Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ] |
| Subject: Pioneer Square – April 23, 2004 – Portland, OR, USA | |
|
Author: Danny Howe |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 13:36:30 05/15/04 Sat When we arrived at around 7:00pm, it was still daylight, so I wanted to wait for the sun to go down before I started preaching. A few minutes earlier, a rally against the police department was finishing up. The rally was held to protest a police officer who was not indicted on any charges when he shot an unarmed man during duty. One lady, who was present when the police officer shot the man, asked me what I thought of the whole scenario. My father-in-law answered the question to the best of his ability, but the woman still was not satisfied. She asked me what my thought was concerning the situation, and I immediately discerned she was very upset, and she kept bringing up the subject of race during the conversations I overheard when she spoke with my father-in-law. I told her that I would answer her question if she would not interrupt me. She agreed, and I proceeded to tell her that the Bible says that anyone who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword, and the Bible also says that the powers that be are ordained by God to punish the wicked and reward the good. When the authorities do not uphold their part of the bargain, so to speak, then God will make right what was done wrong, but I then told her that it is not our responsibility to enact vengeance against those who committed the offense. She did not receive this very well. She started to tell me about how many times the police have shot unarmed people, which reminded me of the time when the Son of God was killed by His own people. He didn’t commit one offense that deserved death, yet He didn’t cry out for justice or retribution, but instead calmly said, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” So, I asked her, “ Let’s assume the police officer is not a Christian; and, a while later down the line, the officer becomes a Christian, believes the blood of Jesus Christ has appeased God of His wrath over His sin, including the sin of killing the unarmed man. The cross of Christ has appeased God of His wrath concerning that man’s sin; would it satisfy your wrath?” She answered, “I don’t know.” I then started to talk to her concerning the way of the cross, which is non-retaliation. I asked her what she wanted to do about the situation, and she wanted to kill the man. I then started to tell her that we should not seek vengeance or retaliation against the officer, no matter how grievous the offense. Millions of Christians throughout time died for the sake of the Gospel, yet nobody seeks vengeance, nor do the Christians desire to retaliate once. One black man dies in Portland, and immediately vengeance is sought out by the community. This makes no sense to me! If race was the motivating issue in this murder, it should be recompensed; however, the Bible says Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. It is God’s job, not man’s, to right wrongs; it is our job to show the hands of mercy and grace for those who are willing to repent of their wickedness, for this is truly God’s heart. After speaking with her, a man with the attire of a 1990’s hippie came up talking about the word of God. He started saying how much he loved the Bible, but how he wanted to find Buddhist writings and Rastafarian writings just to see what they believe. I told him that it may be good to seek that out in order to know what the other side believes, but first you must have a ground and foundation formed by reading the New Testament a few times (like, a hundred!!!). He agreed to this. He then started telling me about how much his life was terrible, and how he always received the short end of the stick. I then asked him, “Do you believe it’s your fault that you’re life is so bad?” He then said, “Oh yeah, but…society…” and then started to blame everything else but himself. I didn’t see the need to press any further. Most people feel that they are so righteous, yet everything else around them (including the church) has wronged them and done them evil. Why is this? Why is it so hard to take responsibility for our actions and repent of our selfish actions against God, and see that it is OUR fault why things are so bad? We must take the responsibility, but let God take the eternal consequences for our sins. We must be man enough to tell God, “It’s my fault, God, that I am so evil, but I thank you God for taking the punishment for my sin.” Once this is said by those who are contrite over sin (and when I say contrite, I mean weeping and tears once the conscious realization of how gross sin is compared to holiness required by God), then we can provide the remedy for condemnation. The remedy is the Gospel: faith in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as the hope of eternal life for those who believe the blood of Jesus Christ is able to pay the penalty for the remission of our sins. God has given us a law to follow, but we all have broken God’s law, therefore we must receive the punishment for breaking His law, which is death. However, God has supplied us with His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for sin on our behalf. Jesus Christ walked on earth without committing sin, therefore His blood could be used to atone for other people’s sins, since He didn’t need to pay the price for His own sin. When an individual cries out to God and says, “I believe the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the sufficient to pay the price for my sin,” God will agree with this statement and grant forgiveness of all confessed sin. You can know that the blood of Jesus Christ is good enough to cleanse your heart from all sin, because Jesus Christ rose physically from the dead! Because Jesus Christ Himself did not actually commit any sin against His Father, God, it would not be just or fair for Him to remain dead. All He needed to do was taste death for every man in order to receive the power to defeat death completely. This was done when the Father raised up Jesus Christ from the dead by the power of God through His Spirit, the Holy Ghost. We can also gain access to the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead! Since sin has separated God from us, so He will not even approach us, we need to have our sin dealt with and removed before we can begin our relationship with God. Once God forgives our sins through our confession of faith in the blood of Christ as sufficient enough to appease God of His wrath over our sins, God will reveal the resurrection of His Son in our hearts. Jesus Christ has physically risen from the dead! Once we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is alive, we can have fellowship with God directly from our hearts through faith in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Since Jesus is really alive, we can have an actual relationship with Him, just like we can have a relationship with any person here on earth. It’s that simple! After listening to the guy try to throw off the burden of responsibility, he asked for a Bible and departed on good terms. I pray the Lord for healing upon his mind. He was involved in a car accident, but God has miraculously preserved his life for reasons unknown; hopefully good reasons for His kingdom’s glory! I also saw another brother I know out there, and his situation hasn’t changed since I last saw him. He is apparently still sleeping outside, and his mind is slowly starting to fade on him. Only by the power of God through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross can he be healed and forgiven of all his sins. I preached for a while, and the normal hecklers who usually yell obscenities every weekend were actually sitting fairly close to me listening to the sermon. Apparently, they heard what I told the woman concerning the shooting and were very pleased with what I had to say. Also, I had my little girl out with me, and they might have noticed me playing with my little girl. They might have come to the strange conclusion that I’m a real person just like everyone else, who just happens to love to preach the Kingdom of God. They came up to me later and smiled at me, saying they liked my speech. One man, who once told me he was a Christian, who eventually started spouting out obscenities and other gross things at me, smiled at me and told me that he liked the sermon. One of them, who is usually the worst out of them all, called me by name and attempted to reach out to me. I reached back and grabbed his heart, hopefully, by treating him with the respect normally people don’t give him, since he appears to be simple-minded. Some people have just been used their whole life by people who claim some kind of religion, yet have no faith in their hearts nor are truly born-again by the power of the Holy Ghost of God. I pray God can give us all the grace to repent and do the church’s first works over again. Also, before I forget, I saw the man who strangled me a couple of years ago tonight. I told him hello, and I asked him to dance for my daughter, since I thought she would like it. He seemed mighty surprised that I would even talk to him, let alone ask him to perform for my daughter as if nothing had happened bad between us. He reluctantly started doing his little robot dance, which Jeanne (my daughter) did like. My first thought? I was glad for him that he saw I was a real person for once. And, to tell you the truth, I was happy to see that I’m a real person as well. However, this doesn’t excuse his sin! He still needs Jesus!!! Please come to God before He kills you and condemns you to hell where you belong! Come to Christ Jesus! Don’t come to God without faith in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins! Repent and be saved, or reject the truth and be burned forever in a lake of fire!!! Love, In Christ Jesus, Danny [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |