Bay Area Outreach Ministries Newsletters
No Excuse
Dear Christian friends,
In order for an unsaved person to come to Christ, he or she must be absolutely convinced that he is a lost sinner, and that there is no way he can save himself by his own works or by any other means. As long as he thinks he has found a loophole–that somehow God will accept him without the need for faith in Christ, he will invariably take advantage of that loophole. The unbeliever will comfort himself with the thought that most of the people he knows don’t believe in Christ and that all these people couldn’t be wrong. As we know, this is a dangerous deception.
In a similar manner, in order for a Christian to commit himself to evangelism, he or she must come to the realization that God has commanded him to do so. If he can convince himself that God has made an exception for him, that he is excused from obeying the Great Commission, he will invariably take advantage of this loophole. Unfortunately, the vast majority of evangelical Christianity has allowed itself to be deceived into thinking that a Christian who never witnesses for our Lord can be right with God. Such a Christian comforts himself with the thought that most other Christians don’t witness, so it must be OK.
Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32). Before He ascended into heaven, He gave us the commandment to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The apostle Paul understood the necessity to preach the gospel. “When I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me” (1 Corin. 9:16-17). He told the Ephesian elders, “I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:26). In making this statement, he referred to God’s words to Ezekiel and considered them applicable to us in New Testament times: “When I say to a wicked man, `You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself” (Ezekiel 3:18-19).
I’d encourage you to read the whole third chapter of Ezekiel. Some will argue that this passage only applied to Ezekiel, but Acts 20:26 is a clear reference to it, and shows that Paul thought the passage referred to him. The passage in 1 Corin. 9 confirms that Paul considered that some adverse consequence would fall on him if he refused to preach the gospel.
It may come as a shock to us that the great apostle Paul was motivated by the fear of having the blood of unsaved people on his hands in preaching the gospel. Surely he would have been motivated rather by his great love for God, by the great joy he had in his salvation that he couldn’t keep to himself, and by his love for the lost. I’m sure he was motivated by all these things, but sometimes he needed this extra motivation–Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. Witnessing for Jesus isn’t always pleasant or convenient. Even Paul at times would have avoided witnessing if he thought he could have gotten away with it and still be right with God. After all, it wasn’t fun having people throw stones at you and being thrown into jail.
Again, some will argue that these scriptures only applied to the apostles or to those specifically called as evangelists or missionaries. Certainly there are different callings in people’s lives. But do you think that God has placed this great responsibility on Paul, where the blood of others would be on his hands if he disobeyed, yet He has given you no responsibility whatsoever to the lost?
Why do you think God did not take you to heaven as soon as you were saved? Why must we endure all those trials and tribulations? Yes, God is purifying us so we will be more like Jesus but His purpose in bringing about these changes is for us to become better witnesses for our Lord. When I am in heaven I will be totally like Jesus and will have perfect fellowship with Him, but it will be too late to help anyone else. Again Paul wrote, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Phil. 1:23). The only reason we stay on this earth is for the sake of others–to help other believers mature in Christ and bring salvation to the lost. If we are not doing these things, we are wasting our lives.
I realize that these are strong words. Some have probably stopped reading this newsletter and are angry at me. Some are still looking for loopholes. “My ministry is to the church, not to the lost.” No–God has called you to minister to both. “You’re trying to put me into legalistic bondage in which I’ll feel guilty whenever someone passes me by and I don’t witness to him.” Obviously, we can’t witness to every single person we come into contact with. But we sin both when we fail to witness to someone God tells us to talk to and when we fail to give evangelism the priority in our lives God wants it to have. When we confess our sins of omission in regard to evangelism, God will forgive us– but we need to change our ways. Thinking about the blood of others being on our hands may seem crude but Paul needed it to motivate him and we need it to motivate us as well.
Once we stop looking for loopholes and making excuses for our failure to witness, we will find a way to witness for Christ as a central part of our lives. If we need training, we will get it. If we are fearful, we will overcome the fear. If we are busy, we will find time to witness just like we find time to go to church, read our Bible, and pray. Getting past the excuses is the hard part; the rest is easy.
Ministry News
Last month, I told you about our outreach in Santa Cruz involving a dozen youth groups. In May, we will be meeting with youth leaders in the San Jose and Santa Cruz areas to plan a monthly youth outreach to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We will also be witnessing at the Santa Clara county fair. The first outreach is scheduled for Saturday June 17. Christians of all ages are welcome to join us for these outreaches.
We are also planning outreaches in Lakeport and Clearlake on July 2 and 3. We will be sharing at Lakeport Christian Fellowship on Sunday morning May 21 and at Calvary Chapel on Sunday morning July 2. We will be doing outreaches at both cities on July 2 and 3. Thousands of tourists will be coming there during this weekend. Our purpose is to witness to these people and to train the local Christians to witness on an ongoing basis both to the tourists and the local people.
On April 29, my home church, New Life Christian Church, brought its children to Berkeley to sing about Jesus on the streets. When we first got to Telegraph and Bancroft, the Hare Krishnas were chanting there. I started to preach and they soon went away. The children sang for almost an hour, and many people were touched and convicted by their simple, childlike faith in and love for Jesus. The children were really excited afterwards and want to come back. The devil was really mad and shortly afterwards, as we continued to preach, a police woman who hates us told us to shut down or she would take our amplifier. This is the first time we had been shut down since September. We went across the street and continued to preach.
New Life Christian Church is also planning to hold its Sunday morning service in Kennedy Park in Hayward once a month through the summer. After the service, we will have a picnic and invite people to it. This park has thousands of people in it. Many people will not come to church, but we can bring the church to them. Perhaps you could talk to your pastor about having a church service in a park in your community. It is a great way to get your church involved in evangelism and to reach your community with the gospel. This month’s Tape of The Month is by Richard Paradise: “Solomon’s Porch: The Church in Public Places.” It is an excellent tape which will tell you exactly how to do this kind of outreach.
Amazingly enough, right after I wrote this, I received a call from the leader of a new ministry in Fresno called “Church on the Street.” She had read my book, You Shall Be My Witnesses, and God had used it to help her start this ministry six months ago. The ministry now has about twenty regular workers. They have gotten a permit to hold church at a free speech platform in a downtown mall, which they do every Saturday afternoon, having various preachers and worship groups. They also give out food to the homeless. We will be teaching an evangelism seminar for them and the youth group from the Northeast Assembly of God and joining them on the streets on June 9-10.
Ministry Needs
Last week we received a call from a friend who told us he was cleaning out his storage area and had some things to give us. Saturday he brought over tens of thousands of tracts, 11 cases of Bibles, a folding machine, 40 reams of paper, and an assortment of other things we really need for our ministry! We praise God for His continued faithfulness in meeting all our needs.
The folding machine will allow us to fold tracts and our newsletters. We now need a paper cutter (about $300) so we can cut the newsletters ourselves. One other need we have is for a video camera to record the things that happen on the streets. We particularly need this to help us with the legal problems we have been having. Please keep this situation in prayer as we need wisdom to know how to respond.
We have put together a prayer list of people we have been ministering to on a regular basis in Berkeley. If you would like to join us in praying for their salvation, write and request a copy. Remember our prayer meetings on the last Tuesday of each month. If you can’t come, set aside some time that day to pray for our ministry and the people we minister to. As we are faithful to obey our Lord by praying for the lost and witnessing to them, we will see a great harvest of souls in these last days.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
OUTREACHSCHEDULE
WEEKLY OUTREACHES– Wednesday 10:30 AM-2 PM Friday 7-11 PM Saturday 12-4 PM Meet at 3039 Dakota St., Oakland. Take 580 Freeway to Fruitvale exit. East on Fruitvale to MacArthur. Right on MacArthur to Maple. Right on Maple (2 blocks) to Dakota. Left on Dakota. House is 1/2 block up on right. Call to confirm meetings.
PRAYER MEETINGS — Tuesday May 30 and June 27 7-9 PM. Meet at 3039 Dakota St., Oakland. Come join us to pray for the Bay Area and the needs of our ministry.
SPECIAL OUTREACHES—Saturday June 3 Outreach to Festival at the Lake, Oakland. Meet at noon at 3039 Dakota St.
June 9-10 Fresno evangelism seminar and outreach. Call us for details.
Saturday June 17 Santa Cruz Youth Outreach. Meet at 10 AM at 3039 Dakota St. Call us for Santa Cruz meeting location.
July 2-3 Lakeport and Clearlake Outreach. Meet at 10 AM Sunday July 2 at Clearlake Calvary Chapel, (707) 994-5683. Call us for other details.