Some of the quotes -

“The Danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the bible, Instead we may be worshiping our selves.”

“The price is certainly high for people who don’t know Christ and who live in a world where Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives proclaiming the Kingdom of God, literally billions in need of the gospel remain in the dark.”

Somehow we believe we can still serve God and mammon.

“We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him…. So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide.”

I am only in Chapter three of the book, I have many pages left, but I am already stirred to re-examine my life. I pray God grant me more grace.

I find myself now settled in the city, and after reading part of this book to be re-examining my own dependence upon Christ.  Once we set back in our creature comforts inside our homes, the suburbs and the city don’t look a lot different inside the house, it’s only on the outside things are different. On the inside our dependence upon our schedules, upon our material things, dependence upon our own ideas settle in and our dependence upon God is weakened. We begin again our self-indulgence vs. our self-denial, and we attach to this world as we consume and consume and consume.

Here’s what the sick part as I read the book, we use Jesus to indulge ourselves in Christainity vs. as a motivating factor of denying ourselves. There is a time to study the word, and much time needed, there is a time for retreats, there is a time for conferences, there is a time for music, and preaching, there is time for these things. Yet if these things don’t motivate us to LIVE the self denying life are we denying ourselves picking up our cross and following Jesus? If we are consumers of God’s word only and are not doing what it says what brings us to a different place that some other self-indulgence that we have.   The scary thing is we heap condemnation upon ourselves because we are accountable for what has been made known to us.  We know so much.

However, of we are not taking risk for His Kingdom, His Glory, His purposes, then are we walking out the faith we are consuming Him for ourselves?

Has it gone beyond the mind, has it moved to the heart? If it has in any degree someone’s going to think “You’re Crazy.” What’s wrong with them, they have all of this opportunity for “STUFF” for “SELF-ASSURANCE” for “MONEY”, “SECURITY” yet they deny themselves, what’s wrong with them?   

The world, and even most of the American church will think you’re out of your mind if you live this way.

Two bystanders hurt in gas station crash

Question:

Why would you move somewhere unsafe?  Why would you move to the city?

Answer: Jesus

It is always good to reflect on this from time to time. Note the word “Undetected”

This links arm in arm with what we’ve studied in our Shepherding Group over the past year, in the CJ Mahaney Book on Humility as well as the paper hand out of the 30 manifestations of pride from Exemplary Husband. If anyone wants to know further about the picture of the bagel and cream cheese, it’s from one of the great illustration in the book on Humility by CJ Mahaney.

As for the reading of the Edwards peace below, it is wise to read it first and think ONLY of yourself and not others while reading it. It’s easier to see pride in others and yet the purpose of it is to seek to cast down pride and cultivate humility in ones self.

Undetected Spiritual Pride by Jonathan Edwards

The first and worst cause of errors that abound in our day and age is spiritual pride. This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead the judgment.

Pride is the main handle by which he has hold of Christian persons and the chief source of all the mischief that he introduces to clog and hinder a work of God. Spiritual pride is the main spring or at least the main support of all other errors. Until this disease is cured, medicines are applied in vain to heal all other diseases.

It is by spiritual pride that the mind defends and justifies itself in other errors and defends itself against light by which it might be corrected and reclaimed. The spiritually proud man thinks he is full of light already and feels that he does not need instruction, so he is ready to ignore the offer of it.

On the other hand, the humble person is like a little child who easily receives instruction. He is cautious in his estimate of himself, sensitive as to how liable he is to go astray. If it is suggested to him that he is going astray, he is most ready to check into the matter.

Nothing sets a Christian so much out of the devil s reach than humility and so prepares the mind for divine light without darkness. Humility clears the eye to look at things as they truly are. Psalm 25:9—He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way.

If spiritual pride is healed, other things are easily corrected. Our first care should be to correct the heart and pull the beam of pride out of our eye and then we shall see clearly.

Growing Christians Beware!

Those who are most zealous in the cause of God are the most likely to be targeted as being filled with pride. When any person appears, in any respect, to be noticeably excelling others in his Christian walk, odds are ten to one that it will immediately awaken the jealousy of those about him.

They will suspect (whether they have good reason or not) that he is very proud of his goodness and that he probably thinks no one as good as he is, so that everything he says and does is observed with this prejudice.

Those who are themselves cold and dead, and especially those who have never had any experience of the power of godliness on their own hearts, will easily entertain such thoughts of the best Christians. This arises from nothing less than a secret hostility against essential and fervent holiness.

But the zealous Christian should take heed that this does not prove a snare to him, and the devil take advantage of it to blind his eyes from beholding the true nature of his heart and to think that because he is charged with pride wrongfully and with an unkind spirit, that such charges are not sometimes valid.

Alas, how much pride the best have in their hearts! It is the worst part of the body of sin and death; the first sin that ever entered into the universe and the last that is rooted out. It is God s most stubborn enemy!

Pride: a Secret Enemy

Pride is much more difficult to be discerned than any other corruption because of its very nature. That is, pride is a person having too high an opinion of himself. Is it any surprise, then, that a person who has too high an opinion of himself is unaware of it? His thinking is that he thinks that the opinion he has of himself has just grounds and therefore is not too high. If the grounds of the opinion of himself crumbled, he would cease to have such an opinion.

But, because of the nature of spiritual pride, it is the most secret of all sins. There is no other matter in which the heart is more deceitful and unsearchable and there is no other sin in the world that men are so confident in. The very nature of it is to work self-confidence and drive away any suspicion of any evil of that kind. There is no sin so much like the devil as this for secrecy and subtlety, and appearing in great many shapes that are undetected and unsuspected.

Spiritual pride takes many forms and shapes, one under another, and encompasses the heart like the layers of an onion: when you pull off one, there is another underneath. Therefore, we have need to have the greatest watch imaginable over our hearts with respect to this matter and to cry most earnestly to the great Searcher of hearts for His help. He that trusts his own heart is a fool.

Since spiritual pride in its own nature is so secret, it cannot be so well discerned by immediate intuition on the thing itself. It is best identified by its fruits and effects, some of which I will make mention of below together with the contrary fruits of Christian humility.

Pride: the Great Fault-finder

Spiritual pride causes one to speak of other persons sins, their enmity against God and His people, or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt, while pure Christian humility disposes either to be silent about them or to speak of them with grief or pity.

The spiritually proud person shows it in his finding fault with other saints, that they are low in grace and how cold and dead they are, and are quick to discern and take notice of their deficiencies. The eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

He complains most of himself and complains most of his own coldness and lowness in grace. He is apt to esteem others as better than himself and is ready to hope that most everybody has more love and thankfulness to God than he, and cannot bear to think that others should bring forth no more fruit to God s honor than he.

Some who have spiritual pride mixed with great learning and joy, earnestly speaking to others about them, are likely to be calling upon other Christians to emulate them and sharply reprove them for their being so cold and lifeless.

There are others who are overwhelmed with their own vileness, and when they have extraordinary discoveries of God’s glory, they are taken up by their own sinfulness. Though they are disposed to speak much and very earnestly, yet it is very much in blaming themselves and exhorting fellow Christians, but in a loving and humble manner.

Pure Christian humility causes a person to take notice of everything that is good in others, to make the best of it and to diminish their failings; however, he turns his eye chiefly on those things that are bad in himself and to take much notice of everything that aggravates them.

Pride: Ministering in a Harsh Spirit

It has been the manner of spiritually proud persons to speak of almost everything they see in others in the most harsh, severe language. It is frequent with them to say of other’s opinion, conduct, advice, coldness, silence, caution, moderation, prudence, etc. that they are from the devil or from hell.

Such kind of language they will commonly use, not only towards wicked men, but towards those who are true children of God and also towards ministers of the gospel and others who are very much their superiors. Christians who are but fellow-worms ought at least to treat one another with as much humility and gentleness as Christ treats them.

Pride: Putting on Pretenses

Spiritual pride often causes persons to act different in external appearance, to effect a different way of speaking, to use a different sort of dialect from others, or to be different in voice, countenance or behavior. But he that is an eminently humble Christian, though he will be firm in his duty, however different — going the way of heaven alone, though all the world forsake him — yet he does not delight in being different for difference s sake.

He does not try to set himself up to be viewed and observed as one distinguished, as desiring to be accounted better than others — despising their company or conformity to them — but on the contrary, desires to become all things to all men, to yield to others and conform to them and please them in all but sin.

Pride: Takes Offence Easily

Spiritual pride takes great notice of opposition and injuries that are received and is prone to be often speaking of them and to be much in taking notice of their aggravation, either with an air of bitterness or contempt.

Pure and unmixed Christian humility, on the other hand, causes a person to be more like his blessed Lord when reviled: quiet, not opening his mouth, but committing himself in silence to Him who judges righteously. For the humble Christian, the more the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be, unless it is in his prayer closet, and there he will not be still.

Pride: Presumption Before God and Man

Another effect of spiritual pride is a certain self-confident boldness before God and men. Some, in their great rejoicing before God, have not paid sufficient regard to that rule in Psalm 2:11 — Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.

They have not rejoiced with a reverential trembling, in a proper sense of the awful majesty of God and the awful distance between Him and them. There has also been an improper boldness before men that has been encouraged and defended by a misapplication of Proverbs 29:25 — The fear of man brings a snare… It is as though it became all persons, high and low, men, women and children in all Christian conversation to wholly abandon all manner of modesty or reverence toward man.

Not that any should refrain from Christian conversation, but with such humility as in I Peter 3:15—But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

Pride: Hungry for Attention

Another effect of spiritual pride is to make the subject of it want attention. People often tend to act in a special manner as though others ought to take great notice and regard of them. It is very natural to a person that is very much under the influence of spiritual pride to take all the respect that is paid to him.

If others show a disposition to submit to him and yield in deference to him, he is open to it and freely receives it. It becomes natural for him to expect such treatment and to take much notice if a person fails to do so, and to have an ill opinion of those who do not give him that which he feels he deserves.

One under the influence of spiritual pride is more apt to instruct others than to inquire for himself and so naturally puts on the airs of control. The eminently humble Christian thinks he needs help from everybody, whereas he that is spiritually proud thinks everybody needs his help. Christian humility, under a sense of other’s misery, entreats and beseeches, but spiritual pride tries to command and warn with authority.

Pride: Neglecting Others

As spiritual pride causes persons to assume much to themselves, so it treats others with neglect. On the contrary, pure Christian humility disposes persons to honor all men as from I Peter 2:17. To enter into disputes about Christianity is sometimes unseasonable, such as in meeting for Christian conference or for exercises of worship.

Yet, we ought to be very careful that we do not refuse to converse with carnal men, as though we counted them not worthy to be regarded. On the contrary, we should condescend to carnal men as Christ has condescended to us, to bear with our unteachableness and stupidity.

This last Saturday morning I woke up early, looked outside, and I saw the beautiful morning sun. Normally I am up earlier than the sun however this morning I was waking as the sun came up, I slept in due to the fact that it has been a long couple of weeks.

I had told a friend of mine Darrell DeGreve ‘s that this particular morning I had hoped to see one of my wife’s uncle’s attend the Biker’s for Christ Conference. Over Easter we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with my wife’s Uncle Charlie, who owns a Harley and loves to ride. He didn’t respond that day, however he called my wife an wanted to talk to her about something the next day. Unfortunately he ended up not calling.

Even though my wife’s uncle passed on coming to the conference, I was assured that I could still attend only owning a mini-van and a few big wheels that the children have for going up and down the street.
Two of the reasons I wanted to attend were, the bikers for Christ, and UrbanReformation have a similar passion. One of their main slogans is,

“Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bells; we want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell!”

The heart of Bikers For Christ is to reach out to the uttermost. Darrell DeGreeve has been a friend to me since before I officially attended FCC, in fact he and his Biker’s for Christ crew had much influence in my attending our current Church. He is an evangelist at the heart and desires to see men and women come to know Christ in a real and authentic way.

And Saturday’s conference reminded me of Luke 7:47.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47

The morning started out with a biker who was in a gang up in Detroit, MI. I can’t recall how long he was in the gang he was in but he said he was fourth from the top in charge. His testimony was humbling, and convicting at the same time. He brought up some things we know are true but we seldom take the time to meditate upon. I won’t go into the details of his testimony but the challenge he had for us was twofold, study the word to show yourself approved, and the fact that Christian’s and Christianity is under a microscope. That it is our public witness in which many people claim to be the reason for which they will not ever be Christian. Bill was a pretty rough looking character with a transformed heart in Jesus Christ, and he told us an incredible story of how he saw someone raised from the dead on a Cambodian Mission’s trip, and also of his love and care for a guy whom he went on the trip with who did not know Christ. He spent much of the time witnessing to him and is still praying for him to know Christ. I was moved by his sincerity and you could see this man was changed by God, not on the outside but transformed on the inside.

We had a small break and our pastor from FCC spoke next on “Drift” from Hebrews 2. He recounted how he recently was riding a bike when he went to do a Men’s Conference out of state and it took just a few seconds of not paying close attention to the road and he began to drift away, and could have nearly wrecked. Thankfully this did not occur, but he noted that the only kind of drift to do is away. If we are not being intentional with our walk with God we are drifting. There is no middle ground there’s no drifting toward Christ, thus the stressor on being “Intentional.”

I unfortunately had to cut it short before I got an opportunity to hear the Frank & Marie Drown. I have heard their testimony of the things God did in their life time in their mission to the Head Hunters in Ecuador for thirty seven years, and how God did miraculous amazing things with only their Hope in God to sustain them. I hope to hear the rest I believe it was captured on Video.

All in all this was the Kansas City Chapter’s first Annual Biker’s for Christ Conference and will not be the last. I look forward to more from them in the future, and hearing about what God is doing through this ministry.
May all those who have been forgiven much love as much as these guys do, and go after souls for the time in short, and the time is now!

Let me carefully point out in this chapter they also discuss legalism and license, and rectify the fact that this must be grace motivated obedience not a tool to earn righteousness before God’s eyes.  There is a slippery slope on each side, but so often because we are scared of being legalistic, or afraid of assaulting Christian liberty we leave these topics alone, to the detriment of being lulled asleep by our culture, as the enemy attacks us in our hypnotic trance  of media !

The book then comes out with a statement that Ephesians not only commands us to discern what is pleasing to God but identifies what is displeasing!

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. – Ephesians 5:3

The NIV which they quote in the book, says there shouldn’t even be a “Hint” of sexual immorality, because these are improper for God’s Holy people.  They say it’s hard to imagine a stronger statement than “Not Even A Hint” of sexual immorality.

We can barely drive down the street without seeing skin on billboard, not to mention the commercials on television.  Our sinful hearts as men at least are always seeking to attach their affections on something other than God, and often for men it is the lust of the eyes.  These are difficult things for men to deal with.  I noticed in an up coming chapter there is “God My Heart & Stuff ” so there are things in this book for everyone!

Some questions they give in chapter two to help your own heart evaluate media go as follows:

Time Questions:

• Am I skipping or delaying something important in order to watch this now?
• What are my other social/entertainment options besides watching television or going out to see a movie?
• How much time have I already spent on media today?
• How much time have i spent surfing the internet?  How much time have I spent blogging or maintaining an online presence through social network sites?
• In the last week, how much time have I spent on spiritual disciplines, building relationships, or  serving in my local church compared to time spent consuming media?

There are more questions ( Read the Book)

Heart Questions:

• Why do I want to watch this program or film?  What do I find entertaining about it?
• Am I seeking to escape from something I should be facing by watching this?  Am I seeking comfort or relief that can be found only in God?
• What sinful temptations will this program or film present?
• Do I secretly want to view something in it that is sinful?  Am I deceiving myself by saying “I’ll fast-forward through the boad parts?”
• Similarly, am I telling myself, “I’ll just visit this website once, and I won’t click on any other links I find there?”
• Am I watching because I’m bored or lazy?  What does that reveal about my heart?

There are more questions ( Read the Book)

Content Questions:

• What worldview or philosophy of life does this program or film present?  What’s the view of man’s nature?  What’s the view of sin?  Is sin identified as such?  What’s the view of God’s ordained authority figures?  And how do these views relate to God’s view?
• What does this program or film glamorize?  What is valued or considered important?
• Who are the heroes?  Why are they heroic?
• Is sin shown as having negative consequences? Or is sin glorified or rewarded?  Is sin presented in an appealing or seductive way?
• What is the sexual content?  Is there nudity?  Sensual or seductive dress?  Are there images, language, or humor that is sexually impure?
• Is sinful self-sufficiency honored?  Are the heroic characters concerned for others or merely themselves?
• Does the program portray materialism as “the good life”?

There are more questions ( Read the Book)

So some takeaways, but not all the possible takeaways from chapter 2 are;     to be proactive and purposeful as you move toward sanctification in your viewing habbits, to live coram deo or “before the face of God”, to ask God honoring God glorifying questions as you choice by choice in your media selection seek to proactively not passively honor Him.  They also spoke about some media being permissible but not all things are beneficial, and these are things to ask ourselves as we desire to be conformed to the image of Christ not only on the outside but as we allow God to form these God honoring habbits from the inside out within our hearts!

I can’t help to be amazed at all the fodder going on for new President Barak Obama’s presidential Inauguration.  Some of the things I’m hearing and seeing from people, well to put it simply has me in once sense grieving, and in another in complete amazement. How quick we are to elevate someone who can speak well and is black to Savior status in the United States, as if “black” is equal to “right” or “righteous.”  Blind faith in a man who is only a hero because of the color of his skin and how well he orates.  He has captivated the American people in a hypnotic and charismatic fervor which tickles the ears of so many who are satisfied with a cheap imitation of a man of character in place of the real thing.

As long as we tell the American people can give them more, it matters little to us “more of what,” we are settled in the hypnosis of his speeches.  We have come to judge this man based solely on the color of his skin and speech rather than the content of his character?  This is a far cry from what Dr. King would have suggested when he gave his, “I have a dream speech,”  and spoke of a man’s character.

Obama’s character tries to teach that sinful sexual choices are on an even playing field with racism and racial divides, changing complete categories from homosexuality to race.  There is only one race and it’s the human race, and I do long for a day when we may not see the color of someone’s skin but see men as sinners all on the same ground before a Holy God, and in need of repentance and faith.

Obama’s character promotes the wholesale Holocaust of the unborn.  These compartmentalization’s in order to settle our own consciences(Romans 1) before God are sometimes overwhelming when we examine truthfully that location of a baby does not take away its personage, we know deep down in the quietness of our hearts that there is something wrong here.  It takes a man of character, such as Abe Lincoln, to stand up against such a thing as slavery and challenge the sinful yet popular view of  long held wrong beliefs of a nation.  In the same way it would take a man of character to stand up against a sinful ideology which allows murder for self-preservation’s sake.  We guard self and will die only for self.  This is the character of Obama.

There are some senses in which I am proud of a nation in which could overcome prejudice in the initial and original spirit of civil rights, and vote for a black man to be in the office of the President of the United States.  However as I have been hearing the commentators, and professing Christians, it is as if people believe that the wrong done in America’s early history can be rectified.  As if in someway there can be an “ATONEMENT” for the sin of our country.  We do not understand that there is no atonement or healing for our nation for which any man other than the God man Jesus Christ can atone.  He is the only one that can bring healing, and reconciliation yet we once again have elevated a man to ‘God status’, or rather in this case the vocabulary of so many is frightening, it would seem as if so many see Obama as the savior of mankind.

So yes Christians pray for our President, pray for Obama’s conversion and pray for our country, pray for the many deceived professing evangelicals who have voted for this man not for the content of his character but by the color of his skin.  Pray that our nation would stop seeing groups and see one race, and know that Jesus Christ is the only one who can atone for the sins of a nation, He paid the penalty for sin on the cross once for all for those who believe, but those who do not believe…. they are condemned already.  John 3:16-17

Obama has let it be known his political agenda for abortion and homosexual rights.  This is distinctly un-Christian (Matthew 7:13-28).  He’s demonstrated these extreme points to America, may God use this time to call those who are his to himself as a tidal wave of sin is about to move over a nation, and we sit idly by with no repentance toward the God that created us.

Repentance begins with me.

As if the day weren’t over, Bobby and I drove down to Sonic on the Avenue, and we got out of the car reflecting on the events of the night.  We were going to order, and sit out at the tables provided there.  All of a sudden a lady came over and barged in front of us and pushed the button.  I could go into the details of the conversation however, I won’t, suffice it to say, this is what came out of her mouth.  “I’m a crack whore, trying to do the right thing tonight and eat.”  We tried to share the gospel with her, her name is Shanna.  She told us that she is from Overland Park, that her families owns a large business in Overland Park, and that she’s the disgrace to her families name.  We told her about Jesus and the Gospel and she didn’t seem to listen, again seemingly seared by the unconscionable sins that she’s put herself through on the streets.

I asked if we could take her picture and she said yes, and then she asked me if I thought she was going to die tonight.  I said, “I don’t know.”  You could see in the backdrop of her eyes when she wasn’t squinting, that this isn’t where she’s from or what she used to do but her life is captured and captivated by sin, and again it must be God alone who saves.  I urged her to the cross and told her that Jesus came to set, we, the captives free. We told her to trust Jesus, but there seemed a solid seared heart unreachable by the means of men, we pray for Shanna that God would have mercy, redeem and save her as only He can!

These remnant thoughts, or ideals were a heritage or legacy of our upbringing, and passed down through generations.  We have a culture of working class citizens who live for self entirely sacrificing their children for their prosperity, and then a large influx of immigrant population which is greatly influencing our faith based principles in the United States.  All of these factors and the harsh economic times caused by “the love of money / greed”, brings us to the reality of where our country is headed toward, as it drifts further and further away from the God it once acknowleged.

As I came in this morning to work, and the cool air hit me as I walked toward the building I had a heavy heart for our country.  This years election is devastating to say the least, when there is a choice between the most liberal socialist Dem candidate to walk the face of the U.S. and the most liberal Rep candidate that we’ve ever seen in the GOP, it leaves you with little earthly hope.

I am always encouraged however when I begin to have these thoughts, to lift my eyes and realize that this is not our home, and as our pastor put it last Wednesday, there will be no politician that will be the salvation of anyone.  Only Jesus Christ is the true living hope.

“….. Because I live, you also will live.” – John 14:9

We face the temporal realities of where we live, the evidence or fruit of our society leaving God, man constantly trying to be his own God and under our own authority, and where does this take us every time?

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  – Romans 6:23

We do not recognize that our own self-indulgence is killing us, harming our families, & children, as we earn our wages of death.  Blindness covers our eyes, and the media medicated blanket that has numbed and dulled our minds,  has captivated our hearts in anticipation for the next  morsel of T.V. gossip/news.    The world has made this place so inviting, appeasing every comfort and call of our flesh, and it keys upon the sin of man.  We fall prey to all of these enticements in our own lamb like stupidity, drifting drifting, drifting away…. often the church attached to the world verses being a change of society or a symbol of the Anchor we have in Jesus Christ, and the true faithfulness of God.

Most churches with believers have left the inner-city following the society, because it was easier, or more comfortable, there was less crime or social issues to actually deal with, however a few people recently @ FCC have been swimming against the tidal wave of society with one singular assurance, the the Gospel of Jesus Christ we know is the only eternal hope of men & women, and it it is in this one truth and hope that these families transplanted their families into the hood….

This picture was taken on Independence Avenue the same day a family moved down into the NE hood in viewing distance of their home.  This is one family of several families who’ve sold their home in the suburbs and moved down to be a part of ministering to the poor and needy in the city, not sewing financially into the the failing world market but sewing eternally into the lives of those captivated by sin and the world.

As believers we have the hope of Christ… so what are we doing with this hope? and how often have we let it out from underneath the bowl to let someone know where the true anchor is when everything else fails?  The only thing that will change a society is a change of the heart, and the only one who can change the hearts of men and remove a stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh is God . . . . Ezekiel 36

I was driving to work through the city today, heavy with the nation yet with amazing hope for the things God’s doing in the city!  God is a good God…..

Jim Bublitz explains the style of “The Way of The Master” evangelism, the pros and the cons of Ray Comforts style. I have always been always a little wary of The Way of the Master stuff because of my fear of it being disingenuous and insincere when sharing Christ.  God’s not a gimmick or even for sale.  However they have some great ways to equip believers in an non rote manner and confront them with the truth of the bible. As always cling to the good and throw out the bad. Here’s the article enjoy!

Mailbag: “The Way of the Master” Evangelism?

Jim: My church is really pushing “The Way of the Master“. I’m having a little trouble with the “confrontational method” utilized by Comfort and Cameron. I’ve never met anyone that will stay in a conversation like some of the people shown in the videos. Most of the people I’ve approached using similar methods tell me to get lost within a minute or two. I have a hard time believing that people are converted on the street with the ease it seems to portray. Do you have any comments or opinions? Am I underestimating God and the power of the Gospel? –Keith

Keith, I hope you don’t mind that I’ve decided to answer your question in a blog post, but I thought others might benefit from this conversation as well. What follows is just my opinion, and I’m sure that others will disagree with what I have to say on this one.

Years ago, I was a huge “Ray Comfort junkie”; everywhere I went I handed out his tracts, and I took people through his evangelism outline. I had all of his videos, and audios, and up until recently – the place where I get my hair cut had one of Ray Comfort’s “million dollar bill tracts” that I gave them, tacked up on their wall

As you know, Ray Comfort (and The Way of the Master) teach you to evangelize using the law (the 10 commandments). That’s the heart of his evangelism method, and that part is really good. I still use this approach when I have an opportunity to share the Lord with someone.

Using the law is old time evangelism, the way it used to be done. Ray Comfort admits to swiping this approach from the great evangelists and preachers of the past. When you read his books, you’ll see him constantly quoting many Calvinist soul winners from past centuries (Spurgeon, Whitefield, Pink, etc). A few weeks ago, I wrote a John Bunyan posting based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, which essentially teaches the same thing Ray Comfort teaches today. Bunyan wrote that way back in the 17th century.

Ray Comfort is correct in asserting that using ‘the law’ is a lost key of evangelism today. Where is that in Evangelism Explosion, or Bill Bright’s 4 spiritual laws? I have a huge box sitting here next to me, filled with many hundreds of sample tracts from various tract publishers; almost none of them mention the 10 commandments. So I’m delighted that Ray has gone back in time and brought forward the use of the law in evangelism, which is biblical. I encourage everyone to check out his website and see how he uses the law.

Now on to the things that I don’t particularly care for, in The Way of The Master. After a while, it started to bother my conscience that I was handing out tracts that employed deception as a means of bait. The idea is, most people won’t take a normal tract when you hand it to them, so if we give them something that looks like ‘money’ or a magic trick or a pamphlet of jokes, then people will take it from you. Somewhere on each of those
tricky tracts, there is a Gospel message hidden, where the reader will find it later (long after you are gone). It’s a bit of a bait and switch, and often with Ray’s tracts – the most important message in the universe is packaged in something wacky, corny, or gimmicky in my opinion. In a different sort of way, it smacks of the pragmatism that the Church Growth Movement uses, when they (for example) put a NASCAR stock car in their church parking lot on a Sunday morning, to get people to come to church, and – oh by the way . . . listen to a sermon too.

Another concern that I have with the way this evangelism method is often implemented, is typical for today. The person you are witnessing to is sometimes encouraged to do something that will cause themselves to become born again. That’s the modern error of Decisional Regeneration (you make a decision for Christ, and then you are saved). There’s a fine line here that we must walk in our evangelism. We want to put the onus on them to come to Christ (believe and repent), but we don’t want to give them the impression that they can decide to “choose Christ” anytime they want (ie: on their death bed) and their salvation will then be triggered by their mere act of ‘decision’.

You can modify (improve) Ray Comfort’s evangelism outline however, by encouraging the unbeliever to come to Christ in a way similar to what Charles Spurgeon did. If you scroll down on this page, you’ll find one of Spurgeon’s invitations to come to Christ. In a nutshell, he gave people the impression that there is nothing they can do to save themselves. That whole page is worth reading, as it deals with this topic of Decisional Regeneration.

Keith, I know that I haven’t answered your question yet, so I’ll try to do that now.

You are asking about whether this evangelism method is too confrontational, and whether the videos make it look too easy. I’m sure that the videos represent the best of their evangelism attempts. One can only imagine the ratio of rejections to successes. But they are just trying to show you how well it can work, since these are training videos after all.

I personally don’t think that anything Ray Comfort does is too confrontational. We live in a world where people are going to hell all around us, and that should cause us to strive in our personal witnessing. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others“.
We don’t just talk to them, we don’t just recite a pre-recorded message and then leave, we try to persuade them. So, whereas I don’t think you should be aggressive to the point of being rude or highly disruptive, I do think it would be good for most of us to be more assertive with the greatest message that man can possibly hear.

I think there is some value in “street witnessing”, but we must also remember that we are commanded to make disciples, not do “hit and run evangelism”. Some might say that the book of Acts is filled with street witnessing, but I think Paul was in the habit of staying for a while, in the places that he street witnessed.

There are other issues that I could get into, such as Ray Comfort’s unfortunate decision to participate on TBN, and when (and whether) tracts are a legitimate means of fulfilling the great commission, but I’ll leave those issues up for debate in the comment section below.

I will say this in favor of The Way of The Master, if Christians everywhere switched to this type of evangelism, it would be a huge improvement over what typically takes place today, and there would be far fewer false converts. Ray Comfort is not afraid to talk about sin, God’s wrath, punishment, and even “the H-word”; these are subjects too often avoided in modern churches.

Keith, if I did not adequately address your questions, please let me know, in the comments below.

On a humorous note, I just noticed that Ray Comfort has a new Billion Dollar Bill with Spurgeon on it instead of a president. I may have to get some of those to use as book markers. Also, I can not even begin to tell you how many females that I have scared with this jumping insect that Ray Comfort sells. We have family videos of me terrifying my wife’s friends with it:-)

http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=O9230-00-41

1. The Unstoppable Gospel
2. Gifted for Evangelism ——-(We are here in the series)
3. Becoming a Friend of Sinners
4. Breaking the Sound Barrier
5. Proclaim the Bad News
6. Proclaim the Good News
7. Putting the Go in Gospel

These things seem to provoke all sorts of feelings in people, and what’s been a blessing about this series is that it makes concession for all sorts of things, in style, and personality, but it also puts before us all that we all have an obligation in our own way to present the gospel. To be mindful of Christ and to share Christ.

Last evening a David H. and I went to the Avenue after watching the video to share the gospel with those whom we would encounter by God’s grace. We met a young lady named “Nell”. She was a prostitute and we asked her if we could ask her some questions about spiritual things? She said sure… and as we attempted to share with Nell about spiritual things she gave us the argument that we don’t know wrote the bible, that there is a pimp bible. She told us how she’s had more guns pulled on her than anyone, that she should be dead, however she believes in all religions. She believes in wicca, paganism, budah, and Christianity. We attempted to demonstrate that this is impossible, David took her to John 14:6 where Jesus says HE is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through Him. At that point she took off down the street and wouldn’t speak to us any longer.

We also came upon three people who had been drinking heavily. Ivan, Tony, and Joyce. Ivan waved us over and he proceeded to ask me for my bible. This is my ESV bible. It was a bible that was given to me by my wife, it is the one I read all the time, and all my highlights, underlines, and comments made are in this bible. My wife gave me this bible, and not in vanity, but because I often would give my bibles away over the years without people asking, but this time she had my name put on the outside. I often take it with me when I go out, I never thought the day would come when someone would ask me for it. I had copies of the gospel of John, I attempted to give this to Ivan. He said no he’d prefer to have my bible because the print was big enough for him to read.

He said that he knew about Jesus, and would quote some scripture. He had read proverbs, and proceeded to tell us that he loved prostitutes. Even though proverbs gives warnings of them he still loves prostitutes. We went to Matthew 7, I spoke about fruit. I talked to him about speaking out of two sides of his mouth by saying he believes in Jesus yet he still lives for the world. I told him that he loves to much the things of this world that fruit trees produce fruit, and thorn trees produce thorns, and you can’t say you’re a fruit tree and produce thorns in the same way you can’t say you’re a believer and your entire life love prostitutes, drinkin and drugs more than you love Christ.

I wrestle with these things, as even in this moment I think of people like “Donna”, who is unlike Ivan. Ivan see still loves the things of this world, and Donna well it was visible that she did not love the things of this world, but she in fact hated them, but did them anyway.

Please pray for Nell, who refused to head or hear the gospel, and pray for Ivan who heard it, and although drinking he seemed confronted with the truth, and acknowledging it took my bible with him after we spent some time in prayer for him.

I must tell you I learned a lesson here, #1 never take your favorite bible out witnessing! but #2 God is sovereign and God is constantly testing my grip to see how tightly I hold on to material things.

It wasn’t like losing my bible in a fire, where I had no choice, which I’m sure that is painful enough in itself, but it was the pain of releasing my grip on God’s Word so that it could in all Hope in Christ, be imparted to someone who is with out Christ.

I woke up this morning without it, it was like a time of mourning this morning…… I pray that it is used for God’s Glory.

Some might say I cast pearls before swine, I have to say I don’t know, but I did what I thought I Christ would do.  Either way may God’s name be made great among the nations, in Kansas City, and in the North East.

I’m not big on the new phraseology of “Missional” however I am seeing its point. It’s difficult to scale the language barrier as I can see that some words are modifying and changing to have new meanings. I believe missional is meaning ‘with purpose.’ Or some use the word intentional. Missional, purposeful, intentional living within the Urban core for the purpose of Christ.

Have a listen and leave some comments!

Urban and Missional (Nehemiah 11:1-36)

Part.1
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=cc4bb41090e25bcc1fdc

Part.2

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3d2f9054e435162755ff

Part.3
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4cdba00a26baa58cb444

Part.4
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=270f4e325d44cb463c78

Part.5
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5bcd695e277e7a8ae889

Part.6
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f9f27b285e58d37441bd