes, all the time."

"Will people who are redeemed still change in Heaven?" She had earlier told us that she thought Heaven was pointless and boring.

I answered, "When we die, our bodies are changed. We will not have flesh and blood like we have now, we will be different. We do not really know what Heaven is like, it is not something we can understand or grasp with our human minds. If God told us what it is like we would not understand, it is too wonderful. We know that we will be praising God and that we will have work to do, but what it is I do not know."

She asked, "If God is all powerful, then why did He make man, since He does not need us?"

We told her that it is true that God does not need us, yet He made us for His glory. Life is not about us but about Him. We ended by saying, that we would pray that God would show Himself to her. Please pray with us for the salvation of Sue.

The thing I love about this conversation was the peace God gave me to just stay true to the Word. It did not matter to me that she said and thought it was "silly" and that it made no sense at all to her. I did not have to think up witty things to say or remember tons of facts to throw at her about the validity of the Bible. I just spoke as God led me, staying true to His Word, knowing that she would not understand unless He opened her eyes. I even told her that her reasoning proved to me even more that God's word is true because He told us that the carnal mind would not understand these things unless He opened their eyes! There is such peace knowing that it is God's work to cause her to understand, not mine! Praise God!!! I love it!

Here is a short clip of me talking with Sue:

Here is the link to our teams YouTube sight where you will find more videos of us: The Way Ministries

Seed Sowing

On Thursday last week we had the blessing of getting back on the street with our friends who are street preachers! Because of the cold, our "street" this time was a heated pedestrian over pass. Very nice indeed! We handed out quite a few tracts and had several good conversations. One man who had already been given a tract walked by again and Steve asked if he was going to read it, he said "Yea". Steve said "that didn't sound very convincing", the man turned around and said "oh, then you better give me another one". Steve handed him another one and said "you threw it away didn't you?" The guy laughed a little and said "How did you know?" Steve said "The Bible says that all liars will be cast into the lake of fire." That started a conversation that lasted fifteen minutes with this Jewish man named Kenny. Please pray for him, he said that he was going to think about what Steve had told him.

Yesterday, (Tuesday) we went out again, this time to the University of Minnesota Duluth. We had one gospel sign and two graphic abortion signs. Steve and Michael preached to the crowds of students getting on and off the buses and I handed out tracts. One campus police officer came because of some complaints and told us that we were fine where we were and it was our legal right to be there.

An atheist tried to reason with us and was given the gospel along with some things to think about. A young man came by taking our pictures and talked to us for some time. He was upset by the abortion pictures saying that we were showing them to "play on peoples emotions and to make people angry". Steve told him that we were showing them to let people know the truth of what abortion is and what it does to people. I told him that it is the same as the holocaust and there he interrupted along with two other young men who had joined him. "You are saying that abortion is equal to the holocaust?" He asked incredulously. "Yes, even worse" I answered. "almost fifty million babies have been killed"

"There were millions of Jews"

"Yes, six million Jews, fifty million babies." I compared.

"But they were a specific group of people that were targeted" one of them added.

"Exactly!" I said, "A specific group of people, babies."

They had to concede the point and quickly changed the subject. Steve repeatedly turned the conversation back to the gospel and they kept trying to turn it back towards their anger at the signs. The first guy told us that he did not agree with that type of abortion but there were other types. We told him that either way a person is killed. He said that he did not believe that there was life until birth! I told him that such a statement was only his personal opinion because the scientific research of many doctors, including pro-abortion doctors, showed that life begins at conception. He said that he did not know that! Praise God! Even though he went on to say that it would not change his mind on abortion, at least there was something planted that God can use. He and the others heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and we can pray that God will use it.

At one point God prompted me to go talk with a lady who stood near us. When I offered her a tract she refused and I asked if she had ever read the Bible. Our conversation was short but I pray that God will use that seed planted as well. She even gave me a quick hug before leaving.

It was that conversation that set me to thinking, because I felt like I stumbled around at some points and probably sounded silly to her. But, it is not up to me to save people, my job is to obey. God has told us to preach the gospel and we need to stay true to that command, it is easy to try and embellish it making it look more attractive to the carnal mind. We often want to build up strong arguments to show that we are really not as foolish as we sound, but what if someone believes those arguments? Their faith is then grounded in mans reasoning and not on God Himself. Apologetics is good and we need to know what we believe and why, but God told us to preach the gospel and He said that it would seem foolish to the world. Were you saved because of historical proof for the Bible and it's accuracy? I wasn't, it was the simple message of the gospel through which God led me to repentance and faith on Him.

So, I need to rest knowing that it is God who brings the increase. We obey, sowing the seed and watering the seed and God brings the increase. It is up to Him who will be saved, we need only to obey.

Yeah!

What a blessed rest we can have knowing that!

We stood out there for about three and a half hours and towards the end another young man brought out a home made sign and stood near us. Here is a picture:

His sign says "Love and rejoice for paganism. To be heathen is heavenly"

It was more like a cry for help than anything else. Michael felt prompted to go talk to him and they talked for a long time, then Steve joined in and without having heard what Michael had already said, began to say the exact same things! We pray that God will use the seed planted there as well.

Praise God for a great seed sowing day and we pray for many more to come! May God bring some fruit though our labors, for His glory!

Apple picking and Gospel giving!

I am sorry for not posting in so long. The harvest season is in full swing up here and it seems that everything ripens around the same time, which leaves us harvesting and preserving from morning 'till night.

My Mom and I went apple picking. We had a great time taking pictures, laughing and enjoying each others company. : )

My Mom Picking apples

Myself picking apples

My Mom with an apple leaf smile. : )

Apples!

We also have continued the pro-life and gospel ministries.
On the 9th we went to the University of Minnesota Duluth to hold the gospel signs and give the gospel. When we arrived, Steve told us that he was not planning to preach that day because it was only his second day on the campus but as soon as we came up to a large group of students who were waiting for a bus, God opened Steve's mouth and he began to preach on sin, wrath, judgment and mercy. One lady on a cell phone told the person she was talking to, "I've got to go, there's this guy yelling about Jesus over here. I can't take this anymore!" She then left.

After the students had boarded the busses, a young lady came up to Steve saying she had heard him preaching and had questions about what he had said. That led to a long conversation in which she seemed to understand the gospel message but was not yet willing to follow Jesus. It was encouraging and yet sad. She agreed with every thing that was said about her need for the Savoir for forgiveness of sins but in the end said that she didn't need the Bible. We pray that God will use the seed planted in her heart to bring her to true repentance and belief in Jesus Christ.

One student asked me what Hell is like and so I described it from the Bible. Then he asked what Heaven is like and this also I described from the Bible. He asked if all other religions are going to hell and I told him that the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. He asked if someone lived a sinful life until their death bed and then repented and believed, would they go to Heaven. I said, "yes, God is merciful." Then he said "That's what I'm going to do, live a sinful life until my death bed, then repent."! I responded, "What if you are in a car crash and die instantly?" He said, "It's risky isn't it? But it's a chance I'm willing to take." As he walked away my brother said, "It's not worth the risk!" Wow, that one left me floored, but it shouldn't; our sinful nature is such that, apart from the grace of God we would all be saying the same thing.

A number of times God prompted me to go talk to this young lady or that and I always would begin to struggle. It would go something like this. "I can't talk now, she is on her cell phone, oh, not anymore, but the bus might come soon...all the more reason to go talk to her. I don't know what to say...I do. How serious are you about the condition of her soul? Do you truly believe that she is on the brink of death? Then I would go and the Lord would speak through me. It doesn't matter if we don't have the words to say, in fact, if we think we do they will most likely get in the way. God is faithful and He does guide by his Holy Spirit, the words are there, scriptures are called to mind and answers to tough questions will even surprise you. It is an absolute joy to share the glorious hope of the gospel, it goes beyond words.

An atheist named Art, talked for a long time with Steve. He kept saying that he wasn't going to waste his time talking anymore, but then he would stay and continue trying to refute the Bible. He left at one point but returned, as though he could not resist talking to us. Steve kept pointing him to creation and the conscience as evidence for a creator. Art listened and talked for a very long time then said, "I don't know why I keep talking to you guys." Steve told him. "I know why."

"Why?"

The answer came ominously and with lowered eyelids, "It's God."

"But, I don't believe in God."

"It doesn't matter if you believe in Him or not, He is still real."

"I'm not going to talk to you again."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't!"

"Yes you will, you can't not talk to us."

"I'm leaving."

He then left, but I'm sure he will be back. We have great hope that God will have mercy on him and bring him to saving faith. Please pray for Art.

We had many other great conversations that day and hundreds of students saw the signs.
A couple different young guys made up their own signs to hold next to ours that had words of blasphemy on them. One was shaking in rage and could not stay very long when Josh began talking about Jesus. The other was very open to hear the gospel and it seemed as though his sign had been more of a plea for help than anything else.

Think of it, this was only one day of a handful of God's people obeying Jesus' last command. Think of the seeds that were planted and imagine how much God can use what was said and done out there! God can use you too. Please pray about it.

There is so much more to write about but that will have to come later...hopefully sooner than later. Be looking for a post about my brother's high school graduation!