Tonight at about 5:30 or so I am supposed to be ministering for the first time, and by myself (because everybody else at church is on a missions trip to Uruguay), at a homeless shelter in the area. I've never done such before. Pray that God keep me humble and that I speak with much brokenness. I Plan on speaking on "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness..."
So, Jimmy, how did it go at the homeless shelter? I'm curious.
I hope God uses you mightily and gives you His wisdom for all things. Thank you Lord for raising up laborers and answering our prayers through our Lord Jesus Christ!As one who has been homeless and known several personally, it might be good to preach and expound on sin and repentance. Sin is one big part of how many people end up living on the streets, whether it was learned by parents and victims of abuse, or purposeful love of sin. Break the hard hearts with the fear of the Lord a little before preaching grace.
Thanks for asking. Sadly, I was given wrong directions on how to get to the shelter, and eventually I had to stop and ask for directions, as I had gotten horriably lost in an area I'm not familiar with. This made me nearly an hour late, and at that point I decided to just turn around and go home. Especially since the neighborhood that I was in is infested with drug dealers (I saw one drug deal happen while at an intersection). Since I was by myself, and it was getting dark, and since I was horriably late, and dinner was nearly over (the time I was to preach), I just decided to turn around and go home (of which I got lost trying to back track through the neighborhood). So, as for preaching there, I'll have to wait until next time my church goes as a group. We go once a month to serve at the shelter, but all the other people that usually go just so happened to be on a missions trip this time around, and technically we had canceled the trip this time around. I believe the Lord has dealt with me for a message to preach there (hungering and thirsting after righteousness instead of the things of this world), and I look forward to delivering that message, but I had to put it on hold this time around. Thanks for your prayers, and continue to pray for me.
I feel like I bear partial responsibility, since I was able to read the initial post until Sunday NIGHT. Iffin I had read it Saturday, I would have definitely gotten on my knees for such a mission as that. Praise God!! You know that Jesus wants us to preach to the poor!the reason I wrote this post was to share some homeless outreach tips with you. Your car is the outreach. You know how many times we see those poor lost souls with signs? "homeless, hungry God bless you". Go to Costco, and buy one of those packs of 12 white socks, it costs around 13 dollars, then go buy small containers of liquid soap, say about a dozen. Then pop online to www.chick.com and buy some packets of Chick tracts....man I love those things, they are so so old skool, they're cool, strong gospel message, sin hell repentance and JESUS!! I love them. You can even read them all ON-LINE!! My personal favorite is "A Demons nightmare"....that's a good one. http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0004/0004_01.aspThen go to www.ibs.org ....this is International Bible Society. Here, they've got some great Books of John for thrity cents a piece! and FULL Bibles for $1.99. just keep everything in the car with you.If the Lord leads you, and you see them on a freeway off ramp, or there's somewhere you can stop....do it. Stop. Get out and ask them if they want a pair of socks. 999 times out a thousand a homeless person will say YES! Clean socks are such a desirable item on the streets...and liquid soap, etc etc. bring a tract, a book of John.then you ask them their name, and then if they'd like a tract, or a Book of John, then you ask them if they want prayer. (forgive me if you know all this already, I just get excited writing about homeless outreach, its even better doing, its even better than talking about this putrid election cycles and these p.....ah never mind, lol)when they want prayer, now the exciting stuff starts to happen, and dont be afraid to touch them on the shoulder or ask to hold their hand when you both pray. Bless God.....at this time , doing homeless outreach, thats when I really feel the Lord holding me and them. Jesus is such a wonderful Savior! Jesus will take anybodies hand, no matter how dirty, how I desire to be as my Savior is, and how I desire to serve Him in this ministry of reconciliation!!!Then in the future iffin your burden grows, see if there's a Second Harvest, or some other food kitchen, and begin to carry groceries in your car.The car is the key, the car is the church.Oh yeh, see if you can hook up with your local Teen Challenge Center, and when you develop a relationship with them, the Teen Challenge people, then you have the ability to take those who WANT to get off the streets and into a Bible-based recovery program.God is so good, precious brother Jimmy, I'm praying for ya right now, that God makes that burden so intense, it pushes you face first to the floor.(in Holy Ghost prayer)In Jesus love,Neilps...for street prostitute outreach, get some nice roses, and when you see prostitutes on the stroll, you walk up to them (prayed up of course)_and offer them a rose and say, "I just want to let you know, that when God looks at you, this is what He sees, a beautiful flower that is precious to Him. Jesus loves you." and then walk away.I can tell you that their hearts will not be into their business that night.
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