Disqus - Latest Comments for Paul Ferree

Re: Taking it to the Streets… How?

Paul Ferree — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:34:05 -0000

Hello Brother,

Read you article. I'm a new street preacher, I've been doing it for a few months now and it's been wonderful.

I understand what you're saying about the "techniques" of some street preachers. Sometimes, I often wonder if it's just a way for people to air their bad attitudes and judgemental opinions on the world. Fortunately for God, He can use anybody and any message to win the lost.

On the other hand, if we see Jesus as our example and our master. He told us exactly what to preach "Go, preach, the Kingdom of God is here." And then He told us exactly what to do "Heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers". It's proclamation and demonstration.

Personally, I preach the freedom of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. I preach that the Kingdom of God is here to set your free from this world and that the only way to enter this Kingdom of God is to be born again. And then I explain what born again means. Sometimes I'll get pointed if I feel a certain direction that the Lord is leading me towards, but it always begins with "The Kingdom of God is here to set you free from this world and the bondage and death that comes with it". Moses brought the Law, but Jesus brought grace and truth.

It's definitely interesting to stand in the open public proclaiming the good news of God and I give credit to those that give an honest attempt at it. If you're a believer and have never done it, you're certainly missing out on a great blessing from God.

I've written some articles about preaching on the streets that you can find here: http://www.howtobecomeamissionary.com/category/... . They may be of interest.

Thanks for your time, feel free to question or comment.
Paul

Re: Taking it to the Streets… How?

Paul Ferree — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:44:59 -0000

There have been 2 seperate occasions where we were preaching on the streets and people drove off the road and pulled into the gas station where we were and asked "I need Jesus." They didn't even get gas, they just left after getting Jesus. Truely remarkable.

They didn't hear one word we said, not one great articulation of the Kingdom. They just saw some representatives of Jesus and wanted to give their lives.

http://www.madetopraisehim.com/item/703 This brother has a video on his blog that shows something from nature that bears witness to this.

A dear brother of mine, Mike Slayden, always reminds me, God's more interested in your availability than your ability. If you're available, He'll make you able.

We're just told to preach the freedom of the Kingdom to the world and God does the rest!!

Be blessed,
Paul

Re: S.M. Lockridge Soundbite — That’s My King!

Paul Ferree — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:34:12 -0000

Well...that'll sure preach on the street corner!

Thanks for sharing.
Paul

Re: Marketplace Ministry - Chuck Ripka’s Story

Paul Ferree — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:07:56 -0000

Wow...what an awesome story.

Ben, it's exactly as we concluded...it's our obedience that matters and that's the bottom line.

I was talking with a friend last Saturday right before we went out to do some ministry and we were talking about methods of evangelism and how you measure success.

It's not in how many souls you save, just look at Noah.
It's not in how articulate you are. Read 1 Corinthians.
It's not how loud or quite you are.

The only possible way to measure success in the Kingdom of God is obedience. Are you doing what He is telling you to do? Which does have a prerequisite...are putting yourself in a position to listen to Him?

Chuck seems as if he's doing this not out of method or strategy, but simply out of the instructions he received while in the presence of the Lord.

And that's what it all boils down too...nothing matters except our ability to be in His presence.

Great mp3, thanks Ben! I'm glad I finally listened to it!
Paul

Re: Decoding Culture: Evotional.com

Paul Ferree — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:57:06 -0000

Ben I've been battling with this concept of cultural relevance for a while now, especially being a street preacher (though I do one-on-one as well).

It's such a dilemma because you don't want to imitate what "they" do because we're supposed to offer them something new, which is the Kingdom, which is completely different than the world. But at the same time we want to have that bridge of "relevance" so others can come to the Kingdom as easily as possilbe.

Here's my problem...the world will always be opposed to the gospel. So at some point we have to deal with the world's reaction to our gospel message. It's offensive, and although we can do our best to deliver it in a way that will be easily received, we can't forsake the true gospel message.

I always tell other believers that if you see someone standing in the middle of the street and a truck is coming down the road straight towards the person, you would run and even push and tackle that person to get them out of the way from the truck. The person will be mad for a split second because they wouldn't know what was happening, they might even get scrapes and bruises from you tackling them, but once they realize what you saved them from they will be thankful.

So, at what point do we use the "push and tackle" approach (which could be anything in terms of evangelism, I don't have a particular method in mind)? And at what point do we stand from the corner and whisper to the person in the street "Psst... a truck is coming"?

I think it's different in every case, and I don't think we can just use one method for every situation. It takes time with the Lord to hear His voice and see what He is showing us so that we can obey what He wants us to do at that particular moment in time.

Thanks Ben
Paul

Re: Do You Believe in God? Why?

Paul Ferree — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:14:58 -0000

Why I believe in God now is different than when I first believed in 2001.

Back then, I was an atheist. I hated anything that had to do with God or religion. The only thing that really happened to me was that I became friends with some christians that were going to Rhema Bible College and they just loved on me despite my beliefs.

I finally let down my guard and just decided to find out for myself if it was true and asked God to show Himself to me. I felt like a complete idiot when praying, but over the course of the month of Febuary 2001, my heart softened to where I decided there was a God. I originally didn't want anything to do with man's religion, I just wanted a real relationship with God Himself without man's opinion. But another month later I was given a bible and I picked it up that night and started on page 1 and read it straight through over the course of 8 months or so. When I started to read the bible from the beginning and saw how everything unfolded, it just made sense to me and I could believe it easily. I was (and still am) a real analytical person and once I saw why things were the way they were and why I would need Jesus I was an easy sell. But originally it was just that I took down my wall and allowed God to do whatever He wanted.

The reasons why I believe now are extensive, but it doesn't reall matter and it's too long to discuss here.

I used to be a real doctrine junky, I used to spend all my time on Carm.org arguing with people about doctrine and beliefs...finally the Lord broke me of that. Here's what it came down to...when we get into debates "the truth" you're trying to convey is only as true as you can explain it or defend it. God gave me this picture to teach me about it. You can have a science professor with all the letters after his name and all the college degrees on the wall debate a 5 year old little girl about whether God is real or not. In the argument, the scientist trying to disproove God goes in great detail with scientific terminology to back up his claims and trumps the girl with his explanations. The girl simply says "I just believe in God", and that's her argument. It doesn't matter how good the opposition argues, if God is real and alive, the girl is right.

Truth does not change one way or another according to our defense.

This is why I'm a preacher and proclaimer...not an explainer. I can explain to someone who is genuinely interested and even have a real discussion, but to someone who's heart is hard, move on down the road. Which is a real pride killer for me...I hate not winning an argument because I love to argue!

My 2 cents.

Paul Ferree

Re: Do You Believe in God? Why?

Paul Ferree — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:58:07 -0000

No not at all...I was just talking about my heart on the matter. I debated for all the wrong reasons. So it's definitely a heart issue instead of a hard fast rule.

No time is wasted when talking about the Kingdom of God. My solid foundation in the Lord came through those times when I would just debate people....but it was just part of the stalk. When it came threshing time, it was gone with the wind!

Paul

Re: Come, Worship at the Feet of Santa

Paul Ferree — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:56:13 -0000

We haven't celebrated Christmas (meaning presents, tree, Santa, etc.) for the past 4 years. And can you believe it, we still survive.

I think the problem is that Americans have the desire and intention to not be materialistic, but it's such an uphill battle to actually break free from it that we create so many excuses to remain operating under the kingdom of this world.

Everybody says Christmas isn't about the stuff, but take the stuff away and it reveals where our hearts really are. When we decided to not do Christmas the first few years everybody threw a fit and got upset. If Christmas wasn't about the gifts and such, then why the problem?

We say life is more than money, and that those things really don't matter, but very few actually live like it. We honor it with our mouths, but our hearts are far from it.

Your heart is where your treasure is. Test yourself. Start taking away some of these materialistic tendencies and see how your heart responds.

It's one thing to be "willing" to give it all for Jesus...it's a whole other thing to actually go through the process where things are departing out of your life. Jesus never said, "Be willing to forsake everything and follow me.", He just said to do it.

Anyway, enough rambling.
Paul
P.S. Actually, not doing Christmas has given me many more opportunities to share the Gospel then having a plastic baby Jesus out on my front lawn ;-). It makes everybody's ears perk up.