America: They Don’t Know the Simple Gospel
By Bunni Pounds
This month in February – I had the privilege of going to Laredo with the team from Time to Revive – one of our partner ministries.
For seven days, Jason Evans and his team pulled together 8 churches in the area to come together across denominational lines to share the gospel.
#ReviveLaredo
We saw in 7 days - 147 teams of 4 go out, we prayed with 748 people, and shared the gospel with 565 people.
.
The results – we saw 139 salvations with 103 people requesting discipleship and getting matched with a local person from Laredo to disciple them.
We even baptized 5 people. You will hear one of those stories here. Wow!
As a former lay leader/volunteer with Time to Revive in Garland - I hadn’t been on the streets consistently leading a team since the end of 2017, when I decided to run for Congress. Before that point - I had been leading teams each Saturday from April to November 2017.
I went down to Laredo prepared to encounter people of all races, social-economic backgrounds, generations, and theologies. It was powerful as our team came together to do one thing – share the simple gospel of Jesus and watch God transform lives – one heart at a time. (Christians Engaged was also honored to host one of the dinners for our team there from around the nation. This is one of the ministries that we invest in as a ministry.)
We forget – those of us who have been around church forever – that the gospel is a powerful force and that telling the story of Jesus and the foundations of His grace and love toward us can transform individual lives.
What happens to people’s lives when we simply share the scriptures is amazing!
The good news is this: SIN leads to DEATH, but God has sent His LOVE to redeem us, and by the GRACE of God through FAITH we can be saved if we make Jesus LORD of our lives and confess Him with our mouths as our God.
This message is powerful.
Here are a few stories from just my two days down in Laredo that I know will bless you.
Tony is on the left with his army hat on - along with our team of 4.
Meet Tony.
On Thursday of the outreach – our afternoon team met Tony.
Tony served in the army in Vietnam. He has been searching for truth all of his life in different religions.
He really believed that sin was forever, and the devil controls the world, and there is nothing that we can do about it.
He told me over and over again in our conversation that he was wicked, and that sin controlled him and that he couldn’t imagine living without sin.
But that Thursday - he realized that he had a choice to remain in sin, or he could choose Jesus. He came to realize by reading the scriptures with us out loud that the blood of Jesus can set him free from sin.
He accepted Jesus. The joy and hope on his face were unmatched. Tony had been redeemed.
Our plan was not just to lead him to Jesus and leave him, no - we started talking to him about baptism and discipleship.
God had placed on my heart and TTR missionary JoAnne Robinson that Pastor Jorge Tovar was the local Christian who was supposed to call Tony to help disciple this new believer.
When Jorge called him - he realized that Tony was his childhood friend who he grew up with and had lived across the street from him when they were children. Pastor Tovar had even ministered to Tony through the years but had not seen him move toward the Lord.
Tony told Pastor Tovar that God sent us to his door yesterday, and he knew he had been changed. He was baptized the next week. (You can watch the video here) I wasn’t there to see the baptism unfortunately, but it was amazing that Tony’s childhood friend will be discipling him into the future.
You can’t make this stuff up. It is a story that only God could write.
Erika is in the aqua ponytails, and Leon is beside her as they commit their lives to Jesus with our team.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
Meet Erika and Leon
When we sat down with them to give them food at the park in the center of downtown Laredo, my first thought was - these kids are hopeless.
I knew it was a lie as I thought it, but yet it was honestly how I felt.
They were homeless - on and off drugs, but willing to talk.
They were both very honest with our Time to Revive team about their struggles.
Erika told us that she loved “non-denominational churches” and started quoting Bible verses throughout the hour conversation.
Her friend Leon who has gone in and out of rehab told us honestly that he thought the Hare Kristna were probably the true religion IF he would follow it and be “more spiritual.”
We asked them if we could have a quick Bible Study with them.
As we went through the scriptures- unbelief and shame started falling off them. Faith started rising.
Leon started looking me right in the eyes as I explained to Him that Jesus’ eyes of fire filled with LOVE were looking right at him.
I told him that HE was the “joy set before” Jesus and the reason He endured the cross.
After an hour, Leon accepted Jesus asking God to completely set him free and Erika recommitted her life to Christ.
Their friend Caesar also had an encounter with God as well after this and he ended up coming back to the meeting with us.
I know God is moving in these young people’s lives.
When Leon’s eyes came alive with faith as he finally understood what grace was, I saw my own sons’ faces starring back at me. If God hadn’t set their dad free of drugs when he was 24 - they would never have been born.
God likes to do that. Cut down the bad root system and create a new storyline.
He loves to surprise us especially on what we think are “hopeless” cases.
This is not the end of this story with Erika and Leon.
This is the power of the gospel. God planned to redeem anyone from the moment Adam and Eve fell who would receive the free gift of His love. He worked out a plan to redeem Erika and Leon by sending a group of people from around the nation onto the streets of Laredo for a few days.
Ephesians 2:7-9 - “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Monika - sweet mom of 3 who parked on the other side of the park that day “by accident” so God could capture her heart.
Meet Monika.
Monika was sitting out in her car on Friday at the park. She parked on the opposite side of the park than she normally did. She told me that she “accidently parked there”.
Why? Because God was sending our team to minister to her.
She had been married for 24 years, and her husband had just been deported. They have 3 children, including one child with Down syndrome.
We prayed for Monika, and then walked her through the simple scriptures of God’s redeeming love. As she read each passage she started crying more and more. Faith was rising in her heart through the Word of God.
She told us that she had NEVER read them before.
Did you catch that? NEVER.
She told us that she had committed her life to God when her Down syndrome girl had almost died, but she hadn’t really lived for God. We talked her through the “Lordship of Christ” and making Jesus master of her life.
You should have heard this woman pray as she poured her heart out to God committing her life to Him in her own words.
The Word of God changes lives.
A local Christian woman Eustace, who is learning to be a disciple maker, stepped into meeting with her and disciple her.
Please pray for Monika and her precious family. Please pray for Eustace as well.
Friends – people here in America DO NOT know the simple gospel.
They have not heard it because we are not opening our mouths to share the hope that we have.
Bill Bright – the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ and a man who was constantly sharing the gospel during his lifetime said -
“None of us has a long time here on planet Earth. It’s kind of a staging ground. It’s our split second in eternity when we have an opportunity to invest our lives, our time, our talent and our treasure to help fulfill what our Lord came into this world to do and commissioned us to do. In fact, His last words before He ascended to be with the Father were: ‘Be my witnesses.’”
One of my life scriptures says this -
2 Corinthians 5:19-21- “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Will you be an ambassador for Jesus today? Will you share with someone? The simple gospel changes lives forever.
I was reminded of that in Laredo, but I want to live it out every day wherever I go.
Many of you have met Jason Evans as he goes from city to city with us equipping the saints to share the gospel at our On-Ramp to Civic Engagement Seminars. Would you consider a gift to Jason today for all he gives out? This outreach would not have happened without him laying down his life to share the gospel.