God sends encouragement

Tonight I went door to door. It was the first time I had been on a weeknight in a long time. Prior to the spring time change it has been dark before people would be home from work. But, now the sun is up until 8PM. So I wanted to get out and share the Gospel and also see if there was any difference in the number of people that are home.

At the second house that I went too, I was speaking to a man who claimed he could get to heaven by being a good person. I asked how he knew that and he said "by looking in here" while pointing to his heart. I explained that the Bible says that the heart of man is wicked above all things. He then claimed that the Bible was unreliable because it was written by man. I explained that man was simply God's instrument to write it down. I asked which standard he used to measure goodness; his or God's. He said, "mine, but it is the same as God's." So I explained that God's standard is the Ten Commandments. He said OK. So I asked if he had lied and he agreed that he had. He then objected saying that he knew a lot of good Muslims and good Jews and that he believed that they would be in heaven. I said that they could go to heaven if they will repent and trust Jesus Christ to save them. We talked a short time longer. Then he accused me of speaking hatred and began to close the door. As he did, I simply said, "I'm sorry you say that, I am not spreading hate but love." At that, the door flew back open and he said sternly, "GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY." So I left.

It was a bit frightening. I have not been physically harmed or threatened while out going door to door. I continued to the next house, and that man would not even take a tract. Feeling discouraged, I pressed on because I know that I must not quit as people are perishing and facing God's wrath.

Finally, I reached a house where I spoke to a believer in Christ for about half an hour. It was very encouraging. So often when witnessing, I'll talk to someone who professes to be a "Christian" but then it turns out they are a Christian in name only. No so with this man. I asked how long he had been a Christian and he gave me his testimony and we talked for half an hour.

Saying good bye to him there were two houses left on the block. At the first of these two the house was completely dark. So I simply put a tract on the door and moved on.

At the last house, I was tempted to simply put a tract on the door and go home. It seemed to be dark as well. But as I went up the walk to the door, I could see the TV was on. So I rang the door bell. I was blessed to have another great conversation with a fellow believer. I was able to offer him some encouragement and prayer with him.

After a rough start to the evening, I am extremely thankful for the encouraging ending by speaking to these two believers.

800

Crossed a milestone today. I knocked on the door of my 800th house! Looking at the map, it looks like I can finish off this section of town in about 4 more hours. With the 34 houses I went to today, I have now been to 832 houses total. I have had 210 one on one conversations, gathered 133 prayer requests and gathered 678 food items.

Today I ended up at a couple houses of people that I've known for many years, but had not seen in a long time. We had good conversations and I was able to share the Gospel with them. Just goes to show that it is tougher to witness to people that you know. But, I was able to do it. Praise God!

The map below shows my current progress in my neighborhood. The highlighted areas are the portions I have already been too! Since First Baptist Hebron is covering the entire 75010 zip code, once I finish these houses, I'll move on to another zip code within Carrollton.