Posted on 03/10/2010 11:09:36 AM PST by Colofornian
PROVO, Utah (BP)--Drive an hour south of Salt Lake City down Interstate 15 and you enter a different world, says North American Mission Board missionary Mickie Kelly.
"People think I'm exaggerating when I tell them the kinds of things that go on here," said Kelly, a church planter in Payson, Utah, near Provo. "The spiritual darkness is like a blanket that you wear every day."
Around the well-kept homes and clean-cut families of Payson, a spiritual drawstring tightens under the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
"Salt Lake City is 47 percent LDS," Kelly said. But, he added, the number doubles to 95 percent for Provo, which is home to the LDS-funded Brigham Young University and the LDS Missionary Training Center.
"People have left Salt Lake to move here and get away from the infidel, non-members, or Gentiles as we might be called," Kelly said. "In Utah County, the culture is Mormon -- every news channel, every billboard, everything they do is done to promote the church."
Originally from Oklahoma, Kelly and his wife Lorenda planted a church in Idaho, where they first experienced the grip the LDS has on its members.
"Out here it costs someone to come to Christ. It doesn't just cost them a trip to the lake or a couple of beer drinking buddies or a card game," Kelly said. "It costs them everything. They lose their families, they lose their homes, they lose their businesses, and so really at the same time that you invite someone to come to Christ you're thinking, 'Do I need to start a refugee ministry?'"
The Kellys say Utah is a daunting place to plant a church, but God has been faithful to bring several residents out of the LDS and into the Kellys' new work -- Crossings Church.
"I often pray asking God to take the word I've spoken and just seal it in their hearts, wake them up at night, don't let them sleep for weeks until they get real with God," Kelly said. "This whole thing is a testimony to God's sovereignty. Prayer has taken on a whole new meaning to me. It's my strategy."
From front porch conversations at night to chats at the local Wal-mart, the Kellys are making the true Christ known and people are receiving Him. Crossings Church has grown from three members to nearly 80 in Sunday attendance.
Within the first few months of their arrival, the Kellys realized they were in another country with its own culture, customs and way of receiving outsiders. Within the first week, the couple was able to share Christ with 10 LDS members who had come to their house during the evening to ask them why they were there.
"Many of them were hearing for that first time that Jesus wasn't just a man like them," Kelly said.
And there were people like Aaron Vickery, a former high-ranking, lifelong member of the LDS whose family had fallen to pieces and who knew the LDS teaching was wrong.
"I knew what they believed was wrong, but I didn't know what to believe," Vickery said. "Mickie heard about me when he was in Idaho and when he moved down here he called me up."
After several months, Kelly and Vickery spent all night talking about the Gospel. By morning Vickery had accepted Christ and wanted to join the church, which, at the time, met in Kelly's basement.
"It took me a long time. We'd been through Bible studies, and week after week these spoke right to me," Vickery said. "I finally decided it was time to accept the Lord."
For many in the area, it's still a long shot to get them on the front steps of a Christian church, but Kelly keeps praying and making Christ known.
"The whole thing makes me say 'Wow,'" Kelly said. "It's been the hardest thing I've ever done because you can't just go invite people to church. It's all been through prayer and conversations and watching God grow the church. It's been a 'wow' just to see Him move."
--30--
Adam Miller writes for the North American Mission Board. To view a video about Mickie Kelly and other missionary and chaplain ministries through NAMB and its state partners, visit www.namb.net and click on the "Missionary Focus" gallery.
From the article: "Salt Lake City is 47 percent LDS," Kelly said. But, he added, the number doubles to 95 percent for Provo, which is home to the LDS-funded Brigham Young University and the LDS Missionary Training Center. "People have left Salt Lake to move here and get away from the infidel, non-members, or Gentiles as we might be called," Kelly said. "In Utah County, the culture is Mormon -- every news channel, every billboard, everything they do is done to promote the church."
(Hmm...and here I thought we were to do all to promote a Personal God-Man, Jesus Christ...not an impersonal religious organization).
From the article: "Out here it costs someone to come to Christ...It costs them everything. They lose their families, they lose their homes, they lose their businesses, and so really at the same time that you invite someone to come to Christ you're thinking, 'Do I need to start a refugee ministry?'"
From the article: And there were people like Aaron Vickery, a former high-ranking, lifelong member of the LDS whose family had fallen to pieces and who knew the LDS teaching was wrong. "I knew what they believed was wrong, but I didn't know what to believe," Vickery said...After several months, Kelly and Vickery spent all night talking about the Gospel. By morning Vickery had accepted Christ and wanted to join the church...
The gospel is simply this: Jesus Christ is the Unique Son of God from eternity past; while retaining His divinity and union with the Father, He became a man, lived the perfect life we cannot so that He can be our substitutionary righteousness in the Father's eyes; we don't have to audition before the Father & try to change His mind about who we are; He knows us perfectly; and wants to know us intimately. That is a trust relationship whereby we trust in both His perfect life and death on the cross to cover our sins & bring us into reconciled harmony with Him. As Jesus is resurrected now, eternal life is a relationship with Him and His Father now (John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47; 17:3), not simply a degree of eventual glory. The Holy Spirit recreates us in Christ as a New Life birthed from above!
“Many of them were hearing for that first time that Jesus wasn’t just a man like them,” Kelly said.
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WOW
What darkness the mormons live in...
“It’s been a ‘wow’ just to see Him move.”
There is a very active Knights of Columbus council in Payson. Just sayin.
Thank you for posting this. I lived in Utah county and it is completely saturated LDS.
I counted the cost when I left the LDS and lost a lot (friends, job, housing, school), but I have friends who have lost even more, their families (spouses, siblings, children, parents) in their decision to follow Christ and not a ‘church’.
The good news is there is a revival going on in Utah. Ministries like Heart of the Matter and this one are inundated with letters from those who have left LDS and become Christian.
Evangelical Churches are growing and most of that growth is former LDS.
God is doing things in Utah.
I add my testimony to this.
I was born into a multi-generational Mormon family. All of my ancestors had joined the LDS Church prior to the trek to Utah in the late 1840’s.
I had never heard the message of the atonement. I had never heard of our Father, God who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
The God of Mormonism was once a man just like us, who had gone through trials just like ours, and who had performed his test so perfectly that he progressed into godhood. Jesus Christ was on a similar path.
I lived my life under complete oppression trying to appease a god who expected perfect obedience to sometimes inane rules and ordinances. I always failed - just like everyone does.
I was in my 40’s before I ever heard of a Savior who died to save me from the penalty of my sins. I am still learning of the magnificence of the Son who is God.
There is a light that shines in the darkness. We are called to bring the light to those who cannot see.
I can’t answer for LDS families in Utah. Never lived there. All I know is that Christ is the center of worship in my ward and that the First Presidency’s monthly message is always centered on Him.
Peace.
Eh ???
Amen, He knows more about who we really are than we do...
Jesus has been the son of God for eternity, He has no beginning and no end . He is the 2nd person of the eternal God and so it has always been. The Holy Spirit, like the father and the son is also God for eternity without beginning or end..
The triune God had the plan of salvation before the world was made.. The Father elects, the son saves and the Holy Spirit applies the salvation . Salvation is a work of the triune God !!!!! Not a work we do !!!
Jesus walked this earth as fully God and fully man .. The just died for the unjust.. What a merciful God we have !!
March’s is on “Moral Courage”. It does mention Christ in passing, but the LDS Jesus is VERY different from the Christian one.
Just because you sit in your garage and call yourself a car doesn’t mean you have tires and a steering wheel.
There is an active Catholic community in Payson, as evidenced by the K of C council. Thus, there are alternatives to the Mormon church in Payson.
Knight’s of Columbus. Catholic fraternal society. How that’s relevant to the thread is unknown.
the First Presidency’s monthly message is always centered on Him.
Peace.
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That “peace” thingy is from the hippies of the 60s...very telling...
At my Christian church my pastor preaches about the Jesus of the Chrsitian Bible every time we have a service... several times a week...
That once a month thingy is not enough...
I’d starve to death spiritually if I had to live on such a diet...
You might want to go where you can learn about the REAL Jesus...
And hear Him preached every time you put your foot in the door...
The Baptists will fix you right up...
or other Bible believing churches...
What’s the use of a “worship” service where jesus is not worshipped ???
Plus that so called “message” needs to be a message from jesus not a “message” from any old “first presidency”...
Only the words of Jeus brings life and salvation and healing and deliverance...
The hearers of those monthly “messages” from one of those dumb guys might be able to convince themselves they feel warm and fuzzy ....
but the messages are full of dead men’s bones...
Even Hinckley claimed that mormons didnt believe in the REAL Jesus...
Not the same Jesus
“There are those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints do not believe in the traditional Christ.
No, I don’t. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak.”
– LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley (LDS Church News, June 20, 1998)
How ignorant can you get if you think Hinckley was a Christian ...
and he’s typical of the rest of those white washed sepulchres in the mormon corporation...
Mormonism is not Chrsitianity...
Do you worship Christ as the Almighty God, the only God in the universe; the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Alpha and Omega, the creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, the Only Begotten Son of God who died on the cross in your place for your sins?
Or do you worship Christ as a part of a "Godhead" appointed to rule over this planet, the literal son of a Father God of flesh and bones who once walked upon a planet such as this and through endless obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel was eventually exalted to the position of "God" by a council of other Gods?
Which Christ do you worship?
Thus, there are alternatives to the Mormon church in Payson.
- - - - - - - -
And there are Catholic and Christian churches in the Provo/Orem area.
But LEAVING the LDS and becoming Catholic (or anything else) is NOT socially accpetable. Also, the non-LDS are usually shunned by the LDS people. There isn’t any real love between the LDS and Catholics in Utah County.
Had a college roommate from Payson, she said “Catholic” like it was a swear word.
Amen Nana!
Having BEEN (past tense) a Catholic in the midst of Mormon country, I know of nothing the Catholics were doing except just being Catholic. I was very involved - attended sereval different churches and had my kids in Catholic school.
Never any mention of an outreach, witnessing, praying for LDS, nothing.
In my experience, Catholics are pretty much just concerned with themselves.
NOW! Before you flame me, have at hand the names of organized outreach programs in Utah, Catholic to LDS. Be aware I have DOZENS I can name that are actively at work because of born-again Christians here in Utah.
There is an active Catholic community in Payson, as evidenced by the K of C council
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Yes I did figure that’s what you meant...
HOWEVER the mormons would ignore the Catholics as abominations as well as the protestant churches...
The mormons are taught that Christianity is the Whore of Babylon...
and that only the mormon corporation and the book of mormon and Joey Smith etc are of the mormon god...
We are all “apostates” and “Gentiles” (Ithink infidels)...
mormons would not have gone near Catholics or protestants...
That this Chrsitian group is making ANY headway in the Provo area is a miracle from God...
I’m sure that the years of combined prayers of the Catholics and the Rrotestants in that area are now producing fruiot...
Sometimes it takes years to break the strongholds of Satan...
That area has a stong religious spirit controlling it...
mormonism is a strong religious spirit and doesnt back down seaily...
It takes spiritfulled Christians actually called to those areas to do anything ...
From the article...
People think I’m exaggerating when I tell them the kinds of things that go on here,” said Kelly, a church planter in Payson, Utah, near Provo. “The spiritual darkness is like a blanket that you wear every day.”
It’s like going to minister in New Orleans at Mardi Gras time or to San Francisco during a gay parade...
DONT GO UNLESS GOD SENDS YOU THERE...
or dont come back crying to me about the things your eyes saw...
There are certain places Christians shouid stay away from...
Certain parts of Utah is one of them..unless God calls you there...
And be PRAYED UP BEFORE YOU GO...
FAST AND PRAY...
Dont get there and then start to get in shape and practice for the game...
Super Bowls arent won that way...
and nor are inroads into the devil’s kingdom...
The devil eats weak Christians...
other than that ...
Go with God...in the powerful Name of Jesus ...
that name that is above all names...
even mormonism...
Amen...
Nana
:)
Be aware I have DOZENS I can name that are actively at work because of born-again Christians here in Utah.
- - - - - - -
So can I, TM4. There are many outreaches to the LDS from the Evangelical community.
How did the LDS treat you as a Catholic and how do they treat you now?
When Kenneth Hagin visited Utah
Question: How much authority over the devil do we have when we are on his territory?
Answer: The devil has no right to trespass on God’s property. But if you trespass on the devil’s property hes got a right to jump you. God can’t keep him from it, and you can’t keep him from it, because you’re on his property.
It’s like this: I don’t have authority in your house or apartment. I can’t go there and say, “We’re going to move everything out of this room and sell all of it.”
In the house of God, if the devil comes around, wer’re got authority. But if we go to the devil’s house and try to exercise authority, he may throw us out.
In the summer of 1954 I was preaching in Oregon and had my family with me. We took a short vacation while traveling to meetings I was holding. On the way home we stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah, to see the Mormon Temple.
(I had studied the history of Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. I didn’t agree with it because it’s unscriptural. It doesn’t agree with Paul’s revelation.)
A guide was showing us around, explaining how the temple was built. I was listening intently when I heard someone hit the ground. I didn’t turn aroound because i was listening to the guide. But someone said, “That man fell.” About that time my wife said, “Daddy, our baby.” (It was Ken, and actually he was about 15 at the time.) He had hit the ground so hard that his shoes flew off. He was lying on his back with his knees frawn up to his stomach and his face working in some kind of seizure,
If you had any spiritual sense at all, you could sense evil spirits when you stepped on the grounds. These were religious demons. They’re the worse kind to get rid of. They’re the most difficult to cast out of a person. You can get rid of an adulterous or a lustful demon a hundred times faster than you can a religious demon.
So there Ken lay. Instantly the devil gave me all kinds of mental pictures of my preaching deliverance and Ken being in some kind of institution.
The guide said, “That happens often when i get to the part in my lecture about Moroni” (the angel who supposedly appeared to Joseph Smith). The guide thought it was a supernatural manifestation to corroberate what he had told about. He said, “Just pull the boy back under a tree. He’ll soon come out of it.”
I turned around, grabbed hold of Ken’s arm amnd said, “Come out of him in the Name of Jesus Christ!” I literally lifted him by his arms, looked him right in the eye and said agian, “Come out of him!” I shouted a third time, “Come out of him!” When i said it the third time, the demon came out. It hasdn’t been in his spirit but it had attacked his body.
Ken straightened up, blinked his eyes, and said, “Daddy, Daddy, where am I?”
I said out loud, “Well, we come onto the devil’s territory and he jumped on you. But ithe Name of Jesus delivered you. Now let’s get off the devil’s territory before he jumps on some of the rest of us.” We drove down the highway rejoicing over our victory.
Ken began telling his side of the story. He said the last thing he remembered was the guide telling about Moroni. He explained, “I felt something come up out of the ground. It got in my feet and then into my knees. When it got up to about my stomach, I don’t remember anything else.”
The power of God does not come up out of the ground. That wasn’t the Holy Spirit. And besides, we got rid of it in the Name of Jesus.
Ken said, “Daddy, what if that had had happened at school?” I answered, Don’t ever be afraid it will happen again. If you are afraid, you’ll open the door to the devil.”
You’ve got authority over Satan, but know this: Don’t get on his territory.
Literally speaking, if you go places controlled by Satan, you CAN get attacked.
Spiritually speaking, if you get into disobedience, you can get spiritually over into the devil’s territory.
You CAN claim protection, however, and go whereever you have to go.
(Hagin, Kenneth E., Bible Answers to Man’s Questions on DEMONS, Volume 4 or the Satan, Demons, and Demon Possession Series (1986) Pp 9-11)
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