Militant Evangelism! (17 page)

Moths should stay away from flames, so, without any hesitation, I chose
Punksville
. Punks are always a challenge. Temptation stays away when a woman has tattoos, "hate" written on her cheeks, black lipstick, weird clothes, filthy language, semi-shaven scalp, a rooster hairstyle, orange hair and pins through her nose.

Unfortunately, we got lost and ended up in the Dallas "cowboy" area. As we made our way towards some very loud music, the wind blew something into the pastor's eye, and it lodged under his contact lens. It was so
painful,
we decided to go back to his car so that he could take the contacts out.

As we turned around, another gust of wind blew the hat off a man who was walking towards us. He was accompanied by a very pretty woman in her mid-twenties. As Mike and the man ran after the hat,
the woman lunged at me and, to my unbelief, threw her arms around my neck and tried to force her lips onto mine.
I screamed and pried the woman's arms from around my neck. Then I handed her a penny with the Ten Commandments pressed into it, and told her what it was. Mike and I witnessed briefly to both the man and Potiphar's wife,
then
we went back to the car and prayed for them both. As we sat there, I felt I
should somehow try and reassure the pastor, so I said, "That's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me." He looked back at me mournfully and said (with tongue in cheek), "It's
never
happened to me!"

We didn't find any punks that night, but we had a good time witnessing to a group of about a dozen youths. We entered a mall and gave I.Q. tracts to two teenage boys. They did the tests, and couldn't believe they failed them. One ran off and returned with two friends so that they too could feel the humiliation of failure. When they blew it, I said, "You can't trust your eyes ... watch this," and did some sleight-of-hand, which sent the same youth off with eyes like saucers, to get some more of his friends.

Suddenly, we had about a dozen young men watching my every move
and listening to my every word.
Even the security guard watched intently. When I told the young men I was a Christian and warned them that they had to face God on Judgment Day, they stayed and listened. We witnessed to them for a few minutes, shook their hands and moved to another part of the mall.

Perhaps you are thinking that you could never do such a thing, yet all you need is a little love to motivate you, and a little knowledge to equip you. We have a package which has two of the most incredible sleight-of-hand
tricks, that
will astound
the person you are witnessing to. It is called "Getting the Ear lobe Using Sleight-of-hand." Write to us for details. Anyone with half a brain and two hands can do these tricks, and it has so much potential evangelically, because it will make your listeners respect you, and therefore listen to what you have to say.

Despite the loose woman, the lack of punks and the security guards who told me I needed a permit to do any more tricks, or to even hand out tracts, we had a good time. That night as I lay my head on my pillow, I smiled a lot, thanked God that I broke out of my comfort zone, and prayed for those who we had been privileged to witness to.

The Good Wine

One of the most fearful instances of a soldier giving his life for the
cause,
is Stephen. The Bible tells us that he was full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

He was respected in his office as a minister of the Gospel of Salvation, was wise, had a good reputation, and could have therefore lived a comfortable and abundant life as a Christian, enjoying the comforts of a happy family life. But he didn't. Stephen loved God, he loved truth and he loved sinners enough to preach the truth to them.

We pick up the story in Acts Chapter 6 when the twelve disciples decided that they didn't want to neglect prayer and the Word of God to serve tables, so they found seven men to do the job, one of whom was Stephen. The Scriptures tell us "the number of the disciples multiplied greatly," because men like Stephen didn't confine their ministry to serving tables. They had their priorities sorted out, preached the Gospel, and God confirmed His Word with signs following (verse 8).

However, this didn't please
supercreep
. Whenever a servant of God serves the truth in the court of the world, the devil is going to return the serve with a vengeance. When professing godly Jews couldn't resist the wisdom by which Stephen spoke, the father of lies provided some more of his children to distort his words, and say that he was speaking blasphemy.

Suddenly, Stephen found himself standing before the council and his slanderous accusers. All it took was, "Are these things so?" to push Stephen's evangelical button. Beginning at Abraham, he recounted the history of Israel, saying nothing offensive to them until verse 51. He saved the good wine until last. His sermon ended with a number of relevant points for his congregation to consider, and it turned out to be a farewell sermon to those who would promote him to Headquarters:

1.    His hearers were stubborn

2.    They were unholy

3.    They were spiritually deaf

4.    They and their father's resisted the Holy Spirit

5.    They were the sons of murderers

6.    They were betrayers and murderers of "the Just One."

Stephen disqualified himself from the "Popular Preacher of the Year" award. Then from his breast, he produced what Charles Spurgeon called his "ablest auxiliary." This was his greatest weapon— the Law of God.

The Jews were proud of the thought that they had kept the Law, and by saying they had broken it, Stephen touched the apple of their evil eye. He climaxed his sermon by saying that they "have received the Law by the direction of angels and have not kept it" (verse 53). He pointed to the Divine Plumb line to show his hearers how crooked they were. This made them foam at the mouth like mad dogs. They were cut to the heart, then "gnashed at him with their teeth."

Their reaction didn't seem to worry Stephen too much. He was so full of the Holy Spirit, he was gazing at a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56).

Another puissant poke in the apple of their widened eyes.
They cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, ran at him with one accord and dashed his body with great stones until he breathed his last breath of this contemptible world's air.

Stephen's sermon was a little different from that of the modern preacher. He failed to mention "Christ crucified," or of the fact that God loved them. He didn't even mention Grace. He didn't give that which is holy to the dogs. Neither did he woo his hearers with soft words, low lights and soul-stirring music. If he had, he wouldn't have offended a soul, and could have remained in his comfort zone. Devil, demon, Jew and Gentile would have smiled. Stephen's "decisions" were non-existent. By modern standards, he had failed to reap any souls. The only decision made by his listeners, was a unified decision to spill the preacher's blood.

Stephen's boldness so stirred one hearer that he reinforced a resolve that would change the course of the Christian history. Saul of Tarsus was so disgusted by what he saw and
heard,
he decided he would wipe the Church off the face of the earth.

Stephen's precious blood was the first to be shed as ground work for the Church that would follow. He knew from experience the truth of the hymn-writer that would be penned many centuries later, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my all."

Evangelical Utopia

Every time you open your mouth for God, you are on the front lines of battle, involved in combat for the sake of the Kingdom. I was once sitting on a plane, relaxing and enjoying the flight. There were only a few people on board, so I had plenty of room to spread out and do some writing. I had good food, cool water, a pillow, and a tray for my computer.
Happiness.
It was a relief when no one sat next to me, so instead of getting into the "battle of the fear of man," I could relax in comfort.

After about three hours, I went for a walk to the restroom, and on the way back to my seat, I passed a man in his late twenties who looked a little bored, so I gave him an I.Q. tract. When he failed two different tracts, I sat down next to him and told him that we fail because our eyes are easily fooled. Then I did a sleight-of-hand trick that widened his eyes. He did the spiritual I.Q. test on side two of the tract, and proved to be very open to the things of God, so I spent about twenty minutes witnessing to him. Then I prayed with him, that his conscience would remind him of his past sins, that he would see the seriousness of his
transgression, that
the Lord would grant him light until he came to a point of peace with God. I also prayed that God would bless him and his family and keep them in health. We parted with a handshake, and his other hand filled with literature.

To break out of the warmth of your barracks means to risk the ice-cold air of rejection, resentment and even hatred. But when you leave a warm room to venture into the cold, how nice and
cozy
the room seems when you get back. When I sat back down in my seat, I had the heart-warming knowledge that I had pleased God and done what I should as a Christian. If you have a good day for the Lord by being a true and faithful witness, when you go to bed at night, you will glow, knowing that this was a day of victory for you and defeat for the devil, because you broke free from the shackles of the fear of man.

The Stubborn King

Think of how many times Jeremiah warned King Zedekiah about the coming judgment of God upon Israel. The King was party to personal warnings, as well as public. I have never taken the time to count, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was warned over a dozen times. The batteries were removed from the smoke detector of the king's conscience, and one day, he was trapped by the fire.

Look at what happened when judgment came:

"Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in
Riblah
... moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house with fire and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 39:6-8).

I wonder what the king thought about as he stumbled in the blackness, bound with chains. Perhaps his thoughts were of the last thing he saw— the unspeakable agony of seeing his own beloved sons butchered before his eyes. Perhaps the words of Jeremiah flashed before his tormented mind, warning him that all Israel (including his sons) could be saved if he obeyed the voice of the Lord. We can't begin to imagine the remorse.

How this typifies the ungodly
who
have been bound by the bronze fetters of sin, "taken captive by the devil to do his will." We warn them that there is Judgment coming (both temporal and eternal) to those who live for the devil, but most remain in unbelief. Their master is he who came to "kill, steal and destroy." He blinds the "minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them." Like Zedekiah's sons, so many see their own sons and daughters die before their very eyes. AIDS, and other sin-related diseases, as well as alcohol drugs and suicide, kill many before their time. Multitudes give themselves to the burning fires of sexual lust, and so the devil breaks down the walls of a whole nation.

Yet, there is still time to warn many, praying that God will open their understanding. God told Jeremiah to tell an Ethiopian called
Ebed-
Melech
, that
God would deliver him from judgment. He said,