The Final Decade?
Dear Christian friends,
In Matthew 24, Jesus told us many things to look out for as His return approaches: wars, famines and earthquakes, persecution, false prophets, wickedness, and events yet to occur in the reborn nation of Israel. He also included a warning to His people: “Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
The Greek word for “love” used here is “agape,” the self-sacrificing kind of love found only in Christians. In other words, because there would be so much evil in the world in the last days, the love of Christians would grow cold. In Luke 18, our Lord asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” In Hebrews 10, we are told “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We may very well be entering the Final Decade before our Lord’s return. Let us encourage one another not to be led astray by the wickedness all around us, but to walk in love and faith, and to complete the Commission our Lord gave us to preach the gospel in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.
As we enter a new year and a new decade, many of you are thinking about new year’s resolutions or reevaluating your life’s priorities. I would urge you to make a commitment to get involved in some area of evangelism. Some of you may be thinking, “I am not a preacher.” But God has given each of you gifts to be used to further the gospel. You can reach out in love to your friends, your neighbors, the people you work with, your relatives, the poor and needy in your community. Share your testimony with them and offer them a gospel tract. Or you could write out your own testimony as a tract. Even the most timid person can leave a tract in a phone booth, or include one with each bill you pay and letter you mail out. There are many kinds of evangelism ministry to get involved with–child evangelism clubs, prison ministry, door to door and telephone evangelism, working in a rescue mission, inviting foreign students to your home, etc. And of course street evangelism. Let’s resolve to make 1990 the year we get out of our “Christian ruts” and make a renewed committment of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. As we draw close to Jesus, He will give us a burden to reach out to the people He died to save.
Outreach Reports
This past month has been a very busy and exciting one for us. On Saturday October 14, we witnessed at the Fall Festival at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We were able to give out hundreds of tracts and witness to those who were listening to a concert at the bandshell on the beach. One of the signs we held up to the crowd reads: “We’re lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. A sinful nation needs to repent.” Three days later, the earthquake destroyed the downtown mall, damaged the boardwalk heavily and knocked the bandshell off its foundation.
The week after the earthquake, we went to Watsonville and witnessed at the three main earthquake relief centers. We had complete freedom to witness in each location. Most of the people were Mexican-Americans. Nobody refused a gospel tract and many people talked with us. The people were humble and very receptive to the gospel. We gave out many Spanish tracts and many New Testaments. One man took a tract, opened it to the prayer, and immediately asked us to pray with him for salvation!
On November 4, about 15 of us joined together to witness at the Rolling Stones concert at the Oakland Coliseum. About 60,000 people attended the concert. Because of the earthquake, most of them took the BART train and had to walk by us to enter the concert. We preached and gave out thousands of tracts for 4 1/2 hours.
We have been witnessing in Berkeley several times a week, and usually a hundred or more people will stand around to listen on a single day. We witness to all kinds of people–street people, high school and college students, professors, and foreign students from many nations. One University of California student was saved when he heard us preach on Friday night and is now attending a student Christian fellowship. Last Saturday at 2 AM, we received a call from a U.C. law student. He had received one of our tracts that night, had been reading the Bible for four months, and had a lot of questions.
On Saturday November 18, we joined with the Russian Gospel Temple and Silicon Valley Outreach for an outreach at Union Square in San Francisco.
Legal Update
Since this newsletter goes to the printer before our court date, we’ll have to let you know more about that in next month’s newsletter. Last week, however, we learned that we can no longer receive permits at Telegraph and Bancroft, at the entrance to the University. The excuse they gave is that the crowd that gathered was blocking emergency vehicles and handicapped access. However, this is the same location used for hundreds of rallies for every imaginable cause at least since the 1930’s.
According to the S.F. Chronicle (10/2/89), “In the 1930’s, UC President Robert Gordon Sproul watched leftist students form movements on campuses….Sproul wanted no more radicalism on campus. He banned partisan political activities….Political activities were simply moved off campus, generally just south of Sather Gate to land identified as belonging to the city of Berkeley. Candidates as diverse as Richard Nixon and Adlai Stevenson pulled their campaign caravans up to the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way. They spoke to students over public address systems that carried across the south campus area.” This is the exact location where they now want to stop us from preaching. It is also the best location to draw a crowd and the only place we can meet for worship rallies. Please pray for us and our lawyer Julia Spain that we will know how to respond.
Publicity
Our preaching, and the controversy surrounding it, continues to generate publicity. After our permits were denied on Bancroft St., we received a call from a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle, who may do an article on us. On Friday nights we witness in front of Blondie’s Pizza, which is one of the main campus hangouts. The preaching, and the heckling by Mark Hawthorne (known as “the Hate Man”) draws quite a crowd. Blondie’s Pizza actually put the following advertisement in the campus paper:
(Article from Blondie’s Pizza)
(Outreach Schedule)–January 20 outreach
A lot of homeless people congregate in this area. Perhaps some of you could bring some canned or boxed foods, blankets or sleeping bags to give to the homeless.
Tape of the Month
One of the purposes of our ministry is to help train Christians in evangelism. We have many excellent teaching tapes on a wide variety of subjects relating to evangelism–small town evangelism, street legalities, witnessing to children, sharing one-on-one, starting a street ministry, and witnessing to people in the new age movement. Let us know if you would like a list of tapes. Also, each month we offer a special “Tape of the Month” for those who support us financially. This month we are offering the tape “Witnessing to Homosexuals” by Frank and Anita Worthen. Frank was involved in the homosexual life in San Francisco for over 20 years, before he was saved in 1973. Anita’s experience is different–her son is now gay. Frank and Anita are directors of Love in Action, the oldest and largest Christian ministry to homosexuals. This tape is from last summer’s SOS-San Francisco outreach, and will help you tremendously in understanding and witnessing to homosexuals.
Ministry Needs
We want to thank each of you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. One special need we have is to print some new tracts. We have written several excellent tracts, but need funds to print them. It costs about $17 to print 1000 tracts.
The Assemblies of God have declared the 1990’s “The Decade of Harvest.” Let’s join with them and all believers in giving ourselves to our Lord to fulfill the Great Commission in this new, and possibly the final, decade before His return.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum