“Don’t get freaked,” Spike said to me.
“They’ve probably got guns—or knives. Oh, God, help us,” I
prayed under my breath.
The biggest of them reached in his pocket and pulled something
out. I steeled myself for the worst.
It was a pocket-sized New Testament. In his gentle Southern ac-
cent he got right down to business. “Have you folks accepted Jesus
Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” he asked.
We were stunned and a little speechless at first. “We sure have,”
we finally answered.
“Well, that’s good to hear!” he said. “That means we’re brothers
and sisters in the Lord.”
“Praise God,” said Spike.
“Where do you folks worship?” asked our new friend.
“At Christ Church,” I answered, gesturing toward the bay.
“Do you know Andy Cloninger?” asked the shortest of them. “He
worships there.”
We couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, yes,” we answered. “We’ve
known Andy for a long time. We’re his parents.”
“No kidding,” said the one with the pigtail. “Andy plays guitar for
us when we do street ministry. He’s way cool.”
We had to agree.
We had a great time of fellowship that night at Arby’s with these
four radical evangelists. We heard about their street ministry and
how many had been saved that week. I realized that these were “the
saints who are in the land”—the ones in whom David delighted in
Psalm 16.
“Lord,” I prayed, “forgive me for being such a narrow-minded
Pharisee. These guys are on the front lines of the battle. There is so
much I can learn from them. Open my eyes and my heart to see and
intercede for the whole family of God.”
101 MOST POWERFUL PRAYERS IN THE BI BLE 101