We had a great week up in San Fran. Started the week in worship with Park Presidio Bible church on 10th Ave. in the morning, and Casa de Refugio Iglesia on Market St. in the afternoon. It was a joy to sing in Spanish, and a young woman even came and translated the whole sermon. The neat thing was that the message from both churches was about being a bold witness of the gospel, from different passages in the book of Acts. Both churches also preached against false teaching, and also declared the lateness of the hour, prophetically speaking. Very different churches, same biblical messages!

Monday, we spent the day on Fisherman’s Wharf. Tuesday, we were on Telegraph and Haste in Berkeley and later we hung out on 16th and Mission. Wednesday we were at Haight & Ashbury/Masonic and our dear brothers Paul Kaiser and the young man he is discipling, Ryan, came down to join us. That night we went down to Haight & Stanyan. Thursday we went to Fisherman’s Wharf again and Friday we were at Berkeley again, but up on the campus at Sproul plaza. Saturday we spent all day at UN Plaza, then we went out to Chinese for dinner before heading home on BART.

Everybody ministered the gospel in slightly different styles, of course. Some gave out printed or audio gospel material, some played music and sang, some preached open air, some read passages of scripture from the Bible, but mostly, we engaged people in dozens of one on one conversations where the law and the gospel were boldly, respectfully and joyfully shared.

Of course I have some conversations I’d love to tell you about, and photos to upload, but first I think I’ll get some sleep. Until then, here’s some video from our day working with Paul on Haight & Ashbury. (Warning: videos are rated R for language.)

In this video, Jessi is videotaping while Ryan talks to Nick Pt.1. A few feet away in the background, I’m talking to Nick’s friend Greg.

In this video, Paul is doing some old fashioned street preaching & apologetics; engaging hecklers, mockers and those with genuine questions in conversation as the opportunity arises.

In this video, Ryan is preaching his heart out while I videotape. The enemy sure did not like his preaching. There was a bit of spiritual reaction to the Truth. His message turned out to be 90% law and 10% grace due to the pride and hard hearts of the hearers. Regardless of the response of people, seeds are sown, and God is always glorified in the proclamation of the gospel and the exalting of Christ.

Don’t be discouraged by these videos! The wind of God’s Spirit blows where it wills, and nothing is too hard for the Lord. Here is a timely and encouraging reminder of this great truth.

Audio: Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord? by John Piper

What is going on in the minds of the people in these videos as well as those we witness to at work, on the street or at the family reunion picnic? This message teaches us the theological truth from Romans 1 about how people already know God exists, that God’s standards exist and that their sinful acts deserve death. Listen to find out the encouraging way this truth helps us in our witnessing to them, so we can have courage and bold confidence in our gospel sharing.

Audio: Doing and Endorsing Evil, by John Piper

Here is Ryan and Nick, Pt.2

Ryan talks with Nick, with Paul and Jessi also contributing. Here is the summary from Paul Kaiser:

“Bro. Ryan continues to reason with Nick and we beging to clearly see what it is that Nick holds so dear. He loves his sin and is blinded by his own pride. Please pray that God will be merciful and grant Nick repentance.”

Please pray for us, dear friends; we are heading to San Francisco (a 15 minute trip for me) to spend the week doing street evangelism. Folks from all over will be joining together to bring the gospel to The City by the Bay during peak tourist season. There will be open air preaching, gospel literature and tract distribution, and witnessing one on one. I’ll write about it next week when I get back, Lord willing. Please pray for love and unity in the team, witnessing conversations and preaching that honors the Lord and gives Him glory, for seeds to be planted in ready hearts, and for His sheep to be brought into His fold by His grace.

It’s been fun sharing the gospel with the cd tract. At the mall, several kids at the bus stop got one, along with a friendly mall security guard and a few teenagers. My daughter and I were in a shoe store Tuesday, replacing her well worn sneakers, when a teen boy there recognized me. He used to hang around our house when visiting his grandparents on our street. We chatted, talking about school and family. I asked him if he liked hip hop, and he said yes. So I gave him a cd; he was pretty excited to get some new music. I told the boy that the man (on the cd) really has something to say. Then the clerk (college age woman) rushed over and said that she wanted one too. I handed her one as she announced that she would play it on their store stereo. One of the songs is Romans 3:10-31 recited! shai linne clearly preaches the gospel in the songs, and of course, there’s the Piper sermon jams. Sure wish I could have seen it when the store speakers blared out God’s Truth.

On our way home from the “sprinkler park” Wednesday, we stopped at Safeway. As I passed parked cars along the walkway, there was a minivan with the windows down, and a little girl about 11 or 12 sitting in the passenger seat. Rap music was booming out the windows. I went up to her window and started chatting, giving her the “cd tract”. I was telling her what was on it when the sliding side door opened to reveal an elderly gentleman in the back seat. He asked me what was on the cd and I told him it was “the gospel”. He immediately scoffed and started arguing with me. He said He believed that God created everything, but he could not believe that Jesus is God, the Creator, and that He came here. He was saying that he was offended at the idea that God “sent Himself” to pay for our sins. Interestingly, he brought up all these topics himself. I told him very respectfully that not only is Jesus God, but yes, that is exactly what God did in sending Jesus: He came here and paid for our sins Himself.

The older gentleman continued ranting about the distasteful idea of Christ crucified, while the little girl was nodding her head in agreement about Jesus being the way God forgives us. She popped the cd into the player and started listening to it while I explained to the grampa that the real issue here is our sin before a holy and just God; sin that only God Himself can remedy. The grampa got out of the car and went around to the back where he could not hear me anymore, and I continued telling the little girl why we need Jesus. I was using the courtroom analogy (and my experience on a criminal trial jury) to explain what Jesus did for us, by His grace.

By this time, several people had stopped and were standing there on the sidewalk listening to the conversation. One man on the sidewalk was listening intently and tossing questions to me. Then the mother arrived carrying groceries and a little toddler. Grampa got back into the car, mumbling under his breath. As the mom strapped the baby sister into the car seat, I said hi and told her what we were talking about and she seemed pretty happy to hear we were talking about Jesus. Then they needed to get on their way. The mother smiled and said thank you and I said goodbye to the grampa and the girl.

The cd tract is a spiritual conversation starter that people are happy to receive. I like that after you say goodbye the cd will still be proclaiming Jesus to people, from their speakers.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Rom.10:17

We have a sure Hope. Be bold.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold… 2 Cor.3:12.

Audio: The Fruit of Hope: Boldness, by John Piper

My dream of graduating from college came to a sad end when I dropped out in my Junior year; I could not stomach the deeply occultic required reading for my major at SFSU. I was really at the wrong school. For years I wished I could have gone to Bible school or Christian college or something. But it was not to be. God was in loving control; He had another plan. He had something far better than college for me.

Years later, I was going to take a special class at church, but it was eliminated (due to lack of interest) right when I applied for it. After spending years starving to learn some systematic biblical doctrine and theology, God taught me Himself out of His Word. Later (three years ago) He led me to sermonaudio.com where I could feast on hearing these truths expounded. And now we’re in a church that preaches like this every Sunday. God is so good to provide for us in these last days, amen?

Anyways, I was thinking of someday getting Grudem’s Systematic Theology and reading it as a devotional, but now I don’t have to because I just listened to shai linne’s The Atonement.

The music is gritty, funky, rugged and “underground”. This album is good for evangelism as well as personal worship. The atonement is the center of the gospel, and the center of our redemption and our relationship with God in Christ. There is one song in which one man asks for definitions of theological terms, and the other man defines the terms, teaching basic bible theology. (Very thoroughly!) There’s also some really good sermon tracks mixed in. Check it out.

As I was implying, yes, there is more theology in this album than some saints will hear in a lifetime at many Neo-E churches. Learning, knowing and understanding theological Truth just makes us love and worship Jesus more. We love learning it. It is eternally attractive to us who are reconciled and redeemed, and whose sins are paid for by the blood of the Lamb.

Ok I finally decided what I’ll be distributing the most this summer, as the Lord leads. For those who understand English and would not be disagreeable to Hip Hop style (yes that still leaves a lot of people!), I’ve decided to go with Lampmode’s Grassroots EP which can be described as “theologically rich, Christ-centered lyricism over rugged instrumentals.” There’s real preaching in these songs. At the end I added two really biblical gospel-telling “sermon jams”. This one is about how it is only something outside of you, namely Jesus Christ, that can rescue you. The other one is about how everyone is guilty before God in their sins. The gospel is clearly, lovingly and gloriously preached in both.

Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel! 1Cor.9:16

Yesterday we got sandwiches and went to Central Park. While the kids were swinging and climbing on the “jungle-gym” I walked around the park perimeter looking for who God wanted me to talk to. Gabriel was sitting on a park bench next to his bike, just watching all the kids play. He said hi to me and I asked him where he is from. He did not know a word of English so I tried in Spanish, and soon I got his story: 22 years old, from Mexico, living in an apartment with some of his brothers and sisters, his parents and the rest of his large family is back home, he’s working at a fried chicken shop and planning on taking English at CSM.

After chatting and talking about Jesus with him (in my extremely limited Spanish) I asked him if he had a Bible and he said no. I just happened to have a Spanish gospel of John on me . So I read him a few favorite verses, then handed it to him. Then we said goodbye and I went to the other side of the park to sit down and watch my son play soccer with a bunch of boys. Across the park I saw Gabriel sitting still reading the book for at least 20 minutes. I need to start bringing my camera with me! I wish I got a picture. Then he left the park on his bike. What encouragement to see him reading the gospel. You never know; he may end up being a witness to his large family.

Disciples are made of all the nations when we obey the Commission to “Go therefore”. For a long time America was very much a sending nation. Boats and planes took many American believers bound for nations that had not yet heard the Good News. Many Americans risked their lives and gave their lives in the 18th- 20th centuries, bringing the Gospel to people in closed or dangerous nations. Many of my own college girlfriends went into missions and have spent 15+ years (so far) in far away developing nations, going to live among unreached people.

Last week my friend Monika visited from Eastern Europe. We had a great time visiting the Pacific ocean, driving through Redwoods and taking the tour of San Francisco. She was here to raise a support team, for she is a full time national worker with a Christian organization in her nation of Albania. (This developing nation is not able to support it’s own missionaries currently.) She shares the gospel, distributes Bibles and teaches the Word of God to young women.

When Albania opened up in 1991 after being under strict Communism for 50 years, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire for 500 years before that, many Americans and other Western believers went in to begin to make disciples. Remember, this is the place Paul was speaking of when he said, “about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel Christ” (Rom.15:19). Though the modern-times church there is still very young, they already are being led by the Lord to go to other unreached people who desperately need the gospel. Once a receiving nation, they are now a sending nation. God is going to use them to help complete the Great Commission.

And America? It was once a sending nation, but now it is mostly a receiving nation. How so you ask? Well, I’ve talked to a few African pastors and leaders who have said, that aside from their burden to reach specific African nations, the burden for many Africans is– America (and Britain). Yes, there are Africans who want to come here to bring us the gospel because we desperately need it. To them, we are a mission field. Foreign missionaries will be coming to us!

We are also a receiving nation in another sense. We are receiving the world. There are lost people here from dozens of nations. As we receive the world, our Commission from the Lord to reach all the nations and make disciples, still stands. As we receive them, we share the gospel with them. So, brothers and sisters in the San Francisco Bay Area, which are you? Are you sending yourself to the world? Or are you receiving the world which is coming to you?

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt.28:18-20.

If you are interested in Monika’s ministry, drop me a comment and I will email you.

There are many messages being proclaimed by churches and people professing to represent Jesus, but they are not the message of the gospel. There is the ‘health and wealth’ message, the ‘best life now’ message, the ‘Kingdom now’ message, the ‘listen to the angels’ message, the ‘Psychology’ message, the ‘be successful & get results’ message, and the ‘join with other religions to work for world peace’ message. The false gospel situation is only going to escalate within Popular Christianity, therefore let us commit to faithfully proclaim the true gospel message, and leave the results of that, up to God.

For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men…..1Cor.1:18-25.

Article: Let’s Remember Our Message, by Paul Lewis

In light of the recent “Evangelical Manifesto“, which was approved by Deepak Chopra, this humorous list by John Piper is a welcome diversion from all the insanity currently taking place in the Modern Evangelical church. Here’s a few I really like:

3. They believe that truth really matters.
6. They have backbone and are not prone to compromise principle.
7. They put obedience to Jesus above the approval of man.

Can you guess what #20 is?

Read: 20 Reasons Why I Don’t Take Potshots at Fundamentalists…..

Here are a couple interesting quotes from the Evangelical Manifesto:

“We call on all citizens of goodwill and believers of all faiths and none to join us in working for a civil public square and the restoration of a tough-minded civility that is in the interests of all. “

“As the global public square emerges, we warn of two equal and opposite errors: coercive secularism and religious extremism. We also repudiate the two other positions. First, those who believe their way is the only way and the way for everyone, and are therefore prepared to coerce them. This position leads inevitably to conflict. “

“…we are also troubled by the fact that the advance of globalization and the emergence of a global public square finds no matching vision of how we are to live freely, justly, and peacefully with our deepest differences on the global stage.”

“We urge adherents of other faiths around the world to understand that we respect your right to believe what you believe according to the dictates of conscience, and invite you to follow the golden rule and extend the same rights and respect to us and to the adherents of all other faiths, so that together we may make religious liberty practical and religious persecution rarer, so that in turn human diversity may complement rather than contradict human well-being. “

“…we reach out to people of all other faiths with love, hope, and humility. With God’s help, we stand ready with you to face the challenges of our time and to work together for a greater human flourishing.”

What does all this sound like to you?

My analysis is in the comment section, and here is an article by Berit Kjos:

Article: An Evangelical Manifesto for an Interfaith World.