Shout the Gospel from the Rooftops!

Published: October 5th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting out on the roof of my house and spending some alone time with the Lord. While I listened to music and worshipped God, I looked down and saw the stream of humanity going to and from the string of bars that are right next to my house. I was struck by how different our lives were…and how it was unfair that I should be able to sit on my roof and commune with the God of the Universe while my peers tried to drink away their consciousness. 

I began to meditate on the verse about proclaiming the truth from the housetops.

A few minutes later, my friend Amy came up on the roof with me. When she asked what I was doing, I told her about the verse I was meditating on and said, “Amy, wouldn’t be cool if we just shouted the truth from the rooftop?” Even though I was thinking about this, I was more or less speaking hypothetically. In typical Amy-fashion, though, she said, “Well, let's do it!” 

Surprised and honestly pretty nervous, I followed Amy over to the side of the roof closest to the street. We began to yell down to the people walking by about Jesus.

Most of the people looked around but just kept walking. Then another guy walked by and I shouted down, “Hey, you in the green shirt! Jesus loves you so much!” The guy stopped walking and began to look around. I shouted again, “Jesus is jealous for your love!” The guy, looking positively troubled, shouted, “Where are you? Show yourself!” Amy and I then popped up from our perch on the roof and climbed down so that we could talk to the guy. 

As we were talking to him, it was clear that he had some knowledge of Scripture and the sovereignty of God.

As it turns out, he had actually planned on being a youth pastor at one time in his life. We talked with him for a bit and then got his number from him before he had to go. The next day he ended up coming to church with us. We went out to dinner afterward and discussed where he was with his life. 

He told us that he was at a crossroads. He said he knew that the life that Jesus had to offer was so much better, but he knew that if he gave his life to Jesus, he would have to be all in. There was no going halfway with this. He said that when he thought of it logically, he had on the one hand drinking and friends, and on the other hand the universe, but that it was still a very hard decision because he would have to lose everything that he had counted as important beforehand. 



We counseled him that it was a wise thing that he was counting the cost and recognizing that he would indeed have to take up his cross and follow Jesus, but that Jesus would lead him to life and life abundantly and to an intimate and beautiful relationship with his Savior. In the weeks that followed, we got to watch as the Lord brought redemption to a broken relationship between this young man and his father (whom he hadn’t talked for two years). We also got to spend more time with him and watch and pray as the Lord continued to allure him. 

Finally, a few nights later, the Lord made it clear to him that he needed to confess his sins and receive forgiveness.

Immediately, we saw 2 Corinthians 5:17 evidenced in him: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” He is a completely different person. He has joy and light and is seeing Christ as his supreme treasure. 

He soon began coming to the Well House of Prayer that the Lord is founding here in Denton every morning at 6 a.m. and attending 24 hour prayer meetings with us. He has been praying for and ministering to his friends who don’t know Jesus, and last week two of them even came to church with him. He is excitedly watching God move in many of his friends who had grown up with him in church but had strayed as he had. He has been sharing his testimony with everyone the Lord gives him a chance to talk to. It’s amazing! Our God is so good.



My brothers and sisters in Christ and I are viewing this as a firstfruits of revival here in Denton. Indeed, the Lord is doing something here that we wouldn’t believe if He told us beforehand. He is uniting His Body in prayer and worship, and I believe that wide-sweeping revival is soon to follow. Thank You, Lord!

This article is curtesy of Jackie Weittenhiller and Campus America. Campus America is a 24-7 Prayer USA initiative with the impossible dream of seeing every College, University and Seminary Campus in the United States of America united in an unbroken chain of 24-7 Prayer in 2010.  

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