Open Air Evangelism

We have started this blog to chronicle our upcoming open air preaching experiences.  Starting Monday the 21 of Feb I will be meeting with three to four other Evangelists and going over an outline for our program.  We are excited, and a little unsure of what the outcome will be, however one thing is for certain.... We will go into the highways and preach knowing fully that death is man's contribution to salvation.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

It is interesting because I was reading Galatians today, and this seemed to take on a bit of new meaning for me. I realize that the new life in Christ is not actualized until death. We die to our old and God raises us again living as Christ, and Christ in us. How much of my life can I see that has not died with Christ, the old seems to want to hang on. God is the one in my life who is calling me to die to myself so he can raise me in Christ. Baptism not only in water but in the Holy Spirit. But my question is this... How do we die? Man sinned against God in the Garden, man betrayed Christ, man chastised Christ, man sentenced him to his crucifixion man carried his cross to Golgotha and right there on the cross the last of his blood was let out by the spear of a man. Yet Jesus said that no one took his life, that he gave it up on his own. He had the power to lay it down, and the power to take it back up again and it was God the Father who commanded God the Son (Jesus) to do this. It seems that it took every last drop of Jesus blood to kill him and it took the father to raise him again. Think about the type of death he had and who inflicted it on him. We may think we are alive without Christ but we are violent, sick, lost, and mastered by the world. Just as Jesus said no one can take his life but him, I think we not only need to be guided by God the Father to lay down our own lives but we also need to make the decision for ourselves. Are we going to put away hidden sin and wait upon the Lord? or are we going to continually be the people who beat and whipped Christ sentencing him to death on the cross?




So when Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow him, I take this to mean we must crucify our flesh daily.  Our desires need to be his.  All of our family, friends, money, and possessions belong to him alone.  How can he truly use us unless we belong to him fully.