Shoemaker

In 1850, the Lord saved Charles H. Spurgeon in a small church in Colchester, Uk.

Spurgeon wrote in his autobiography, that a snow storm pushed him to enter into a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. He wanted to go somewhere else to worship that Sunday, but the blizzard didn’t allow him to go further.

There was a dozen people in the congregation. The snow also kept the preacher from showing up that morning. A shoemaker was filling in for the preacher.

A shoemaker. Spurgeon says that the man did not have much to say and could hardly extract ideas from his text that morning: Isaiah 45:22.

Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.

Spurgeon wrote that the shoemaker didn’t even pronounce the words right.

The Lord used a humble shoemaker to save and raise up the man that is known as the Prince of Preachers.

The power wasn’t in the shoemaker, but in the message in the Holy Spirit’s hands. What a reminder of God’s sovereignty!

I had the privilege of teaching in that very church last weekend. It was very humbling and exciting. My prayer is that the Lord used this shoemaker to stir up his people and to raise up labourers for the gospel.

Giant Barbeque

I participated on a week of evangelism in Lille, Northern France.

From Monday until Friday, a group of Christians got together in the morning to get teaching on Evangelism, and in the afternoons, we went to a neighbourhood, to do different activities with children in a public square. Everyday, the activities were geared towards explaining a part of the Gospel: God’s holiness, sinfulness of man, judgement, the cross, etc…

While a part of the group was ministering to the children, the others would knock doors and share the gospel with the neighboors. It was beautiful.

I was asked to share five messages during our morning meetings. The group was so committed to evangelism: to do the social activity for the community, but also to verbally share the gospel with the participants (adults and children alike).

The outreach ended on Saturday with a Giant Barbeque for the community. We served grilled sausages in sandwiches, freely for all who came. There was also live music, and activities for the children. But most importantly, and the reason for it, was that every person who came and ate was exposed to the gospel. Verbally.

I pray God will bless associations like Coeurs Nouveaux in Lille, that will always verbalize the gospel in any community outreach.

Praise the Lord!

Countless Activities

After I taught the first session of the Crash Course on Evangelism last weekend in Herborn, Germany, the Pastor took the pulpit and shared a story.

He said that some years ago, he was involved in an outreach in California. His church got invited by the organizing ministry, to reach out to the homeless people in the community. They gave out clothes, food, and even played some music and performed drama.

This Pastor approached the organizing ministry and told them that they all should also share the gospel verbally with the homeless. But they responded that they rather share “God’s love” through their actions. The Pastor wasn’t comfortable with it and decided to back up from supporting the outreach.

As he and his group were getting ready to leave, the organizing ministry came to him and asked them to stay. They agreed to verbally share the gospel with the people. But when the time came, they changed their mind and asked the Pastor to remain quiet and just “love” them with actions: food, clothes, music, drama, etc.

Tragically, a homeless lady that had attended to the outreach, was struck by a car as she was crossing the street. The lady died that evening. Without hearing the gospel. She was fed, dressed and even entertained; but never heard the gospel.

The Pastor said with Paul “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men” (Acts 20:26).

How tragic…

“Oh my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost is almost entirely neglected.”
-Oswald J. Smith

Pure Slavery

I had the privilege of teaching the Crash Course on Evangelism last weekend in Walthamstow, UK. The participants were encouraged and challenged, I pray that the seeds planted will grow into a constant burden to reach the lost in a Biblical way.

On my way back to the airport, I spent an hour talking to the taxi driver. He said his name was T. I deliverately swang the conversation to spiritual things, to find out that he was a practicing Muslim from Afghanistan. After giving him time to explain a bit about his beliefs, I shared the beauty about the Christian message: that we are saved by grace.

My heart broke at the burden that this man carries everyday to gain Heaven. I shared the Law and the Gospel very clearly. His heart was hardened and wouldn’t understand or see the logic in God offering salvation as a free gift. He needs to earn it- he wants to deserve it. Pure slavery.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

Thanks God that T’s eternity does not depend on me or my effort that morning, but in God alone.

Please pray for T and daily pray for opportunities to verbally share the Gospel. You’ll be surprised…

Gethsemane

A few days ago, I visited the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. The Garden is beautiful, specially this time of the year with poppies growing all around. The ancient olive trees, which some believe have been the same since Jesus’ times, are beautifully and painfully twisted.

The Garden has “something” that brings comfort and agony to the believer’s heart.

I was vividly reminded of the great sacrifice that our Lord voluntarily took upon himself. I thought of the quietness of the garden during that night, the disciples slept while Jesus pleaded with the Father three times:

“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Mat 26:39).

Surely the steps of the soldiers could be heard at the distance, as they crossed the Kidron Valley and up to the Garden. The disciples slept while Jesus sweated blood. The noise of the soldiers’ armors made more and more noise but Jesus focused his attention on his prayer. He had a mission to accomplish. Disciples sleeping. The soldiers and religious leaders entering the Garden.

“Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand,” Jesus said.

I was so vividly reminded of the agony Jesus went through even before being arrested. And I thought to myself, why do sometimes I rather stay in my comfort zone instead of witnessing to someone? Why do I try to impose my will (not to witness to such and such) when Jesus, in spite of the Garden’s agony, prayed for the Father’s will?

We know God’s will: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Our apparent suffering before passing out a tract or swinging a natural conversation from the natural to the spiritual, is nothing… NOTHING compared to what Jesus felt in the Garden.

We must step out of our comfort zone. Let us not fall asleep like the disciples but obey the Lord’s command of reaching out the lost. We have a mission too.

Pilgrim for 300+ days

I’ve been in Israel with Ray Comfort and the Living Waters team for almost a week now.

A couple of days ago, we were filming in the Mount of Beatitudes, when a man with long beard, worn out clothes, cane, backpack, etc; came walking up the mount. He happened to be a Catholic Priest from France, that has been walking since August 1st, making his way from France to Jerusalem.

Imagine that! More than 300 days of pilgrimage. I got to interview and witness to him, and found out that sadly, Luc was trying to pay back for all his sins. He said that he understood God’s grace, BUT still there was something that he was supposed to do to cover his sins and go to heaven.

Such a sad and misplaced zeal. If all energy And persistence was put into evangelism, many things could happen around us. Although he heard my presentation of the Law and the Gospel, Luc left as we had never met. Please keep him in prayer…

“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom 10:3).

Ps.- For photos of our journey in the land of God and the Bible, go HERE

Israel

I’ll be traveling to Israel (May 1-10) with Ray Comfort and the Living Waters team. We are filming 13 episodes for the “Way of the Master” program, Season Five.

Get my updates on Twitter, by following @Dikayo or on Facebook too.

Please keep us in prayer.

Thanks!

Wristband

I had the privilege of teaching the Crash Course on Evangelism, yesterday in a small church in a town near Nuremberg in Germany.

I had the honor to teach the course to about 15 people, including US Soldiers that are based in that town, waiting to soon be deployed to Afghanistan.

On my way back home, I grabbed a Starbucks coffee in the airport and the cashier said, “That’s an interesting wristband.”

Few months ago, I ordered a silicon wristband that has printed on it “1 Million Question,” hoping that it would help me to start witnessing conversations… And it did today!

I explained what the “Million Euro Question” is: “What do you think happens after someone dies?”

It was very cool. God is good and provides opportunities to share the gospel all the time.

I left the young man and his colleagues with tracts.

Please pray for them.

Crash Course- Nice, France

Last week, I had the privilege of teaching the Free Crash Course on Evangelism, at Calvary Chapel in Nice.

The small group listened with attention and they were kind with their feedback. An evangelist visiting from California said:

“[He] is passionate about evangelism and it showed as he facilitated the first Crash Course at CC Nice France. The info was clear, concise, and got everybody stoked to hit the streets to share the Gospel.” -Mitch Sorensen

We also spent 2 afternoons doing outreach: music, tracts, open-air preaching, etc. It was very nice and we had some meaningful conversations.

Please keep this Crash Course in prayer as God opens doors to present it in other churches.

Book your FREE Course today- http://bit.ly/Freecourse

Thanks.

Today’s Lesson

We usually hit the streets after church, to share the gospel.

Today it was particularly hard: lots of people rejecting tracts, wall-hitting conversations, hard hearts, distractions, etc. My wife even had a headache after talking with a guy that said was 8th grade something-metaphysic and that sees angels and hears God.

We were exhausted.

After analyzing our day, we found out that we “prayed lightly” before our outreach. Like if it was not a big deal, just another activity in our day.

We learned the lesson.

We are in a real battle and the enemy hates us… Specially when we go and share the gospel.