Store Up Your Treasure in Heaven!

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." - Matthew 6:20 NKJV

Recognizing and Defeating Logical Fallicies

This was so helpful and you hear a lot of this when witnessing with people or dealing with hecklers.

Burbank Media Center Follow-Up 9-8-12

Many of our regular evangelists were serving at the Harvest Crusade last night or had other plans so we had a lean, mean team of only three of us: Dean, Steve and myself. 

 Dean did a great job answering some questions from hecklers and getting the gospel out.

 This guy even grabbed some bibles and DVD's for himself and his friends who were listening.

 AND THEN THERE WAS ROGER. I'll admit I encouraged Roger to go up to the microphone in hopes that it would help Steve learn to "contend for the faith" with a notoriously contentious heckler AND possibly draw a crowd...

... and that it did!! Look at how the crowd pictured above went from very few people to THIS in a matter of minutes.

This is something I learned from Ray Comfort:

"Never fear hecklers, they are the best thing for an open air."

Roger is the perfect heckler for doing that.

Steve did a great job sharing the gospel and defending the faith for an HOUR SOLID!

At some points Roger was getting heckled by other hecklers. Roger eventually was drawn away by hecklers into a side argument.

 As the crowd died down we were met by several people who had encouraging words for all of us. We even ended with giving Roger a hug and thanking him for his help. ;) What a great time!

About 30 bibles went out during the open airs and many people heard the good news.

WHAT I LEARNED:

Many times when Steve would share a scripture Roger would respond with "Thats just your opinion."

What should our response be to this assertion? Here are a few great responses I found on the web:

Sometimes in an informal debate you will encounter people who dismiss your argument by saying, “Well that’s just your opinion.”  This is nothing more than an attempt to relativize your conclusion without rebutting your arguments.  There are a few ways you can respond to this.

The first is to ask, “Isn’t it just your opinion that my view is just my opinion?  If we ought to dismiss opinions because they are opinions, then your opinion should be dismissed as well.”

The second is to say, “No, this is not just my opinion.  I have provided reasons for thinking my opinion is actually true.  If you would like to try to rebut my reasons you are more than welcome to do so, but do not dismiss my view with a mere hand-waving as if I have merely provided you with an assertion, rather than an argument.”

The third is to say, “Yes, I have an opinion, but so do you.  This much is obvious.  But what follows from that observation?  The question is not whether we have opinions—we all do—but whether we have an informed opinion.  If we both have informed opinions, then the question becomes Whose opinion is better informed?  We determine the answer to that question by evaluating the strength of our respective arguments.  I have presented you with my argument, and now I am interested to hear your response to that argument.”

What we need to remember first and foremost: These are not our "opinions" they are what GOD has said. The prophets said over 2000 times in the Old Testament "Thus says the Lord!" If it was good enough for them its good enough for me.

Is it a Baby or a Fetus?

Burbank Media Center Follow-Up 9-1-12

 The Lord has been faithful to raise up laborers. Ben, Ruth, Sharon, Mark, Dean, Sai Steve and myself went to seek the lost on Saturday night at Burbank Media Center.

 We've been staying at Burbank Media Center the past two months and it seems the more I go there the more I like it. The Lord has been giving us wonderful opportunities to share the good news. Here Steve preaches the Gospel which even a child can understand.

 Ruth sharing the good news and handing out tracts.

 I've really been liking to "Whitfield" it. I'm convinced that when you use no microphone your voice has a sense of urgency to it thus draws attention to the message.

 We were visited by our local regular heckler "Roger the Nemesis." A title which he gave himself. Its interesting to see how the Lord has brought Roger into our lives. He has heckled us on several occasions since I've started this ministry about 4 years ago. Sadly Roger foolishly rejects the Jesus Christ of the bible an refuses to submit to the truth that He is the ONLY WAY to heaven.

The great thing about Roger is he usually helps draw a big crowd!

He said that we should be paying him. ;)

 Amanda came up to the mic when I asked if anyone believed in evolution. 

 The crowd really started to get pretty big for Burbank at this point. 

 Anyone who deals with hecklers for an extended period of time knows that your brain starts to shut down. When Amanda believed that HITLER didn't deserve the death penalty even though he murdered 10 MILLION people... this began to defy logic to me. She acually believed that he could be "rehabilitated." How many people sacrifice justice in the name of tolerance and then pride themselves for it.

The Lord wants a society to uphold law because it's a reflection of His nature. When we pervert law & justice we distort societies view of God. We then send the message to criminals "you can steal and not pay back what you owe or murder people and live." Its no coincidence that Amanda created a God in her mind that does NOT punish sin.

Dean got up just in the nick of time and kept the Gospel burning bright till the end! About 30 bibles went out along with many tracts. We had conversations with people until the end and finished the night with a little pizza and fellowship.

WHAT I LEARNED: Many of the objections to Christianity come from people who have a wrong view of God and a wrong view of themselves.