Had a bit of a scare today…I thought my dog was dead.  I came upon her totally motionless, eyes open, tongue hanging out, and totally unresponsive to me repeatedly calling her name. I really thought she was dead, so I hollered for my husband and turned away thinking the worst. Turns out she was just ignoring me and was perfectly fine. Emilio reminded me that “she never moves; she’s half dog, half statue”.  In my defense, she has been sick lately, and we all know that death can seize us at any moment. Thank God that wasn’t the case today. Turns out, the only thing dead today was my discernment. ;-)

Lilly playing possum

Emilio was out with our evangelism team open-air preaching yesterday at UNT, with the crowd in full force. When Emilio arrived some in the crowd started chanting, "Here's the king! Crucify him!"

The Biggest Question has gone out at that exact location to a lot of those students. Pray for them.

The Crumbling Of A Grumbling Spirit

The other night a sister came up to me after a prayer meeting, and while we were fellowshipping somehow we got on the topic of grumbling and complaining. It probably had something to do with her entire house being flooded the other day and how people were surprised that she was not grumbling about it. This topic lead us to Psalm 106:25-26, which talks abut Israel grumbling and how it led God to cast them down into the wilderness. Scary. 

Our culture sets us up to complain in various forms such as, wanting our feedback for services or giving our complaints online. There are comment cards at restaurants and in doctor’s offices. We feel as if we are entitled to give our feedback, especially if we don’t like a particular item, product or service. Imagine, the next time you complain about something, if it were stripped away like Israel.

Sometimes after my husband eats he sneezes about 10 times. This used to drive me batty, but then I started having health issues and thought I was going to die, and the reality of losing him and everything around me made me very aware of the little hidden sins of grumbling.

My encouragement and challenge to anyone reading this is to try to be fully aware of the negative comments and the grumbling that may pour out of your mouth, and then to think about this verse…“Do everything without grumbling and complaining” (Phillippians 2:14.)

Look at the word “everything.” Wow. This is convicting. "Everything” means everything. :-)

Fishing With Trish...

A group of us went to The University of North Texas yesterday for the first time since students left for Christmas break. It was so good to be back on campus, and I think even our regular hecklers missed us just a little bit. One such student is named Zach and he was there (again) listening to Emilio open-air preach. I talked to him (again) about the gospel and asked him, "Do you know what the first clothes recorded in human history were?" He said he wasn't sure, but then said, "Leaves, right?"

"Yes, leaves. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and their eyes were opened to their nakedness and they tried to cover themselves with leaves because of shame."

"But it wasn't sufficient," I continued.  "Do you know what the first bloodshed was?" He guessed it was when Cain killed Abel. 

"Wrong, but do you know why Cain killed Abel?" He said he didn't really know the story. 

"Because of pride. Cain's grain offering was rejected by God while Abel's blood offering was accepted. They were both giving offerings to God because they sinned. The problem was that Cain's offering was works-based and not what God demanded. Abel was patterning his blood offering from what he had learned from his parents, Adam and Eve.  And where did his parents learn it from?" I asked him.

"They must have learned it from God, right?" he said (uncertain if he was right). 

"That's right. Adam and Eve's efforts to clothe themselves were not sufficient, so God was the first one to shed blood when he killed an animal to cover them rightly. Blood had to be shed. Which was then pointing to a greater reality approximately 4000 years later when He would kill his own son, Jesus Christ the perfect Lamb of God, to cover our sins."

I was seeing a different Zach at this point. His countenance was changing. 

As I was walking away I said, "By the way, did you know that Jesus said he was 'the door'?"

Zach responded by saying, “No. I didn’t know that.”

How many doors were on Noah's ark?" I asked him.

"One," he said.  "Exactly. Meaning Jesus is the only way" I said.

I could see the wheels turning in his head as his eyes got very large and he nodded his head as if to say that he understood. 

I've noticed that happen with other people too after using these bible accounts while witnessing, and so have others from our evangelism team. One of our team members was sharing the Gospel at UNT yesterday for a long time with a girl named Kami, who was all over the place in her beliefs. She believes that God is the same in all religions and that no one can know where they're going for certain when they die. She said she goes to church only at Christmas because she loves the holidays and doesn't think the Old Testament has any value so she doesn't read it. 

At the end of their conversation my friend gave her the same Adam and Eve account I gave Zach and her countenance changed too. My friend told me later, "The change was so obvious that I was a little shocked; but I don't know why, after all God's word is sharper than any two-edged sword!" 

I've found that asking questions really makes people think and be engaged. Asking questions forces them to listen, which is exactly what we want. Appreciate your prayers for Zach and Kami. :-)

Fishing With Trish...

An older couple sat down at the table next to my friend and me while we were in the food court of the mall. I gave them a gospel tract, and my friend asked them where they went to church. “Nowhere,” the older lady said somewhat defiantly. “My step-father was a Christian minister, and some bad things happened when I was growing up, so I just left that all behind.” 

My friend wasn’t deterred and said, “Do you believe in heaven and hell?”

She said she believed in heaven, and that hell is here on earth.

“What about Hitler, where did he go?” my friend asked. She said, “He’s in one of the different levels of heaven working things out.”

“You know the ultimate statistic is that 10 out of 10 people die,” my friend said. The lady laughed in agreement. “And then you’ll have to stand before God. Do you consider yourself to be a good person?”

“No, I’m not a good person,” she said. What a surprise response; most people proclaim their own goodness.

My friend then proceeded to take her through the Law and the Gospel. She listened to everything intently, never once objecting.

Then I gave her The Biggest Question DVD. My friend asked her if she would watch it and then email her thoughts to her, good or bad. She said that she would, but people tell us that a lot and we don’t hear from them.

Not this time though. Two days later, my friend got this email:

Hello,

Remember the two ole folks you talked to at the mall on ? ( I can't remember what day it was LOL. ) Any how, I'm emailing you, as promised, to give you my opinion about what I think was the message in your DVD.

It's really everything I was taught, and learned when I was activaly going to Church.

It was a very well thought out, and presented point of view.

Thank you for sharing.

Dr. Sharon ******, Ph.D

My friend replied with:

Hi Sharon,

Yes, I definitely remember you and your husband.

Thank you for emailing me your thoughts on the video like you said you would.

You are true to your word, just like God is. 

My prayer is that you will consider the things you were taught once again. I don't know what bad experiences you had in the church, but hope you won't "throw the baby out with the bathwater" as they say. 

Best wishes,

Kristen

www.NeedGod.com

Our encounter with Sharon and her husband happened last Wednesday. My prayer is that now that she has heard the gospel twice in a span of two days that she will realize that it was not a coincidence she sat down next to us, and really will consider what she’s heard and then of course repent and believe. Appreciate your prayers for Sharon and her dear husband.

Fishing With Trish...

Wednesday's mall evangelism was very encouraging. Two of us were in the food court "printing" 180 Movie tracts from our iPhone, and were pleased to meet three people that know and love Ray Comfort's ministry, a lady that has 180 Movie but hasn't watched it yet...I think she will now though...and other nice Christians that encouraged us. We also handed out copies of The Biggest Question to some Spanish speakers (I love how they've included both Spanish and English on one DVD.) You can get yours here: http://www.wretchedradio.com/store/catalog.cfm?id=48.

We also ran into our 80 year old friend Virgil. We met him last Wednesday. His wife shops and he wanders around the food court area until the time they've appointed for him to meet up with her. He showed my friend how he remembers what time and where to meet her; he wrote "2:45 B.S." on his hand to remember to be at the Book Store at 2:45.

Makes me think of Hebrews 9:27, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment," But, unlike Virgil we don't have a time and place written on our hand. And as far as we can tell, Virgil isn't ready for his appointed time with God. Make sure you are. www.NeedGod.com

Fishing With Trish, Continued...

The next day, after our evangelism at The University of North Texas (UNT), Kristen wasn’t able to go back to Sweet Frog after all, so we made plans to go there together the following week. The plan was to meet there at 4:00, but when the day came my schedule just kept getting busier and busier, and I gave her a heads up early in the day that I might not be able to make it. Then as 4:00 was upon me, I texted her: