EXCITING IN WESTERN OKLAHOMA

We've been here for about three weeks now and are enjoying our stay. The people are friendly and the hotel is nice. I'm working nights, and we're still getting used to the new schedule.

Stephanie really has a calling to work in hospice care. Holding the hands of and showing compassion to those who are dying, and to their families. It isn't always easy for her to get involved because the red tape can be time consuming. By the time she is ready to go, we're moving to another site in another state.

But here, she has been accepted as a volunteer Chaplain in hospice. She is on what they call "Death Watch", to be on call when someone is very close to passing. God has definitely given her a unique gift.

Next week, Stephanie will be flying to Las Vegas to see her youngest son. She is really looking forward to it.

We went to Walmart today to get some carry-on luggage for her. When we pulled up to park, we noticed a man pacing close to a broken down car. I thought it would be good to try and help him and maybe get an opportunity to witness to him about Jesus.

We asked if he could use some help. He asked if we had a cell phone he could borrow. He proceeded to make some phone calls.

I told Stephanie she could go into the store and I would meet up with her.

The man was in a difficult situation. He had just bought the car the night before, and it had broken down. He had to sleep in the car all night to protect his belongings. He doesn't have a job, and he's lonely.

I asked him if he knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

He said he did, and funny that I had just stopped by, because he was just talking to God about what he was going through. I suspect he was a little angry with God and didn't understand why these things were happening to him. He said he was on the verge of relapse.

I encouraged him. The Lord was never going to leave him, or leave him in the losing position. God was with him, His thoughts were toward him, and He had something in store for him.
I said as hard as it was, it was important to stand firm and not relapse, to wait on God and give God thanks in this difficult situation, and God was going to show up. We prayed and he gave me a hug. He was encouraged.

When Stephanie and I came out of Walmart, he was working on his car, and we noticed, he had a smile on his face.

Search and Rescue. It's exciting.

Applebees

We stopped in to Applebees the other night for dinner and met a nice waiter named Kevin. When our food showed up, Stephanie told him we were about to pray for our food and asked him if he had anything he wanted us to pray about.

He had had a kidney transplant 2 years ago and was wanting prayer for continued healing.

I asked if he knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He did.

Pray for Kevin, for continued health.

August in Ashtabula

In August Stephanie and I had the privilege of going to North Dakota. I worked in Ashtabula and we stayed in Jamestown.

Jamestown is home to a buffalo refuge and we saw some beautiful white buffalo. Stephanie loves wildlife.

While staying in one of the hotels, my wife met one of the maids and talked to her about the Lord. Like many people, she thought everything between her and the man upstairs was fine.

Pray that God would open her eyes that it is important for all of us to be sure that we are fine with the One with whom we must give an account.

Ephesians 2:17

Recently, my wife Stephanie and I were able to go to Colorado to visit family for the weekend. It was a great time to visit with some of our children and also our 10 grandchildren, three of whom are newborn triplet girls who are here as a result of a miracle of God.

While there, Stephanie had a chance to talk to a young family member about God. She, as a child, has been introduced to spiritism through television and friends. Stephanie had the opportunity to talk to her about the reality of spiritism, and the dangers of it. The young girl re-dedicated her life to Christ, but still doesn't fully understand the danger. Please pray for her that God would help her understand, and that He would also protect her, and strengthen her to stay away from this kind of thing.

I also met a couple of guys on the streets. The first one is named Todd.

Todd was born in Florida in the '40's. His father left his mother when he was only 6 months old.
His stepfather was extremely abusive. Todd's dreams when he was a child was to be either a marine biologist or a hockey player. He left home at 17.

He went through a failed marriage and has 1 son and 1 daughter.

Todd has been on the streets off and on for the past 10 years, and has a problem with alchohol.
He gave his life to Christ this last summer, but the baggage from his past is still there. It takes time to grow. He is also grieving over the loss of a girlfriend to suicide last summer.

Pray that God would help Todd to discover his new identity in Christ and deliver him from the bondage of alchohol and the bondage of the past.

I'm confident that the Lord has a bright future for this man.

The second man I met was Robbie.

Robbie is a Gulf War Veteran. He has an apartment, but is one step away from the streets. He is mad at God because he also lost a girlfriend to suicide recently.

He has never given his life to Christ. I explained to him the "Ticket to Heaven" at the bottom of the blog. He understood what he must do, but is not willing to do it at this time. He's mad at God.

Please pray for him that God would continue to extend grace and mercy to Robbie, and that Robbie would not wait too long to respond.

Tradition vs. Truth

My wife and I have been in northeastern Kansas for the last 3 weeks and are really enjoying it.

Last week I got into a conversation with a man from Houston, Texas. He is hispanic and has a very close family. Whenever he is home, they always make sure to attend church together.

Religious tradition for him has never brought him peace. The peace that we can know by being confident that God is not angry with us. How many there are that spend their whole lives trying to appease God, and are never confident that they have done so.

Concerning the Law, I explained that obedience to the Law was never intended to make God happy with us. The Law is holy, righteous and good, but it was intended to lead us to the cross of Christ. The Law is a mirror that shows us what and who we are, and that we need help.

In order to be accepted by God, we have to be just as perfect as He is. And we're not. We can see that. From as far back as we can remember in our lives, we can see where we have fallen short. And to strive for that perfection now, still leaves our past to be dealt with, because God has always been perfect. He never grew into what and who He is, He has always been the same: perfect.

Hopefully, the Law will take us to Jesus. He is perfect and at the cross dealt with our imperfection. He paid the penalty for that and offers to cloth us in His perfection. Whoever doesn't trust in his own work to appease God and instead trusts God who justifies us through what Jesus did at the cross will find the peace they have been looking for: that God will no longer be angry with us.

Religious tradition teaches us that we must do something to appease God. God tells us that He has done for us what we cannot do. To have peace with God is accomplished through the cross, not our own efforts.

The man I talked to will have to grapple with these two things: what he has learned from tradition, and what God says. I pray that he will clearly see the difference and choose the truth.

Jimmy was collecting cans to supplement his and his wife's income. We talked for awhile and I was able to get some of his story.

Jimmy is 67 years old. He was born in rural Kansas in 1944 and had 2 sisters and 1 brother. He has always worked outdoors in the harvest fields and retired after 30 years working as a cemetary caretaker.

He has 2 sons and 2 daughters. 1 son was put up for adoption when he was a baby, 1 daughter is estranged from him, and 1 son and grandson are close to him.

He grew up in the Methodist church and at some point in his past he accepted Jesus as his Lord and the One who saves him from God's judgement.

His thinking is that he will hopefully be allowed into heaven. He says he won't know until he gets there, but that generally he's been a good person.

I explained to him that as one who has received Jesus as the One who rescues him from judgement, that he doesn't have to hope for the best. Since Jesus is his Savior, his sins have been paid for and God is keeping no record of wrongs on him.

For whatever reason, he wasn't able to grasp this, although I explained it several times.

We prayed together. We prayed that God would heal his relationship with his daughter, reconcile him to his son, and that God would give him clarity of mind to understand that heaven has been given to him as a free gift because he asked Jesus to save him from judgement.

In the summer of 2010 I met a man from India who was Hindu. He had come into the park I was at to meet someone and we started up a conversation.

Part way through the conversation, I asked Robert what he thought about Jesus.

Robert's belief was that everyone has a myriad of gods to choose from and it doesn't really matter which one, as long as you like him, or her. "Live and let live," he said.

I told him that the Scripture teaches that God had at one time overlooked such ignorance, or lack of knowledge, but now that He has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, He no longer does so.

We had quite a discussion, but He was unwilling to accept that there could only be one God, and only one way.

He got a little agitated with me and finally left the park.

I wonder what happened to his friend?

In June of 2010 I was sitting in a park in Colorado hoping for someone to talk to about the Lord. I was talking to one gentleman about this and that, when a man built like a tank, and a little under the influence of something, stopped by to ask for a dollar. I told him I didn't have one.

He asked me what I liked to do. I told him I liked to talk to people about Jesus.

He threw his duffle bag down and sat down next to me, shoulder to shoulder, and told me that I was going to tell him about Jesus.

The man I was talking to previously decided to get up and leave.

I wished I could.

The aggression was thick, and I prayed that God would deliver me from being pummeled into the ground and being sent to the hospital.

The man next to me asked me who I thought was the strongest man in the Bible. Was it Samson, David, or who.

I told him that it was Jesus.

He asked why.

I said that Jesus took the burden of sin and guilt for the whole world and carried it to the cross. No other person could do that.

We sat there for a few moments, and then I told him that Jesus loved him and cared about what he was going through.

He looked at me and the aggression was gone. He asked me if everthing was okay, and I said yes.

He then got up and walked away.

My prayer is that the Lord will reach this man and give him hope.

Procrastination

It's time for me to get off the bench and finally get this blog going. So I'm going to share an account with you that happened 4 years ago at Acacia Park in downtown Colorado Springs. This is the first experience for me with Search and Rescue. Remember, the good Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes off to find the sheep that has strayed. Since our good Shepherd is at the right hand of the Father, and we are His body, we are the ones who go.

I went out one rainy evening to do some witnessing in the park. I was eager to share the gospel with someone, and asked the Lord for direction.

There were very few people at the park that night, and as I looked around, I saw a man sitting on a bench. He looked very grundgy, unshaven, unkempt, like 20 years on the streets.

The Holy Spirit impressed on me to go and talk to this man. I thought there must have been a miscommunication. I was looking for someone more cultured I guess. So I looked around some more.

The same impression happened 2 more times. In the account of the book of Acts when the Lord is instructing Peter to go to Cornelius's house (a Gentile), the Lord tells Peter (in the amplified version) not to hesitate or discriminate.

So I went to the bench where this man was sitting, and sat down. I asked him how he was doing.
After a few minutes, I decided to try and share the gospel with him.

What I found out was that he had given his life to the Lord many years before, but around 20 years prior to this time, he made some bad decisions (sinned), and believed the Lord wanted nothing more to do with him. He spent the next 20 years trying to drown out the torment with alchohol. Tonight, he was done. He had decided that tonight he would "eat bricks," slang for suicide, jumping off of a building.

I talked to him for a couple of hours, reminding him of God's promises made to him at the moment he believed in Jesus as his Lord and Savior:

God would never leave him or forsake him.
God would be with him always, even to the end of the age.
God was the Author AND the finisher of his faith.
The good work God began in him, He would carry on to completion until the day of Christ.
And many more promises.

He asked me to pray with him. I expected to have to lead him in prayer, and was prepared to do so.

But he didn't need that. We got down on our knees (at his insistence) in the middle of the park,
and he cried out in tears and repentance to the Lord.

2 weeks later I was a place downtown and saw a man who looked vaguely familiar. I thought, "Could it be?" I walked up to this man and asked if he was the one I talked to 2 weeks ago.

It was him. Clean shaven. A hair cut. Clean clothes. A radiant face. He had re-dedicated his life to the Lord and after 20 years had quit drinking, on his own.

He left the streets.

1 year later I saw him again. He had a short (2 or 3 day) relapse. We talked and I encouraged him again with God's Word. I haven't seen him since. But I know I will see him again.

I went to the park to witness, but unknowingly had gone there to do Search and Rescue. God rescued our brother in Christ from total despair.

I didn't share this man's name, although God knows him, and I'll never forget his name.