Winning the War

He was coming at me...with a sword, and not just any sword, but a sharpened, two edged sword. And, he was fast. But, no matter, I thought, because I'd studied Aikido, a Japanese martial art. I'd trained against attacks with (and without) weapons. I'd also studied western style fencing, and wrestling. I was well trained and agile with excellent balance. Although I had no weapons other than my hands, I was not afraid. In fact, I was even enjoying myself, and was proud of it. No matter which way my attacker sliced or stabbed at me, I just got out of the way. I could dodge the best offense he could muster: not a problem. I felt like I could go on like this for ever.

The problem was that my opponent was Jesus. And, even though it was like a game, after a time, I DID gradually begin to wear out. I was getting tired and slowing down. My opponent, however, was not slowing down or tiring out. I realized that regardless of how well trained I was, regardless of how fit I was or could have been, regardless of how clever I might be, Jesus was stronger, smarter and had greater endurance. God does not wear out. He doesn't need to sleep. He doesn't even get tired. So, how did I win?

Sometimes, if you lose one battle, it can cause you to win a war. And, if it does, isn't it worth it?

Additionally, over time, I figured out that Jesus wasn't trying to kill me. Yes, he was attacking me with a sword, but he kept going for my arms. He was trying to cut them off not because it would damage me, but to replace them. He wanted me to be able to use his arms and hands. The Bible says that we are to be Jesus' hands and feet and he wanted me to have hands and arms that would never wear out, that would never grow tired. If I could just give up my pride and stop trying to be clever; if I could just give in to Jesus and stop trying to be in control, then I could stop fighting with him as my opponent and start fighting with him as my strength and my deliverer. By using His body parts, I could run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. By giving up and letting Jesus win the battle, by letting Jesus have his way with my arms, I could just change sides! By surrendering to Jesus, we win in the end. After surrendering, I no longer had to fight alone, and with God on my side, I might not always FEEL like I could go on fighting forever, but it would still be true. And, it would be more true, in fact, than if I just FELT like I could go on forever. As Christians, we win in the end.

Why This Matters to YOU!

Are you fighting with Jesus, or against him? We are all engaged in a war. Are you sure you're on the right side? I had the above dream about 13 years ago, and I'm still finding ways to give up more of my life to him. And every time I do, my life gets better. What is there in your life that Jesus is trying replace with something better? All these years later, I've just recently started getting to the point where I can tell people about this dream. I had to give up a lot of my pride and fears. I had to keep letting Jesus give me more of himself so that I could learn to trust him enough to really tell people about him in a powerful way. What about you? What's your story? I'd like to hear it. Please leave a comment...whether you love or hate this post in terms of style or content, if you have questions or a link to your own blog with more details, it is all welcome. And, aside from how this post about my dream might affect you, is there someone else you could talk to about something supernatural in your life that might help them? I expect I'll post again on related topics, because they are important. Until then, keep thinking about these kinds of questions. Find ways to let Jesus win in your life. You'll be glad you did. Thanks.

I Said Something New

I said something new tonight. I often find myself saying the same things over and over again. Even though I like to think that what I tell people and what I ask people is spirit lead, people so often come up with the same comments, the same questions, week after week, my responses often end up being the same. But, tonight was different. I said something new, that I hadn't prepped for particularly and yet that I liked and I found effective. So, I thought I would share it with you here.

Someone new came by the street corner I usually go to in order to witness or do street preaching. We got to talking and when it seemed like we were running out of things to talk about regarding his questions or comments about the preaching, I told him something he wasn't expecting, but which made sense to him. People often say things like, "You can make the Bible say anything you want," but I don't believe that. Naturally, people can twist the scriptures; but we are all responsible for figuring out for ourselves what is true. None of us will be judged in the end based on what our pastors or other spiritual leaders believe. We are only going to be judged based on whether we did what we PERSONALLY knew to be right. I asked him if he reads the Bible on a regular basis. He said he does. I asked him how he reads it and I gave him some examples of different ways people might do that. He said he generally reads the things around what his pastor preached on the prior Sunday. So, I encouraged him to read the WHOLE Bible and ask himself two questions. First, what is the purpose of what he's reading? And second, what is he supposed to get out of what he's reading?

When we read the Bible, if we are to apply what we've read, we have to understand the context. One of the easiest ways to misinterpret the Bible is to pull something out of context. The thing that can be difficult is figuring out how NOT to pull things out of context! By that, I mean there are a lot of different ways to ask the two questions I posed to him. What's the purpose of the Bible as a whole? What's the purpose of the particular chapter I'm reading at any given time? What's the purpose of the book of the Bible that I happen to be reading? Those same variations on the question of the purpose of the material can be applied to "What am I supposed to get out of it?"

He had said that we were putting way too much emphasis on sin in our message. My response was, "If you haven't even read the whole Bible, how do you know what the proper emphasis should be?" More than 3/4 of the Bible is Old Testament, and yet more than a few people who call themselves Christians think it just doesn't even apply to them. All they pay attention to is the New Testament. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. God doesn't change, and many people still throw out the Old Testament all together. Rather than thinking that the purpose of the Bible (as a whole) is to just show us how overwhelmingly in love with us God is, I believe that the main purpose of the Bible is to show us how important it is that we stay as far away from sin as we can. The Bible tells us how really bad sin is and that it is a large part of God's love for us that he showed us a way back to him in spite of how really bad we've been by sinning. Then, also, it shows us that we don't need to keep on living that way any more.

There were numerous other things that we discussed, but the upshot of the whole conversation was that he really appreciated me and my friends and what we were doing and he said he would start reading the Bible differently now. He told me he'd start studying it more and really start thinking about the big picture rather than just thinking about the content of his pastor's sermons.

I've started praying differently lately, too. These are the common elements I've generally started asking for prior to going out to preach or witness to people. I ask that God send people with open hearts, ears and eyes to see, hear and understand the truth. I also ask that he give me the right words to say to people at the right times and in the right ways to the right people. I've been finding that he's answering those prayers. As I see that he answers my prayers, I believe I'm praying with more confidence. And, over time, I'm seeing him answer those kinds of prayers more and more. I find it overwhelmingly worth while and exciting to see people willing to reconsider their lives and their walk with Christ and the things they believe about God and the Bible. I see these things just about every week.

God's word does not return unto him void, but accomplishes that for which He intended it. Praise be to God and God bless all of you in your efforts to serve him!

Three Reasons to Change Your Screen Name on Twitter

I hope you find this post both humorous and helpful. Without more introduction, please enjoy my reasoning.

The first situation when you might want to change you screen name is if you were drunk or high when you picked your screen name and it has some really crude and offensive meaning when that's really just not your normal personality. I'm assuming that if you did this, then you don't have many followers yet. While it seems like there are people out there who manage to have large numbers of followers and are really crude and offensive, they have to be consistently that way. So, if your name isn't true to who you are, you should change it. And, if you don't have many followers anyway, it won't hurt much to do so.

Second, if the mafia is after you and you think that changing your screen name might make it harder for them to find you. Now, seriously, if someone is trying to hunt you down and take your life, you might want to just have your twitter account deleted all together and don't create another one. But, if you just can't get twitter out of your mind, at least don't use your real name or picture on your profile.

The third case is if you are into doing things that most people would think just mean you are completely crazy, like street preaching, and you want it to take a while for people to figure it out. I'm not suggesting that you need to hide your true nature from people. On the contrary, even if you are a street preacher, that's ok. I love street preaching and care a great deal for other street preachers. But, if you want people other than just your street preaching friends to read what you write, then you might want to pick a screen name that doesn't turn people off before they ever even read what you've written. Of course, if you start out using a screen name like @strt_evangelist (like I did), you aren't going reach a very large audience. Most people (even those who consider themselves Christians) don't like street preachers. At the same time, the goal is to get your message out to as many people as you can.  Therefore, if you can keep people reading long enough to get something out of what you've written, everyone will be better off.

Clearly, none of these will apply to the majority of people, but you can understand why someone in any of the above situations would want to change their screen name. Sometimes it is good to not have people recognize you, and sometimes it isn't. For example, if you have street preacher friends that don't know you REALLLY well, but you still want them to be able to figure out who you are, the whole name change thing will be a little risky. I have one friend on twitter who quit following me after I changed my name. When I asked him about it he said, "nothing personal, we follow those who post Christian, Bible & evangelism related tweets & love street preachers & evangelists."

I'm sure everyone understands that just changing your name doesn't suddenly change who it is that you care for or love. I fully expect everyone realizes that you can change your bio without changing the content of your tweets. Now, I've recently broadened the content of my tweets in order to (hopefully) attract a larger audience to reading Bible verses and evangelism related tweets. However, when you change your name, sometimes people just can't tell who you are any more and so you risk misunderstandings and some people will fall away.

Hopefully some readers will get something out of my experiences and can avoid losing friends they care about.  Now, it may be that the benefits outweigh the risks, but be careful and try to pick a good name early on in your twitter career so that you can minimize the damages a name change can cause.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your feedback!

@DaveDerPunkt

Why Evangelize?

It might seem obvious to you why people "evangelize," but I was surprised tonight to realize that I had forgotten. So, I thought I'd write about it a bit. You see, while I was out preaching tonight on a street corner in East Lansing, Michigan, someone asked me a question. That's not unusual. Every time I go out preaching people ask me questions. However, I don't know that anyone had ever asked me this particular question under quite these circumstances before. It surprised me; not so much the question itself, but their reaction and my reaction (internally) to their reaction. The question was if I had ever actually saved anyone (or something like that). That question and that subject have both come up before. But tonight, it really got me to thinking. I fired off a response quickly at the time as usual, but the more important thing was what came up after the guy left.

I've recently heard the name Simon Sinek in multiple contexts, once at work and once when I heard him interviewed on a podcast unrelated to my job. He recently published a book called, "Start with Why." Implicit in the title of his book is the idea that we need to keep in mind not just what our goals are, and not just the minutia of what it is we are actually doing at any given time, but also WHY we are doing the things we are doing. I love that idea, because our motivations really do have a huge impact on how we do things and on what directions we go with our lives.

That said, I'll now get back to this particular guy's question. By asking it, he was implying that he didn't think my methods were effective. And, he was implying that to be "effective", I should actually be getting people saved. It is funny, because I think we all can very easily slip into the idea that "getting people saved" is what evangelism is all about. My understanding of the word, though, is that "evangelism" is about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Are you asking, "What's the difference?" Well, in a perfect world, there wouldn't be a difference. In a perfect world, though, everyone would already be a Christ follower, so we wouldn't need evangelists! In my world, I generally have time to myself after my kids are in bed. But, I work a 9-5 job during the day and if I don't get a good night's rest, I don't perform too well at my job. So, I tend to not go out after my kids are in bed during the week. That leaves the weekend. Where am I going to find people to talk to on the weekend? Since I live next door to a secular college town, the drinking district has a lot of traffic. If I'm going to spread the Good News, I think I should do that where there are lots of people. Jesus said, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matt 9:12) I believe that since there are lots of people there who are sleeping around, doing drugs and drinking lots of alcohol, that's a great place to go since there are lots of people who need to hear about Jesus. Now, they generally don't like to hear what I have to say about Jesus, but that's not really the point. Lots of people didn't like to hear what Jesus had to say when he was here, either. I imagine that his "Repent or perish" message has never been particularly well received.

Mind you, I was involved in a Christmas production last month that saw hundreds upon hundreds of people make "first time decisions for Jesus Christ." But, while I was out street preaching, I don't think the young man who asked me if I've ever saved anyone was asking about that. My response to him was, "What difference does it make?" To him, it makes all the difference in the world. If I said to him, "Oh, I get people saved at a rate of several hundred a week," then I'm not sure how he would have reacted. Perhaps I could have gained his respect. Hopefully, by admitting that was not my response, I'm not losing your respect as a reader. However, is that why I'm writing this? Do I go out preaching on a street corner to gain the respect of man? Certainly not!

Why, then? I walk by faith. I know the voice of my Lord and I follow him. I see his work in my life and in the lives of those around me. I see the difference it makes to me and my walk when I go out to preach. I see the difference it makes in the minds of the people I talk to when they stop and have long conversations with me every week. Now, I know when I got saved that it wasn't because of a single conversation I had with any one individual. I know that the Lord was working with me on any number of different issues and questions I had over a period of many years. The Bible says, "One soweth, and another reapeth." (Jhn 4:37) If I'm to do unto others as I would have them do unto me, should I not be there for students when they have questions about Christianity? That's what I would have liked to have had when I was in college. Not that there weren't people around who would have liked to have the opportunity to answer my questions about Jesus when I was in college. But, the ones I asked (at that time), didn't have what I thought were good, well reasoned answers. Since then, I've researched those questions I had back then and found good, well reasoned answers. So, I believe I can now provide to others what was not available to me when I wanted it. Should I then be discouraged because I can't see the reaping being done? Should I stop sowing seeds and watering them just because I'm not blessed to be the one doing the harvesting? Heaven forbid!

He didn't stick around long enough to hear a response as long as what I've included here. But, two weeks in a row a member of the "Wicken religion" has come back and stayed to talk for well over an hour in the cold (it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit when we left tonight). He has also talked many times to my friends on campus when they've been there during the days. A Greek orthodox man came by again tonight who's been there before. He had many questions for us again as well. I've spoken to many Muslims, too, some of whom are there for the drinking others of whom have just gotten off at one of the three bus stops that are within a block of where I preach.

Years ago while I was reading the Bible, I came to Ez 3:17 (Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.) Up until that time, I had always thought that the term "Son of man" was used to refer to Christ. Then, that particular time, it was obvious to me that since it was a passage where the Lord was talking to Ezekiel and there was no reference to Christ, that could NOT be the only possible meaning to the phrase! What was I to do? It was as if the Lord had been talking directly to me. God is no respecter of persons and there is neither Jew nor Greek in the kingdom of God, so I couldn't claim that verse only applied to people preaching to natural Israel. That verse hit me like a freight train. I couldn't disobey my Lord and still call myself a Christian. So, I go out to warn a rebellious nation just like Ezekiel did. And, just like Ezekiel, they hate me for it. But, also like Ezekiel, I have received Ez 3:19 (Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.) That sounds to me a lot like I'm not responsible for getting results, just for delivering the warning.

As I said earlier, I hope I'm not causing any of you to think I'm no good as an evangelist by admitting that I've not yet personally led a single person in the prayer of salvation while out street preaching. I can see the seeds I plant growing, and I no longer feel guilty of not fulfilling my calling from Ez 3:17. And, I'm out to please God, not man. So, even if no man ever thinks of me as a "good" evangelist, I'm going to keep it up until God tells me to stop.

Can Street Preaching be a Picnic?

February 12th was a Saturday Night. And we, the street preachers, were live and in the open in East Lansing. It seemed that the hot chocolate was appreciated the prior week, so there was even more this time. When everyone saw how much there was, many jokes were made about us all being comfy while out spreading the Word. Once, it was even claimed it was like going out for a picnic. And actually, we did have a picnic! It was a rollicking good time for all...well, except for the sinners that were offended at hearing the word. What made it such a good time? There were several things. I think the most enjoyable aspect of preaching with others is the fellowship. We all are familiar with Prov 27:17 which states, "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." So it is when we go out preaching with each other. I learn something new every time I go out, and it is almost always from the people I'm preaching with. I think there are probably a lot of people out there who think that it wouldn't do any good for them to come out.  Some feel they don't know the scriptures well enough, or they don't have a gift for preaching. Really, though, if you just hold a sign, the Word of God is still going out and you don't have to say a word. If you are with other preachers, too, you learn pretty quickly the bulk of the things people say and how to respond. If more preachers came we could spread out more, and even more people could hear the Word of God each week. Every week, I can see hundreds of people walking by who are too far away to hear me even if I yell. This week, in particular, there were so many people gathered around wanting to talk to us, that we couldn't engage them one on one. That was true several times. If more people had been there, more questions could have been answered. I know I have written in the past about how many people curse us, but there are so many students who are hungry for the Word of God, even if only for a few moments while passing in the cold, that if we had more preachers out there, it would certainly make a greater impact on our audience.
As for the numbers of people who mocked and cursed us, it didn't seem like very many people were offended this week. I mean, there were some, of course, but I believe we were thanked for what we were doing and told how much people respected us than I've ever seen before. Being that it is getting warmer out, we were all more comfortable than in prior weeks, too. So, when midnight rolled around and there was a crowd of people wanting to talk, we all stayed a bit longer. Brad took off about 12:30 (one of Chris' friends), and Chris, Rich and I tried to leave as well. However, someone stopped and wanted to talk again while we were at the cars trying to get in one last cup of hot cocoa before going home. It was like a waiter had come to our picnic blanket offering us the desert menu! So, we just kept feasting on the Word of God. (I know, that's a strange mixing of metaphors, but it was a little strange at the time, too, so I figure it is OK to describe it that way.) That last person we talked to was convinced (and told us this several times) that he believed exactly the same things as us, except that he didn't believe Jesus is Lord... Before he left, he told us, though, that he might even come around to our way of thinking some day. The ray of hope he gave us was nice, but I bring it up more because that conversation was typical on so many levels of the types of conversations we have. So many people think they know about the Bible, and Christianity, and Jesus, and are shocked at the things we tell them. Besides the things the Bible teaches that aren't preached about at most churches, the last guy we talked to was surprised time and again at an even more basic level: that he had contradictions in his own beliefs! There is a lot that most college students don't know about Christianity, the Bible and even themselves, upon which we can educate them. And, when we do that, they often appreciate it and thank us. So many people are kind to us when we are out street preaching, that it is laughable when people tell us we are ONLY turning people away, or when they say we are doing everything wrong and ONLY getting people to hate us. Those people have clearly neither seriously looked at how evangelism was done in the Bible nor have ever spent any significant amounts of time with anyone doing street preaching the way we do it and are in serious need of education themselves.

So you see, there were many reasons for Feb 12th having been a great time for preaching: the fellowship (we had church right out in the open!), the relatively warm weather (it was 20 degrees warmer than one week earlier!), all the kind people we spoke with, and all the obvious good we were able to bring to the lives of the hearers.
May God use my experiences to bless you in your efforts to serve Him!

Sometimes Healing Takes a While

When I go out preaching, people always ask me, "Why should I believe the Bible? How do I know I can trust it?" I tell them that the type of miracles the Bible talks about still take place today. And, healing is one of the most common of these miracles. People often don't see the miracles, though, becuase they don't know the word of God well enough to know them when they see them.  Or, they don't have enough faith to persist in their belief until what they are seeing catches up with what they believe.  I received the following testimony through e-mail May 17th, 2011. I'm posting it because I think it is such a good example of how it can take a while for us to show God that we really do believe his promises. But, if we are faithful to him, we will see that he is also faithful to us. Praise be to God.

Hi everyone,

On May 5 my wife, Sandy, sent out a prayer request for me. Around Easter I had a slight gout attack in my left ankle that was more inconvenience than painful. After several days I had to meet with some clients to show a very remote 10 acre parcel of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I had taken my cane with me to help keep me stand up right on the property.  While I was locating and re-marking one of the property line stakes I slipped backwards and grabbed hold of a mountain laurel branch to steady myself. I believe at this time I must have pulled a muscle or a hamstring in the back side of my left knee. After 2 days I was unable to walk on it at all and found it extremely painful. It was at this time Sandy sent out the E-mail requesting prayer.
My son-in-law, Matthew Keller, had made up a very nice booklet called “Taking God's Word as Medicine”; His version of the Pink Cards from Faith Tech and I borrowed it from him. I began to read it. I read it before I would go to bed and after several nights I would wake up with some of the scriptures on my mind. My family and all of you had been praying and I knew that I needed to relax on God’s Promises and that I had an Army of God’s Saints doing battle with me and just needed to get to a place of faith that I could not think of anything else but that I was healed.
Another week went by with no let up on the pain but by then I began to relax more with God’s word washing me. I believe it was the middle of the week that I hopped into the shower and began to sing and praise God and thank him for my healing. After about 10 or 15 minutes I had a release in my spirit almost as if the wind had been knock out of me. I didn’t notice anything as far as healing in my natural body but I did feel it in my spirit. Immediately I got dressed and began to walk about the home without any crutches. I still had pain and it was difficult to walk but I knew that I needed to be responsible to God and act out my faith.

I did start to improve over the next few days, then on Sunday May 15 I got up out of bed and walked without any aid and my healing had caught up with my faith.

I truly want to thank all of you that keep me lifted up in your prayers.

Praise the Lord!

Bill Farr

Here are a few Scriptures that would come to mind at night:

Matt. 8:26: “ And Jesus said unto them, why are you fearful, O you of little faith?

Matt. 8:13: “And Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way, and as you have believed, so be it done unto you. And his servant was healed in the same hour.”

Matt. 8:16: “When evening was come, they brought unto Jesus many that were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and HEALED ALL THAT WERE SICK.”

Malachi 4:2: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.”

Praise report from Jan 24th

January 22nd was one of the nights this last winter when a friend, Chris Nada, and I were out preaching in East Lansing. We didn't stay long, because it was just too cold,
but it was good just the same. In the one hour we were out, we spoke
to easily 50-100 people. Several people thanked us for what we were
saying. There were, of course, those who mocked us, and those who
cursed us, which is standard. But, I count myself blessed to have been
counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. His yoke is easy and
His burden is light. God is so good to me, and I feel so appreciated
by Him for what I do when I go out and preach, that the mocking and
cursing is hardly any burden or suffering at all. It has gotten so it
really doesn't even bother me. One person tried to convince me that he
could really help me with my preaching and that my methods were all
wrong. After speaking to him at length, the only thing I could come up
with was: he didn't like to see a sign listing things people commonly
do today which God considers to be sin. He didn't like to have people
yelling the truth about sin in the open. Why not? Mostly, because he
said it wasn't "effective." I'm not writing about anything that is
uncommon for a night out street preaching. This comes up almost every (if
not every) time I go out street preaching. But, aside from the people
who are visibly changed by what they hear, aside from the people who
thank us, aside from the people that are obviously listening and being
affected by the preaching (or they wouldn't get upset about it), aside
from all that and aside from all the testimonies from others that I
have that street preaching DOES affect the hearers, I know it affects
ME to go out and do it. Even if NO ONE listened or cared, I know that
I was doing what God has been calling me to do. I know that I can
sleep at night, because I have not stood idly by watching people run
as fast as they could to get into hell. I know that God cares about
what I'm doing, and He appreciates it, and that's what matters. His
Word says so, and my life says so, too. And every time I go out and
preach, it all becomes clearer to me, too.

How can I but say the things I have seen and heard?
Who else has the words of eternal life? If we did not praise him, the
rocks themselves would cry out.

Our God is good, and He is Good: all the time!