I Have a New Web Site

I would like to let everyone know that from now on I will be using a different web site to communicate with everyone. I would also like to invite you all to visit the site and take a couple minutes to get aquainted with it. The menu at the top will give you a very quick and complete view of what I have out there.

http://greg.kedrovsky.com/

Reasons for the Change

I think all of you know that my ministry here in Costa Rica is carried out in Spanish, and therefore I have maintained a separate web site dedicated to our Spanish ministry. I used this site (greg-and-sue.com) to basically keep folks at home informed about the ministry.

This year I am planning on teaching a little bit in English and that has presented a unique opportunity to go ahead and combine the two web sites into one. You’ll see on the new site that there is a fairly large section dedicated to the materials and teaching we have available in Spanish. The English section is what I plan on building a bit this year. There is also a News section that I’ll use to keep everyone up-to-date on ministry events and such. The Blog section is basically just an “informational dumping ground” for me.

So, the new site is an attempt to combine all my communication needs into one site (that way I only have to maintain the one, rather than two or three or four).

Subscribing to the New Site

Many of you receive daily notices of new articles that I post on this web site. You can still do that on the new site, and actually I hope you will so that we can keep in contact. When you visit the home page of the new site, you’ll see about midway down, in the sidebar on the right, a number of links to “RSS Feeds” and “E-Mail Subscriptions.” Since I have almost 500 people who subscribe to my Spanish web site, I set up a separate feed for only Spanish articles (that way they can continue to get the same information through the new site that they are getting now through the Spanish site). For everyone else, I have a normal site feed that will give you updates of all articles posted.

If that just confused you… :-) …here is the link to subscribe via e-mail and continue to receive a quick note when something new is posted:

Subscribe to the new site via e-mail

I do want to give one small “word of warning”: There will be a bit more activity on the new site. The only option I have right now for e-mail notifications is a daily e-mail. If getting an e-mail notification several times a week is going to bother you, please consider subscribing via RSS using a feed reader, or simply check in every now and then to see if there are new articles on the web site.

Comments on Articles

Another way I hope to keep in contact with all of you is through the “comments” section at the bottom of each article on the new site. That will be a great way to have quick “conversations” about the topic of the article in question.

I’m Still Working on It

The new web site presents a lot of new options for communication (lots of bells and whistles), so that means that I’ll be “tweaking it” for a little while to get it to run like I want it to. For most part, this site and our Spanish site are now duplicated on the new one (so the standard communication we have now will continue). The stuff I’ll be working on in the days to come will be new things to add a little benefit here and there.

Thank you all very much for your continued friendship, prayer, and support!

~Greg

Joel and Irene are happily married and on their honeymoon. And the gospel was preached to the lost.

Thank you all very much for keeping us in prayer!

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [Luke 24:46-47]

Tomorrow (Sat., 06Feb10) I have the great privilege of marrying Joel and Irene, a young couple from my church. I would like to ask all who pray for us to keep us before the Lord both today and tomorrow because I will be speaking to the people during the ceremony about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joel and Irene are faithful members of Eastside church and have both been out on the streets witnessing to people about Jesus Christ (Joel, Irene and Irene again). They have a heart for God and they are committed to following Him in their marriage. So, they’re starting out on the right foot by using their wedding as an opportunity to witness to lost family members and friends.

Please pray today (Friday) for us as we pull together the final preparations. Joel and Irene are busy with all the details of the ceremony and whatnot; I will be finishing up the message I’ll be preaching (using Ephesians 5 to speak of Christ in the context of marriage, and then explaining the gospel beginning with the Law, then explaining the cross and man’s required response of repentance and faith).

The wedding will begin around 9:00am tomorrow. Thank you for praying for us!

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. [Ephesians 6.18-20]

Evangelicalism Needs a Man-Up Call [mp3, 1:20]

I was listening to the free, 15-minute podcast (January 19, 2010) of Wretched Radio the other day and couldn’t help but say “amen” to what Todd had to say. For some reason Mr. Friel thinks most of the guys singing on the Christian radio today are a bunch of sissies and that evangelicalism needs a “man-up” call. Maybe (hopefully!) some of you guys out there feel the same way…

It’s a minute and twenty seconds long, if you want to hear it for yourself.

When numbers become so important to us that they outweigh the truth, it’s time that we admit to a crisis! When we receive missionary reports similar to the one recently sent to the church where I am now attending, it’s time we take stock of our methodology.

This missionary brother was rejoicing over the results that he had experienced in his first full year on the mission field. He boasted of 738 professions of faith with 25 following in believer’s baptism. How could you even pen those words without asking yourself if there isn’t something wrong with that picture? I seem to remember 3,000 saved at Pentecost, and 3,000 baptized!

The most refreshing missionary that I have heard in a long time gave his update to our church recently. He has been in Poland for 14 years and to date knows of only five people who have been saved under his ministry. Just like at Pentecost, he only counts the ones who have been saved, baptized, and are in the church. Most of our “one, two, three, pray after me” fellows would have dropped his support a long time ago! Myself, I would drop the guy with 738 saved and 25 baptized and shift the support to the fellow from Poland!

The full article that contains this quote can be found at the Way of Life web site in this PDF, on page 3.

I would like to say again (I know I said it a couple weeks ago, and probably many more times before that, but it bears repeating): I’d like to recommend the following:

• Ray Comfort’s School of Biblical Evangelism
• Hell’s Best Kept Secret, an mp3 sermon by Ray Comfort
• True and False Conversions, another mp3 by Ray
• Anything and everything by Mark Cahill
• Today’s Gospel is also a very good read (although I would preface that with a qualifier about Chantry’s Calvinism: I do not hold to his Calvinistic beliefs)

Raul has been with our church and ministry for years, and he and his wife are very faithful members who are growing in discipleship and in their walk with God. Raul heads up our jail ministry (you can see a couple photos of Raul in the maximum security wing below). He and several others from our church minister to both men and women in several jails in the San José area. Raul also has a heart for young people who are growing up in poverty, surrounded by crime and other bad influences like drugs and alcohol.

During the next several months, Raul and his wife will be making several short-term (one- to two-week) trips to Nicaragua to continue to seek the Lord’s direction. Their desire is to minister in an area called Masaya and to work with the prisoners in the jails in Tipitapa (just outside Managua).

If you remember Raul, please pray for him, that God would confirm this new direction or close the door completely. I’ll do my best to keep you all informed as to what’s going on.

Thank you very much.

~Greg

I would love to be able to visit with as many of you as I can, so if you would like to make some plans (especially the churches in the area that support us and/or pray for us), please contact me as soon as you can so we can set dates and times.

Thanks!

~Greg

A few of us from church went out to meet with Giovani on Saturday. It’s about an hour west from San José, up and over the mountains (beautiful country). We had a great time of fellowship with Giovani and his wife, Laura. They have a fairly new work (about a year old) and have just moved into a new building in center of their small town (population: 5,000). They have a desire to not only reach their town, but to also be a blessing to the even smaller towns surrounding them — they hope to work with local pastors in evangelism, encouragement, etc.

We are going to be teaming up with Giovani on Friday, February 19th, for an area-wide outreach activity. They have a beautiful, newly renovated public park that we are going to use. The idea is to have some music and other activities to draw in the folks from town, and in then share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ll be spending the better part of the day going door-to-door inviting people, both in town and in the surrounding area. Then around 6:00 p.m. we’ll get the activity in the park started.

Obviously, we covet your prayers, specifically for the following:

1. That we would be faithful to sow much seed preaching the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16.15).
2. That God would bless us with much fruit through the preaching of the Gospel (1Cor 1.18, 21; Rom 10.17).
3. That pastor Giovani would be open to establishing a biblical discipleship ministry in order to establish his people in the faith (2Tim 2.2; Php 4.9).

Thank you! ~Greg

Many years ago, in order to answer the criticism of the mounting number of false professions, I heard a brother say, “I would rather lead 100 souls to Christ, knowing that 95 of them were false professions, and see five of them go to heaven, than to not attempt to be a soul-winner.” The first tragedy of that statement is assuming that those are the only two options: either to rack up false professions while winning a few, or to not witness at all. How about the option of being a witness within the guidelines of scriptural teaching, which produces very few false professions! The second tragedy is the flippant attitude about the 95 people to whom you gave assurance of salvation that will one day wake up in hell! Most of them will not allow a genuine witness to approach them about their souls, because they’re banking on that false assurance that you gave them.

Quoted from David Cloud’s Friday Church News Notes (January 15, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143), excerpted from “The Technique Catastrophe: An Explanation of the Multitudes of False Professions in the Independent Baptist Movement” by Bob Creel.

And, with those thoughts in mind, I’d like to recommend the following:

• Hell’s Best Kept Secret, an mp3 sermon by Ray Comfort
• True and False Conversions, another mp3 by Ray
• Anything and everything by Mark Cahill
• Today’s Gospel is also a very good read (although I would preface that with a qualifier about Chantry’s Calvinism: I do not hold to his Calvinistic beliefs)

Four of us from Eastside Church went: Jorge “el pelón,” Andrés (the guy who runs our soccer field), Stephanie (and recent college graduate from the States living here now, and teaching at my kids’ school), and myself. The trip down there and back was long but without incident, thankfully.

JuanCa selected a neighborhood close to the church where we preached open-air last year. He invited folks from his church in Jesús-María and also from the church he started and pastors in Labrador (about 15 west of Jesús-María). We basically had an open-air church service. While folks got the sound system set up, me and mine went door to door inviting the people to the activity (and leaving tracts with them). And then JuanCa started with prayer, singing, testimonies, etc. and I wrapped it up with a message on Christ, the Gospel and salvation. It was a wonderful time! We had well over 50 people present.

There is one testimony I’d like to share with you: When JuanCa announced the outreach event this last Sunday in church, a lady came up to him afterward. She had been in his church most of the past year, and her husband had even started coming with her. They are now regular attenders and members of JuanCa’s church there in Jesús-María. She told JuanCa that she was in church because of that outreach event in that very same barrio last year. She didn’t want to come out of her house (being timid and a little shy and ashamed), but she sat in her house listening to everything — the songs, the prayer, and the Gospel message. She got save that night last year and has been faithfully attending church ever since. He somewhat “problematic” husband eventually came around, too, and is also a faithful member with her. All I have to say about this is what Paul said:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. . . . For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. [1Cor 1.18-21]

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. [Rom 10.17]

You may remember that I’ve visited JuanCa before on several occasions. It’s always a joy to spend time with committed Christians, and JuanCa is very committed to the Lord and the work of evangelism and discipleship. We would covet your prayers tomorrow as we travel (it’s about three or four hours from here, one way) and as we preach the Gospel to those who need salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Later this week, I’ll also be going out to another area of Costa Rica called Puriscal. A pastor I know out there (his name is Giovani Rojas) is starting a new work in Guayabo de Mora and he has invited us out to participate in his initial outreach. I’ll be going out there this Saturday to meet with him and do some preliminary planning for the outreach event on Friday, February 29th, from 6:00-8:00pm.

Thank you for praying for us! ~Greg

Olford includes a quote from John R.W. Stott that I found very appropriate for the day in which we, as preachers, live today. Many of you know that we are assaulted from all sides to dumb down our pulpits. In the books we read and during the conferences we attend, we are inundated with “post-modern preaching philosophies” that exhort us to tell stories, use humor, and basically “not go too deep” or “teach too much doctrine.” Sounds a little like what Paul talked about in 2Timothy 4.1-5 to me…

Listen to what Stott said, and be encouraged! If you, like me, are committed to the simple, doctrinal, exposition of Scripture, verse-by-verse, passage-by-passage, and book-by-book, then take heart. Though we may be in the minority today, we are not alone! And, frankly, even if we were alone… it’s good to know that we are simply being faithful to the stewardship that was entrusted to us by the Lord. Preach the Word (not your stories and anecdotes), in season (when it’s easy) and out of season (when it’s tough)!

When John R.W. Stott was asked if he had “changed his mind” about the indispensability of biblical preaching, he retorted:

To the contrary! I still believe that preaching is the key to the renewal of the church. I am an impenitent believer in the power of preaching. I know all the arguments against it—that the television age has rendered preaching useless, that we are a spectator generation, that people are bored with the spoken word, disenchanted with any communication by spoken words alone. All these things are said these days.

Nevertheless, when a man of God stands before the people of God with the Word of God in his hand and the Spirit of God in his heart, you have a unique opportunity for communication. I fully agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones that the decadent periods in the history of the church have always been those periods marked by preaching in decline. That is a negative statement. The positive counterpart is that churches grow to maturity when the Word of God is faithfully and sensitively expounded to them.

If it is true that a human being cannot live by bread only, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, then it is also true of churches. Churches live, grow, and thrive in response to the Word of God. I have seen congregations come alive by the faithful and systematic unfolding of the Word of God.

John R.W. Stott, “Creating the Bridge,” taken from Michael Duduit ed., Communicate with Power: Insights from America’s Top Communicators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), 187-88, quoted in Stephen Olford Anointed Expository Preaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1998), 68.

After church there is going to be a Kedrovsky TEAM (our prayer/support group) meeting from 12-3pm at Krista’s house. If you need the address, phone number, or directions, just write me (I’d rather not post them here on the Internet). Krista says, “Feel free to bring a dessert or side dish. I will be making some soups, dessert and coffee….the really good stuff!  Feel free to come and go at your convenience and to bring your children….Alex, Kev and Beka will be here too. Sue will be updating us on their ministry.”

If you see Sue and the kids at church, be sure to say “hi.” I know she’s really looking forward to seeing everybody. And, hopefully you’ll be able to stop by Krista’s in the afternoon.

Thanks! ~Greg

I will not waste my time in vain questions; I will study the book. It is the word of Moses, the word of Amos, the word of John, the word of Paul; but it is the mind of God and the word of God. We should then deem it a very erroneous statement to say; certain passages in the Bible are from men, and certain others from God. No; every verse, without exception, is from men; and every verse, without exception, is from God; whether he speaks directly in his own name, or whether he employs all the individuality of the sacred writer. . . .

But, thanks be to God . . . [our sacred books] contain no errors, all their writing is inspired of God. . . . none of these words ought to be neglected, and we are called to respect them and to study them even to their least iota and to their least tittle.

Taken from Theopneusty by S.R.L. Gaussen (published in English first in 1842), pp. 36-39 (as quoted in Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology, Vol. VI, pp. 30-31).

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities – but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

From The River War by Sir Winston Churchill, first edition, Vol. II, pp. 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).

REJECTING ALL ELSE

Accepting Christ Means Rejecting All Else

“The notion that we enter the Christian life by an act of acceptance is true, but that is not all the truth. There is much more to it than that. Christianity involves an acceptance and a repudiation, an affirmation and a denial. And this not only at the moment of conversion but continually thereafter day by day in all the battle of life till the great conflict is over and the Christian is home from the wars. To live a life wholly positive is, fortunately, impossible. Were any man able to do such a thing it could be only for a moment. Living positively would be like inhaling continuously without exhaling. Aside from its being impossible, it would be fatal. Exhalation is as necessary to life as inhalation. To accept Christ it is necessary that we reject whatever is contrary to Him. This is a fact often overlooked by eager evangelists bent on getting results. Like the salesman who talks up the good points of his product and conceals its disadvantages, the badly informed soulwinner stresses the positive side of things at the expense of the negative.” ~A.W. Tozer

This will be the last update letter of the year. The next time I write, we will be well into 2010! This last year was a year of slow growth, and we have plans to continuing growing (maybe a little faster?) in 2010.

2009: The Big News Is Leadership Development

This year we began a specific focus on leadership development here at Eastside Church. God has given us many men that are potential leaders in the Lord’s work, and it was time they challenge themselves to grow through the next stage of discipleship (leadership development). I taught several of the men a class on personal Bible study methods and expository preaching, and then I turned over the mid-week Bible study to them. As always, growth is “slow and painful,” but it’s also “slow and sure.” They have grown considerably through the systematic study and preaching of God’s Word.

We have also seen several people get involved in discipleship under the leadership of Simón. I turned the discipleship ministry over to Simón earlier this year, and he has done a fantastic job coordinating and leading this key area of our church. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for him in the near future.

2010: What Are We Looking For Next Year?

A Building. One of the changes we made in the leadership structure in the church was in the area of administration. I now have the help of four capable men! They got the legal aspects of the church all up to date, and are working on getting things squared away at the bank. We’re hoping that this year we can buy a place of our own, a “home for our church family.” We would appreciate your prayers for this.

A Discipleship Philosophy. Many of you know that I put together some discipleship materials that we (and other Hispanic ministries) are using. It’s good material, and we are very pleased with it. But, I’m not satisfied with the overall “philosophy” of how we view and approach the ministry of discipleship. So, this year, one of my goals is to study out discipleship and then put together some teaching material on a biblical philosophy of making disciples. I think that will help people to see their personal part in the Great Commission and help them also to see how they can participate in the work.

An English Service. For a long time I’ve thought about the idea of doing an English service on Sundays or an English Bible study during the week, and I think 2010 will be the year we start that. I have several native English speakers that are close to the ministry here, and it may also draw in some others that want to “practice” their English. Be looking for the announcement on the web site because I plan to make the audios available each week.

Evangelism. Discipleship. Preaching. In 2010, Lord willing, we will continue to evangelize intentionally, disciple those the Lord gives us, and preach the Bible expositionally. The rainy season is almost over, and we should have a couple of months of good weather for street work. I’m looking forward to that! (I would love to get down to Panama this year and preach on the university campuses. There are fourteen major universities down there, and I think it would be wonderful to go and talk to the students and professors about the Lord. If you would, pray about that with me.) Simón will continue as leader of our discipleship ministry, and we’ll be working together on the development of a solid, biblical philosophy of discipleship. And, as I finish up our Sunday series on Systematic Theology in January, we are planning on starting a series on the Book of Leviticus. Those of you who have heard teaching on Leviticus know what an incredible book it is, and I’d like to share that blessing with my people (feed God’s sheep!).

Thank you all very much for your prayers, friendship, and support. In August of 2010 we will have been in Latin America for fifteen years. KCBT sent us out in August of 1995, and the Lord (through you guys and your faithful support and prayers) has kept us here for almost fifteen years. He’s good! And you, our friends, family, and supporters, have been faithful. Thank you all very much!

Greg & Sue Kedrovsky

The best series I’ve found so far is the Christian Liberty Bible Series. The only thing I do not like about those studies is their Calvinism (I am not a Calvinist; and please, let’s not turn this conversation into a debate over the issue because that’s not the point).

I’m looking for something to do with each of my children:

• Rebeka is 8 years old and finishing the 2nd grade this December.
• Kevin is 10 years old and finishing the 4th grade this December.
• Alex is 12 years old and finishing the 6th grade this December.

Does anyone out there know of a good series or curriculum that would “fit” each of my kids where they are at in their development? I know I could probably write and develop my own surveys (one for each child), but… I just don’t have the time with everything else going on. And, if there is something out there that is good, then why “reinvent the wheel”?

The goal I have in mind for all of this is 2Timothy 3.15:

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. [2Tim 3.15]

If you know of something, you can either leave a comment below (include a link if you have it) or write me at gregkedroATgmailDOTcom (replace the AT with @ and the DOT with a period). Thank you for the help!

~Greg

Just as a side note: Fernando, his family, and his church are very encouraging and generous. It is always such a pleasure to spend time with them!

Here’s the video:

Dear friends and family,

Thank you all for your continued prayer, friendship, and support. God is doing some wonderful things here in the ministry. I would like to share everything with you, but space will not permit. Here are a few of the more salient things going on:

Leadership Development

God is bearing some visible fruit here in the area of leadership development. As many of you know, I have been working closely with four men (Carlos, Simón, Alex, and Ronald) to help them grow into the role of elders, and hopefully in the future form a pastoral team here at Eastside Church. Two of the men are deacons and the other two are qualified to be such but need to exhibit a bit more “visible” maturity in order to gain more confidence with the congregation.

They all, however, have begun to take some significant steps in showing leadership ability in the church. One key area in which they have done so lately is the administration of the church. They will be taking over the daily administering of the church and all that that entails: the legal functions, finances, etc. This is a huge step, especially when one considers that they initiated it. They are beginning to think like a team of leaders and as they administer the church they will be just that much more “visible” as leaders before the congregation. I cannot tell you how content I am with all of this. It is a big step and I give all credit to the Lord who is forming the right character in the right men.

Discipleship Ministries

This is another area of the ministry where God is bearing visible fruit in many ways. First and foremost is Simón, one of the four leaders I mentioned above. Simón is heading up all of our discipleship ministries now and continues to impress me with his heart for people and the Bible. He is a gifted, motivated, and very capable young man. Since January of this year he has successfully organized, administered, and “pastored” every aspect of discipleship at Eastside Church (he has even taken the initiative to visit other ministries and expose them to biblical discipleship).

Simón is working closely with another young man, Jorge, that could soon be an “up-and-coming” leader. Jorge is leading and teaching a small discipleship group of about ten people, and he is doing a fantastic job! He is a gifted teacher and is open to the Lord’s leading in his life in other areas of “pastoral” ministry. Pray for Jorge, that the Lord would do a wonderful work of grace in his life, maturing him into the leader He wants him to be.

The Web Site

I have on a couple occasions shared a little with you about the far-reaching impact the Lord has given us through our simple web site. Well, it seems we have another young man, Nicolás, that God has provided to take over this aspect of the ministry here (I have been maintaining the web site up until now). Nicolás is sharp when it comes to web design and he is a growing man of God. He has put together an entirely new site that will be more interactive with the people we come in contact with through the Internet. It all goes on-line this week! This is a key area for our ministry and God has used it to bear much fruit in the teaching and preaching of His Word. Now it looks like He is going to use it to develop a young leader, Nicolás.

2Timothy 2.2

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.“

It is very evident that God is giving us the privilege of seeing some “replacements” being raised up in our ministry. Just as Paul instructed Timothy to pass on what he had received from the Apostle, this has always been our desire: to pass on the ministry to men and women capable of leading it either with us or in our place.

So, what does all this mean for us? Well, for the time being, nothing (outside of being pretty happy and content with the work the Lord is doing). There is still much more work to do and much more growth needed in the leadership here. But, it is happening and that is great to see! Soon (in a year or two?)  I believe I will be able to move out of my capacity as “founding pastor” and, Lord willing, continue as a “teaching pastor” working with a pastoral team of other men. This would be very healthy for the church and allow me to dedicate more time to several ministry needs that seem to become more and more pressing each day.

One of the greatest needs throughout all of Latin America is theological training (on all levels: from the street to the congregation to the pastor’s study). And that is where my passion lies. I would love to be able to come alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ and, through teaching and training, help them grow in biblical, Christ-centered ministry so that we can all be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission to “evangelize to make disciples and disciple to make evangelists.” Please continue to pray for us as we continue to labor for our Lord here and seek His direction for the near future!

Greg & Sue Kedrovsky

Many of you know that we try to make all of our resources available free of charge on our church’s web site (www.iglesia-del-este.com). Much of the Spanish-speaking world either lives in poverty and/or in areas of the world where the conventional mail systems are either non-existent or terribly unreliable. Therefore all of our books, discipleship materials, tracts, expository sermons, Bible studies, etc. are available for free download in either PDF (for written documents) or mp3 (for audio). It’s one of the easiest ways to reach people in need and God has blessed this area of our ministry since we started it.

Here is a small example of what the Lord is doing with our “homemade” web site (I built it and maintain it with WordPress; it’s nothing fancy, nothing professional and certainly nothing that couldn’t be improved upon).

• The “Page View Report” from Google Analytics from the last week shows that we hit a milestone. Over 2000 page views in one day! (There were over 35,000 in the last week, but to have over 2,000 in one day is a new “record” for the site.)
• The “GeoMap Report” shows the countries from where those hits and views came. Thirty-nine different countries from all over the world!

I’m sure the “big dogs” (the “mega-churches”) get a whole lot more hits than that, but we are very encouraged that God is using our ministry here to reach so many in so many different places in the world. We are thankful to be part (even though it’s a small part) of what the Lord is doing!

For all you who pray for us and support the ministry, just know that your investment is paying off. And it’s not because of anything we are doing. Our investment is in the Great Co-Mission — a mission we do in cooperation, one with another. We all have had a part to play in the people reached through the ministries of Eastside Church in San José, Costa Rica. Thank you! And let’s take some time today or tomorrow to thank God for the great privilege of participating in what He’s doing around the world.

I’m looking for a copy of the 25th Edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek Text, with critical apparatus. Here is the actual title of the book (the New Testament in Greek):

Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 25th Edition (published in 1963) [abbr: NA25]

It is important that the text be the actual Nestle-Aland NT and not the UBS or ABS text based on the NA25 (I need the original critical apparatus published in the NA25, and that apparatus is not reproduced in its entirety in any of the UBS/ABS “translators/students” texts). I know all that might sound technical, but if someone has one or knows where to get one, etc., then they’ll understand it all.

I would love to have a copy if you have one to sell me. If you know where I could get one, please let me know. Or, if you have one and could send me the ISBN from the first few pages, even that would help. Any kind of information about where I can get my hands on a copy of the NA25 would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

~Greg

We’re half-way through the year; here’s what’s going on…

Evangelism: Since it’s raining almost every day (in the afternoons and evenings), we’ve had to change our outreach strategy just a little bit since we can’t spend as much time out on the streets as we can during the dry months (December through March). We’re still going downtown to preach open-air on Central Avenue, but we have to get down there a little earlier, so we’ve chosen Saturdays to do it. At least one Saturday a month, we meet at the church and head downtown to preach, witness, and pass out tracts before the rain starts. We’re also forming teams to take our “Revista” (evangelistic literature) door-to-door throughout the east side of San José on Saturdays. So, even though the rain changes things a little bit, we’re still out on the streets, striving to intentionally seek out the lost to witness to them any way we can. Our prayer: Mar 15.16; 1Cor 3.6.

Discipleship: Discipleship this year has taken a giant leap forward! And it’s all due to one thing: A leader with a heart for discipleship. Simón is one of my key men that has been with the ministry for many years. He’s a computer software engineer and this year he has taken over the entire discipleship ministry. He has a heart for people, for getting the Word of God to them, and for helping them grow in the faith so that they in turn can reproduce themselves in others. He’s also a great communicator and “people person.”

In January we started a new group of people in our Biblical Discipleship ministry, and they have held together very well. They are currently in the third course, meeting as a small group in the church after lunch on Sundays. (We have several people who travel quite a distance to get to church, so it’s very convenient for them to be able to participate in discipleship on Sunday afternoons.) Everyone in the group has been faithful and Simón has delegated the teaching to another “up and coming” leader, Jorge, who is doing a fine job directing the group.

We also have several individuals being discipled one-on-one. When someone shows interest in learning more and growing in their faith, Simón sits down with them, finds out where they are at in their walk with the Lord, and then pairs them up with a discipler.

Needless to say, I am very pleased and content with the leadership God has provided in Simón for our discipleship ministry. Please pray for him: 2Peter 3.18.

Mid-Week Workshop: On Tuesdays nights we have our midweek Bible study and this year we are using the time to not only study the Bible together, but to also train up several people who want to learn how to study the Bible in order to preach and teach it expositorily. I’ve taken some time to walk my people through several methods of personal Bible study and also some instruction on “how to preach / teach.” Several have chosen a book of the Bible to study, and we meet on Tuesdays to answer their questions about how to do this or that. When they have a study ready (it could be a passage study, a word study, etc.), then they teach the whole group during our time together. They get the benefit of laboring in the Word of God, and we all get the benefit of good Bible teaching. There are about eight or ten people participating in the workshop. Pray: 1Tim 4.12-16.

Leadership Development: Obviously, one of the goals of a missionary (or a pastor, for that matter) is to replace himself with capable men who could lead the ministry in his absence. Regardless if the missionary or pastor feels led of God to go elsewhere, it’s simply “healthy” and biblical to train up your replacement. It’s been my experience that this process is not a very fast one! But, I’m thankful that God has given me a group of men with whom to work in this area: Ronald, Carlos, Alex, and Simón. Ronald and Carlos are my two deacons, Simón is my discipleship leader, and Alex (many of you know him as “Bimbo”) leads music and preaches in the jail. We are meeting together every other week and studying the pastoral epistles together. In time I hope to be able to work with these men in a pastoral team (if God doesn’t send them elsewhere to labor in the ministry). Prayer: Acts 20.28-32; 2Tim 2.2.

Sunday Series: I decided to take a break this year from preaching through a book of the Bible, verse by verse. We took all of last year to study the Acts as our “manual for ministry” and it was a very motivating series. This year, though, it seems we need grounding in some doctrinal areas, so I’m currently preaching a series on systematic theology, a study of the Person and works of God. It’s been a great time so far and we’ve only just begun! Prayer: Psalms 119.18

The Family: Many of your write and ask about the family, so I thought I’d let you all know that everyone is fine. Rebeka is eight (2nd grade), Kevin is ten (4th grade), and Alex is twelve (6th grade). Rebeka is having a blast participating in gymnastics; she’s won several medals and enjoys it a lot. Kevin and Alex have been going a few times a week to a kickboxing gym where the father of one of Kevin’s school friends teaches. They’re learning fast and really like it. Suzy is doing well and keeps more than active running around from school to church to gymnastics to kickboxing… As for me, I’ve started some new studies that I hope will prove useful in the near future in the  work of training men and women for the ministry of Word.

We appreciate your prayers, your friendship, and your support. Thank you all very much! ~Greg

However, there are times when God will provide us a little “extra something” on our plate at mealtime. For some it’s a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow, but for others it’s sweet! I hear messages like the following, and they make me sit up straight and shout, “AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!” (And as I watched the following video, I did just that. Wow!)

I hope messages like this are “sweet” to you and not a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow. I share this one not to “send a message” to anyone. I simply enjoyed the five minutes of good, solid, right-on-target preaching and thought I’d pass it along.

Porque el mandamiento es lámpara, y la enseñanza es luz,  Y camino de vida las reprensiones que te instruyen. [Prov 6.23]

False Teachers Are God’s Judgment

Literature, dear friends, is VERY powerful… I preach more widely through my books than [most anyone] has ever thought of preaching with his one mouth! A Christian book preaches. It can preach truth, and it can preach error, but one way or the other, it preaches.

In the Spanish-speaking world literature (book) distribution can be very difficult. The postal systems are anything but trustworthy and reliable. The cost of shipping is often prohibitive (and the fact that it will take two weeks to six months to get there, if at all, is discouraging to say the least). Even the cost of the book is often prohibitive. Remember, about 80% of the population in Latin America lives in abject poverty (and the majority of Christian churches are among the poor; 1Cor 1.25-29).

God has allowed us the privilege of preaching and teaching His Word to hundreds, and maybe thousands, world-wide through our eBook publishing ministry. Everything that I write, preach, or teach goes up on our web site in either PDF or mp3 format and it is made available for free download to anyone that has an Internet connection. We give written permission in all our materials to copy and distribute anything and everything as long as it is not for profit but rather for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We’re talking about thousands of pages of written material and hours upon hours of teaching and preaching on audio.

What would take months and a large monetary investment to ship (printed books) can be delivered in seconds for free on the Internet. And even though many might not have a computer in their home, Internet cafés are everywhere and very cheap (about $1.00 an hour). Our materials can be accessed and read on-line, or downloaded, printed and bound (in copy shops here we can print and bind a 350-page, 8.5×11-inch book with a color cover for about $10.00).

If you’d like to see some of the results of our web-based ePublishing ministry, check out these two reports from Google Analytics. The first is a “Page View” report showing how many times people “hit” our pages each day for the past month. The second is a map overlay showing where those hits are coming from.

• Page View Report
• Map Overlay Report

What we haven’t been able to do through the “printed” page, we’ve been able to do through the “ePage.”

I’m sure there are a lot (!) of churches and ministries that have a lot more hits from a lot more countries. It’s not my intention to brag about “being the best.” But, many of you know that I am dedicated to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and one of the consistent burdens upon my heart is to write books, booklets, and articles based on sound, biblical doctrine. I just wanted to share with you some of the results of our efforts in this area.

One of the greatest needs in Latin America is the propagation of sound doctrine. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us a small part in meeting that need. ~Greg

Kyle is a great preacher. He believes the Bible and preaches it with authority. If you have the time and would like to hear some good, Bible-believing preaching from the King James, here’s the address of the church and the service schedule:

Bible Believers Baptist Church
7676 County Rd 200
Joplin, MO  64801
417-673-8077 or 417-529-8691

Friday  – 7:00 pm
Sat. – 6:00 pm
Sun. – 10:00 am & 6:00 pm

The man who doesn’t read isn’t any better off than the man who cannot read.

Five years from now you will be the same person except for the people you meet and the books you read.

Gentlemen, either read or get out of the ministry (John Wesley).

The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own (Charles Spurgeon).

You find several more great quotes just like these in a recent article published by a brother in Lord who does read, David Cloud (check out his bookstore, too; he has a ton of great stuff to read!).

As one might venture farther and farther on a shoreless sea with no hope of ever reaching its outer boundaries, so the theologian [the student of Scripture] is ever confronted with limitless material in the realm of the doctrines of Scripture. It has been customary for the theologian to spend at least three years in classroom instruction to the science of Systematic Theology and under the instruction of those who through patient study and experience are able to guide him in this introductory research. However, the study of Bible doctrine is a life undertaking and ever makes its claims upon time and strength. Happy indeed is the student who secures a full rounded introduction to the vast science of Systematic Theology, but thrice blessed is he who with unrelenting purpose pursues his study to the end of his days on earth.

Nothing need be said here of the tragedy which is enacted by a student of Systematic Theology who, for one reason or another, has failed to be introduced to the field of his science, and who therefore continues to preach only on the lower plane of human conduct and never, for lack of requisite understanding, expounds a soul-transforming doctrine of the Scripture.

Many generations have passed since the pulpit has held lower ideals of doctrinal preaching than it holds today. Nevertheless, the human heart is unchanged and God’s remedy for sin-sick and unspiritual souls is the same, and the servant of God who would minister to these needs with true efficiency will discover the importance of unceasing study that he may himself prove to be unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2Tim 2.15).

In day when many pastors buy their sermons on-line and most pastors water-down (dumb-down) their messages in an effort to entertain rather than edify, I found Dr. Chafer’s words very refreshing.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. [1Tim 5.17]

Let’s labor well — work hard! — at the study of Scripture so that we can feed the Lord’s flock, and feed it well!

Is it not biblical compromise and carnal indulgence that has ultimately caused [the declining church numbers] – pleasure palaces built with borrowed money to produce sensory circuses that can better compete with the world for your patronage and mine with watered-down gospel messages, coffee shop ministries, rock and roll worship and people-pleasing programs? If it is, then how can more biblical compromise and carnal indulgence solve it?

The article is about the dwindling numbers in many “evangelical” churches today. Paul says that it just may be caused by Christians leaving “circus churches” with their “entertainment oriented services” in hopes of finding a real church where God’s Word is actually exalted above all His name.

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. [Ps 138.2]

• Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we spent all day, each day, on the streets in downtown Cartago and also going house to house with our Revista. It was a lot of walking (and we have more than one blister… sore muscles… and stories of mad dogs…) but by Friday afternoon we had passed out 10,000 of our Revistas. Each day we had a big turnout of people from the church wanting to participate, and many had several witness encounters because of the event. I think sometimes we don’t witness simply because we’re not out witnessing! The Revista gave us an “excuse” and a tool to get out on the streets and meet people. You can’t do something like that without several folks asking you, “Hey, what’s this?” And that turns quickly into an opportunity to witness!
• Today (Saturday) another good group turned out to witness to people on the streets of downtown Cartago one more time. We had about 2,000 tracts between us (million dollar bills, Chick tracts, etc.) and so we divided them up between everyone and hit the farmers market to pass them out. We even found a place to preach, so I got up on the Coke crate, drew a crowd with five one-dollar bills, and we were off and running with the “good test” open-air!

I want to thank everybody that took time out to pray for us. God is willing to save anyone and everyone, and He’s willing to use anyone and everyone who will submit to His will and just go, seek the lost, and offer them salvation through the preaching of the Cross of Christ. But, if we don’t pray, God will often leave us to ourselves — ye have not, because ye ask not [James 4.2]. Thank you for asking on our behalf!

We need to replenish our resources in order to print up more materials before we head up to Heredia (the capital city of the province called Heredia). We’ve been up there before to the university, but we want to take 10,000 Revistas and go house to house, along with 20 packets for the pastors of the local churches up there. So, I’d like to ask you to continue to pray for us, that God would provide so that we might continue reaching out to the lost and to pastors who need God and His Word.

Thank you! ~Greg

Please pray for us!

We’re using the same strategy that we used last month in Alajuela (which many of you remember). Here are links to the updates I gave on Alajuela, if you’d like to see what we’re planning on doing in Cartago:

• Alajuela: First Day
• Alajuela: Third Day
• Alajuela: Last Day
• Alajuela: The team
• Alajuela: One-on-one witnessing
• Alajueal: Open-air preaching

We have 10,000 “Mission Edition” Revistas boxed up and ready to go — all of them are designated for Cartago. And we have 20 or so of our “pastors packets” to give out to the pastors of the evangelical churches we come across while passing out the Revista.

It looks like God’s given us a great team to work with, too. Here’s a list of the people committed to going and evangelizing in Cartago:

• Simón, Silvia, Cai, Alex Trejos, Alex “Bimbo”, Salem (who headed up the Alajuela project), Johnny, Jorge Céspedes, Gianina, Pablo, Jessy, and Jorge “Pelón.”

Planning and execution on this project is shared: Simón has done all the front-loading with logistics, planning, coordination, etc. and he will likely be working with Alex (Bimbo) out in Cartago to “herd the cats” and see the project finished.

Here are some verses we’re praying for Cartago this week:

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. [Col 4.2-4]

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. [Eph 6.18-19]

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. [1Cor 3.6-7]

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. [Titus 1.5]

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. [1Cor 10.31]

Thank you for praying with us this week! ~Greg

What do you think is the greatest threat to the Church in America?

John picked up the hammer and hit the nail square on the head! You can watch the video (2min, 53sec) on Ken’s web site, Apprising Ministries.

[Quote from Herescope article] PyroMarketing summarizes the steps of Rick Warren’s first successful campaign:

1. Rick Warren collected the “driest tinder” – the thousands of pastors who had logged onto his www.pastors.com website and registered as members.
2. “When it was time to launch the Forty Days of Purpose Campaign, he sent a message to the pastors on his list and twelve hundred signed on.” (p. 207)
3. At the end of this very experiential campaign, the final purpose was evangelism where “people were told to share the gospel with others.” This turned into people recommending The Purpose-Driven Life book to others. (p. 207)
4. The Forty Days of Purpose Campaign kept a database of people (“save the coals”) who read the book and logged onto www.purposedrivenlife.com, and also maintained a database of over 20,000 churches that participated in the campaign. (p. 208)

And here are a couple more quotes I found interesting:

• “Knowing this successful format, it can therefore be imagined that the next stage will utilize the saved coals from the previous campaigns to launch the forthcoming campaign. This is a no-brainer.”
• “But why does Warren fear this book? …it would seem that the explanation lies in Warren’s fear that his critics will misinterpret the book and twist Stielstra’s words to prove that Warren is not a pastor, but a marketer. He feels that people will come to view The Purpose Driven Life as a marketing success rather than a ministry success… Perhaps when people become aware of PyroMarketing techniques they will come to see themselves as ‘glowing coals’ and realize they are part of a larger marketing campaign.”

When will preachers and pastors stop the silly infatuations with all the worldly fads and gimmicks? God’s man will do God’s work God’s way, and that work and way are both clearly defined and described in the Scripture. The problem is that too many don’t believe that Scripture is sufficient, and they all too often get enamoured with the “new and shiny” that comes and sits in their laps wanting attention. Christians should not be taken by fads and marketing techniques. They should love God, hate sin, and exalt Scripture (nothing else!) above all His name.

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. [Ps 138.2]

You can read the whole article here: PyroMarketing Hagiography

1. The 7 Sevens
2. The 7 Dispensations
3. The 7 Mysteries
4. The 7 Judgments
5. The 7 Resurrections
6. The 7 Baptisms
7. The 7 Covenants

It also includes seven different appendices that contain a bunch more information on the following topics:

1. The universal flood of Lucifer’s rebellion
2. The 430 years of Abraham’s dispensation
3. A comparison of the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church
4. Hell & Paradise: Where the dead go
5. The Tree of Life
6. Blood
7. The Four Gospels

As always, even though by law I hold the copyright to my books, we offer them free of charge (free to download in PDF) and we grant permission to anyone to make as many copies of the books as they want. It’s simply impossible to ship books by normal mail in Latin America. The mail system is terrible (in some cases it doesn’t even exist) and the cost is prohibitive. But, most people have access to the Internet and can download a PDF to either read it on-line or print it out at a photocopy shop, or even on their printers at home (which is one reason why I write my books on 8.5×11-inch, letter-sized paper).

We still have several more books to proof, correct, format, and publish (as eBooks). So, please continue to pray for us! Thanks! ~Greg

2009_03_March_Kedrovsky_Newsletter.pdf

If you’d prefer to read it on-line… here it is!

———————————————

Dear friends and family,

This year has started out great! God has given us new witnessing opportunities and He is also working among the leadership of our church to begin pulling together a pastoral team of elders. Let’s talk about the latter first.

Elders: A Pastoral Team

This year God is leading us as a church body to begin forming a pastoral team of “elders.” There are four men in particular that I will be working with in the coming months to prepare them for pastoral-level ministry—to prepare them as leaders and pastors of Eastside Church.

We’ll be meeting together in order to study key passages in Scripture that deal with “elders” (pastors) and their qualifications and responsibilities. I will also be sharing the pulpit with them on a more regular basis while leaning on them more and more for ministry-related decisions.

For the next several months I’ll still be what many refer to as a “senior pastor” (actually, right now, I’m the only pastor!), but our hope and desire is to establish these four men as elders—as a pastoral team—and then work together as equals in the ministry of Eastside Church.

This will be a very healthy change for everyone involved. With Costa Rican elders/pastors, the church will become more “Tico” (more Costa Rican) and less “gringo” (less like me, a North American). The plurality of leadership will also allow for better accountability among the leaders and pastors (myself included) and it will mean a better use of resources—each of us has strengths and weaknesses, and so we can lead better together as a team than if we each worked as individuals.

Please pray for us as we focus on putting into practice the principles found in such key passages of Scripture as 2Timothy 2.2 and Acts 20.28-32. God desires to establish a team of elders to pastor His church (Titus 1.5), and we are committed to working toward that goal.

Strategic Outreach

This year we are also striving to reach all of Costa Rica with the Gospel and with sound Bible teaching. One of the greatest needs here (and in all of Latin America) is that of sound doctrine, both in evangelism and church life. To that end we are planning to strategically reach out to all of Costa Rica.

Our country is made up of seven Provinces (like States in the U.S.) and each Province has its capital city. The Provinces are divided up into “cantones” (like counties) and the cantones are made up of districts. Our plan is to first reach each capital city of each of the seven Provinces and then begin working our way out to the more rural areas of the cantones and districts.

We plan to take 10,000 copies of our Revista (a biblical presentation of the Gospel in a newsletter format) and 20 “pastor packets” to each of the capital cities. The packets for pastors include a book on how to study the Bible, some key discipleship material, and a letter giving them thanks for what they do and offering them whatever help we can.

On our web site you can see some pics and videos of our first outing to the capital city of Alajuela (links below). Next on the list, for March, is San José and then in April we hope to be in Cartago.

• alajuela-outreach-first-day
• alajuela-outreach-third-day
• alajuela-outreach-last-day
• alajuela-videos-meet-the-team
• alajuela-videos-one-on-one
• alajuela-videos-open-air

Please pray that God would grant revival among the lost (to save many) and also a “revival” among pastors—a revival of sound doctrine and hunger for the Word of God.

Support Needs

In our last update letter, I mentioned our critical need to raise our monthly support. I’ve been blessed with two great opportunities since then to visit two key churches in the States. However, we continue to have the same needs. We thank all of you for continuing to pray for us, and I’d like to ask that you’d pray specifically for God’s grace to keep us patient while we wait on His provision or His direction.

Thank you all very much for your friendship, prayers, and support. God has used you guys to keep us here and we appreciate you and your faithfulness!

Greg & Sue Kedrovsky

• Part 1 [Low-resolution flv | Higher-resolution mpeg4]
• Part 2 [Low-resolution flv | Higher-resolution mpeg4]
• Part 3 [Low-resolution flv | Higher-resolution mpeg4]

• Part 1 [Low-resolution flv | High-resolution mpeg4]
• Part 2 [Low-resolution flv | High-resolution mpeg4]

• Introduction [low-resolution flv | higher resolution mpeg4]
• Lunch [low-resolution flv | higher resolution mpeg4]

I will be leaving tomorrow (Monday) for a week at the annual KCBT missions conference. Please pray for us during the week and a half I’ll be away from the ministry here in Costa Rica…

• …that God would protect my family and provide for them,
• …that He would do His good and perfect will at the KCBT conference,
• …that He would use the opportunity to help us raise support (if that be what the Lord desires; many of you know we are in need of raising our monthly support if we are to continue in the same capacity in the ministry here).

When asked why they were not more knowing, he gave this answer:

Because we are idle. We forget our very first rule, “Be diligent. Never be unemployed a moment. Never be triflingly employed. Never while away the time; neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.”

We must, absolutely must, cure this evil, or betray the cause of God.

Our idleness… our wasting away of time… our time “triflingly employed”… says John Wesley, betrays the cause of God.

One of his suggestions of how to fix this problem among his Preachers was the following:

Read the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly. Steadily spend all the morning in this employ, or, at least, five hours in four-and-twenty.

If you need no book but the Bible, you are got above St. Paul. He wanted others too. “Bring the books,” says he, “but especially the parchments,” those wrote on parchment.

“But, what if I’m not a reader? I’m just not a ‘bookish’ person. I’m more of a hands-on minister.” Well, Wesley had some advice there, too:

“But I have no taste for reading.” Contract a taste for it by use, or return to your trade.

[Taken from pages 314-15 of Volume 8, The Works of John Wesley.]

You be the judge!

Is this a case of a missionary “suffering for Jesus” or just… “Greg yer schtoopid.” My toenail on my left big-toe separated from the toe and bled all over the inside. It’s all black and nasty. :-) So, here are your two options:

• The case for “suffering for Jesus”: Our “Alajuela outreach” involved a lot (!) of walking, sometimes with a backpack full of evangelistic literature. All that walking resulted in my “injury.”
• The case for “Greg yer schtoopid”: When I bought my boots… I should have bought them one size bigger. My toes just barely touch the end of the boot. And so, while out walking in them all day, my toe mashed up against the end of the boot, and resulted in the mess I now have in my toenail. If I would have only bought them one size bigger…

So, which is it: “Suffering for Jesus” or “Greg yer schtoopid“?

Regardless, I need to shop for a better pair of boots or shoes for walking all over Costa Rica. We’re planning on being out on the streets of a different city (just like we did in Alajuela) at least one week, if not two, each month this year. We want to “walk across Costa Rica” and evangelize in as many areas as we can, taking our “pastor packets,” too, of course.

But, hey… I just thought I’d share my “wounds” from the “missionary field.” That’s gotta be worth something, doesn’t it…?  Maybe one of these days someone will throw rocks or pieces of dead cat at me. Now, THAT would be something!

He goes on to say that, “Sadly, many churches are so music-driven that the teaching of the word is swallowed up in its ample motherly arms until it is nearly irrelevant. Three weeks without the full production, and the church building would be emptied… it seems to me that we have gone to elaborate extremes before reflecting on what the New Testament has to say.”

I’ll not copy and paste the whole article here, but let me put in one more quote and then I’ll give you the link; you can read the whole thing out on Jim’s site if you want:

The main lesson, summarized, is that early New Testament believers purposefully abandoned choreographed, professional and elaborate musical presentations to the shadowlands of the temple age, and moved forward into the simpler, more fluid and flexible, leadership of the Spirit. Although I’m not sure exactly how all of this is accomplished, I would rather be attempting to go His direction than assuming I know better than God what He likes. With careful attention to the body language of the New Testament, and authentic trust in God, surely we can take steps, gradually if necessary, to return to this glorious simplicity, beauty and balance.

It’s a short article, but well written, and I hope you can take a few minutes and read what Jim has to say about this issue. It’s “timely” to say the least in these days of entertainment-driven “worship” services. Here’s the link to the full article:

Music in the Church: How Special Should We Make It?

Afterward, we took a break, had lunch, and then headed over to the central park where we planned to open-air preach as Mass let out. We found out that the church had been damaged in the last earthquake, and wasn’t open until later on… so no preaching in front of the Catholic church this time around. There were lots of people in the park, though (it was a beautiful evening), so we finished up by passing out more tracts and witnessing to more people.

We had a great week and we want to thank all of you who were praying for us! We are in so much need of revival here in Costa Rica (and Latin America) — we need a revival in evangelism (a revival among lost souls, and a revival of biblical evangelism) and we need a revival among God’s people (especially the pastors and leaders of local churches: May they hunger and thirst for righteousness!).

I shot about an hour of video Saturday. Below are the links to an eight-minute summary of the day. I’ll be posting the rest of video in ten-minute segments later this week and next.

Here are the links to the quick, summary video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for Penguin people)

For the most part, we are a nation of Christians by profession — and a nation of heathens in practice.

There is to be found in the religious world — what may be termed — a pretty, cultured sort of evangelism, which too well combines luxurious ease, and serving of the world, and the flesh — not to say of the devil also. But such kind of religion will not prepare the soul for sickness, death, and eternity. At best, it will leave the soul a prey to the most fearful delusions of false peace. The way that leads to eternal life is much more narrow than many of our modern professors are aware of — the gate is too straight to allow all their trifling, and self-will, and worldliness, and carnal-mindedness, to press through it.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [Matthew 7:13-14]

Please continue to ask the Lord for revival in Alajuela and Costa Rica — revival among the lost (that they might be soundly saved) and revival in the church (a revival of sound doctrine; a revival among the pastors that would lead them to a profound desire to read and study Scripture, and feed their sheep with sound, biblical exposition of the Word of God)

Here are the links to the video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for all you Linux Geeks)

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine… Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. [1Tim 4.13-16]

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. [Hos 4.6]

It was a lot of walking, so by the end of the video you can see the loooooong faces. But, God was good and opened a lot of doors for us. We actually bumped into several pastors on the streets (two of which pastor two of the most popular non-catholic churches in Alajuela).

Here are the links to the video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video for all you Linux Geeks

The event: Intentional evangelism and pastoral outreach. From Monday, February 16th, through Saturday, February 21st, several of us will be in the city of Alajuela all day, everyday. We put together a “missions edition” of our Revista newsletter; it’s designed to be a complete and biblical presentation of the Gospel, and also a tool to offer help and resources to church leaders and pastors (e.g. our Biblical Discipleship program, seminars, workshops, etc.).

We printed up 10,000 of the Revista to take to Alajuela along with about 20 of our “pastor packages” (a small gift for pastors in the area that includes my book How to Study the Bible, Mark Cahill’s book One Think You Can’t Do in Heaven, some key discipleship material, and examples of our Gospel tracts — my son, Kevin, is holding one of the packs in the picture).

• We will be going door-to-door with the Revista, passing it out on the streets, and giving it away after open-air preaching.
• Saturday the 21st we will be evangelizing at the Farmers Market in the morning (preaching, witnessing, passing out the Revista and tracts), and then in the evening we are planning on doing some open-air preaching in the central park after Mass lets out.

The area: Alajuela. The city of Alajuela (population: 50,000; about 10 miles northwest of San José) is the capital city of the Province of Alajuela (population: 700,000). A province in Costa Rica is like a state in the USA — we have seven, as you can see in the map (click to enlarge).

• Obviously, with only 10,000 Revistas and 20 “pastor packages,” we will not even make a small dent in the reaching Alajuela with the Gospel and sound doctrine. But, we are committed to do what we can with the resources God has give us. So, we’re asking for your prayers — that you would ask God to get the literature into the hands of those who need it, and that He would use it save the lost and bring the saved to a sound knowledge of the truth of Scripture.

The need in Costa Rica. I’ll have more to say about this later on, during the course of the year, but let me just say this for now…

• The glaring need in Costa Rica (and, frankly, in all of Latin America) is sound doctrine — biblical theology (a sound and biblical understanding of Who God is and what He is like). Many church leaders here are men with a heart for God and a zeal for the work of the Lord, but not having had the opportunity to receive good theological training, it’s been difficult to effectively carry out the mission of “making disciples” both here and abroad.
• The failure in the Latin America Church to establish an “orthodoxy” (correct doctrine) has led to an even more serious failure in “orthopraxy” (correct practice). For example, in the area of evangelism, the great majority of churches and ministries are preaching a false Gospel because they do not understand Who God is and what He is like. In the area of basic “church life,” ministries are rife with non-biblical activities and practices while the sheep are starving — not being “nourished” in sound doctrine. Bad practice follows bad doctrine. But the reverse is true also: Sound practice follows sound doctrine (both in evangelism and church life).
• With the Revista and the “pastor packages” we aim to try to meet this need head-on. The Revista is an evangelistic tool that has a biblical presentation of the true Gospel. It also has information and links to resources on our web site that will be of interest and help to leaders and pastors. Of course, our intention with the “pastor packages” is to get sound teaching materials into the hands of the men who are feeding God’s people and training them in the mission of making disciples.

We are limited, but God is not. We have limited resources, but we are thankful for those we have and are confident that God will supply all our need (Php 4.19). Offerings from our people here and income from our soccer field business are funding this entire operation. Our desire is to first cover the capital cities of each of the seven provinces in the country and then we will select strategic areas within each province to do the same: Outreach through literature distribution, witnessing on the streets, open-air preaching, and “pastoral help.”

We need prayer. Please pray for us as we strive to preach the Gospel to those who have never heard (most have heard the modern Gospel of “accept Jesus in your heart and you’ll feel better”) and to teach sound doctrine to those who desire to hear.

You can find the article in its entiretly at Ligonier Ministries (it’s short, to-the-point). Here is what I found interesting (and I included my own comments in brackets for explanation purposes only… he uses some “religious” language that I do not, so I thought I’d include some definitions, etc. It is not my intention to deviate from the original content, only to explain.):

During the Reformation era, debates raged over what things must be considered crucial to Christian faith and practice, and what could be considered adiaphora (Latin for “things indifferent” [things neither morally mandated nor morally forbidden]). All sides agreed that the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and justification were central. But what about worship issues? What about the elements of worship…?

We regard as axiomatic [self-evident] the principle that worship cannot be entertainment. Worship as entertainment is idolatry. By definition worship must be about God, not my amusement. Here is where disagreement exists: stages, theater-lighting, bands, dancers, dramatists, hand-held microphones, all up front, the service performed on behalf of an audience relaxing in theater-style seating. Is this adiaphora? Normally, issues of seating, lighting, placement of musicians, style of platform might have qualified as things indifferent… but a line has been crossed in our generation. Much of what passes for worship today is nothing more than lightly baptized entertainment, and therefore is idolatrous. It is idolatry from which serious churches must distance themselves. Our principle must be (with apologies to Luther): “Let us, therefore, repudiate everything that smacks of entertainment.”

Has the time come when the sanctuaries of evangelical Protestantism must be cleansed of everything that reflects the world of entertainment? Our Reformed forefathers took axes to the altars, and they whitewashed the walls of medieval churches. If our analysis of worship that entertains is correct, similar iconoclastic fury must be shown, and soon, in our houses of worship lest they become houses of mirth: theater seats pulled out; stages broken up; dancers and actors banished; musicians’ and choirs’ roles redefined as that of simply supporting and enhancing congregational singing; pulpit, table, and font ["table" and "font" used in reference to the two biblical ordinances of the Lord's Supper and Baptism] restored to their proper places; pastors moved back behind pulpits; and simple services of the Word read, preached, sung, prayed, and seen (in the sacraments [ordinances]) reestablished. What was once indifferent can be considered indifferent no more, not if Reformed Protestantism is to continue to practice purity in its worship and avoid idolatry. “Little children,” says the apostle John, “keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

I don’t know if I’d throw out the “baby with the bathwater” on how we “do” our Sunday services. I mean, we have a “stage” (an elevated platform) in our services and three people that “lead” singing with microphones. Is that “entertainment” vs. “worship.” I don’t think so… but, pastor Johnson certainly has a point that we should seriously consider, and I most certainly appreciate his zeal on the issue.

Where is our focus during our Sunday “worship” services? Is is solely upon God and His Word? Or is it on entertaining the folks so they’ll come back… making them feel good… “pumping them up” emotionally and giving them a good “Christian experience”? Worship is about God and church is about glorifying God and edifying God’s people. Therefore, the Word (both Living and Written) must be central. The moment we deviate from that norm, we have strayed from “worship” into “entertainment.” And, frankly… I’ve had enough of that road… I’ve made too many of those kinds of mistakes before… and I don’t want to go there again. Let’s remember Josiah and what God thought of him (2Kings 23.25 cf. 22.8-23.14).

• The pic (above) is of the “team” that went today (from left to right): Jorge, me, Alex “Bimbo” and Marco.
• If you’d like to see some pictures, check out my Picasa album. Jorge manned the camera and did a bang-up job, like always.

Many of you know we’re having some money problems lately, just like some of you in the States with the financial problems that have presented themselves in the last several months. My friend is in the same situation — he is without a job; looking and applying, but still out of a job.

My buddy wanted me to be able to visit KCBT for the up-coming missions conference in March. Without a job, where could he get the money? He gave blood — platelets to be exact. I guess they pay you for that in the States. But… I wonder how many times one would have to give in order to purchase a plane ticket these days?! That’s what he did. For quite some time he’s been giving platelets and saving the money they’ve given him for the donation.

My friend paid for my plane ticket (so I could visit my sending church and even my Mom!) with his life’s blood. :-) Now that’s a friend!

Thanks, friend. ~Greg

If you want to see a 9-minute video, I tried to put something together that would give you a good idea of what went on. You can see them here:

• Standard mpg4 | Small mpg4 | Ogg Video
• It’s also out on Blip.tv if you’d like to watch it there.

• (Acts 11.26) The Bible says that a “Christian” is a “disciple” of Jesus Christ — he is a “student, apprentice, follower” of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• But, today many who say they are Christians live in sin… gross, open, flagrant sin. They go to church on Sunday morning and practice illicit sex during the week (sleeping with their girlfriend / boyfriend, etc.), they get drunk, they “use” pornography, they (women) dress like hookers, they lie, they cheat, they steal, they use foul language… They go to church on Sunday, but they never read their Bibles… they never pray… they have no interest whatsoever in reaching the lost (and much less in foreign missions — reaching the unreached).

A Christian is a sinner who has “converted” to Christ (1Thes 1.9) — he has repented of his sins (repenance toward God) and placed his faith (his complete confidence for salvation) in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20.20-21). He is no longer a follower of self but rather a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 2.20). He has been regenerated (“born again”) and the Holy Spirit of God lives in him (Titus 3.5; John 3.3-6). He is a completely “new creature” (2Cor 5.17) even though is “old man” is still present in his flesh tempting him to indulge in sin that he used to love but now he hates (Rom 7.14-24).

If a “believer” (someone who says he is a Christian) gives no outward, visible evidence of the new birth and the presence of God in his life, why would we accept his “profession of faith” as valid? Think of it this way: If you walked up to a tree that had apples on it, what kind of tree would you think it to be? Obviously: It’s a pear tree! Now I know that sounds ridiculous to you because, frankly, it’s not that hard to figure out what kind of tree it is if it has apples growing on it. It’s an apple tree! Why, then, do we complicate the matter of why professing Christians don’t act like Christians; Jesus said it was as easy as discerning apples on an apple tree!

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. [Mat 7.16-20]

I recently posted a quote by Charles Spurgeon that stated the case quite clearly: “If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will, but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumptions, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved.”

All of this deals with the issue of repentance in salvation. A sinner converts to Christ when he repents of his sins and places his faith in the Saviour. By his repentance he is recognizing the lordship of Christ (he is submitting to Christ as Lord) and by his faith he is trusting in Christ as Saviour. Repentance and faith are the two sides of the “coin” of salvation. You cannot turn to Christ without turning from sin. Therefore if the “believer” has not turned from his sin (if he has not repented), he most certainly has not turned to Christ for salvation. He has merely placed a vain hope in the “fire insurance” of “easy-believism” or (worse!) “quick prayerism.” Paul says that those who believe without repentance have believed in vain (1Cor 15.2).

This is not to preach “Lordship salvation” (that if Jesus is not “Lord of all” then He is not “Lord at all”). Lordship salvation teaches that the sinner must make Jesus Christ absolute Lord of every area of his life before he can be saved. That is impossible! That is works righteousness — placing works as a condition of salvation. No! Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works (Eph 2.8-9; Titus 3.5). Biblical repentance, though, is NOT a work. It will result in works, but it in and of itself is not a work.

If you would like to study this issue further, I would like to recommend some material. As always, be like the Bereans and search the Scriptures to see if these things are true (Acts 17.11; 1Th 5.21). Like Spurgeon once said: “Brethren, we shall not adjust our Bible to the age, but the age to the Bible.”

Two books that speak volumes about this issue (the first I would highly recommend; the second is good also, but there is a lot of hypercalvinism to weed out):

1. Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic by Walter Chantry (it’s only 93 pages; easy to read and powerful).
2. Today’s Evangelism: Its Message and Methods by Ernest C. Reisinger

A very good (eye-opening) video can be found on the following web site. It’s a sermon Paul Washer preached at a youth conference and he clearly exposes the existance of false converts in the modern church (hit the first link, scroll down a bit; it’s the sermon labeled “Shocking Message”):

• Paul Washer Youth Conference Sermon on True and False Conversions
• You can also find this sermon out on SermonAudio.com.

Here are some other links to messages, videos, audios, etc. that deal with the issue of conversion and the role of repentance in the salvation of a sinner:

• Biblical Repentance by David Cloud
• Repentance and Lordship Salvation by David Cloud (I tried to direct-link to this article on David Cloud’s web site, but could not.)
• True & False Conversions by Ray Comfort
• Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort
• Are You Really a Christian? by Todd Friel (this message and many other very good ones like it can be found on the What If I’m Pretending web site’s resource page). Also, Friel is continually addressing this issue during his radio and TV shows: Wretched.

Paul Washer consitently brings out this issue in many of his sermons. Some of my favorites can be found here:

• God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!
• Paul Washer on “Personal Discipleship”
• The Ten Indictment of the American Church (good stuff!).

Last (and certainly least) is a message I preached on the subject of the need to call men to repentance.

• Calling Men to Repentance
• That sermon is one of two. If you’d like the other one… it’s here.

Let me finish this “short” little post with a quote from David Cloud’s article on Biblical Repentace (see link above):

Pastor Dave Sorenson says: “Saving faith includes repentance. Repentance is not doing anything. It is not a deed, act, work, or rite. Rather, it is a change of the direction of one’s heart. It basically means an attitude of the heart in turning from sin and self and turning to God. That’s what Paul was referring to in Acts 20:21 when he referred to ‘repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Saving faith is the human heart turning to God and then trusting in Jesus Christ. … Even as there is the part of trusting Christ, there is also the part of turning to Him. That may seem inconsequential, but I believe that here is a spiritual reason they some go through the motions of believing in Christ but are not really born again. They seemingly want the fire escape but there is no interest in turning to God. There is no interest in repentance. They have the attitude, ‘God, gimme salvation, but I’m gonna keep on doing my own thing.’ … However, if there is no real turning to God from the heart, they have missed the prerequisite for actually trusting Christ” (Sorenson, Training Your Children to Turn out Right, 1995).

Repentance and faith are two separate things that come together for salvation, but they act together as one thing.

“Repentance is included in believing. Howbeit, repentance is not faith, nor faith repentance. ‘He that believeth,’ implies repentance. ‘Repent and be converted,’ involves faith… (James Stewart, Evangelism, pp. 48, 49).

“While it is true that upwards of one hundred and fifteen N.T. passages condition salvation on believing, and fully thirty passages condition salvation on faith … nevertheless, repentance is an essential condition in God’s glorious Gospel… (James Stewart, Evangelism, p. 49).

If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will, but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumptions, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply “accepting Christ” as their Saviour, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so, I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel, insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.

It is interesting to notice that the Apostles preached the Lordship of Christ. The word “Saviour” occurs only twice in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5.31; 13.23). On the other hand it is amazing to notice the title “Lord” is mentioned 92 times; “Lord Jesus” 13 times; and “The Lord Jesus Christ” 6 times in the same book.

The Gospel is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

We could carry Spurgeon’s statistics a little farther and include all of the New Testament:

• In the entire New Testament, the word “Saviour” is used only 24 times (eight of which refer to God the Father as our Saviour).
• In the same Books, Jesus is referred to as “Lord” 822 times, as “Lord Jesus” 22 times, and as the “Lord Jesus Christ” 81 times.

[This information is from Ernest C. Reisinger's book Today's Evangelism. Even though Mr. Reisinger is a devout Calvinist, his book is well worth the read.]

True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the Word of God. They submit without reserve to the Word of God written in “the Scripture of Truth” (the Book of Almighty God, Dan 10.21), believing the teaching, trusting the promises, following the commands.

Christians will tell you, if you ask them, that the Word of God has both convinced them of sin and assured them of forgiveness. They are captive to the Word of God and therefore aspire, like the psalmist, to have their whole lives brought into line with it.

O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! [Ps 119.5]

With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. [Ps 119.10]

I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. [Ps 119.26-27]

Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. [Ps 119.36]

Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed. [Ps 119.80]

The promises of the Word are before them as they pray, and the precepts of the same are before them as they go about their daily tasks.

Since the Scriptures tell them that all things work together for their good (Rom 8.28), they use the Word of God as a touchstone (a test or criterion for the qualities of a thing) by which to test the various views that are put to them, and they will not touch anything which they are not sure that Scripture sanctions.

Why does this description fit so few of those who profess to be Christians in these days?

We started a new Facebook “group” keep the prayer-support team informed and up-to-date. If you’d like to get in on it, just follow this link:

• Kedrovsky Prayer Team

We’ll still be using this site as our primary communication tool, but for all those out on Facebook, and those thinking about opening an account, this new group could be a great way to keep up on things this year in the ministry in Costa Rica.

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Well, I beg to differ. I think it “doesn’t work in the States” because many Christians simply don’t witness — they don’t evangelize, they don’t pass out tracts, and they don’t preach open-air. And the reason given is this:

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Yes it does. It “works” in any culture, any society, at any time, and with any people group. It “works” because God said it does:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  [1Cor 1.18-21]

Here are some examples that, yes, it does “work” in the States — biblical evangelism (purposeful, intentional witnessing to people we do not know) “works” in the United States of America.

Trish Ramos took advantage of a TV program filming a segment near her hometown and passed out tracts. Click the image of Trish (using the “Curved Illusion” tract); right around the 2:30 to the 3:00 minute mark you can see her passing out million dollar bill tracts and the people receive them just like they do here (with a smile and an outstretched hand!).

Here’s Ray Comfort passing out a ton of the “Giant Money” tracts in record time at a convention (who couldn’t do this?!):

Darrell Rundus makes it look easy (because it is! …once you get over your fear and intimidation):

How about open-air preaching in the USA? Here are some pics and links to guys that preach open-air on a regular basis. Check out the crowds they have, and if you watch the videos you can see that they crowds stay, they listen, and they interact.

Here’s Ray Comfort at Huntington Beach (hang with it if you watch the video… it’s a great example of how to use a heckler to preach the Gospel to those who are listening):

Here’s Tony Miano in Glendale:

Here are four of Leon Brown (he’s very good at interacting with the crowd — very articulate and interesting):

So, why would anyone say that biblical evangelism doesn’t work in the States? I still say the main reason is fear — people fear because they have not been trained. Here’s a quote from a great tool for getting trained up (Todd Friel’s “Terrified“):

Nobody expects a soldier to go into battle without training and proper equipment. Yet we are frequently encouraged to witness and share our faith without training and without weapons.

So get trained up! And get some good “weapons”! Ray has a great DVD on how to open-air preach (and not just “street holler”). I think a lot of us don’t like to give out tracts because the tracts we’ve seen make us ashamed of the Gospel when we give them out. Get good tracts! Get tracts you like so you will like to give them out. Spurgeon said that!

When preaching and private talk are not available, you have a tract ready, and this is often an effectual method. Some tracts would not convert a beetle: there is not enough in them to interest a fly. Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a telling, touching gospel tract may often be the seed of eternal life; therefore, do not go out without your tracts.

You know… even if it didn’t “work in the States,” we should do it because God told us to. But, if you just take a look at the videos above, you’ll see it does work. Folks, the needs is great, the message is urgent, and there’s so few that labor in the harvest. Let’s be different.

I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize… If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life… and you think that… well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… How much do you have to hate somebody to NOT proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and NOT tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you and you didn’t believe it… and that truck is bearing down on you… there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is MORE IMPORTANT than that.

Folks, an atheist understands what’s at stake and what a true believer will do. If we really believe the Gospel, how can we keep silent?

One of my biggest obstacles to witnessing has been fear (fear of man, fear of rejection, fear of… evangelizing). But one of the greatest ways to get over your fear is to get training. We would never consider sending a man to battle without proper training and weapons, but that’s exactly what happens to so many Christians today. They want to evangelize and they are exhorted to do so from the pulpit, but they don’t know how — they have no training and no weapons.

So, get trained up. Learn to use the “weapons” of our warfare: The Law of God. And then let’s get out in the battle because people are perishing in their sins…

• The School of Biblical Evangelism
• The Basic Training Course
• Training video for Open-Air Preaching
• Cahill’s Material (or better yet: Invite Cahill to speak at your church or ministry!)
• Tracts from Living Waters
• Tracts from Custom Tract Source

If we really believe the Gospel… If we really believe the Bible… If we really believe there is an eternal heaven and an eternal hell… How can we keep silent? Folks, even an atheist understands that much. ~Greg

I want to say a special thanks to Brent Blaise and his wife, too. I’ll be staying with them (Lord willing and the roads don’t freeze) during my week in Tacoma. They are moving from Kansas City to Tacoma on December 30th. I arrive on January 2nd! I used to camp out at lot with the Boy Scouts… so this trip should bring back some pleasant memories!

But, seriously, I am grateful for the Blaise’s hospitality and would ask everyone to be praying for them and their family as they make the move out to Tacoma to work with Faith Baptist. Brent has been a tremendous encouragement to me over the last couple of years (along with Jeremy Bonneen) and I’m looking forward to being with him and his family for the week of the conference at Faith.

We had a fair turn-out and it all went well. We sang Christmas songs (like Silent Night) and then I preached a messaged based on Luke 2.8-14: “On earth peace.”

1. I explained why we needed peace: Because man without Christ is God’s enemy.
2. I explained what would happen without peace: Judgment and condemnation to eternal hell.
3. Then I explained the text: God wants peace and so came to take our punishment so we could be forgiven and granted eternal life and entrace into heaven!

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. [1Tim 1.15]

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. [1Pet 3.18]

After the service, we fed everybody donuts. If you’d like to see some pictures of the service, one of my guys got some snapshots.

• Christmas_2008_at_Eastside.jpg
• dscn1144.jpg
• dscn1148.jpg
• dscn1189.jpg
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Please pray for all those that heard the Gospel, that they might repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

I was reminded again today of the absolute love affair of modern Christianity with pragmatism. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the same question when people go with me out onto the streets to evangelize: “Does it work?” They ask me about the fruit… about the number of people in my church as a result of witnessing out on the streets… about how many have “made a decision” because of the tracts we’ve passed out… That’s pragmatism!

One of the great evils of the time is that of deliberating about a plain command of Christ, and asking, “What will be the result of it?”  What have you to do with results? “But if I follow Christ in all things, I may lose my position.” What you have to do with that?  When a soldier is bidden to go up to the cannon’s mouth, he is very likely to lose his “position,” and something else; but he is bound to do it.  “Oh but I might lose my opportunity for usefulness!” What do you mean? That you are going to do evil that good may come? That is what it comes to. ~C.H. Spurgeon

God has called us all to go and preach the Gospel to every creature. He has told us to find where the sinners are, and verbally communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them (Rom 10.13-17; Mar 16.15). We do not have the liberty to change the message… We do not have the liberty to change the method either! God said: Go and preach!

In the great day, when the muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are converted through fine music, and church decoration, and religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will amount to the tenth part of nothing; but it will always please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Keep to your preaching; and if you do anything beside, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach. ~C.H. Spurgeon

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us. ~C.H. Spurgeon

But, what if nobody is listening…? What if nobody cares…? HEY, CHRISTIAN! God is listening! And you can rest assured that God cares! Set your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith — Jesus, He who suffered and died for you! Jesus is our Lord, and we are but His servants. He tells us what to do, when to do it, with whom to do it, and HOW TO DO IT. We have no right to change the mission… the message… the method… just because we want to see “results.”

Pastor Steve Sanchez had a very good post on his blog today — that’s him in the photo at the top of this post. He ends with a quote from Spurgeon:

God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the Law. When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for “when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Amen. Keep it up, Steve! And may God raise up more labourers to go forth out into His harvest and preach the cross of Christ: God’s Law, God’s Grace, and man’s ultimate decision (repent and trust Christ, or perish).

Yesterday was a bit of a sad day around here, but was also kind of exciting. My “right hand” in the ministry, Will, and his wife, Naylene, moved to the States. Many of you know Will and so you know that he has always been my closest friend in the ministry here. He was constantly at my side on the streets evangelizing and in the church discipling and preaching.

Will and Naylene will be spending the holiday’s with Naylene’s folks in Illinois and then they’ll move down the Kansas City area to attend KCBT and look for work. This is a great opportunity for Will and Naylene to be exposed to other ministries (KCBT, Midtown Baptist Temple, etc.), grow in their faith, and continue to develop as leaders in the work of the Lord.

Please keep them in your prayers, and if you attend KCBT, be looking for them to welcome them into the family! Thank you! ~Greg

The stunted professor

(Theodore Cuyler, “Beulah-Land” or, “Words of Cheer for Christian Pilgrims”, 1896)

“The righteous will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” Psalm 92:12-14

The first quality of the cedar–is that it GROWS. It is a live tree. Where there is hearty life–there must be growth. It is the lamentable lack of inward godliness, which makes the stunted professor. There is not vitalizing sap enough in his heart-roots to reach up into the boughs of his outward conduct. There is not vigor enough in the trunk of his character, to stand erect. No showers brought down by fervent prayer, cleanse the dust of worldliness from his yellow, sicklied leaves.

There he is–just as he set out in the church a score of years ago–no larger, no broader, no brighter in graces than he was then! The caterpillars of lust have spun their unsightly webs all over his branches. He has not grown an inch–in any one Bible trait. He has not yielded one single fruit of the Spirit. He is a cumberer of the ground–fit only to be cut down. He is all the while drinking up God’s pure air and water–and yet fulfilling Satan’s purpose! Not of such a prayer-neglecting professor, not of such a time-serving, money-loving, fashion-worshiping professor, could we honestly say, “He grows like a cedar in Lebanon.”

I got this quote from Grace Gems this morning.

Much of leadership development seems to hinge on personal character and diligence (being a “self-starter” and disciplined in finishing things well). Those kinds of things can’t be taught; character is a result of spiritual growth and maturity (the work of the Holy Spirit) and diligence is a matter of personal choice.

There are, however, certain skills and a certain knowledge base that a leader in the ministry should have. I’ve always struggled with defining just what those skills are, and just what that knowledge should be. This last year, God has put two key tools into my hands that seem to be just what we need in order to get our leadership development where it needs to be: [1] Adsit’s Personal Discipleship and [2] Sam Mile’s “SOT.” I’ll be talking about “SOT” in a separate post soon, but I’d like to share with you the tool that’s coming out of some material Christopher Adsit put together under the title “Personal Discplemaking.” Here are the links:

• Adsit’s ministry web site: DiscipleMakers International
• Adsit’s book and “kit” (I got them both, and I’m glad I did — you need the charts and stuff).

Here’s what the whole thing is about (in a nutshell):

Adsit’s premise is that we shouldn’t rely on a “materials-based” discipleship, but rather learn to focus on the disciple and his personal needs in seven specific areas of growth: Prayer, Word, Witnessing, Fellowship, Personal Growth, Ministry, and Family. I found two major problems with his approach (in the context of personal discipleship):

1. The average Christian that wants to participate in discipleship almost always needs a material-based discipleship “program” because he works a full-time job, has a family, etc. etc. and cannot put in the time required to do all that Adsit suggests (which leads me to my second point).
2. Adsit’s book is thorough and quite complete. That means it’s complicated. I had to read the book through twice to get a handle on it, and then a third time to start breaking it down into practical steps… and I’m still chewing on some of it to get it worked out in a way I can easily teach it to others. I had to hang his “Disciplemaking Growth Grid” beside my computer and look at it every day just so I could make my brain figure it all out. The average Christian isn’t going to have the time to digest it all (or maybe I’m just not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

However, he really did his homework and his stuff is very, very good. I just don’t see it fitting into our “basic discipleship” area of ministry. I see it fitting in very well on the other end — the last stages of discipleship (“advanced discipleship”), or what we call “leadership development.”

One of Adsit’s strong points is his focus on evaluation and planning. He has a really good series of questionnaires that, if answered honestly, will give you a fairly good idea of where your disciple (or future leader) is at in the process of growth through his seven areas (mentioned above). You “plot” that growth and evaluation on the big “Growth Grid” (like the one I hung by my computer).

Basically what it does is show you where you have “holes” in the development of your men.

I needed that! So, here’s what I’ve done with this stuff so far:

• I translated all his questionnaires and his Growth Grid.
• I put each one of the seven areas of the Growth Grid on a separate sheet of paper, while maintaining the large Growth Grid with short descriptions of each element evaluated.
• This way I have a tool to put in the hands of others who want to do the same kind of evaluation. They don’t have to wade through all the “how-to” stuff that’s buried in Adsit’s book. They grab the questionnaires, give them to their guys, and then when they get them back, they just have to go through the one-sheet summaries of each growth area checking off what’s “done” and what needs to be “shored up.” If they want, they can also check off the same things on the big Growth Grid to get an “at-a-glance” snapshot of a leader’s spiritual growth and development.

Nice! I love it! And like I said, it was something I definitely needed because I was constantly looking out at my men wondering, “What does this guy still need…? What does the fellow over here need…?” Now at least I have a tool to help me define needs. It’s not an end-all-be-all, but it’s shaping up to be a good leadership develpment tool in that it’s showing me the holes in the develpment of my men as mature disciples of our Lord.

Of course, along with all that, I’m combining Adsits “philosophy of discipleship” (four levels of growth) with my stuff from KCBT (seven stages of discipleship and five primary goals in spiritual growth). I’m hoping to have a good, solid discipleship course I could give in a week at a conference, and then I’d leave our Biblical Discipleship material with the people to begin to put it all into practice. This type of “philosophy” or “how-to” teaching has been something that’s always been lacking in our discipleship. With Adsit’s help, I think we’re going to get this shored up nicely.

We had some wonderfully fun “family time” this morning, so I thought I’d share the blessing! Today was the first day in WEEKS that it hasn’t rained all day, so I got to go out and do some needed yard work. The kids pitched in and helped.

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Dear friends and family,

It’s December and that means a lot of things to a lot of people… For us it means an opportunity to do some personal evangelism and to begin evaluating the past year in preparation for the next one!

Christmas & Personal Evangelism

As we’ve studied the Book of Acts this year in our Sunday services, we’ve come to understand one thing: Our life mission as Christians is to evangelize the lost! We are to do that “publically” and also among our friends, family, and co-workers. So we decided to take advantage of Christmas this year and put together a simple plan to reach those closest to us with the message of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

About two months ago we purchased four cases (176 books) of Mark Cahill’s One Heartbeat Away in Spanish. It’s a wonderful book for a lost person who is willing to sit down, read a little, and be challenged in his view of God and eternity. Mark did a fantastic job in writing the book, and he’s also very generous in getting it into the hands of those who need it.

I challenged each and every one of our people in church to think about how many friends, co-workers, and family members they had that still weren’t saved. Buy them a book, write them a letter with your testimony in it, wrap it up with the book, and give it to them as a Christmas gift this year (stick a tract in there, too, if you want!). Many are buying four or five books, and some are buying twenty or more!

We are planning on having a special Sunday service the 21st of December; we’re buying a truck-load of Christmas-colored donuts, and we’re going to invite all of the friends, co-workers, and family members we can to celebrate Christmas with us. I’ll be preaching from the text: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2.14). The “peace” that was on earth was Jesus Christ. He came to establish peace between God and man, because man without Christ is the enemy of God (he hates Him; Rom 1.30) and God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps 5.5; 7.11). But Jesus came to change all that! And we want to tell all of our friends and family about it this Christmas.

Personal Evangelism Workshop

In preparation for the holidays (family reunions, Christmas parties, etc.), we hosted a personal evangelism workshop last Saturday (you can see some pictures of the event on our web site). There were almost 50 people in attendance! We had a wonderful time going over biblical and practical principles of sharing the message of the cross with anybody anywhere. The majority of the people that attended were from other churches. What a blessing to see other brothers and sisters in Christ who desire to learn how to share their faith!

Looking Forward To 2009

With Christmas right around the corner, I find myself evaluating 2008 and making plans for 2009. This last year was quite the test, and I don’t know if I passed all of it, but I’m pretty sure I learned a bit from it all (by the grace of God). I think 2008 was plagued by the “Martha Syndrome.” Remember Luke 10.41? Jesus says to Martha, “Thou art careful and troubled about many things.” You get so busy trying to do everything that you end up not really doing anything. This last year was one big “To-Do” list that didn’t get done: Books I’ve written that need to be proofed, studies that are finished but need to be written out, messages that need to be published on the web site, a group in Esparza that needs more care, outreach tools that never got finished… and you end up feeling like “too little butter spread over too much bread.”

This month I’m working hard on finishing two key projects (two key tools) that will be the basis for a push in the area of leadership development this year. After these projects are finished, I will be focusing my time and energy on three things: Feeding the sheep (Sundays), developing my leaders to replace me (as we are all instructed to do; 2Tim 2.2), and intentional evangelism. I’ll keep you posted on my blog.

Support Needs

If you would know of a church or of an individual that would like to invest in a work like ours here in Costa Rica (evangelism, discipleship, expository preaching, Bible teaching, etc. along with taking all of this to other churches in other cities and countries), would you please mention our names and maybe our web site to them? Since we left the States in 1995, our support level has basically stayed the same. Over the past several years, though, the dollar has dropped considerably on the world market and we have to deal with 15-18% annual inflation rates (that’s a complicated way to say our dollars don’t buy as much today as they did 13 years ago). We also lost two supporting churches this last year when they decided to invest in other fields. For now we are keeping this in prayer and seeking opportunties to present our field to people who would like to invest in the work among Spanish-speaking people.

Thank you all very much and we hope you have a great Christmas and New Year! Preach the Gospel anyway you can!

Greg & Sue Kedrovsky

Today (Saturday) we had a “personal evangelism” workshop in the church, and over 40 people attended! What a great group and what a great time we had together!

Many people are very intimidated by “street evangelism” but they want to know how to share their faith with friends, family, and co-workers. So, I scaled back our “intense” one-day evangelism seminar and taught the biblical principles of evangelism in the context of “normal life” conversations.

The turn-out was just one of those blessings from God that really encourage you. Most of the 40 people were from other churches, too. That’s interesting! But, it’s obvious that’s God’s at work in Christians’ hearts to evangelize. We want to! The problem is that most haven’t been taught and trained how to. So, we tried to give them some teaching in training in personal evangelism this morning. And God blessed greatly.

www.dougpearson.org

Doug grew up in in the Kansas City Metro area where, after the Lord saved him, he was trained up at Kansas City Baptist Temple. Later he was led to participate in the missions revival of native pastors all over the world called “Greater Grace World Outreach“.

In 2002, he moved to Baltimore to attend Greater Grace World Outreach and had the opportunity to be discipled by pastor Tom Schaller. From 2002 to 2006, while at Greater Grace, Doug helped plant a church in Philadelphia.

In 2006 that he was sent by Greater Grace to India where he’s had the joy of working with native pastors, teaching Bible college in Mumbai, and discipling men in the church. He’s also planted several churches in North India and Nepal. He travels to Nepal twice a year where he disciples native Nepali pastors, and travels with them to preach Jesus up and down the mountains in sight of the Himalayan range.

Doug has a tremendous heart for God, the Bible, discipleship, and missions. He trusts the Lord and walks with Him daily. Please log onto his site and get to know him a little bit. If the Lord leads you to pray for him, great! I know he would also be very encouraged by an e-mail letting him know you’re lifting him up in prayer and interceded for his needs in India. His e-mail addresses are:

• douglaspaul7ATyahooDOTcom
• dougATdougpearsonDOTorg

I often think of a plaque I saw at the Old Seatack Coast Guard Station, which is now a museum in Virginia Beach. This building housed guards who would watch the sea, keeping track of steamers plying along this often turbulent coast. During rough weather or poor visibility, ships would strike the shoals and breakup — always at times of merciless surf and current. Without outside help, their passengers and crew would perish, crushed by the pounding surf, pulled out to sea by the heavy tides, and drowned. Their only hope was specially rigged lifeboats, know as crash boats, that the coast guardsmen would row through the furious surf. I saw sketches in which these crash boats were almost vertical as the rowers pulled on the long oars and tried to make it beyond the surf to rescue the ship’s helpless crew.

Many times during the rough weather I would stand on the beach watching the surf and thinking to myself, “How could anyone make it through that incredible surf? Even it was humanly possible, how could anyone work up the courage to try?”

Then I found a small brass plaque mounted next to the exit doors near where the boats, ready at a moment’s notice, rested on their perches. The plaque is hard to read because the coast guardsmen used to rub it for luck. The wording is short and to the point:

“You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.”

What made these men go out? I’m sure their pay wasn’t much. The work was grueling and the risk was high. They didn’t save everyone. The decision was made long before the storms arrived. They knew that by signing up for this job, they were agreeing to go out with no guarantee of coming back.

Likewise, when [we] sign up to follow Jesus, we say we’ll go out into the lives of our family, friends, associates, and neighbors. We agree that our mission is to bring back as many people as we can. If we’re more concerned about the comforts of having our own needs met, then we’ve missed the point of our calling and of our salvation.

We don’t staff the life station to earn our salvation, we staff it because of our salvation; not so that God will love us more, but because He already loves us; not so He’ll bless us more, but because He has redeemed us.

This quote is from the book Lost in America by Tom Clegg and Warren Bird. Although I can’t really recommend the book for its content, I haven’t been able to get this quote out of my head ever since I read it five years ago.

If we don’t “go out” and preach the Gospel, warning sinners of the judgment to come and calling them to repentance… how will they be saved? ~Greg

Porque todo aquel que invocare el nombre del Señor, será salvo. ¿Cómo, pues, invocarán a aquel en el cual no han creído? ¿Y cómo creerán en aquel de quien no han oído? ¿Y cómo oirán sin haber quien les predique? ¿Y cómo predicarán si no fueren enviados? Como está escrito: ¡Cuán hermosos son los pies de los que anuncian la paz, de los que anuncian buenas nuevas! [Rom 10.13-15]

[A preacher in Ocala, Fla.] told me of a girl in a wheelchair who had cerebral palsy. Her arms and legs jerked so hard that she could not write. So, she had her arms and legs braced and tied to the chair so she could type enough to do two letters a day. Those two daily letters were mailed out for more than ten years to lost people, and dozens of people got saved through reading them. When asked about her “great testimony” and “monumental work” as a “great defender of the faith in this century, etc.,” she said, “I only regret that I can’t do enough for Him.” (Now, don’t you know there are going to be a lot of surprises at the Judgment Seat of Christ!?) ~ Dr. Peter S. Ruckman

If you’re reading this and you don’t know what Dr. Ruckman was referring to when he said “saved,” please visit this site. And if you’re a Christian that doesn’t believe in the “saved, born again” stuff, please visit this site. If you’re a Christian that can “identify” with the above quote, you’ll really like this audio (it’s only about 5 minutes long, and it’s easy to listen to). ~Greg

Preach abroad… It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has dampened the work of God, which never was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going into the highways and hedges and compelling men and women to come in. ~Jonathan Edwards

When people used to crowd around George Whitefield and praise him because of his marvelous preaching, he would stop them like this: “The devil told me that just before I came down from the pulpit.” Then he would add, “There are many who can preach the gospel better than I can, but none can preach a better gospel.” It is the message that counts. The servant is really nothing, and the more we realize this and are willing to take the place of nothingness, the more God delights to come in and work through His servants. ~ H.A. Ironside

The fact of the matter is that we will practically worship the men of old through whom God did great things—the Whitefields and everyone else. But we wouldn’t let them preach in our church nor teach some of the things they taught. Never forget this: The worst thing that could ever happen to a preacher, young man, is that he gets civilized. When he gets civilized and elegant and proper and respectable, he’s worthless! And that’s the problems with some of our seminaries. We’re wanting to produce these respectable intellectuals and these great reformed theologians, and all these different things… I do not see reformed theologians turning the world around. I see preachers who are reformed in themselves by the truth turning the world around. ~ Paul Washer (original audio here)

• Paul_Washer_mean_spirit.mp3

• True Discipleship: The Gift Nobody Wants, part 1 (excerpt; 4:28)
• True Discipleship: The Gift Nobody Wants, part 1 (full message; 52:02)

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [Mat 7.13-14]

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. [Mar 1.14-15]

Now beginning here with Mark, I think it is quite telling what’s going here, and it’s quite a rebuke to our modern evangelistic methodology. If we were to re-write this based upon what we see in the modern evangelical community, it would be something like this: Jesus saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Now who would like to ask Me into their heart?”

Do you see the problem? The language that we use today is not used in the New Testament, in any place. “Who would like to repeat this prayer after me? … Oh, I see that hand! … Come forward!” We see none of that. But, in the message of our Lord we see: “Repent and believe!” In the Apostolic invitation we see: “Repent and believe!” In the great confessions of the Church we see: “Repent and believe!” It is only until we come into this modern time that we hear nothing of repentance and faith unless it’s redefined in the context of “receiving Jesus” (which means, “Pray this prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart. And if you’ve done that sincerely, then you can stand on the fact that you’ve been born again”).

Now that is serious, folks! This is serious! I preach in many churches where they’re absolutely appalled that I do not lead people in prayers; that I simply command, with the authority of Scripture, that men repent of their sins and believe the Gospel, and then sit down with them (at times for hours) explaining to them repentance and faith, and praying with them, hoping that Christ be formed in them! They would rather have me get people to raise their hands, come forward, pray a prayer, and then go out to eat somewhere!

This is the reason for all the noise about personal, one-on-one discipleship. Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s there was just this birth of personal discipleship. And if you talk to many people about the reasons for discipleship (personal discipleship) they would say this: “There are just as many people walking out the back door of our church as are walking in the front door of our church. They’re coming in, they’re not staying, and the reason is that they’re not being discipled personally.”

Well, first of all, I believe that personal discipleship can be of great benefit. But, here’s something I want you to know: The history of the Church knows very little about that sort of thing. Most men were discipled through the preaching of the Word of God. So, maybe we need all this “discipleship” because the pulpit is so weak.

But, I think that they entirely miss the point. Our brother talked about men seeing the problem but giving the wrong answer. The reason there were just as many people (and still are just as many people) going out of the church as coming into the Church is because the Gospel that we’re preaching is not the Gospel. It’s a truncated version of the Gospel. And the invitation we give cannot even be found in the New Testament! Now, does anyone have a problem with that?

The reason why they are leaving… well, “they went out from us because they were not of us.” They were not truly converted.

And sometimes the Lord will send unique individuals to our church as a rebuke. For example, you’ll try to win someone, you’ll try to manipulate someone, you’ll try to get someone to “make a decision,” and then you’ll work very hard at discipleship, calling them on Saturday night to make sure they’re ready for Sunday, going by and picking them up, and following them around like a little puppy trying to make sure that they walk the Christian life. And then one day some drunk, that you don’t even want in your church, walks in, gets saved, and you can’t chase him out! Why? Because God saved him.

Am I against personal discipleship? Absolutely not! But that is not the reason why people, after they are “converted,” continue on in their ungodliness [it's not for lack of personal discipleship]. They continue on in their ungodliness because they are still ungodly… because they weren’t converted. They were not.

I got this letter in my inbox today and thought I’d pass it on to everyone. HeartCry is Paul Washer’s missions organization. If you can help them, would you please get in contact with them? Thanks!

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am hoping you may be able to help us with something.

Dr. Nathan Berry, our Mission Coordinator, is trying to locate Christian physicians or other medical personnel who could offer advice and/or assistance in establishing a Christian medical clinic. If you, or someone you know, fits this description, please send me a reply email. Please include your name, phone number and your area of experience.

Please note that anyone who has experience in establishing or operating a clinic could be a tremendous help in this effort. You may forward this to anyone you believe could be of assistance.

Thank you for your help. May God richly bless you in Christ Jesus.

Looking to Him,

Shannon L. Ayers, Donor Relations Coordinator (sayersATheartcrymissionaryDOTcom)

Here’s an excerpt:

When I graduated from a Sourthern Baptist seminary I was versed in Karl Barth,…and Jugen Multmann; all the German theology that closed every church in Germany. And it wasn’t until I got in the Bible that I realized that most of what I had learned was worthless. And so you get into God’s Word; you get—you want to learn how to preach? …

Read the whole quote (it’s short) and get the link to the audio at the Apprising Ministries blog.

…corporate worship at church today has become largely obscene and unscriptural; because we no longer believe God, much less obey Him, being totally focused on amassing Results and Relationships rather than preaching, teaching, learning and obeying the Word of God, whatever it costs us personally or the church collectively. -Paul Proctor

http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor86.htm

• The Ten Indictments web site (audio, video, transcripts, pictures)
• Direct link to the mp3 audio file of the sermon

I certainly think we need to take “Indictment #1″ one step further than where Paul left it (he doesn’t touch on the translation and version issue which I think is key; you can learn more of that here). But, don’t let that be a stumbling block to taking in the rest of what he has to say.

The ten indictments are:

1. A practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture
2. An ignorance of the character and attributes of God
3. A failure to address man’s malady
4. An ignorance of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of regeneration
5. An unbiblical gospel presentation and invitation
6. An ignorance regarding the nature of the Church
7. A lack of loving and compassionate church discipline
8. A silence on separation (holiness)
9. Psychology and sociology have replaced the Scriptures in regards to the family
10. A departure from the faith and a devotion to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons (1 Timothy 4:1-16)

What marvel the devil does not love field preaching! Neither do I; I love a commodious room, a soft cushion, a handsome pulpit But where is my zeal, if I do not trample all these underfoot in order to save one more soul? ~John Wesley

Hi, everybody. I just wanted to write a quick update about the trip to Medellín. Will and I spent about a week and a half with Fernando Garrido and his church, “La Biblia Dice…” and it went really well.

Our first Saturday there, the church hosted an executive breakfast in the five-star Intercontinental Hotel. They rented out a conference room and served a gourmet breakfast to the 110 people in attendance. The goal was to reaching professional (executives, lawyers, doctors, politicians, business owners, university professors, etc.) with the Gospel. Here are some pictures of the event:

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We took four cases of Mark Cahill’s book “One Heartbeat Away” (in Spanish) to give out to the people who attended. It’s a great “follow-up” to any witness encounter because it’s like an extended Gospel tract.

The following week was Fernando’s annual Bible conference, and we met several nights to study what the Bible says about our mission of making disciples, and what that looks like in real life. We also had some time to hit the streets with the folks from the church and evangelize. That was great!!

God blessed and the folks at La Biblia Dice church really took good care of us. Their generosity is humbling!

We’re hoping to be able to get Fernando up here during the last week of March, so he can meet the folks at our church and share with us what the Lord is doing in his life and ministry. We’d love to be able to encourage him like he has us!

Thanks to everyone who was praying for us! ~Greg

The Christian music group called “Hillsong” was in Costa Rica for two concerts this last Thursday, October 30th. We couldn’t pass up a great opportunity to pass out our new “What if… I’m pretending?” tract (in Spanish, of course).

We showed up outside the “concert hall” around 10:00 am in order to catch the people standing in line for the 2:00 pm show. There weren’t many, and it was raining and cold. But, we did get to talk to several people and we passed out several hundred of the tracts. We tried to avoid “pointing fingers” and “accusing” people of being false converts (the tract could easily be taken that way) by saying, “Hey, we’re all Christians and we have a common mission: Evangelize. Take this tract, read it through, and then give it to someone who needs it — a lost family member or friend.” It went over really well.

The evening concert was crazy! Thousands of people showed up and stood in line for hours. And the line wrapped around the entire block. We passed out tracts individually, and then just before they opened the gates, we started at the front of the line and “preached” our way to the back. I’d stand up on my Coke crate, get the folks’ attention, and then motive them to witness, evangelize, and reach the lost. After my “sermon” we’d ask them if they wanted more tracts and then we’d give them as many as they wanted so they could read it and then pass it on to lost friends and family. After one sermon, we’d move down about 20 meters and do it all again until we finished the line.

It was a great time! Very well received by the people! We probably passed out around 5,000 of the “Pretending” tracts. If you’d like to see what it looked it, here’s a video one of the guys put together:

Here’s the plan for the trip…

1. Saturday, Oct. 18th: Oscar (a leader in Fernando’s church) is organizing an “executive breakfast” and he has invited about 200 professionals that work in and around Medellín. I’ll be presenting the Gospel to them in the context of a selected “theme” for the breakfast. Wonderful outreach opportunity!
2. Wednesday-Sunday (Oct 22-26): I’ll be speaking on biblical discipleship during their annual missions conference (each night at 7:00 pm, Saturday morning with the leadership team, and Sunday services in the morning).
3. We’re also looking forward to spending a good deal of time on the streets open-air preaching and evangelizing. Will and I both are VERY excited about that!

I would like to say one more thing in the context of this trip, and it’s about Mark Cahill. The “theme” of the executive breakfast centers around a book that is very popular among many of the professionals in Medellín these days. On Saturday, Oscar will first give a short presentation of that work, and then I’ll use it as a “springboard” to present the Law of God, the Gospel of Christ, and the need of personal repentance and faith in the Lord. Since we’re basing it on a book, I wanted to send the people home with a book — a free gift from us. I wanted to give a copy of Mark’s One Heartbeat Away book (in Spanish) to each one.

You can imagine the investment we were talking about to try to get almost 200 books purchased and shipped down to Latin America. So, I wrote Mark an e-mail and explained to him what we were doing and what our needs were. His reply was: “Get the books you need, and pay me later… if you can. Make sure you give yourself a big discount.”

Mark is the “real deal” and if you haven’t yet read his books, listened to his messages, watched his videos, or subscribed to his newsletter… please do. You won’t be sorry.

Thank you for your prayers for us this week. And please remember my family, too. It never fails, whenever I go out of town something happens and Suzy has to deal with it all by herself. :-) ~Greg

And just a side note: Steve is a neat guy and very committed to intentional and constant evangelism. If you have time, check out his blog, especially the first posts (made years ago!). He started out slow, and then God kindled a real fire in heart for evangelism.

After you read Torrey’s essay, you might want to listen to this brief testimony:

• George Street

And, of course, make sure (like Spurgeon said) you get “good, striking tracts” that you like to hand out.

• Living Waters
• Custom Tract Source
• Chick Publications

Here’s a brief outline of the Torrey article you can find out on Steve’s blog:

THE USE OF TRACTS

By R. A. Torrey (1856-1928)

Comparatively few Christians realize the importance of tract work. I had been a Christian a good many years, and a minister of the Gospel several years, before it ever entered my head that tracts were of much value in Christian work. I had somehow grown up with the notion that tracts were all rubbish, and therefore I did not take the trouble to read them, and far less did I take the trouble to circulate them, but I found out that I was entirely wrong. Tract work has some great advantages over other forms of Christian work.

I. Importance and advantages.

1. Any person can do it.
2. A tract always sticks to the point.
3. A tract never loses its temper.
4. Oftentimes people who are too proud to be talked with, will read a tract when no one is looking.
5. A tract stays by one.
6. Tracts lead many to accept Christ.

II. Purposes for which to use a tract.

1. For the conversion of the unsaved.
2. To lead Christians into a deeper and more earnest Christian life.
3. To correct error.
4. To set Christians to work.

III. Who should use tracts.

1. Ministers of the Gospel should use them.
2. Sunday School teachers.
3. Traveling men.
4. Business men.
5. School teachers.6. Housekeepers.

IV. How to use tracts.

1. To begin a conversation.
2. Use a tract to close a conversation.
3. Use tracts where a conversation is impossible.
4. Use tracts to send to people at a distance.

V. Suggestions as to the use of tracts.

1. Always read the tracts yourself before giving them to others.
2. Suit your tract to the person to whom you give it.
3. Carry a selection of tracts with you.
4. Seek the guidance of God.
5. Seek God’s blessing upon the tract after you have given it out.
6. Oftentimes give a man a tract with words and sentences underscored.
7. Never be ashamed of distributing tracts.

Etiquette nowadays often demands of a Christian that he should not intrude his religion on company. Out on such etiquette! It is the etiquette of Hell. True courtesy to my fellow’s soul makes me speak to him, if I believe that soul to be in danger. ~ Charles H. Spurgeon

If we had to preach to thousands year after year, and never rescued but one soul, that one soul would be full reward for all our labor, for a soul is of countless price. ~ Charles H. Spurgeon

So, if you get an e-mail notifying you of all the posts we’ve made since the beginning of time… sorry. As soon as I get the configuration right (again), that should stop. Thanks for your patience. ~Greg

Christian Loveless: “Hi, Mrs. Smith. How are you doing? Is Erik in yet?”

Mrs. Smith: “Lunch again, huh? I haven’t seen him come through the lobby today. He came into work last week with a bad hangover. Probably the same thing has happened today. How was church?”

Christian Loveless: “It was really good. We had Brother Don Waterdowns come in and do a series of healing meetings. Hundreds gave their hearts to the Lord. I’m in charge of the follow-up program. Man, I didn’t realize how easy it is to get people saved. Lots were getting healed and people were coming to the altar without even being preached to.”

Mrs. Smith: “What a blessing. We had him at our church too. He advocates ‘friendship evangelism,’ doesn’t he?”

Christian Loveless: “Yes. I like that. It’s what I’ve been using on Erik. We’ve become good buddies over the years.”

Mrs. Smith: “I like that approach. It’s so much better than shoving the gospel down people’s throats.”

Christian Loveless: “True. That can alienate them. I’m waiting for the right time to mention the things of God to Erik; I don’t want to make him feel uncomfortable. Erik came to one of the meetings, and he really seemed to enjoy it. That’s the good thing about non-confrontational evangelism. He didn’t give his heart to the Lord, though. Maybe today he will bring up the subject. I never do, because I don’t want to offend him. I’m just a good friend, and I think that’s the right approach.”

Mrs. Smith: “I agree. I’ll call the Third Floor and speak to his secretary. Perhaps she will know why he’s late.”

Christian Loveless: “Okay.”

Mrs. Smith: “Jeannie, Rose Smith. Is Erik Tuday in yet? Christian Loveless is here to see . . .”

Christian Loveless: “What’s wrong? Your face has gone pale!”

Mrs. Smith: “I’m afraid Erik died during the night. He had an aneurysm in his sleep and was pronounced dead at 8:17 this morning…”

[From the School of Biblical Evangelism, Lesson 3: The Problem with the Modern Gospel; Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron]

Christianity is not a pleasure cruise, but a rescue mission, and every hand is needed on deck. We do nothing but disobey the Captain of our Faith by staying below “at the party” and talking about rescuing the perishing. Spurgeon called it “irksome” work, and it’s often difficult, uncomfortable, and even a little dirty. But, folks, people are dying…

They ask some questions at the end of the short video:

• Have you watched more movies or witnessed to more lost people?
• Have you spent more time at sporting events than witnessing to those who are lost?
• Do you spend more time shopping and getting your nails done versus testifying about the One who can save everyone from Hell?
• Is your “Christianity” evident with good fruit? Or do you hide your light from others around you?

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. [Luke 9.26]

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. [Mat 7.21]

Choose this day whom you will serve…

I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said to me, “Moody, save all you can.” ~D.L.Moody

Then I heard it… “I don’t want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.”

God spoke to hear in an audible voice — apparently it was in her own mind, but she is clear about the fact that she “heard it,” the very voice of God Almighty. This is extra-biblical, direct revelation and as such, by definition, it is the “inspired” Word and words of God. Therefore, what God said to her should be recorded in the Bible (that’s where God puts His inspired words so that He might preserve them).

Now, in all fairness (if we could put the “best construction” on her comments), maybe she just meant that she “felt” like God was “leading her” to brush the man’s hair rather than witness to him. She goes on to say this:

Again as clearly as I’ve ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. “That is not what I said, Beth. I don’t want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.”

This, however, is still a glaring a problem because her “feelings” — what she felt God seemed to write on the “wall of her mind” — would be a contradiction of a clear and direct command in the Scripture.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. [Mar 16.15]

The most serious error of all this comes out later in her story when, after she brushed the man’s hair, she “witnessed” to him:

His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant’s… I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knees and said, “Sir, do you know my Jesus?” He said, “Yes, I do.” Well, that figures, I thought.

And that was it! No explanation. No teaching. No “probing” to find out which Jesus was “his” Jesus vs. the “my” Jesus of Beth Moore. There are a lot of people today who believe in a “Jesus” that is not the Jesus of the Bible:

1. The Mormon Jesus is a created being (just like his father) and he’s the brother of the devil.
2. The Jehovah’s Witness Jesus is a created being — he’s Michael the Archangel manifest in the flesh.
3. The Oneness Pentecostal Jesus is the non-triune “God the Father” in the flesh (that means that there is no Trinity — no three Persons being one God; they believe in one person who is one god).

If someone doesn’t have the correct “doctrine of Christ” (if they do not know who Jesus is), then they can’t be saved.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. [2John 9]

There is only one way to get to the Father (and therefore to get to heaven): Through Jesus Christ, the “right” Jesus Christ (not the Mormon Jesus, the JW Jesus, the Oneness Jesus, or any other false Christ out there):

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. [John 14.6]

Ms. Moore could very well have sent that poor, old man off to hell with finely brushed hair becaused she preferred to “listen” to her emotions (or some voice in her head) rather than obey a clear command of Scripture and actually preach the message of the cross and the Lord Jesus Christ to him.

Remember the train!

This whole weird and sad story reminded me of an illustration someone taught me years ago in the Navigators and which I recently saw again in a book put out by Campus Crusade:

The engine: “Fact” represents the objective truth of the written Word of God.

The coal car: “Faith” represents our beliefs — our confidence in the written Word of God. When we say we have faith in something, we are saying that we believe it to be true and so much so that we are willing to act on it.

The caboose: “Feeling” represents the subjective emotions and impressions we all experience daily.

The train will run with or without the caboose, but it goes nowhere without the engine. Also, the train moves only if you shovel coal from the coal car into the engine. In the same way, our Christian lives will move only if we place our faith in the facts of the Word of God.

The engineer of a train could jump onto the caboose and start shovelling coal into it all day long, and he could even do so with great excitement, motivation, and genuinely good intentions. But, just as the caboose has no ability to power a train, so our feelings have no ability to empower or direct our lives as Christians.

The moral of the story…

Folks, in the story above, Beth Moore let the caboose run her life! She let a subjective feeling (an impression or a “voice”) lead her in a witness encounter instead of the objective written Word of God. She placed her faith in her feelings instead of in the facts of Scripture.

The Apostle Peter saw the glory of God and heard His audible voice in Matthew 17, on the Mount of Transfiguration. Yet, he says that we have a “more sure word of prophecy” (a more sure Word of revelation from God) in the Scripture that God inspired and preserved: The Bible!

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. [2Pet 1.17-21]

We would do well to take the Apostle’s advice and “take heed” to this written Word instead of heeding to our emotions, feelings, and impressions.

God takes it very seriously when someone adds to His Word, and we should do the same. All of this subjective “God told me… I heard a voice…” is adding to God’s complete and perfect written revelation, and we should not take it lightly.

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. [Rev 22.18]

You don’t have to worry about whether or not God wants you to witness to someone. He already told you He did — as a matter of fact, He wrote it down for us so that we wouldn’t be confused about the issue. If you’d like to brush the guy’s hair before you witness to him, fine. But just remember that God wants you to witness to him (clearly explaining the whole Gospel).

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. [Mar 16.15]

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! [Rom 10.13-15]

If you don’t know how to do that, there are plenty of resources available to get you trained up and ready to go. Mark Cahill is good, as is Ray Comfort.

I ran across an article written about poverty in third-world (underdeveloped) countries such as Africa and India. It was written by Peter Hammond, a long-time missionary to Africa. Here are some excerpts:

The difference of productivity and income per person in the Western world compared to the so called “developing” or “third” world was 2 to 1 last century. Now it is 70 to 1…

One of the main responses of the industrial nations has been to supply generous amounts of foreign aid to the poorer nations. However, foreign aid has been accused of denying the poorer nations the chance to develop their economies to viability. Most aid does not encourage self sufficiency and growth…

Since 1954 the USA has shipped millions of tonnes of food aid to India – to the Indian government (not private businesses or agencies). Rats have consumed more than half of this food at the docks and storage facilities! Because of Hinduism’s belief in reincarnation, rats and sacred cows may not be killed! It would take a train 3000 miles long to haul the grain eaten by Indian rats in a single year! Also, the sacred cows in India eat enough food to feed most of Asia!

It is actually Hinduism’s re-incarnation beliefs, its’ sacred cows, protected rats, idols made of gold and jewels, wasted resources and superstition that are causing the poverty and starvation in India…

Victims of self imposed poverty need the Gospel and discipleship to free them from their lifestyle of sin…

The Christian Foundations for prosperity are laid with these basic principles: Christians must respect one another’s property, never steal or cheat, always abide by contracts, be industrious in earning money, be disciplined in saving money, be wise in investing money, be obedient to God in tithing to Christian ministries, be discerning in sharing with those in need. Work all you can, earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

It’s a very interesting article. Dr. Hammond has not only “done his homework,” but he’s lived in areas of extreme poverty for years. If nothing else, it’s thought-provoking!

~Greg

Jesus pitied sinners, pleaded with them, sighed over them, warned them, and wept over them; but He never sought to amuse them!

When many of His disciples turned away, because of the searching nature of His preaching–I do not find there was any attempt to bring them back, by resorting to something more pleasant to the flesh. I do not hear Him saying, “We must keep up the gatherings at any cost! So run after the people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow! Something very short and attractive, with little, if any, preaching. Today was a service for God –but tomorrow we will have a pleasant evening for the people! Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it, and have a pleasant time. Be quick, Peter! We must get the people somehow; if not by Gospel–then by entertainment!”

No, this was not how He argued. Gazing in sorrow on those who would not hear the Word–He simply turns to the twelve, and asks, “Will you go away also?”

I’ve tried a lot of different “styles” and “tricks” to “make church work,” and because of that I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years (hopefully I’ve learned from them; I believe I have). The one thing I keep coming back to is the Bible, because in Scripture God clearly tells us what His desire is for His people. He has clearly defined the Mission, the Message, and the Methods we are to employ to get the Message to those who need it and thereby fulfill the Mission. To stray from that is to stray from God and lean upon what Paul called “the wisdom of men.” I don’t want that in the ministry God has entrusted to me, and I know many of you don’t either. Let’s stay faithful to our Lord! Let’s fix our eyes upon Jesus and do His work His way, period.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. [Gal 1.10]

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. [1Cor 2.1-5]

So as you can see, we have a problem on our hands. The problem is Granger Community Church should shut its doors and repent to Almighty God for trying to be relevant instead of Biblical, along with any other “seeker sensitive” church. Or it is time to start teaching some sound Biblical doctrine at that church and all “seeker sensitive” churches and repent that they haven’t been doing so.

Why would he say that? Check out these statistics from a survey taken in that very same church congregation:

• 47% of those who attend that church do not believe in salvation by grace alone.
• 57% of those surveyed do not believe in the authority of the Bible.
• 56% of those surveyed do not believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life.

One last quote from Mark:

We have got to stop preaching, speaking, and talking to please the masses. We are either here to please God, or we are wasting our time. Period.

Give Mark’s letter a read, it’s well worth it. ~Greg