Last saturday ( December 22 ) , we went out Christmas carolling with the brethren from Woodside Bible Chapel in Maywood,IL.Six brethren joyfully sang for the Lord that night, although it was really cold.We enjoyed singing for the Lord and for the people who live near Woodside Bible Chapel.It was a blessing to see people who came to the door and listened to us while we we're singing for them.We could see that they we're blessed for us to sing for them,and Praise God because it gave us the opportunity to share some Gospel tracts with them and invite them to our Christmas Service on Christmas Eve.There was one
family who even gave us a big pack of chocolates
and we praise God for their generosity.We did not expect that,because we sang for them not to get anything but to give them the Good News of the Lord by sharing the Gospel so it was a blessing from God.Then we decided to go to Walgreens,and we sang in front of the store.People came and went out from the store and we passed some tracts and invitations for Christmas eve to them.
We encourage everyone to join the brethren of Woodside next year to sing for the Lord and for the neighborhood.It was fun and a great opportunity
to serve the Lord and share the Gospel to people.It was a memorable experience to cherish and I believe one way to show the Christmas spirit to people around us,especially the people in our church neighborhood, that we care for them.This is one way that we can serve our Lord before His birthday.
After carolling,we praise God for the opportunity to share the Gospel to two people who didn't know about the Lord.We thanked the Lord that their hearts we're willing to receive the Gospel.That is one way that the Lord said we plant the seeds of the Gospel in their hearts and we need to pray for them that the seeds will grow and manifest and lead them to eternal life.We encourage everyone to share the
Gospel to people, for all of us we're asked by the Lord to preach the Gospel to all creation.
We want to share the experience we had christmas carolling in Franklin Park.The brethren went to Christmas carolling last December 15.It was cold and raining that day, but we prayed to God that the rain will stop so that we can go and carolling.Praise God! He heard our prayers,and the rain stopped that night.It was a blessing to experience Christmas carolling here.We sang from house to house,although not all the people opened their doors.It doesn't matter because were doing it for the Lord as well as to people.We just left some tracts in their doors to reach them with the Gospel.There was a family that allowed us to go inside their house to sing for them.We praise God for that,because the door of opportunity was opened to share the Gospel to them and invite them to Calvary Chapel O'Hare.
We want to encourage the brethren to join us next year.It was cold but anything you do for the Lord's kingdom will not be in vain.After all we are here to bring glory to His name .The Lord will give you the joy in your heart in serving Him.This is one thing that we can do for our Lord before His birthday.I believe it is a way to show the Christmas spirit to people around us and that we care for them.
I want to share with you what the Lord did last Saturday
when we went to Chinatown in Chicago,
and in the days after.
My husband and I were coming back from his work, and we went
to Chinatown to buy some food. God used that
time for my husband to distribute tracts translated into Chinese to give to the
Chinese people there. Some were receptive, and some were not, but praise God
for that open door to share the gospel with people. My husband met the owner of
one of the food shops there who is a Christian. It was a blessing to know Him
as a Christian who loves the Lord and he shared with us the words of God that
were written in Chinese on the wall of his store. We praised God for that
because Chinese customers will go to their shop, will read that Word, and it
might be a way for them to come to know the Lord.
On our way back from Chinatown that day, my husband brought
me to a neighborhood he used to live in in Chicago. But God put it on my husband’s heart
to visit some Christian friends he knew from there to encourage them. So God
led us to visit them, and when we went there, we felt that they really needed hope
and encouragement. We praised God because He used that time for His Word to be
preached, to reach out to His people who need to be strengthened by His Word.
My husband read the Word of God in 1 Peter and God’s Word
was very powerful. It encouraged them when they heard it. We sang worship songs
and Christmas songs for the Lord. All us were blessed. The mom and daughter who
are my husband’s friends said that we were used by God to bring the light into
their house.
Sometimes there are people who are hopeless, depressed, and
afflicted by life’s circumstances. We, as Christians, must have the heart for
people like them and obey the voice of God who is urging us to be used by Him
in encouraging and praying for them.
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Last night we went to a nearby gym. When we got to where we
were going to work out, there were some teenaged boys who were there and
talking. The Lord led my husband to pass out to some of them tracts that are
made to look like million dollar bills.
The boys were surprised and one said, “Oh, he gave us money.
Why is he giving us money?”
Another boy sitting on the stairs said, “No, he gave us more
than that. He gave us God.”
When my husband heard that, he went to the boy sitting on
the stairs and asked him, “What did you say?” The boy was a little bit scared
because my husband’s voice is loud and firm. The boy thought he’d said
something wrong.
But then the boy said,” I said you gave us more than money.
You gave us God.”
Then my husband said, ‘Oh yes, you’re right, man!” The door
was open for the gospel to be preached. Praise God He made a way!
My husband began to preach the Word of the Lord to the boys
and they were listening to him. While he was doing that, I was silently praying
that the Lord would touch the hearts of those young boys so that they will come
to know the Lord as their savior.
We as Christians are called by God to preach the Word of God
to the lost. We never know when or where the Lord will use us as His
instrument. I want to encourage everyone to share the gospel, to give some
tracts to people whom you meet.
This is the task God has commanded us to do in Matthew
28:19-20, to:
“Go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
You never know what the tracts you will give can do for the
life of the person who receives it. God bless you, brethren!
Veronica M.
Below are some photos of my husband and I sharing gospel tracts with students:
“Why won’t God heal amputees?” The question caught me by surprise.
I had just finished my “Why I Am a Christian” talk at Calvary Chapel Chino Valley’s youth conference in April. After talking with a few students and leaders, a young man approached. He challenged me with this question, explaining his atheist friend had asked it earlier in the week. And he had no answer for his friend.
Apparently, it’s a question atheists make a big deal about. There is even an entire website dedicated to it (www.whywontgodhealamputees.com). The website claims “this is one of the most important questions we can ask about God.” Sometime, somewhere I had heard the objection but had never given it much attention. Now it was staring me right in the face. Immediate attention was required.
I proceeded in usual fashion—by asking clarifying questions. “What conclusion does your atheist friend draw from this question?” I inquired. He responded, “Well, if God doesn’t heal amputees when we pray for them, then He doesn’t exist.” I followed with a few more questions, gathering the gist of the atheist’s argument.
The atheist claims that alleged healings, like the disappearance of a cancerous tumor or diagnosed disease, seem to be ambiguous. Did God supernaturally heal the person or is modern medicine responsible? Both causes could be offered and both could be disputed. But according to the atheist, if an amputee grew back a missing limb after intercessory prayer was offered on his behalf, this would be a clear case of the miraculous and thus proof for God’s existence. On the other hand, no new limb means no God. A fail-proof test, right? Wrong.
First, I pointed out this atheist’s argument is guilty of a logical fallacy called a non sequitur. The fallacy is committed when a conclusion or statement does not logically follow from a previous argument or statement. If amputees do not grow back limbs when we pray for them, does it follow God does not exist? Of course not. His existence is independent of what actions He would or would not take.
But why limit myself to amputee miracles? Any miracle will do. A million dollars in my bank account today. World peace starting tomorrow. And if these miracles don’t occur, then God doesn’t exist. Well, I think you can see the irrationality of such claims. God’s failure to perform a miracle at my request says nothing about His existence. In fact, even if we granted the atheist his assumption that amputees are not healed, at the very most we could only conclude God does not heal amputees. Not a profound conclusion.
Second, I pointed out his atheist friend simply assumed no amputees have been healed. But just because an atheist says there’s never been an amputee healing in thousands of years of human history doesn’t mean it’s true. Now, I’ve never researched this question but I wanted this young Christian to catch a healthy bit of skepticism, particularly when it comes to anti-Christian claims. Research is now in order but my point was you cannot simply assume what needs to be proven.
But we also have to test the intellectual honesty of the atheist asking this question. If we can produce a credible report of an amputee’s missing limb being healed and replaced, is the atheist willing to accept that evidence? There are credible reports of miraculous healings in our own time and in the Bible, but he dismisses these wanting further evidence of a particular kind of miracle. So is this an honest question or an insincere request for evidence when no evidence will suffice?
Third, even personally witnessing a miracle is no guarantee that someone will believe. This was the case with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They witnessed His miracles, but their response was to conspire to crucify Him. Greg Koukl calls this “unbelievable unbelief.” Jesus told them, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
You see, our essential problem is moral, rebellion against God. Asking for evidence is legitimate, but evidence doesn’t guarantee belief because sinners don’t want to bend their knee to the Lord. So the question actually arises from a wrong understanding of the atheist’s fundamental problem. It’s not lack of evidence, it’s sin and rebellion to the Truth.
Paul wrote in Titus 1:1-3: "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior." Preaching is of utmost importance in the communication of the gospel. Glean from this rich array of sermons.
John MacArthur recently issued this statement in support and defense of Ray Comfort's equipping methods for Biblical Evangelism:
"For the record, we have no problem using the Ten Commandments as a mirror to show people their sin. We agree with Living Waters that the Decalogue is a summary of the moral content of God's law. The law's moral principles reflect the unchanging character of God, so they are eternal, universally applicable, and by definition unchanging. Given those facts, surely it is appropriate to use the Decalogue as Jesus and the apostle Paul often did – to confront sinners with their sin.
Furthermore, we're grateful for the way you have trained and encouraged so many people to do hands-on evangelism. You deserve a lot of credit for stirring the consciences of countless young believers and motivating them to share the gospel boldly. In no way would we ever want to discourage that.
We continue to believe that it is critically important for people training in the Living Waters method to 1) strengthen the gospel content of their presentation so as to be equal to the law, 2) see the law as not simply Ten Commandments, but much more as Scripture reveals, 3) To place particular emphasis on passages such as John 8:24 where Jesus says they would die in their sins for refusal to acknowledge Him. This is the greatest sin that goes beyond the Ten Commandments in its condemnation extending to every sinner."
I am grateful for your eagerness to enrich the people you train in these ways.
Agents for Christ is a missionary evangelism ministry here in the US, composed of two families who travel the country, sharing the gospel, and equipping churches to witness in their local area. This video, used by their permission, would be very helpful to a small evangelism ministry to help equip the body for public witnessing.
It covers topics such as:
the common obstacles to witnessing
sharing your personal testimony
what the Gospel message is
use of tracts
common ice-breaker ways to start a conversation about Jesus
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of) Arrested: October 2009 Days Imprisoned: 867Prisoner Alert Profile Youcef Nadarkhani, a 34-year-old pastor from Rasht, about 750 miles northwest of Tehran, was arrested in October 2009 after he protested a government policy that required children, including his 8- and 9-year-old sons, to study the Quran in school. Youcef told school officials that the Iranian constitution allows for freedom of religious practice. As a result of his protest, secret police called him before a political tribunal and arrested him for protesting. The charges were later amended to apostasy and evangelism of Muslims. Youcef was tried on Sept. 21–22, 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sentenced to death on Nov. 13 for apostasy.
UPDATE: Since I posted this article, Jefferson Bethke and I have had a chance to talk by email and over the phone. I included some of our conversation in a follow up post. I hope you will be as encouraged by the exchange as I was.
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There’s a new You Tube video going viral and it’s about Jesus and religion.
Specifically how Jesus hates religion.
The video—which in a few days has gone from hundreds of views to thousands to millions—shows Jefferson Bethke, who lives in the Seattle area, delivering a well-crafted, sharply produced, spoken word poem. The point, according to Bethke, is “to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion.” In the past few days I’ve seen this video pop up all over Facebook. I’ve had people from my church say they like it. Some has asked me what I think. Others have told me there’s something off about the poem, but they can’t quite articulate what it is. I’ll try to explain what that is in a moment. But first watch the video for yourself.
Before I say anything else, let me say Jefferson Bethke seems like a sincere young man who wants people to know God’s scandalous grace. I’m sure he’s telling the truth when he says on his Facebook page: “I love Jesus, I’m addicted to grace, and I’m just a messed up dude trying to make Him famous.” If I met him face to face, I bet I’d like Jefferson and his honesty and passion. I bet I’d be encouraged by his story and his desire to free people from the snares of self-help, self-righteous religion.
And yet (you knew it was coming), amidst a lot of true things in this poem there is a lot that is unhelpful and misleading.
This video is the sort of thing that many younger Christians love. It sounds good, looks good, and feels good. But is it true? That’s the question we must always ask. And to answer that question, I want to go through this poem slowly, verse by verse. Not because I think this is the worst thing ever. It’s certainly not. Nor because I think this video will launch a worldwide revolution. I want to spend some time on this because Bethke perfectly captures the mood, and in my mind the confusion, of a lot of earnest, young Christians.
Verse 1
What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion What if I told you voting republican really wasn’t his mission What if I told you republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian And just because you call some people blind Doesn’t automatically give you vision
Okay, so the line about Republicans is a cheap shot (if you vote GOP) or a prophetic stance (if you like Jim Wallis). While it’s true that “republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian” and in some parts of the country that may be a word churchgoers need to hear, I doubt that putting right-wingers in their place is the most pressing issue in Seattle.
More important is Bethke’s opening line: “Jesus came to abolish religion.” That’s the whole point of the poem. The argument—and most poems are arguing for something—rests on the sharp distinction between religion on one side and Jesus on the other. Whether this argument is fair depends on your definition of religion. Bethke sees religion as a man made attempt to earn God’s favor. Religion equals self-righteousness, moral preening, and hypocrisy. Religion is all law and no gospel. If that’s religion, then Jesus is certainly against it.
But that’s not what religion is. We can say that’s what is has become for some people or what we understand it to be. But words still matter and we shouldn’t just define them however we want. “Jesus hates religion” communicates something that “Jesus hates self-righteousness” doesn’t. To say that Jesus hates pride and hypocrisy is old news. To say he hates religion—now, that has a kick to it. People hear “religion” and think of rules, rituals, dogma, pastors, priests, institutions. People love Oprah and the Shack and “spiritual, not religious” bumper stickers because the mood of our country is one that wants God without the strictures that come with traditional Christianity. We love the Jesus that hates religion.
The only problem is, he didn’t. Jesus was a Jew. He went to services at the synagogue. He observed Jewish holy days. He did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17). He founded the church (Matt. 16:18). He established church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20). He instituted a ritual meal (Matt. 26:26-28). He told his disciples to baptize people and to teach others to obey everything he commanded (Matt. 28:19-20). He insisted that people believe in him and believe certain things about him (John 3:16-18; 8:24). If religion is characterized by doctrine, commands, rituals, and structure, then Jesus is not your go-to guy for hating religion. This was the central point behind the book Ted Kluck and I wrote a few years ago.
The word “religion” occurs five times in English Standard Version of the Bible. It is, by itself, an entirely neutral word. Religion can refer to Judaism (Acts 26:5) or the Jewish-Christian faith (Acts 25:19). Religion can be bad when it is self-made (Col. 2:23) or fails to tame the tongue (James 1:26). But religion can also be good when it cares for widows and orphans and practices moral purity (James 1:27). Unless we define the word to suit our purposes, there is simply no biblical grounds for saying Jesus hated religion. What might be gained by using such language will, without a careful explanation and caveats, be outweighed by what is lost when we give the impression that religion is the alloy that corrupts a relationship with Jesus. Read FULL ARTICLE HERE
70-75% of Christian youth leave the church after high school (see survey data at Barna and USA Today).
Intellectual skepticism is one of the major reasons they walk away.
Most Christian students are not equipped to resist rabidly anti-Christian college professors who are intent on converting their students to atheism.
College professors are five times more likely to identify themselves as atheists than the general public.
More than half of all college professors view evangelical Christian students unfavorably (see article at Free Republic).
The “new atheists” — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens — are writing books and are growing in popularity.
The reason for this exodus is that Christian youth in America are not being taught to cross examine the skeptical and atheistic views they encounter when they leave home.
So what is part of the solution?
The good news is that we can do something about it! Start by reading the CrossExamined Solution page, then browse the CrossExamined site for more information about how we're helping young people understand and defend why the Christian faith is true and reasonable, and how you can help.
Why are they leaving?
Some think church is irrelevant. Others, out on their own for the first time, are attracted by all the world has to offer and put God on the back burner. Yet many leave because they’ve come to doubt Christianity. In fact, intellectual skepticism is a major reason cited by those who have left. Now less than one percent of adults in America have a Biblical worldview!
We can lay the blame for much of this on ourselves — that is, on the church. While there are notable exceptions, most American churches over-emphasize emotion and ignore the biblical commands to develop the mind (1 Pet 3:15, 2 Cor. 10:5). In other words, we’re doing a great job performing for our youth with skits, bands and videos, but a terrible job informing them with logic, truth, and a Christian worldview. We’ve failed to recognize that what we win them with we win them to. If we win them with emotion, we win them to emotion.
Now, I don’t want to discount the importance of emotion. If the Bible is true (as we show in the seminar), then God does want us to love Him with all of our hearts. But He also wants us to love Him with our minds (Mt. 22:37). Christians don't get Brownie points for being stupid! We're supposed to know what we believe and why we believe it. And for good reason — emotion alone is not enough to protect Christian students at college or make them bold witnesses for those they meet. If they arrive at college with nothing more than good sentimental feelings about Christ, they are easy prey for anti-Christian professors and a campus environment intent on undermining their faith.
Our mission at CrossExamined.org is to equip high school and college students to know why Christianity is true, how to defend it, and how to tactfully refute those who try to corrupt them.
Please browse the CrossExamined site to see how we are doing that and how you can help. Thanks!
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to share the Gospel to two people who didn't know about the Lord.We thanked the Lord that their hearts we're willing to receive the Gospel.That is one way that the Lord said we plant the seeds of the Gospel in their hearts and we need to pray for them that the seeds will grow and manifest and lead them to eternal life.We encourage everyone to share the
