it was a long night in Antipolo...but God protected us and gave us the strength to make it through the night! this event was an experience of a lifetime for me. i had never seen so many people in one place [actually one street] in my entire life. there was over a million people constantly walking down this road to visit a idol of mary. it was worse than rush hour in atlanta at this place. people were selling idols and pictures of jesus along the street. there were stations set up along the road as well where people would pray, take pictures, and worship pictures of Jesus. All representations of Jesus do not compare to who He really is...but there was one picture that had the actor who played Jesus in the "the passion of the christ" on it and everyone was worshiping it. they hand candles under the picture, people were talking pictures, and they were praying in front of it. this was 5 or so in the morning when i saw this and God just gave me a burst of energy, and i went in front of this station and preached directly to these people. here they are worshiping a movie star as if he really is Jesus. talk about Godly anger. the whole night was filled with things like this.
God gave us the strength we needed and shared the Gospel with these people - the truth. one thing about this event, and every year, is that some of these people believe that Jesus dies every year and they worship him in this way as such. Some people are not even catholic, they just follow the crowd. some just view it as another day at mass. so there are millions of people at this event who are ignorant to the truth or do not care about it. One scripture that was in my mind during this event was psalm 115:4-8, "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them". in my mind, that is exactly what these people have become...deaf and blind to the truth. they walk in darkness and they have completely lost all senses of truth. but praise God He has the power to break these barriers!
the story i spoke of earlier about the picture was one of the experiences i had. another door that God opened up for me is to share with one guy. thursday night probably within a couple hours of just getting at the event, a guy pulls up on his motorcycle and talks to me. i was wearing a sign that said do not make and or worship idols. this guy saw it and asked me why. so God gave me the opportunity to share, not only why, but share the Gospel with him. we only talked 5 minutes or so before he had to go but he was very open to what i was sharing with him. so pray for this guy!
thanks to everyone for all the prayers and encouragement for this event!
continue to pray for this upcoming week...we will be having our big youth retreat. As i said in the previous blog, pray for the hearts of the youth and that they are ready to hear from God. also pray for the leaders and speakers and everyone that will be involved in this event. pray for the public ministry we will be doing there as well. i will give an update on the youth retreat when we get back on may 1.
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