counties and campuses
Eric Trent shares the Gospel with a young man at the University of North Texas; he was very open and took a Bible.
Greetings, dear brethren, in the wonderful and matchless name of Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua HaMessiach, “which is our hope” (I Timothy 1:11).
That is the NAME we were blessed to speak and preach to both Jew and Gentile in COUNTIES and on CAMPUSES during our recent itinerant circuit in Texas. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us.
In a nutshell, we enjoyed an open door to preach on three large campuses, the extremely liberal University of Texas in Austin, Texas A&M up in College Station, and the University of North Texas outside of Dallas. We even got to hit up the Austin campus twice where we found a captive audience—a long line of people waiting in line for a Covid vaccine. We preached of America’s profound SPIRITUAL problem, far more dangerous and deadly than a flu variant with a 99.7% survival rate. Despite the darkness of these times and all the craziness and confusion taking place in our country, these were actually good days, good days to preach the only real solution to any of our problems in this life. There were fruitful conversations, a few Bibles were gladly received, some Christians were encouraged, Gospel tracts were distributed, and the Gospel was clearly proclaimed—all the good things a street preacher desires when he does what God has called him to do. Praise the LORD!
Eric Trent preaches to a line of people waiting to get the Covid-19 “Vaccine” at the University of Texas in Austin.
For Eric Trent and myself, we were blessed to see God answer specific prayers with regard to lost sheep from the House of Israel. Once again, the Hebrew inscription on one side of our cross did its job. I can think of at least four encounters with Jewish folks.
I recall one young man who had a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. He couldn’t read the Hebrew on the cross, but he noticed it and approached to ask what it meant. I translated for him the horizontal beam: “The people of Israel yet live” and “The Messiah of Israel still lives.” The vertical beam reads “Come quickly Yeshua the Messiah!” I then explained that Israel’s life and the life of Messiah prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God keeps His Word and His promises and that He can be trusted to do exactly what He says He is going to do. One day, the same Messiah who was crucified on a Roman cross in fulfillment of specific prophecy and as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world, and Who rose up from the grave just like the Hebrew Prophets said He would do: one day that same Messiah will return and restore the Kingdom of Israel and occupy the Throne of David. It is only then that this world will have peace. Therefore, “Come Lord Jesus!” Aidan seemed very intrigued and listened attentively. He took an English Gospel tract and a Hebrew one to give to his mother.
On another occasion in Austin, a Russian-speaking Jewish man saw the cross and stopped out of curiosity. He was somewhat boisterous and very communist in his thinking, hailing the old Soviet Union; but he showed astonishment when a guy with a cross, the very symbol hated most by communist philosophy, explained WHY he was thankful for the Jewish people: “Sir, God used your people to give to the world the Holy Scriptures. Every single Book of the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the New Testament was written down by a Jew, Jewish prophets and Jewish eyewitnesses [Yes, my friends, Luke was a Jew. Don’t believe that old Catholic lie about him being a Gentile doctor; also see Romans 3:1-2], and for that reason, I, a Gentile whose ancestors used to bow down to idols of wood, stone, and precious metals: I can know the true God, the God of Israel, and the true Messiah, Jesus the Christ.” The guy was in a hurry and I didn’t even get an opportunity to offer him a Gospel tract. But, he did stop to hear those words, and his face showed that he now had something to think about. In that fleeting moment, the LORD brought to mind Proverbs 25:11:
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
This Communist sympathizer at least looked like he suddenly saw a portrait of delicious golden apples hung in a shiny silver frame. My friends, sometimes all the opportunity we have with the lost is for a “word fitly spoken.” Don’t underestimate the power of this in the lives of hurting, dazed, confused, and fearful people . . . especially in these days. Any believer with a willing heart can be used mightily of the LORD to utter a word fitly spoken, and sometimes, that can even change the course of human history.
Go study the Romanian Revolution of 1989 through which the LORD delivered the persecuted Christians of that country from their suffering. It lasted about three weeks, it resulted in the execution of one of the most powerful and tyrannical leaders of the 20th Century, and it opened the doors of a closed country wide for the work of the Gospel. And do you know what one of the matches was that lit the fire, at least in Bucharest, the capital? It was a word fitly spoken. As Nicolae Ceaușescu, the megalomaniac and all-powerful dictator of Romania, was giving a typical dictator’s speech to a fearful and compliant crowd, one man had the guts to interrupt and shout “Down with Ceaușescu.” That changed everything. Three weeks later, Ceausescu did indeed go down. After a speedy trial in a drab basement of a government building, he was convicted of capital crimes against the Romanian people. Along with his wife, Elena, who hated and persecuted many Christians, the dictator was led out to the back of the building, and both of them were disposed of by firing squad. A word fitly spoken, my friends, can be very powerful. For the Romanian people, it changed everything. Back in the 1980’s, many people got into a lot of trouble when they tried to bring Bibles over the land borders into Romania. Many were stopped, interrogated, and arrested because they were smuggling Bibles. In January of 2009, I crossed the border into Romania with a friend after a grueling van ride from Cahul in Moldova. Like many in the 1980s, we too had a suitcase full of Bibles and Gospel materials, and we too were stopped. I wrote these words in my journal back then:
This was the site of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s last speech in 1989 where a word fitly spoken changed everything. Jamie and I took this photograph back in 2009 when we were out street fishing in Bucharest.
Paul and I found ourselves in the midst of a unique irony when we crossed the border back into Romania. The Romanian Border Officer was visibly suspicious of us. “Get out of the vehicle, and open your bags,” he barked. The man was especially curious about a briefcase that Paul had packed inside of his larger suitcase. The briefcase was full of Gospel tracts and a few Bibles. Upon inspecting these materials, the officer remarked: “Oh, you must be working with a church. That is good. I don’t need to see anything else. You are free to continue on. Have a nice night.” In that moment, I chuckled when I considered how different that scenario would have transpired 20 years ago under Communism. Things sure have changed in that part of the world, and this in itself means there is hope yet for the godless West.
You can still see the bullet holes in the Bucharest plaza where the Secret Police fired into the crowd and killed quite a few people after one man shouted “Down with Ceaușescu!” But, 3 weeks later, Ceaușescu was dead.
A word fitly spoken, my friends, can truly be apples of gold in pictures of silver. Anyway, an incredible testimony of how God saved and mightily used a Romanian Jew under the Communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the Nazi invaders before him is actually a rather well-known book in Christian circles and has been translated into many languages. Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand is a worthy read, especially in the days in which we are living. Sadly in his day, as the Communists began their takeover, there were many pastors and Christian leaders saying the same things we hear many in America saying today: “Follow the rules. Do what you are told. There is no conspiracy. Romans 13, Romans 13, Romans 13. The government is just looking out for your health and safety. Blah, blah, blah.” Oh yeah, there were those saying the exact same things. And later, these same pastors were turning over their own Christian brethren for arrest to save their own skins. But, they didn’t save their skins. Those wicked Communists did the same things to the tattlers and the obedient sheep as they did to the faithful believers who resisted their tyranny and chose to obey God rather than men. It’s a convicting piece of history that seems to repeat itself time and time and time again throughout church history. And, it appears that the only thing men ever learn from history is that men never learn from history. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Tortured for Christ and read it carefully. If you already have, read it again. It takes on a whole new meaning in these days of medical tyranny in America.
Ok I’m sorry . . . let me get back to the campuses. At the University of North Texas, I had a long conversation with a Jewish student who saw the Hebrew on the cross. He would not receive Hebrew-English copies of the Scriptures and mistakenly believed that accepting a New Testament would “make me a Christian and no longer a Jew.” I’ve heard this before. What wicked lies the rabbis tell to their people, the same lies the priests and the scribes were peddling in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel! Notwithstanding, Joshua took a Gospel tract and said he would read it. He also listened very respectfully and attentively when I shared about the testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures and the person and work of the Messiah. Please pray for this young man. He claimed he was an “agnostic,” which can be a good thing if it leads to questioning all the Talmudic lies and superstitions told to him by his rabbis.
Later that day, I was preaching with an upside-down American flag, speaking of the United States Flag Code which details when exactly it is appropriate to display the flag in such a fashion. Section 8A reads: “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, EXCEPT as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” I explained how we in America are truly in distress and that there is indeed EXTREME DANGER to our lives and our property—not from the USURPER Joe Biden, or Democrats, or Antifa, or Black Lives Matter, or the Chinese military, or our own military, but from the HAND OF A RIGHTEOUS GOD. I told the story of that same HAND which wrote on the wall at Belshazzar’s Feast in Daniel 5. Like Babylon of old, America has been weighed in the balances and found wanting, for we have forsaken the God of our fathers and have provoked Him to great anger as we continue to export SIN and INIQUITY all over the world. We are in danger from the GREAT JUDGE of all nations. I quoted Thomas Jefferson: “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.” As I was speaking of such things with a microphone, I saw from a distance a young man hurriedly walk through the plaza. He looked Jewish to me, whatever that means, so I took a chance and quickly threw in a sentence of Hebrew. Sure enough, he stopped in his tracks and turned to see. I asked if he was Jewish through the microphone. He affirmed that he was, and I responded by explaining that we were preaching about the God of Israel and the Messiah of Israel and that we were friends of Israel and the Jewish people. He nodded and then quickly rushed inside a nearby building. Oh well, I thought, and kept preaching.
A few minutes later, however, he came back outside and sat down at a picnic table nearby where he could clearly hear the preaching as he ate some lunch and did a bit of school work. He was there for a long time, definitely listening while trying to appear that he was not. Several times, he looked up at me. The Gospel was proclaimed, and he heard it. After I was finished, I approached him at the table and thanked him for coming back. He wouldn’t take copies of the Hebrew Scriptures for the same reason Joshua had refused them, but he did accept a Hebrew Gospel tract and was very polite. Please pray for Eden. It was a divine appointment, exactly what Eric and I had prayed for that morning.
Eden came back outside to listen to the preaching while trying to appear that he was not.
These were good days of preaching on the CAMPUSES. I enjoyed listening to Eric and some of the other brothers we labored with preach biblical truth and was greatly edified. At Texas A&M, I enjoyed getting thrust into a riled-up crowd to answer questions from militant Catholic students. I also enjoyed explaining why my flag was upside down. It was a great question that got asked many times and gave an open door to speak Gospel truth. Finally, it was a blessing to encourage some Christian students to be more bold with their faith while at the same time answering the gainsayers who love to talk about whether or not preaching is “effective.” Again, thank you for your prayers while we were out there on the front lines.
Our Preaching Team at Texas A&M
Now, I titled this testimony “Counties & Campuses.” I told you about the campuses, but what in the world does any of this have to do with counties? Let me explain.
I don’t like to sit in a car all day, and if I have to put many miles behind me, I need to find something along the way to do for a little exercise. In the mountains, that is easy. There is always a peak to run up or a nice trail for a walk. In the flat parts, not so much. It’s a long drive from North Carolina to Texas, and Eric and I got pretty bored. I don’t even remember how this subject even came up, but we started talking about county highpoints and how I had literally walked by the highest point in Dare County, North Carolina out on Ocracoke Island back when I started The Long Walk a couple of weeks ago. We discovered that there are 3,143 counties in the United States, one of those time-pass conversations, and suddenly we found ourselves looking to see if there were any near I-20 in Mississippi or Louisiana. To make a long story short, we stumbled into a new hobby and it proved a real fun little scavenger hunt of sorts. The Warren County highpoint in Mississippi was a Baptist church parking lot near the Yazoo River and Vicksburg. The Claiborne Parish highpoint in Louisiana involved a nasty bushwhack of about 100 yards from a quaint little dirt road. And later, we found the remains of an old moonshine still atop the Tuscaloosa County highpoint in Alabama. A lot of these county highpoints, particularly in Texas, are on private property, and Texas ain’t a place you want to be sneaking around on another man’s land. In Milam County, we came upon an open gate at the end of a secluded dirt road. There was a run-down house up the hill with an old truck in the driveway. We could see the highpoint in the backyard, up in a mess of tangled oak and briars. I decided to just drive up, knock on the door, and ask permission to walk up there. Thus, we met Gene, an elderly man who appeared to live alone. He was intrigued when I explained what a couple of guys from North Carolina were doing and happily gave us permission to go climb up the hill in his backyard and told us the best way to go. It was actually a pretty nice little view up there although we scratched up our legs real good. And, I pretty much ruined one of my favorite pairs of pants. Bushwhacking in North Carolina can be a beast, but I’ll take the balsam fir, mountain laurel, and blackberry thickets over that East Texas tangled oak and thorny bushes any day. When we got back to the car, I decided to go bother Gene again and express our gratitude. I gave him a new pair of hiking socks I had in the car and briefly shared the Gospel in the context of the great big spiritual mess we have in America. He gladly received a Gospel tract and almost seemed teary-eyed. As we pulled out of his yard, Eric and I both understood the Divine Hand of Providence to be working in all that county highpoint talk.
Thanking Gene and Giving him the Gospel
Please pray for Gene. When I think of him, I also think of all the lonely elderly people in America who have been so wrongly isolated, mistreated, and experimented upon during the Covid madness. God hates a society’s mistreatment of the elderly and warned Israel against it. In fact, when you fear God, you will honor the face of the old man, not mock it or ignore it (Leviticus 19:32). There is a reckoning coming to this wicked nation, not only for what we have done to our unborn children, but also for the things we have done to our elderly men and women. I’ve been amazed in all my travels around the world to see heathen, idol-worshipping nations bewray more of a moral compass with regard to their unborn and their elderly than the “good ‘ole US of A.” God help us.
So, county highpoints can be a fun way to meet people and share the Gospel by asking permission to walk on their land. Several years ago, I did that with my kids so we could hike up nearby Carpenter’s Knob. The elderly lady sitting on her front porch was real friendly, and I was able to share with her a Gospel tract. When I got back from Texas, I did a little digging in my peakbagging journal and discovered that I have already tagged 116 of America’s 3,143 county highpoints. And as for walking across America on backroads, plotting a route (when all you have is Cape Hatteras for a starting point and Cape Flattery, Washington as a finish line) is quite overwhelming. You just pick a general direction and take it day by day. However, if you have something more local to navigate by as you make your way, for example, across North Carolina, a good route begins to take shape. It seems, I have discovered, that county highpoints are good beacons for navigation, and I intend to use them. In fact, a cluster of three such highpoints that lie about 75 miles east of where I stopped walking in Carteret County will serve as an early goal that help the actual route through Eastern North Carolina’s coastal plain and the Croatan National Forest take shape. I trust God’s Divine Hand of Providence to be in all of this. And, it’s fun. I have long told my martial arts students that if they can’t have fun in the dojo, it probably best to find another hobby. And I believe the same thing about ministry. It’s hard, but it ought to be fun, and if you can’t have fun serving the LORD, maybe you need to stop and take stock of a few things. Who says that being a Christian or serving the LORD has to be boring or cumbersome? Here’s a little collage of some county highpoint stops along our recent drive.
Eric and I were also blessed on our recent journey to fellowship with believers in their homes, to encourage others in their walk with the LORD as they encouraged and strengthened us by their hospitality. These things are important in these dark days of American tyranny and self-destruction. It’s so important that we Christians do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together “as the manner of some is” and especially as the day of Christ’s coming for His Church draws closer and closer (Hebrews 10:25). I said this back when the Covid panic began:
Self-isolation leads to SELF-FOCUS, and self-focus leads to SELF-DELUSION. And SELF-DELUSION can be very, very dangerous.
I stand by these words. Fellowship and mutual edification of each other can protect us from these dangerous slippery slopes. And I need this protection as much, if not more, than the next man. I greatly look forward to encouraging and fellowshipping with believers as I walk across America. In fact, I invite any believer to come out any day and walk with me, for a mile or two or more. We will fellowship together; we will witness to the lost together; and we will strengthen one another in the LORD.
Again, it was a great little circuit of COUNTIES and CAMPUSES. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support. Maybe you wonder what sort of things a street preacher preaches about along circuits like this. Does he just rant and rave? Does he simply argue and “yell at kids”? Does he only read Scripture? Does he talk politics or does he completely avoid the subject? Does he preach against sin? Does he preach the cross? These are good questions. Well, I’ll share with you briefly the messages the LORD laid on my heart for these campuses. I have never been one to think that the place for exegetical preaching of God’s Word is solely reserved for the pulpit. I think it can and should belong on the street, and when a street preacher preaches, he ought to preach FROM THE BIBLE.
On one campus, I preached about Jesus’ great summary of the two tables of God’s Law, the Ten Commandments—to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus wasn’t writing his own commentary. He was alluding to the very summations already laid out in Leviticus, a Book most hated by atheists and agnostics today. When Jesus said, “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself,” He was directly quoting Leviticus 19:18. And the immediate context defines exactly what this means. So, I preached to the kids about what loving your neighbor means. Folks today say it means wearing a mask, doing what you are told, social distancing, and/or getting an experimental vaccine. But God’s Word says it means NOT defrauding or robbing your neighbor (exactly what many Americans are doing to each other today); it means NOT cursing or putting a stumbling block before the less fortunate or disabled (exactly what our government has done to the elderly in rest homes during the Covid panic); it means NOT gossiping or slandering or showing partiality in judgment. It means NOT keeping quiet when innocent blood is shed (like many pastors do in the face of America’s abortion holocaust). It means not keeping quiet and holding a grudge against your neighbor, and it means not taking vengeance upon him. In this list of what loving your neighbor DOES NOT mean in the immediate context of Leviticus 19:18, there are two things that is most certainly DOES MEAN, two of the very things our weak society and our weak churches refuse to do, and for that reason, this country is in its current mess. “In righteousness THOU SHALT JUDGE thy neighbor” (Leviticus 19:15). And, “THOU SHALT in any wise REBUKE thy neighbor” (Leviticus 19:17, as opposed to hating him in your heart). So, loving one’s neighbor as thyself is inextricably tied to JUDGING and REBUKING, two things we refuse to do, equating our silence to love when the Bible says it is actually hate (Proverbs 26:24). So, I went on to explain to these kids that it is my LOVE for them that compels me to judge our society righteously by God’s Word and to preach against its sins. It is my LOVE that will rebuke them for their foolishness in hopes that their eyes will be opened and that they will repent and be saved. That is loving one’s neighbor as himself. So, there you have it, an example of one of my open-air sermons from down in Texas.
On another occasion, as mentioned earlier, I preached through Daniel 5 and the same HAND OF JUDGMENT that now bears witness against America. That is why I was holding the flag upside down, as a warning. True love bids a warning doom to children playing in the freeway. Judgment is coming, flee to Jesus Christ. That was at the University of North Texas.
Another time, I was prepared to preach about the SEETHING POT God told Israel to prepare in Ezekiel 24. The pot represented Jerusalem. The whole kid thrown in there with the bones represented the people of Israel who were in rebellion against God. Ezekiel was to get the fire real hot and keep the water on the boil. And when the scum and dirt and filth from the whole animal rose to the surface of the water, he was to leave it there and not skim it off. The boiling heat was God’s judgment exposing the scum of Israel’s wickedness behind the scenes when they boasted in their own righteousness and thought the Babylonians would never take the city which was under siege at that time. In fact, while Ezekiel was in captivity, his fellow captors actually believed there was a secret plan (like many who thought Joe Biden would never be inaugurated) and that they would soon get to go home. God made it clear through his Prophet: Uhh, NO. You better get comfortable by the Chebar River, for Jerusalem is going to fall and the Temple is going up in flames. Anyway, God’s judgment at this time exposed the scum, revealed Israel’s heinous crimes against the LORD. In the same way, all this mess in America today is God’s judgment, and it has exposed the SCUM that underlies our society which long ago forgot the God of our Fathers and has provoked Him to anger. I said this many months ago: “The Covid-19 drama has exposed far more hearts than it has inflicted bodies.” When the scum starts coming to the surface, as it is in America today, we have two choices. We can ignore it and hope for the best like the captives in Chebar with Ezekiel. Or, we can humble ourselves and repent and put our trust in the LORD. For God can and will give those who fear Him rest in days of adversity and can deliver them from evil. A year to the day after Ezekiel put his pot on the boil, Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah records that day in Jeremiah 39. And in that chapter, we find horrible judgment inflicted upon the city and the people for their crimes against God. Yet, Nebuchadnezzar acts to protect JEREMIAH and gives him liberty to come and go as he pleases. And, the LORD doesn’t forget Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch who spoke for Jeremiah to the king when he was unjustly thrown into the pit by the leaders of the city. God remembered that and told Ebedmelech through the Prophet not to fear, for he would not be given into the hands of those that made him afraid, the Babylonians. God delivered Ebedmelech “because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 39:17). That is great comfort and hope for those living in days of God’s judgment upon a nation. Put your trust in the LORD like Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, and He can deliver you from the very things right now making you afraid, even if the entire nation comes crashing down. What is it to trust the LORD? It is to believe upon HIM whom God hath sent (John 6:29). Him whom God hath sent is the Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of the world, the LORD Jesus Christ. I didn’t actually get to preach this message because I was thrown into a restless crowd who wanted to ask some questions. I love answering questions from the Bible, so I seized that opportunity. But, I’ll stick the SEETHING POT in my back pocket and trust the LORD will allow me to preach it somewhere along the highways and hedges as I walk across America.
Answering Questions at Texas A&M University
While preaching to college students, I also like to use some good quotes from former Presidents that are very appropriate for these days happening now in America. I cite these a lot and did so down in Texas. They are great bridges to the Gospel and worth meditating upon:
““No amount of glory or prosperity can save a nation that is rotten at heart.””
““A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.””
““Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.””
““Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.””
If you are curious about what open-air preaching entails or what goes into a street corner message, I have recently started uploading again from FPGM’s annals to our Street Sermons Podcast. There will be more episodes to follow. I pray some of this preaching will bless and encourage others beyond the specific time and public place in which it was originally delivered. You can subscribe to this podcast below.
In closing, I much covet and appreciate your continued prayers. I aim to resume my walk across America on Monday. However, I am nursing an injured knee from a martial arts test of a few weeks ago and had been hoping the preaching trip to Texas would give it time to heal. It’s getting there, but still bothersome; and there are many miles yet to walk. Please pray for divine healing and protection. With regard to my last knee injury (very similar injury back in 2019 on the other knee) I literally walked out of it in Israel when Eric and I ambled close to 200 miles in the land of the Bible. It never bothered me again after that. So, I’m hoping I can literally walk my way out of this one as well. Years of martial arts training have taught me that some injuries are best fixed by burning them out—the old pain is weakness leaving the body adage. I hate to admit this, but I almost fell off a ladder yesterday when my knee gave out while pressure-washing my house. That would have been bad, but God steadied that ladder. I have a job to do in the coming months, and it isn’t to be lightly esteemed. This past week, I have been walking about 4-5 miles each day, and the knee is getting stronger. Again, please pray for complete healing
My family will be with me next week as I aim to get across Carteret County and at least close to Beulaville where I’ll cross my old bicycle route. There will be a good stint on the Neusiock Trail in the Croatan National Forest as well as a long traversing of Hoffman State Forest. Bethany and I are hoping to do 27 miles our first day on 2-lane Highway 70 as it passes through a few very small towns. I’m sure we will stick out like a sore thumb with the cross and the flag, but hey, on such a journey, that is a good thing. Praise God for some Christian friends from the area who will also join us for a couple of days. Anyone is welcome to join me at anytime. Please pray for divine appointments and boldness to preach as given opportunity.
I’ll be resuming THE LONG WALK near this place in Eastern North Carolina.
After the LORD drew lost sheep from the House of Israel into our path down in Texas, curious about the Hebrew inscription on our cross, I am quite confident He will do the same along the highways and hedges of America as a walk them. Join me in praying for that. When it comes to Jewish outreach, I am real excited about some Hebrew/English Bibles I am carrying with me. I have a case of 8 from the first printing of 5,000 that was done in London back in 2019. There is a dear sister in the LORD who works very hard to get Hebrew Bibles out to folks like us who commit to getting them into the hands of Jewish people. She recently sent me a box of these single volumes, containing the Law, the Prophets, the Writings, AND the New Testament all together in both Hebrew and English. These are really, really nice. Normally, we give out Hebrew Tanakhs (the Old Testament in a single volume) and Hebrew New Testaments (a smaller size single volume). But praise God, I now have His Word all bound together in the language of the sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am quite sure these are not cheap to print or to ship, and because of the faithfulness of other believers who also love getting the Bible into the hands of Jewish people, I get them free of charge. With that comes great and grave responsibility. Please pray for these 8 complete Hebrew/English Bibles, that God will orchestrate 8 very special divine appointments as I walk across America and that 8 sets of Jewish hands will receive these with gladness and an open mind to “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD and read” (Isaiah 34:16). God used that same dear sister who sent me the Bibles recently as I sought His will about walking across America. Her words to me in a correspondence were confirmation and edification, apples of gold in pictures of silver (Proverbs 25:11):
“America sure needs the witness right now. Our country is in such an awful condition . . . [So] if God has put this walk on your heart, then do it with all your heart and I will supply you with all the Bibles you can give away!”
I’m real excited about these complete Hebrew/English Bibles.
Glory to God, glory to the Living God. I am so thankful for dear believers in my life who speak a word to me so fitly spoken. I also recently got a card from some friends I haven’t seen in a long, long time. In fact, I met them while preaching on a college campus many years ago. The brother brought me some coffee after hearing me preach as he walked by. That day, that coffee was a huge blessing. We have stayed in touch occasionally ever since. Out of the blue, I got a precious card with a blessing inside. On that card was inscribed what these folks probably thought was of no great consequence. But for me, it was apples of gold in pictures of silver. They simply said: “Thank you for walking America. May every step be blessed.” How precious to me as I struggle with this knee. And you know what, I think I’ll make sure my route across North Carolina goes near these friends’ house a little northeast of here. Yeah, that is a pretty area. It would make for a great walk.
Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver
Thanks everyone. I pray this testimony has encouraged and strengthened you. One last prayer request: Mindy Trent is due in a couple of weeks, but her baby is breached. Please pray that this little one turns and that Eric and Mindy don’t have to deal with a c-section or a hospital during Covid-19 and can stay the course with their arrangements at a local birthing center where childbirth is treated as a great blessing from God as opposed to some sort of “sickness” or “medical condition.” Pray that little baby turns.
As for FPGM, we have needs and our stepping out in faith to walk across this America, not waiting around to “deputize” (a favorite term of my Baptist missionary culture) or to “raise necessary support.” I don’t know what is necessary, neither can I. God does, and I trust Him to supply. If FPGM and these testimonies are, or have been a blessing to you, please consider financially supporting our ministry to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. God promises a blessing to those who bless Abraham and his physical descendants (Genesis 12:3), and there is no better way to bless Israel than by supporting genuine efforts to reach Israel with the Gospel of her Messiah. And since righteousness exalts a nation (Proverbs 14:24), there is no better way to fight for America in these dark days than to support genuine efforts to reach American people through the preaching of the righteousness that is Jesus Christ. Anything you can give is a blessing that will be used faithfully and with account.
Well, it’s time to go “walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it” (Genesis 13:17). Stay tuned for tales from that path. We will be driving down after church tomorrow.
Maranatha!
Jesse Boyd
Full Proof Gospel Ministries / Zerayim Colportage Board