Memories

How many of us gamers have their favorite Call of Duty or Halo maps memorized? How bout that Madden playbook? Hardcore fans of that beloved football franchise can most likely navigate their way through their favorite plays blindfolded. For those that come here who aren't gamers it could be something else that occupies brain cells. Plots of the their weekly TV shows or stats from their local professional sports teams can fill up their memory banks. How about God's Word? Is their room for that in all of the other unimportant things we fill our minds, days and lives with? It is imperative that we commit God's Word to memory. It will not only help when witnessing, it will improve your relationship with God as well. You will have insight into His will for your life dwelling in you all the time and that can't be a bad thing. My wife made the point that there might be a day soon where bibles become illegal. The more of God's word we have in our hearts the better if that happens, Amen? So make it a habit each day to not only read your bible but also commit at least one verse to memory. Before you pick up the controller, remote, sports page, favorite website, or novel, pick up God's Word and read it. Don't let the excuse of not liking to read get between you and God's Word. You can get the bible on audio. Have someone read it to you. Get the living Word any way you can. Make that your call of duty today. You'll be glad you did.

Psalm 119:11 (New International Version)

¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

Instant Replay?

Well, with football season upon us, the subject of replay comes to mind. The ol' pigskin isn't my actual reason for thinking about this. My buddy John who I got to hang out with on Saturday brought up an interesting view about replays. He mentioned that he wondered if in Hell, people would be able to see a replay of their lives that showed them over and over every time they had the chance to accept the Gospel. Wow. What a concept! That would be a horrible, horrible thing. Now to add to his thought I bring you this. What if they also saw every time a Christian ignored God's command to share with them and did not. What if they saw all of the times that divine appointments were squashed by fear of man. What if that was the day these sinners were open to hearing it? What if you could have made the difference with a bit of obedience? We'll die one day too but we, as ones escaping through the flames sitting in our tiny mansions, won't have to worry about it then I guess. Will you worry about it today? Can you think of your unsaved friend or family sitting in Hell seeing all those times you were too scared to bring up Jesus? Sure, maybe you are a champion at relationship evangelism. Was the Gospel ever shared while you were playing friend of sinner and citing it as following Jesus' footsteps? Make sharing the Gospel the forefront of your relationships. I know this high tech Hades is all highly unlikely but you don't want to be on Hell's highlight reel. I know I don't. If it is real, the weeping over the rejection video will be overshadowed by people gnashing their teeth at the video of Christians who could care less that all these sinners were headed to Hell. After further review, share the Gospel today.

Matthew 8:12 (New International Version)

¹²But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Project Ezra - Jeremiah 7

Folks this weeks Project Ezra is Jeremiah 7, please take the time to read it and find someplace public to read it, either read it on Xbox Live, PS Home, or better yet find someplace where you can take your Bible and go read it aloud to the public.  That is the purpose of Project Ezra, do not be afraid of what others think of you, go proclaim!

Jeremiah 7

False Religion Worthless

 ¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : ² "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message:
      " 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. ³ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!"⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. ⁹ " 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-safe to do all these detestable things? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
 ¹² " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. ¹⁴ Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. ¹⁵ I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'
 ¹⁶ "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
 ²⁰ " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.
 ²¹ " 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. ²⁴ But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. ²⁶ But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.'
 ²⁷ "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. ²⁸Therefore say to them, 'This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. ²⁹ Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

The Valley of Slaughter

 ³⁰ " 'The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. ³¹ They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. ³² So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ³³ Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ³⁴ I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.

Dallas Ezra

While my very brief stay in Dallas I was able to read that weeks Project Ezra in Dallas Open Air. That weeks reading was Proverbs 8 and was really amazing to read the Word aloud and see people stop and listen or turn from a distance and others mock or make fun of you. The wall behind me was a waterfall and its words spoke loud, it was right between two street corners and there were many who heard and turned and listened. I did not springboard from this reading, it was the last thing we did that night and it was around 110 degrees I hadn't had a drink in hours and my voice and throat were near collapse. Thanks to Tim Crawford picking me up from the Airport and opening his home to me and taking me downtown Dallas to proclaim the Gospel. It was a time I will never forget.

Open Air Dallas

So I had the opportunity to do some open air while in Dallas this week. I met up with Tim Crawford who showed me some places he goes fishing. God was so good and provided so many people to talk to and hear His Word.

Lunatic or Son of God?

‘I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as the great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a boiled egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.’-C.S. Lewis

I love that quote by C.S. Lewis. Everyone wants to change who Jesus is. The Muslims say He was a prophet. Jehovah's Witnesses say He was the Archangel Michael. Mormons believe He is the spirit brother of Satan. The world will tolerate Him as a good teacher. Think of your favorite teacher? Mine was Mrs. Goode in 5th grade. Ever think your teacher was so good of a teacher that you should nail them to a cross? So like Mr. Lewis said there's only a couple options here. Jesus was God in flesh and took the sins of the world upon Himself or He was out of His mind. We truly aren't give a lot of choice here. You can't just change who He says He is. You can choose(with your God-given free will) not to believe Him but who are we to change someones identity for them? He even gives us warning of this in the Gospel of John. Chapter 8:24 says, "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." The minute Jesus claimed Deity and accepted worship, He took away our options. He could no longer be considered a good, moral person if He was lying about being God and being blasphemous by accepting worship. It just doesn't work. The underlying problem is sin and the one found in the midst of all this is idolatry. It's a matter of people wanting God on their terms and making one to fit their own needs. Jehovah's witnesses don't believe that their god will send someone to Hell. That's because that god doesn't exist. If Jesus wasn't God and was just one of the prophets, then the Muslims would have a leg to stand on with Muhammad and likewise the Mormons with Joseph Smith. But Jesus was fully God and fully Man and that being the case, no other "prophets" would be necessary would they? God sacrificing Himself should be sufficient right? These other added options are all products of the 2nd Commandment. The God of the Bible has laid out the terms in His Word, not to be added to or taken away from. He told us there would be a Messiah, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, who would be bruised and pierced for us. That's the Jesus I believe in. God in flesh, the perfect sacrifice for my sins-every lie, theft, and lustful look. Who is your Jesus? Lunatic or Son of God?

1 John 5:21 (New International Version)

²¹Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Project Ezra/Blog Meet Up

Well this past Saturday night I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff from Lovethelost.org. He goes down to Town Center in Aliso Viejo on Saturday's to do witnessing and preaching on a regular basis. That isn't too terribly far from my house so off I went. I was kinda mixed up as to where to meet him. When I didn't see Jeff, I tried to get into some one-to-one's by the fountain. I had a pretty good conversation with two high school kids, one of which was pretty upset that the smart card tract didn't and wouldn't turn green lol. I finally saw that I missed Jeff's call. He had been over by the theater handing out tracts. I wandered over there and got to meet him and his family. We had talked about doing the Project Ezra public Bible reading earlier in the day so we scoped out a spot to do that. We went up to the park but there was not really anyone to read to. Jeff had been wanting to do some preaching by the theater so we went over there. He read Proverbs 8 and went into an amazing open air sermon. He had gone through the Ambassador's Academy one year before me and his experience shows. Praise God he was able to get through the whole thing. We ended up getting shut down right as I started reading Psalm 50 aloud so we meandered over to the fountain area. I got to break the sound barrier, as Ray Comfort says, and read Psalm 50 followed by a short open air. My throat was killing me so I kept it short but sweet. Then it was Jeff' s turn again. He read from Psalm 51 and while he was preaching, three young kids came over in a sort of mini-heckler sort of way. One of them even tried to take Jeff's Bible from him. The way Jeff talked to and handled them was nothing short of brilliant. I kinda just stared in awe. He completely calmed these young guys with God's Law and shared the Gospel with them. It was a really great time. I was glad to finally get out there and do some fishing with someone else who has such a passion for the lost. Can't wait to get out there again! If you haven't checked out Project Ezra, please do so. It's a great way to get out there and speak out for the Lord. You don't even need to know what to say, you just have to read!