If I Went to Jail Would You be Ashamed of Me

I admit sometimes I lack patience with a certain group of people and rather than press the “ignore” button and keep walking, I do sometimes choose to take on the situation. Some would say this is a major fault of mine, even sin, and others would say this is the desire to Defend the Faith and Contend for Truth (which again, many would say is wrong to do because it causes division and is ‘unloving’). The particular group I’m referring to here is professing Christians who do not believe the Bible is sufficient, but must be mixed with Humanism and Psychology, who think that pleasing and blending with the world is more important than faithfulness & obedience to Christ, who play footsie with New Age Spirituality, and who dislike the authority of scripture, the exclusivity of the Gospel, and evangelism. I’m talking about the apostacy.

Of course the DMV was closed today.

I bumped into a man who is on staff at a Ne0-E megachurch. He was telling me that he is in seminary so I thought he might be preparing to be a pastor. But he is taking advanced Counseling and Psychology courses. I asked him if he did “Christian Counseling” which utilizes Psychology primarily, or “Biblical Counseling” which utilizes the scripture. He was telling me that now these two camps are now blended together. He kept dropping the word “Spirituality“–and I gave him the benefit of the doubt –at first, although that buzzword set off my alarm bells. Then he started sounding more like a New Ager. He said, “Things are different now” (referring to the many beliefs of the clients, and the new methodology); “if someone comes in saying they do crystals or moon rocks (or such), then we work with that.”

I asked him to affirm what I was hearing: that what he was telling me was that he must operate as a functional Universalist in his counseling sessions. He did not deny. I challenged him, asking why he cannot just operate as a Christian, and he said, “It would not work” (because they want to help people). Then I asked him if he was telling me that Pragmatism was more important than faithfulness to Christ? That did not go over well.

The old city jail bars, in use for 40 years, are now a museum display.

Since he was sounding very New Age, I asked him about sharing the Gospel with the clients and he told me he always leaves them (the unbelievers) with “the Golden Rule”- encouraging them to “do unto others”. When I said that is not the Gospel, he told me he would only talk about that “when the door is open”. He had an expression and tone that indicated, “That is not appropriate”. I asked him if Jesus’ words in Mark 16:15 and Mat. 28:18-20 were not the open door? . He got agitated and challenged me: “Well why don’t YOU go down to the DMV and preach! And when they throw you in jail, well, how about that!” (He made it sound like it would be the most contemptible and dreaded thing that could happen.) But raising my arms up in an attitude of victory,

I told him joyfully, “Wonderful! That would raise up more and more bold courageous evangelists who would be glad to go to jail for the Gospel!”

He shook his head, as if I did not get his point. He explained, “No! No! We would….” ( he indicated in word and facial expression that the rest of the Christians would be disgusted and look with disdain and embarrassment upon me.)

One of the new beefed up high security city jail cells.

If choosing Truth and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ lands me in jail someday, the Compromising Christians will be ashamed of me. But those who believe the Word and trust and follow Jesus regardless of the consequences, will not be ashamed. I trust that by the Spirit, God will have you either visit me in jail, or else he will move you out on the street, preaching and telling the Gospel, to your joy, and His glory.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.. 2Tim1:8

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed..2Tim1:12

Listen! Sermon Jam: John Piper UNASHAMED!!

Witnessing in Church (Buildings)

Several years ago I was at church (not my current assembly) and I began to take note of the many new people. I had long since given up on trying to meet and really know all the new people, since this church was growing so fast. But I was concerned for the spiritual condition of the newcomers. Speaking to each one separately, I soon discovered an amazing set of similarities among these new regular attenders. They all had been coming for several months; some for a year, and none of them could articulate to me at all anything that would indicate that they were actually in Christ. And none of them had any idea what the Gospel was. The Lord gave blessed opportunity to share the Gospel with these folks- inside “the four walls”.

I asked them why they were coming to this church, and they all said ‘because it makes me happy’ ,or ‘it makes me feel good’, or ‘it gives me some inspiration and helps me get though the week’. Another answer had to do with having “a community”.

Yes it’s true: these ‘seekers’ were coming to church and they never heard the Gospel in the service. This church was working hard to become a successful church through the addition of numbers of people, via Willowcreek’s ‘Vision 2010’ program of church growth. “Outreach” services addressed people’s felt needs and issues of Psychology and Sociology, but nothing of the Gospel was mentioned. I remember the announcement man saying (with a laugh) from the pulpit something about how “we” (the church) did not want to be controversial or make people uncomfortable. As far as I could tell, the plan was to bring in as many people as possible, mix together the Christians and the seekers (unbelievers), “plug them in” and hopefully they would eventually become Christians. Let me repeat: these church attenders I spoke to had no idea what the Gospel was.

We attended a Christmas Eve service at a mega church in another state. After more than two hours of jovial entertainment and glorification of men, there was still not one word of Gospel Truth spoken to the two thousand people gathered. (And there was no worship.)

About a year ago I went to a memorial service for a little boy who died in an accident. The church building was packed with hundreds of people from all over the community. There was not one word of Hope or Redemption through Jesus Christ in the whole service. The liberal minister’s word of consolation to the grieving was to find comfort from the community. These hundreds of people never heard the Gospel in that place at all.

At our Biblical church where Jesus is central and the Gospel is heard from the pulpit, there are visitors and relatives who occasionally are in attendance. This give us opportunity to also share the Gospel with them also, as the Lord leads, since this is not just the job of the pastor, but all believers are called by the Lord to be His witnesses.

Consider the spiritual needs of those visitors who come to your church; perhaps they have never heard the Gospel. And if you are looking for a mission field, consider the ‘unreached people groups’ found inside America’s Liberal and Modern Mega Evangelical church buildings.

Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Ps.96:2-3

U.S. Dept. of Peace

The campaign is on to establish a cabinet level U.S. Department of Peace. Introduced to congress by Dennis Kucinich, a U.S. Department of Peace (H.R. 808) would be dedicated to studying conditions that would promote domestic and international peace, as well as develop policies that would establish resolutions to national and international conflicts. This department would establish policy to create a “culture of peace”.

The bill calls for “peace training and education” at all levels of society, the creation of the office of Secretary of Peace, the establishment of a U.S. Peace Academy, the institution of Peace Day and the establishment of policy for the prevention of conflict. The goal would be to prevent violence and conflict in all forms. Those who support this legislation state that violence occurs in forms other than physical; therefore this department would establish policy (“solutions”) that would prevent “verbal and emotional violence “ as well.

God’s Word tells us that the reason for conflict, violence and evil in the world is sin and rebellion against God. We know that the only solution is the Prince of Peace, God’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The real peace issue is whether a person has the forgiveness of sins (justification) that Christ provides to those who trust in Him. Real peace is the peace that is established between guilty sinners and a holy God, through the mediation and intercession of Jesus Christ, by the covenant in His blood, through faith.

What does a U.S. Department of Peace mean for us? If you read the bill, you will notice that the language suggests the probability of establishing laws or policies that would make the teaching, preaching and telling of the Gospel, illegal (thus “preventing religious conflict”). The Gospel brings peace for those who believe, and conflict for those who reject it. For those who are promoting the one world religion, the goal is to silence the message that Jesus promised would cause conflict (Matt.10:34), all for the goal of “world peace” and global spiritual unity.

We know what our response to such legislation must be. By God’s grace, and by His Spirit, we must obey God rather than men and continue to be witnesses of the Gospel with boldness, humility, and compassion for the lost, declaring Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom.5:1

The Creator of Hydrogen

Sometimes I like to witness without ever talking about the Law, the attributes of God or the Gospel. Sometimes I just ask questions. I try not to get too much into apologetics, other than Presuppositional on occasion. I try to keep it simple. Every once in a while I like to do what is called “creation evangelism”. When I do this I always make sure to leave the person with a clear printed gospel message they can read later.

At Chabot Space and Science Center I had a conversation with a bright young engineering student who was working in the observatory. He asked me how I liked the megadome theater show. I told him that it was very good- except it was about 70% science and 30% philosophy and “religion”. He smiled, agreed, and asked me to explain.

I told him I loved the journey into outer space by “steps” that were each going away from earth by the power of 10. Thus we journeyed out to deep space and all the lovely observable galaxies. Then the film zoomed back to earth, where we now visited a paramecium in a drop of water, and ventured into ‘inner space’ to see DNA, molecules, atoms, electrons, protons and quarks. After this, the film became quite metaphysical. That is, concepts for which there is no scientific empirical data were presented as fact. The entire story of evolution (a philosophy) was presented in detail as fact: from swirling primordial ooze to man-as-astronaut.

I told the young grad student that the film mentioned matter, energy and forces in its presentation on how all things came to be. These things were declared as a matter of fact in the film (without explanation of their origins). So I asked the young man, “Where did the matter, the forces and the energy come from?” He caught me up to date on current Quantum Physics theories, such as “matter is energy, and vice versa.” I told him I was fine with that, but where did this matter/energy come from?

He told me that he, as well as all honest scientists, have no idea. Then he related some theory about a grapefruit size ball of matter (that existed before the laws of physics came to be!) that reacted…. and wa-la… the Big Bang. Again I asked him, “where did the grapefruit size ball of matter/energy came from?” “I have no idea,” he said with a big smile. Then he asked me if I knew. I’m glad I had one of these in my bag to give him at the end of our conversation. I’m also glad that we don’t have to be Astrophysicists in order to witness to highly educated people.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made….Rom.1:20

The Proud and the Humble, pt. deux

At the dog park this week there was another stark example of the proud and the humble. It was another one of those interactions which makes me seriously consider carrying around a small digital recorder so I can better remember the details of these conversations.

So I was talking with this man for quite a while on the subject of idolatry. He brought up the subject himself and was criticizing that segment of American society which worships sports as “god”. Agreeing with him, (that sports is an American idol) I used that as my opportunity to speak to him on the subject of spiritual things and decided to bring up all the other things people worship, and all the rest of the Law. But after identifying as a Humanist, he responded to God’s Word by declaring his good deeds and self-righteousness. He then went on a rage about how he should not have to thank God (if there was one) for anything; for “what has He done for me lately?” He accused God of being responsible for evil in the world, and accused Him of not doing right (or making this messed up world right). He praised the superiority and independence of Humanity, then lifted his fist high in the air, and shook his fist at God in defiance, loudly yelling his curses against God.

Towards the end, another man began listening and joined the conversation. He also witnessed to the Humanist. This man was a brother in Christ, and not only did he proclaim the truth that God is Creator, Judge and Savior, but he also, with great love and gentleness of spirit, declared his gratitude to God for salvation, and for His goodness, even through severe and painful life trials. This man publicly blessed the Lord with thanksgiving.

The thing I found so wonderfully amazing was that this brother that proclaimed his gratitude to God, did not begin hearing the conversation until after the first man completed his diatribe of hateful ingratitude against God. Thus they both demonstrated who they were before God: one demonstrating the text of Romans 1:18-25, and the other demonstrating every scripture about believers giving thanks to God for all His blessings, especially salvation of sinful men, by His grace.

Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations. Ps.100:4-5.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (surpassing grace!) 2Cor.9:15.

Give Him Glory!

The Planetarium show at the California Academy of Sciences was quite an adventure. You start inside the museum and slowly go up until you are viewing the Bay Area from the sky. Ascending upward, you look down on the Pacific coast until you are up in space. After a short tour of some of our planets, and viewing Earth from space, you venture out to get a wide view of our galaxy and visit some nearby stars. Then it is off to deep space where zillions of God’s other galaxies decorate the observable universe.

Out of Humanist obligation to continuously indoctrinate in the new paradigm, the themes of evolution, global warming, environmentalism, and possible life on other planets were present. We expected as much. But what riled me was when they started bragging on mankind and his achievements in discovering and documenting the cosmos using advanced space technology. Toward the end of the show the narrator said something about how wonderful we are that we have “numbered the stars” (and named them). I thought, wait a minute! Who has numbered the stars?

I was bursting with desire to get up and tell everyone that God created the stars and HE numbered them. We are not wonderful for discovering the stars. The stars were created to display the wonder, power and glory of God the Creator, that we may worship Him. The heavens declare the glory of God!

He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and of great power, His understanding is infinite. Ps.147:4-5.

Fear God, and give Him glory… and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth….Rev.14:7.

God’s Power vs. Man’s Decision

Here’s more excellent teaching on the subject of biblical evangelism. Paul Washer at the DEEPER conference 2008 on “Regeneration vs. Decisionism”

Washer goes over modern evangelism standards such as ‘pray The Prayer’, ‘accept Christ’, ‘ask Jesus into your heart’, ‘make a decision for Christ’, and ‘raise your hand’, etc., and exhorts us to continue to faithfully preach the gospel, trusting in the power of God alone to save the lost.

Need encouragement for witnessing today? Then you must listen to this Christ exalting message about the POWER OF GOD in the gospel.

Let’s Remember Our Message

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