"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins."
Have you ever posed the question to yourself, "What was it like to walk in the shoes of a prophet of God?" As I read Jeremiah one morning I was meditating on the life and ministry of the prophets....Portland came into my mind. I immediately had a negative feeling about going to the "wicked city"! I just do not like cities and crowds...but to receive a command to go an to preach the gospel to Portland...well the Lord had just gone to meddl'n in my affairs! For weeks I tried to dismiss this 'idea' spoken by that still small voice in the inner sanctuary in my soul. But God is very patient and firm in His leading. He literally led me to the streets by the hand (That is a story in itself!). This year marks my fourth year going into Portland to hand out tracts and to preach the gospel.
Some of the most severe criticism of open air preaching is from sincere Christians (and some insincere) but all confused concerning the Biblical ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They say things like "You are just making them mad!" or "This is not the way we should win people to Christ" or "you should be their friends first and earn the right to speak to them about eternal things!"". Of course there are the pragmatic souls that contend that Preaching is just not appealing to the modern man! We need fresh ideas to reach out to this generation! OK, so since gospel preaching "does not work" we should just abandon God's plan. (See 1 Corinthians 1:21)
Three weeks ago I saw two attractive young ladies standing and listening to brother Pavel Starykov preach the gospel. They looked as though they were troubled. I thought maybe they were lost and concerned for their soul's salvation, but after the message they approached us to say, "Why are you yelling at people? You are just driving them away from Christ!" We learned that these young people had come to Portland on a 'mission' from a church in California. They explained to us that they worked with people 'one on one', speaking with them about things that they cared about and then tried to get into a discussion of spiritual things. I explained to her that this is not an either/or proposition! We need to preach the gospel and work one on one. There are many opportunities for one on one work during and after the preaching. There is a great need for folks to hand out tracts. It would be wonderful to have saints on the ground praying for the the salvation of souls during all our activities. Christians need to go into the highways and hedges and see the needs....look into the eye of people. Why? The scriptures tell us in
Matthew 9:36
"....when Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them..."
Now to answer the young ladies question, God told the prophet to lift up his voice like a trumpet. Why? What was the purpose?
To shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins!
This is not going to be popular in any form or fashion! I know that everyone is not called to be a preacher on the box....but you can contribute to the preaching of the gospel in many ways. In the weeks ahead I hope to share with how you can do just that.
