Hollywood Follow-up

Good times last night! My brothers and sisters are die-hard evangelists! Braving the rain was Mark, Sharon, Jenn, Aaron, Nathan, Dean, Sai, Joshua, Mike S and myself. It started to rain when we prayed and then the Lord allowed us to have no rain to go out witnessing.

Please pray for: Michael (who Sharon pointed to Hope Again), Nelson the security guard and KC.

Evangelism in North Korea

According to Voice of the Martyrs, in North Korea those who evangelize have a life expectancy of about three months. Just thought I would share that little fact... GO SHARE THE GOSPEL!

Tracts or no tracts?

This was an interesting comment I got from "Gshermet777" a while ago. Thought I would post his/her? comment about tracts and then respond.

Gshermet777 wrote:

"Jesus and the Apostles didn't hand out little pieces of paper. This is bait and switch. Deceptive and cowardly. I saw a guy in Venice beach this weekend mocking a street preacher in public handing these out. There was a world of differance between the two. People were either praising or cursing the preacher. Seems that's what should be happening. Either making enemies or friends."

The reason I'm posting this comment is because I believe may Christians have this attitude towards the use of tracts. Now, if Gshermet777 is a heathen I would understand his distain for tracts. He might have been walking around at Venice enjoying the stupor of worldliness then a caring Christian hands him possibly a "Million Dollar Bill" tract. Gshermet777 with the consumer mindset "Ooo, money!" takes the tact then to his horror he reads the law of God and is instantly furious. This is understandable from an unbeliever being confronted by their sin. So if Gshermet777 is an unbeliever this is the expected response.

However, what would concern me is someone who thinks they are a Christian being upset by people using Gospel tracts... that would send up a serious red flag to me that they may need to "examine themselves to see if they are in the faith." Its one thing not to PREFER the use tracts its another thing to OPPOSE the use of tracts.

My first question would be; can a person be saved by reading the bible? Yes. Then could they be saved reading bible verses? Yes. That is what a tract is doing, sharing the written Gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation."

One thought I had in response to "Jesus and the Apostles didn't hand out little pieces of paper" was that Jesus and the Apostles didn't have access to a printing press. But if they did do you think that Apostle Paul would have said, "WHOA what do you think your doing printing the gospel on little pieces of paper and handing them out... someone may read them and get SAVED! How dare you!?" Probably not.

"This is bait and switch. Deceptive and cowardly." This is something a heckler would yell out as they run away from the preaching of the gospel. Cowardly, really? I respect people who are willing to put themselves onto the "broad road" and hand out tracts to the lost who are on their way to destruction, have them ripped up, sometimes thrown back at them and keep hoping that, Lord willing, the door will be opened up to a conversation to share the gospel. I would be curious to see how often Gshermet777 witnesses and how he does it, if he is a Christian.

Here was a top 10 list of reasons to use tracts I swiped this from "The Reformed Evangelist":

1. They are a very economical form of evangelism 2. They work while we sleep 3. They have the ability to get into a house and stay there 4. They are never afraid or show cowardice 5. They are never tempted to compromise their message 6. They never get tired, discouraged or give up 7. They stick to what they have to say and never argue 8. They can present the message when we don’t have the time 9. They can go to places where we cannot 10.They get people in the mood – they only speak when they are read

One other thing to note C.H Spurgeon wrote and distributed gospel tracts. He said:

"When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready . . . Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts."

So who should I take advice on this matter from Spurgeon or Gshermet777? Hmmmm let me think... I'm going to go with Spurgeon. As far as making friends or enemies, well Jesus said to "love your enemies." I can't think of something more loving than giving them the good news.

An Inadequate Gospel - John MacArthur

Matt Chandler update

Noho Follow Up 2-20-10

WELCOME to Jenn & Debbie who joined us last night for their first time street witnessing!! Hope you had a great time! I'm consistently encouraged by the family of evangelists who are faithful to reach the lost! Praise the Lord for you guys! What is amazing to me is to watch the Holy Spirit moving in so many people at CBC to go out and be bold witnesses for Jesus Christ!

Davids prayer request: Darren (A guy who "laughed off" the gospel, I called him on it, and he came back to heckle me) Also a young guy who sarcastically mocked the gospel.

Making Disciples - John MacArthur

Bottom Line: If you are not sharing the gospel in some way shape or form... you are missing the whole PURPOSE of the church.

1 Year Anniversary

I just noticed the other day that February 14th marked the 1 year anniversary of this blog! It has totally flown by and I have seen the good hand of the Lord continuing to keep the fire burning in my own heart and seen Him raise up many faithful evangelists at CBC!

This was my reading for this morning and it was appropriate for this occasion:

"But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp.And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, "Moses my lord, forbid them!" Then Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!" Numbers 11:26-29

We are in the NEW COVENANT and His Spirit now dwells in us! May the Holy Spirit burn in all of us that we GO into the world preaching the good news of the great Savior!

Nathan's 3rd Open Air

On Presidents Day, Nathan and I were up at Burbank Media Center for a couple of hours and Nathan delivered his third open air. Nathan is new to the faith and has a lot of zeal for the Lord! I thought he did a great job and wanted to share.

Tears of the Saints

Ezekiel 1

This was a short animatic produced for Pastor Jack who preached from Ezekiel chapter 1 at a morning chapel at the Masters Seminary. It was later played at Calvary Bible Church during morning worship while the Pastor read the chapter. I would encourage any viewer to FIRST read Ezekiel Chapter 1 THEN watch the video as it will hopefully explain more. Holiness belongs to the Lord!

Pablo & Friends

What is great about going to a same fishing spot is you begin to develop a rapport with people. The other day Aaron (who you hear preaching in Spanish in the background) and I went to Noho. That afternoon I was blessed to run into a young guy who is a regular to the station.... "Pablo". The first time I met him was when he and a gang of kids heckled Tony. Even months after he heckled us he would still walk by and give a "fist pump" in the air or "the nod" as to say "what's up". Listen to how this conversation started with Pablo. You never know what is going on in a persons life and how the Lord will use tragic events to open you eyes. In His sovereignty He places that person with the one who will share the words of eternal life. God is good! During the conversation 5 of Pablo's friends joined in and it was like a mini open air. Praise the Lord for this opportunity! Please pray for him.

Ryan Ferguson Hebrews 9 and 10

This is impressive!! All from memory!

East Valley High... but NOT dry!!

On days where the weather is bad... I wanted to try encourage everyone to keep, advancing the gospel! Today Mike, Nathan and I went to East Valley High in the pouring rain. We stood out by the front entrance. I preached the Gospel while Mike and Nathan handed out tracts and Bibles. PRAISE THE LORD almost 60 teens took bibles!! Several of them listened to the preaching. We were even confronted by a police officer who tried to get us to move, but we respectfully stood our ground and continued to preach. Thank you to all who pray for this ministry it is CRUCIAL!

How can God Justify the Wicked - Paul Washer

Zeal - J.C. Ryle

"A zealous person in Christianity is preeminently a person of one thing. It is not enough to say that they are earnest, strong, uncompromising, meticulous, wholehearted, and fervent in spirit. They only see one thing, they care for one thing, they live for one thing, they are swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether they live, or whether they die-whether they are healthy, or whether they are sick-whether they are rich, or whether they are poor-whether they please man, or whether they give offense-whether the are thought wise, or whether they are thought foolish-whether they are accused, or whether they are praised-whether they get honor, or whether they get shame-for all this the zealous person cares nothing at all. They have a passion for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and to advance God’s glory. If they are consumed in the very burning of their passion for God, they don’t care-they are content. They feel that, like a candle, they were made to burn; and if they are consumed in the burning, then they have only done the work for which God has appointed them. Such a person will always find a sphere for their zeal. If they cannot work, or give money, or a man cannot preach, then they will cry out and sigh, and pray. Yes: if they are extremely poor, on a perpetual bed of sickness, they will make the activity of sin around him slow to a standstill, by continually interceding against it. If they cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, they will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill. (Exodus 17:9-13) If they are cut off from working themselves, they will give the Lord no rest until help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of zeal in Christianity." J.C. Ryle

Street Fishing

Here is a promo video to encourage the body from a ministry in Arizona, Street Fishing. They have several evangelists from other states and CBC is one of them!

THIS IS NO GAME!

Two men preaching religion shot to death in Boynton Beach

This was a sobering reminder that we are truly in a spiritual WAR! Please pray for our protection out on the streets.

This reminds me of a post that I had done a while ago. It may have been "rambling" at the time, but THIS is what I was talking about! "Canary's in the coal mine."

Spurgeon quote for the day! 2/5/10

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence we also we look for the Savior; the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself,"—Philippians 3:20,21.

"Note that the ability is said in the text to be present with the Savior now. I have already pointed that out to you, but I refer to it again. The resurrection is a matter of the future, but the working which shall accomplish the resurrection is a matter of the present. "According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself," Jesus is as strong now as he ever will be, for he changes not. At this moment he is as able to convert souls as at the period of the brightest revival, or at Pentecost itself. There are no ebbs and flows with Christ's power. Omnipotence is in the hand that once was pierced, permanently abiding there. Oh, if we could but rouse it; if we could but bring the Captain of the host to the field again, to fight for his church, to work his servants! What marvels should we see, for he is able. We are not straitened in him, we are straitened in ourselves if straitened at all.
Once more, for your comfort be it remembered that the fact of there having been, as it were, a considerable time in which few have been converted to Christ, is no proof that his power is slackening; for it is well known to you that very few have as yet been raised from the dead, only here and there one like Lazarus and the young man at the gates of Nain, but you do not therefore doubt the Lord's power to raise the dead. Though he tarrieth we do not mistrust his power to fulfill his promise in due time. Now the power which is restrained, as it were, so that it does not work the resurrection yet, is the same which may hare been restrained in the Christian church for awhile, but which will be as surely put forth ere long in conversion as it will be in the end of time to accomplish the resurrection. Let us cry unto our Lord, for he has but to will it and thousands of sinners will be saved; let us lift up our hearts to him who has but to speak the word and whole nations shall be born unto him. The resurrection will not be a work occupying centuries, it will be accomplished at once; and so it may be in this house of prayer, and throughout London, and throughout the world, Christ will do a great and speedy work to the amazement of all beholders. He will send forth the rod of his strength out of Zion, and rule in the midst of his enemies. He will unmask his batteries, he will spring his mines, he will advance his outworks, he will subdue the city of his adversaries, and ride victoriously through the Bozrah of his foes. Who shall stay his hand? Who shall say unto him, "What doest thou?"
I wish we had time to work out the parallel which our text suggests, between the resurrection and the subduing of all things. The resurrection will be worked by the divine power, and the subduing of sinners is a precisely similar instance of salvation. All men are dead in sin, but he can raise them. Many of them are corrupt with vice, but he can transform them. Some of them are, as it were, lost to all hope, like the dead body scattered to the winds, desperate cases for whom even pity seems to waste her sighs; but he who raises the dead of all sorts, with a word can raise sinners of all sorts by the selfsame power. And as the dead when raised are made like to Christ, so the wicked when converted are made like to Jesus too. Brilliant examples of virtue shall be found in those who were terrible instances of vice; the most depraved and dissolute shall become the most devout and earnest. From the vile body to the glory-body, what a leap, and from the sinner damnable in lust to the saint bright with the radiance of sanctity, what a space! The leap seems very far, but omnipotence can bridge the chasm. The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is able to do it; he is able to do it in ten thousand thousand cases, able to do it at this very moment. My anxious desire is to engrave this one thought upon your hearts, my brethren and sisters, yea, to write it on the palms of those hands with which you are about to serve the Lord, learn it and forget it not—almighty power lies with Jesus to achieve the purpose upon which our heart is set, namely, the conversion of many unto himself."

C.H. Spurgeon - "The Power of Christ Illustrated by the Resurrection"

A Call to Prayer

J. C. Ryle’s “A Call to Prayer”

“Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of private prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart: these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows him to have a tremendous fall. This is the process which forms the lingering Lots, the unstable Samsons, the wife-idolizing Solomons, the inconsistent Asas, the pliable Jehoshaphats, the over-careful Marthas, of whom so many are to be found in the church of Christ. Often the simple history of such cases is this: they became careless about private prayer.
You may be very sure men fall in private long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord's warning to watch and pray, and then like Peter, their strength is gone, and in the hour of temptation they deny their Lord.
The world takes notice of their fall, and scoffs loudly. But the world knows nothing of the real reason. The heathen succeeded in making a well-known Christian offer incense to an idol, by threatening him with a punishment worse than death. They then triumphed greatly at the sight of his cowardice and apostasy. But the heathen did not know the fact of which history informs us, that on that very morning he had left his bed chamber hastily, and without finishing his usual prayers.”

CBC Evangelism Promo

This is the promo video they played at church. Please pray for this ministry as we desperately need the Lord to establish and sustain it. Please pray that a FIRE is lit at CBC to reach the lost!

TAKE THE EXAM

This is a short "animatic" I produced from a tract that never got printed. Lord willing, the plan is to post it on YouTube whenever I figure out how to set up an account. Enjoy.

SEND ME - Lacrae

The lyrics of this song are so right on! Young brothers and sisters... don't be fooled by this world and live for video games and TV.... live for something that is ETERNAL! Don't waste your youth!

Sacrifice

Sacrifice - Howard Guiness

“Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake — flinging them away for love of him? Where are those who will live dangerously and be reckless in his service? Where are his lovers — those who love him and the souls of men more than their own reputations or comfort or very life?

Where are the men who say ‘no’ to self, who take up Christ’s cross to bear it after him, who are willing to be nailed to it in college or office, home or mission field, who are willing, if need be, to bleed, to suffer and to die on it?

Where are the adventurers, the explorers, the buccaneers for God, who count one human soul of far greater value than the rise or fall of an empire? Where are the men who are willing to pay the price of vision? Where are the men of prayer? Where are God’s men in this day of God’s power?” - Howard Guinness, Sacrifice, pages 59-60.

I'm Esau

"Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright." Genesis 25:29-33

The other day I was watching a kids animation of the bible... WITH my kids, okay... not by myself! They were telling the story of Esau and Jacob and how Jacob pulled a fast one on Esau to sell his birthright.

I thought to myself, "Esau sold everything... and so cheap." He thought so little of his inheritance, the honor of his father & mother, his reputation, respect etc... then it hit me when I had a FLASH of the sins of my youth before Christ. How I sold everything, my dignity, an eternal inheritance with the Lord, everything... for my own sin. I realized... I'm Esau. I sold out so cheap for sin.

That stew must have tasted good going down, but after it was gone the shame probably sunk in and made it bitter in Esau's belly. So was the sin of my youth, good at the moment but brought a life of bitter regret. If not for Christ where would I be? The weight of shame would have crushed me. But God crushed His Son for me.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7