Cry Aloud and Spare Not!

Isa 58:1

"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.

Thank You for Your Prayer Support Today!

We had a great day out on the streets handing out gospel literature and preaching on the box. Here are few pictures of the day. I will follow up Sunday night with a full report. Thank you for your prayers. Souls were stirred to think about sin and judgment today. Our prayer is that the Spirit of God will grant to them repentance!

PRAYER REQUESTED

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Please pray for us this morning as we are going down town Portland to hand out gospel tracts and to preach. We gather at the Skidmore Fountain at 10:30 a.m. A great way to get down to the Saturday Market is to park at the Lloyd Center and catch the Max down to the Market. Best of all it is Free.

Hear the latest news, happenings on the Streets of Portland, Be a Prayer Partner,you will find the 'gadget' to link up to 'On the Streets of Portland....", on the left margin of the page. You will hear the latest news of how the Lord is working down town each week.

Thank You for your prayers and support in the ministry of the gospel!

Brother Jim

They went forth Two by Two...

This past Saturday the regular 'crew' of evangelist were not able to meet at the Fountain at the regular time of 10:30am. Paul had to work days and would not be there on the site until 3:45pm and I had to go to work at 3:00pm. I almost did not go down,...it would have been so easy not to...but thanks to Barry Gorter I was able to have a partner to hand out tracts at the fountain.

It was 'Vanity Fair' in the extreme this past Saturday. There was the regular guy banging on plastic pales, but the young man driving nails into his head was more than I wanted to look at! In the midst of all this we stood our ground and handed out the gospel until the seed bag was empty...

PROVIDENTIAL MEETING
We took the MAX and sitting across the aisle was a young boy about 13..."Do you have one of these?" as I handed him a picture tract..."This was your life..." He began to read it...I then ask him if he had ever read the Bible. He said, "No" I handed him a Gospel of John and he took it. "If the Bible were a great portrait with Jesus as the main object, that little book in your hand is a picture of Jesus' face...read it and you will know Him. "Who are you anyway?" the boy asked. "I'm a preacher...", I replied. He seemed satisfied with the explanation and went his way, PRAY FOR THE WORD OF GOD TO HAVE IT'S WAY IN THE HEARTS THE DEAR ONES WHO STRETCHED OUT A HAND TO RECEIVE IT!

GOD BLESS... See you Saturday?

Saturday Market Report

This last Saturday marked the beginning of the street market season in Portland Oregon! We were there to minister the gospel of our Lord to the crowds that came. I have to confess the weather at my house on the hill was foggy and rainy...I thought this would be a great day to stay home around the fire...But thank the Lord for my good Ukrainian brother, Paul, who had E-mailed these words to me ..., "Dear brothers, tomorrow Saturday Market will start! I'll be there ....Hope to see you! Luke 10:2!"

We began to arrive at the fountain at around 10:45am, gathered for prayer and set up our "Good News" station to preach the gospel. Brother Lafayette began the day with a message on the love of God extended to a lost world from John 3:16 and spoke of Jesus Christ as the only opportunity to receive the fullness of the Father's love. But if any man rejects the Son, they reject the only love God has provided for lost man."He that has the Son has life, but he that has not the Son has not life", 1John 5:12.



There were others who came to preach the gospel on the street. We had six different brothers sharing the speaking duties during our time there at the fountain! The Lord is raising up people to hold forth the gospel in this dark time. Brother Steve Dickensheets, who works in open air ministry with Ron Roman during the week at the Square, spoke the word more that once during the day. Brother Carlen, a brother I had met two weeks ago at the Square, also stood to preach very wonderfully a good Biblical presentation of the gospel with a clear voice and a fervent heart! It was wonderful to be there and witness the working of the Holy Spirit in so many 'regular folks' to reason out of the scriptures many times in the face of ridicule and mockery.

'Tracting'
I met Janelle, a young lady who came out with Christian bothers from her church to hand out tracts. She said that this was her first time out! We had many opportunities to speak to people one on one during the preaching. Many time people will stop and listen and seek out someone to speak to. There was one singular moment that happened while handing out tracts. I give out many different tracts, but there is one booklet that I offer entitled, 'What is a BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN?', by Albert N. Martin. Very few take these booklets as they have no interest in the subject matter, but I hold them out there believing that God works providentially to call people to Himself. A family passed by not showing any interest but after a few minutes past a boy of about ten years came running back, looked up asked me very clearly, "Can I have that book on Biblical Christianity?" You certainly can! And then he was gone as quickly as he had appeared. It makes you wonder what God is doing with this boys life!

Oh yea that verse Luke 10:2....speaks to this time...

Luke 10:2
Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

PSU Campus Ministry Report

Last week, on February 8th, we went to the PSU campus in Portland to pass out tracts and preach the gospel. I met with Pavel, his brother in law and a young lady from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, Nadezhda. Brother Pavel is from the Ukraine. We met him and his group last year while preaching down at the Skidmore fountain.

Brother Pavel preached the gospel in the face of sever mocking and ridicule for nearly an hour! I praise the Lord for this good brother who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom. The young man that did most of the mocking took his place along side of Pavel, (Paul) and basically tried to disrupt the preaching of the gospel. But God granted Brother Paul grace to lovingly continue on preaching, talking and discussing with the people. Paul maintained a spirit of compassion and even respect toward the dedicated heckler! At one point the heckler asked to give Paul a hug! Pray for this young man (the heckler)...he has a great determination, that the Lord would call he him to life.

Lord, please glorify your name in this young man! Call him to life and ministry to magnify your eternal purpose before the unbelievers at the PSU campus!

Nadezhda, we would say Natasha, was out doing open air ministry for the first time! She reported to me that she felt the Lord calling her to travel and to do gospel ministry where ever the Lord would lead. Paul took the opportunity to invite Natasha to be with us and introduce her to biblical evangelism. She handed out tracts with an information page on the reasons to believe and to read the scriptures. The material was taken from Brother Ray Comfort's 'Evidence Bible'.

I was giving out material from the 'Back to Genesis' ministry, discussing the Mt St. Helen's eruption and how the evidence from the event support the record of Genesis 1-11. I even had a young man come back and thank for handing out 'substantive material'...the best he had seen and so on. I was quite shocked to be honest with you! PSU is very much in opposition to any thing Christian. Of course there was a gospel tract in each one with our church information. Every thing we do is an extension of the local church. We are striving to win souls and offer a church home for them to grow and serve.

Some may ask, "What kind of success do you have?" Well not much that we know of. I do not think we have had one person come to church as a direct result of street ministry. But we are not doing this for pragmatic reasons. We are preaching the Gospel in obedience to our Jesus Christ. We could ask the same question of Ezekiel, or Jeremiah! We are living in such times. Jeremiah was thrown in a pit for his faithfulness. But there is always a remnant of people who will follow the Lord. In this time of national sin and decline, it is important for the church to 'lift up the voice and cry out! God help us to be faithful to our calling. Time is Short!

So if you would like to come out with us, please contact me via e-mail. If you would like to pray for us in 'real time' while we are on the street please contact me via e-mail and I'll put you on our contact list...either e-mail or text. I hope to post some video of this event...it will be coming soon.

Stay tuned and pray for Portland....

Ministry in Portland at Skidmore Fountain -Update

We have been preaching and handing out tracts at the Saturday Market near the Skidmore fountain. See the preaching on my YouTube channel. If you would like to join us we meet at the fountain at 10:30am each Saturday.