The First Step Is A Doozy - Open Air Preaching For First Time

It was May 23, 2009. The Farmers Market downtown Des Moines, IA...memorial day weekend. One of the busiest weekends of the market. This place was packed to the gills. I was nervous already to be down there. I don't do well in crowds...especially here at the market. But, I was determined to go. I have got to conquer this fear, and prayed the Lord would guide me. Paul was on his way to meet me down there and we were planning on doing some one-on-one witnessing and gave me a call. He asked me how busy it was, and I told him it was the busiest I have ever seen it. So he replied..."good, I'll bring my ladder. I'm almost there so look for a spot where we can do open-air and see you soon."...click

Well at that moment panic set in. You know the kind when you can't breathe, your heart starts racing, you loose color in your face and the only thing you want to do is find the nearest trashcan to throw up in. I prayed and then texted many people to pray, and then called my pastor who was at the men's prayer meeting. Looking for a spot was hard at the market. The place is lined with booths, and at every corner was full of music. Walking around I found an open area you can park a semi...so I know the Lord wanted us to do it. At that moment, Paul arrived.

Paul went up first while I passed out tracts not trying to think about going up next, and people were not taking my tracts. It was really disheartening...and it started to get to me. When Paul got done and said "my friend Frank has something to say", I knew I couldn't back out. It was time for me to do the thing God has been trying to get me to do for years.

The first step on that ladder was the longest step I ever taken. I really never prepared for what I would say, and fumbled for my Gideon New Testament trying to get to the Gospel of John and praying as I'm looking. Tony got there just before I went, and I was comforted that he could be there. My hands started to lock up from fear, I lost color, and couldn't feel my nose. The same thing happened to me when I went parasailing for the first time. I kept thinking "Lord don't let me pass out." Looking around and praying for the words, I opened my mouth and started to speak.

I don't know what I really said...good thing for the video. When I got off the ladder something amazing happened. It was totally the opposite feeling I thought I would have. I thought I would be so on-fire and full of energy, but I was the most humbling experiece I ever had. I had absolutely no energy. I felt like I just got beaten by a baseball bat. It's an experience that everyone who shares their faith should experience. If I felt like that, then why should I want you to do it? It kept me in the exact place I needed to be...dependant on the Holy Spirit, and the sufficiancy of Jesus Christ. There is no way I could have done it on my own. Even though I lost color, couldn't feel my nose, and my hands locked up...I still was able to get the words out. And that's all that really mattered.

So, I did it...but guess what? I have to keep on doing it. It's not just a matter of doing it once, but keep on keeping on. Whenever the Lord gives you the opportunity. The next weekend we all went there again...to the same spot I experienced the empowering of the Holy Spirit. This time it was a little easier and a little less fearful. It provoked more people to come and see if we would preach again. People from my church came out to witness it. It's comforting. People stopped to talk with us, and to hear what we have to say. But Paul brought up a good point. "When you open-air preach, you are leading thousands of people to Christ. It's up to them if they want to receive the offer or not". That is what drives us. Our desire to glorify and worship God in reaching out to those who don't know Christ...and to grab those who are headed for eternal suffering in a lake of fire with the net of the gospel.

I am currently working on an upcoming blog post on how my friends and I conquer fear biblically. It's not the absence of fear that we pray for, but the conquering of it. All of us have fear at some point. Realizing where it comes from is the first step.

Right now we are living in grace within "Amerika", and say that very loosely. But our rights are soon vanishing away. Just that week in California a pastor and his wife were holding a bible study in their home and was ordered to stop or face strict fines by San Diego County officials. But we need to grab hold of our rights and use them while we still have them. So as Jesus said in Mark 16:15 - "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation". (NASB)

Hold Fast!

What does it mean to hold fast?

According to Strongs Concordence, it means to hold literally or figuratively; direct or remote; such as a posession, ability, contiguity, relation or condition. It comes in a variety of tenses and moods, which depends on the context of the given verse. As I was meditating on God's Word of the verses that pertain to hold fast, I thought of only two types of objects they talk about. Before I get to that, come with me and think on these passages to see if you can guess.

Job 27:6 - My righteousness I hold fast and will not let go; My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Prov 4:13 - Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her; for she is thy life.

1 Thess 5:21 - Prove (test) all things; hold fast that which is good.

2 Thess 2:15 - Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

2 Tim 1:13 - Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast eard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Heb 3:6 - But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Heb 4:14 - Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

Heb 10:23 - Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

Rev 2:25 - But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

Rev 3:3 - Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Rev 3:11 - Behold. I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

So, what are the two types of things you hold fast to (or grasp)? Things that are firm or solid, and things that are precious in the eyes of the person holding it. Think about some of the things mentioned.

• Righteousness.
• Instruction.
• That which is good.
• Sound words.
• Profession (of faith).
• Salvation.

Think about it. When people go moutain climbing, what do they hold onto? The mountain. The mountain doesn't move. Now what if they grab onto a branch, or weed growing on the side? They may fall because it's not a firm foundation.

Just as God's Word, righteousness, and our salvation are firm. We don't move it...it moves us. We hold onto it tightly, so that we are always strengthened by them. But not only hearing the Word of God is enough...but hearing and doing what God's Word says is likened to a house build on the firm solid rock (Matthew 7:21-23).

Before I was a Christian, I wanted to make my engagement to my wife very special. It was so memorable I can still remember it to this day. With the ring in my hand, we went to an Alice Cooper concert at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. We got there early and were 10 rows center from the stage. It was a great position...even thought there were no seats. The bad thing is that we were almost on top of the mosh pit. Not good when you are carying a $2,000 diamond ring. So what did I do? Instead of puting it in my pocket for fear of loosing it, I grasped onto it so tight I had the indentions (and the bloody marks) of the ring cut into my hand. Then, I knelt down during the guitar solo of "Eighteen", and asked her to marry me and gave it to her. I then put it on her, and she was looking at it throughout the rest of the night, and would not let it go because it was precious to her as well.

God's Word, righteousness, and salvation are precious to us. A Christian can't live without them. God's Word is likened to milk for newborn babes (1 Peter 2:2) and Jesus said that men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). Not only that, but the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, and a pearl of great price, which a man found and hid, and sold everything he had to buy it and claim the treasure (Matthew 13:44-45).

But there is an inverse of this meaning to the wicked.

Jeremiah 8:5 - Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Backsliders love their sin, and their wicked deeds more than God. They too look at it as precious to them. Read Jeremiah 8:4-12 and look at the heart of the people who turn from God to serve themselves.

May it not be so for us Christians who love God more than our very lives. May we always look to God and His Word as a firm foundation, precious and worth more than gold.