The Everyday Club Report for August: The Dental Floss Dilemma

September 1st, 2010

How are you doing on your monthly commitment? Fill in your report in the comments section below. Want to join? Scroll to the bottom of the article.

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I almost didn’t fulfill my commitment the other night, but God used dental floss to make me do it.

I was ready for bed one late Sunday evening after a movie night at home with my family when suddenly I realized that I had not handed out a single tract all day. My goal is to hand out ten Gospel tracts a day or personally witness to at least one person, but I was just two darned tired and didn’t want to do it. I resigned myself to failure that evening until I realized that my daughter had used up all the dental floss. Well, not all of it; she left about a six inch piece that I wrapped around my chubby fingers and used quite gingerly to pry out stray popcorn kernel pieces out of my teeth.

I was doing quite well, too, until the last molar—that’s when the floss snapped, lodging between my number 17 and 18 molars.! Read the rest of this entry »

Destinations in September/Fiesta Hermosa!

September 1st, 2010

This Labor Day weekend we will be at the Fiesta Hermosa, a three day street fair where an estimated 100,000 people will attend. We will have an evangelism booth at the base of the Hermosa Beach Pier, the only Christian presence at the fair.

Of course, our booth doesn’t shout out that we are about Christ; no, it is an Intelligence Test  booth where hundreds of people line up to fill out questionnaires (click here to get your free I.Q. Test tract), then we share our faith. (See how we do it here.)

We also preach at bus stops. Below, see “Righteous Richard” Chavarria belt it out at a previous fair on Memorial weekend, 2008.

We will be there from 8am-6pm, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Park at the Mira Costa High School parking lot on 1401 Artesia Blvd. (3 blocks east of Pacific Coast Hwy) in Manhattan Beach, and take the shuttle bus down, then walk to our booth at the base of the pier.

To see what we are doing the rest of the month… Read the rest of this entry »

Atheist Tuesday: Cain & Abel

August 31st, 2010

Christopher Hitchens. Peter Hitchens.

Two brothers. Two beliefs. Two books.

Two eternal destinations: Heaven or Hell.

In an interview with “The Atlantic,” atheist, cancer patient, and author of “God is not Great,” Christopher said: “I’m dying.”

He also stated that a deathbed conversion to Christianity would only mean that the cancer had spread to his brain.

Peter Hitchens, a believer, in talking about his brother and his book, “The Rage Against God (how atheism led me to faith)” said:

“I express the hope in the book that he’ll stop assuming that religion poisons everything and that everyone who believes in God is stupid. I don’t ask for any more…You see that scorn in the new atheists, in the way they treat their opponents—not with any kind of respect at all.” —From an interview with Mark Oppenheimer of The New York Times, as cited in NewsMax magazine, Sept. 2010.

Christopher Hitchens quote from WORLD magazine, August 28, 2010.

Ambassadors’ Academy #18 Grads

August 30th, 2010

This is the wonderful group that I had the privilege to lead at the last Ambassadors’ Academy of 2010. All learned new methods of handing out tracts, photobomb evangelism, how to effectively communicate the Gospel in personal conversations, and, of course, how to preach atop trash cans, posts, benches and boxes.

Congratulations to Theo and Heidi Pope, David and Michelle Halla,  the two sisters, Faith and Grace Nauroth, Cory McKenna and Jeff  Mardling. Also, thanks to my great assistants, Rachael Liebregt and David Grantham.

Now, GO!

See their preaching photos by clicking here! (Click on each photo for an enlargement. My apologies to Jeff. I somehow missed a photo-op for you, my brother.)

Sudden Death: Swimming @ the Huntington Pier

August 30th, 2010

This tragic event happened on the same day that Ambassadors’ Academy #18 was taking place at the pier. Hopefully, the two reported below were born again Christians. If not, maybe they heard the preaching on the Pier or on Main Street where the Academy was practicing. Maybe they were encouraged in a one-to-one conversation, or possibly took a Gospel tract, read it and believed.

You never know what God will do with a person who is fully consecrated to Him.

Two young men on a beach outing disappeared off the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday afternoon and were presumed drowned after a search was called off at sundown.

Four ventured into the high surf on the south side of the pier and were caught in a rip current. One of the men was able to swim ashore. Huntington Beach lifeguards rescued a second but the other two never returned. Read the rest from the L. A. Times here.

No (Additional) Comment Necessary

August 28th, 2010

This is a recent comment from my post “Witnessing to Homosexuals”:

you people are freaking idiots. you call yourself christians, yet here you are judging all of these people? since when did [G]od give you the right for that. i came upon this site by accident while looking for inspirational videos, and quickly became disgusted after watching several of them. i myself am a christian, but i have humility and class about it. the bible is not historical document, its a book written as a guideline of how man should carry himself in this twisted backwards world.

[G]od is not here to scare us all into line, or to make sure that every man follows “the path” he wants us to make mistakes, and hopefully through those mistakes we find who we are.

i know that by making these statements i am no better than you evangelist a——-, but it really p—– me off to watch “christian” people act like you are better than your brothers and sisters o this planet. it is not your job to tell the athiest professor that he is wrong. maybe that works for him. he seems to be a genuinely good guy. and hes living a life the way our [G]od would be proud of. it sickens me that some of the best christians arent even christian, and you people are definately not any of them.

Not My Church! (Yours, maybe?)

August 26th, 2010

Paul Latour is doing some great work over at his blog, “The Word Street Journal,” as evidenced by this convicting video.

Destinations: Fiesta La Ballona, Culver City

August 25th, 2010

Another festival. More sinners. More evangelistic opportunities. Be there. (There is also the possibility that we will be going to the Santa Monica Pier where a world-wide Rave will be held.)

Meet at Hope Chapel at noon, leaving promptly at 12:30, returning by 5:30.

Next week, the BIG one! Fiesta Hermosa time again! Three days in our Intelligence Test Booth, bus stop preaching, drunken hordes—and more!

Hammer, The Tough Guy

Atheist Tuesday: The Fool Speaketh

August 24th, 2010

A couple of months ago I posted a video called “Why Christians Don’t Argue with Atheists,” which shows how to best get  your information out to an unreasonable non-believer who just won’t listen to your side of the story. The atheists, understandably didn’t care for it.

Here are some reviews:

lukeism2: the atheist makes him look like an idiot

SushiNom: If someone came up to me said something like that I would reply #%*! stop trying to convert me! That guy (the atheist- not the stupid one) was quite patient there.

chrismarcell: The Atheist is not as polite I would like him to be, but dang he sure makes the Christian look like the stupid one.

Even if I were to give evidences for God (of which there are many) this man would never give up his position. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

What’s Your E-vangie Tale #40

August 23rd, 2010

Our second class of the summer got off with a bang as we enrolled 24 new students ready and willing to enter a new phase of their Christian life: that of an obedient Christian, seeking and saving the lost. Again I will ask: Who will persevere to the end?

Every third I’ll bring this post back to the top of the blog. Remember students, you get one bonus point for every three sentence adventure that you write about.

Even if you are not a student in my class I welcome you to share your own evangelistic adventure in the comments section.

My teaching notes are now available online by clicking here. I can even mail you a hard copy for free! Send me an email at PastorSteveAtHope@yahoo.com if you’d like them.

Sudden Death—then LIFE!

August 23rd, 2010

(Aug. 6) — A Mexican baby that had been pronounced dead was discovered to be still breathing — just hours before she was scheduled to be buried.

Dafne Marisol Hernandez, 17, was preparing to say farewell to her daughter, who died not long after her premature birth this week.

To Hernandez’s surprise, she could hear noises coming from inside the coffin. When she opened it up, she saw that her baby was alive — and crying. Read the rest here from AOL news.

Battling on Two Fronts

August 20th, 2010

My most popular post to date at this blog (measured in how many Christians have commented), was my conversation with a “Radical Sign Guy” named Ruben Israel (in pic below). We don’t see eye to eye on the best way to share our faith so I’m sure you will enjoy Ruben’s no-holds-barred responses to my comments. Judge for yourself who’s “style” is best by clicking here to read the post, “Perspectives: Inside the Mind of a “Radical Sign Guy.”

Heck, even an atheist defended my position, sort of. (Click here for the original FACEBOOK conversation that is still ongoing, including a few others who have piped in.)

On another front, in the same post, are the atheists who just can’t understand why we share our faith at all, since, of course, there is no real evidence or proof of God. I answered them very succinctly though, in this post: Damning Proof.

Don’t be afraid to join in the fray! Leave a comment!

Mature Street Preachers

August 19th, 2010

Jim Edwards saw action in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam while serving in three different branches of the military; but his greatest battle was with the enemy of our souls—and fear itself. He overcame them both, along with his lovely wife Tran, standing “on the box” (actually a bench), for the very first time, to preach the Word of God publicly. And they just graduated my last evangelism class!

At 85  and 79 years of age respectively,  Jim and Tran live out what it means to be mature in the Lord: obeying their Commanding Officer to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”

Want to know how they started and what they preached? Click here to see the video; you can do this, too.

Destinations: New Evangelism Class, Manhattan Beach, India Independence Day, & Value Added

August 18th, 2010

I’m including something new to my “Destinations” post on Wednesdays: a video clip from Living Waters University. The new visitors to this blog  may not know how to share their faith on-to-one, so these clips featuring Ray Comfort will be a real value-added treat. Now in addition to knowing where we are going each week (and I hope you’ll join us), you’ll know what to say!

Witnessing to Paul the Catholic

  • My new six week evangelism training, “Sharing Your Faith Without Fear” begins at tonight @ 7pm at Hope Chapel, Hermosa Beach. Cost is FREE!
  • Saturday, August 21st: Evangelism Adventure @ Manhattan Beach—Meet at Hope Chapel at Noon, eat pizza, pray and then go out and share our faith. We leave promptly at 12:30 pm, returning by 4:30 pm.
  • Another team will be headed to another India Independence Day Festival, this time in the San Fernando Valley. Meet at 4:30pm across from the Calvary Chapel bookstore located on the corner of Knox and Vermont in Gardena. Call Tom Nance-Ulrich for more info: 310-619-1588

Atheist Tuesday: Damning Proof

August 17th, 2010

A concession: I cannot prove the existence of God.

A reality: I can only point to evidences that suggest there is a Creator.

With that said, I have given up trying to convince our atheist friends that He exists for one main reason: They will never believe because their presupposition is that there is no God. They cannot believe; their belief system does not allow them to. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments!

August 16th, 2010

Read the latest 15 comments now under the videos on the right side of the sidebar!

July/August 2010 Graduation Class

August 16th, 2010

Around 50 people made it through the rigors of our latest evangelism class out of an original 80+. Congratulations all! Let the next Great Awakening begin!

To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth. —Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Sudden Death: Mojave Desert Racing

August 16th, 2010

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A contestant in a night-time desert race in California lost control of his pick-up truck and plowed into a group of spectators, killing eight and injuring at least 12, officials said on Sunday.

Police did not identify the driver involved in the accident. Local reports said he needed to be escorted away from the area when spectators threatened him and began throwing rocks.

“He got airborne and when he landed, rolled over straight into the spectators,” CHP officer Joaquin Zubieta said in the Los Angeles Times. “People didn’t have much of a chance… to get out of the way.” Read the rest here.

Likable Sign Guys!

August 14th, 2010

I love these Sign Guys! Ya gotta see them to believe it! This was shot at the Emmy Awards in 2008. (Read the story here.)

Perspectives: Inside the Mind of a “Radical Sign Guy”

August 12th, 2010

UPDATE:  See bottom of post.

My posting last week, “Witnessing to Homosexuals,” created no small storm of controversy, especially among the socially liberal, atheistic crowd.

That’s to be expected.

What was curious to me was the rebuke I got from a man named Ruben Israel, a radical “Sign Guy,” who, according to one commentator, “has protested everything from the Mormons to Harley Davidson bike festivals.” He takes a vastly different approach to street preaching than I do and believes that I’m way too soft (to put it mildly) when I share my faith with the gay community. (Read an article I wrote about Sign Guys here.)

Through this conversation with Ruben Israel on FACEBOOK you will notice the difference in our approaches. All parties gave me permission to post this conversation, including Dana, a recent graduate of my evangelism class. (The conversation is “as is” except for a little bit of  re-formatting.)

Ruben Israel
What you fail to point out is homosexuals have a parade to celebrate sin.
What city ever hoisted a steal pride parade?
What city every had a lie pride week?
This is a different sinner that walks in the street promoting his sin, demanding the laws change to support his sin. When was the last time murderers demanded us to welcome them as they walked with signs upholding murder.
Your talking to someone at Starbucks vs preaching against a sodomite parade is like apples and oranges, you do understand the difference between witnessing and preaching no?
Do you think all sin is the same sin? Read the rest of this entry »