Lift Up Your Eyes 6/21/2014

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." (John 4:34-38 NKJV)

The Lord used Mark and Jeremy to lead the team tonight, and our beloved brother Steve M. joined us after several weeks absence. As usual, Jeremy did a great job with the camera and so we present these images of yet another successful move of the Holy Spirit in the streets of Downtown Burbank.

Mark: "From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible talks about the Lord Jesus Christ."

Elder Bob: "God poured out the wrath and the terror, that you and I deserve for our sins, upon His Son, so that you and I could be set free! I owed a debt that I could not pay, Christ paid a debt that He did not owe."

Dr. Jack: "The Bible says that in the latter days people would refuse to believe that there was a worldwide flood. But God left those fossils as a record to let us know that there was a judgment one day in the past and many people didn't heed the warnings and they were consumed by God's wrath, because, as the Bible says: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5 NKJV)

Richard: "There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, but through Jesus Christ. It's not through Allah, it's not through Buddha, Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, or L. Ron Hubbard, or whatever other idols are out there. They are not Saviors, Jesus is your Savior. He came for you and I that we may have life, when we should have death."

Steve M.: "Jesus said, 'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep.' Jesus came down to be the sacrifice for our sins. He's calling you as a lost sheep to come back into the sheepfold. And there is coming a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He might come back tonight! Are you ready?"

Apologetics Corner

Here is a link to a story about the recent claim by scientists to have discovered vast reservoirs of water deep below the surface of the earth. Again, the evidence supports scripture!

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MARANATHA!!!

Teamwork 6/14/2014

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1 NKJV)

Thanks to Jeremy and Dr. Jack for filing the following reports:  Roger came by and spent some "quality time" with a few people: first Razmik, then Jack, and finally Richard.  Razmik said that after 30 or 40 minutes, Roger told him his plan was to keep people from hearing, at which point Razmik told him their conversation was over and walked away.  

Roger has a new strategy. He rudely interrupts often precious one on one witnessing conversations and attacks us personally in a vile manner and then tells the unbeliever that we are liars and tries to drown out our conversations. Fortunately Richard came to the rescue and engaged Roger with scripture so that he was distracted from his original intent. 

However, it ended with Dean, from the box, publicly calling Roger out (who then stormed off [until another day, I'm sure]).

The main objection by the lead teenager was "does God have a creator". Many Biblical answers, such as the attributes of God, including His sovereignty, failed to satisfy him. So I asked him if he thought God was an aging powerless old man with white hair and beard degenerated unto death, like us, who needed to be replaced by a bigger and newer God, and he said, "I see your point."

He had to leave for the movie and said he would talk later.

Barbara had an hour long conversation with this man, named Steve, who had lost a young son who had been in the care of a baby sitter. His recent awareness of his own bitter hatred and anger brought him to engage in a one on one conversation with Barbara. He took a Bible in English and one in Spanish to give to his mother. Later we learned that he texted Barbara to say the talk had been a wake up call.  Someone to pray for!

But some people did stop to listen.

Sharon also had a long talk with a man, named Dillon, who she described as being so close to submitting to God, but not quite (still hanging on to the world).  Another to pray for!

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Dear Calvary Bible Church body:

Our faithful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has blessed our congregation with a team of saints who gladly submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. From Elder Bob's discerning stewardship, to Deacon Mark's rock-solid scriptural wisdom and cheerful spirit, to Dr. Jack and Barbara's passion for evangelism, to Sharon's faithful heart for leading people to the Lord, to Debbie's steadfast walk of obedient service to her Savior, to Jeremy's energetic and humble stewardship, even to the circumspect walk of leadership, with much fear and trembling, with which Steve has sought to be obedient to that calling left by our dear brother and friend David, to the many precious saints from other Churches, whom God has brought into our fold, even if only to receive experience and encouragement to establish evangelism teams in their own congregations, and to the many others of our own congregation who have served joyfully and faithfully over many seasons. Even so we invite you to serve with us as we seek to obey the great commission of our dear Lord by proclaiming His worthiness and sufficiency and His saving power to a lost and dying world. His grace is sufficient to achieve His perfect work. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

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Needing Prayer 6/7/2014

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

This was a special moment of ministry for the team. As Mark was sharing the Gospel from the box, Debbie was standing with the Bibles. She was approached by two young boys who asked her if someone could pray for them because one of the boys' Father had passed away just a few days earlier. Debbie asked Dean to help pray for these young men, and Dean was graciously faithful to do that. As we were leaving the mall area later that evening, we were all encouraged by this simple act of humble seeking of the Lord by these boys, and of the opportunity the Lord used to bless us all with this quiet demonstration of the tender mercies of the Holy Spirit in meeting the needs of those who faithfully seek Him and in blessing the obedience of those who seek to humbly serve Him. What an awesome God we serve. 

Abortuary Duty  6/7/2014

Don and the team were joined by Ben (left) and his bodyguard(!) Nathan. Ben's wooden cross is emblazoned on the back with "Are You Ready?" but this is the side he displays when he is on abortuary duty.

Josef Tson: Living in Union with Christ in Dangerous Times - Pt. 1 

Our brother Razmik shared this compelling video (Note: In the opening minutes Mr. Tson does some necessary promotion for his ministry and book. Some YouTube viewers have left critical comments about this, which is extremely unfair. However, the sermon itself begins at 4:00 minutes.)

Apologetics Corner

Lucifer's Flood

Steve was blessed to be questioned by a man who was asking about a "teaching" he had encountered that proposed a "second creation" which followed "Lucifer's flood," which supposedly happened after the Great Flood which the Bible describes. The linked article tells a bit about this false teaching and provides a good answer to it. Sometimes, when we are presented with a false idea about something which is not even mentioned in the Bible it may be best to avoid trying to prove the non-existence of something, and instead simply re-direct to the Gospel itself. And so the answer given was to simply restate what the Bible DOES say about the fall of man due to sin, and the need for God to redeem mankind through the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Similarly, we are often challenged by assertions that the Flood story in the Bible is derived from pagan stories such as the epic of Gilgamesh. Of course, the opposite is true. Evidence shows that the various flood legends are actually corruptions of the authoritative Biblical account. These ironically serve to corroborate the truth of scripture. Why would there be so many different flood legends, worldwide, if there had been no worldwide flood?

Paul Washer on the Doctrines of God

Recently, Paul Washer spoke at a local church for the purpose of training new believers in China on the essential doctrines of the attributes of God. It was translated line by line as he spoke. Mr. Washer taught a total of four hours on the topic.

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Please join us as we take the glorious Gospel to the streets of Burbank and North Hollywood. Also, on July 19th we will have a booth at the Glendale Cruise Night event. See the classic cars and help pass out giant $100 bills at this fun evening car show and concert.

MARANATHA!!

Bearing Fruit 5/31/2014

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  (John 15:12-16 NKJV)

Mark, Dr. Jack and Dean took turns on the box, proclaiming the glorious Gospel in the gaps between the beatbox sessions. 

Some said the Saxophone guy was easier on the ears than the beatboxer.

Many one-to-one opportunities were granted by the Lord.

While Dr. Jack was on the box he was approached by a heckler who claimed to have a PhD in philosophy. His issue with Christianity was the invisible God: "If God exists, why can't I see Him?" Jack had quite a discussion with this man, which continued off of the box. For an interesting exploration of this issue see this website.

Sister Debbie faithfully hands out Bibles.

Brother Jeremy was back with us this evening, which was a great blessing. Not only does he do most of the setting up and packing up of equipment, but he is a great source of Berean-like scripture searching, fact checking and conscience testing. If I find myself answering one of his humble challenges defensively, I eventually realize that he must be right. 

Forest is still faithfully recording video of the proceedings, confident that someday the editorial staff will post some of the results.

Brother Dean, as always, gives a heartfelt Gospel presentation with a sincere plea to sinners for repentance and faith in the Son, Jesus Christ.

Evangelist Peter Hammond

Our brother Dave shared this video presentation by evangelist Peter Hammond. Dave's comment: "When you see what some of these people have gone through you will feel so wimpy."

Ministry Opportunities

Jerusalem Project - June 29

Pastor Kempiz is inviting all evangelists, who are CBC Members, to join in an outreach to the Burbank community in the neighborhood of Calvary Bible Church. This is what Pastor Kempiz shared:

Sunday, June 29th, after the fellowship lunch (combined Sunday morning that day), we will be purposefully sending teams of CBC’ers out to our community for an hour or so, passing out VBS invites, CBC door hangers (provided by Mission’s ministry), and Gospel tracts (Missions?).  Please come out and join us when the formal announcement is made in the big room.  We will then meet out front for some instruction(s), put into strategic teams, and pray together before heading out to our outlined geographical locations.

Biblical Objectives:

1)  Promote CBC Gospel-related activities in our community (VBS, Youth Ministry, etc.)

2)  Promote CBC presence in our community (let our community know or remind them that we actually exist ;) ).

3)  Explore relationships in our community for the sake of the Gospel.  While our primary objective is not to do door-to-door evangelism on this occasion, there may be opportunities to share the Gospel, or for relationships that may lead to sharing the Gospel.  Also, remember that people may visit the church and hear the Gospel, via VBS or other events where the Word is preached.

All CBC Members, who are Evangelism Team regulars, are encouraged to join in this opportunity. Deacon Mark will be reporting to Pastor Kempiz a roster of evangelists who plan to participate. Please let Mark know if you plan to be involved.

Glendale Cruise Night - July 19

It will soon be that time again! Saturday, July 19, the City of Glendale is hosting the annual Cruise night Event. Last year we had a table and canopy with chilled water and tons of tracts to give away. It was a huge success! Please join us again this year as we bring the Gospel to Glendale!

Who Will Stand?

This is an inspiring video about a man who faithfully witnesses at an abortion clinic in Florida.

John Lennox Answers an Atheist

Here is something amusing, and true:

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Join with us in serving the Lord through obedience to the Great Commission:

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15 NKJV)

"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46)

MARANATHA!!