Tuesdays 7:00 PM Lund 21!
For the past month our weekly CCN meeting has had 5 total people show up! This is the highest showing of people since my Sophomore year. We are currently learning about Evolution and tonight at 6:15 PM we are going out witnessing at the Student Center. Come if you can! Here's a pic of the group

Talent Show Preaching

This was Homecoming weekend at Midland Lutheran College and so they had several events going on throughout the week. Yesterday night they had several events that included, Crowning of the King and Queen, Talent Show, Prep Rally etc. It was a packed house of around 400 people. I was in the Talent Show and my "talent" was to have the Bible make sense in a few minutes. God gave me the oppurtunity to preach the Gospel to those 400 people. God opened the door and many people heard about Jesus Christ and here is the video.

Cafeteria Outreach Today!

Today was our cafeteria outreach and we took a long someone, Alphonso Cooper but likes to go by Coop. Pray for him, he talked to me and said God has been nudging him to witness and is afraid. Today I took him to the cafeteria and we sat outside and I showed him the ropes, passed out some tracts and witnessed to a man. Here is a pick of Ben and Coop before we left.

Praise Report

On September 9th, 2008 Ben and myself had a prayer meeting in my room. At first I could not feel the presence of God and I continued to pray for His Holy Spirit to come upon me and I prayed and prayed and then He sent it. It was powerful and then the Holy Spirit spoke to me pretty directly and said I am going to give you a vision and I am going to give Ben the same vision. So I spoke forth thanking God for this vision and in Faith believing the vision would come to the both of us. So here is the vision both Ben and I saw for this campus.

See in the middle of Midland Lutheran College is a huge cross in the middle of a water fall. The symbol of a Cross in of itself is not Holy or anything and from my vision the cross represented the darkness on campus and all the idolatry taking place. Then all of a sudden I saw Gods foot come from Heaven and smashed the cross to nothing. Then from the rubble a huge rock came froth and towered above everything and a new Cross sprouted from atop this rock. It represented truth, light, it replaced that false Cross and it also represented Christ's reign on campus, no more darkness. Then I saw fruit rolling down this mountain and when it got to the bottom they started to turn into Godly men and woman, they began to preach the Gospel and people got saved left and fright, teachers, staff, and even the President of the campus. After this I asked Ben what he saw and this is what he saw.

Ben saw a tiny light(glow) in the middle of the cross where the crossbeam is. It represented a tiny remnant there, a little truth on campus still remained. Then the whole cross crumbled to the ground and just like in my vision a hug rock sprouted forth towering over everything. Then that tiny light went to the top of that mountain. Then it started to expand and expand until it exploded onto the whole campus, the whole campus was covered with this light and with fire. A revival took place.

As Ben and myself talked about this we were amazed, we don't know when this will happen, maybe when we are still here maybe not. I do know that this vision will come true and I praise God for that!

Prayer Request

My heart is for Midland Lutheran College. Monday is our first meeting with CCN being an official ministry on campus. Please pray for students to show, pray for laborers and pray for my brokenness for this campus.

The start of a new year! 2008-2009

A new school year has started and CCN is officially an organization at Midland Lutheran College. Today was the student involvement fair and had many people check us out.



Here are the meeting times for this upcoming year.

Main Meeting: Mondays 9:00-10:00 PM Lund 21

Apologetics/Evangelism Tuesdays 9:00-10:00 PM Lund 21

Prayer Meeting Thursdays 7:00-8:00 PM

The Spiritual struggle was very real tonight, pray for boldness for the team and laborers. Pray that the Lord of Glory will claim His place at MLC.

God Bless you all
-Luke

It has been a very blessed year at Midland Lutheran College. Never before have I seen so much opposition here nor have I ever experienced such spiritual warfare. So I am going to use this weblog to recap everything that God did at MLC.

Since coming to MLC the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was to be the one that started something here, exactly what that was was unknown to me until the end of the 2007-2008 School Year. I am a Junior now going into my Senior Year and I can see God working here at MLC.

So I started my Junior year at MLC as the Co-President of Campus Crusade for Christ. I was very excited to see what God was going to do through CCC. There were many girls who attended CCC but very few guys. In Fact, my roommate Ben Steven's was my only faithful laborer for most of year. He has been with me since day one and has labored with me through it all. Here is a picture of Ben:

I would be running weekly Bible studies and large group meetings once a week. I was also a Campus leader for Change Collegian Network
I had been a local leader for CCN since last year and it was an organization that teachers college students to share their faith Biblically the way Jesus did. So I tried to incorporate both CCC & CCN throughout the year. I would host meetings in which I would go over evangelism and the need to preach the gospel on campus. Only my roomate Ben Stevens was on board with me. The girls of CCC would attend the meeting but wouldn't join Ben and I on our weekly out reaches to the students. I always felt like I had to hold it back because I didn't want to cause division. CCC's vision did not align with my vision and it was only a matter of time before something had to give. As the first couple of weeks of school went on the Holy spirit once again called me to Open Air Preach in the Cafeteria. I didn't want to but I had to obey God. Here is that video:

I did not get a good response as expected, I did the same thing last year after the Virgina Tech Massacre. As the year went on I tried and tried to teach others about Evangelism and how we are all called to do it. Ben and myself continued to go to the cafeteria almost weekly and tell the students about Jesus Christ and how they need to repent of their sins and surrender to the Living God. Here is an audio that I recorded in the cafeteria with several girls.

The year went on and the only guy to attend my Bible studies were my roomate Ben. That was ok with me, we learned a lot and even would pray every morning for a long time for this campus. However, as the year went on I felt the tension more and more with CCC. They would send out Regional CCC leaders to check up on us and I could tell they did not like what I was doing. My vision for this campus did not align with their campus and that is ok with me. Sometimes you just need to part ways. After awhile I just kind of gave up on the CCC woman leaders on campus when it came to evangelism and Ben and myself just concentrated on going out on our own. In December right before Christmas break we bought 300 tracts :
What we did was stand outside of the Cafeteria and hand them to people as they walked in, Ben handed the people the tracts and I stood outside with a big wooden cross:
We handed out nearly all of them and so it went really well. However at this point CCC did no longer want me as President. One of the leaders told me that they wanted me to step down and was going to let others take control. I was hurt at first but realized that it was Gods plan. I felt so free, I could finally not hold back and just follow Gods will on campus. At this point mostly everyone on campus knew who I am, most did not like what I did, it is a very liberal college.

So the new semester started off like any other. I would witness to friends and people around me whenever I got the chance, Ben and myself would leave various tracts around campus praying that someone would get saved. I have talked to Ben about this several times but there is just something so different about this campus, it is so dark and sometimes I could feel so very well the spiritual battle on campus; so much opposition. I have open aired twice at the cafeteria and both times I literally felt attacked afterwords, I have never felt such opposition.

As semester went on Tiffany Gelpi who is the founder of CCN told me I should try and get CCN recognized as an organization on campus, so I started to get that underway. In the mean time In march God put it on my heart to record a message for the students at MLC and send it to everyones email. So I did and here is that video:


I received many negative feedbacks, some saying I made the Savior sound hateful and others telling me I was going to hell for judging. You can read all the responses in a earlier post. After posting the Video I told Ben that something was going to happen, I had a weird feeling in my stomach about it,the enemy really did not want that video going out. I then had someone I knew very well scold me for the video, he tore into me pretty hard and it hurt a lot. But God is so great and He comforted me in my time of distress.

Then God sent forth another laborer, his name is Tim and he has a been a real blessing. He is a freshmen and while he wont be back here next year he was a real inspiration to Ben and myself. He was a true Born again Believer and labored with us. Our next step to reach this campus was that we bought 500 chick tracts : We then hung them up on all the dorms on campus with our contact infor on them. Here are some pictures of this experience.
On our last night of doing this we covered two full dorms, Ben and myself then went to go visit a friend for about an hour and when we went back to our room this is what we found in front of our door:


It wasn't really a shock to see this, what it did show me was how dark this campus is and how the enemy is scared. I have felt so much loneliness on this campus, felt like this whole place was against me, but that is what we are called to do something. It is a lonely road sometimes to stand up for the Lord, we no longer belong to the world so the world will no longer accept us. James 4:4. The next day CCN was accepted as an organization on campus, God is truly starting to work on this campus more and more and I belive CCN was that very thing God wanted me to start on this campus. So next year I will be president of CCN and Ben will be Co-president. To end the Year my Pastor Jim Bates of Victory Christian Fellow Ship
& Jim Richardson came to campus with big signs, it gave the students another chance to Repent of their sins and Turn to Jesus. Many people saw them and had a few people talk to them. Here it is:
Looking back at the 2007-2008 year I can say that all the students at MLC heard the gospel, they heard it in so many ways. While I can't say I have seen much fruit God got all the glory. Praise our Lord Jesus Christ!

Update At Midland Lutheran College


This has been one interesting semester to say the least. It has also been a blessing, God sent forth a new laborer to CCN here, his name is Tim and he is a born again believer with such a passion. It is quite refreshing to see Tim, he suggested that we have 3 Bible studies a week now. Here is what the schedule looks like.

Monday: Bible Study 9:10
Tuesday: Bible Study 9:10
Thursday: Prayer Meeting 4:30-5:30/CCN Meeting 5:30-6:30
Every other week we have our outreach at the Cafeteria.

In April we are planning on buying 500 Chick Tracts and distributing them among the dorms. The tract will be "This was your Life".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prayer Requests
-Pray That God would open the eyes of the students here on campus, the spiritual darkness here is very heavy and it really weighs down on your over time.
-Pray for our new laborer Tim, he is not sure if he is going to stay next year, he is a freshmen and after being here for 3 years he is the first on fire born again believer I have come a crossed except for my roommate Ben.
-I recently sent out a Video to all the students and got a lot of heat from that, pray that doors would be continually opened here. I will post the video on here.
-I am in the process of getting CCN recognized as a organization on campus, pray that this would happen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So recently the Lord laid it upon my heart to record a Message to the MLC students, I will post their responses that I got and the video. I knew after posting this video that the enemy would not be happy and went through a trial because of it but the Lord saw me through it.

Luke- I watched the video. I didn't know how I felt about it at first. But I thought about it for a while. You just make our savior sound so hateful. He does love us and we just have to ask for his forgiveness. Also, people are sinning many other ways than just drinking and having sex.
But I cant control what you say. Just kind of seems like your a hypocrit because you do drink and you do have a girlfriend.

But good message and good job backing it up with religious versus'.

Dude.

I appriciate your enthusiasm and boldness to speak up about your faith. However, I think that some of the things you said are contradictory and hypocritical. i have one very important questian for you... do you think you are sinless? and if for some reason you do... how can you say that your sins are less than anyone elses?

I don't think that your form of Christianity is completely accurate, because if it were, you would be able to understand the concepts of repentance and forgiveness.

Luke,

I received your e-mail today and was slightly saddened by it. I do think that it is an interesting way to share your faith. It is creative and not a bad idea. You were easily able to contact a vast number of people on campus. Some of your points were good. There is a drinking problem on this campus. I will give you that. It has frustrated me since day one of being here. However, I do not believe that telling everyone who drinks or has sex that they are going to go to hell is the answer. Do the verses Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast," not show us that God is a loving God who saves us merely by faith simply as long as we believe?

I personally do not feel that we as humans have any right to decide who does or does not get to go to hell. I do not feel that condemning those who live lives of sin, and telling them that they will not be saved is right. Each of us are sinners. None of us are perfect. However, we live under a loving God. A God who would sacrifice his one and only son, because he loves each one of us so much, even though we are sinners. It is an amazing thing for us to have. We are so blessed. Why would you feel as though you should make others feel bad about themselves and make God sound as though he/she is someone we should be entirely scared of? Rather we should want to love him/her and be thankful for all God has given us.

I think the only repercussion your video is going to create is a feeling of anger and the want to move further and further from God. You make God sound scary. You say, "God does not give second chances." Luke, that is entirely untrue. God does give second chances, not only is he a God of love, but he is also a God of forgiveness. It is shown vividly in Luke 15:11-31. The man's son was lost, but as soon as the son came back he accepted him with open arms. Do you not think that loving others, sharing your concern for them in their lives in a kind way, and reaching out to others would be a much better way to share God's love? Aren't we as Christians, called to act as Jesus? How many times does the Bible mention Jesus going around condemning others? Doesn't Jesus love the sinners? Didn't he walk side by side with them and share his word to them through kindness? I cannot recall one Biblical passage where Jesus told the people they were going to hell because they were sinners?

I do not feel that shoving religion down other people throats is the right way. I do not feel that it has the impact that it should nor do I feel that it what God is calling us to do. John 15:12-13 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Luke, God wants us to share his love with others. Especially us as evangelists, disciples, and firm believers of his word. I believe that we are to lead by example. We are to show this love. Everyone wants love, they want to feel wanted. They do not want to feel as though they should be ashamed and feel bad about themselves. And God does not want that either. Yes, he wants us to become aware of our sins and accept them, then ask for forgiveness. But once we ask for that forgiveness he will forgive, he will not hold it against us any longer. He is always there with us, by our side loving us unconditionally, no matter what mistakes we make. Shoving the Word down peoples' throats is not going to create firm believers. We can not do that. Only the Holy Spirit can. People will not come to hear and believe the Word because it is thrown at them. In most cases they will run farther and farther away. I feel like you make it seem scary to be a Christian. Like you have to hold this "perfect" life, and that is not true. God is aware we are sinners, yet still loves us.

excuse me... jesus died for our sins dont say that we are all going to hell if anything your going to hell for judging all of us... we dont judge you! i may not be a devote christian but doesnt god just want us to believe isnt that what everything is about is believing in something higher! i'm sorry but your really dumb for believing that you can live exactly how the bible says... wake up its the 21st century things have changed && situations have changed! we dont force our opinons on you dont force yours on us! i could care less to how you think i live my life! i am happy with what i believe and what i do!!

I was also told that girls were afraid of my passion that they thought I was going to shoot up the school. I just said well that would contradict everything I have said but thats ok.

I did receive several good emails and this is one that encourged me the most from a freshman girl.

Hey Luke-

I think what you are doing is great & as I fellow believer in Jesus Christ, I fully support you. I have been following the random responses and just wanted to let you know (as I'm sure you do) that it is ok to be persucuted. Matthew 24:9 says:

"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me." (NIV)

And then in verse 13-14:

"Stay with it—that's what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, and you'll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come." (The Message)

So, anyway... more power to you, Brother. Keep doing great things for the King.

In Him,

I believe this semester has many things in store for me. God has shown me a lot about myself as of late and I do not see that stopping anytime soon. I was the Co-President For Campus Crusade last Semester and a Leader last year. However, I have been removed from that position and as a leader for the rest of the semester and have been asked to let others take over.

The Campus Crusade Vision did match up with mine, they simply did not like what I was doing on campus when it came to evangelism. I hold no grudges of any sort towards Campus Crusade and pray God would use them on this campus. It was a humbling experience but I know God is in control on this campus. I was just not the type of leader they were looking for and if someone can come in and reach more than I did for the Kingdom then I praise God for that.

So This semester I will be doing a CCN Bible study Monday nights at 9:10 Lund 22. Thursday's 5:30 PM will be our weekly Outreach on Campus & I have no decided whether or not we will do this weekly or bi-weekly and the week where we do not go on the outreach we have our normal CCN meeting. I will decide sometime this week on that. For Now God Bless and Thank you all for your prayers.

Hello Everyone

It has been a little while since I have updated my blog and I will start to update it a lot more. Here is an update of Midland Lutheran College and my own walk with Jesus Christ. First I just want to praise God, every day I realize how His Love Truly does endure forever.

This has been a tough year for me, I am co-president of Campus Crusade For Christ on campus and that has been a pretty frustrating ministry to say the least. All the men that I had attend my Bible study last year no longer attend except for one faithful soul winner. My no compromise approach has warded off several and fellowship is not where it used to be here at MLC. The one faithful is my roommate Ben and has been a blessing to me. The girls that are involved in Campus Crusade for Christ number quite a few more. They do get better turn outs for their Bible studies and everything but yet evangelism and preaching the Gospel on this campus is more scarce than one can imagine. Most are into friendship evangelism which takes months for them. I have weekly outreaches to the cafeteria and witness to students.

Something interesting, I recently talked to 3 former professors and 1 nurse who used to work here and they told me that this campus has just gotten more and more dark, while this is not a good thing it was a great encouragement to me. I have felt this for so long, that this camps was a haven for spiritual darkness, I can feel it and this place is so lost and empty. It is seen as no threat at all. This is all very hard, because I am basically the only one in deep prayer for this campus and evangelizes that it can get very hard. It can get quite lonely at times, but the Lord has used this to grow closer to Him. I do have some prayer requests and they that God Almighty would use me in mighty ways on this Campus, also that I would die completely to myself, let me be crucified with Christ on that Cross, die to this world and all this passions. I don't want any hindrance, I want to focus all my time and energy on Jesus Christ. Please pray for this campus, it is so lost, and its not that its just lost, but it is just BARREN, it has become a haven for spiritual darkness and they use it as their home. In the name of Jesus Christ we cannot stand idly by. I want to leave with this note I wrote about my struggles right now as a Christian. God Bless you all and I covet all your prayers.

Why Can’t I Just Die Already! (A Spiritual Death)
-A Note for those Christians Struggling in this World in This flesh.
Philippians 2:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain"


So many times I ask why am I still alive? Why Can’t I just die, I am so tired of being alive, it hurts so much anymore, the pain and loneliness is to much to take. I long for that comfort in death, that comfort to be finally free. No one around to comfort me, no warmth of another to tell me that everything is going to be ok; a comfort that can only be found in death. I fight and I fight to stay alive, I prayed for strength to overcome when all God wanted from me was to die. The Cross represents one thing, death! For so long I have ran from that very cross, unwilling to take its burden, unwilling to take upon myself the very nails of my Savior. Strength I prayed for, death was asked of. I echo the words of Paul when he says The World has been Crucified to me, and I to the World. I long to finally die, die to myself and be Crucified with Christ on that bloody Cross; a Death that brings true freedom; the only way to be truly freed from all worldly desires and passions. I pray for those nails to pierce my flesh and make me a tool worthy of use for my dear Savior! Give me Death So that I may Live!