HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!

May we not forget our brothers and sisters who gave their lives for Christ and the Truth of His Word.

Violent and Getting Worse...

There was a triple homicide yesterday at a car wash not very far from our house. Though authorities haven't yet confirmed it, it appears to be a mafia execution. The men had left one of their cars in the wash, and as they returned to pick it up the assassins pulled up in a red Nissan and fired more than 30 rounds at the three, instantly killing two and fatally injuring the other, who died on the way to the hospital.

The murder was actually right by the building where the church where we used to fellowship at meets. Lina attended their Tuesday Bible study and heard about it there, so afterwards she and a sister walked over there to preach the Gospel to the many curious and stunned onlookers. They had closed off the street and their bodies were lying there, bullet-riddled, bloody and uncovered. Lina used that as a springboard to preach the Gospel to the crowd (yes in this case I think it would be okay). She told me some people were really shaken up, and intently listened to what she was saying. But most of them, SURPRISINGLY, seemed completely cold and unaffected...as if they somehow believed that DEATH WOULD NEVER COME TO THEM! EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE STANDING IN FRONT OF TWO DEAD CORPSES! THE MADNESS!!!

People truly are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1,5), they really do have hearts of stone (Eze.36:26), and they really cannot come to Christ unless the Father draws Him (John 6:44). Apart from the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we would all be as wicked and heartless...if not worse.

Please pray that the Holy Spirit sovereignly moves and works in the hearts of these people! We desperately need revival! Jesus Christ and His Gospel must be glorified in this city!

I Was a Slave of Drugs and Hated God, Yet He Saved Me

Gabriel gives his testimony of being saved out of the hatred anger that consumed his wicked heart. There was no way Gabriel was ever going to break the power of the drugs and addictions that reigned on his life without looking to Jesus Christ alone for hope. Many people are slaves of drugs and get morality and change outwardly but only Christ can change a man inwardly.

2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Seek New Manifestations of the Presence and Power of God- Spurgeon

That's right.

Like many biblically sound, theologically minded, worthy men of God throughout the history of the Church, Spurgeon wasn't afraid to use words like "experiences", "visitations" and "manifestations" ...and neither should we.


"No matter what level of spiritual maturity we are on, we need renewed appearances, fresh manifestations, new visitations from on high. While it is right to thank God for the past and look back with joy to His visits to you in your early days as a believer, I encourage you to seek God for special visitations of His presence. I do not mean to minimize our daily walk in the light of His countenance, but consider that though the ocean has its high tides twice every day, yet it also has its spring tides. The sun shines whether we see it or not, even through our winter's fog, and yet it has its summer brightness. If we walk with God constantly, there are special seasons when He opens the very secret of His heart to us and manifests Himself to us - not only as He does not to the world but also as He does not at all times to His own favored ones. Not every day in a palace is a banqueting day, and not all days with God are so clear and glorious as certain special sabbaths of the soul in which the Lord unveils His glory. Happy are we if we have once beheld His face, but happier still if He comes to us again in the fullness of favor.

"I commend you to be seeking God's second appearances. We should be crying to God most pleadingly that He would speak to us a second time. We do not need a reconversion, as some assert. If the Lord has kept us steadfast in His fear, we are already possessors of what some call the higher life. This we are privileged to enjoy from the first hour of our spiritual life. We do not need to be converted again, but we do need the windows of heaven to be opened again and again over our heads. We need the Holy Spirit to be given again as at Pentecost and that we should renew our youth like the eagles, to run without weariness and walk without fainting. May the Lord fulfill to His people His blessing upon Solomon! 'That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.'"

- C.H. Spurgeon, Essential Points in Prayer, The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life ed. Robert Hall, Emerald Books.

Johnny Mac on the Ds of G...

Part 1 of 3 on the perseverance of the saints. This is actually part of a 10 message series on the Doctrines of Grace. I highly recommend you listen to these!

The Perseverance of the Saints, Part 1, preached on August 29, 2004

To hear the rest, click HERE.

Ray Comfort meets Richard Dawkins ...almost

Ray Comfort was at Caltech in Pasadena, CA handing out freely Charles Darwin's Origin of Species book. Richard Dawkins was promoting his latest book. This is a video recapping the night.

Thank you Mr. Dawkins for pulling all those atheists together for us!

WATCH THIS!

GUIDELINES FOR OPEN AIR PREACHING

Remember the Battle!

"Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle"

Psalm 144:1

In the midst of the daily routines of life,

The mundane cares and everyday strife,

While thoughts, lists and numbers run laps through your mind

Look to heaven--

And remember the battle. 

When the waves and the billows have gone over your head

In the fires of affliction and in moments of dread,

When trials and temptations have lowered your gaze

Look to heaven--

And remember the battle. 

In the joy, in the pain,

During sorrow or gain

'Till God's glory is revealed and the Enemy slain

Look to heaven--

And remember the battle.

Look to heaven--

And remember the battle.

Look to Christ--

And remember the battle.  

May we never forget that we are in a war. The spiritual battle we fight doesn't begin the moment we hit the streets--tracts and Bible in hand.  It begins every time we wake up, and continues on in every part of the day, in every circumstance. Often the battle rages most intensely while we least realize it is occurring.

The victory is already ours, Christ has purchased it for us with His precious blood. May we never forget this blessed truth, either! In the light of this wonderful reality, let us boldly take up the armor of God and withstand the daily attacks of the flesh, the world and the devil. Let us storm the gates of hell in triumph, counting any casualty of war as a "momentary light affliction", looking only to the joy set before us. Let us valiantly fight the good fight of faith and take hold of eternal life. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Blessed be the LORD, who trains our hands for war, and our fingers for battle!

Is Christ or Apologetics your Focus in Open-Air Preaching?

A Little R&R in the Woods

We went to Bosque Los Colomos on Monday to get away from it all. Was blessed to be able to read and relax, and enjoy the Lord and His creation.