"Joe's" Baptism! All of Heaven Rejoices!

Me and Joe After His Baptism!

"Joe" didn't mind the cramped bathtub that has to be used for security reasons. Nor did he mind the crowd of excited onlookers who packed into the bathroom and overflowed into the adjoining room to witness this special event.  "I tell you," Jesus said, "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:7).

Joe declared his commitment to follow Jesus, placing his faith and trust in Him alone for salvation, and joyfully demonstrated his love for the Lord by going down into the waters of baptism.  When he came up, he said "it's like being born again!" 

Thank you for praying for Joe!  Keep praying for his growth as he seeks to faithfully walk with the Lord.  He has literally just started reading the bible for the very first time, but he has been faithfully applying what he has learned, and the Lord has shown himself strong on Joe's behalf, already answering prayers for Joe in tangible ways.  God is good!

Following Joe's expression of faith, another young lady, a psychologist, also professed her faith in Christ!  She will be baptized next week!  Praise the Lord!

"Joe" Believes and Will Be Baptized!

In my last post, "Joe" (whose real name must remain anonymous for security reasons), shared his excitement about his prayer being answered as he considered whether to place his faith in Jesus for salvation.  I asked for your prayers that Joe would believe and choose to follow Jesus.  I had a chance to follow up with Joe this past week.  He told me that he has decided to believe in Jesus and follow Him.  He also told me that he feels different, peaceful inside.  It's amazing how God works if we're faithful to share the Good News!

In the last two weeks, Joe heard the gospel for the first time.  He received his first Bible.  He started reading the Gospel of John for the first time.  And he prayed to God for help in resolving a conflict with a friend, and God answered his prayer. 

Now, Joe has decided to trust in Jesus for salvation and commit his life to following Him as Joe pursues a PhD, possibly in America.  Joe also has decied to be baptized, along with several other new believers who have recently heard the gospel.  "¹²But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1).  Praise the Lord!  Nothing more exciting than that!

Demetrius & Josh: Saved from the Fire?

Jesus' half-brother, Jude, urged Jesus' followers to "save others from the fire" of God's long-withheld, righteous judgment upon man's sin (Jude 23).  With tender love, Paul warned believers that the Lord will unleash fiery justice upon all who reject God's mercy and do not "obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thes. 1:8).  How then can people obey the gospel to escape judgment unless we tell them The Way to be saved? (Rom. 10:14-15).  Quoting Isaiah, Paul wrote:  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

At lunch on Friday, June 3rd, four of us answered Jesus' call to go and proclaim the gospel (Mk. 16:15) in downtown Tulsa.  We considered it an eternal search and rescue mission, seeking whom the Lord may lead us to explain The Way to be saved and live in a life-giving, life-transforming, soul-satisfying relationship with the Creator of All and Just Judge--Jesus Christ.  Two of us had the joy and privilege of bringing great glory to a Great Savior by sharing the Greatest News of all with two men, Demetrius and Josh. 

To start a spiritual conversation with two guys we just met on the street, we used a unique gift, a penny with the 10 Commandments pressed on them.  The pennies (buy at LivingWaters) are superb.  They worked well with Demetrius and Josh.  Here's how we used them.

Josh sat outside his office on a smoke break, enjoying the sun and fresh breeze blowing down the sidewalk.  Demetrius sat on a shady bench at the city bus station.  We walked up to Josh and said, "How's it going?  Have you received one of these (handing him a shiny pressed penny)?"  Josh took it and inspected it (as most do).  "It's a pressed penny," I said.  "Ever seen one?"  "No," Josh answered.  I explained that the first time they pressed a penny was in the 1800s and they imprinted the 10 Commandments on them.  To read it well, I told Josh to hold it up and allow the light to shine on it.  He tried it.  While he held it up, I explained that the Bible says the law is a lamp and the command of God is a light (Ps. 119), and when the light of God's law shines on our hearts it reveals how far short we've fallen of God's perfect moral standard, which keeps us from entering heaven, and dooms us to judgment and eternity in hell for breaking God's moral law countless times.  I told Josh that the 10 Commandments show us how desperately we need a savior, and Josh seemed to understand the implications.

I asked Josh if he knew where he would spend eternity if he died today.  He did not know.  I asked if he had heard the gospel.  He said he hadn't heard it before.  We then had the joy of explaining what Jesus did to save us from the wrath to come (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Thes. 1:10).  We also explained what Jesus said we must do to get the benefit of his death and resurrection and be declared innocent on the Day of Judgment, though we deserve to be judged guilty:  believe and repent (Mk. 1:15), the message Jesus preached in "all of the towns and villages" (Matt. 9:35). 

Josh said he believed Jesus died for his sins and rose again, but he honestly admitted he did not know what it means to repent.  We explained that repentance is crying out to God for forgiveness of one's sins (Lk. 18:13)and turning from going your own way in life to following Jesus (Acts 26:20; 1 Thes. 1:10), not to earn salvation, but to obey the Gospel and cling to Jesus for life.  You can't cling to Jesus for life if your back is still turned to him and you're still going your own way.  We urged Josh to repent before it's too late, gently warning him that he does not know how much time he has left.  Since Josh works in the same building, I will follow up with him.  Pray he has repented and pray I can help disciple him to be a genuine follower.

As for Demetrius, it went much the same way.  When we started our conversation with him, he did not know what his eternal destiny would be.  When we finished the conversation, he affirmed with a new smile that he did not have earlier in the conversation that he now knew his destiny would be heaven, because he believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior and has repented.  He says he tries to follow Jesus.  We talked about what Jesus said to do to follow him, explaining that Jesus told those who "believed" in him that his true disciples, his true followers are those who abide in or continue in his word (Jn. 8:31-32).  So we gave a Gospel of John to Demetrius and urged him to spend some time in the word each day and ask God help him obey what he reads.  Pray Demetrius will be a fruitful follower who learns to fish for men with the time he has left!  Nothing's more important than that, and nothing is more exciting!

What about you?  Are you obeying Jesus' call to follow him and learn to fish for men (Matt. 4:19).

3 Essentials of a Model Outreach Church and a Model Witness for the Lord

The Bible calls one church the model of effective witnessing.  Do you know which one?  The answer may surprise you because it consisted of new followers of Jesus.  To find out which church set the pattern of powerful evangelism and to learn the three keys that made them so effective, click on this LINK.  If you want to learn to be an effective witness to those God has placed in your life, then this video is for you, too.