day 2

This is only a partial. We heard some wonderful preaching from a man who teaches missions at Reformed theological seminary in mississippi. It was wonderful, 30 minutes and that was only his introduction, he will exposit the text today. We got to hit the stadium, and I was dishearted, until I spoke to brandon. Brandon had never heard the law and the gospel, no one has ever explained it to him, and the Lord allowed me to do it. Got to go for now, will update more later.

p.s. Was open air preaching with a crowd and young girl was watching and listening intently and crying, When I saw that I looked strait at her and preached the good news of grace, I don't know whats going on with her, but I was deeply moved. So many stories, so little time. God Bless Ya'll!!!

Day 1

Today we had dinner and heard some great preaching. It was wonderful to be able to fellowship with other brothers and sisters. I met some new friends, Andy Lapins of transfired ministries and darel rundus daughter. Tony Miano Gave a great message on 1 timothy 6. The exegesis was top notch. its day 2 right now and I am gearing up for prayer, breakfast and Tony is preaching Don't Quit. Its a message available at livingwaters.com . I heard snippets on Wretched radio, and I about cried. Its a message of perseverance. Biblical evangelism is hard, but don't quit.

Tampa, we have arrived

We arrived in tampa, the limos met us and took us to the hilton where we had an extensive prayer meeting for the lost, thats all the evangelism we will do this year. Remember, preach the gospel at all times, and use words if necesary. NOT!!! It is necessary to speak and to put feet to our prayers. They are not going to see our love and fall down and repent if we don't tell them. Im so excited, we are about to go pick up a brother in christ at the airport and then we will hear Tony Miano. What a blessing to be in such rich fellowship, not just to be around one another, but to talk about the Lord ALL the time, and the conversation never gets boring, it gets sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. Please pray for us, your prayers are most necessary. God bless

pre-packaged Gospel presentations

I've been pondering the positives and negatives of learning an outline and I think there are pluses and minuses.

Pluses
1. learn more about the Gospel
2. Get the main points right, leave secondary issues secondary
3. Easy to learn a presentation


Minuses
1. can become a robot, not grow in your presentation
2. takes away from a personal study aspect of "What is the Gospel?"


I think there are pluses and minuses. I think there is real value when you make people think. Every Christian should know the Gospel, some know more and deeper, other christians know it more simply, but I think there is value in asking the question "What is the Gospel?" and getting people to answer it instead of just laying an outline out. I also think churches should put their own together, or take a program and customize it. There is always stuff you wish was in a program, but its not in there.

The main points of the message are essential. An already put together outline can do that for you. In my experience, and many others, The learning of an outline is only helpful if you use it, again, and again, and again. You get less mechanical overtime and develop more of a personal proclamation. By personal proclamation i mean, you understand better where people are, and you know where in the presentation to begin.

Find yourself a sinner, and experiment. Don't purposely make a false convert.

Sick and Tired

No really, im sick and tired. I got sick from staying out in the cold from the celine dion concert and now I have pink eye in both eyes. The lord is Good. I went to the skatepark last night while my wife was at work. There were only about 8 kids there and normally I would just leave on account of lack of people, but I thought these 8 people matter, so I stopped. I spoke with Brody, who didn't know anything. I think he was giving me that thing where you pretend to not know anything and try to be cool. Once again, He didn't understand the justice of God. He had never heard that God killed his own son and it pleased him to do it. More and more I am beginning to see how a false/shallow gospel has spread. one that is simple, but never is explained. example: your bad, Jesus died for you, make a decision, move on with life, etc. It is true that your bad and true that Jesus died for sinners like you, but its not expounded and exposited to men and women these days. Its not explained.

Finally, I spoke with Dustin. Our time was so brief, about 10 minutes, but my heart has never been heavier. This young man had a 4-pack of beer, and was so miserable. He didn't care about his life, he blamed God for alot of things, and just as I was really getting involved with him, his mom called and told him to come home. He was so rebellious, but you can see and hear that he is screaming for help. I pray God would save him, and send along other christians in his path.

youth group and childrens church

Heres a thought, and I haven't fully reasearched or thought this out, but just a rambling. Youth groups, childrens church, etc, aren't in the bible. What I mean is breaking up the family in a local church. Im not talking about a special event at a church, but as a part of regular ministry. In Titus the older men are to teach the younger as well as older women teaching younger women. Should we break up the family at all? like I said, im not taking a position here, its just that you can't say Scripture Alone and not deal with this. what do you think? Email me at Benjamind105@gmail.com.

A Harsh Word

I was at a diffrent local church recently to hear a particular person, at the end of the service, the head pastor was to give the invitation. I was horrified when he used man made methods of hand raising and emotion to get decisions. He said "now you might be embaresed, just slip up your hand." He actually did handraising at 2 diffrent times. Eventually someone came forth who was actually a christian, why he came forth I don't know, he didn't need counsel on a sin issue. The particular part of this story I want to focus on is that this man spent thousands of dollars/time and effort in seminary.

Think about this, we support and allow men to spend thousands on a seminary education (which can be great, Im not knocking education) and then allow them to come into a church and say "you might be embarased, just raise your hand, oh please if i don't get a decision my self esteem will go down, oh please." I don't know the heart of that pastor, and im not going to judge his salvation, but why isn't the church body/deacons/elders saying "woa, where is that in the Bible?" My church is supporting a man in seminary now, and I sincerely love him. My desire is to see him become more of a godly man and a better preacher, but out of love for him and who listen, if he were ever to say raise your hand and use man made methods, I would ask him, why are you taking this in your own hands. over and over in scripture the Gospel call is that God COMMANDS all men to REPENT (acts 17). The biblical model is to preach and teach to someone and command them to repent, not get some "decision" that was initiated by you.

Men were tired of Gods commands and they got teachers who preached falsely and sadly, bits of falsehood has crept in to bible teaching church. Being a Berean is not just pointing out blatant heretics, its asking your pastor/elders "Where is this in the bible." Sadly many would even think to ask that question would be rude, its becuase they love pleasing men. We must stop pleasing men and obey God.