"Thursday Morning Street Church"

This morning I was at The Crossing/South Bend and afterward I was led to see if I could find the man that we ran across last Saturday that had been beat up (Rick). He was suppose to meet me Tuesday morning and did not show up. I stopped to talk to a group of people that were hanging out on a porch. I told them about an outreach we were going to be involved with on Friday night then asked if they knew Rick. A lady said that she knew him and that he was alright then told me where I could locate him. As I continued to talk to them a man by the name of Ben started to give me a hard time. He said that if I was a "real Christian" that I would take him to the store to get him some socks and a winter coat. I told him that I couldn't do that and that I had other things that I needed to do. That upset him and I figured if he needed new socks that he could have bought them instead of the bottle of gin sitting beside his leg. I asked him about the bottle and they all immediately started with the old street excuse “Jesus drank wine” then the lady added “the bible says that your not to judge”. I said to them that they were using two of the oldest street excuses for the mess they were doing. I told them my story of alcohol and drugs and that what they were doing was a dead end. I focused on Ben because he was the loudest and most intoxicated. The message was spilling on to the rest of them. Ben got tired of trying that excuse so he pulled out the “poor black me card”. I quickly told him that I was going to mess with that old feel sorry for himself deal either. I told him that there is not going to be sections for the different races in heaven and I do not look at a persons color! I told him that our ministry treats everyone the same and it let the color thing go. I also told them that I was there to give them a "hand up" not a "hand out"! This brother was just trying to justify being able to stay comfortable in his mess. He said if you and I walk down the street who are the police going to arrest? I wanted to say that they would probably arrest you because you are the one that is drunk but I was nice and didn’t say it.

Before I left most of the others were telling Ben that I was correct in what I was telling him concerning God’s Word and his situation. I also informed them that I was not just talking about Ben, because they were doing the same thing he was. I ended up spending 45 minutes with them.

I do not tell you this to build myself up but this is another example of people needing help on the streets. As Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 that “when you did it unto the least of them you did it unto Me”. We are not going to be able to lead them all to the Lord but we do need to make every effort that we can. As we tell many of the people on the street that we minister to “it is not ok with us that you go to HELL”!!

I told them that I would be back tomorrow @ 11:00 a.m. on Friday with some clothes and other needs. Ben said that if I kept to my word and returned that he would come to my church. I replied that I would bring the chairs anytime he wanted and we would set up church right out in the field.

I told them to spread the word concerning the outreach at the rear of the school on Friday from 8:00 p.m. till midnight with free hamburgers and hotdogs.

They thanked me for coming and “church” was over.