Stone the Preacher

(Because of one man’s convictions, the rest of us have the privelege—and freedom—to tell others that they can go directly to God without charge or priest!)

Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and Reformed church communities. It takes place on October 31 and is an official holiday in many countries. It coincides with Halloween, the eve before All Saints’ Day. Many families in the Reformed tradition do not allow their children to observe Halloween because of various perceived Satanic associations .

On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted a proposal at the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany to debate the doctrine and practice of indulgences. This proposal is popularly known as the 95 Theses, which he nailed to the Castle Church doors.
This was not an act of defiance or provocation as is sometimes thought. Since the Castle Church faced Wittenberg’s main thoroughfare, the church door functioned as a public bulletin board and was therefore the logical place for posting important notices. Nonetheless, the event created a controversy between Luther and those allied with the Pope over a variety of doctrines and practices. When Luther and his supporters were excommunicated in 1520, the Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist traditions were born.

-Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation_Day”

A missionary in Africa was once asked if he really liked what he was doing. His response was shocking. “Do I like this work?” he said. “No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse.
But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like? God pity him, if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to ‘Go!’ and we go. Love constrains us.”

I called a lawyer.
“Bob, they won’t allow us to hand out literature at our church booth in El Segundo this weekend, so we cancelled the booth and now we will be going down as a team to hand out tracts and share the Gospel. I fully expect to be stopped by the police. What do you suggest we do?”

Bob the lawyer had a great plan: “If they tell you to stop, stop. Have your team take a notepad and pen to document what happens if you are stopped. Ask the officer what law are you violating. Get his name and badge number and write it down.”
“Can I record the conversation with a tape recorder?”

“Yes, but you must get the officer’s permission.”

“What if he doesn’t allow me to record the conversation?”

“Then write that down too. It will make our case even better.”

“Can I then ask to speak to the Watch Commander?”

“Yes, you can. Just make sure that you are agreeable. ”

“We will be totally polite and gracious,” I assured.

“We need to get all the beach cities to say no to your evangelizing then we can work.” At this point he told me a great strategy that I cannot divulge to you at this time.

“Then what do we do?” I asked.

“After we document that all the beach cities are violating your civil rights, then we have to get a few of you arrested.”
“Arrested?”

“Yes. Just not this weekend; I’ll be out of town.”

“Good. Because I’m preaching this weekend,” I said with a temporary sigh of relief.

Please pray for the evangelism team this weekend. We are not in Kansas in the fifties anymore… If you’d like to join us, come to Hope Chapel at noon this Saturday to pray.
-SS

Who says you can’t fight city hall? Or the police department? Well, it’s not going to be a fight exactly, but I am planning to go to “the powers that be” and inform them of my First Amendment rights when it comes to handing out Gospel tracts. Since Hope Chapel is starting a 1 Million Tracts in 1 Year program, I don’t want anyone else having to go through what I did at the “Fiesta Hermosa” two weeks ago (See “Pest of Hermosa” below).

I will go with a kind and respectful attitude. I will go with a meek and humble spirit. And I will go with a bulldog lawyer who can’t wait to get things cleared up. He said, “Steve, you’ve got to get arrested!”
Now wait just one minute…

Today’s evangelistic adventure was the most intense, adrenaline filled, gnarly excursion ever as we infiltrated the Annual District Jehovah’s Witness Convention in Long Beach with our million-dollar bill Gospel tracts.
It didn’t turn out as we had planned, but all 17 members of the team made it home safely—barely! God worked this occasion in a totally unexpected way and we are thankful for the opportunity, though we will never do it again. The full report will be out Tuesday for E-vangie Tales/EDGE #4: A Great Cloud of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I sure hope I can fall asleep tonight!

A very gracious and humble man from Hope Chapel approached me yesterday and expressed his concern about our team of evangelists going to the JW convention. “If someone came to our church,” he said, “we wouldn’t like it if they passed out literature contrary to our teachings…” I agreed and reminded him that people have done that before, and we ask them to stop doing it. If they continue, then we warn them again; if they persist we ask them to leave. And that is what we are fully expecting to happen to us when we go there tomorrow. I explained to him our purpose for doing this incursion: “We have a whole convention center filled with people who will be going to Hell if they subscribe to the Witness doctrine. We are going to wage a propaganda war. We will go in to this public setting—remember, we have been invited—and we will hand out as many million-dollar bill Gospel tracts as we can. It’s not unlike flying a plane over a Communist country and dropping leaflets to the lost. I’m sure the Communists don’t appreciate it, but we are called to snatch people from the fire! It is a very real war.” He understood.

A good reminder of the false teacher’s fate (and their followers as well) is found in 2 Peter, Chapter 2. Pay attention to the contexts of these phrases: “destructive heresies;” “denying the sovereign Lord;” “swift destruction;” “shameful ways;” “these teachers will exploit you;” “their condemnation;” “their destruction;” “the Lord knows how to… hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.”
-SS

This comment was submitted to me by W.C. This is a neighbor’s response to W.C.’s repeated invitations to visit his church. As you will read, people aren’t always gracious.

I find it rather insulting that for years now you have questioned and doubted my faith in God simply because of your inability to talk me into going to your church. I have really restrained myself from telling you to back off, but you just don’t get it. I have a deep spiritual relation ship with the almighty, I do not have one, however with organized religion such as you subscribe to. I am a student of history and as such I am well aware of organized religion and the wars and death that has occurred over the centuries all in the name of God, Jesus, Allah and whatever. Countless millions slaughtered in holy wars, the numbers are quite staggering. I worship God in my own way, without a support group of fellow parishioners, not that I think there is anything wrong with that. Some people need it to keep themselves in line. I am one of those people.So I guess what I am trying to say is that I do not wish to ever attend your church, and please stop asking. I understand the fact that you are a salesman. This is one sale that you will never make.

Here is W.C.’s response. Do you think it was appropiate? (more…)

A friend of mine, Doug Levy, a youth pastor at Coast Christian Fellowship, reminded me of a very effective strategy to lessen the Da Vinci Code’s profits:

“There is also a great idea going around that people go to see “Over the Hedge” this weekend so as to not only “not see” Da Vinci, but to minimize the gross that they get and put another movie—”Over the Hedge”— into first place for the weekend… making Da Vinci the 2nd place movie!
Insult to injury! ; )”

I’m going to see the Da Vinci Code and I’ve just recently bought the book. Why? Why would a Christian—a pastor even—do such a thing? Why would I support such a demonically inspired enterprise? (more…)