Front Line Battle

In January of 1993, I was invited to the Dallas area by a pastor who asked me to speak at his Sunday church services. He was a little disappointed, because he had invited me to go out witnessing on Saturday night, and a thunderstorm arrived about an hour after my plane landed. I had never seen anything like it. Everything is bigger in Texas. There was such intensity of lightning, that every few seconds, the sky would light up like noonday. Then it rained cats and dogs (they were everywhere). It looked like we wouldn't have the opportunity to go outdoors, so we decided that we would go witness at a mall.

The pastor was very gracious and gave me a choice as to whether or not I wanted to go witnessing, saying he would understand if I wanted to rest after the flight. I could either rest up in my hotel, or with the help of God, seek and save the lost. The temptation was there to rest, but I of course chose the latter.

The words 'lifestyle evangelism' have come to mean to many that we merely live a Christian life, in the hope that some day sinners will be drawn to us. I believe more in 'life-saving' evangelism. Who could stand passively on a river bank hoping a drowning person will be drawn to him so that he could then rescue him? The Scriptures use a more fearful analogy -fire rather than water (see Jude 1:23). The pastor in Dallas was putting legs to his prayers, and was wanting to go to the sinner.

It was dinner time, and he dropped me off at the entrance of a restaurant while he parked the car. A few minutes later, we were seated in a warm and dry atmosphere as a waitress made us feel at home. As she began to walk away, I said, 'Here's a little gift for you', and handed her a glistening penny with the Ten Commandments pressed into it. She took the penny and, predictably, asked what it was. When I told her, she said a sincere, 'Thank you very much'.

When another waitress brought the menus to us, I gave her an I.Q. card, and said that she might like to try it when she had a moment to spare. A few minutes later, another waitress came and asked if she could buy a penny. I gave her one. The first waitress returned and said she had failed the I.Q. test. It was then that I saw another waitress standing behind the pastor. She smiled, so I gave her a penny. When she was very open to Christian things, I gave her a signed copy of one of my books, for which she seemed very grateful.

Notice that we didn't just sit there hoping that our light would draw sinners to us. We made an effort to reach out.

As we paid our bill in the lobby, four or five members of the staff stood around us and asked us questions as to who we were, etc. To let our light shine is merely a matter of letting the love of God flow through us, rather than stop in us.

When we came out of the restaurant, the storm had passed. So the pastor (Mike) gave me a choice as to where we could now go--either to the 'cowboy' part of town, the 'prostitute', or the 'punk' area. Somehow I didn't feel like trying to witness to guys twice my size in high heel boots and ten gallon hats. The last place I want to visit when I am away from Sue would be a prostitute area (especially in the light of so many preachers around that time were falling, or should I say 'diving' into sexual sin). I remember feeling unspiritual years ago, when I heard of a well-known preacher who would boldly go into brothels and witness to prostitutes (the Jesus loves you gospel). Here was one man who seemed to be able to keep the red blood in his veins cool. It turned out that he eventually fell sexually. He left his wife for another woman.

Moths should stay away from flames, so, without any hesitation, I chose Punksville. Punks are always a challenge. For some reason I feel safe with a woman who has tatoos, 'hate' written on her cheeks, black lipstick, weird clothes, filthy language, semi-shaven scalp, a rooster hairstyle with orange hair and pins through her nose.

Unfortunately, we got lost and ended up in the Dallas 'cowboy' area. As we made our way toward some very loud music, the wind blew something into the pastor's eye, and it lodged under his contact lens. It was so painful, we decided to go back to his car so that he could remove the contacts.

As we turned around, another gust of wind blew the hat off a man who was walking toward us. He was accompanied by a very pretty woman in her mid-twenties. As Mike and the man ran after the hat, the woman lunged at me and (to my unbelief), threw her arms around my neck and tried to force her lips onto mine. I screamed the pastor's name and pried the woman's arms from around my neck. Then I handed her a penny with the Ten Commandments pressed into it, and told her what it was. Mike and I witnessed briefly to both the man and Potiphar's wife, then we went back to the car and prayed for them. As we sat in the car I felt that I should say something about the woman trying to kiss me to the pastor. I widened my eyes and said, 'That's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me'. He looked back at me mournfully and said, with tongue in cheek, 'It's never happened to me!'.

We didn't find any punks that night, but we had a good time witnessing to a group of about a dozen youths. We entered a mall and gave I.Q. cards to two teenage boys. They did the tests, and couldn't believe they failed them. One ran off and returned with two friends so that they too could feel the humiliation of failure. When they blew it, I said, 'You can't trust your eyes...watch this', and did some sleight-of-hand, which sent the same youth off with eyes like saucers, to get some more of his friends.

Suddenly, we had about a dozen young men watching my every move and listening to my every word. Even the security guard watched intently. When I told the young men I was a Christian and warned them that they had to face God on Judgment Day, they stayed and listened. We witnessed to them for a few minutes, shook their hands and moved to another part of the mall.

Perhaps you are thinking that you could never do such a thing. All you need is a little love to motivate you, and a little knowledge to equip you. Anyone with half a brain and two hands can do these tricks, and they have so much evangelistic potential, because they will make your hearers respect you, and therefore listen to what you have to say.

Despite the loose woman, the lack of punks and the security guards who told me I needed a permit to do any more tricks or to even hand out tracts, we had a good time. That night as I lay my head on my pillow, I smiled a lot, thanked God that I broke out of the barracks of my comfort zone, and prayed for those who we had been privileged to witness to.

We pick up the story in Acts Chapter 6 when the twelve disciples decided that they didn't want to neglect prayer and the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, they found seven men to do the job, one of whom was Stephen. The Scriptures tell us the ""the number of the disciples multiplied greatly,"" because men like Stephen didn't confine their ministry to serving tables. They had their priorities sorted out, preached the Gospel, and God confirmed His Word with signs following (see verse 8).

This didn't please the enemy. Whenever a servant of God serves up truth in the court of the world, the devil is going to return the serve with a vengeance. When professing godly Jews couldn't resist the wisdom by which Stephen spoke, the father of lies provided some more of his children to distort Stephen's words, and say that he was speaking blasphemy.

Suddenly, Stephen found himself standing before the council and his slanderous accusers. All it took was one question, ""Are these things so?"" to push Stephen's evangelistic button. Beginning at Abraham, he recounted the history of Israel, saying nothing offensive to them until Acts 7:51. He saved the good wine for last. His sermon ended with a number of relevant points for his congregation to consider:

1. His hearers were stubborn

2. They were unholy

3. They were spiritually deaf

4. They and their fathers resisted the Holy Spirit

5. They were the sons of murderers

6. They were the betrayers and murderers of 'the Just One'.

Stephen disqualified himself from the 'Popular Preacher of the Year' award. Then from his breast, he produced what Charles Spurgeon called his 'ablest auxiliary'. Which was this soldier. s greatest weapon--the Law of God. The Jews were proud of the thought that they had kept the Law, and by saying they had broken it, Stephen touched the apples of their evil eyes. He climaxed his sermon by saying that they 'have received the Law by the direction of angels and have not kept it' (verse 53). He pointed to the Divine Plumline to show his hearers how crooked they were. This made them foam at the mouth like mad dogs. They were cut to the heart, then 'gnashed at him with their teeth'.

Their reaction didn't seem to worry Stephen too much. He was so full of the Holy Spirit, he was gazing at a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God' (Acts 7:56).

Another puissant poke in the apple of their anti-Christ eyes. They cried out with loud voices, stopped their ears, ran at him with one accord and dashed his body with great stones until he breathed the last breath of this contemptible world's air.

Stephen. s sermon was a little different from that of the modern-day preacher. He failed to mention 'Christ crucified', or of the fact that God loved them. He didn't even mention Grace. He didn't give that which is holy to the dogs. Neither did he woo his hearers with soft words, dim lights and soul-stirring music. If he had, he wouldn't have offended a soul, and could have remained in his comfort zone. Devil, demon, Jew and Gentile would all have smiled. Stephen's 'decisions' were non-existent. By modern standards, he had failed to reap any souls. The only decision made by his listeners, was a unified decision to spill the preacher's blood.

Stephen's boldness so stirred one hearer that he reinforced a resolve that would change the course of Christian history. Saul of Tarsus was so offended by what he saw and heard, he decided he would wipe the Church off the face of the earth.

Stephen's precious blood was the first to be shed as groundwork for the Church that would follow. He knew from experience the truth of the hymn-writer that would be penned many centuries later, 'Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my all'. Evangelical Utopia
Every time you open your mouth for God, you are breaking out of the barracks into frontline battle. You are taking a risk for the sake of the Kingdom. I was once sitting on a plane, relaxing and enjoying the flight. There were only a few people on board, so I had plenty of room to spread out and do some writing. I had good food, cool water, a pillow, and a tray for my computer-- happiness. It was a relief when no one sat next to me, so instead of getting into the 'battle of the fear of man', I could sit in comfort. There are no bees on planes.

After about three hours, I went for a walk to the rest room, and on the way back to my seat, I passed a man in his late twenties who looked a little bored, so I gave him an I.Q. card. When he failed two different tests, I sat down next to him and told him that we fail because our eyes are easily fooled. Then I did a sleight-of-hand trick that widened his eyes. He did the spiritual I.Q. test on side two of the tract, and proved to be very open to the things of God, so I spent about twenty minutes witnessing to him. Then I prayed with him, that his conscience would remind him of his past sins, that he would see the seriousness of his transgression, and that the Lord would grant him light until he came to a point of peace with God. I also prayed that God would bless him and his family and keep them in health. We parted with a handshake, and his other hand filled with literature.

When you step out of the warmth of the barracks, you risk being shot down in flames of rejection. But when you leave a warm room to venture into the cold, how nice and cozy it seems when you get back. When I sat back down in my seat, I had the heart-warming knowledge that I had pleased God and done what I should as a Christian.

If you have a good day for the Lord by being a true and faithful witness, when you go to bed at night, you will glow. You will know that this was a day of victory for you and defeat for the devil, because you broke free from the shackles of the fear of man.