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Forgiveness

I am a “C”

February 19, 2015 by mcoughlin

Many folks will recognize the reference to the “camp song” in the title of this post. I am a “C”. I am a “C-H.” I am a “C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.” And I have “C-H-R-I-S-T” in my “H-E-A-R-T” and I will “L-I-V-E E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y”!

It’s catchy. If you don’t know the tune, click here to check it out.

More on that later.

Today I took the first of a much needed two day vacation. My children have a snow day, so it is family day at the Coughlin home. I sat with my eldest 3 children to do a devotional today. I wanted to communicate to them why we have discipline for our youngest, Wesley who is only 1. Often I find my older children giving in to his mildly tyrannical demands, a trend I don’t want to see continue. I also don’t want my older kids who are just trying to help and who are genuinely trying to love their little brother to be discouraged.

So I turned them to 5 verses, studied in the following order.
Proverbs 13:24;22:15;29:1523:13-14
prov1324
In this verse we noticed the stark contrast between parents who are loving (provide discipline) and haters (neglect discipline).

prov2215
 

 
In this verse, we saw the nature of children (foolish) and the remedy (discipline).
 

 
prov2915
Here we saw the use of the rod bringing the opposite of the innate foolishness of a child, to the child. We also see the unfortunate effect of a foolish child. Shame to Mom! May I confess my own personal sin in that area for which Jesus (and my Mom) have graciously forgiven me.
 

 

prov2313-14
Finally, we saw this wonderful promise that proper discipline will not harm the child, but rather, it will provide him/her with life. It is this type of discipline which loving parents apply to their children which allows children to see the personal promise which is offered when they obey their parents. (Exodus 20:12). We saw how parents and children work together to eliminate foolishness from the child’s heart God’s way.

So I asked my children, what is the proper heart response to parents who are trying to discipline according to the nurture and admonition of God? They responded that it should make them feel good; they realized there should be an acknowledgement that they are inherently foolish in their hearts and that they should actually crave discipline…so that they may reach the point where they are no longer fools.

Any child who claims to be a Christian ought to be challenged to believe these Scriptures and respond as if they really believed them which would look like gratitude, affection toward parents and ultimately, obedience.

Then I thought of this song referenced earlier and I asked my children to each write a new song with the truths they learned. I gave them a starting point, here are the results to the tune of “I am a ‘C.'” Say capital letters individually, not as words.

Bailey – 14
I am a C, I am a CH, I am a CHILD.
and I am FOOLISH in my HEART and if I am not disciplined I will DIE!

Alexandra – 10
I am a C, I am a CH. I am a CHILD.
and I have FOOLISHNESS in my HEART and only DISCIPLINE and CHRIST can SAVE me!

Nicholas – 12
I am a C, I am a CH, I am a CHILD.
and I have FOOLISHNESS in my HEART and I will need DISCIPLINE!

Special thanks to LOGOS Bible software for the cool verse images and Daniel J. Phillips and his book God’s Wisdom in Proverbs.

Filed Under: Gospel, Just me, Love, Theology Tagged With: attributes of God, Christ, church, Forgiveness, Holy, humility, leadership, logic, Love, people, power, pride, sin

Random Acts of Kindness

January 11, 2015 by mcoughlin

Preach the gospel at all times, whenever possible include kind actions as well.
–Michael Coughlin

Christian: You can seem kind without giving the most important thing you can give to people. I’m not saying “don’t do kind acts,” and I’m not saying “you can only do a kind act if you share the gospel” … but don’t pat yourself on the back for sending people to hell with full bellies or warm clothes or a free lunch or two.

In a couple hours, I’ll delivery my teaching on “kindness” from Galatians 5:22.

Check back or go to my Sermon Audio page to hear the final teaching.

Filed Under: Gospel, Love, Open Air Preaching, Theology, Witnessing Tagged With: apologetics, Bible, Christ, church, Forgiveness, God, Gospel, Jesus, logic, Love, Open Air, people, preaching, pride

OSU vs Indiana Outreach Report

November 23, 2014 by mcoughlin

Greetings! On Saturday, November 22, 2014, Fred Triplett and I rode down to Ohio Stadium together to meet newly ordained apostle evangelist, Joe Conkle.

Joe brought 3 men with him who were all eager to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Kelly, Johan and David.

Here's the gang from the Ohio State vs Indiana game today. Thousands heard the Word and received tracts in Columbus! pic.twitter.com/GAUnXqSmJ4

— Michael A. Coughlin (@ABereanOne) November 23, 2014

We ministered for about 2 hours, from the end of the 3rd quarter to when the crowds died down at Lane and Olentangy River Road. I preached the gospel for about an hour, and thousands of people heard the Word.

While preaching, I read from 1 John 4, Colossians 1, Romans 1 and Psalm 34. As a point of conviction and rebuke to you, dear reader, did you spend that much time in God’s Word yesterday? There are days I have not, to my shame!

I don’t know how many tracts were distributed, probably a thousand or more. I had my share of hecklers and yellers. I did my best to come back to them with winsome, rational comments. Hopefully, someone saw the fault in the anti-God worldview. One guy yelled “Shutup” to me. I replied by asking “Why don’t you?” Afterward, I wondered if it came across as rude or “seventh-gradey,” but I meant it as a serious inquiry into his logic. He didn’t respond.

God protected us from inclement weather and evildoers. That corner is covered in Police directing traffic which makes me feel very safe. After preaching for half an hour, I caught a glimpse of one of Columbus’ finest who was on the corner closest to us. He is a man I have known for years as he is a Christian and the brother of one of my best friends.

We brought a box of 20 Bibles and only gave away 1 of them. This is one area where I want to do better. I ought to be more prepared and have a sign that says “FREE BIBLES.” I suppose if people don’t know we have them, they aren’t going to just ask for a Bible. What was interesting is that while preaching, I mentioned that we had Bibles to give away. Shortly after, a man who overheard me, named Chris, approached asking for a Bible. I shut down the microphone for a few minutes and listened to him tell me about his life, and I was able to share the gospel with him.

Dear Christian, will you please pray for Chris? He’s engaged and has 2 daughters. His appearance was humble, but only God sees the heart.

On a side note, for those of you who don’t think open air preaching “works,” I’ll answer a fool according to his folly and point out that a man heard the gospel one on one and received a copy of God’s Word because he heard a preacher with a microphone mention that he could receive a free Bible.

There was one other instance to note: A drunk man was seemingly mesmerized by the preaching, (once in a while you catch someone who is CLEARLY listening and engrossed in the preaching). His friend kept trying to get him to move on, but he remained focused on me. I asked him, “Do you want forgiveness?” And he nodded in the affirmative. His friend urged him on, but he heard the message. Maybe God will use it to convert him!

May you bless God for his graciousness to me. Five men showed up to minster the gospel with me and without any conflict deferred to me as the leader and authority in the group. It is a responsibility I accept as one which was foreordained by God. I only hope that I will humbly serve, even those who submit to me, as my Lord Jesus did. May God be glorified because He is worthy and His Word was exalted and the name of Jesus was magnified.

Special thanks to Sports Fan Outreach International who encourages us, inspires us and prays for us as we labor to the crowds in Ohio.

P.S. Midway through my preaching, a couple of young ladies stood about 20 feet in front of me and held up a camera phone. I assumed they were recording me (for what purpose, I have no idea). Am I vain that I sucked in my stomach? Maybe that’s a sign I need to be more disciplined! 🙂

Filed Under: Gospel, Love, Open Air Preaching, Prayer, Witnessing Tagged With: attributes of God, Bible, Christ, Forgiveness, Gospel, humility, Jesus, leadership, logic, Love, Mercy, Open Air, people, power, prayer, preaching, pride, Righteous, savior, Scripture, sin

Outreach Report from the Ahhhnold

March 2, 2014 by mcoughlin

The gospel was proclaimed loudly and often at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus, OH on March 1, 2014. Here are some highlights:

We arrived later than hoped, about 11:40am. An interesting twist occurred when another man began preaching with a megaphone just 25 feet from where I set up to preach. I spoke to him briefly, confirmed he was preaching salvation by grace through faith alone and then wished him well.

He preached for an hour. Although we were happy about him, his preaching was … less than stellar. It wasn’t so much his presentation, but his theology. I also noticed that he rarely mentioned the resurrection of Jesus. You cannot consider yourself a gospel preacher if you do not speak of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-4).

During this time, Fred Triplett, Joe Conkle and I passed out the newly printed tracts my church, Berean Baptist Church, bought. The weather was great, about 14-15 degrees warmer than last year! Praise God for that. Joe, for the second year in a row, drove from over an hour away to help. What a lover of God!

Finally, at about 12:40, I saw Darius (the other preacher) taking a break. I asked him if I could preach, and he assented. I began by reading Psalm 47 and then proclaiming God’s goodness and grace in Christ. I didn’t stop preaching for 2 hours. I really had a fun time. After a short break I preached for another hour or hour and a half before we settled down and headed home around 5pm.

Click here for the best picture from the day. This is on Facebook, so you have to be friends with Rusty Beals to see it (Sorry!).

The day was filled with encouragement. Christians were constantly approaching us to thank us and encourage us. One little girl even approached me while I preached and put a dollar in my tract box as a gift. There was another woman, clearly listening to the preaching whose family sorta dragged her across the street. I noticed this because she was really focused and listening, and then you could see her husband sorta get her attention.

A few minutes later I looked down and she and her son were standing in front of me. She said she just wanted to shake my hand and thank me and then said other kind things about me that I don’t deserve to hear as only the grace of Christ allows me to live, let alone serve him. Her son introduced himself and they each told me they were Christians and were glad I was doing what I was doing. This is very encouraging to a preacher and to anyone else out handing out tracts. Praise be to the most high God who died for me while I was yet a sinner.

I read the Bible in the open air frequently, pausing to explain passages periodically. By the end of the day I had read the following chapters publicly: Genesis 1, Psalm 47, Psalm 19, 1 John 1, John 10, selected parts of Matthew 5, portions of Isaiah 1, portions of Genesis 2, and portions of 1 John 2.

Dear Christian, I do not mean to be offensive, but will you consider if this is even too much for your own daily reading? Consider your own state of affairs if the Spirit brings conviction.

Rusty Beals also came and helped us most of the day. Praise God for Rusty who drove 8 hours round trip to be a part of our humble team. We also met up with several men from New Life Community Church, home of the 2014 Ohio Fire! Finally, thanks to Bill Adams who publicized our little outreach, we had 2 new friends appear, Steve and Daisy Rohr. What a blessing they were as they listened to the preaching and handed out tracts with us.

Throughout the day, homosexuality and a description of homosexuality as an abomination was only mentioned twice. Interestingly enough, I was not the person who shouted that. Two (I assume) gay men, on separate occasions, found it necessary to shout something concerning homosexuality. The first man stopped and yelled, “Isn’t homosexuality an abomination?” I don’t recall what he may have been responding to in my OA. But I replied, “All our sin is an abomination to a holy God and we are all hopeless without Christ.” He wasn’t happy with my response, but he didn’t stay to discuss it further.

Shortly after that a man walked by and shouted in his best “gay voice”:

Don’t forget to call homosexuality an abomination!

I supposed I didn’t need to, as he had just drawn enough attention to the topic himself. Not that I’m particularly shy about speaking concerning any certain sin, but I have never really focused on one sin. My preaching style, if I have one, is more of a proclamation of the goodness and grandeur of God and what He did for sinners in Christ. I make it my goal to constantly refer to the resurrection, the trinity, the deity of Christ and the grace and humility of Christ while reminding the hearers frequently of their pathetic and hopeless state in their sin and flesh. For more information on how to speak to homosexuals, click here for three short talks, all of which can be downloaded as pdf.

About a decade ago a friend gave me some advice. He said, “When someone shows you their true colors, thank them.” I’ve never forgotten this and I found it applicable to this next circumstance. As I was preaching, there was a man holding a young child. You know the scene, he’s about 10 feet in front of me, and the child is rear-facing over the man’s shoulder. Now what happened next was enough to shock me. What is important to understand is the actions of the next man I’m about to describe are a to-the-letter description of the old me.

A pretty large man walked by with a group of his friends. Tired of my preaching, he turned and shouted obscenities I will not type. But in the process, he effectively yelled the ‘f’ word about 3 feet from this little child. I was seriously disgusted. I reacted, not in the flesh but in the Spirit (I hope!) and called him a vile, wicked man and told him that he should shut his profane mouth. He followed that up with more cursing. I did not let up. I commanded him to repent of his wickedness and turn to Christ to be forgiven. But in the spirit of the earlier quote, I thank this man and God for him as he became my object lesson as I used him to describe for the remaining hearers a bit about the sorry state of man. I was not angry with him personally, but there were other hearers who had words for him. I was glad about that.

God is and was very good to me that day. One of the most remarkable and unpredictable ways was that I felt like reading Matthew 5. I like to believe it was the work of the Holy Spirit. I was reminded of the following verse as I proudly read God’s Word:

Matthew 5:11-12 ESV
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

As I spent the day primarily being encouraged and feeling safe, surrounded by good brothers and righteous policemen, I still endured the reproach. People spat toward me (never on me), yelled cruel things and generally mocked and scoffed. No amount of ridicule or ‘suffering’ I could endure would ever compare to my Savior’s, but I do feel I get a little chance to identify with Him more fully through these circumstances. Praise God the most High!

Psalms 47:1-2 ESV
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

Filed Under: Gospel, Open Air Preaching, Theology, Witnessing Tagged With: attributes of God, Christ, church, Forgiveness, God, Gospel, humility, Open Air, people, preaching, pride, self-control, sin

Prayer, God’s Sovereignty & Praying in the Name of Jesus

December 28, 2013 by mcoughlin

Listen to the conclusion of the teaching on witchcraft in regard to “the prayer of Jabez.”

Some questions to consider when reviewing the disciple’s prayer:

1. Is it okay to repeat yourself in your prayers?

2. Is it okay to pray in public? Can we pray with others?

3. Why pray if God is sovereign?

4. What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Is a prayer not a prayer if I forget to say “in Jesus’ name?”

Listen for biblical answers to these good questions which genuine Christians can have!

Scripture references includes Isaiah 46:6-10; Daniel 9; Matthew 6:5-10; 1 Chronicles 4:10; John 14:13

Filed Under: Love, Prayer, Theology Tagged With: Christ, church, Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, Joy, leadership, Love, Mercy, prayer, preaching, Scripture, self-control, sin, witchcraft

How Does “Presup” Affect the Duck Dynasty/Gay Debate?

December 21, 2013 by mcoughlin

I admit it. I’ve been sucked in. This online debate got me interested and I was looking at arguments and joining various threads – all with predictable results. 🙁

But there is one point I’d like to make. There is a very good logical point I see being made on various websites. It goes like so:

Why can A&E refuse to do business with someone because of their views on sex, but bakers and photographers can’t?

Look. I get the argument. It makes sense. It should be the nail in the coffin of the entire debate.

But it’s not. So Christians and nonChristians who are against gays or pro-Duck Dynasty alike get frustrated.

Stop getting frustrated, it isn’t worth it.

The problem is not a logic problem. It is a spiritual problem. The carnal mind cannot fathom the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). And when you consider that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge or wisdom (Proverbs 1:7), then it follows that nonbelievers have ultimately given up proper use of logic and rational thinking.

And guess what? No matter how many times you explain it to them or remind them – they will not see it or believe you.

Their problem is spiritual and they need the Lord to regenerate their hearts and cause them to see Christ for who He really is. So don’t get frustrated when a sweet argument doesn’t seem to succeed. God’s Word will have its desired effect (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Display your faith in God’s sovereignty by arguing rationally about these things, expressing kindness, generosity and love toward your fellow man – and trust in the Lord will all your heart, leaning not on your own understanding! (Proverbs 3:5)

More important than anything else, share the life changing and soul saving gospel of Jesus!

Filed Under: Gospel, Theology, Witnessing Tagged With: Bible, Duck Dynasty, Forgiveness, Gay, God, people, pride

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