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!!