Stone the Preacher

LOOMIS, Ca. (CBS Sacramento) — Two people are dead and four others hospitalized after eating soup made with wild mushrooms at a Placer County assisted living center, and investigators said it was an employee who made them the meal. Read the rest here.

It’s 5pm in Taipai (3am L.A.) where four of us from Hope Chapel are waiting to get our connecting flight back to L.A. after two weeks in Southeast Asia where we ministered to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. We had a very fruitful time and nobody died in crazy traffic where signs and signals and street lines are only suggestions to those driving.

As I take this much needed break from blogging I remembered that my evangelism class, SHARING YOUR FAITH…MADE EASY! starts in a few weeks.

Join the over 1,000 people who have taken this class and learned to share their faith simply, biblically and effectively. It’s interactive, fun and free! It starts on October 11 at 7pm at Hope Chapel Hermosa Beach.

Hope to see you there!

I will be taking a two week break from blogging. The comments will still be moderated by my friend, “Righteous Richard.”

Tune in again on Oct. 10 for the latest!

Are you tired of anxiously waiting for the next off-the-wall post to  be put up? Are you losing sleep over the possibility of being out-of-the-loop when it comes to evangelism? Well, your problems are over. Get the latest posting in your inbox. Sign up by clicking the link in the right top corner of the main page!

All meeting times are at noon. Meet at Hope Chapel to carpool.

2: Redondo Pier

9: Hawthorne Car Show

16: Huntington Beach

23: Venice Beach

30: Charlie Saikley Volleyball Tournament in Manhattan Beach

I will be away from my computer until July 12 and will not be posting anything until then (except for our July evangelism schedule on Wednesday, July 6). We just bought our first home and probably won’t have everything set up until then. Feel free to comment on any posts and my guest moderator, “Righteous” Richard Chavarria, will take care of them for you.

Until then, keep fishin’!

EDIT: 1:30pm— Well, we’ve been displaced by a…lemonade stand! Our team was told to move behind other booths so we are out of the main public view, but people are still visiting and taking our I. Q. Test. I’ve encouraged the leaders to send people out of the booth and into the fair.

9:45am—After being told yesterday that our evangelism booth and team would be kicked out of this pagan street fair on Sunday… we are still there! What’s cool is that we are next to the MADD crashed vehicle display. We ask people where they would go if they should die in this way.

Will we still be in the fair tomorrow? Stay tuned.

10:06am—Our Evangelism team almost got pushed out of the Fiesta Hermosa by organizers and the Fire Dept. Our last resort was to stand in a little planter box. We were then told to move out of there!

Then suddenly, God intervened.

The Fire Captain, without even being asked, told us to set up our booth right in our normal prime spot, a spot we have used for years! Go figure! Pray for our team, please.

Ray Comfort and the Way of the Master team have a daily evangelism web show called “ON THE BOX.” I had the opportunity to be a guest on the program a few weeks ago.

Frankly, I thought I looked a little uncomfortable. And it’s true, videos do make me appear ten pounds heavier. Really. It’s the video. (My daughter thought I resembled a Beanie Baby next to buff ex-Navy SEAL Chad Williams, and ex-cop Tony Miano). Nevertheless, you might derive some pleasure by watching these two half hour episodes—or, you just may be bored stiff.

If you want to see the second day’s episode, click here: (more…)

Pastor Vahik Abrahamian and his wife Sonia Keshish-Avanesian were with their friends, Arash Kermanjani and his wife Arezo Teymouri, when all four were detained on September 4, 2010.

For the first 40 days, they were held in solitary confinement and reportedly suffered physical abuse and psychological pressure. Pastor Vahik’s wife Sonia, who was pregnant when she was arrested, is said to have suffered a miscarriage – her fourth.

(more…)

• The “Do-Nots” of Open Air Preaching (featuring Paul Latour)
• The Everyday Club Report: For February
• “The Osteen Moment” (What the country’s largest “church” pastor answered when asked a very pointed question about homosexuality.)
• March evangelism events
• “Sign Guys: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (continuing the “Evangelism Gone Wrong” series.

In a nutshell, all the Commandments are reaffirmed in the NT except the 4th Commandment, so most Biblical evangelists leave it out of their Gospel messages, essentially relegating it to a lesser Commandment. After all, we are no longer required to keep the Sabbath as a matter of pleasing God, though it makes sense to take one day out of the week to rest and honor God. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Romans 14:5-6– One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.

In actuality, Sabbaths, celebrations, festivals, etc., were all a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17—Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

The rest that we are to honor, the ultimate Sabbath we are to observe, is Christ.

Hebrew 4:1-11—Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ “And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Now think about the 4th Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” It’s about Christ. A shadow in the OT, the reality in the NT.

Now the least of these Commandments becomes the most important, because if you are still working for your salvation, you have not trusted Christ, you have not ceased from your labors in trying to please God.
We must rest in Him.

Christ is in the Commandments.

What do you think?

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

I recently got this email from a heart-broken reader of this blog.

“Today I witnessed the death of my grandmother. She was 94 and died a ‘natural’ death; it was sobering and profound, as this was the first time I had seen things I had only read about in the Bible: To see the life of an unrepentant non-born again person who heard the Gospel repeatedly for 25 years and apparently rejected it; to see and hear their words, attitudes, as well as the reaction of unbelieving relatives; like Scripture says: ‘without hope.’

“But my reaction is more reverence for God and more amazement at His grace, more gratitude to the Lord Jesus for my salvation, and more conviction of how real our faith is.”

Yes, Ray Comfort will be turning 39, uh, 49?, well, uh—he’s another year older today, December 5! If you’d like to wish him a Happy Birthday, leave a comment and I will forward this post to him this evening. (Read his own article about his birthday by clicking here.)

Eight years ago, on All Saints Day, 2001, God saw fit to send us a second angel! And you are worth more than all the millions in the world!

Happy Birthday!

See her demonstrate—as a 5-year-old—how to hand out Gospel tracts on an escalator by clicking here!

And read why she asked this question: “Daddy? Are you going to jail?” by clicking here!

On Friday morning there will be a national prayer gathering of Muslims on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building.  They are expecting at least 50,000 to attend from mosques all across America. They will gather to pray from 4:00 AM until 7:00 PM. The gathering will take place by the site where U.S. Presidents have been inaugurated since 1981.  The organizers say that it was Obama’s inauguration in January and his speech broadcast in June that gave them the idea for this prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. To see a live stream of this event, click here.

But here’s the good news. I just got off the phone with an on-fire evangelist who is bringing a team to the event. I’ll reveal who he is in a day or two.

I think this is a call for Christian prayer, too. Ya think?

Read this excellent article by David Barton on the new boldness of American Muslims by clicking here. (more…)

I will be preaching at all four of our services this weekend. The title of my sermon: “Sudden Death.” Guess what it will be about? I’ll post it here next week. Thank you.

I got a rude awakening last Saturday while preaching to the drunken crowd at a beer garden on the boardwalk and you’ll see it as soon as it’s edited. I also got a very strange interview with a very strange man, The Metal Ball Guy, a fixture at Venice Beach. He balances a metal ball while dressed in a G-string. Don’t worry; we shot him above the waist. Stay tuned.