HOLLYWOOD FOLLOW-UP 7-23-11

Dean, Sai, Forest, Clint, Steve and I all met at the Noho station for a great time of prayer before heading out to Hollywood.

Hollywood was PACKED! We camped out at one of our favorite spots "The Nook" which is an enclosed entrance way into a building at the corner of Highland and Hollywood. Perfect for handing out tracts and Stoplight preaching!

We set up the heckler mic and at one point the heckling started...

... and kept going.

Here Mondevan (who was clearly intoxicated) came up to ask me several questions.

Then his friend David (who was also clearly intoxicated) asked me why we were here and what we were sharing... which was a perfect opportunity to share the gospel with him. He said he was Jewish so I tried to quote a couple Messianic verses from Pslam 22 and Isaiah 53.

Then Tracy came up to tell me that I needed to make sure people understand that "God loves the sinner but hates the sin." I shared with her that "God is angry with the wicked every day" Psalm 7:11 AND that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." - Jhn 3:16

That first verse didn't seem to settle well with her. After I thought about this commonly used quote (which I'm sure I've said myself) I realized that there are several issues with this over simplified cliche that conflict with the bible:

1) "God loves the sinner but hates the sin" is not a biblical expression... it is however a quote from Ghandi "Hate the sin and not the sinner" (Mohandas Gandhi's 1929 autobiography)

2) If God ONLY hated the sin... then why does He send unrepentant SINNERS to hell? He doesn't send sins to hell but those who sin against Him.

3) You can't seperate a criminal from the crime. Try that one in court.

4) It seems that scripture has verses for BOTH the love and hatred of God towards sinners.

"The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. "- Psalm 5:5 & 6

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Rom 5:8 NKJV

BOTH of these attributes are exemplified in the CROSS which displayed God's HATRED of the sinner and LOVE for the sinner at the same time. I read this helpful article by John Gerstner on this subject.

We had an AMAZING time! The team was faithful to hand out about 1500 tracts & 40 bibles in both English and Spanish! I love serving with these dear brothers and sisters.

God is AWESOME and gets all the Glory!