by MIMADMIN | May 8, 2015 | Testimonies
Eddie Ramey and I were arriving at a Poker, Beer, Food and Cigar outreach event in Chandler, AZ., at which Eddie was the featured “Prophet from another country”, Colorado Springs, to speak to a bunch of young guys. I pulled into the adjacent church parking lot and was promptly greeted by a man picking up trash who did not seem to like others using his lot. He asked us what was going on so we told him that we were arriving at the car wash for an outreach event. He immediately wanted to know what organization we represented. I told him just a bunch of guys wanting to share the gospel. He wanted us to produce a brochure or something to prove that we were for real as he was dubious with our answer. It does seem a bit odd …. an outreach in a car wash. Eddie and I looked at each other and didn’t elaborate on the format! We told him that we like to get guys together and explain the gospel to the non-believers. He appeared very skeptical of laymen doing such things. The man identified himself as the pastor of the church and wanted to know the religion we represented. We told him we are just a bunch of bible-believing Christians. I asked him if he was one. He kinda stepped back at such a direct question and said he was. I asked if he believed in salvation by grace and grace alone. He said he did. We did not see the need to pull out the “Steps to Peace”. Maintaining a quizzical look the...
by MIMADMIN | May 8, 2015 | Testimonies
“When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.”(Luke 23:33) If you’re at all like me, you often find it difficult to come up with a good segue to introducing the gospel message to folks you come in contact with. But every year, as Good Friday rolls around, I get a little more courageous to speak to people about Jesus, because the name of the holiday is just what the doctor ordered. The beauty of the name is that if you examine the events of that day from an earthly perspective, you almost have to conclude that there appears to be nothing “good” about the day at all. After all, it’s the day Christians commemorate the torture and killing of an innocent man. We understand the other-worldly significance of the event, but the unbelieving world sees either a bloody, brutal murder scene, or, perhaps, a routine execution. Nothing jumps off the page as being worthy of the label, “good.” So after wishing your friends, colleagues and family members a “Happy Good Friday” (and having received a quizzical look in return), you can follow up with, “By the way, do you know why they call it ‘Good Friday’?” Note the blank stare. Your answer: “Because that’s the day that Jesus was hung on the cross and died.” Queue the blank stare again… Your follow up may go something like: “So what’s so good about that, you ask? Well, it’s because…” Thus begins your presentation of the good news of the Father’s love for...
by MIMADMIN | May 8, 2015 | Testimonies
And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. Revelation 4:8 Over the last six months the Lord has been pressing upon me the need to spend more time in prayer. At the same time, it seems as though the prayer requests coming from the group of guys in our accountability group have also been increasing. We are all dealing with issues affecting our marriages, kids, school, work (or lack thereof), health, and so forth. In addition, my wife is experiencing issues with her health, work has been incredibly busy and riddled with pressure. In essence, there is no shortage of reasons to go to the Lord in prayer. However, why would the Lord continue to impress upon me the need for more prayer? After all, I was already spending a considerable amount of time praying for most, if not all, of the needs I just mentioned. Recently, I was spending time with a friend discussing some challenges in his life. We ended up talking about our need to trust in God. However, we felt it was important to meditate on the God described in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. We encouraged one another by meditating on our magnificent, almighty, sovereign, powerful, all-knowing God. Then, it dawned on me, “…and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, Almighty, who was and who is and...
by MIMADMIN | May 8, 2015 | Testimonies
“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who has promised is faithful. ” Hebrews 10:23 I was fifteen years old when I went to spend two cold weeks in Lubbock, Texas with my dad. I had three weeks off for Christmas vacation and decided to make the trip from south Texas to help my dad at work. He drove a tandem truck over the winter months hauling cotton seed from the gin in Springlake to an enormous seed mill in Lubbock. Because most of the cotton had been picked by the end of December, the gin would continue to run 24 hours a day in an attempt to separate the cotton from the seed before the temperatures began to warm up. This meant my dad had to drive that truck around the clock in order to keep up with the gin. It did not take long for me to notice all of the hard work that went into loading, hauling and unloading that seed. The first day was still full of excitement, but that quickly wore off when we worked into the night, the temperatures dropped, and that freezing wind from the west picked up speed and pierced through every layer I had on at the time. That first night my dad asked me to hold onto a lever that latched the back chute of the truck. He had loaded the bulk cotton seed onto the truck (approximately 35K pounds), and that chute needed to be secured prior to unfolding the long, heavy tarp that would cover the seed. I clearly remember...
by MIMADMIN | May 8, 2015 | Testimonies
In my late teens and early twenties I remember praying often for God to help me with issues I was struggling with. I prayed year after year with no answer that I could see. I did not understand why God would not help me when I was constantly calling out for help. Much of the book of Judges is a story of Israel crying out to God for help after going astray. Each time God decides to help Israel the answer is the same….. He sends a person. Judges 3:9 “And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them….” Then it became clear to me, God works through people. God can send angels, or spirits, animals, or just wave His magic wand and make it happen but all throughout the Bible God’s primary chosen means for helping mankind is through a person. For many miserable years I cried out to God for help but would not let anyone help me. I now see that is like tying God’s hands behind His back. The more I allow people to help me, the more I allow God to help me, because that is primarily the way He works. The more I cling to self sufficiency, self reliance, and isolation by not allowing people to be involved in my life, the less help I will receive from God. On the flip side, I must also realize that part of God’s plan is to work through me to help others. Just as I must be proactive in allowing...
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