interesting night
so this was an interesting night i'd like to remember for a while! praise Jesus!
so i went to rus and melanie's wedding which was awesome, and then went to the reception which was downtown. the food was amazing and the band was real awesome too. so then me and tay leave and i'm just driving around downtown and somehow find myself at lynn park, and i see a big van with something like "pratville full gospel church" written on the side. so i'm like full gospel yeaaaah!!! so i'm thinkin, sure, lets hit up the park! so i'm just like "Jesus, if you've got somethin for me to do tonight, gimme a parking space" (all of the spots had been full up to that point, something was going on at boutwell). and immediately to the right i saw a spot. so i took it! and prayed in the car for a sec, then set out on spirit mission! i get to the van and start talkin to these three little ladies who were giving out food, and they were fire balls, just like pumped about Jesus and serving and they had awesome hearts and i was gonna pray with them but this other lady walks up, homeless, alcohol smell, and she asks them for water. all they had was cokes, and she was fine with that so they gave her one
she's obviously upset, or troubled. so i start trying to talk to her, evangelize/witness whatever the Lord will give me. i find out she's definitely saved and loves Jesus, but just very discouraged and obviously away from God. after much encouraging/prayer, she was definitely excited and happy, and thankful. so i walk with her back to the park and sit down with her for a minute, only to meet another dude, Jersey. after an awkward conversation start, I just threw out the offhand remark "yep, the world's a crazy place"....and that spurred him on to an extremely intense convo. he told me he only had a 3rd grade education, but he was obviously very intelligent, and had somehow learned alot outside of school. anyway, i found out he's a Muslim and a zealous one at that. and had a very confrontational spirit. he said like "if i were to pull a gun out and stick it in your face, would you be scared?" and i, being honest, said "yes, of course." he tried to use that confession to prove that i wasn't strong in my faith, while i interpreted it as simply a fleshy reaction. however, he did not agree at all with the hate aspect of the extremists like Sadaam, Bin laden, or other more notorious Muslims, which was a bit reassuring after the gun comment! he had some weird beliefs too....just weird stuff. he was drinking a beer, and put it down on the table and pointed at it, and shouted, "that's Satan! am i right?" basically he was saying that beer was sinful or whatever. i said/thought some of this, " yeah whatever, that doesn't really matter, you need to know Jesus" something along those lines. and he was just like "well i drink, cuz i can, cuz i can control Satan by the strength of my will" or something like that. And i knew for sure right then that the deceiver truly had put deception in his heart. but anyways i was just praying the whole time, honestly mainly for protection, cuz he seemed a bit intense, but i really think he probably was just an intense guy, not dangerous. ha, i held my ground really well though, you can't let people intimidate you cuz then you just lose the whole battle. so as weak in the flesh as i was, i was bold in Christ!!! amen!! so anyway, the conversation itself seemed to bear little fruit, as his beliefs are obviously very solid, and the only things he wanted to discuss were the outward things, like how noah's ark and the great flood really happened, how evolution happened, how dinosaurs happened, and stuff like that, while ignoring the inward things of the Spirit. however, i prrrrrrayyy that my contact with him was to beneficial to getting some seed growing in him, and to get me to pray for him. the Lord needs to break that confrontational spirit, soften his heart, plant the life and spirit of His Word inside of him, rather than just the knowledge of the words themselves, and bring about His salvation! !!!! Jesus!!! we need you!!! so anyway, i just wanted to record that. cuz it was definitely the most intense/unique evangelism experience i've had so far. first muslim encounter!! i need to learn how to better reach them, cuz i was just kinda lost on this guy. it was hard. prayer is all that really matters though, and i believe it cuz God is big and strong! and big enough to do anything i think He can!!!
so the sad part of the night is when i left the lady on a bench by herself. i really didn't know what to do. like i mean i know i can't bring her home with me. though i wanted to. but she was just all by herself downtown. really scary. i told her she had to find some friends to hang out with tomorrow. and she said she would. amen and amen.
so thank you Jesus! for using me! for keeping me safe! and for ministering to your loved ones! i trust you!!!! amen!
so i went to rus and melanie's wedding which was awesome, and then went to the reception which was downtown. the food was amazing and the band was real awesome too. so then me and tay leave and i'm just driving around downtown and somehow find myself at lynn park, and i see a big van with something like "pratville full gospel church" written on the side. so i'm like full gospel yeaaaah!!! so i'm thinkin, sure, lets hit up the park! so i'm just like "Jesus, if you've got somethin for me to do tonight, gimme a parking space" (all of the spots had been full up to that point, something was going on at boutwell). and immediately to the right i saw a spot. so i took it! and prayed in the car for a sec, then set out on spirit mission! i get to the van and start talkin to these three little ladies who were giving out food, and they were fire balls, just like pumped about Jesus and serving and they had awesome hearts and i was gonna pray with them but this other lady walks up, homeless, alcohol smell, and she asks them for water. all they had was cokes, and she was fine with that so they gave her one
she's obviously upset, or troubled. so i start trying to talk to her, evangelize/witness whatever the Lord will give me. i find out she's definitely saved and loves Jesus, but just very discouraged and obviously away from God. after much encouraging/prayer, she was definitely excited and happy, and thankful. so i walk with her back to the park and sit down with her for a minute, only to meet another dude, Jersey. after an awkward conversation start, I just threw out the offhand remark "yep, the world's a crazy place"....and that spurred him on to an extremely intense convo. he told me he only had a 3rd grade education, but he was obviously very intelligent, and had somehow learned alot outside of school. anyway, i found out he's a Muslim and a zealous one at that. and had a very confrontational spirit. he said like "if i were to pull a gun out and stick it in your face, would you be scared?" and i, being honest, said "yes, of course." he tried to use that confession to prove that i wasn't strong in my faith, while i interpreted it as simply a fleshy reaction. however, he did not agree at all with the hate aspect of the extremists like Sadaam, Bin laden, or other more notorious Muslims, which was a bit reassuring after the gun comment! he had some weird beliefs too....just weird stuff. he was drinking a beer, and put it down on the table and pointed at it, and shouted, "that's Satan! am i right?" basically he was saying that beer was sinful or whatever. i said/thought some of this, " yeah whatever, that doesn't really matter, you need to know Jesus" something along those lines. and he was just like "well i drink, cuz i can, cuz i can control Satan by the strength of my will" or something like that. And i knew for sure right then that the deceiver truly had put deception in his heart. but anyways i was just praying the whole time, honestly mainly for protection, cuz he seemed a bit intense, but i really think he probably was just an intense guy, not dangerous. ha, i held my ground really well though, you can't let people intimidate you cuz then you just lose the whole battle. so as weak in the flesh as i was, i was bold in Christ!!! amen!! so anyway, the conversation itself seemed to bear little fruit, as his beliefs are obviously very solid, and the only things he wanted to discuss were the outward things, like how noah's ark and the great flood really happened, how evolution happened, how dinosaurs happened, and stuff like that, while ignoring the inward things of the Spirit. however, i prrrrrrayyy that my contact with him was to beneficial to getting some seed growing in him, and to get me to pray for him. the Lord needs to break that confrontational spirit, soften his heart, plant the life and spirit of His Word inside of him, rather than just the knowledge of the words themselves, and bring about His salvation! !!!! Jesus!!! we need you!!! so anyway, i just wanted to record that. cuz it was definitely the most intense/unique evangelism experience i've had so far. first muslim encounter!! i need to learn how to better reach them, cuz i was just kinda lost on this guy. it was hard. prayer is all that really matters though, and i believe it cuz God is big and strong! and big enough to do anything i think He can!!!
so the sad part of the night is when i left the lady on a bench by herself. i really didn't know what to do. like i mean i know i can't bring her home with me. though i wanted to. but she was just all by herself downtown. really scary. i told her she had to find some friends to hang out with tomorrow. and she said she would. amen and amen.
so thank you Jesus! for using me! for keeping me safe! and for ministering to your loved ones! i trust you!!!! amen!