I Haven't Forgotten You, North Olmsted - 9/12/2010

Today, I went back to a spot I haven't been to in a while- Dover Center and Lorain Road in North Olmsted. I was out from 2:40 to 3:45 and a lot of people in their cars got to see the cross, but I didn't have any conversations. I am have a full time job now and won't be able to go out as much as I used to, but I hope to still go out on the weekends a bit. I need to hit up all the old spots I used to go to- I've been in Lakewood a lot recently.

A Conversation With Jeff - 4/20/10

Last Thursday, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Detroit in Westlake. A young man stopped and asked if he could pray for me, which was definitely appreciated.

Today, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted from 3:15 to 4:45. Around 4:00, a young man named Jeff (not my new fishing buddy) approached me and asked about the cross. I said to him, "The Bible says, 'It is appointed for a man once to die, and then comes judgment.' So, if you were to die today, are you ready to face God?"

After a second, he replied he was. I asked him if he could say for certain if he was going to heaven. He said he couldn't say for certain.

After this, our conversation went into a lot of different areas. I made sure to tell Jeff about the necessity of repentance and the parachute analogy. I made sure to define the difference between repentance and confession- confession is merely admitting guilt and repentance is a turning away from sin.

At this point, I used the analogy of being in a court of law with a fine that you cannot pay. The judge is about to sentence you to life in prison when someone comes in and pays your fine. You are no longer under the demands of the law, not because you are innocent, but because your fine has been paid and justice has been served. This is what Jesus did on the cross- he bore our sins in our place and took upon our punishment on the cross.

Jeff asked about different Bible versions. I told him that modern versions like the ESV and NASB are very accurate to the original Greek and Hebrew and offered an example of a difference in translations. One translation may say "gird up your loins" while another may say "clothe yourself," but they both mean the same thing. He had mentioned he thought his Bible at home was King James, and I told him that this version would have "thou, thee, thine, etc." in it- just different language of a different time.

At one point, Jeff told me that his girlfriend was moving away from God and asked if I had any ideas on bringing her back to God. I directed Jeff to LivingWaters.com and encouraged him to listen to Hell's Best Kept Secret. I told him the reason we need Jesus is not to make our lives better, but because we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We are all sinners that need a Savior.

Unless we repent and place our trust in Him, we are going to go to hell. It's not about having your "best life now." I recommended that he take his girlfriend through the law to show her sinfulness and her need for a Savior.

I started going through the law and I must have hit a nerve with Jeff. He asked me about a specific sin and what the Bible said about it. I had read earlier from 1 Corinthians 6 and was brutally honest about what the Bible says. I think at this point Jeff realized that his salvation was in jeopardy. I had the same experience myself when I first started reading the Word of God. I read John 3 and the necessity of being born again and Luke 13 about the necessity of repentance.

I asked Jeff if he had a Bible and he said he did. I encouraged him to read the gospel of John. Jeff has some tough decisions ahead of him. Please pray that he makes the right decisions.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 4/10/10

Saturday, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted for a little over an hour in the afternoon. One person that drove by yelled out that Satan was coming- I'm not sure people understand what they are doing when they say things like that. I also got a thumbs up or two. I didn't hand out any tracts or have any conversations, but there was a lot of vehicle traffic.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 3/24/10

Wednesday, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted from around 1:00 to 3:00. While I was there, a woman approached me and asked what I was doing. I told her trying to spread the Gospel. She told me she knew Jesus but that she was battling an addiction. She asked for prayer- I briefly prayed for her before she had to go and I left her with a Gospel tract.

When it was getting close to 3:00 and I was soon to leave, a man pulled up and parked in the parking lot behind me (at this point I was standing on the corner diagonal from where I was in this shot). I was watching him as he took some things out of his car, and I realized it was a giant wrench along with a sandwich board. There is a sign guy locally that advertises for a local plumber and turns out this was his spot for the day also.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 3/05/10

Today was my first day back on the street since January. It was in the mid to upper 30's yesterday and it is amazing how warm that feels when you go through winter in Northeast Ohio! I was out today from about 2:15 to 3:15.

Shortly after arriving, a young woman came up on the sidewalk and looked at the cross and wanted to know more about it. Her name was Alex. She asked me what Mark 1:15 was and I quoted it to her. She told me she had heard things about the Old Testament and the New Testament and she seemed to be a little confused about it. She told me she grew up Christian and was was currently "experimenting."

I asked her if she thought of herself as a good person, and she replied, "For the most part." We went through the law and she admitted that God would find her guilty, but she started to say, "but if I go and confess..."

I said, "Now wait, if you are guilty, should he send you to heaven or hell?"

She replied, "I think that's up to Him.. it depends."

I brought up an example of her breaking the law here on earth and that the law needs to be satisfied- that her confession isn't going to get her off the hook.

"So he should send you to hell."

She replied, "So, He's like the ultimate sheriff."

I asked her if she knew what Jesus did, and she replied, "He died on the cross."

At this point I started to stumble over my thoughts a bit but still managed to explain imputed righteousness to her, our need for repentance, and how we must trust in Jesus like a parachute. It's been a while since I've had any witnessing conversations (from not being on the streets plus the streets drying up from the cold even when I was out) and I realized I should listen to Hell's Best Kept Secret and True and False Conversion again to brush up on my witnessing analogies.

I gave Alex a million dollar bill and encouraged her to read the tract and check out the website listed on the tract. I was able to hand out 9 tracts yesterday, including the one I gave to Alex. I gave some tracts to some younger guys walking by on the sidewalk and one mentioned, "I have a Michael Jackson one."

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 1/22/2010

Today, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted from 3:10 to 4:10. Traffic starts to get heavy around 3 o'clock in the areas around here. It's been a while since I've been at this spot with the cross. Today was about 40 degrees, so I wanted to get out while it was still relatively warm (compared to the 20's and low 30's). Someone told me "God bless you," I got a few honks, at least one thumbs up, and I also got some jeering.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 12/03/09

Yesterday I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted. I was out from 3:00 to 4:15 and handed out one tract.

A Conversation With Debbie and Richard - 11/28/09

Saturday, I went to the intersection of Great Northern and Brookpark in North Olmsted. I was there from 12:55 to 2:00 and while I was there, two people stopped by to talk to me. The first person was pulling out of a parking lot and looked at my sign and responded that she was ready. She came back by and inquired about my cross and the motivation I had for doing this.

Her name was Debbie and I told her about Tony Miano's cross in California and a little about Living Waters and Way of the Master. She told me she was sitting at the auto repair shop behind me for 2 hours and the Lord really used the time to get her attention. She told me she was having problems praying effectively.

She said the Lord was showing her that she wasn't really putting Him first in her life. I think that is something we can all admit to. I told Debbie I try to follow Matthew 6:33 ("Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you"), but we all still come up short.

We also got in a short discussion about holiness and being completely rid of sin in our lives. I agreed with her that we could be holy, but I disagree that we can be completely without sin. She told me to ask God about it and He will show me the truth, but I have God's Word which says in 1 John 1:8, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

A man named Richard had slowed down as he was turning and gave me a piece of paper that directed me to go to a website and watch two videos. He drove by again and stopped and came to talk to me. He told me the website was for a book he was reading about the love of God. I do not want to state the book here and endorse it because I have not read it yet, but I did look at most of the two videos and the theology was clearly sound in them.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 11/20/09

Friday, I went to the intersection of Lorain and Dover Center in North Olmsted. I was out from around 2:00 to 3:00 and didn't hand out any tracts, but I did see Greg, who works at a restaurant across the street, who I had spoke to before.

Brookpark & Great Northern in North Olmsted - 11/11/09

Today, I went to the intersection of Brookpark and Great Northern in North Olmsted from about 3:10 to 4:30. The forecast was for sun and the mid 50's, but there were strong west wind gusts that made it tough to display the cross.

Today was my first day out with a new cross. I trimmed a few inches from the top of the cross and added it to the bottom. The height is still the same, but there is more room towards the bottom. I was able to move "Google" above "Cleveland Cross Guy." They are at six inches and seven inches tall, respectively, now. I think it is easier to read and will be visible to more people.

Here's a side by side comparison of my new cross (on the left) with my new cross (on the right):

I gave one tract to someone who was at the stop light traveling south on Great Northern. They rolled down their window and asked, "Ready for what?" and I gave them a tract.

Lorain and Porter/Butternut Ridge in North Olmsted - 11/06/09

Today, I went to the intersection of Lorain and Porter/Butternut Ridge in North Olmsted from 2:30 to 4:00. This is a new spot for the cross and I'm not really a fan of it because of the way the intersection is set up (it is actually a 5 way intersection). It was tough to find a good spot to be visible by almost everyone like at my other intersections, but the cross was still visible to many. I picked this spot because it is close to North Olmsted High School.

There were a few students walking home from school and I was able to hand out tracts to a group of about seven and then a group of about three. Both groups asked me what my sign said. I said to a girl in the second group, "It is appointed for man once to die and then comes Judgment. Are you ready to be judged by God?"

She responded, "Yes."

I asked, "You are?"

She said, "Wait, what?"

I asked again, "Are you ready to be judged by God?"

She asked, "Is that a bad thing?"

Either her or one of her friends responded to my question, "Actually, no."

One of them also replied, "I'm ready."

I had already given them gospel tracts at this point and told them to read the back side because their one friend was beginning to leave and they wanted to follow behind. I wanted to go through the law with the one girl, but didn't have the chance, but at least they left with tracts.

Brookpark & Great Northern in North Olmsted - 11/01/09

Today, I went to the intersection of Brookpark and Great Northern in North Olmsted. I stood with the cross from 2:40 to 3:40. What looked like a group of teenagers pulled up to the light on Great Northern and one of them asked about my sign and if it had something to do with church.

I told him to search on the Internet for "Cleveland Cross Guy" and after that I said to him, "It is appointed for man once to die, and then comes judgment. Are you ready to be judged by God?" He replied, "No, I'm good." I hope the others in the car at least had a seed planted in their head or may be curious to see what the message of the cross is.

A man on an electric scooter on the sidewalk crossed Great Northern and asked me what I was selling. I told him I was trying to spread the gospel. I asked him if he was ready, and he said, "Yea, I've read them." I tried once more, but he again said, "Yea, I've read them." I'm not sure what he was referring to or if misheard or misunderstood me.

A Pastor and a Catholic Teen - 10/30/09

Today I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted. I arrived at 2:45 and stayed until 5:00. It was in the low 70's today and I really think this is it for the warm weather. After a short while, a man came up and said he wanted to extend his blessing to me, "For standing on the battlefield, for the kingdom of God."

I really appreciate when I get people who stop and give throw their support behind the cross. His name was Dennis and he pastors a local church that gathers in the west side of Cleveland. I showed him a Way of the Master tract and went through a quick law and gospel presentation to show him how I evangelize.

Dennis asked me if I met anyone from Islam or a Jew yet, and I said I had not. He told me Jews are interesting because they are God's people, but they don't think they need to receive Christ. His timing was impeccable, as I encountered a teenager shortly thereafter who said he was Jewish.

I told Dennis about how I just had a Bible study on that in Romans 2:26-29, about how the Jews' circumcision is regarded as uncircumcision if they fail to keep the Law. He told me he can only imagine what Jesus went through in His day.

A little later, I had a group of three male teens walk by and the cross caught one of their attentions. He told me he was Catholic and pulled a gold chain of a cross out from underneath his shirt to expose it. I asked him if he knew any of the commandments. He mentioned, "Don't disrespect your parents. Don't kill." Either him or his friend mentioned "Love thy neighbor."

I asked him, "Let me ask you this- do you think you've kept the Ten Commandments?" He said, "No, because I don't know the rest. What are all of them?"

I proceed to go through the first seven and when I got to the seventh (adultery), he said he had never broken that. I asked him, "Well, have you looked at a woman with lust, sexual desire?"

"Yea...."

I say, "Jesus says if you look with lust, you've committed adultery in the heart. Have you ever called someone a fool or an idiot?"

"Yea."

I say, "Jesus says you are liable to judgment."

"Well, that's not my fault."

I say, "It's not your fault? Who's fault is it?"

"I dunno..."

I gave him a tract and told him to read the backside of it. "I have a question. Doesn't it say in the Bible God is going to forgive you for all your sins?"

I told him, "God is a forgiving God, and He will forgive you of your sins, but do you know what you must do for God's forgiveness to apply to you? It doesn't just apply."

"You have to pray."

I ask, "Pray?"

"Yea, and try to follow His commandments."

I say, "But none of us have kept His commandments. We've all broken them. Have you kept them?"

"No."

I say, "OK, neither have I. That leaves us guilty. God should send us to hell because we've broken His commandments."

"That's why we pray for forgiveness."

I ask, "But how does that forgiveness apply? Does He just grant it willingly?"

"No... we sacrifice ourselves, right?" His friends were starting to distract him a bit at this point.

I ask, "Do you understand why Jesus died on the cross?"

"To forgive us of our sins."

I explained the necessity of repentance to him to have the forgiveness of sins. I asked him if he had ever heard the word repent in church, and he said he hadn't. He told me he had gone to a Bible school and how he had to memorize certain prayers for his first communion. At this point, he and his two friends walked away.

I handed out 3 tracts today.

Brookpark & Great Northern in North Olmsted - 10/26/09

Today I went to the intersection of Brookpark and Great Northern in North Olmsted. I arrived at 12:30 and I was warmer than I expected to be with the sun beating down on me. I hadn't brought my water, so I left after only an hour. I handed out 2 tracts to people passing by and one man declined a tract when I told him it was a gospel tract- he said he wasn't religious. I tried to get him to keep it and take a look at it later, but he declined. Also, someone yelled "Hail Satan!" as they drove by. If they only knew what they were saying... maybe they do.

Brookpark and Great Northern in North Olmsted - 10/19/09

My first stop today was Brookpark and Great Northern in North Olmsted around 2:20. I was hoping to stay for two hours, but there were some moderate wind gusts, so I packed up after about 20 minutes and headed north to Westlake.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 10/18/09

This was the second spot I went to today. I arrived around 1:10 and stayed until 2:10. If you look in the picture above, you can see some on the opposite corner with a sign promoting Halloween. I normally don't have competition on opposing corners, but I did today. Here is a close up of them:



There were a lot of horn honks today, but they were for the person in the costume. Someone also found it necessary to curse at me while driving by. A photographer for a local newspaper also showed up to get a picture of the cross for the new article I was interviewed for last week. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather forecast for this week before winter sets in.

A Conversation with Kevin - 10/16/09

Today started out with sprinkles that I hoped would stop- but turned into a steady rain! It was worth it, though. Today I was blessed to meet a young man named Kevin. Kevin asked me about what the cross meant, and I told him I was trying to spread the Gospel. As it turns out, Kevin goes to a C&MA church, just like I do, and is going through some of the same trials I have gone through.

I took Kevin through the law presentation and clearly, Kevin understood we are all sinners. I also took him through the good news of the Gospel- Jesus' atoning work for us on the cross. Kevin mentioned he quite didn't understand how the blood of Jesus applies to our sins. I explained to him how in the Old Testament that God required animal sacrifices for the covering of sins, but Jesus was the perfect, final atoning sacrifice for our sins. I was able to explain imputed righteousness to him- how Jesus' perfect, sinless state, is imputed to us when we repent and believe in Jesus.

Kevin told me he had been a Christian for 3 years. He told me he was struggling with deciphering how God speaks to him. I told him I was struggling with the same thing- trying to figure out God's will for my life.

I told him that I had sin in my life and as long as I refused to deal with that sin, that I was impeding God's progress in my life. I also told Kevin that God speaks to us through His Word. I told him that Scripture is God's communication with us and that when I am reading the Word, God reveals new things to me that I may not have previously seen.

I asked Kevin if he was born again, and he said he wasn't sure. I told him what it meant to be born again was to repent of your sins and place your trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Once you have done that, God will give you a new heart with new desires to serve Him. I told him that it may sound foreign that someone would desire to do something like hold a cross on the side of the street, but I once used to think like that, also.

I also told Kevin about how I continually asked God to take away my sinful desires but nothing was happening, until I took the first step in repentance and turned away from my sin. I told him that God wants us to take the first step in obedience. Once I had taken the first step, then the desires started to subside. Kevin said maybe that's what he had needed to hear. I told Kevin how we needed to be "Dead to Sin, Alive to God" as Romans 6 says.

We also had similar concerns about our fathers and their eternity. I was able to explain some of the other analogies of Way of the Master, and I told Kevin how taking the WOTM really cleared up my understanding of my faith. We also discussed a few other things, like how we should "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

I gave Kevin a tract with my church's website and encouraged him to read the post on "How to Get to Heaven" which contains more WOTM analogies and also how there was a message posted by my pastor about "Do I Need Jesus?" Please be in prayer for Kevin and his relationship with our Savior.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 10/08/09

Yesterday, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted. I stayed for a little over an hour, when rain started to move in. It was a quiet day and I handed out 4 or 5 gospel tracts. I also added the web address to my blog at the bottom of my cross, hoping people would check it out and see the image that says, "I have seen the cross. What does it mean?" So far, I haven't seen any new local traffic yet, but it was only the first day with the new addition to the cross.

Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted - 10/03/09

Today, I went to Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted. As you can see in the picture, I added "NEEDGOD.COM" to the bottom of the cross. It isn't as visible as the other text, but some people will be able to see it. It was a pretty quiet day, aside from someone rolling down their window and telling me that God didn't exist. I said, "OK," and then said to myself, "says the fool in his heart." That's the response I should have given instead of just "OK." I was actually across the street from where I took this picture. I arrived around 2:00 PM and stayed for a few minutes past an hour.

First Time Stoplight Preaching With the Cross

Today, John, an elder from church, came over to pick me up and we went to intersection of Dover Center and Lorain in North Olmsted. We arrive around 12:30. I loaded up my camera backpack with my ESV New Testament and the Evidence Bible and completely forgot the backpack.

We had two signs today: my cross and another sign that read "NEEDGOD.COM" with about 7 inch lettering. John pointed out it was a little hard to read since both words butt up against each other, so I will have to make an adjustment to it. We took turns holding each sign, depending on who was stop light preaching.

John wanted me to start stop light preaching, which I have never done. I told him to go first. He took my cross and read the stop light preaching message I had typed up and taped in the reverse side of the cross:

"Listen up! Have you ever told a lie? Stolen anything? Taken the Lord's name in vain? Lusted after another? We've all done these things. We're all lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterers at heart. We will all stand guilty before God on Judgment Day, and He would rightly send us to Hell for all of eternity. Here is the good news. The Bible tells us that if we repent of our sins- that is, to turn away from them- and place our trust in Jesus Christ, we can be saved from the fires of Hell and have eternal life in Heaven. Please go to NEEDGOD.COM to read how to be saved."

Here is the audio of John:


I also took my cross and read the same message to a different set of cars stopped at the light another time. We only had about 30 seconds before the cars in the turning lane got the green arrow.

Here is the audio of me:


I'm glad John went with me today, because he pushed me to do stop light preaching. It wasn't as hard as I thought once I started doing it. There was a moment when I was reading right before we left when a dog with its head stuck out a window starting imitating me talking. We used to have a lab mix at home growing up that used to do the same thing and I couldn't help but start laughing as this dog was doing this.

We handed out a total of five tracts today.