Latest / Challenges of Faith Radio Program / Say what?- How did the process begin? Ep 3418

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Say what?- How did the process begin? Ep 3418 · Challenges of Faith Radio Program

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Challenges of Faith Radio Program. I am
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  Speaker 1: Gary McCance. Thank you for joining. I'd like to acknowledge
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  Speaker 1: God and you, our listener, here on episode 3418, Say What?
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  Speaker 1: What is this about a curse backfiring? According to ChickTrap
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  Speaker 1: out of California, A Mississippi pastor recently set a record
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  Speaker 1: by preaching through the entire Bible in a 96-hour marathon.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the most surprising results of the accomplishment
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  Speaker 1: came from hundreds of miles away in Texas. Pastor Matthew
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  Speaker 1: Olson of the First Baptist Church of Sharon preached continuously
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  Speaker 1: from Genesis through Revelation from May 30th to June 4th.
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  Speaker 1: About a week later, he received a message from a
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  Speaker 1: young woman named Lindsay. You don't know me, but I've
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  Speaker 1: been trying to get a hold of you, she reportedly
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  Speaker 1: told him. I need you to know this. God used
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  Speaker 1: you to save me during the 96 hours. Then she
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  Speaker 1: explained why she wanted to reach him. I was a
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  Speaker 1: witch up until last week. Lindsay told Olson that she
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  Speaker 1: and several friends who practiced witchcraft learned that a group
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  Speaker 1: of Christians they knew planned to watch the live stream
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  Speaker 1: of Olsen's preaching. The witches decided to join them in
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  Speaker 1: order to curse him to death. My friends and I
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  Speaker 1: started cursing you, watching you, and calling curses on you,
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  Speaker 1: Lindsay told him. We wanted you to die. At the time,
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  Speaker 1: Olsen was about 72 hours into his preaching marathon and
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  Speaker 1: had reached the Book of Romans. Exhaustion had taken such
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  Speaker 1: a toll that two men were physically supporting him while
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  Speaker 1: he continued to preach. Lindsay told Olsen that she initially
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  Speaker 1: responded to the display of his weakness by continuing to
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  Speaker 1: curse him. Then something astonishingly occurred. Olsen was deepened to
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  Speaker 1: explain the gospel and the righteousness that comes through Christ alone.
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  Speaker 1: It was then that Lindsay and another participant named Marcus
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  Speaker 1: experienced something Olsen himself cannot explain. According to Lindsay, each
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  Speaker 1: believed they heard Olsen personally address them and tell them
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus loved them. We watched two men hold you
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  Speaker 1: up and you looked into the camera and you said
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  Speaker 1: that you could see us and that you loved us
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  Speaker 1: and that God loved us, she recalled. Their friends became
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  Speaker 1: upset and left, but Lindsay and Marcus stopped what they
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  Speaker 1: were doing. Christians who were watching their preaching came over
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  Speaker 1: and began talking with them. Lindsay says she trusted Christ
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  Speaker 1: that night and was baptized about a week and a
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  Speaker 1: half later. While Olson says he never spoke Lindsay's and
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  Speaker 1: Marcus's name, he knew that the Holy Spirit was at
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  Speaker 1: work in each of them through the preaching. It is,
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  Speaker 1: to me, one of the best stories of the entire thing,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Olson didn't know what was happening in Texas
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  Speaker 1: while he preached. In fact, he says exhaustion was so
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  Speaker 1: severe that he has no memory of that particular portion
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  Speaker 1: of the marathon. But he knows what he was preaching.
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  Speaker 1: According to footage of the live stream, Olson had reached
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  Speaker 1: Romans 1 and Paul's declaration that the gospel of Christ
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  Speaker 1: is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
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  Speaker 1: that believe it. When we share the gospel, we really
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  Speaker 1: know what happens after that moment. The person who seems
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  Speaker 1: uninterested or even hostile may be listening more closely than
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  Speaker 1: we think. When we hand somebody a gospel tract, you
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  Speaker 1: give them the opportunity to read it for themselves, even
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  Speaker 1: when there isn't time for a conversation. That tract can
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  Speaker 1: then go home with them and be read later or
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  Speaker 1: even get passed along to someone else. Keep putting the
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  Speaker 1: gospel into people's hands. You never know how God may
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  Speaker 1: use one simple tract. People read a tract and put
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  Speaker 1: it away. Eventually they come to Christ. And as you
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  Speaker 1: can see by listening to the story, The track TRCT
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  Speaker 1: started the whole process.