| Poster | Thread | Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732
| | Re: | | Quote:
I did this at a street outreach once with a hearst and actual coffin... If I were to try that without God's favor, I might get killed!
That's funny!...look at the bright side, at leat there would be a handy coffin in a hearse nearby! ;-)
MC
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Mike Compton
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|  2006/7/28 10:50 | Profile | roadsign
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Joined: 2005/5/2
Posts: 3777
| | Re: the risk of language | | Quote:
no Gospel preacher wants to be paired up with the coming unholy
.
Great point! Good words and methods can easily get associated with bad things. Recently a Christian childrens camp director told me about a camper who got very distraught and no one knew why. Finally someone approached him and he said, I had thought that at THIS camp no one would be allowed to swear. And people are swearing here. Some said, Jesus Christ
Thankfully he had loving counsellors who could set him straight.
Quote:
during the rest of their ride to work could not help but be focused on JESUS
I do hope that there werent too many children riding down the road who got traumatized seeing all those Jesus signs - like that young camper especially with no one to explain to them that Jesus was a real person and not just a swear word.
PS What if all our good words and methods met a similar fate. I guess the only thing we'd have left to communicate would be the way we live.
Diane
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Diane
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| | 2006/7/28 12:36 | Profile | RobertW
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Joined: 2004/2/12
Posts: 4636
St. Joseph, Missouri
| | Re: | | Quote:
That's funny!...look at the bright side, at least there would be a handy coffin in a hearse nearby!
I thought the same thing. The outreach was targeted at the high number of gang and drug related killings in the area. This was in 1994. The preaching actually [i]reduced[/i] the chaos in the area to almost nothing. Many police officers basically had nothing to do as the preaching, etc. and ministry seem to dispell the madness. It was a real summer hotspot, but while the preaching of the word went on, the evil was held in check. At least for that weekend.
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Robert Wurtz II
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| | 2006/7/28 12:44 | Profile | RobertW
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Joined: 2004/2/12
Posts: 4636
St. Joseph, Missouri
| | Re: | | Quote:
Good point! Good words can be associated with the wrong thing.
This is very true. I think we need to prayerfully consider these things as words are very powerful. They are carriers of thoughts from mind to mind (R.B) and the last thing we need is to be [i]misunderstood[/i]. This is why I think we need clearer direction from God on what 'words', 'statements' and 'measures' we employ as not to be numbered with those whom would cause our good works to be evil spoken of.
Arousing ANGER is not the objective in preaching. I was thinking this morning how Finney talked about two types of people that are very difficult to reach; a person drunk, and a person angry. An angry person is not in a frame of mind to hear Good News. A drunk person needs to be sobered either natuarally or by the Holy Spirit. Getting a person angry flys in the face of Finney's "He that winneth Souls is wise."
Ed. add. "Winning Souls Requires Wisdom"
[i]If possible, where you wish to converse with a man on the subject of salvation, take him when he is in a good temper. If you find him out of humor, very probably he will get angry and abuse you. Better let him alone for that time, or you will be likely to quench the Spirit. It is possible you may be able to talk in such a way as to cool his temper, but it is not likely. The truth is, men hate God, and though their hatred may be dormant, it is easily excited, and if you bring God fully before their minds when they are already excited with anger, it will be so much the easier to arouse their enmity to open violence.[/i] (CGF)
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Robert Wurtz II
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| | 2006/7/28 12:54 | Profile |
| | Re: | | I do not mention the term "shock and awe" preaching to the unsaved world. Yes, the term is equated with the war and invasion and many unsaved people were against the war.
I only use the term among Christians. Shock and awe is a war strategy and that's part of the reason why I use that term for evangelism. Militant evangelism is the call of the day.
We need all Christians in all places preaching the gospel to all creatures! |
| | 2006/7/28 13:17 | | roadsign
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Joined: 2005/5/2
Posts: 3777
| | Re: Clarification needed | |
Jesse said:
Quote:
Militant evangelism is the call of the day.
Def'n of militant:
1. Fighting or warring.
2. Having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause: a militant political activist.
Is this what you mean, or are you using the word differently?
Diane
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Diane
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| | 2006/7/28 16:40 | Profile |
| | Re: | | Quote:
Jesse said:
Quote:
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Militant evangelism is the call of the day.
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Def'n of militant:
1. Fighting or warring.
2. Having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause: a militant political activist.
Is this what you mean, or are you using the word differently?
Amen! That is exactly what I mean. I couldn't have picked a better word. Fighting and warring is the calling of the Church. When we preach and there is much opposition from flesh and blood, it's because there is a battle against powers and principalities and powers of the air that we are fighting and warring against. But we must FORCEFULLY and AGRESSIVE advance the Kingdom of God by preaching the gospel.
Ray Comfort used to have a great sermon called "Militant Evangelism". It used to be on this website because I remember Greg highly recommended it. It might still be on here. It was a great teaching. |
| | 2006/7/28 16:44 | | brentw
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Joined: 2005/12/14
Posts: 440
Ohio
| | Re: Banners & Shock and Awe Evangelism | | Quote:
We fear that our two pictures of last month greatly shocked a few of our good readers whose souls are tender towards the established Church of our day; but we do not in any degree apologize to them because the shock, like that of a cold bath early in the morning, will do them good, and strengthen their constitutions. We can assure them that they cannot be one-half so much shocked by our ridicule of error as we are by the error itself. We do not make the evil, we only expose it; and if we use words and symbols which strike and stick, and even offend, we believe that they are necessary, and ought to be used far more frequently. We are not going to handle the abominations of the present American establishment with kid gloves; and if we judge sarcasm and ridicule to be deserved, we shall give the Lords enemies their full quota of scorn.
I really like this quote!
The church needs to do something! We're seeing more unsaved people by the day and growing.
Like Ravenhill said our theology of 'hell' is all on the black board.
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Brent
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| | 2006/7/28 17:00 | Profile | RobertW
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Joined: 2004/2/12
Posts: 4636
St. Joseph, Missouri
| | Re: | | I wish to look again at this quote from Finney because I believe we may have two different competing objectives were talking about.
If the objective is to;[i]"...only expose it; and if we use words and symbols which strike and stick, and even offend, we believe that they are necessary, and ought to be used far more frequently. We are not going to handle the abominations of the present American establishment with kid gloves; and if we judge sarcasm and ridicule to be deserved, we shall give the Lords enemies their full quota of scorn.[/i]
This sounds almost like calling down fire from heaven. This is an attitude of mockery and jesting. What doth it profit to become learned, experienced, even proficient at winning arguments and heaping ridicule upon a sinners head? Do you not know that they are unstable as it is? They are in a state of spiritual suicide already and you are encouraging them to pull the trigger and release their FULL ON hatred of God. Is this the role of an ambassador? Is this how we reconcile sinners to God?
If possible, where you wish to converse with a man on the subject of salvation, take him when he is in a good temper. If you find him out of humor, very probably he will get angry and abuse you. [u]Better let him alone for that time, or you will be likely to quench the Spirit.[/u] It is possible you may be able to talk in such a way as to cool his temper, but it is not likely. The truth is, men hate God, and though their hatred may be dormant, it is easily excited, and if you bring God fully before their minds when they are already excited with anger, it will be so much the easier to arouse their enmity to open violence. (CGF)
The attitude I first quoted is not winning the lost it is causing folk who may well be considering coming to Christ to, in Finney's words, quench the Holy Spirit. It is a STUMBLING block wrapped in religious garb and rhetoric.
Lets look at this from Finney's prespective for a moment. [u]The truth is, men hate God, and though their hatred may be dormant, it is easily excited, and if you bring God fully before their minds when they are already excited with anger, it will be so much the easier to arouse their enmity to open violence.[/u]
Now, why would we want to send a person into a near rage under the pretense of Good News? This is plain enough, if you anger a person they are in no state of mind to turn to Christ. The Gospel tends to anger a person enough without bringing our own personal gas can to the message. It is not necessary to be rebuking folk all the time. It all sounds the more like picking a fight with sinners to me.
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Robert Wurtz II
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| | 2006/7/28 23:35 | Profile |
| | Re: | | Brother Robert,
Sorry for not responding to your first post with the Finney quote. I did not mean to give the impression that I do not agree with you.
I wrote this because the truth, unaltered and unadulterated by men for their own glory, is sharp and can be shocking to those who never hear it. We must not seek to soften the blow and dull the sharp corners and edges of the truth to make it more acceptable, but we Christians of this dark age, and the Church of this generation, must awaken the sleeping multitudes around us for Jesus.
I am not talking about preaching in a way to intentionally make people angry, but rather preaching the truth of the bible, in the way commanded by the bible, regardless of the reactions of men.
The word is sharp and serious. It's sharper then any doubled sword. But I fear many preachers have dulled the Sword of God to make it more pleasing and acceptable unto men. This is not reconciling the world unto God, but this is reconciling God unto the world. That was what I wanted to come against.
I was not trying to promote, excuse, or justify any sort of unnesessary insulting or unbiblical inflamatory preaching. |
| | 2006/7/31 15:29 | |
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