Receiving a Copy of the New Testament for the First Time

Christians in Indonesia rejoice and weep as they finally receive a copy of God's Word in their own language. A MUST WATCH!

Kimyal New Testament launch in Indonesia from United Bible Societies on Vimeo.

IS THERE SOMETHING MISSING?

I praise the Lord for His blessings, and His discipline. Lately I have been very blessed to have two brothers, Alex and Giancarlo, accompanying me for evangelism in the city. We have been preaching about three times a week, and by His grace we have been seeing much fruit from our efforts.  Many convicted and interested souls have been approaching us; everything from drug addicts, to alcoholics, to nominal churchgoers, to Catholics, to demoniacs, to a man contemplating adultery.  We’ve witnessed to these people, counseled them, and prayed for many. A number of them have even been attending our Sunday church meetings. God has been faithful to glorify His name through our efforts.

In fact, up until a couple of weeks ago, things had been going so good that brother Alex, who was new at all this, was expecting things to always be this good. He admittedly was growing comfortable and confident with this evangelism thing, thinking it to be a breeze. That was a mistake on his part, but we all made another crucial mistake—and one day the consequences of this mistake came crashing down on us. I had been really busy one week and had not been spending as much time with the Lord as I know I should have. In fact, all of us had been lacking in this area. When we got to Centro and prayed, I felt convicted about this and repented, and my brethren did as well.  And then I got up on the box...

And that’s when I felt it. 

I didn’t preach anything heretical. I didn’t fumble over my words and ruin my Gospel presentation. I didn’t even feel nervous. My message was clear, concise and to the point. In as much detail as I could, given the short amount of time that I had, I described the nature of God’s holiness, justice and omnipotence, man’s radical depravity and total inability to save himself, the reasonableness of an eternal hell, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance and faith as the means of salvation.  I even drew on the Hebrew to explain the meaning of the word "holy", and in that language pronounced our Lord’s cry on the cross as He was being forsaken by the Father. I would later ask brother Alex for his opinion of how I did, and he would reply that the presentation was really clear and understandable. 

However, getting off the box, I knew something was drastically wrong.

I didn’t get a crowd of people, and only a few stopped to listen for a few minutes—but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I felt cold, empty, like my mouth had just spewed forth steel bricks. There was little anointing, hardly any power accompanying my words. Alex preached after me, and later that evening so did Giancarlo. And they felt the same way as I did. Something was missing. And it certainly showed: the people, for the most part, were unresponsive, apathetic, merely walking by as they heard the preaching of the Word of God. As if we were merely a trio of lousy, untalented street performers.

We certainly learned our lesson that evening. Afterwards we all agreed that our priority in evangelism needs to be spending time with the Lord in prayer. 

Our greatest need as heralds of the glorious Gospel of our Lord is to be clothed with power from on high. To be men marked with the presence of the living God. Oh, you may feign many things; you can appear before men to have a great intellect, you can feign to possess a vast knowledge of the Word of God, you may even deceive men with an external form of piety. But there’s one thing you absolutely cannot feign: the presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon your life. The more time you spend at the feet of Christ, the more you will be transformed and conformed to is image. The more genuine, Spirit-wrought fruit you will bear, in secret and in public. And the more unction will accompany and clothe your Gospel preaching.

The apostle Paul told the Thessalonian church that his proclamation of the Gospel came to them “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thes.1:5). We cannot and must not be content to share the most majestic and glorious salvation message of all time with mere words.

Brethren, I am not advocating that you decide whether or not to proclaim the Gospel based on how you “feel”. Neither am I saying that you have to get crowd of people while open air preaching in order to have been “successful”. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you in power, you do “feel” it, and you do get people to stop and notice. The majority of the time, the power and presence of the God will be evident to the preacher and to those who listen. 

I urge you, brethren, SEEK GOD. Seek Him with all your heart. Run to His feet and stay there as long as you can. Praise Him, walk with Him, talk with Him, intercede for your brethren and for the lost, read your Bible on your knees, praying through His promises. Whatever you do, DO NOT NEGLECT THIS VITAL MEANS OF GRACE. Your spiritual life depends on it. 

Evangelists: powerless preaching can bring death. Christ is the life, and his life is the light of men. Only with His life, His light, and His fire upon your soul can you ever hope to be used of God to win souls for Him. Pray, pray, pray! 

I end with the following quotes from a worthy man of God:

"Oh brother pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer, rather neglect friends than not pray, rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, supper and sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer –we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while The Virgins Slumber."

"I have learned by experience that it is not much labor but much prayer that is the only means to success."

-Andrew Bonar

Some Pics from Christmas Evangelism

Sorry, I've been so busy lately and haven't been able to post much on here. I've finally made the time to share a little about the ministry. Here are some pictures of our Christmas evangelism campaign in el Centro Historico de Guadalajara (Guadalajara's historic center, aka: Downtown). I and two brothers assaulted the enemy's ranks before, during and after Christmas. And also on New Year's Day.

Christmas decorations in the city:

This is not a statue...it's a wierd looking indigenous guy.

We're not on Hollywood Blvd...but it sure does remind one of it. There are various costumed "statue" people like this all throughout Centro. 

Getting ready to preach by the big Christmas tree. 

One of the various signs we made. Since it's not currently possible to make a cross with the above question on it, I figured the next best thing would be to just print out a picture of one. 

My brothers in arms: Alex and Giancarlo. They've just started open-air preaching.

Johnny Mac on Fantasy Books, Movies, and Entertainment

In a GCC Question and Answer session last year John MacArthur was asked if he thought werewolves and vampires are satanic. His reply:

"So do I think it’s satanic? Sure, absolutely. I wouldn’t allow any child at all to get anywhere near that kind of stuff because what it does...they’ve got enough evil in the real world and what it does is create a horrifying unreal world, a fantasy world where you can get away with even worst things.

You know, there are certain confines in the real world? You know what I mean?

...In the real world, certain behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable. In the real world, there’s a level of outrage. But in the world of vampires and werewolves, from what I understand, you can fly through the air and bite off somebody’s head and spit it out, or you can morph yourself into some kind of a horrible ghastly creature that can wreak havoc and massacre cities and people. That is evil the way Satan would want it to be in an unrestrained world. But he can’t pull it off in this world because he is restrained. But in the fantasy world, Satan is unrestrained. And I think that’s all that is, that is a fantasy world in which Satan runs unrestrained. And I...I mean, this comes down to video games, this comes down to books, this comes down to movies, anything that takes people into a fantasy world takes them to a place of danger because there are no boundaries there are no limits for behavior in the fantasy world. And that is why we have the kind of behavior in the real world that goes beyond these bounds to a degree that we’ve never had in human....in our lifetime in the past because people finally obliterate the line between the fantasy world and the real world and they turn in to monsters that do horrendous things that even appalls the criminal element in society.

So I think everything needs to be done by a parent to keep your children out of the fantasy world, keep them out of the unreal world."

A good New Year's Resolution: WAKE UP!

"And that, knowing the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
Romans 13:11-14

New Leonard Ravenhill Biography

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