During the week of Valentine’s, Cal State Fullerton put on a week long outreach called, “What Love Does…”. They had billboards up for students to answer questions about what love means to them and how it’s affected their life. Students wore tshirts that said” From ___ to ___” as a way to share our testimony with students on campus. For example, it could say, “From insecure to secure” or “From addictions to freedom”….something that would spark conversation with students in class or on campus. Through these personal conversations, we saw students put their faith in Jesus for the first time. Most of them are in the process of being followed up and discipled!
The week was a full week of initiating and for Matt, as an introvert, all he wanted to do on the weekend was veg at home, but God had other plans. Our church small groups were going to have a serve day on Saturday and though Matt didn’t feel like going, he knew that God was prodding him to go. Matt ended up getting to train 18 adults who had never shared their faith, how to begin a spiritual conversation and lead into the gospel. Then, his group went out to give food to homeless and engage with them in conversation. As they were leaving the park, they saw a few tents by the freeway and stopped to offer the men food. Matt got to talk with a man named Chris who was addicted to drugs, but was attending a church in the area pretty regularly. He said he had too many unanswered questions to accept Christ but thought the people at the church were very nice.
Matt got to not only share the gospel with Chris but explain to him that many of his questions were not essential to have the answers before trusting Christ. Matt explained the difference between conviction level beliefs (ie: the Trinity, the deity of Christ and salvation by grace through faith.) and persuasion level beliefs (ie: millennial views, the role of ‘tongues’ and the age of the earth) and opinion level beliefs (ie: How long until Christ returns? Which is the best Bible translation? Is time travel possible?). Chris saw that his questions didn’t need to be answered for him to accept Jesus in his life, so right there, on the side of the road, Chris accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He plans to go back to the church nearby, share about his new decision for Christ and spend more time in community to continue to get answers to his questions.
Even when we were tired and felt like we had done enough “ministry” for the week, God challenged us to, “Go. Trust me. Follow My lead, even in your weakness, and see what I want to do through you today.” May each of us not dictate our lives and schedules so tightly that we miss hearing His voice that wants to lead us to participate in the eternal in others lives.
Want to know more about Conviction-Persuasion-Opinion level beliefs?
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Prayer Requests
• Pray for Chris as he follows Jesus. Pray that he would get into a community at the church where he can ask questions and grow in his new faith in Jesus.
• Holly is speaking at Big Break LA during the Universities Spring Breaks to help train students from around the country in evangelism on March 13, 14, 20 & 21.
• Cal State Fullerton’s men’s and women’s retreats March 11-13. Pray for deeper community and a safe environment for students to be honest where they are at so that they can grow in their faith.
• We are reaching out to 14 small groups in our church to help train the leaders how to encourage their group to be more missional in their neighborhoods. Please pray that these groups would want to be trained and take steps of faith to “love their neighbor”.
Briella is 11 months old
Carter is 2 years old
Thank you for your prayers and support for us and our ministry. We are seeing lives forever changed with the gospel.
Matt, Holly, Carter (2yr) & Briella (11 m)