The man in the Dirty White Shirt.

I have been actively sharing the Gospel for almost a year now, maybe a little less then that. Last year it was off and on, and this year it has been more consistent.

We went to Bele Chere in Asheville, NC this weekend. One of the largest street festivals I have ever seen. They say 400,000 people go there every year. It was literally blocks and blocks of people. Tightly packed from elbow to elbow. Anywhere you preach, your going to be heard by many. Every time we preached we had a crowd.

But crowds are not why we preach. We preach to see God Glorified whether people are saved or not, we know God will be Glorified, because people will be without excuse.

But it is the desire of every street preacher to see someone saved. That is the reason we preach the Gospel, that is the Goal. To see someone come to a saving repentant knowledge of Jesus Christ and escape the Wrath of God.

While preaching the Gospel on our fold-up stool on the corner of College St. and Haywood, I was getting pretty horse. There was a large crowd of people in front of me and I was in one of those preaching zones, where it's just constant Law, Grace, Law Grace.

Standing out of the crowd was a man in a dirty white shirt listening passionately to almost every word I said, he stepped out from the crowd, he separated himself from his peers. I figured that he was going to heckle me. I prepared for it.

Then I said the following words...

"What sin is so great that you would prefer to go to Hell, Get on you knees and beg God to save you. Repent of your Sin...turn to Christ who died for the wicked"

I guess I throw those words out so much, that I never really expect anyone to do anything.

But that's when the man in the dirty white shirt dropped to his knees and prayed.

Tony from seedshakers.com knelt down and prayed with him...

At that moment, I just emphasized Christ, it was a blur from there. I continued preaching, came to a stopping place and went to go and see the man in the dirty white shirt.

My friends were talking to him, he had a name, his name was Jerald. From what I gathered he was homeless and he was hungry. I assumed he might have been a little drunk (like so many there were) because I was staring at his eyes and they were glassy. But as I stared at his eyes, I noticed that tears were coming out of them...he was talking about how he is scared, and asked if that was a right emotion to have.

Suddenly, I realized that this man was in tears because of his sin, he was scared of a Holy God. Suddenly I did not see a man in a dirty white shirt, I saw someone who was convicted of their sin. Who lost all pride in the middle of a busy street corner with thousands of people and knelt down before his God.

Nathan, left to go get the man some food while Tony got him a New Testament bible. We talked for a little bit, showed him a local church to go to and he went and sat against the buildings wall. He was reading his Bible. Tony asked him to read Colossians 3. So he was.

Nathan brought him his food, and sat it down beside him. The worldly food suddenly had no value to him. He ignored it as he read his Bible. He read for maybe 10 minutes, got up and left with his dinner while still reading the Bible.

I thank God that he would use a sinner like me to reach out to Jerold. I saw him as one who was in a dirty shirt, but God cleansed his wicked heart. I never witnessed someone being convicted to the point of tears before, and I pray that God uses him for his Glory in ways he could never imagine. I pray his salvation was genuine and the emotion was a result of salvation, not the emotion that saved him. I may never see him on earth again.

So please pray for Jerald.

and may all the Glory go to God.
Marcus
TransplantMinistries.com