Demonstration

“Apostolic preaching is not marked by it’s beautiful diction or literary polish, or cleverness of expression, but operates “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

Arthur Wallis

I love hearing testimonies like this

Brian ‘Head’ Welch Leaves Korn, Citing Moral Objections To Band’s Music
02.22.2005

Guitarist plans to further explain his decision to a church congregation in Bakersfield, California, on Sunday.

Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch, a founding member of Korn, has left the band and has rededicated his life to Christianity, according to the group’s management.

Click here for full article

Sowing seeds at work

Hey there
To be honest with you, I don’t have any big words of truth or insight to share tonight. I just plain wanted to keep you up to date on the latest me. I might actually make a priority out of buying more chain clasps for the famous Ten Commandment penny bracelets. Yesterday I was given a bag of more of the bracelets by Kathy, the woman I mentioned earlier who bought me some of these ten commandment pennies. Well while she was showing me the ideas she tried (like a necklace), a co-worked walked by and saw them, and thought they were very neat. Well today, she came up to me and offered me some money for one. Praise God. Most of my co-workers are not even saved, but I decided to ask a few people and show them the other one I had in my pocket and I got positive feedback from older co-workers (ones that have kids my age). It seems like I shouldn’t underestimate the idea that I can sell some more while I am still in the country.

Also, this one lady, from Trinidad, goofs around to some degree with me when we’re working on machines next to or near each other. Well, tonight when we were taking turns thinking of retarded things to say to each other (“Don’t stand so close to me” or “turn your machine down can’t hear myself think!”) I finally turned around and asked her if she’d like to see a picture of my pride and joy. She changed composure and said sure, looking a lot more serious now than a moment earlier. So I reached into my wallet, and pulled out a Ray Comfort tract that has a picture of two cleaning agents on the front–one called “Pride” and the other called “Joy”. She laughed harder than I have made her laugh yet, and turned the card over to see that the Gospel is presented clearly. She was very open, but needless to say since we were operating machines it wasn’t a very good time to get into too much more. I love using ice breakers like this to start into the Gospel. I like these kind of goofy or interesting things a whole lot better than the majority of Gospel tracts that I have ever seen–that most people don’t really read if you give them out anyway. I’m not trashing people who hand out tracts, but I just find I really get to the person’s heart a whole lot faster using the said Ten Commandment pennies (“Would you like one of these? Do you think you’ve kept all ten of the Commandments? Do you know you a sinner in God’s eyes”) or other ice breakers
.
Anyway, now to my weekend. Next week the people that have been on days will be back on afternoon shift for two weeks, then back to days for two weeks, so these people I’ve been witnessing to I won’t get to see as much except for when I’m coming and when they’re going, but pray for more open doors. For whatever reason, us temps are on the same shift for the whole time we’re working as temps, then if we get hired, it’s different.
The other group/shift seems to have a lot more young people close to my age on it, and though I relate more to them, I find the older people listen more to me cuz they’re intrigued that someone my age is living for the Lord without playing games in the world. Not that it’s hard to go for the jugular with another twenty-something, or youth, but I just found there’s been more ease so far with older co-workers. Anyway, I want to make a positive impact in any workplace God sets me in, and who knows what could result from it, right?

Steve

Patience in preparation

“There is something more that we need to understand, or we will not be willing to submit patiently to the preparation of our character, namely, the eternal context. Our call is an eternal call, and our earthly service is only one aspect of that fulfillment. God sees everything in the eternal context, and we need to see that also. That is why forty and eighty years are nothing! It is a preparation for the ages to come, and this awareness has been totally lost to the modern church, to our own detriment.”

Art Katz

Revival praying

“From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings declined.”

Dr. A.T. Pierson

Ten Commandment Penny Bracelet

Crossing paths again.

Well work was interesting tonight. Ok, no it wasn’t. But what happened before my shift started was interesting to me. I ran into the woman who gave me the idea to sell the bracelets that I’ve been selling tp raise funds to go to the Netherlands.

Last summer, I was working at Merit Precision Moulding, for the second time since two years earlier, and I tried sharing the gospel with a co-worker repeatedly, and on this one occasion this time around, I gave her a penny with the Ten Commandments pressed onto it that a ministry in Santa Monica, CA. makes and sells for Christians to use as an effective witnessing tool. Well wouldn’t you know it, she loved it (as do about 95% of the people I’ve ever given one to) and she asks me if I ever thought of making bracelets with them. I politely told her no, thinking it was a dumb idea–you’re supposed to subtly take them out of your pocket and offer them as a gift to someone–the idea of wearing it around my wrist –covered with two bracelets on each wrist as it was–didn’t sound good.

She persisted for probably two weeks. Finally she showed me what one of these bracelets looks like with holes in it, and left a note on my machine and it read something to the effect of if I told her where I got those pennies from that she would buy 300 of them for me and drill the holes in them and give them to me to sell as bracelets. Then it clicked in my head–she wanted me to make bracelets to sell! This was a brilliant idea, and I went for it. And over the course of the summer I sold them for $10 a piece, and then in the fall at FIRE I sold them on a donation basis–people could pay however little or however much they wanted–and made over $1700 from this bracelet idea of Kathy’s.

So, in the coming months those earnings are finally going to come in handy, and the Lord works in ways that are known only to Him. Wouldn’t you know it, she no longer works at Merit but is also at temp at Global Human Resources, now working at the exact same place as I am. Neat. Praise God, this is not a coincidence. I shall keep you updated on future happenings.

Steve

The heat of heaven

“Compared to a heart that has known the fire of the Lord and allowed that fire to go out, the ice-clad peaks of the Alps are warm. Metal is molten only while the fire burns; remove the fire and the metal is solid. Even so, a human heart without the heat of heaven is an iceburg.”

Leonard Ravenhill