Guitar Man Pt. 2 10/26/2013

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.  (Matthew 5:44)

This weeks' team was blessed to see the Holy Spirit, yet again, do the work of softening hearts and wooing souls. Jack, Mark, Sharon, Forest, Dean S., Debbie, Steven V., and Jeremy, as well as Barbara, Richard, and Dean C. (behind the camera), were all on board.

Guitar Man Returns

Last Saturday, brother Mark was blessed to be heckled by the Guitar Man, in a "drive-by" confrontation. On Thursday, at Noho station, Mark and the rest of Dean's Team were all blessed to be heckled by the same guy as he proceeded to play his guitar, rant and revile against us throughout the evening.

This evening's experience was a bit different. The Guitar Man showed up again, soon after we arrived, and he positioned himself near by in a continuing effort to disrupt and stifle the proclamation of the gospel. Since Dr. Jack was on the box, Mark went over to talk with our heckler (in the orange shirt). Mark's discussion with Guitar Man (GM) would make an excellent article, and hopefully we can put this together for a future blog post. But the bottom line is that by walking in love and peace toward GM, his blind anger was defused, and he humbly accepted an offering of support for his family. Indeed, as they parted, GM thanked AND BLESSED Mark.

Soon after that GM packed up and went home.

Time will tell what GM's long term response will be. Meanwhile, let us all be in prayer for GM, his wife and his daughter, as they seek employment, and a place to live. Most importantly, let us earnestly pray for GM's salvation and regeneration.

The Corner Team

Once again, we were blessed with a larger turnout and so Dean S. went with Dean C., and our friend Richard, to provide stop light Gospel presentations at the corner of San Fernando and Magnolia.

No Saint Left Behind (Almost)

The Holy Spirit was in high gear, drawing many into lengthy one-to-one conversations with evangelists. Sometimes as many as three or four such small group discussions were taking place at a time.

The U.S. Marines have a policy of never leaving a comrade behind when they leave a combat zone. And so, at the end of the evening's outreach, in an effort to implement a similar strategy, we waited about 5 minutes for Jack to finish witnessing to some teens and to give them some Evolution Vs. God DVDs. It was a good feeling to know that we hadn't abandoned any team members.

We finally started up Palm Ave. toward the parking lot, when we noticed that Dean S. was missing. We looked back and saw him still there talking with another group of teen atheists whom he had encountered earlier. So, we decided to wait, and shared among ourselves some of the things that had happened during the evening. Thirty minutes later (9:45pm), Dean S. was STILL engaged with these teens, so we reluctantly abandoned the new strategy, confessed our weak flesh, and decided to leave without him. Last we saw that faithful brother, he was still there contending for the faith.

Update:  We emailed Dean and he followed up with this report:

I made it home o.k. and actually ran into Dr. Jack around 10 as I was heading into the parking lot.

I ended up talking to 5 guys.  Two of the guys had engaged me when I was on the box (one was a Christian who wanted his atheist friend to talk to me, but the atheist didn't want to talk into the microphone.)  When they walked by when we were packing up, I asked if they wanted to talk and they said no, but came back a couple minutes later to talk - Isn't God great!

I initially engaged the Atheist and it was a very cordial conversation.  He willingly took the "good person" test and listened intently the entire time and asked very thoughtful questions.  His Christian friend was "helping me" the whole time, but some of his comments were not sound doctrine and I began to engage him in conversation.  I came to find out that his definition of Christianity was believing in God and Jesus, but that each person "does their best" to interpret the Bible and as long as they are sincere that is enough.  So I discovered that he thought having sex with his girlfriend was o.k. in his interpretation because he is not married (apparently he had forgotten that I had just told his friend that looking with lust was adultery, so I reminded him.) What it really came down to was he was a "Christian" in name only and didn't really read his Bible or go to church etc.

I used that opportunity to share with him my story about being a faithful church attender but headed for hell.  I also shared that we can't just make up our own rules about interpreting the Bible.  I then got a question I've never gotten before.  He asked me, based on my understanding of the Bible, did I think he was going to hell?  I told him that if he died today, I most definitely thought he would go to hell.  That bluntness stunned him and his friends.  I told them I didn't think it was an accident that we were having this conversation, and that God is patient with all of us so that all might come to repentance and faith.  I then answered their questions for the remainder of the time.  It was funny, but one of the kids must have asked me 5 times throughout the conversation, "you mean one sin and I go to hell?"  I got to share that God is infinitely good, righteous and holy and that every sin is an infinite offense to Him, but that He is also rich in mercy and sent His Son.

I ended the conversation with an "I will pray for you guys" and one of the guys asked if I was willing to pray with them now so they could hear what I was going to pray about.  So I took that opportunity to thank God for His Son (with a full gospel presentation in the prayer) and I also prayed for the salvation of each one of the teens.

Evangelism action photo:-)

FYI:  Here is a link to an amazing world statistical clock. Check this when you are looking for up-to-date statistics to cite from the box.

Paul Washer Sermon at The Masters College

Thanks to brother Jorge and Sister Sharon for forwarding this video.

JOIN US!!

Halloween is on its evil way! Time for all believers in the True and Living God to respond in love and faith by JOINING WITH US IN SHARING THE GOSPEL IN HOLLYWOOD ON HALLOWEEN, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31st. We'll be gathering at Dean's place, 816 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank at 5:00 pm. Sai will be providing a wonderful Thai dinner for us to enjoy before we carpool to Hollywood at about 6:30. We plan to be there till about 9:00 pm, returning to the store. Contact us if you plan to meet us in Hollywood. There will be many Giant $100 Tracts to hand out. Please RSVP to Dean or Steve!!

And don't forget to join us for our usual CBC Evangelism outreach on Saturday, November 2nd, 6:00 pm at the Burbank Police Department parking lot on Palm Ave. near Glenoaks. See you there!!

Commanded to Hate? 10/19/2013

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:25-27)

Our Brother, Mark, was blessed to receive the most notable heckling of the evening. A young, guitar-wielding man who is known to us from North Hollywood MTA station stopped briefly to respond to Mark's comments challenging the theory of evolution. After a brief interchange, Mark gave him the Good Person test, leading to this discussion:

Mark: We have all committed sins against God. What's going to happen when you die and you stand before Him in judgment?
Heckler: I'm not going to stand before anybody when I die.
M: No, you will. That's a guaranteed thing.
H: We stand in judgment before one another.
M: No, we love one another, and we tell the truth to one another. I don't judge you. I love you. I don't want you to go to hell.
H: That's a cop-out. Judgment is me and you. It's really about works, okay?
M: What type of works?
H: It's about good works.
M: What good works? All of our works are like filthy rags before God. No one can earn their way to heaven. It is a free gift from God.
H: We have to (do good works)
M: Second Timothy (1:9) says, '(He) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus (before time began)'
H: Read Luke 14:26. That's just a contradiction of the whole Christ message there!
(Ed. Note - This was the same request this heckler made on several occasions in North Hollywood, believing that it reveals a contradiction. Seems he's stuck on this one verse.)

Mark proceeded to read aloud Luke 14:26 (see above). Seizing upon the word "hate" the heckler began screaming the word "HATE!" and stormed off, unwilling to listen to a reasonable explanation.
Mark went on to explain to those present, that this was a classic example of taking a scripture out of context and misinterpreting it.

Here is an explanation of the passage from The Evidence Bible:
 
Jesus used what is called "hyperbole" -- a statement of extremes, contrasting love with hate for emphasis' sake. The Bible often does this (Proverbs 13:24; 29:24). Jesus tells us that the first and greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37,38). As much as we treasure our spouse and family, and even our own life, there should be no one whom we love and value more than God, no one who takes precedence in our life. To place love for another (including oneself) above God is idolatry.

Preachers of Burbank

The Team, this evening, included Mark, Jeremy, Steve M., Dean C., Sai, Sharon, Debbie, Jack and Steven V.

 There is a new television series, on a cable channel, that features a handful of self-proclaimed "preachers" who head up congregations in the Los Angeles area. The series is receiving much attention because these men proclaim a false "prosperity" gospel and live lifestyles of conspicuous consumption, shameless sin and lawlessness. The reason that we are referencing this show is that it will be yet another cultural touchstone which will be in peoples minds as they respond to the open air preaching of the gospel. In the minds of some, we will inevitably be lumped into the same bread as this leaven, and so we should be prepared to answer with gentleness and scripture when we are asked about, or confronted with, the wretched excesses of these false teachers.

Viewing of the show is not recommended, however there is a promotional video on YouTube which introduces the "cast" and shows enough of the content of the series to immediately set off every red flag of discernment in any believer's heart. But the important thing is to prepare to respond to questions, and indeed, to use references to the program to exemplify what Christianity is NOT.

A few observations:

- Where is the repentance? These men are prideful and quick to forgive themselves for every manner of lawlessness.
- These men appear to be without accountability to any observable spiritual authority.
- Discernment and scriptural study and understanding seem to be non-existent. They appear to have each invented his own doctrinal creed cobbled together from myriad word-of-faith prosperity teachers.
- Verbal loquaciousness is perceived as God's anointing.
- Eisegesis not exegesis.
- Money and fame are their idols.
- The name of Jesus is abused.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits... Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. . . And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matthew 7:15,21,23)

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words, for a long time their judgment has been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Perhaps an unintended benefit of this program is that by blatantly parading their sinful and blasphemous idolatry these individuals will draw into sharp focus the errors of the so-called "prosperity gospel." Sadly, these men serve as a sort of Venus Fly Trap to undiscerning unbelievers who seek after the financial gain that is the sole focus of such "ministries."

King James Only Controversy

Occasionally we are challenged by a believer who asks us what version of the Bible we are distributing. Almost without exception this leads to an admonishment about the necessity to use the King James version only. Sometimes, people who advocate this position are quite dogmatic and narrowly focused on the issue. There are many resources available on this topic, including the book, "The King James Only Controversy," by James R. White. This article, by Ben Rast of Contender Ministries, provides a good introduction to the topic, as well as some good responses to have on hand which may serve to defuse the issue so that the gospel may go forth unhindered. This issue can easily become an idol to some.

How to Think and Act in Evil Days, Part 2

Here is a followup to the first part which was posted here last week. This is perhaps one of John MacArthur's most important sermons, delivered just last March, and based upon the following passage from Matthew:
 

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.' (Matthew 5:43-48 NKJV)

One More (Very Cool) Item

On October 5th, Ray Comfort (seen here with our brother Dave, from an old blogpost) was the keynote speaker at the CBC Awana Conference. Follow this link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to listen to his presentation. Maybe someday he'll show up to go witnessing with us in Burbank! Now that would be cool. You're always welcome, Ray! (And you too, Dave!!)

Join us! Saturday, October 26, 6:00 pm, at Burbank Police Dept. parking lot. (Entrance on Palm Ave. just south of Glenoaks.)

Don't forget our Hollywood/Halloween outreach on Thursday, Oct. 31! (See the sidebar for info.)

True Confessions 10/12/2013

Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)

The team tonight included: Mark, Sharon, Debbie, Forest, Paul, Dean C., Sai, Jeremy, Jorge, and Steven V.

Mark was the lead off man. Proclaiming the Gospel with passion and zeal, he based his message on 2 Corinthians 4:3-5: "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bond-servants for Jesus' sake." (NKJV)

Paul shared these observations from the box:  "The message in the Bible is a message that needs to be heard. This message is of such importance that your eternity hangs on it. Your life is busy, so is mine, but your eternity deserves attention. This is a book of authority. God has intrinsic authority over all things because He made all things. Plants, animals, people, it all belongs to Him. No person has authority over their own life. The way we know that to be true is because every single person will die. No one can thwart death. It says in the Bible that all have sinned. The problem is that most people create their own set of standards and then we attempt to judge God by our standards. You and I have no right to judge God because the Bible says that God is Holy and perfect. Each one is tempted when he is carried away by his own lust. We'd like to reverse it and say that God is not fair. The problem is in us."

Dean shared this thought:  "You are playing a part in this drama. God created His beings with a free will. He didn't create wind-up robots who would automatically worship Him and love Him. And if you are honest with yourself you know that you don't love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and you don't love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Actually, the Bible says that we are running from God. We are suppressing the knowledge of His existence. We're doing everything we can to push away the truth that we know instinctively, that there is a God and we have sinned against Him. He has written His moral law upon our heart. God says we have all been given a measure of light. We are without excuse. When we say to God that we do not want to follow His path, that we want to do what we want to do, then we are sitting in God's seat, making ourselves the God of our life."

How to Think and Act in Evil Days

Here is a recent teaching by John MacArthur that addresses the current culture of unbelief, and it's stages of turning away from God. (Approx 40 minutes, worth every second.)

Halloween Fellowship and Hollywood Outreach

Halloween is on its evil way! Time for all believers in the True and Living God to respond in love and faith by JOINING WITH US IN SHARING THE GOSPEL IN HOLLYWOOD ON HALLOWEEN, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31st. 

We'll be gathering at Dean's place, 816 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank at 5:00 pm. Sai will be providing a wonderful Thai dinner for us to enjoy before we caravan to Hollywood at about 6:30. We plan to be there till about 9:00 pm, returning to the store. Contact us if you plan to meet us in Hollywood. There will be many Giant $100 Tracts to hand out. Costume optional. Please RSVP to Dean or Steve!!

Don't forget . . . Join us this Saturday Evening, October 19th, 6:00 pm at Burbank Police Dept. parking lot, on Palm, near Glenoaks. See you there!

The Kingdom of Light 10/5/2013

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. . . For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6,9)

Once again, by God's gracious provision, our team was able to cover two locations with the preaching of the glorious Gospel. Sharon, Dr. Jack, Steve M., Mark, Dean S., Jeremy, Dean C., and Steven V. met at the usual time and place for prayer and fellowship, before heading down to the plaza.

The two Deans deployed to the corner of San Fernando and Magnolia, across from the entrance to the Town Center mall.

Bible Interpretation

Our friend Roger "the Nemesis" stopped by to further his attempt to "save" us from the Truth. His principal objection to our efforts to share the Truth is that there are many ways to interpret the scripture. And yet, somehow, he is certain that our interpretation of the scriptures is uniquely wrong.

We have covered the subject of hermeneutics in an earlier post. John MacArthur summarized the topic nicely in this video. It's about an hour in length, but well worth the time:

The Coming Darkness

The YouTube link, below, is to Tony Miano's Cross Encounters radio show in which he interviewed a pastor in Scotland who has been arrested twice for proclaiming the Gospel in the open air. It's an hour in length, but very sobering and encouraging. (If you've got some chores to do, since it's radio, you can let it play while you are doing something else. :-)



Here is the video of Josh Williamson being arrested:



What should we learn from this? Based on our experience in Burbank and Noho it is more likely that any issues with law enforcement will center on the perception of disturbing the peace, as evidenced by complaints from individuals and/or businesses. The laws are written so as to give discretion and latitude to the police and are very much subject to interpretation.

Let us not be dissuaded from proclaiming the truth, in whatever form we can legally employ. Let us also not be wedded to a particular method or technology. We need to be creative and adaptable in this respect. Certainly it is better to obey the law and thereby glorify the Lord:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (Romans 13:1)

Perhaps we must also consider the Lord's direction to the disciples:

And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. (Matthew 10:14)

If we change locale, or method, we will be free to proclaim the Gospel another day, to a new audience. Clearly, we do not need to consider doing so right now, but this is something for us all to prayerfully consider. We may be faced with this kind of challenge very soon. When to comply and when to take a stand? That seems to be the question. If anyone has some thoughts on this issue, I welcome your email.

Please join us!  Saturday, October 12, at BPD parking lot on E. Palm, at Glenoaks Blvd., 6:00pm.  See you there!

CO GOSPEL SOUL WINNING!

Hello to my evangelism family

from Colorado!

I'm sure Steve won't mind me saying "HI" to all of you. To say it has been a smooth landing out here in Colorado would not be telling the truth. From the selling of our house which took FOREVER to close, bouncing around rentals while we waited then finding a place which we got FLOODED out of... even through that the Lord has been faithful when we are faithless. Basically we have spent all our energy wrangling kids and finding a home to live in. We may be finally landing in a permanent home. Thank you so much for all your prayers and some of you even financial support.

I thought it might be a neat idea to keep you updated on the evangelism outreaches here in Colorado using TWITPIC on the side bar.

I'll probably be joining Steve and Connie with IANA MINISTRY as they are faithful soul winners out here. I was blessed to recently get to join them and several other evangelist at UCCS College where I open-aired after two months of silence.

I'm so encouraged by your continued steadfastness to keep preaching the word and share Christ crucified! Praise the Lord who raised up Steve to take over the blog and lead the team. I miss you all and look forward to seeing you again.

David

"Rejoice in the Lord!" Phil 3:1

Exalt the Lord! 9/28/2013

The CBC Evangelism team was blessed to be prayed for by the entire congregation at Saturday night's Exalt celebration. While the Team was out bringing the gospel to Downtown Burbank, the CBC Choir, under the direction of worship leader Tim A., lifted up their voices in praise and prayer to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Regular team members included Mark, Dean C., Sai, Jeremy, Dean S., Dr. Jack, and Steven V.

Later, we were blessed to be joined by our friend Richard, who has been preaching with Dean's Team in North Hollywood on Thursday nights.

Every week we are blessed to witness a remarkable display of the Holy Spirit at work. Almost 40 bibles were given out to those who came up and requested them.

News Front

Our newest team member, Jeremy, has been keeping us updated on the progress of the legal actions being taken against his Father's bakery business in Colorado. Here is a recent Wall Street Journal article on the topic.

Here are some other recent news stories:

It is interesting to note that the homosexual movement is often represented by the rainbow, which, intentionally or not, is a mocking reference to God's promise not to judge the world again, by water (Genesis 9:13-16). How long will the Lord hold back His judgement upon sinful mankind by other means? (See Romans 1:27)

For the benefit of any reader who is unfamiliar with the Bible, the apostle Paul specifically includes the sin of homosexuality in a list of sins which God will judge and punish with eternal separation in hell.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

The Lord is cautioning all of us here. Who among us is not guilty of at least one of the sins in this list? The text continues:

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

John MacArthur observes: "Though not all Christians have been guilty of all those particular sins, every Christian is equally an ex-sinner, since Christ came to save sinners. Sanctification results in new behavior, which a transformed life always produces. Sin's total domination is broken and replaced by a new pattern of obedience and holiness. Though not perfection, this is a new direction. Justification refers to a new standing before God, in which the Christian is clothed in Christ's righteousness. In Christ's death, the believer's sins were put to Christ's account and He suffered for them, so that His righteousness might be put to our account, so that we might be blessed for it."

So then, why is it important to take a moral stand over something as seemingly insignificant as a cake? In doing so we witness to the truth of Jesus Christ and the wages of sin in all our lives. We are witnesses to the preeminence of Christ over His creation, and the need for all to come to repentance. Not to do so would be to elevate some other thing, e.g. prosperity, man's approval, or simple self-preservation, above the sacrifice and Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Imagine a slightly different scenario: A neo-Nazi group seeks to commission a cake celebrating Hitler's birthday, from a small Jewish bakery in New York. Should the baker be coerced by law into providing a service for a cause he finds abhorrent and which compromises his deepest beliefs? Conversely, if a bakery was run by a homosexual couple and they were approached by the Westboro Baptist Church to provide a cake with anti-gay slogans emblazoned upon it, should they not be allowed to refuse to provide service to that customer?

The question for believers really becomes: At what point do we, as true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, refuse to obey the law of man, and instead obey the Law of God? Our Lord, speaking to his disciples, within the context of describing the time of His return, said this:

You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. (Luke 21:12-15)

James, the oldest half-brother of Christ said:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2-3)

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20 NKJV)

Of course, an underlying assumption to these encouragements is the necessity of close familiarity with God's Word through study, with His Son through prayer, and with the ability to articulate the saving Gospel through the regular practice of evangelism.

Our Latest Innovation

On a lighter note, we offer a tip of the 180 hat to Dr. Jack for asking the question that resulted in this new idea. The main amp was aimed very effectively toward San Fernando Blvd. to be heard by all those who were entering the mall area, and even those across the street. By aiming it that direction we avoided blasting the alfresco diners at the restaurant opposite. Jack pointed out that those who were further down the mall toward the theaters couldn't hear us at all. Next thing you know, the backup Fender amp was set up as illustrated above. The mic is picking up the output of the amp, and so those down-mall were blessed to hear the preaching and heckling clearly.

Please join us! Saturday, October 5, 6pm @ Burbank Police Dept. parking lot for prayer and then witnessing in beautiful Downtown Burbank. See you there!