Stone the Preacher

Despite a few middle fingers…

…a few verbal insults, a gay flag being waved in my face…

…being surrounded by burly men wearing not much more than feathers, and LOL mockery…

 …the grace laden gospel of Jesus Christ was preached during the annual Gay Pride Parade in Ottawa, yesterday.

In my short discourse, I told them they were taking people to hell with them by encouraging celebration of their sin as opposed to repentance of their sin. They told me I was going to hell for my ‘intolerance’. But what can you expect from unregenerate church people?

It was a very hot afternoon but we suffered most in the witness of hundreds of young children and youth, brought there by their parents, being exposed to raw sexual perversion passing by their eyes on the streets, even things you would not let any child see on TV. It made us so angry.

After the parade and preaching, we handed out a few tracts here and there but were too hot and tired to carry on much longer. We were pleased and gave thanks to God for the opportunity to preach the gospel truth to those most needy of hearing it. Even if it caused one soul in the crowd to be stirred and steered toward true repentance, it was worth it. Remember this: Had it not been for the grace of God in your life, that soul could have been you.

George Whitefield, that great preacher of the 18th century who helped bring about The Great Awakening in America, encouraged a new open air preacher with these words:

“Go, dear sir, go and follow your glorious Master without the camp, bearing His reproach. Never fear the scourge of the tongue, ot the threatenings that are daily breathed out against the Lord, and against His Christ. Suffer we must. Ere long perhaps, we may sing in prison, and have our feet in stocks; but faith in Jesus turns a prison into a palace, and makes a bed of flames become a bed of down. Let us be faithful today, and our Lord will support us tomorrow.”

Read my experience of witnessing to a young homosexual man at this article: The Shepherd of Brokeback Mountain”.

Paul’s experience inspired me to warn of “The Three Do-Nots” of open air preaching. Read them here.

I post articles about sudden death every Monday to remind everyone that death can strike at anytime. My hope is that by posting these morbid little curiosities people will be spurred on to think about where they will go in eternity, Heaven or Hell. Also, these articles show how very creative God is when causing death.

America’s greatest theologian and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, reminds us of these very things in his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

Here’s a short excerpt where he explains the suddenness of death and the varities of ways in which we can die:

It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable.   (more…)

I was tired of all the other DMV preachers having all the fun, so I started preaching on the second Tuesday of January, 2008.

You’re probably asking, What other DMV preachers are you talking about?

Well, there is “Righteous Richard” Chavarria who started all of this a year ago today, first at the Torrance DMV once a week, now at the Hawthorne DMV three times a week.

And there is also Tatsuo Akimine.
He replaced “Righteous Richard” for a week while he went on vacation, reading his “sermon” from a clipboard until he had it memorized.

Now he preaches nearly everyday at the Torrance location.

After he finishes there, he drives ten minutes to the Social Security office down the street, where he preaches another sermon before the doors open.

Now it’s my turn to party every second, fourth, and fifth Tuesday of the month in Torrance.

I arrive about 7:30 AM, pray, then greet Malak the Security guard. It’s always a great idea to make friends with Security and to occasionally bring them Starbucks gift cards as  appreciation gifts.

I pass out Giant Money Gospel tracts to all who are standing in line.

There are usually about twenty people when I begin the “sermonette” at 7:50AM.
I introduce myself and remind everyone that I am exercising my First Amendment right to free speech. After a few statistics about deaths in America and fatalities from car accidents, I take people through the 10 Commandments at least three times (just to make sure that the latecomers hear their crimes before God), warn of Judgment Day and Hell, then I give the Good News. My hope is that they will make a U-turn on life’s highway and yield to God by trusting in His Son.
 

People listen patiently or turn their backs and pretend not to listen at all. There is the occasional “Shut up!” but the crowd in line still hears me. Some even say “Amen!” or give a thumbs up. I don’t shout, or yell, or call people names; I speak firmly, gently, and seriously, because the consequences of their unbelief in a Savior is serious. (Read a sample of the sermon here.) 

By the time I finish at 8AM, there are usually between 30-40 people anxiously waiting for the doors to open. And boy do they hurry in!

I hand out more tracts to those who arrived late and then I head to work.
What results from all of this? I’ll know in Heaven; I just want to be obedient to Christ’s command to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”

I asked Malak the guard why he lets me do this.
He replied, “I come from a Muslim country where you had to pray five times a day. If you didn’t stop and pray, you’d get beaten. If you tried to stop someone from preaching the Koran, they could kill you. I’m a Christian and this is good.”

I’m thankful that at this Department of Motor Vehicles I’m not driving too many people crazy, but steering them toward God.

R.A. Torrey, a great preacher of the past said this:
 “Open-air meetings impress people by their earnestness. How often I have heard people say, ‘There is something in it. See those people talking out there on the street. They do not have any collection, and they come here just because they believe what they are preaching.’ Remarks like this are made over and over again. Men who are utterly careless about the Gospel and Christianity have been impressed by the earnestness of men and women who go out on to the street and win souls for Christ.”
—From “Open Air Meetings,” from his book, “Methods of Christian Work” (Chapter 6, pages 222-233):

Click here to read the reactions of people in line at the Social Security office while Tatsuo preached.

Read about “Righteous Richard’s” experience at the DMV here. And his confrontation with an angry Muslim here.

(The following is from “Charity and its Fruit” by Jonathan Edwards)

Those in Hell hate God, and Christ, and angels, and saints in Heaven; and not only so, but they hate one another, like a company of serpents or vipers, not only spitting out venom against God, but at one another, biting and stinging and tormenting each other.

All things in the wide universe that are hateful shall be gathered together in hell, as in a vast receptacle provided on purpose, that the universe which God has made may be cleansed of its filthiness, by casting it all into this great sink of wickedness and woe.

It is a world prepared on purpose for the expression of God’s wrath. He has made hell for this; and He has
no other use for it but there to testify forever his hatred of sin and sinners, where there is no token of love or mercy.

In Hell, there is nothing there but what shows forth the Divine indignation and wrath.

You may remember that ’70’s T.V. show “Good Times”; I watched it a lot in “the day.”

Well, in addition to handing out a Gospel tract to Stevie Wonder at the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, I had the opportunity to hand out a few Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts to John Amos, the Dad in the series. DYN-O-MITE!!!

You may be asking yourself, “What is the big deal in handing out Gospel tracts to celebrities at a parade?” The answer is the same reason why we hand out thousands to spectators who watch the parade: We hope that someone will read the message on the back, repent, and trust in the Savior. With a celebrity though, it’s a little different. If a celebrity should read the back, believe the message, and become a follower of Christ, there is the potential for that same celebrity to use his fame for Christian witness.

I handed L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a few million dollars, too, as he walked beside his vehicle. He proceeded to shout into the microphone that he was carrying, “Ha, ha! I just got a few million dollars.” Then he continued on his way.

Don’t underestimate the power of these simple Gospel tools. Giant $100.00 bills? Ridiculous. Gospel messages written on the back of a silly, phony million dollar bill? How stupid.

Read what R. A. Torrey wrote about the usefulness of tracts over a hundred years ago:
A tract will often succeed in winning a man to Christ where a sermon or a personal conversation has failed. There are a great many people who, if you try to talk with them, will put you off; but if you put a tract in their hands and ask God to bless it, after they go away and are alone they will read the tract and God will carry it home to their hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost.

When Jesus said to “Go!” in Mark 16:15 I’m pretty sure He didn’t mean this:

I wanted to preach at the Rose Parade Porta-Potties last year when I saw the crowd waiting nervously in line, but I wasn’t prepared. This time, at the 2008 Tournament of Roses, “Righteous Richard” Chavarria brought along his portable preaching stool at my request.

It’s always a good idea to have one or two brothers alongside the open-air preacher when dropping in unexpectedly on a “captive audience.”

You never know when rocks, cans, or pieces of dead cats might be chucked your way from a hung-over hooligan. I always trust that my flanking comrades will take the bullet, or bottle, for me. Right guys? Hello? Right?

I hate the term “captive audience” by the way. I much prefer the kinder, simpler term: Organic Congregation!

Organic Congregations are naturally grown, no preservatives. I make it easy for them to come to church, by going to them.

These people couldn’t go anywhere, because they had to go somewhere!

I preached on and on until I was flushed in the face… so to speak…

And I’ll go head to head with anyone!

R.A. Torrey said this 100 years ago: “Open-air meetings are portable, you can carry them around. It would be very difficult to carry a church or mission building with you, but there is no difficulty about carrying an open-air meeting with you. You can get an open-air meeting where you could by no possibility get a church, mission hall or even a room. You can have open-air meetings in all parts of the city and all parts of the country.

“You can reach men in an open-air meeting that you can reach in no other way. I can tell of instance after instance where men who have not been at church or a mission hall for years have been reached by open-air meetings. The persons I have known to be reached and converted through open- air meetings have included thieves, drunkards, gamblers, saloon-keepers, abandoned women, murderers, lawyers, doctors, theatrical people, society people, in fact pretty much every class.” —From “Open Air Meetings” taken from Torrey’s larger work, “Methods of Christian Work” (Chapter 6, pages 222-233):

See the live video of this preaching by clicking here!

Click here to read the essence of the message I preach.

“Make it an object of constant study, and of daily reflection and prayer, to learn how to deal with sinners so as to promote their conversion. It is the great business on earth of every Christian, to save souls.”
“People often complain that they do not know how to take hold of this matter. Why, the reason is plain enough; they have never studied it. They have never taken the proper pains to qualify themselves for the work. If people made it no more a matter of attention and thought to qualify themselves for their worldly business, than they do to save souls, how do you think they would succeed? Now, if you are thus neglecting the main business of life, what are you living for? If you do not make it a matter of study, how you may most successfully act in building up the Kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian.”
—From his sermon “To Win Souls Requires Wisdom”

(This is Part 2 of The Golden Compass tract adventure. To read Part 1, click here.)

We had 50,000 of The Golden Compass Gospel tracts to hand out before that awful bomb of a movie disappeared completely. What could I do? I had no choice but to bring out the secret weapons: my 6 and 8-year-old daughters. “I’ll give you each a dollar for every hundred tracts you hand out,” I said to bribe encourage them.

You will not believe what happened next…

We hit the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica with a vengeance, getting our best results in the indoor mall. We devised the perfect plan: my 6-year-old Laurel and 8-year-old D.D. would stand at the top of an escalator.
Who could resist these two sweet little girls wishing shoppers “Merry Christmas!” while placing Gospel tracts that held the words of eternal life into their hands?

They would wait patiently for their “prey.”

Then whip a tract right into the unsuspecting mall-zombie’s hand.

One right after the other.
Every now and then a Security guard would walk by and I’d say “Stop!” The girls would stop. “Okay. Good job. All clear.” They would start back up again.

100… 200… 300… 400… tracts they handed out! It was unbelievable how hard these girls worked!

Every tract given was a potential soul saved, that was the motivation behind using my secret weapons nick-named, The Little Badger (D.D.) and Little Beaver (Laurel Ann).

One lady huffily ran up to me and handed a tract back. “You should be ashamed of yourself, having your little girls doing this!” She turned on her heels and stalked away before I could ask her what she meant.

A man shoved his tract back at me and said, “Jesus would not be proud of this. It is an abomination to the Lord.” When I asked him what he meant, he scowled saying, “I don’t want to get into it. This is an abomination to the Lord.” I tried asking him again what he meant only to get the same reply: “I don’t want to get into it.”

I’m positive they read the message on the back that declares that if they have broken one of God’s 10 Commandments, if they have ever lied or stolen, or used His name in vain—even once— then they would be found guilty of being lying thieves and blasphemers, and on Judgment Day would end up in Hell. I’ll bet they never bothered to read the rest of the tract that speaks of God’s love for them, a sacrificial love that cost Jesus His life. If only they would repent and put their trust in Him, they could be forgiven.

My daughters are learning the importance of sharing the Gospel using Gospel tracts: to save souls from Hell! Oh that more children would learn the importance of sharing their precious faith. But how can they when their parent’s are too afraid—or too distracted, or too ashamed to do it?

R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) said this:
“Any person can do it. We cannot all preach; we cannot all conduct meetings; but we can all select useful tracts and then hand them out to others. Of course some of us can do it better than others. Even a blind man or a dumb man can do tract work. It is a line of work in which every man, woman and child can engage.”

They each earned $6.00 that day by handing out over 1,000 Gospel tracts. Sure, their motivation was primarily to earn a little extra cash; but it is my hope that in the future they will do it for the love of God and people.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.—Proverbs 22:6

The “Will your good outweigh your bad?“ tract is the greatest free tract download ever and they are available from Living Waters Publications!

Click here to get them. (This link will download a zipped copy of both sides. Just save it onto your computer, unzip, and you’ll end up with the pdf version.) 

People love them! Why?

The cover is compelling and draws people in to see if they are good enough to get to Heaven.

After they open the tract, there is a “test” with 8 questions…
…which draws them in further because it looks like they can actually be good enough to make it in. In addition to asking if they have kept the various Commandments, there are also questions like: “Have you given money to charity?” “Have you gone to church regularly?”

Then they open the tract to grade themselves; they have to read the inside to see how well they’ve done.

Wouldn’t you want to know?

The presentation of the bad news and the good news is in-depth and very clear. If people throw it away before they are done reading the tract, that’s okay; because the 10 Commandments will awaken their consciences, driving them to Christ eventually.

But the really cool thing about these tracts is that they are adaptable to any occasion—especially various holidays, (see below or click here)—if you are a little handy with the computer. (I’m not. But I do have access to a great graphics guy).

We adapted this tract for the Department of Motor Vehicles, where four open air preachers give the Gospel regularly:

For the USC football games, we changed the colors of the tract to the team colors of cardinal and gold:
Fans snatched them up thinking they were receiving important info for game time.

And on the back of the tract, we place our church information.

The best thing about these tracts is that after you hand an icebreaker to someone like the million dollar bill, you can say, “This comes with it, too,” while handing them this fuller Gospelled tract. It also makes for a great piece of information to give out to someone after you’ve shared your faith verbally.

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) said: “Use a tract to close a conversation. As a rule when you have finished talking with some one, you should not leave him without something definite to take home to read. If the person has accepted Christ, put some tract in his hands that will show him how to succeed in the Christian life. If the person has not accepted Christ, some other tract that is especially adapted to his need should be left with him.”

Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) said: “When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract read… Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a touching Gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts.”

See how we modified it for Christmas here.

See how we modified it for New Years here.

(This is another tract designed by the talented Anna (Banana) Jackson)

You’d think that I was part of Al Queda the way Security swooped down on me.

Out of nowhere, right in the middle of a purchase—a gift for my wife—they got me. “You’re trespassing!” the over-zealous guard charged. “And you must leave right now!”

“What about my purchase?” I protested, putting the gift down. I hung my head and walked out of the mall as the guards watched every move I made, every step I took.

My crime? Elevator preaching.

It was Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving,the busiest shopping day of the year, and all we wanted to do was hand out a few Gospel tracts, and give an “inner-air” sermon or two.

It was quite an uplifting experience.
A crowd of people get on, then we hand everyone a million dollar bill Gospel tract. I push the button to hold the doors open a few seconds longer, to make sure all the people are in.
 Then I preach a 20-second sermon: “Hi everybody. You just got a million dollar bill and I want to ask you the million dollar question: If you were to die today, would you go to Heaven or Hell? Here’s a quick test. Have you kept the 10 Commandments?
“The bible says that if you break just one, that’s called sin, and if you’ve sinned just one time, you will be found guilty and end up in Hell.
“Let’s see how you do. If you’ve ever lied one time, or stolen one thing, God will see you as a lying thief, and on Judgment Day you will be found guilty and end up in Hell. But that’s not God’s will…
“If you repent and trust in Jesus, God will forgive you and grant you everlasting life.” I finish in one floor, about 25 seconds.
WHOOSH!! They clear out in a hurry, some saying “Amen!” others, “Thank you!” and still others, “That’s right!” If we go down two floors, I add John 3:16 and encourage them to repent soon. Or I’ll say with a smile, “That’s elevator sermon #252!”
People smile and actually appreciate the little talk. I don’t shout. I’m not overbearing. I speak in a conversational tone, just rather quickly.

Then voila! Another concregation appears!

And I preach yet another 25 second sermon.

Over and over and over again.

After about half an hour and 150 people, I told my partner Ray that it was time to leave because the chances were good that someone has complained. I was right. As we walked out of the elevator, I noticed a lady gesticulating wildly to two Security guards. We beat a hasty retreat through Macy’s department store.

After ten minutes, we thought it safe to buy my wife’s gift. Wrong! The guards nabbed us without warning, no gentle reminder of the rules; the man just plain accused me of handing out Gospel tracts and told me to leave. I had no choice but to snap his picture.

Ray was next. Six Security officers got him. Poor guy. Didn’t have a chance.

On the outside, I struck up a conversation with two parking attendants…
 …and was truly thankful that I live in a country where we will always have the right to preach Christ freely without fear of persecution or loss of liberty.

“Oh, how they preached! No polished periods, no learned arguments, no labored paragraphs, chilled their appeals, or rendered their discourses unintelligible. No fear of man, no love of popular applause, no ever-scrupulous dread of strong expressions, no fear of excitement or enthusiasm, prevented them from pouring out the whole fervor of their hearts, that yearned with tenderness unutterable over dying souls.”
—Horatious Bonar (1808-1889), from his writing “Words to Winners of Souls”

Oh no! I got caught again by the same guard the other night! Read part 2 here.

“Hey honey! Look! There’s money on that bulletin board!”

“Wait a minute… that’s not real money.”
“It’s those stupid million dollar bills that we see all over the place! I think they say something about Hell.”

“Man. How brave do you have to be to pin one of those on a board?”

“Christians are so chicken!”

“I may as well read it…”

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) says:
“Oftentimes people who are too proud to be talked with, will read a tract when no one is looking. There is many a man who would repulse you if you tried to speak to him about his soul, who will read a tract if you leave it on his table, or in some other place where he comes upon it accidentally, and that tract may be used for his salvation.”
Who’s R.A. Torrey? (more…)

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, said this about 150 years ago: “Speak a word for the Master whenever it is possible, and offer a short prayer at every convenient opportunity.”

“I think we should make it a rule, whenever we hear a foul or blasphemous word in the street – (and, alas! We constantly do so) – always to pray for the person who utters it. Perhaps then the devil might find it expedient not to stir up people to swear, if he knew that it excited Christians to pray.”

“Try it at all events, and see whether it may not have subtle power to stop the profanity, which is so terribly on the increase.”
(Thanks to Ed “The Rev” Lee for these photos.)

Never be ashamed of distributing tracts. Many people hand out tracts to others as if they were ashamed of what they were doing.
People are not likely to read tracts if you hand them to them as if you were ashamed to do it; but if you act as though you were conferring a favor upon them, and giving them something worth reading, they will read your tract. It is often well to say to a person, “Here is a little leaflet out of which I have gotten a good deal of good. I would like to have you read it.”
R. A. Torrey was a Congregational evangelist, teacher, author, born in Hoboken, New Jersey. (more…)

Spurgeon talks of the perseverence of one open air preacher, John Furz, who encountered a bit of opposition when he preached.

“Once recommenced, the fruitful agency of field-preaching was not allowed to cease… The preachers needed to have faces set like flints, and so indeed they had. John Furz says: ‘As soon as I began to preach, a man came straight forward, and presented a gun at my face; swearing that he would blow my brains out, if I spake another word.
However, I continued speaking, and he continued swearing, sometimes putting the muzzle of the gun to my mouth, sometimes against my ear. While we were singing the last hymn, he got behind me, fired the gun, and burned off part of my hair.’

“After this, my brethren, we ought never to speak of petty interruptions or annoyances.”
—From Charles Spurgeon’s sermon: Open-Air Preaching—A Sketch of its History and Remarks Hereon

“It is a good thing to get a man on his knees, but don’t get him there before he is ready. You may have to talk with him two hours before you can get him that far, but when you think he is about ready, say, ‘Shall we not ask God to give us light on this point?’ Ask him to pray for himself. If he doesn’t want to pray, let him use a bible prayer; get him to repeat it.”
 ”Don’t send a man home to pray. Of course he should pray at home, but I would rather get his lips open at once. It is a good thing for a man to hear his own voice in prayer.” “Urge an immediate decision, but never tell a man he is converted. Never tell him he is saved. Let the Holy Spirit reveal that to him.”
—From “Experiencing Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study.”
Click here for a brief bio of Moody.

The naysayer says it’s a waste of time to preach to people on street corners because no one is listening. The store owner says he’s bad for business. The timid Christian is embarrassed by what he says… Listen to what the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892), had to say about all this “foolishness.”

You that preach in the streets, go on preaching Him. I saw a man preaching the other day with no creature but one dog to listen to him, and I really thought that he might as well have gone home. But I met with a story yesterday, which I know to be true, and it showed me that I was making a mistake. There was a woman who for years had been is such dreadful despair that she would not even hear the gospel.

—From Spurgeon Gold, compiled by Ray Comfort

“I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour.

It is only such who in the ministry shall be saved.”

(I’m taking Monday off. I will return on Tuesday with the possible reason why the Pete’s coffee server lady hates me so much… I have some clues!)

Catherine Booth was the wife of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army.

REVELATION 6:17: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

 THERE have been some terrible days of wrath in the past history of this world. That was a day of wrath when, wearied by the cry of their sins and iniquities, the Lord rained fire from Heaven on the guilty inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. What consternation and dismay must have seized them when they beheld the first fiery strokes of His vengeance! What a change in their feelings, they who had thought themselves and their deeds of darkness so hidden from the eye of God and from the strokes of His justice; they who had revelled in their iniquities, laughed at His threatenings, and mocked the prophecies of His vengeance, how must they have quailed and howled as each torrent of fire fell on their devoted heads! It was a day of vengeance, a day of wrath. Click here to read the rest.

This is an excerpt from R.C. Sproul’s preface to his commentary on the book of Romans.

We can think too of a young Anglican clergyman in England during the 18th century who, though he had been trained in the seminary and had been ordained by the church, was cold of heart and not even a believer.
One day he was standing in a crowd of people listening to a fervent preacher in Aldersgate, London. Although he wasn’t really all that interested in the sermon, somehow he seemed drawn by the words he was hearing in a sermon taken from the book of Romans. And the young man, John Wesley, said, “Suddenly, my heart was strangely warmed.” As the Word of God from the book of Romans fell upon John Wesley, he was converted and later became one of the most forcible, religious reformers the world has ever known.

I wonder if Wesley was standing at a stoplight when he heard the sermon? Read his bio here.

“Sin against God in God’s idea is infinite, and the punishment is infinite.”

“…as sure as God is true there will absolutely be no end to the misery of Hell.”
—From “Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell”, by John H. Gerstner

“Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to fright persons to Heaven, but I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavor to fright persons away from Hell. They stand at its brink, and are ready to fall into it, and are senseless of their danger. Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house on fire? That tis God’s manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness before He appears in His mercy and love to them.”
Click for brief bio.

“If a man does not do the will of God, as God requires it of him,
step by step, and day by day, his belief is only thrown away.”
Click here for brief bio.

Okay… this guy’s not a preacher or an evangelist—I don’t even know if he was a Christian—but this quote I got at the San Diego Zoo is sure applicable to evangelism:

“Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”

Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with King George III and Great Britain that led to the American Revolution and for his strong opposition to the French Revolution.

“Through the mouths of preachers He will do His work—
just as a workman uses a tool to do his work.”

(Calvin was a French Protestant reformer who was generally regarded as second in importance only to Martin Luther as a key figure in the Protestant Reformation

“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.
If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.”

“It strikes me that conflict is the principal feature of the Christian life this side of Heaven.”

So ends the 5-part series dealing with the conflict we faced at the Fiesta Hermosa. (Click here to read it!) Next week, read about a new member of our evangelism class who shared her faith outside a… strip club!

“Unless we see our shortcomings in the light of the Law and holiness of God, we do not see them as sin at all.”
Professor Packer is one of the most respected theologians of our time. Read about him here and here!

(This concludes 10 Commandments week. To see the full series, scroll down to Monday’s postings and work up. Coming this Monday: The Fiesta Hermosa reports.

“I do not believe that any man can preach the Gospel who does not preach the Law.”
“Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the Gospel of its ablest auxiliary [most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ… They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”
Spurgeon was considered to be The Prince of Preachers. Read about him here!

“First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the Law of God.”

Whitefield helped to bring about The Great Awakening in the 18th century. Read about him here!

“The first duty of the Gospel preacher is to declare God’s Law and show the nature of sin.”
“Satan, the god of dissension stirs up daily new sects. And last of all which of all others I should never have forseen or once suspected, he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the Law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.”

Luther started the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. Read about him here!