SHOULD GOD REPENT?

April 1, 2008, University of Missouri

I have returned home after = three months on the road. Bro Cope has come in from State College, PA, to w= ork with me through May 8, as we concentrate on campuses in Missouri, especially our flagship campus, the University of Missouri. Bro is praying that = the Lord will provide; so that he is able to return to full time ministry after years in the computer consulting business. Sister Pat is staying on f= or a while to help out. Monday, we were rained out. The cold weather= was a hindrance today, especially after students have just returned from spring break and Sister Pat and I have returned from a month of sunny weather in Arizona, N.M. and Oklahoma.

Finally, after two hours of preaching, we gathered a crowd of about a dozen until 4 PM. Many stud= ents welcomed me back as they passed by. The ones that eventually did gath= er were some of my regulars. However, one girl, Angela, who remembered me from Central Missouri State University last year, has transferred to the Columbia campus. She was the first one to stop and enter into dialogue. She asked several times, “Don’t you remember me?” I was sorry that I did not; but evidently I made an impres= sion upon her which I assumed was in the context of conflict.

Angela informed me that the= last guy she dated turned gay on her. I must say that I made some fun out = of that one. Angela informed me and everyone that she was bisexual. = ; I reminded her that the video camera was recording for posterity her confessi= on; but she did not seem to mind. I got on her case for being so coarse in her manners which is a big problem among females today. At the end of= the afternoon she hugged me and expressed her affection and appreciation. She seemed sincere. Despite her coarseness,= she is a likeable soul. With many, the outward crudeness is a covering fo= r a different experience within. I suspect that Angela will become a regu= lar on Speakers’ Circle. Keep her in your prayers.

Bro had a long confrontatio= n with a hypocrite named Abraham, a regular, who is always justifying sin in the n= ame of the Lord. Bro made a good point, “Hypocritical Christians, w= ho defend sin in the life of a believer, are really saying that God must repen= t or change and condone what He has condemned; instead of the sinner repenting or changing from a life of sin to a life of holiness.”

God has not changed His mind concerning sin through the Atonement. He hated sin and condemned sinn= ers before the Cross. Since the Cross, God’s anger over sin is greater. It is bad enough that men violate his holy, just and good, law. But to reject His grace and mercy offered through the loving sacrifice of His Son intensifies the sinner’s guilt and condemnation, especially when the sin is committed and excused by those who claim to be Christians. God’s grace is not a license to sin with impunity; God’s grace “teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts a= nd live righteously, soberly and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12).R= 21;

Sister Pat reported that sh= e had numerous good conversations with students.

April 2, the University of Missouri

As Sister Pat was opening t= he meeting, a student welcomed me back and said, “Things just are not the same without you guys around here.”

It did not look like Pat wa= s going to gather a crowd; but at the end of the break a few students sat down on Speakers’ Circle and Pat opened a dialogue with them. Within tw= enty minutes she had a gathering of thirty. From about 1-4 we had a crowd = of up to 100 students. The weather was much improved today with a bright= sun and in the mid-fifties.

During my first session hol= iness was the primary issue. Abraham was justifying sin with his Bible; and= I was condemning sin with mine. His main point today was, “Why are you always condemning sexual sin; but saying nothing about pride and boasting. You are boasting in your holiness.”

I answered, “If I boa= st my boasting is in the Lord in that by His grace he has set me free from sin.&n= bsp; And he will set you free and anyone else; but you must reckon yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God. If one is alive to sin, he is dead to God.”

He asked, “Are you sa= ying that if you sin you are no longer a Christian?”

I answered, “If we are following Jesus, we will not sin. He will never lead us into sin.&nbs= p; If we sin, we have turned our back upon Him. Thankfully, if we turn b= ack to Him, He will receive us.”

During a second session, the students were quiet and attentive as I demonstrated that God’s moral = law is “holy, just and good.” It is not something that we can= not keep, but that we have refused to keep. Therefore, we are deserving of condemnation and eternal fire. I was also able to teach on the Atonem= ent, which when rightly perceived provides the motivation for us to keep the Law= of the Lord, which is the Royal Law, the Law of Love.

Sister Pat and I left campu= s to join Cindy at our church dinner on Wednesday night and to hear Dr. Lois Honeycutt lecture on church history from after Paul to Constantine. However, Bro stayed on campus to address the question of Evolution vs. Creation. He started teaching on this subject about 4:30 and continued until 7:15.

April 3, University of Missouri

Bro preached on a cold day = with rain threatening. He did not get a crowd; but when he finished an ath= eist questioned me. We were having a good conversation until a hail storm drove us to shelter. We called it a day.

April 4, University of Missouri
We preached to a small crow= d on another cold day until 3 PM.

I WON’T BACK DO= WN

April 7, Truman State University

A psychology professor, to = whom I had given an autographed copy of the first edition of my autobiography when= he was a student at Ohio University, asked me to autograph it once again for h= im.

I gathered a crowd by chall= enging a female “secular humanist,” who held a small sign which read, “Thank God, I am an atheist.” Our conversation captured t= he interest of others until we had a crowd.

Bro and I alternated the preaching throughout the afternoon. The weather was cold but we maintained a crowd of about 30 until 4:30 PM.

April 9, University of Missouri

Yesterday, we did not preach because of the bad weather. Today Sister Cindy joined with Pat, Bro a= nd I to attack the campus. It was a sunny but still brisk day.<= /span>

Bro gathered a crowd by tel= ling stories of his decade of preaching at Penn State when he was living in his car and survived 40 degrees below zero weather. He told instances of God miraculously supplying him food and spoke of other examples of God’s provision. One argument of students against the Bible is, ̶= 0;If the Bible is true how come we are not seeing miracles today?” <= o:p>

Bro’s answer is that = there are miracles taking place, the unbeliever is simply unaware of what the Lor= d is doing in the lives of those whom serve him. And often believers are n= ot expecting the Lord to provide, which may be why so few are in our type of ministry. The students did slowly gather so that by the time that Bro turned the crowd over to me, I had about 50 people to address.

In the middle of the aftern= oon, Rocket, a local musician who practices what he calls “stealth evangelism” by singing in the bars, joined us. Rocket sang a few songs to the students with his guitar. The students joined Rocket as = he sang a popular song, “I Won’t Back Down.” <= /strong>

We are not going to back do= wn either, despite daily opposition from both believer and non-believer; becau= se we know that God is with us and has sent us. “How shall they hear wit= hout a preacher (Rom 10:14)?”

April 10, University of Missouri

The weather started off comfortable; but the temperature dropped throughout the afternoon. It was mostly an afternoon where Sister Pat, Bro and I had conversations with different groups or individuals.

Abraham, the froward “Christian” who is always justifying sin, complained that he cannot speak of his faith without someone associating him with me. This is a common complaint that I get from Christians, that whene= ver they bring up the name of Christ, my name is brought up. I told Abrah= am that I was encouraged to hear that people associate my name with the name of Jesus. People may not think that I am a good representative of Christianity; but at least they know that I claim to be a Christian.

Sister Pat was witnessing to a group and one man confessed to being homosexual “by choice.” Pat asked, “Why would you want to take= on all the persecution that comes your way as a homosexual.”<= /span>

He answered, “You and Brother Jed are the only ones that have ever said anything against my homosexuality in three years at this university!”=

A young journalism student who had submitted a story to his professor about me said that he liked my “violent” method of evangelizing. I commended him for his perceptive choice of words. Jesus said, “= And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth= v= iolence, a= nd the violent take it by force (Matt 11:12).”

The Church has come to promote non-violence, which is why the primary evangelic= al voice on the campuses since the fifties, Campus Crusade for Christ, as I re= ported from New Mexico State last month, changed its name to simply, CRU at NMS.&n= bsp; The word Crusade brings up too many images of violence; and we cannot have that! Of course, mine is a lawful (non-physical) crusade express= ed by being aggressive and militant in my vocal proclamation of our messa= ge.

April 11, was a cold and windy d= ay; so we did not preach.=

Photos From Our Winter Mission Jour= ney

As we prepare to leave, students are still discussing our

message after dark. Univ. of = Calif.-San Dieg= o

The faces of our listeners-San Diego State

Martha and Priscilla sing and quote Proverbs 31 at UCSD.

The girls at San Marcos State.

San Marcos State-beautiful place to preach.

Brother Jed preaching with the Gron= leys at the

University of Arizona

Students imitating Bro. Jed’s preaching.

They decide to "sit a spell" and listen to a story told by a man

named Jed.

Darth Vader and the Storm Trooper are sent out to battle

the Jed= i.