A Taste for Blood.

As soon as I got to the event Saturday night, Dennis took me aside to let me know about a guy he had just met. He described this guy as 'having a taste for human blood'. Hmmmm. OK. He told me that he had tried talking to him but the guy told him that he had demons. Dennis said he was very unfocused and then he walked away.

Well, I watched him for a while. He seemed drawn to the kids at the event...not good. I told some of our fellow evangelists who were out that night and we prayed for him. All I could think of was that he was someone's child. I continued to watch him and then told one of the guys, EC that I was 'going in'.

As I walked near him I could see that he was absolutely filthy. His nails were all very long and you could immediately see dirt under them all. I also noticed that he had numerous scabs and sores covering his body. As I got closer I saw human bite marks on his exposed skin. I wondered how he compared to the maniac of Gadara.

"Hey, I like your shirt!" I said. "What's the cross for?"

"It's what Jesus did. See the skulls? They are death!!" He had a very strange look in his eyes while we talked.

"Yeah. What about this other cross? What's that about?" I asked. He mumbled something unintelligible. "Can we talk? Do you have time? You seem like a very interesting guy. Let's sit here."

He consented and we sat down. I told him my name and he told me his. He said he was 19. (I am going to change his name in this blog for his sake.)

"Do you live around here Tom?" He told me he did. He also told me that he was raised in 'the system' of foster care since he was very young. He told me that he had been sexually abused and mentally abused. He can not read or write.

"Then they threw me out on the street, now I live with my real Mom." As he spoke you could see he was under great pressure to try and focus. He was very aware of everything around him and yet he didn't look directly at anything.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that." I told him. "I want to ask you some questions. Do you think you could answer some for me?" He nodded. "Where will you go when you die?" We talked a bit about the reality of Heaven and Hell. Tom didn't like the thought that he might end up in Hell but told me he didn't think he could go to Heaven because of some of the things he had done. I won't relate those things here.

"When Jesus hung on that cross He looked far into the future and saw your face, Tom. The Bible says that He bore all of our sins. He knew each one you would commit and He decided to pay for every one of them." At various points in our conversations I could see his muscles constrict and he would seem to go into a trance-like state.

"Do you believe that everyone has demons?" he asked me.

"No. But I do believe that some people have demons." I told him.

"I have demons." he said. "I see demons and angels and other things that people don't see." He quickly stood up and asked if I would come with him to go see a guy.

"Why do you need to see the guy?" I asked, fully aware that I had friends all around me but was not going to go beyond where they could see me.

"I want to get a cigarette." he said. At various points during the evening he would simply stand up and change the subject.
After he got the cigarette we walked away from the crowd a bit so that he could smoke it. "I tried to kill myself, I slit my wrists. I got hit by a car and thrown halfway into a parking lot." I thought of the father who took his demon-posessed boy to Jesus. (Luke 9) I found myself praying that the Lord would speak to this boy through his fog.

"I'm a destroyer! See that bicycle over there?" He pointed quickly at a bike across the parking lot. "I could tear it down and make weapons out of it! I can make a weapon out of anything." He told me that he sometimes fought even though he didn't want to. "I put the last guy in a full-body cast. When I was in jail I bit a huge hunk out of my arm because I didn't want to fight." Suddenly he got up and walked toward our booth.

Dayna was sitting on the slope behind the booth and I could see she was praying for us.

"Let's go sit over here with my friend, Dayna." While we sat with her I told Tom that the only one who could speak to God about his sin would be him.

"Yeah, I know. I talk to him alot." he said.

"The only thing He wants to hear from you is complete surrender." At this his eyes became wild and I could see the muscles in his arms and hands completely contort them. "Only you can do it and it may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life." Dayna prayed as we talked. "If you think this is something that you can do then go ahead."

Tom talked a minute about how he could never close his eyes here. We told him he was safe and that the Lord would protect him if He made Him Master of his life.

"Have you ever played 'chicken' with a semi-truck?" he asked us.

"No."

"Well, I have and we were about this close when we finished" he measured about a foot's space.

"Well, you can't clean yourself up, Tom. You have to go to God and ask Him to cleanse you from all of this filth and sin that we talked about."

"Yeah, I know. I want to do that." he said.

"Do you need Jesus?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Can you say it?"

"Yeah." he answered but never said it.

"Tom if you want to talk to God go ahead." I invited. "I will pray for you and then you pray, ok?" He nodded.

I prayed out loud while Dayna prayed silently for us. Tom stared straight ahead with wild, staring eyes. His hands were contorted again and he looked as though he was fighting himself.

He bowed his head and started mumbling gibberish. He kept it up for a few minutes. Then he suddenly stood up and walked away from us.

I walked down to him and said, "Tom did you pray?"

He was very angry now and said, "Yeah I was praying in tongues, don't you know that?" And then very calmly he said, "They have crosses over at that table and I want one but I don't have any money."

We walked over to the table with him. The crosses were made from nails bound together with wire. He chose a purple one and Dayna bought it for him. The lady showed him how to adjust the leather and he put it around his neck. He stood still for a moment holding onto it.

"That cross won't protect you, you know that don't you? Only Jesus can save you, Tom".

"I know."

We parted ways and he took my hand twice saying thank you each time.

Please pray for him. God knows his real name.

Window Tinting and Quarks

The conversation this morning happened on me so fast that I almost don't remember how! I went in to get the driver's window tinted on my truck. It's been so cold here that it peeled off.

When I walked in to talk to the guy I noticed that he had a very nice 1965 Mustang fastback in the garage. It was his and he told me all about it. It was Caprice blue and he had re-done everything on the car. It was beautiful. He told me his name was Jeff.

Jeff measured my window for the film and as he did he told me that he used to restore Mustangs for a man. His job was to bring them all up to factory specifics. He said he loved doing it and it taught him a lot.

"I loved working on it and it kept my mind on it instead of other things." He laughed when he said this. "You know, it was a distraction. Something to keep my mind busy. That's what it's about you know, just keeping your mind busy while you're here. We're not here for long!"

'Wow,is this really being dropped in my lap like this?' I thought. "That's right, here one minute and gone the next!" I was meeting Allyson at the nursing home when I was finished here and I had prayed earlier that God would bring someone into our paths to talk to. Guess He was already starting!!

"The big question is what next Jeff?"

"Yeah, you got that right! I'll tell you what I think..." Jeff proceeded to tell me that he believed that God created the world with a big bang about 17 billion years ago and man has evolved ever since. He told me that he liked the science of it. He told me he 'liked religion' because we needed to keep that balance of good and bad in us. It made the world go 'round. He told me that he thinks about this a lot.

When I asked if he believed in life after death he told me that he doesn't really like the idea of Hell. He said that he believed that our spirits came back in our kids.

"So, if I have this right you believe that you are a compilation of your ancestors?"

"That's exactly it!" He nodded then went on to tell me that we all had good and bad in us and then when we die we might get to float around 'god'. He proceeded to use familiar words like forgiveness and Heaven. "I don't believe the Bible. I believe in science."

I told him that my Dad and I had just had a conversation yesterday about quarks. We were discussing the possibility of pure sound being able to break quarks down. "The Bible says that God spoke the world into existence." He didn't know this.

I let him finish his thoughts and when he seemed to pause I asked him when he would be good enough to die. He seemed puzzled by the question. "Well, you mentioned a balance between good and evil in us. When are you good enough to die?"

"Ahhhh...well..."

"Jeff are you a good person?" I asked.

"Yeah. I try do do what's right." he said.

"I want to ask you some questions."

"Go ahead, I'll be honest!" he said. My phone was ringing and I saw that it was Allyson. She probably wondered where I was, so I hit the answer button. My plan was to let her hear what was going on so she would know I was going to be late. I was sitting over in a chair away from the truck and Jeff was standing at the truck with the driver's door open. Suddenly a voice said, 'Your call cannot be completed.'

"Whoa!! Was that the voice of God??" Jeff laughed. He seemed a bit shocked by this.

"No just Bluetooth." oops. I took the phone off Bluetooth and dialed her number then held the phone down. She told me later that she heard us and had prayed for us. By the way, it's a good idea to do this and have someone praying for you while you are talking to someone.

After Jeff answered some questions and admitted that he had probably broken each Commandment I asked him how God would judge him..."Guilty or innocent?"

"I'm going straight to Hell!" he said this with a bit of levity but I didn't let him off the hook.

"Yes, you are." I let it soak in.

"Well, we all are!" he said, as if this were some sort of comfort.

"Do you know what God did for us, so we don't have to go there?" Jeff didn't answer, he looked mystified. "Any idea?" He had no idea!

I told him about Jesus dying for us. He told me he thought it would have been much 'smarter' of God to just have the whole cross come out of the ground with Jesus on it and for Jesus to say something like, "I'm dying for you now. OK go ahead and continue." and then for the cross to go back into position in the hole in the ground. hmmm.

"Do you really think that He could not have come off of that Cross in a flash?? Scripture says that Jesus could have called leagues of angels but he didn't. He willingly laid His life down for you. When he was dying he saw your face Jeff. He knew each and every sin you would commit and He paid for it anyway." We talked about repentance and faith in Jesus.

Jeff still had questions and didn't believe that Jesus was without sin. After talking with him a while longer, I gave him the courtroom illustration and asked him if he could leave after his apology to the court. He got it. I talked again about repentance.

"Jeff, do you think this is important?"

"Yes, I do!" he said and stepped back.

"When do you think you'll take care of it? You never know when it's your time to go and if you wait, it may be too late for you!"

"I know... soon!" he said. By now some other people had come into his shop. I gave him a Good Person tract with the payment. He gave me a hug and told me he enjoyed our conversation.

Please pray for Jeff. It seems a bit strange to think that someone might not be familiar with the reason that Jesus came, but that's why we're here-after all!!

Aguas Vivientes!

Aguas Vivientes!

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 05:41 AM PDT
I could not remember my password when I was on the net last night trying to pay a bill. Arrrgggh! Finally I broke down and called Jose' in Customer Service. He was a very nice young man with a heavy Spanish accent. He was very helpful and solved my problem.

After we were finished with the password issue Jose' asked me if I had any other questions. I just love that. Of course I told him I did.

"Jose' I have a question for you that is off the usual subject, but please take this seriously. I want you to really think about this, OK?"

"OK."

"How do I get to Heaven?"

He was quiet a moment and then said, "You have to do the right thing, you have to obey laws and be nice to other people."

"Do you do those things?" I asked him.

"Yes ma'am, I go to church and confession and take communion, and I'm nice to other people. I try to do the right thing."

"You are a good man?"

"Yes ma'am. I try to be." he said.

"Jose' I want to test your theory, OK? But I want to make sure that before you answer these questions you really think about them and you are honest before God-OK?"

"Yes ma'am."

I knew that this call was being taped and I also wanted to be respectful that Jose' was at work. I quickly went through 3 of the 10 Commandments and we discovered that Jose' had lied, stolen and blasphemed God's name.

He quickly justified his actions. "But I haven't committed anything really big."

"So you think maybe God will weigh everything and decide that you did more good than bad?" I asked.

"Yes ma'am." Even I would vouch that he was very polite.

After talking a bit more Jose' was struck by the fact that our sins and acts of disobedience are something that we cannot erase. They will stand forever, unless erased and forgiven by The Only One Who Can Forgive.

Jose' also learned the reason that Jesus really came-to make a payment for us that we CANNOT. We simply don't have it! We talked about repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone.

"You can't hang on to your good works, Jose'. You must let them go and hang on to Jesus. He's the only way!" I quoted John 14:6 to him. I hope you will really do some thinking about this. I don't want you to go to Hell, Jose'.

"I don't want to go to Hell either!"

"The only way for you to avoid it now is to talk to God. Beg Him for forgiveness and put your trust only in Jesus! How do you say Living Water in Spanish?" I never can remember that!!! (Sorry Spanish-speaking friends!)

"Aguas vivientes."

"That's it! Go to that website, Jose'."

"Wait a minute...I want to write this down!" I could hear him scrambling at his desk.

After getting off of the phone, I prayed for Jose' that he would seek God and not stop until he found Him.

I am so very thankful that we have resources for the Spanish-speakers out there!!