The Thorn

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

Martha Snell Nicholson

HOLLYWOOD FOLLOW-UP 6-27-11

Steve and I were blessed to go out to Hollywood yesterday for a couple of hours. IT WAS HOT!! But its always worth it.

Several people took bibles. About 20 went out yesterday.

We had the heckler mic out which has been getting a lot if action lately. This young man didn't want to come to the mic but still took the "Good Person Test" and heard the Gospel. I believe he took a bible as well. I've noticed that once ONE person stops and interacts with you...

... MORE people stop to listen. Jack (who is Catholic) came up to the mic while his friends all listened to the good news.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Ray Comfort - New York

This is one of my favorite videos of Ray Comfort preaching in the Open-Air. He is FIREY, INTENSE, FUNNY and BLUNT. I want to go out and preach after I watch this!

Noho Follow-Up 6-26-11

And the Award for the "Coolest Elder of the Year" goes to.... (drum roll)... Elder Bob! He rode out on his motorcycle to witness with his daughter Kayleen. We had a short night out but a GREAT night out at Noho. Just a heads up for any other evangelists that by about 7:30 pm on Saturdays Noho becomes a graveyeard. Prior to that there were several streams of people going to and fro.

Several of our regulars were MIA this night but the Lord still raised up laborers.

Here Elder Bob tried to reason with a guy who I've seen before heckle another preacher and try to stop the Gospel from going forth.

Beleive it or not the heckler mic got some great interaction from several teens who came up to ask questions. Amani (who claimed to be a satanist), Sam and Michael. There was a small crowd for about 45 minutes asking questions and listening to the Gospel. Several bibles went out.

Please pray for Elgin (he is a boxing trainer) who has been going through a lot in life and needs the Lord. While I talked with him it was touching to see this tough boxer begin to tear up while telling me of his trials. Pray the Lord uses it to soften his heart to the Gospel. He took a bible.

God is good!!

Convicting Quotes

"If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!!" — Keith Green

Burbank Media Center Follow-up 6-20-11

We had a great turn out for evangelism this past Saturday night! I was really encouraged by our Elder of Evangelism coming out to witness with his wife and two of his kids. Forest, Dean, Sai, Mark, Steve and I were also out on a BUSY night at the Media Center.

Here while I was preaching two girls stopped to listen. Sierra took the good person test and I shared the Gospel with them. They both attend church but when I asked her if she had been BORN AGAIN she admitted probably not. They both took bibles!

Elder Bob teaching his kids "the ropes" of sharing the Gospel. Leading by example is something Jesus did and we should do as well.

There were MANY conversations with people. The Lord was faithful to open doors. Lately we have been meeting for a time of focused prayer before we go out and I believe we have been seeing the effects both in opportunities & our own attitudes being lined up with the Lord.

Dean testing out the hecklers mic.

We were very blessed to have Tony the Lawman and his daughter Marissa out that night. Here Tony is calling out to a group of young guys...

... which later turned out to be a great conversation.

Elder Bob sharing the truth of scripture and giving some of his testimoy as well.

Dean finished the evening with an empassioned plea for people to REPENT and BELIEVE in the Gospel.

Please pray for: James (a Hungarian gentlman who I shared The Prodigal Son story with. He said "That is me." and took a bible), KC (a local teen who goes to church but had NOT heard the gospel explained to him, he took a bible and DVD) all those who heard the good news and took bibles.

To God be the glory!

Sad but True

The Supremacy of Christ-Voddie Baucham

I've posted this before but its a great reminder that when we preach the Gospel we need to be men of GRAVITY. This is not a light message we proclaim and should not be treated lightly.

The Supremacy of Christ and Truth from Josh Gunter on Vimeo.

HOLLYWOOD FOLLOW-UP 6-11-11

What a great night in Hollywood! LOTS of people were out. Tracts were FLYING out of our hands last night and we probably handed out about 1200 of them! Several bibles went out as well. God is AWESOME!

Dean,Sai, Steve, Mark, Nathan and I were planted at one of our favorite corners where theres lots of foot traffic while people wait to cross the street. We set up in a little "nook" which helps amplify the sound as we preach the Gospel.

Here while Steve was preaching he had some guys stay to heckle him.

Steve tries to answer some of their objections. Mike (guy in the leather jacket) and a few of his buddies stayed long enough to hear the Gospel.

These two ladies definately stood out in their beautiful kimonoes.

"And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, - Rev 5:9

Paul Washer said "Remember if you preach long enough and hard enough somewhere... SOMEONES getting saved!"

Thank you guys for all your faithfulness to come out regularly and keep plowing the field and reaping the harvest. It will NOT return void!

Spurgeon writes:

“beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” It might be in vain here, but forasmuch as there is a resurrection, your labor is not in vain in the Lord! If we win souls for Christ, it often happens that some of those whom we thought were saved, go back into perdition—many of those who are really saved walk disorderly—others are ungrateful to their spiritual parents and turn aside to crooked ways. But if our record is on high and we do not look to our success for our reward, but to our Master—then we may be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in work! You who are doing some- thing for Jesus Christ in the school, or in any other department of labor, if you look upon your rewards as the result, you may, perhaps, have very few conversions and you may go toiling on very heavily. But if you will look beyond all present results to the great Taskmaster’s blessed smile and think you hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”— when you see Him reward you not according to your success, but according to the measure of Grace which you use faithfully in His service—when you see that, you will pluck up courage, you will not be of heavy heart, you will be instant in season, out of season!"

On the Box- Sye TenBruggencate

This is a great episode with Sye TenBruggencate on pre-suppositional apologetics! His ministry is HERE.

Spurgeon quote for the day! 6-10-11

“That, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Romans 13:11

There are those, again, who fall into a kind of somnambulistic state (sleepwalking). They are doing a good deal for their Lord and Master, but they are asleep. If judged by their outward actions, we should think they were wide awake and they do what they do very well. But have you ever seen a person who has a habit of walking in his sleep? It is a strange sight! Persons have been known to walk along giddy heights safely enough when they have been fast asleep where they would not have thought of venturing if they had been wide awake! And we have known, sometimes, professors going on very safely, carefully, exactly in positions where others have fallen—and we have admired their prudence and discretion and attributed it to the Grace of God—whereas in part it has been attributable to the fact that they were spiritually asleep all the time! It is very possible to walk long and far and yet remain asleep! It is very possible to appear very devout when, indeed, you are very sleepy! It is very possible to sing hymns when you are not awake to the sense! Yes, and it is very probable that you will betray your absence of mind by sitting down at the last verse, although there is going to be a chorus afterwards. You know it is coming, but your part of the worship is performed so mechanically that you dropped down in your pews as a mere matter of habit—and then were all in a flurry to be up again! I have detected many of you doing it. I have felt convinced that you were virtually asleep at the time—not really drinking in the spirit of the hymn, or else it would not have happened. It is very easy to hear sermons and to be asleep all the while—at least with one ear open and one eye—but the major part of the faculties of the soul still steeped in slumber. And you can keep on teaching in the Sunday school, pay your religious contributions punctually, maintain the habit of family prayer and even your private devotions may not be wholly neglected, and yet you may be walking in your sleep! All these duties may be done with a sort of sleep-walking life and action and not at all with the life of a thoroughly wakeful man. Oh, I would like to hear a man speak about Heaven who was altogether awake to it! I would like to hear a man preach about Hell who was awakened to the true pitch! It would make your very hair stand on end as you should hear how he told of the terrors of the wrath to come! It would make every drop of blood dance in your veins to hear a man speak of Christ who is all on fire with Divine love and all awake with Divine delight in Him! But that slumber is apt to come over the most lively minister. Who will not confess it? Oh, if you have ever read a chapter of the Bible when your soul has been all awake, how the promises have glowed and burned! How bright have they been like “the terrible crystal.” But too often we have nodded over the Bible; nodded over the promises; nodded over the precepts till there seemed neither life nor power in them. The life was there, but we were asleep! Well, dear Friends, I must add and then I shall have said enough about sleep, that a very large number of us are half asleep. Whether there is one man alive that is spiritually awake all over, I do not know. Such a man as Rutherford, who loved his Lord so that he scarcely ever thought of anything but Jesus—that was a man all awake! Such a man as Mr. Whitefield—preaching his very heart out morning, noon and night with a seraphic eloquence—that was a man wide awake! There have been many such; I trust there is a remnant of such now. But the most of us are painfully conscious that we are waking and need greatly to be more awake still. O God, make us feel the solemn weight of those eternal things in which we believe! You have saved us—make us awake to feel from what You have saved us and by Whom You have saved us! Awaken us to realize to what you have saved us and what the privileges are which belong to us now that we are saved! Oh, when I think how trivial are the things of time and how all-important are the unseen realities of eternity, I cannot but again conclude that most of us are nothing more than about half awake as to the things of God! And if it is so, it is high time that we awake out of sleep!

C.H. Spurgeon-"Wake Up Wake Up"

Noho Follow-Up 6-7-11

Had a GREAT TIME today at Noho! Will admit it didn;t really feel up to going because I thought I was going to be there by myself... went anyway. Started off preaching by reading:

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are]the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" - 2Cr 2:14-16

Shortly afterwards I was approached by a heckler who was angry with me that I wasn't "ordained"... As I told you folks "stench of death." He got super angry with me and let me know it. God gave me the ability to hold my ground and warn him "Unless you repent you will perish."

To my pleasant suprise Harrison showed up for a little while...

... and Alvin showed up again!! Wished he still lived here. He was only up here for vacation. Emboldened by my brothers there I did two more quick open-airs. Over 200 tracts were handed out as well!! The Lord also opened the door to a great conversation with an openly homosexual guy named Norm. He had the classic smoke screens to try to deviate the conversation away from the Gospel. The Jesus/Horus myth, the bible was written by back woods hillbillies with an agenda to control people, Constantine, Council of Nicea etc. etc... STILL DROPPED THE GOSPEL BOMB ON HIM! ;) God is good! Please pray for all these folks.

Eric Ludy - Intercession

Sharpen the Sword

Going to try to make it a habit to post some great verses that you may consider memorizing for the open-air.

…"when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,

in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed."

2Th 1:7-10

World View FAIL

Sometimes its hard to have a consistent world view.

Burbank Media Center Follow-up 6-4-11

We had such a great turnout last night. I'm really thankful for Elder Mike who gives an opportunity for our high schoolers to come out to reach the lost with us each month. Scott, Andrew and Daniel have come out several times. We all need to step OUT of our "Christian Bubble" and obey the command to GO!

Dean, Sai & Forest were among the other faithful saints handing out tracts.

Steve, Mark, Dean and myself all preached.

Here I was giving the "picture lesson" of God's arrow of judgement pointed at us... which He then turned to His Son on the cross who took our punishment!

Andrew open-air preached for the FIRST TIME last night! Here Mark is praying for him.

Andrew did a great job reading from Romans 1 and sharing what was on his heart.

About 30+ bibles went out also many tracts and great conversations. Later on in the evening we broke out the heckler mic and Steve and I both had some people come up to ask questions. Over all a great night. What a blessing it is to be part of this ministry. Glory to God!

Please pray for: Reuben (young Buddist who took a bible and heard the gospel), those who heckled us & those who took bibles as well.

Spurgeon quote for the day! 6-4-11

“That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” Hebrews 2:14

"Let us just picture a scene. When the Lord Jesus came down to earth, Satan knew His errand. He knew that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God and when he saw Him an Infant in the manger, he thought if he could kill Him and get Him in the bonds of death, what a fine thing it would be! So He stirred up the spirit of Herod to slay Him. But Herod missed his mark. And many a time did Satan strive to put the personal existence of Christ in danger so that he might get Christ to die. Poor fool as he was, he did not know that when Christ died, He would bruise the devil’s head. Once, you remember, when Christ was in the synagogue, the devil stirred up the people and made them angry. And he thought, “Oh, what a glorious thing it would be if I could kill this Man. Then there would be an end of Him and I should reign supreme forever.” So he got the people to take Him to the brow of the hill and he gloated over the thought that now surely He would be cast down headlong! But Christ escaped. He tried to starve Him, he tried to drown Him. He was in the desert without food and He was on the sea in a storm. But there was no starving or drowning Him and Satan, no doubt, panted for His blood and longed that He should die. At last the day arrived. It was telegraphed to the court of Hell that at last Christ would die. They rung their bells with hellish mirth and joy. “He will die now,” said Satan, “Judas has taken the 30 pieces of silver! Let those Scribes and Pharisees get Him, they will no more let Him go than the spider will a poor unfortunate fly! He is safe enough now.” And the devil laughed for very glee when he saw the Savior stand before Pilate’s bar. And when it was said, “Let Him be crucified,” his joy scarcely knew bounds—except that bound which his own misery must ever set to it. As far as he could, he reveled in what was to him a delightful thought—that the Lord of Glory was about to die! In death, as Christ was seen of angels, He was seen of devils, too. And that dreary march from Pilate’s palace to the Cross was one which devils saw with extraordinary interest. And when they saw Him on the Cross, there stood the exulting Fiend, smiling to himself. “Ah, I have the King of Glory now in my dominions! I have the power of death and I have the power over the Lord Jesus.” He exerted that power till the Lord Jesus had to cry out in bitter anguish, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But ah, how short-lived was hellish victory! How brief was the Satanic triumph! He died and, “It is finished!” shook the gates of Hell. Down from the Cross the Conqueror leaped, pursued the Fiend with thunderbolts of wrath! Swift to the shades of Hell the Fiend did fly and swift descending went the Conqueror after him. And we may conceive Him exclaiming—

“Traitor! This bolt shall find and pierce you through, Though under Hell’s profoundest wave you dive, To find a sheltering grave.”

And seize him He did—chained him to His chariot wheel—dragged him up the steps of Glory. Angels shouting all the while, “He has led captivity captive and received gifts for men.” Now, Satan, you said you would overcome me when I came to die. Satan I defy you and laugh you to scorn! My Master overcame you and I shall overcome you! You say you will overcome the saint, do you? You could not overcome the saint’s Master and you will not overcome him! You once thought you had conquered Jesus—you were bitterly deceived! Ah, Satan, you may think you shall overcome the Little-Faith and the Faint-Heart, but you are wondrously mistaken—for we shall shortly assuredly tread you under our feet. And even in our last extremity, with fearful odds against us, we shall be “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” C.H. Spurgeon-"The Destroyer Destroyed"

Visit to the Ambassadors Academy

Steve and I went to visit the Ambassador's Academy at 3rd Street Promenade on a beautiful day. Its encouraging to see how the Lord raises up new preachers and evangelists. This is a great resource for getting over your fears through a three day intensive training. They will be at 3rd Street until 10 pm tonight! Thats like watching all three Lord of the Rings movies in a row... and they will still be there!

Got to see Tony the Lawman, who is like my "open-air dad" and a dear brother.

Caught a glimpse of the open-air mystro himself... Ray Comfort.

And Steve and I got to witness and hand out a few tracts. Good times!

Shame on Harold Camping!

This is a sad story from the fallout of the FALSE PROPHET Harold Camping. There is an open-air illustration in this some where.

"Doomsday Believer Donates Entire Inheritance to Family Radio"