A Beautiful Wedding 7/12/2014

"Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19:4-6)

This week the CBC Evangelism Team had the rare privilege of playing a background role in the wedding reception of Jordan and Isabel, as they celebrated their nuptials at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Parlor, directly across from our usual location at the AMC Mall.

Congratulations and blessings to the newlyweds from all the team!

Pastor Tim and his wife Tina were there as well, and they stopped by to give us encouragement.

Teamwork

Numerous one-to-one conversations took place. Glory to God!

On The Box

Thanks to the new headset mic, the amp sounded much better and the Gospel was proclaimed.

We were joined by new CBC member Billy, who enjoyed handing out tracts.

Dean braved the corner of Magnolia and San Fernando, this time on the North side. Our usual corner was occupied by yet another guitarist.

Sister Sai was her usual joyful self, faithfully handing out tracts alongside her husband.

Thanks to our brother Jeremy for the great camerawork!

Israel News

In response to our plea for some worthwhile news sources for the latest information about the developing Middle East conflict our brother Razmik sent this blog article: Trusted Middle East News Outlets. There are several links contained in it with brief descriptions of each source. Thanks Razmik!

Abortuary Duty  7/12/2014

Our brother Don, from Faith Community Church, who leads the twice weekly rescue at the Mission Hills abortion clinic, was pleading with a young man in the car, who had dropped off a young woman. Although the outcome to this encounter was inconclusive, at least two other couples emerged from the clinic after being given materials that show the developing child in the womb. Don courageously challenges the men who are involved in these murders, appealing to their conscience and pride, using tough love. Occasionally he is threatened, but Don's experience as a former police officer, along with his abiding faith in the Lord's sovereignty and grace, allow him to remain calm.

Morning Shift - NoHo 7/9/2014

Strange photo, I know. But this is a close-up of the new spikes that are embedded in the concrete berms along the side of the North Hollywood Metro Station. We'll see if these help to discourage loiterers using drugs in the area. Meanwhile we will keep preaching the Good News to commuters on Wednesday Mornings. Jeremy, Richard and Paul, joined Steve at the station, bright and early, to share the Gospel with blurry-eyed travelers and the many Jehovah's Witnesses who pass out their Watchtower publications. Sobering to consider that the battle for men's souls is a non-stop effort. And yes, I did forget to take a picture of the guys witnessing this week.

Apologetics Corner

Here are some great articles which show that Jesus taught a young earth creation, and a statistical confirmation based on the number of graves and remains that are missing if the World is as old as the evolutionists believe.

JOIN US!!!

GLENDALE CRUISE NIGHT EVENT IS THIS SATURDAY, JULY 19TH. PLEASE JOIN US FOR LOTS OF COOL TRACTS AND CLASSIC CARS! LOOK FOR OUR BOOTH ON BRAND BETWEEN CALIFORNIA AND WILSON. 5:00 FOR PRAYER, 5:30 FOR THE EVENT.

The Voice of One ... 7/5/2014

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:3-5)

Although we were prepared to inaugurate the strategy of multiple stoplight preachers along San Fernando, the Lord arranged for the blasting bands to be absent this evening, so we were able to proclaim the Gospel from our usual location on the Mall.

This makeshift system of amps amplifying other amps was perhaps our most convoluted yet. But, glory to God, it worked great!

Brother Richard was blessed with hecklers this evening. This young woman initially claimed to be an atheist, but then mockingly feigned a conversion to faith in Christ. She lunged toward Richard as if to do a "high five" to congratulate herself, but Richard effectively deflected her effort by challenging her professed atheism with a few basic questions which revealed the shallowness of her beliefs. 

Richard did a remarkable job of verbally corralling this group of rambunctious teenagers who impatiently endured Richard's patient administration of the "Good Person Test." It seems common these days that young people such as these will simply adopt the anti-Christian, evolutionary-atheist dogma they are spoon-fed in the schools, without the slightest understanding. The result is a sad inability to make coherent and rational statements about their beliefs. 

The Team In Action

Fourth of July In Santa Monica

A small but effective team of CBC'ers, including Jeremy, Sharon and Steve were blessed to be invited to join Tony Miano and his friend, Pastor Geoff Kirkland who was visiting from St. Louis, in an evangelism outreach at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

Pastor Geoff Kirkland leads a congregation in St. Louis which has grown to 90 believers since being planted as an outreach of Grace Community Church's Grace Advance.

Many of the Thomas Jefferson Fourth of July $1M tracts were distributed.

Sharon was blessed with several one-to-one conversations.

Tony Miano preached on idolatry during which time a woman was posing for pictures in the background.

Tony wrote about a certain heckler we encountered there in his blog.

As many already know Tony's legal case in Scotland has been dismissed. He appeared on The Comfort Zone to review what happened. He also posted a comprehensive article explaining his prayerful and scripturally-based decision not to sue the Scottish Police for false arrest.

Morning Shift 7/2/2014

Summer is the best time of year to enjoy sharing the Gospel at the Metro Station in North Hollywood. 

Even the pigeons want to stick around to listen in spite of the new bird control devices installed during the recent renovation. Similarly, discouragements (i.e. vertical steel pipes) have been embedded into many of the flat surfaces that have attracted groups of loitering teenagers. Hopefully this will reduce the drug use and general noise level.

Like an unstoppable train, the word of God goes forth, in season and out of season. As our Lord said after He was rebuked by the Pharisees when His disciples rejoiced together with a loud voice saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!", He replied "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." (Luke 19:40 NKJV)

Apologetics Corner

Taking the Bible Seriously

This is an excellent and relatively comprehensive article written by Dr. Jonathan Safarti, of CMI, in response to a challenge by a professed believer who has bought into the old earth viewpoint. This old earth viewpoint, popular among many churches today, is an attempt to re-interpret scripture based upon the changeable opinions of current scientific assertions about the age of the universe and the earth. Ironically, by compromising with "science" so called, these Christians often lag behind the current state of such belief and so they wind up being wrong on both doctrine and science.

Evolution Evolves

Here is another helpful article about the rapidly shifting theory of evolution. It is helpful to be aware that many in the scientific community are giving up on the decaying Neo-Darwinian theory due to lack of evidence, while clinging to their desperate need for any explanation for the existence of life other than the God of the Bible.

Upcoming Opportunities

Glendale Cruise Night

Yes, it's that time of year! On Saturday, July 19th, The Glendale Cruise Night event will take place on Brand Blvd. in Downtown Glendale. Our booth will be located somewhere along the Blvd. among the other community booths. Here are links to the official event info, and a map of the parking structures in the area. The event is free and it officially starts at 5:30 pm., but we will meet at our booth at 5pm for prayer (Look for the CBC banner). It would be a big help to have one or two volunteers to help set up the booth at approx. 3:00pm. Please RSVP to Steve if you can help with setup. 

The tasks for evangelists during the event will be to walk around distributing the giant $100 bill tracts (people love these!), and also we will need several people to stay at the booth to answer questions and keep the tract displays stocked. This is a great way to get your "feet wet" in street evangelism because most people are very happy to get the $100 bills (we distributed over 5,000 last year), and those who stop at the booth are already interested in what we are doing there, so it is easy to strike up a conversation and share the Gospel. In fact, many of those who have participated in the Cruise Night outreach in the past had never done any type of witnessing before. And, of course, there are plenty of classic cars to see. Please join us!!

Pismo Beach Outreach

Deacon Sean C. has asked for volunteer evangelists who might be interested in going to Arroyo Grande/Pismo Beach on Aug 1-3 to do street/beach evangelism alongside some people from our church and The Berean Bible Church there. Please contact Sean for details.

Join Us!

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. (John 12:26 NKJV)

MARANATHA!!

New Amp, And Yet . . . 6/28/2014

Sadly, the AMC mall has become a carnival midway. Restrictive regulation is likely to follow.

This evening we were drowned out by the rent-raising sax player, a new guitar and flute duo, the whining songstress, and our old friend John the breakdancer. 

The noise level was so great, and the sonic stew so chaotic, that in spite of our brand new Pyle Pro, we were totally out-amped. Technical issues notwithstanding, it seems prudent to revisit the paradigm which has served us so well these last 5+ years. Yes, we have always had competition in the sonic marketplace. But lately, as Dean sagely stated, "It's never been this bad before."

Dean and Mark wisely volunteered to do some stoplight preaching at the corner. This may become the method of choice as we go forward. 

The lower profile of the Aker amp, combined with the greater flexibility and portability of small two or three man teams may be our most effective strategy in the foreseeable future.

The heckler mic setup is the best way to draw a crowd, and will continue to be our mainstay once things calm down a bit on the mall. 

But, as this photo depicts, it seems that lately we are spending a lot of time waiting for the opportunity to proclaim the gospel. What is the point of an empty box? We could stay home and accomplish that.

So far, for stoplight preaching we've focused on the Magnolia/San Fernando intersection. However, each block along San Fernando seems well suited to similar stoplight preaching. Orange Grove, Palm and Olive all have the same type of low brick wall structures that offer the shelter of a back-stop or even a place to stand on.

Can you imagine as many as four preachers all proclaiming the gospel at the same time? Rule number one: No preacher stands alone. We must go in teams of 2 or 3. 

And as long as we are "rattling the cage," here's another idea to consider. A visual component. Dr. Jack, and others, have long been suggesting this. It would be great to develop a simple, lightweight, portable way to set up a large (approx. 24" x 36") graphic printed on foamcore or similar material, with thoughtful questions/statements to give people something to think about. E.g. "Questions Evolution Can't Answer." "Why Did Christ Have to Die?" "Why Can We Trust the Bible?" I have spoken to Jaime, our printer, and Mike, our chief tech guy, and they have both offered to help with this. Of course, we don't want to become the "sign guys" (see below).

But the value of a poster is that it explains what we are up to instantly, while the preacher is sharing the gospel. Ear gate and eye gate.

This type of poster is very effective at the Mission Hills clinic.

Your ideas are welcome.

In spite of the sound issues, there were numerous opportunities the Lord provided for us to share the Gospel.

Morning Shift  6/25/2014

It's always refreshing to be out early sharing the glorious Gospel. This time of year the sun rises early too.

Sadly, the cultists are even more disciplined to bring their message of deception than we are to bring Christ's message of hope. Is this a sad image or what? Is this couple investing their retirement years fishing for souls to lead into damnation? What a trajic legacy. If you have a heart for reaching these poor misguided souls, the NoHo station is a prime location to get some experience in breaking down spiritual strongholds.

Forced Labor?

Comparisons to North Korea, or references to Stalinism may seem a bit extreme, but it seems one would have to look to a dictatorship to find a modern example of citizens subjected by their government to do forced labor for reasons of ideological conformity mandated by the State. But this recent article on Jeremy's Dad, the Colorado baker, would seem to indicate that our government can force, or at least coerce, it's citizens to perform labor which conflicts with an individual's conscience. Thanks to recent Supreme Court decisions this will hopefully be overturned. 

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.  (1 Peter 4:12-14)

Apologetics Corner

Sent in by brother Razmik:

As you already know, I had a long conversation with Roger 2 weeks ago and his main objection at that time was the contradictions in the Bible and he had a book with him titled "Misquoting Jesus" by Bart Ehrman.  Of course I did not have the time or resources to answer all his claims so I did some research and found that there is a new testament scholar, Mike Licona, who has actually debated Ehrman on a few occasions.

Here is the Licona interview.

Also, they have a really good site that has hundreds of useful articles.  

Brother Razmik also sent a link to the recent teaching that Pastor Paul Washer did at the Chinese Church in Rosemead.

Just discovered this great resource. We ought to transcribe some of these videos to have at hand when we are on the box. Quick, authoritative, scriptural answers to common questions. Not sure who produces these, but they are great! WWUTT stands for "When We Understand The Text," meaning, of course, the Bible.

Join Us!

Please check out our schedule in the right-hand column. We will be passing out the Giant $100 bills at the Glendale Cruise Night event on Saturday, July 19th. Please let Steve know if you can be there early (around 2pm) to help set up the booth.

MARANATHA!!