Arresting Truth
A FRIEND OF MINE WAS ARRESTED IN ENGLAND AND FOUND GUILTY for a heinous crime. Was it robbery? Assault? Murder? Nope. None of those. Mike Stockwell got busted, along with his compatriot Michael Overd, for speaking the truth!
I met Mike Stockwell back in 2008 when I was leading a team for The Ambassador’s Academy, an evangelism ministry started by Ray Comfort that teaches normal Christians how to share their faith simply and biblically by handing out Gospel tracts, having personal conversations and by street preaching.
I didn’t know it then, but Stockwell would continue to preach the gospel in streets around the country and the world as a calling and vocation for the next nine years. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news”—and he obeyed!
Now he’s paying the price.
Why I Kissed Evangelism Goodbye (Kind of….)
I KISSED EVANGELISM GOODBYE on this day a year ago. Well kind of….
For those who know me, this is an odd confession. On January 1, 2004, I made a commitment to share my every day. Then on July 31st of 2005, I heard “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” after Ray Comfort taught at our church. My eyes were then opened to the most effective way to share my faith.
Soon after, I taught The Way of the Master for seven years at my former church Hope Chapel—and everywhere, even in China! I also led evangelism teams to almost every large event in the L.A. area, including Michael Jackson’s memorial service, (we were outside in the streets), the Academy Awards, The Emmy Awards, the Lakers Championships, the L.A. Kings, and thirteen parades a year. I was quite the zealous Gospel proclaimer over the years, handing out perhaps, hundreds of thousands of tracts, preaching in the open air, and, of course, having hundreds of one-to-one conversations, reminding people how they have broken God’s Law and how they needed a Savior to be forgiven.
Not only that, our teams preached with Ray Comfort regularly in Huntington Beach and I served as a leader for three years with the Ambassadors’ Academy, the training arm of Living Waters Ministries.
I say all this so you will know that I was totally committed to the cause of preaching the Gospel, because, after all, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?” (Romans 10:14-15)
Then something changed as I was praying in my bed during my devotional time on that October 22nd Monday, 2018.
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