by Melanie Irizarry on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 11:48pm
So, a few years back I went on a missions trip to Australia. It was more a music ministry trip I guess than anything else. The group of people that went were from all over but we went under Larry Sturm Ministries. We traveled all over the East coast visiting churches, singing, and sharing testimonies. :) God is good! It was quite possibly one of the most amazing times of m spiritual walk with God. I heard Him most clearly in the most unexpected of places at every turn.
While on this trip I remember one day being out on the beach. We were in the Hervey bay area at the time. I remember there was this older man preaching up a storm in a seemingly meaningless area. Who was watching him aside from the hand full of members from his church that were there? Coming from a non christian background this form of communication always kind of erked me. It seemed so impersonal, detached, and I could hardly imagine how standing in the middle of somewhere preaching to the wind really did any good in light of eternity even as a believer. I had always seen the street preacher who preached without actions attached(i.e. feeding the hungry or clothign the poor at the same time) as something rather of a bad stigma for the church.
"They make us look loud, annoying, and unreal." I began to vent in my own self righteous words to God. "why do you let them make such a spectacle?" But somewhere in the middle of all fo this a still small voice spoke up again. It was almost as if God himself tapped me on the shoulder and said TURN AROUND. So, slowly I peered back over my shoulder. "look at them over there" He said, drawing my attention to a bar on the corner. IT was a neat place actually. It was a stone corner building where instead of having windows the whole facility was open with giant cut outs to the beach it faced. It was rather early in the day and they were already tipsy tervy. But, the look in their eyes spoke miles. As I sat there venting inside about how ineffective this type of ministry was God was saying .. "Look, MY WORD DOES NOT RETURN VOID". Every person sitting on the outter stone wall of that bar was glued to what the preacher had to say. Drunk or not they were being impacted and you could see it in their eyes. Even if they didn't drop to their knees that day I knew they had been changed. God's word truly does not return void.
No matter how it is preached know that in and out of season in the most sacred seeming of ways or most mundane of ways, when the word of God is spoken litteraly lives are changed whether we see it with our eyes are not.
While on this trip I remember one day being out on the beach. We were in the Hervey bay area at the time. I remember there was this older man preaching up a storm in a seemingly meaningless area. Who was watching him aside from the hand full of members from his church that were there? Coming from a non christian background this form of communication always kind of erked me. It seemed so impersonal, detached, and I could hardly imagine how standing in the middle of somewhere preaching to the wind really did any good in light of eternity even as a believer. I had always seen the street preacher who preached without actions attached(i.e. feeding the hungry or clothign the poor at the same time) as something rather of a bad stigma for the church.
"They make us look loud, annoying, and unreal." I began to vent in my own self righteous words to God. "why do you let them make such a spectacle?" But somewhere in the middle of all fo this a still small voice spoke up again. It was almost as if God himself tapped me on the shoulder and said TURN AROUND. So, slowly I peered back over my shoulder. "look at them over there" He said, drawing my attention to a bar on the corner. IT was a neat place actually. It was a stone corner building where instead of having windows the whole facility was open with giant cut outs to the beach it faced. It was rather early in the day and they were already tipsy tervy. But, the look in their eyes spoke miles. As I sat there venting inside about how ineffective this type of ministry was God was saying .. "Look, MY WORD DOES NOT RETURN VOID". Every person sitting on the outter stone wall of that bar was glued to what the preacher had to say. Drunk or not they were being impacted and you could see it in their eyes. Even if they didn't drop to their knees that day I knew they had been changed. God's word truly does not return void.
No matter how it is preached know that in and out of season in the most sacred seeming of ways or most mundane of ways, when the word of God is spoken litteraly lives are changed whether we see it with our eyes are not.
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