Yesterday, I went back to Lakewood from about 1:15 to 5:00. My cross is just over 5 feet tall now- I was hoping to get away from it looking like an "I" and more like a cross, but it still looks like one. People still clearly know what it means, though, from the responses I get.
I stood at a few different spots along Detroit between Elmwood and Warren. My pastor joined me for a little bit around 1:30 for about 45 minutes. He got involved in a lengthy discussion with a man named Darius, while at about the same time I had started a conversation with a young man named Luke.
Luke inquired what the cross was about. I told him that it is appointed for a man once to die, and then comes judgment, and the question is, "Are you ready to be judged by God?" He said he was ready, and I asked Luke if he was saved. He replied, "I don't know." I then asked him if he was a Christian, he quickly answered yes.
I asked Luke what he would tell me I would need to do to become a Christian. He said, "Uhhh... love. Love one another."
I asked him, "That's it?" He replied, "I think so. Be true, maybe."
I told Luke that Scripture tells us we need to do two things for salvation- trust in the Lord and repent of your sins. I told him I know that it is a love message, but I broke into the law. I told him we've all lied, stolen, blasphemed, looked with lust (which Jesus says is adultery in the heart), and hated (which Jesus says is murder in the heart). I told him we are all guilty and deserve Hell and the reason we need Jesus is because we are all sinners.
I asked Luke if he had ever ready any of the Bible. He told me he had read part of it, and I asked him if he had ever read the Gospel of John. He said he hadn't. I told him that John 3 talks about being reborn. I asked, "I'm sure you've heard the term 'reborn' " and he said he had. I explained to him that when we repent and turn away from our sins, Jesus will give us a new heart with new desires and that is what is required to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
I told Luke that is the message I am trying to spread- what Mark 1:15 says: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel." To trust in Jesus like a parachute- if you are on a plane that is about to crash, merely believing in the parachute won't save you. You have to strap on the parachute, trust the parachute, and jump from the plane. In the same sense, you have trust Jesus and repent of your sins.
I told him to read the back of the gospel tract I have given him. I also told him to read the Gospel of John and make sure what I was telling him was the truth- not to just take my word for it.
I also had a conversation with a man named Nikkea. He was also carrying a sign, but for a business that had just opened up. I told him about how my pastor was trying to hand out tracts earlier and how it was 50/50 with rejection and acceptance of the tracts. Nikkea is a born again Christian and we were talking about the sinful state of the world.
While we were speaking, a woman named Jenny came by and asked for information about the church I attend. She said she really admired what I was doing. She was clearly upset about something and said he need to find her way back.
Another woman also walked by and mentioned that I had an easy job- to hide behind a cross.
Walking past a coffee shop, a young man on his cell phone called out to me, but I didn't realize he was talking to me. Again he called out and I looked back, and I stopped and he came over to me. He told whoever he was talking to on the phone that he would have to call them back.
"I've seen you out here before! I told my youth pastor about you!" I wasn't really sure what to say, and the only thing I could come up with was asking him if he was going to make a cross. I really feel like the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians when he said, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom" (1 Corinthians 2:1). I make a lot more sense when I have time to write something, proof read, and fine tune it. I gave him a tract and continued on toward the intersection of Cook and Detroit.
I also spoke with a man named Sam who says he has been born again since 1961 and was telling me about his life as a comedian. While today was a fruitful day, there were also the usual people who curse at me and reject God.
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