FIRE ON THE STREETS?

Yesterday we went out to Temple Bar in Dublin to witness and preach. Crowds were large and very cosmopolitan, as one expects here. Although we spent a good time lifting up the wonderful Name above all names we had a limited discussions with people. I did however have a chat with a very foul mouthed Lithuanian who had strong anti-biblical opinions. When his 3 mates came along I said to the friends "You should talk to your friend here... He doesn't realize that he was wonderfully created by God, he actually thinks he came from a monkey!" His friends burst out laughing at this and showed interest in the "Monkey tract" I was passing out. The original chap tried to intercept this and didn't want his friends to have anything to do with it...but God had better plans.
I can only pray that our good Lord uses this encounter to begin to bring conviction of sin to them all. Indeed I could see in the street for most if not all the afternoon that we were in great need for the fire of God to fall on the people. I'm not in any way against those who call for the Holy Spirit's fire in the churches but I find astonishingly few call for it on the streets. Will you join me in this cry to heaven?
The photo is of a current billboard for a new computer game but sadly it is also representative of the attitude of the church (...and mine sometimes!). We have swallowed the worlds' lie that we should "Do what we feel". How about doing what He feels.
On Friday week  we are from 9pm doing some nightime evangelism in Temple Bar. Contact me if you are free to join. Labourers wanted! Observers welcome and Intercessors (on or off street) greatly appreciated.

IS GOD DOING A GOOD JOB?

"I don't think God is doing a good job when you look at the trouble in the world" The Gent said to me on Saturday night at about 1am on Grafton Street as we discussed the gospel. I asked him and his wife (I assume) if they had children and they informed me they'd 2 teenage kids. I said that they might be the best parents in Ireland yet still get a late night call from the local police saying their kid was on drugs and had comrmitted an awful crime. I then said God in heaven is a parent but should not be blamed for the waywardness of his kids! They got the message...and plenty of food for thought about Jesus who loved them so much to come down on earth to take the rap for their wrongdoing.
I have never used this illustration before nor even thought about it but I found it yet another example of how the wonderful Holy Spirit gives you wisdom on the spot. Without a shadow of a doubt or a hint of an exaggeration I can honestly say that the vast majority of what I have learnt about evangelism...is by evangelizing. If you know Jesus let me encourage you to find someone who goes out weekly on the streets and "tag along". You will never be the same again and , more importantly, God will use you to push back the kingdom of darkness.

BANKRUPT...IN HEAVEN!

At last I remembered to actually record some street preaching. It seems like I'm shouting but that's because the street was noisy and I wanted to be heard!
Ireland was nearly bankrupt recently but guess what: Heaven was bankrupted when the Father sent the Son to this earth. Listen to the message on the right....and enjoy!

AMUSED AND AMAZED

Some people can plan ahead what they will do for God and when. That I find hard. I had been planning and looking forward to attending a Friday night prayer meeting for most of the week but a family matter detained me so that I was more than an hour late. Because the meeting was in the basement of a building and there was no "security staff" at ground floor I found the doors locked with little prospect of entry. Seeing as I was in Temple Bar and it was close to 9pm I decided to do a wee prayer walk myself around the precinct. When I walked by a particular brightly lit corner outside a pub called...you guessed it "The Temple Bar" I asked God to help me and reached into my inside pocket, took out the new Jesus sign which Maurice gave me last week and toold me some "black brothers" had made it.
As always the moment I lifted high HIs name joy and peace flooded me and a Holy boldness. Shortly after Jo and Andy an english couple came up to me asking "What's this?". We spoke about Jesus and what He did for us. I silently asked the Holy Spirit if there was anything wrong with them and then I asked Jo "Do you have a heart murmer?". She said that Andy has heart trouble. I again asked her if she had a heart murmur to which she said yes. She was quite amazed at this. I explained that God knows everything about her, loves her and wants to bring her to HImself. She was open for prayer and so without laying on hands (I felt the Lord said not to lay on hands this time) I asked the Lord to heal them both. The ensuing chat was good and I believe they left with some undertanding of God's love for them in Jesus. They promised they'd go back to their hotels and look at the Bibles in the room.
Later on I said to the Lord "I don't know if they really get healed". I believe the Lord then said to me "nor did you know she had a heart murmur!". He has a great sense of humour!

RICKSHAW RIDDLE

While I was out late last night on Grafton Street I got chatting to 2 Brazilian chaps who were operating rickshaws. They said they loved Jesus but as we continued the conversation I had a sense that they did not yet know Him personally. They were Roman Catholic but, despite their excellent english had great difficulty answering the question as to why Jesus willingly went to the cross. "To show His love for us" one said. I said "Well I love my wife but I wont jump in front of a luas (tram) to prove it" They were stumped. I explained, as had been patiently explained to me, a moderately devout Catholic at age 23 (25 years ago!), that He went to the cross because I was guilty and He was innocent and my sins could be dealt with by that way only. It occured to me that the thief on the cross who turned to Jesus said the very same "We deserve our punishment but this man is innocent". That is the wonderful simple Gospel or "Good News" anything different is a dangerous deception.

IRELAND STREET OUTREACHES 2009

There may be one, there may be 5 or there may be more but outreaches are planned Outside Dublin throughout 2009 on a monthly basis. See the dates and places on the sidebar! What do you need to come? A new heart and a new spirit. If you are lacking this it is freely available from Jesus Christ, bought not by your good deeds but by HIs perfect blood. The detail agenda of each outreach is available from God after the event (what fun it is to be led by the wonderful Holy Spirit!). If you know Jesus then you know us! It's all for him. We are part of a church but the outreach promotes no church only Jesus. If you love to share your faith..join us. If you don't know how to or are scared of sharing your faith but wouldn't mind some training...come stand beside us and learn. Either way you are more than welcome!and finally...If you are a Dawkinite who thinks God is a myth...come out and talk to us! Ant (O87-9795454 aba@eircom.net)

Who does the work?

We have turned the Church into some kind of hand out welfare programme where people come and Watch! No wonder it's half dead! The five fold ministers job is NOT TO DO ALL THE WORK but to equip the Saints for Work (Read Ephesisans 4:11-13). We should have more activity outside than inside! I am an evangelist and my job is to equip and train people to share their faith...not to have them sit back and watch me do all the work myself. a Healthy body is a functioning body not a "Couch Potato". I love hearing gifted teachers and preachers but God's plan is that I'd be trained by them and get up and out with this training. We need bums off seats not just on seats!!!

God's Gig

Temple Bar Square 1am Sat 14th June 08: "Ahh go on let me play your guitar and sing a song" the lady asked. "NO" I firmly said. "She's brilliant...go on let her" the friends asked. "This guitar is only for Jesus...Do you know Amazing Grace?", "I do she said". So I played 4 verses of the awesome hymn and she had a great crowd stopping voice. It must have been around 50 people who were standing by the time she sang the last verse...I knew what was next...but noone else did! Before the applause cut in at the end I raised my voice and spoke of Grace: "God's Riches At Christ's Expense". I spoke for about 3 minutes on how valuable each person was...Value being determined by the price one is willing to pay. I told of how God bankrupted heaven by paying His beloved son for YOU (pointing at a person in the crowd) and you (at another!). He shed his blood to pay the high price for us to come back to the Creator forever. As I began this message at least 2 people tried to stop me. They liked the performance but not the preaching. They thought it was their Gig but they were wrong... it was God's. Only eternity will tell if someone heard the truth that night...For Jesus I'll gladly make an eejit out of myself..Hallelujah! Ant

Pleasure Boat or Lifeboat?

Today on Grafton Street the Word of God was proclaimed publicly by way of preaching tract distribution and one on one witnessing. The team was assembled by a series of text messages and mobile phone calls. The organization was simple and lightweight but the message was not! Some listened with interest many ignored and failed to stop. Why I ask myself is there such indifference to a message that will be remembered for eternity either in Hell with regret or Heaven with thankfulness? I often think the spiritual climate needs to change as does the passion and unction of the preachers as does the comfortable arrogant attitudes of many. May God give us grace to make the message of the cross more urgent and vivid and cause the true state of peoples hearts top be expose before a holy and loving God who seeks repentance.

A German brother who joined us today told us after that in Austria there are now more Muslims than Protestants. Immediately I said to him that that was probably because the Muslims are getting out there while the church sleeps. For a fab video on the topic of the complacent church acting as a pleasure boat and not a lifeboat! Cut and paste the following address in your web browser address window http://www.fullflamemovie.com/screening-room-sea.htm Be blessed by Jesus and be a blessing for Jesus. Ant

Chasing Humanism out of the Church

Certain messages have deeply impacted me and it is with great delight I can recommend and offer this message by Paris Reidhead. Simply go to the "MP3 Audio Downloads" on the left and click on the message. To download to computer or iTunes right click (PC) or Ctrl + click (Mac) on the MP3 tab. Paris Reidhead himself wrote about how this message came to be as follows:
 
In over fifty years of Bible teaching and preaching "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" is the only message that I feel constrained to explain how it came to be preached.
During a Bethany Fellowship Summer Conference in the mid sixties I was preparing to speak at the Tuesday morning Bible hour. Upon returning to my room after breakfast to meditate and pray about the message for that morning hour, I felt strangely impressed that I could not deliver the message that had been prepared for the session. Instead, I felt that there was some other message that was needed which I was to bring.
After prayer, the message that came to mind was one on which I had begun preparation for the ministry at the church in New York City of which I was pastor at that time. My notes were not with me, but were in a file folder in my study. An empty envelope was on the desk in my room, on the back of which I wrote the scripture texts to be used and one or two ideas that came to mind. With the envelope in my Bible marking Judges, Chapter 17, and my self utterly cast upon the Lord, I went to the auditorium where between four and five hundred people waited to hear from the Lord through me.
I remember praying, "This morning I am utterly cast upon You because I am not really prepared." In my heart I seemed to hear His response, "Well is that so bad, already" (being from New York City it was given in an idiom I would understand.)
I delivered the message and gave an invitation. Shortly the altar across the front of the auditorium was filled with broken people seeking God.
The summer conference was soon over and I returned to New York City and the ministry there.
About ten years later, one of the Bethany Fellowship staff was in Washington, D.C., where we had moved and from where we still minister. His word was, "Paris, I want to tell you that God has repeatedly used your message "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" in my life".
I didn't really know to what he referred, for I had never preached that message again. The substance of it occurs in other messages, but the exact message itself was preached only that once.
A week or two later Harry Conn from Rockford, Illinois was in Washington. He invited me to have dinner with him. In the course of the meal he said, "I buy that message of yours 'Ten Shekels and a Shirt' by the dozen to give to people. God is really using it in lives". My response was that if you have a copy, I would like to have it sent to me so that I can find out what it is I have said. In a few days the cassette arrived.
Since I don't have a tape player in my office, I put the tape into the Sony dictating machine on my desk and listened through the little playback on the hand-held microphone. The element of distance in terms of time, and the distorted sound through the miniature speaker, let me listen to the message with no real awareness of who was speaking. From time to time I felt like exclaiming, "That's right! I wish I had said that!" Then it dawned on me that it was I.... no, not really. I realized that on a Tuesday morning during a summer conference, God had been able to get His message across because of my utter and complete helplessness.
Be sure of this, I take no credit for anything and everything that is good and a blessing from the message. In the past sixteen years several thousands of taped copies of this message have been sold and many more thousands of copies have been made from the ones purchased.
I have never preached this message again, nor will I. This message has not been transcribed and printed, nor will it ever be. Here is the message just as the Lord, Who chose to use Balaam's donkey, was also able to use another who was utterly dependent upon Him.
Paris Reidhead

"Man the lifeboats!"

Calvary cannot be removed from the Gospel anymore than blood can be removed from the body. When God created man and put them in charge they violated his comandment and thereby gave their allegiance to the enemy. Man entered under a CURSE and since that day all have been under the curse, bar Jesus, the only One born different by the virgin birth, the only one that was older than His mother! He was eternal, He was God. God’s love to man is not mere sentiment but is expressed in a raw and powerful way (John 3:16) by this Jesus voluntarily becoming a curse for us by “taking” our sin and suffering the punishment and wrath of HOLY God who was not just unwilling but incapable of violating his own justice which demands death for sin. The resurrected Jesus was taken up into heaven and He sat down at the right hand of God but just before He went (see Mark 16) it was this Gospel (or Good News) that He told them to preach to all creation.

The doctor who goes soft on cancer diagnosis for fear of offending his clients will some day be exposed as a reckless irresponsible physician who is not fit to be recognised as a member of that profession. What of born again believers who equally go soft on the simple truth as revealed in God’s word regarding the true condition of “Natural” or sinful man. God call us to be multi dimensional in our witness (1 Cor 9:22) not so that we can have all inclusive life philosophies but for the single end which is “to save some”. Now gentlemen “man the lifeboats”!

Yesterday I had the honour of meeting Dave Kinsella evangelist and together for about 5 minutes we went fishing and had a wonderful chat with Muhammad a muslim man who, after discussion, admitted he had broken God's holy law, is guilty, deserves hell and is concerned about it. He heard that Jesus became a curse for him at Calvary and declared he'd been in Ireland for months but had never heard this good news before. On parting I asked him to ask God if this message was true...He said he would. To God be all the glory!!

Complete what He started

Do we really have God's love for the people? We know that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whosoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life but do we realise that we , as believers in Jesus, have the honour of completing what He started! What I'm saying is we are HIs hands and feet today. His divine plan was for us to represent Him and make the Gospel known. The level of ignorance about the true Gospel in Ireland is staggering. Yes they've heard the name of Jesus and the story of his death but the relevance is missing as the consequnce of sin is trivialised. SIN IS DEADLY That's why He went to the cross...Now can we see the love God has for the lost! To Love is to put others first.

We had a blessed time in Galway on Saturday, all 8 of us including...you guessed it...Freddie the Dog! 2 prayed to enter the Kingdom (not talking about Kerry!) and many others heard the preaching and witnessing. As the Lord leads I believe other towns and cities may come onto the agenda.

Remember that without the filling of the Holy Spirit EVANGELISM IS SCARY. But with His filling it is a joy and privilage.

EMPTY

I'm tempted to tell you about the chap who took my hand in prayer and humbled himself before the living God to receive the new birth...but I won't. Last night was certainly fruitful but God alone knows the full extent of our labours. We can talk at great lengths about the kingdom of God amongst ourselves as believers but for those who have yet to be made alive in Christ the message is of the cross. Jesus is the door into the kingdom and unless we are Born Again we will not SEE the kingdom at all (see John's gospel Chapter 3).

Before I went out last night I felt EMPTY. This has often happened and it is not a bad thing. God is teachig me that there are times when I NEED to be empty so He can fill me again with HIs Spirit. Don't proudly say that you've had an Acts 2 experience when you ignore the message at the end of Acts 4 which states that they (the people that were filled in Acts 2) were (again) filled with the Holy Spirit. Right now I don't particulatly feel FILLED but no prizes for guessing what my prayer will be before we go out this afternoon to again "fish for men"!

For those who pray THAAAAAANKS. WE need this vital support.

Dont forget to answet the qustion on the right hand side of this page before you leave. The Photo? Thats our pal Kenny in Manila witnessing and preaching to vast numbers. He's Irish and would appreciate your prayer support also.

In HIs majesty's Secret service
Ant 087 9795454
PS Txt me if u wish 2 fish

Bums off not on seats!

Grafton Street 11pm Friday and 3pm Saturday and Temple Bar Square 10pm Saturday were our fishing grounds and times this weekend and the Lord was continually with us. He was with me as I grabbed Wes' hand and let him call on the only name by which we are saved. He was there when Wes was then miraculously and instantly healed of a groin injury (see Mark 16:18, Hebrews 13:8). He was there when a demonized drunken pre-believer tried to punch and headbutt me. He was there when saints gathered from Killarney Dublin Liverpool and Africa and together held up "Jesus". He was there when the enquiring Dutchman ignored the mocking of his friends and asked my wife about the way to Heaven. The meat is on the street and we are living in one of the most magnetic cities in the free world!

We can be too concerned about getting bums on seats when God's plan is to get them off! Step by step the church is waking up...to the fact that Jesus wishes none to perish but all to come to repentance. Thanks for all who prayed. We ground troops appreciate air cover more than you can ever imagine!! Now you dear reader are you a good or bad person. If good click on the tab on the right called "Good anough for heaven?" and have a wonderful week.Ant

We NEVER outgrow the Gospel

Just back from Scotland where we had a family holiday for a week. the country is awesome. Beautiful scenery, all shouting out God's praise and wonder! ...and those hairy highland cattle are gorgeous, just giant pets. they have 2 coats, one to keep them warm and one to keep them dry. The Darwinians no doubt are baffled as to which one they got first! On returning to Ireland I was very aware of the sense that we are in a revival and there is an open heaven over this country. That does not mean that multitudes are entering the kingdom, though some are, but it means that years of targeted intercessary prayer for this nation are bearing fruit in that there is a shaking in the spiritual realm and many ancient principalities are being torn down.

Tonight we are returning to Grafton Street evangelism and I just heard yesterday that another senior pastor in the greater Dublin area has joined us in witnessing for the King. I believe God is calling the leaders out to "do the works they did at first" (Rev:2:4-5). We never never never never outgrow the Gospel. NEVER

The photo is of a hotel we stayed in at Tarbert in Argyll, Scotland. Be blessed by our wonderful Lord and Saviour! Ant

Evangelism is not eternal but the reward are

What a joy it is to be led by the Holy Spirit. On Saturday as I went solo on the outreach, not solo really when God is with you! I was approached by Anna Lina, a German Girl who a number of months previously declared that she would follow Jesus, after she heard the Gospel from us. She asked me if I remembered her and she then told me that she has been talking to Jesus ever since and that she bought a story book on Jesus for her 3 year old son! God is clearly working in her life. I asked her if she was reading her BIble and she bowed her head a bit and said not much. I said that God gave her 66 wonderful love letters and she should at least read them and not leave them sealed up! I also told her that she would find them powerful and life giving. It made me think of the importance of encouraging new believers to look at His word. On Friday night we were literally swamped with enquirers around 2.30am. The harvest is huge!! Remember that Evangelism is not eternal but the reward are!!