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Coming Events

Friday May 4, 11, 18 5 – 8 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.

Saturday May 5, 19 Fisherman’s Wharf Jefferson St. near Mason SF 11 AM – 4 PM

Saturday May 12 UN Plaza 7th St. and Market SF 12 – 5 PM.

***Cal preaches at Powell and Market St.***

The Great Omission:

Seven Excuses for not Preaching the Gospel

Dear Christian friends,

“And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” Luke 14:18

Two thousand years ago, eleven dedicated followers of the Lord Jesus Christ turned their world upside down with the message of God’s salvation. They and their converts faced horrible persecution, were imprisoned and thrown to lions, yet their faith spread throughout the world.

Today, there are millions of Christians throughout the world. Modern technology has given us the means of reaching multitudes for Jesus. Yet every year the percentage of the world’s population that has heard the gospel decreases.

Here in the United States, a large percentage of the population claims to be born again. The Constitution protects the rights of Christians to preach unhindered. Christians in the United States have more wealth and leisure time than ever before in the history of the world. Yet multitudes in this country, including many of the children of these Christians, are turning from Jesus Christ to Eastern religions, the occult, drugs and alcohol, and sexual immorality of all kinds.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of Christians are attracted to Christian events. At the same time, a mere handful of Christians are witnessing on the streets. Millions of unbelievers go on in their sins, many of whom never hear a Christian witness. The voices of the political radicals, Eastern cults, and homosexuals are heard loudly in the streets and in the media. At the same time, the voice of the Christians is scarcely noticed.

What has happened? For one thing, the early church believed that when Jesus said to go into all the world and preach His Word, He meant what He said. Today, with Satan’s help, we have developed many sophisticated excuses not to preach the gospel. In this teaching, I want to examine some of these excuses in the light of God’s Word.

“I don’t know how to witness.” The early church didn’t have any witnessing classes, yet they turned the world upside down with the gospel. Jesus said, “You shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). All a person needs to witness is to know Jesus Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
“I don’t feel called to do evangelism. That is the work of the evangelist and pastor.” The ministry of the evangelist is to prepare God’s people to witness for Jesus. Evangelism is the responsibility of the entire church, not just a few people. “And he gave some to be . . . evangelists . . . . To prepare the saints to do the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.” Eph. 4:11‑12.
“I’m too busy to do evangelism. My job, my family, and my church activities occupy all my time.” We find time for what is important to us. Is seeing souls saved from eternal hell as important as earning money? Witnessing for Jesus can be an excellent family activity. It gives wives a chance to get involved in spiritual ministry. It gives children a chance to see the reality of spiritual warfare, the ugliness of sin, and to acquire boldness in being used by the Holy Spirit in reaching the unsaved. Often, families are divided by petty carnal disputes. Preaching the gospel gets our eyes on eternal things, the things that really matter, and can heal divisions and unify families. All told, it has many advantages over that most popular and time-consuming Christian activity: television.
“I witness at my job and to my friends and family,” or “My life is a witness.” We should witness in our everyday life, and our life should be a testimony of Jesus Christ. But what about all the unsaved people who don’t have friends, relatives, or co‑workers who witness to them? As the good shepherd will leave the 99 sheep and go after the one who has gone astray, should we not actively seek after those who are lost, that they would be brought to Christ?

(to be continued)

On the Streets

Athena wrote me in December. She had found our ministry on the internet and wanted to visit us. She stayed here from Feb. 8 – 20. She is from London and graduated from Oxford University, where she also taught. She has worked as an English and French teacher in Hong Kong, Russia, France and Bahrain. She had some amazing experiences working for (and witnessing to) billionaires and high government officials. It was great having her with us.

On Friday Feb. 9, we witnessed at 16^th St. and Valencia. Athena, Mike and Cal witnessed to Jenny and Sarah. Sarah’s grandparents are Christians, and she was quite receptive to the gospel. Dave witnessed to Deadre, whose mother is a Christian. Matt and Silas witnessed to Michaelangelo, a homosexual who was open to hearing about Jesus and asked them about their view on homosexuality. They prayed for him and his partner, who had an eye problem. After they prayed, he said his eye was better. Cal witnessed to Feining, 40, who is Chinese. She said she heard voices that told her to go to a Buddhist meditation center. Cal warned her about listening to evil spirits. She said, “I’m not sure these spirits are good” and took a gospel tract, after initially refusing one. Cal urged her to call on the name of Jesus, who has power over these deceptive spirits. He also witnessed to William, who claimed to be a believer but is on drugs and has AIDS, and Oliver, who is a religious Jew. Jacob and I witnessed to Anthony, who said the devil was inside him. We prayed for him, that he would be set free.

The next day, we witnessed at 5^th and Market. While Matt was preaching about healing, a young woman walked by. She said she was healed after Christians prayed for her. She was walking normally. After she left, Matt realized that she was the same woman he and Christy had prayed for on October 28. A picture of them praying together was in our March newsletter. At that time, she was in a wheelchair!

Last year, we met Alex, who told us he had experienced sciatic nerve pain for many years. Manuel prayed for him and the pain was gone. Six months later, in July, we saw Alex. He told us the pain was still gone.

While Cal was preaching, he saw David, whom he went to high school with in Southern California. He shared the gospel with him. He also witnessed to Warren and Brenda, a couple who lived in the Tenderloin district of SF. Warren grew up a Jehovah’s Witness. While witnessing to them, two Christians walked by who had also been witnessing to this couple. Matt witnessed to Brees, 25, who asked why Jesus was the only way to God. Matt spoke to him about the power that Jesus gives to believers and Brees said, “I want to do what Jesus did.” Kathy spoke with Rudy, a security guard at Carls, Jr., and shared the plan of salvation with him. Mike ministered to JC, who had attended Glad Tidings church for 10 years, but now attended Glide, an anti-Christ “church.” He warned him about this false church, but JC tried to defend it.

Dave witnessed to Lili, who attends UC Berkeley. She was raised in a conservative Christian family but is an agnostic. He also witnessed to Ocean, who is from France and grew up Catholic. He asked her if she had been forgiven for her sins. She thought she would be saved by her works. He also witnessed to Lucian, a computer programmer from Romania. After he shared the gospel with him, he said “I’ve never heard that before.”

Ministry Needs

Thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. I am very thankful (and a bit surprised) that we still have a great deal of freedom to preach the gospel in San Francisco and Berkeley. We purchased a new amplifier to use for Friday night outreaches. We are also hoping to purchase some new speakers for our Saturday outreaches.

As I write this letter, we have still not heard from the Park Department about our permit dates. I applied for the permits in early February, and they are supposed to respond within 2 weeks. However, they are quite busy and Union Square permits, especially, are hard to get because the location is very popular. Please pray that we will have no problems getting permits. It will cost about $1500 for the permits.

We should know our May schedule by the time you receive this newsletter, so you can call or email me for details. Also, I send out a weekly email with our outreach locations. Send me your email address if you want to receive these emails.