Steve Sanchez - Stone The Preacher

ON THIS DAY…from 2013 to 2017!

Jun 28, 2017Steve Sanchez1 CommentABOUT ME, MY BLOG, MY CHURCH, Community Church of the Hillschurch planting, community church of the hills, dripping springs, Johnson City, pastor

FACEBOOK HAS AN APP called “On This Day” which shows you what you posted on this day, one year, three years, however many years ago it was.

June 28th is kinda special to me. How so? Take a look at what happened today:

After being finger-printed, having my driver’s record checked for the past five years, enduring a physical exam upon my person (including going to the restroom with a little cup), taking five written tests, a 20 hour certification course, memorizing every part of the bus including the engine components, exhaust system, air brakes etc., and two months of driver’s training…I passed my school bus driving test! What? A school bus driver? Yes. And in Dripping Springs of all places, the city where I first planted a church after leaving Hope Chapel Hermosa Beach nearly four years ago.

Circumstances have arisen where I have to take a 2nd job in addition to pastoring my current church, launching my eldest daughter to Baylor U., and taking care of my family. (Someone asked me what I’m doing for the summer. I laughed.)

Now, see what has happened on this day over the last four years.

Why the Atheist Mocked My Blog

Jun 19, 2017Steve Sanchez2 CommentsEV Articles, Famous Lost Wordsatheist, bill bright, evangleism, hells best kept secret, ray comfort, witnessing

On this day, five years ago, I wrote this…and nothing has changed!

I got an email recently from an adolescent atheist mocking my decision to make “Atheist Tuesday” posts an occasional blog item instead of weekly. Here it is:

SUBJECT: Laughter

Wish you could hear mine. [Presumably his own laughter]

Quitters never win and winners never quit, Steve.

I like the fact that your “Evangelism Schedule” and “Evangelism Training” posts have received no comments, not even from Christians, while your “atheists are bad” post has received over fifty.

Keep up the good work.

Yes, it’s a sad fact that this blog will never be popular.

If I wanted to pander to atheists, I suppose that it would be more popular, but why would I want that? I will end up having to answer over and over again the same Googleable questions that are found ad nauseum on Christian apologetic sites’ comments sections. You know, questions like these:

What makes your story of creationism fundamentally different from all the others that exist now, have existed before, and will exist in the future?
Why is there at least some evidence for our scientific theories, but none at all for your creationism?
Why does your God support slavery, murder, etc.

Remember, this is an evangelism blog “written to be an encouragement to those who share their faith and a motivation to those who don’t.” (Steve’s note: The emphasis of this blog changed in 2013.)

I found I was getting off-track and wasting my time answering questions that never lead to salvation. That is, I can try and answer all those questions, but really, atheists will not believe the truth by my answers, only if they have been called by the Holy Spirit.

So, back to the adolescent atheist’s email….

The Un-American Religion

Jun 16, 2017Steve SanchezCulture, News, PERSECUTED!, Politicsbernie sanders, Donald Trump, politically correct, russell vought, White House Office of Management and Budget

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIANITY is the fact that not everyone goes to Heaven, not every belief system is correct and millions of people stand condemned already.

This bothers me.

It also bothered Senator Bernie Sanders when he grilled Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget last week. Here’s an edited excerpt of the exchange:

Sanders: Let me get to this issue that has bothered me and bothered many other people. You wrote, “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned.” Do you believe that that statement is Islamophobic?

Vought: Absolutely not, Senator. I’m a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith. That post, as I stated in the questionnaire to this committee, was to defend my alma mater, Wheaton College, a Christian school that has a statement of faith that includes the centrality of Jesus Christ for salvation, and . . .

Sanders: I understand that. I don’t know how many Muslims there are in America. Maybe a couple million. Are you suggesting that all those people stand condemned? What about Jews? Do they stand condemned too?

Vought: Senator, I’m a Christian . . .

Sanders: I understand you are a Christian! In your judgment, do you think that people who are not Christians are going to be condemned?

I want to jump in right here and say that it really doesn’t matter what Vought had to say in answer to Sanders’ question, but I am glad that he was straight-forward in explaining his beliefs without denying the facts of what Jesus taught and what the Bible says.

The Fuss Over a President’s Severed Head

Jun 4, 2017Steve Sanchez2 CommentsFamous Lost Words, Newsdonald trump severed head, isis, kathy griffin, president

The big controversy last week concerned the simulated beheading of President Trump by a celebrity—and the huge public outcry that ensued, especially from Christians. I’m always amazed at how sensitive believers are. Correct that. Overly sensitive. A liberal, radical, vulgar “comedienne” like Kathy Griffin does an outrageous, ridiculous, in-bad-taste publicity stunt, and she gets exactly

On Hitler, Auschwitz and Forgiveness

Apr 30, 2017Steve Sanchez15 CommentsHIStorycorrie ten boom, forgiveness, hitler, ravensbruck

Hitler, to no one’s regret, killed his chicken self on this day in 1945. Satan’s servant failed miserably in his quest to complete his Final Solution and is now in the presence of God’s wrath for all eternity.

Now meet Agnes Kun an Auschwitz survivor, imprisoned in Hitler’s death camp when she was 18.

My girls and I met her yesterday at the Museum of Tolerance Museum. I gave her a Trillion Dollar Bill Gospel tract and asked her to what she attributed her survival to.

“Luck,” she replied.

I then explained to her that it was not luck at all, but it was God who spared her. I then requested that she read the information on the back of the tract so that she may learn of her Messiah, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, Jesus, the Messiah.

Corrie Ten Boom was a prisoner in Ravensbruck, another horrible concentration camp, a camp where she witnessed her sister’s death. She attributed her survival to Jesus Christ.

The greatest test of her faith would be played out a few years after her release, when after a speaking engagement, a former guard at the camp, came up to congratulate her on her inspiring talk. Here’s the account:

“It was in a church in Munich that I saw him—a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.

“It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. ‘When we confess our sins,’ I said, ‘God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever. …’

“The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.

“And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others.

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