Aquire the Burden

March 14, 2001

Aquire the Burden

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The "Aquire the Fire" Conference

"Aquire the Burden"

This past weekend, upwards of 30,000 church teens attended the Acquire the Fire Youth Conference at Tropicana Field. As they lined up for lunch, thousands were confronted with a special version of Sing a Little Louder tracts and "Acquire the Burden" banners affixed to large graphic pictures of aborted children. Although many of the well known speakers at the conference delivered awesome sermons, it is doubtful that any had intended to lead the tremendous throng of young warriors to the gates of hell for battle. In fact, from the comments we received, most of the "young warriors" weren't even aware there was a battle, much less thinking that they were the ones destined to fight. To be honest, we've had better response from pro-aborts!

One "warrior's" dad indignantly said, "I just want to let you know you've spoiled my son's lunch!" Others responded with, "How disgusting!" or "How can you do this before we eat?" Such depth of compassion from those who had been acquiring the fire for a day and a half was shocking!

The teens who would not see or hear

Not wanting to deal with the reality of life seemed to be the main problem. Isaiah's prophecy of "Seeing they will not see, and hearing they will not hear," was vividly portrayed when a group of teens, all dressed in orange "Stand Up" (Acquire the Fire) tee shirts and directed by their leader, stonefacedly "stood their ground" in blocking off the view of our graphic signs from the rest of the Acquire the Fire teens.

Then to everyone's surprise, several members of a Miami church came to the rescue. "How dare you try to cover up the truth! The church needs to face reality!", they cried!

Tom McGlade and the former gang members (security officer in suit)

These awesome guys, all former gang members who now serve Jesus, prevailed in clearing the area of sign blockers with their wisdom and intensity! The religious "orange shirts" were no match for God's true warriors.

Though some of us were threatened with arrest on the public sidewalk, we nonetheless set up our sound system. We lovingly and boldly preached the message of God's heart concerning the shedding of innocent blood. Many heartily agreed and many lives were touched by the boldness of those who were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Kim prayed with a girl named Rachel, who confessed, through tears of repentance, that although her parents were involved with a crisis pregnancy center, she had never been faced with the truth in such magnitude. Her whole perspective concerning abortion was changed. Apathy was defeated!

There were more, so it was well worth spoiling a few appetites.

Tom McGlade