180 Movie

This is the best pro-life movie I've ever seen. It uses logic and the Holocaust event to help open people's eye's on what Aportion really is. Way of the Master and Living Waters did a great job. If you are pro-choice, pro-life, or undecided watch it:

New Website

We have a new website for our church. Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Sherwood. www.victory1st.com. A new format and we are now able to download sermons.

Bookmark it or add it to your favorites.

Way of the Master

It has been a while since I've posted on this blog. About a year and a half. I started it to put my thought out there about my quest through learning how to share my faith.

I posted a lot on our church and the FAITH outreach program. Currently my class is going through a series from Living Waters called Basic Training Course.

I look forward to sharing what I've learned and experiences.

Dave Matthews Concert

Prayer partners,
Sorry I haven't been doing my FAITH Blog this time around. In the past I would blog about the Tuesday's class and the results of the visits for my prayer partners. Here is the blog to check out past semesters (FAITH blog) . I should have this one posted there too.

We had a good night. Robert sent me to the Dave Matthews concert to hand out track and if possible do some one-on-one witnessing, Way of the Master style. If you don't know this is a way of witnessing that I do with a group of friends about every other week (see groups site). It is an easy way to talk to strangers on the street. It preaches the law. Shows them that their sinners, and let them know what they must do. Here an example: (Witnessing Clips)

Back to our night. I had Tim and Tammy with me. We didn't have a lot of time, only about 15 minuets once we got there. Because of the time constraints, we decided that Tammy would just drop us off and come get us in 15 minuets. In this short amount of time we were able to hand out 150, million dollar tracts (not 150 million, dollor tracts). Since people were moving and on their way to the concert, we didn't have a lot of opportunities to talk directly to people about the gospel. I did, however, talk to 3 parking attendants, two of them claimed to be saved and one did really say much.

When we left there we needed to hand out a bible. I have some Million Dollar New Testaments, that match my Bible tracts. I decided to stop in at one of the lottery locations and give it away. I asked a guy leaving if he got his winnings yet and handed him a million dollar tract. After talking with him for a little bit, I gave him the bible.

It was a great night, something different than usual. The best part of the night came when we got back. Julie's team went door knocking and we now have a new sister in Christ. An elderly lady was saved. She ended up being an in-home care giver to one of our Church members.

Thanks all for praying!

Chris
Victory Baptist Church

Week 10

Scenarios

This week we talked about some of the different scenarios we come across on visits and what would we say in response to various situations. What it all comes down to is our goal in FAITH: to share the gospel and to disciple people. The best way to disciple is through our Sunday School groups. Even though we try to share the gospel while we are on our visits, the Sunday school class should be there to reinforce it. Besides being a place of discipleship and where the gospel is shared, the Sunday school group is a place of support and friendship.

Our Visit

We’ve been doing opinion polls for the past couple of weeks, and we were going to take a break from that and check on a member of our Sunday School class that lived near the school. They weren’t home, so we went back to opinion polls. One problem: we didn’t bring anything with us. We hunted down another team in the area and obtained some of their material. After leaving them, we realized we didn’t have a pen either. We went to the convenience store down the street and purchased one.

Now we’re ready. We went to a cul-de-sac behind the school. We had more people answer the door then we have in the past. We talked to a guy that was saved and went to First Assembly. We had a good visit with him and prayed with him before we left. Our last house was a guy that said he read that bible and went to church when he was younger, but doesn’t have time for it now. We asked him the “key question:” What do you understand it take for a person to go to heaven? He gave an unclear answer. After trying to have him clarify it, I was still unsure of his salvation. I went ahead and shared the gospel with him. At the end of it he just said with some doubt that he thought he did that when he was younger. We told him about our different Bible study classes and worship times. We hope that he will find time to visit our church and see his need for salvation.

Prayer Request

There was another one saved tonight!! Please pray for that person and the others that made professions on that same street. Pray for Patty, Georgia, and my family as we continue to mourn the loss of my father-in-law. Pray for me this Friday as I hand out bible tracts at Disney on Ice.

To find out more about Victory Baptist Church, visit our web site. www.victory-mbc.com

Week 9

H is for Heaven.

“H” is the last letter in our FAITH outline. Heaven is where we’ll spend eternity with Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:3: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also. That word “if” could be better understood as “since”. It is a conditional statement. It’s means that He is already going and since He is going then…

If we are to spend eternity there, what is it like? It seems a lot of people believe Heaven is what they make it to be. If you like ice cream, then you’ll have all-you-can eat ice cream. If you like sports, your Heaven will include a big screen TV with the sports package. Is Heaven what you make it out to be?

That is our selfish view of Heaven. Like now it is not about us. It is about the one who created us. I believe that our desire will be to worship God. Don’t get me wrong it will be a great place where all hurt and sin is wiped away. Originally God made a place that He was pleased in, Genesis 1:31. Sin messed that up and I believe he’ll make a restored earth. The way he originally intended it to be.

We don’t have to wait until we die to experience Heaven, that eternal live starts now with Jesus. Because of our sins, our live are limited (Romans 6:23), but once we repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus, we have a promise of eternal life. We don’t have to worry what will happen when we die. God makes us a new creature.

John 10:10 say: I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. This doesn’t mean that we somehow we’ll have a perfect life after trusting Jesus. We don’t somehow get that dream job, hit the lottery, and our life will be free from all troubles. That abundant life is an eternal life. We have the assurance of knowing that when we die our eternity will be spent in Heaven.

People think that when you become a Christian, all the sudden life is boring. I know just the opposite. It is not that we “have” to stop doing certain things. It is that God gives us a new heart. We are a new creature. We now have new desires. What is better then having new desires and being able to do them? I think of it like this. I think running a marathon is torture, but some people love the idea and live to run them. Their desire is to run that marathon. When their desire is fulfilled then that is a good thing. Same thing with being a Christian, our desires change. We want to go to church and worship God, we want to do what is right. We want to share Christ with others. When those desires are fulfilled then we are happy.

Our Visits

Josh and I went door knocking on a road behind the school. Our desire was to tell people about the new services and if we got a chance, to share the gospel. We knocked on a lot of doors and left a lot of flyers, but didn’t get to talk to many people. The only person we really go to speak with was already saved. We didn’t share the gospel, but we did get the info out about the new services and we also had a great time of walking and talking.

Prayer Request

Pray that opportunities will come up during the week for me to share my faith. At the beginning of class we discuss some “life witnessing” experiences we have, and I realize that I haven’t talked to anybody. Pray for our new church services at the school. Pray that they’ll be able to reach the lost in that area.

Week 7

I is for impossible.

According to the Bible, it is impossible for us to get to heaven on our own. The Bible tells us in Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace is usually defined unmerited favor. It is something that we receive but don’t deserve.

If we tried to save ourselves we would fall way short. Very short. Not even close. How much do we need to do to make up for the laws and commandments we’ve broken? Remember the verse under “A?” “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That right there is why we need forgiveness. How are we to buy that forgiveness? We’re not! That would like trying to bribe the judge. “I know I murdered that person, but I give to my church and I even helped an old lady cross the street.” Will the judge let you go for the good thing? Of course not. He is going to throw the book at you. If the judge is good and just, he must punish crime.

The only way you can go free is to have that penalty paid for you. That is exactly what Jesus did 2000 years ago. He paid the debt in His life’s blood. There was a legal transaction. God’s wrath and punishment was put on Jesus, who knew no sin. In exchange, we receive His righteousness. A legal transaction was made. We can now go free in God’s court room. So if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus, you will be saved. We know that is that He will save us because of what it says in Romans 10:9-10.

You see we can’t save ourselves. That is why we need a Savior. If we claim we are saved by what we do, we are stealing the honor and glory that God rightfully deserves.

Our visit

We went door knocking around Victory Baptist School. We are now having an early service at the school campus and we were getting the word out in the surrounding areas (actually word about the new service and the Word).

When talking with people, if we got anything but a faith answer to the key question “In your personal opinion, what do you understand that it take for a person to go to heaven”, we would share the gospel. We had one good visit. We ran into an officer that had a Catholic background, but his wife went to Fellowship North. His answer to the Key Question was “faith in Jesus Christ”. Surprisingly there was no works added in his response. We had a good dialogue with him in his driveway. He shared with us struggles about an incident where he had to use his gun on duty. Even though he was totally justified, it still bothers him. I could relate to him because I’ve seen that situation in my own family and understand how hard that is. Before we left we prayed with him that God would protect him both physically and mentally.

Another team had great news. They had the privilege of leading a girl to Christ.

Prayer Request

Pray for this officer. Pray that the little girl that was saved will grow in the Lord and that her mother will come to know the Lord also. Another team had a guy that was clearly under conviction. Pray that God will continue convicting him and that he’ll surrender to God’s will.

Week 6

The Letter A

Class was good we studied about the “A” in FAITH. A is for available. God’s forgiveness is available to us. It is available to all of us. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Even though it is available to everyone it is not automatic. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven”. There are a lot of people out there that believe that everyone will be saved or that all religions lead to heaven. They read into John 3:16 and say see He died for all of us, so we all are going to heaven. We need to also look at the “whosoever believeth in him.” This is why the “F” that we studied last week is so important. Every one has sinned and needs forgiveness. That forgiveness is in Jesus only. If we don’t understand our sins, how can we receive or even understand the cure. We compare ourselves too much to other people (horizontally) and not to God and His holy standards (vertically).

In class we also learned that people often ask “How can a loving God send someone to hell?” Again, the need to understand who we are (sinners) and who God is (Holy and Righteous). Like an earthly judge, if a convicted criminal went unpunished then the judge would be corrupt. The same with God, we wouldn’t think that God would let a murder or a rapist go unpunished would we? How about a lair, a thief, or a blasphemer? When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John 3:18, a few verses after John 3:16. He said “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already”. Jesus didn’t come to lead people to hell they are already on their way. He came to save us from it.

Our Visit

We visited a family from the school. When we got there we found out that that attend church at Central Baptist Church. Our goal is not to pull members from bible believing churches; our goal is to spread the gospel. Our first inclination was to just move on, but we were invited in. We had a great visit. We found out that they were trained in FAITH evangelism but had never been out on a visit because of fear. We just encouraged them to share their faith and the importance of evangelism. We just learned in class that the forgiveness is available but not automatic. Josh gave his new and improved testimony and I went over the gospel presentation “for practice”. I say for practice because, even though the 3 people we were directly talking to were saved, there were two others in the house that could hear what we were saying. Sometimes God is working on someone other than the person you’re talking with. Since this family was from Central, I gave them an example of that exact thing happening a few semesters back. The team that I was on was door knocking and came across the pastor’s house for Central Baptist Church. He was already saved, of course, but we just talked back and forth about God and the things he has done. They were just starting the FAITH program and we encouraged each other in sharing the gospel. What we didn’t know was the daughter was standing behind the door, and our conversation got her thinking and convicted of her sins. We later found out that, she was saved that night. We weren’t talking to her and the gospel wasn’t even really mentioned. It was nothing our team or the pastor said. It was all God. When God draws people to Him he’ll use anybody and anything. Be ready for God to use you.

Prayer Request

Pray for my mother-in-law and my family. It is her and Don’s anniversary this Saturday. Pray for those that are sick in our Church family and have been out.

Week 5

Forgiveness

At the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness. We need forgiveness because we have all sinned and fall short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). We a lot of times may dismiss sin as not being “that bad”. When we compare ourselves to other people we may not seem “that bad”. It is not until we compare ourselves to God and His holy standard that we realize our need for forgiveness. Everyone can find someone worse off than they are, but Gods standard is perfect. If we’ve kept the whole law and yet offend in just one area we are guilty of it all (James 2:10).

The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that the penalty for those sins is death. This is why we need a savior. We have a sin debt and that penalty is death. God didn’t want that to be, but if He is just and fair, He must punish sin. Thank about it this way if a earthly judge let someone off, who rapped and murdered someone, simply because they are now a good person and said they won’t do it again, the Judge would be corrupt and should be punished himself. How much more holy, fair, and just is our God. If we’ve sinned that sin must be punished.

God didn’t want it that way, so He provided a way. He sent his only Son (John 3:16) to earth in the form of a man. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again the third day. Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us. A legal transaction was made. He took our penalty in exchange we received His righteousness. We can go free in God’s court room because that penalty has been satisfied in Jesus.

How do we get that forgiveness? By repenting of our sins and putting our trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Robert said in class, “good people don’t go to heaven, Saved people do”. I’m glad that is true, because if I had to rely on my goodness I’d be in real trouble.

Our Visit

We were scheduled to visit a family from the school. When we got there the child was sick so we told them we’d come back at a better time. We were in the area of another member of our Sunday school class, so we dropped by. It was a great visit. You know how God closes doors so that others can be opened. I feel that this visit was one of them. We had a good discussion and prayer while we were there.

Josh gave out our bible to a lady at a car wash in Jacksonville and earlier in the week he had a chance to share what he has learned in FAITH with a friend on the computer.

Prayer Request

Pray for our age group. Satan is hitting us with sickness and just all sorts of things to keep us a way from serving the Lord. Pray for our visitors and potential visitors we’ve meet the last few weeks for our class. Pray that they feel a connection and the love of God through His people. Pray for our outreach both on our scheduled Tuesday night visit and our everyday lives. Pray for my family and the White’s. We will be traveling Wednesday and be gone through Thursday. Pray that we’ll be safe.

Week 3

Opening up Spiritual Dialogue

In tonight’s class we talked about opening up spiritual dialogue both on a FAITH visit and in our day to day actives. Because sharing the gospel should be everyday right? There is only two times we should preach the Word Paul says in 2 Tim 4:2, in season and out of season.

One of the things that I got out of the lesson is to listen intently to the one you are visiting. Being of the male race, I don’t listen very well. Just ask my wife. It is important to do more then hear someone, but to listen and understand what they are saying. One of the groups that went out tonight had a good example of this. Not where they didn’t listen, but where a previous church didn’t.

Another great point that I got from the lesson is to be real. We should really care for people, especially the lost. If we ponder hell, how can we not have a true passion for the lost? We should every day think what hell is like and who is going there. Matthew 13:47-50 says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Mark 9:47,48, where my class studies will be soon, it describes hell as a place where the worm will never die and the fire is not quenched. Who do we know that is not saved? Should we not warn people and tell them that they too can have eternal life?

Our Visit

My team visited a church member. We wanted to introduce ourselves and invite her to our class. It was a great visit. Because we care for the lost (see above), we asked what she understood it took for a person to go to heaven. From her answer we know she was saved. No need to share the gospel, but we did invite her to Sunday school and look forward to her joining our group.

After this visit we went a few houses down and visited her parents. We stopped by just to introduce ourselves, because I am terrible with names and faces and couldn’t place them. It was a great visit there too. We told them about another class that would be a great fit for them.

Prayer Request

Pray for Adam’s family. This is the young man that was killed in the automobile accident this Sunday. Pray for our country and our economy. Pray for our age group, it seems we have been hit very hard this year sickness, surgeries, work related issues. You name it and it seems it has happed to us this year.

Week 2

Testimony Time

It’s week 2 of FAITH. You may be wondering where week one went. Even though this is the second week it is the first time for us to go out visiting. The first week was an introduction and some testimony work. We are doing it a little different this go around. Only the learners, first timers, are required to go to class. All the rest come in just for visitations. Even though it is not my first go time, I can’t pass up the food. They are the only ones to get a meal….oh the teaching good too and you can always pick up something more each time through.

The last couple weeks we have been working on our Sunday school and evangelistic testimonies. If you are saved and go to a Sunday school class you will already have one, but it always good to put it on paper. This gets you thinking about it and helps you in how to share with others.

We also have a specific way we share them. On our Sunday school testimony, we list some true statements about our class. We then follow it up with a benefit we gained about that statement. For example here is mine; “I love my class and the people in it. We just formed a new class because we were growing so large, but we still feel like one big, close group with the connections in the other class. All of them are people around my age. We have the same life situations and just people that I can have fun with both inside and outside of class. They are there when you need them. Just recently we had a death in the family. Our class stepped in and was there for us emotionally and physically too. We had meals brought to us for over a week. That was just one thing we didn’t have to worry about.”

The evangelistic testimony is real similar. We break it down the three parts: pre-conversion experience, conversation statement, and benefits of conversion. The pre-conversion experience is a statement about before we were saved and about our life. Then we have the conversion statement which is just “Then I had a life-changing experience”. The last part, the benefits, describes how things are different since that change. The example of mine would be: “When I was just starting my family, it often worried me that if I died, what would happen to my family. Not only that that, but I feared death and what would happen to me. Then I had a life-changing experience. Since then when troubles arise I have peace. For example with the down turn in the economy and people losing their jobs, I still have confidence that God will take care of us and more importantly I no longer fear death.

We were also instructed to start memorizing the outline through “I”. To learn more about the outline see the post from last year:
“F” http://faithatvictory.blogspot.com/2008/03/week-4.html
“A” http://faithatvictory.blogspot.com/2008/03/week-5.html
“I” I don’t have a post for “I”, I must have been gone.

Our Visit

Our visit was with some members of our Sunday school class. It was a family that has been out due to medical issues. We just wanted to drop by and see how they were going and if we could help in any way. We had a good visit. I got to practice our gospel presentation, both to show the learners on the team and also to expose our class mates we were visiting to what we actually do in FAITH. We had a great visit and got to know them a little better. I may even have a new team member to fill the empty spot. One of the class members we were visiting said she has been thinking about joining FAITH and will pray about filling that spot that we have. We prayed with them before we left and got back to church about 30 minuets late, but it was worth it. Great visit!

Prayer Request

There has been a lot of sickness going around, pray that God will keep everyone well so we can enjoy the fellowship of all our class members. Inside and outside our class we have friends that are fighting long term illnesses. Pray that God will heal them. Pray for my new class that God will give me the wisdom and guidance to lead it in a way that will honor and glorify Him. Pray for baby Emma as she is recovering from RSV. Pray for our possible new FAITH member, that if this is the right time to join, God will give her the strength.

Week 11

New Age Movement

This is really “a believe what you want” religion. It contains a lot of Buddhism and Hinduism in it. It is really hard to say exactly what the New Age Movement is, because you can really believe what you want. The most common thread in there is the beliefs of no absolutes. My truth is not your truth. As long as I am not hurting you and it gets me closer to some sort of spiritual state then it is good. It reminded us a lot of Oprah and her religion.

There is a lot of belief in reincarnation in the New Age Movement. Most believe that your soul keeps progressing until you get it right. However most don’t believe you can go backward on the evolutionary scale or should I say the reincarnation scale. Hey, if you’r going to make something up, why make it hard on your self. We know the truth is salvation comes from putting your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior (see Rom. 3:24,25; Eph 2:8,9).

A common phrase in the New Age Movement is “God is us and we are God” and that Jesus is just one of many teachers. Even scarier is that all roads lead to heaven. Jesus said that he is the only way (John 14:6). The bible also talks about God being separate from His creation (Isa. 45:6, Rom 1:25).

This is not anything new. In the Garden the Serpent asked if God really said she couldn’t eat from tree (see Gen 3:1-5). We can be like gods and can have our “eyes open”.

Our Visit

We attempted a visit that we tried a few weeks ago. A school family, the son is in my daughter’s class. Last time we had trouble finding it. That was because it was their store address. I called before hand and she was excited about us coming by. She owns a convenience store/gas station. One thing to note, her store is one of very few that doesn’t sell beer. She was told that she’d never make it if didn’t. She said her and God will prove them wrong. Great faith!

They already attend a church and seemed to love it so we didn’t talk much about the church except where it fit in with the school. It was a good visit, very friendly family. Her sister came into the store just as we were about to pray, so we prayed blessing on her family and her business. I gave my bible to her sister before she left.

Prayer Request

Pray for my step-father-in-law. He is battling cancer and is having trouble with his back. Pray for our country, school and our solders and friends overseas.

The Greatest Show on Earth

We had a chance to hand out some bible tracts at a large event in North Little Rock. A couple friends and I meet up every other week to share the gospel on the streets. This time we chose the Circus at Alltel arena.

There were a lot of people there. We handed out a few hundred tracts in just a couple hours. Even though there were so many people, we still didn’t have a chance for any one-on-one conversations. With it being the just before show time, people were in a hurry, but people were very excited to get our Million Dollar Bible Tracts. We even had a new zillion dollar and the incredible shrinking dollar, which is great for the down turn in the economy.

It was so cold I have to get something to warm me up, so I walked to a conveiant store next to Alltel. I gave the cashier a million for the good service. He made such a big deal out of it I have to give everyone there one.

Week 10

Mormonism
Most people today believe that Mormons are just another “Christian” denomination. It is not only not part of Christianity, but it is anti-Christian. They have twisted the most fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Here are a few

Source of Authority-They don’t take the bible as the infallible word of God and they don’t believe scripture was closed with the bible. They have 3 additional books; the Book of Mormon (which has changed in 4000 places since it was written in 1830), the Doctrine of Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Their belief is that the Bible is correct as long as it is translated correctly. If the bible contradicts their teachings or their other books, then they fall back on “it is an incorrect translation”.

Trinity-Mormons believe in polytheism, many gods. The universe has many gods that produce spirit children. They believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but they believe that these are three different Gods.

God-Their view is that God was once a man like us. Through self-effort and the father-god of his plant was able to work his way to receiving his own planet and now has a physical resurrected body. They believe through their own good works and the atoning work of Jesus we to can be god and have our own planet.

Christ-They acknowledge the divinity of Christ, but not by the bible’s standard. They believe that Christ, Lucifer, the demons, and mankind are all bothers and are spirit babies from our father-god. They believe that Christ was conceived by sexual relations between god and Mary. They also believe Jesus had many wives; Mary and Martha (the sisters of Lazarus) and Mary Magdalene.

Heaven and Hell-Mormonism teaches that there are three degrees of glory: Celestial (for good Mormons able to cease sinning in this lifetime), Terrestrial (for good people who do not comply with all the teachings of Mormonism), and Telestial (for those who have lived unclean earthly lives). They don’t really believe anyone will go to hell but a few that can’t be redeemed, sons of perdition. They used to put blacks in this category up until 1978. Their belief is that the people that half-heartily fought when Lucifer got mad at God’s decision to select Jesus and fought against Him and Michael were the black race.

There are many differences these are just a few. The main thing to realize is that the lingo is the same. They use works like “salvation through Jesus”, Grace, and Trinity, but their definitions are totally different

Our Visit
Joanna and I picked up Josh this time out to make our three person team. We were scheduled to visit a family from the Church’s school. The husband was there with their 2 children. We had a good visit. When I asked what his understanding of how a person goes to heaven, he gave a “faith” answer, in Jesus only. I asked him if he as put his faith in Jesus and he told us that he has recently done that and was starting learn more and grow as a Christian. He already had a Church that he was attending and was about to start a new bible study. We didn’t want to pull him away from his church, but did tell him about Victory since the school and church were connected, this way if he ever needed anything he would know a little about us. We prayed with him and encouraged him in his new walk with the Lord.

Prayer Request
Pray for the family of a boy that was just saved. Pray for my step-father-in-law. He has is battling cancer and is taking chemotherapy. Pray for our family has we go through this with him. We only have a couple weeks left pray for our FAITH teams.

Week 9

Jehovah’s Witnesses

What if I told you the end of the world is coming on a certain date. That day came and went, and no end to speak of. I set a new date. That day came and no end of time. “Really this time I’m for real” and set a new one. Still the end is not here. What if I then told you that you misunderstood me and this is the last and final date. Guess what? Not that date either. I wouldn’t be very trust worthy would I?

This is exactly what the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) have been doing. They’ve made predictions for the end of the world or the second coming of Christ in 1879, 1914, 1925, 1940, and 1975. In Matthew 24:36 it says But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. No one knows when Jesus will return, but they still keep trying to predict it. What is bad is Jehovah’s Witnesses believe everything the Watchtower tells them. The Watchtower is the publication from the main headquarters and is used as a study tool. This is their authority. They are not allowed to think on their own and interpret scripture.

Another place the JWs error in is the Trinity. They don’t believe that God can be three coequal, coeternal Persons. They don’t believe the Holy Spirit is God. They say it is like electricity. Here are some references that attribute personal traits to the Holy Spirit: Acts 13:2; Romans 8:14, 26,27; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 3:7 and Revelation 2:7. Also in the Trinity they don’t believe Jesus as God. They do say that is was created as a god and call him a “mighty god”, but not God Himself.

JWs also don’t see that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8,9). They got the grace down and believe that by the grace of God we are able to work our way to heaven.

Last time I checked a prophet had to be 100% correct. With their several missed predictions, I don’t know how anybody can trust anything that they teach especially when it is in direct contrast to the bible. When the bible has been held up as truth for so long and has been scrutinized throughout the centuries without any contradictions, how can you trust anything above the bible?

Our Visit

We had a really good visit. We visited a family from the school. The son last Sunday wanted to go to Church but they didn’t know how to get there. They left trying to find it with the son praying in the back seat. They ended up finding Victory and was there a little early for our evening services. They were going home to get the mother and never made it back.

We had a great visit with them they are believers and love the school and the son’s teacher this year. We talked to them a little about Sunday school and church. The son and the dad were going to be there for our Wednesday night services. We prayed with them and left them some church information.

We gave our bible out to a guy in the Walmart parking lot. I tried to give it out first without success. The person said they already had one but Joanna was successful.

Prayer Request

Pray that God will give us a passion for the lost, one that we loose sleep at night worrying that people are going to hell. Pray that God will put people in our path that we can share the gospel and His Word with.

Week 8

Cults

This week we talked about cults. It was an introduction to cults and in the next few weeks we’ll do a more in depth study of some of different ones.

The word “cult” comes from the Latin word for worship. Basically a cult is defined as “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious”. Really anything that opposes the normal biblical view. It is not meant to be an insulting word but a way to categorize something different the biblical Christianity. Some of cults, for example the Mormons, might even call biblical Christianity a cult. The Jews call early Christianity a cult because of their differing views.

One of the characteristics of a cult is that it always surrounds itself around a specific person or that person’s misinterpretation of the Bible (ex. Joseph Smith with the Mormons). Besides being focuses around a leader or person’s interpretation, there are 5 things that you can look for doctrinally in a cult.

They reject the Trinity. They do not believe that Jesus is God. They either lower him down to humanity’s level or will raise themselves up to the same status as Jesus.
Belief that all Christians churches are wrong and they have the only truth.
They believe the bible, but will distort it to fit their viewpoint of man, God, Holy Spirit, Heaven and hell, salvation, and many other doctrines.
They deny that people are saved by faith alone. There is always works involved. Haven’t we seen that through all the religions we’ve studied so far?
They are skillful at using Christian words and doctrines, but with a twist. They’ll use the same words but they will not mean the same thing.

The first thing to do to identify cults is to know true Christianity. The bible tells us to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21). A guy that once worked for the Secret Service in the counterfeit division was asked “how, with all theses different types of fake bill going around, do you figure out which ones are not real?” He responded with, “To spot the fake ones all you have to do is know the real one”. If we know God’s word, when something comes along that teaches a different gospel we’ll be able to spot it.

Our Visit

We had a great visit. We visited a family that came to our “Trunk or Treat” that we put on at the school. The family had a young boy in the 4K class at the school. We talked with the wife. The husband was in bed, he’d had a few shot for a back problem earlier in the day. We did have a good conversation talking about our Sunday School class and Church. We asked the “Key Question”, “In your opinion, what do you understand that it takes for a person to go to heaven” She gave, what seemed to be a faith answer, but added a little to it. To be safe, I shared the gospel with her. We continued to talk a little more and prayed with her before we left.
When we got back to the car, we realized we were 1 hour late getting back to the church. It was worth it we had a great visit and Joanna clicked well with her. Ashley, the other young lady we brought with us, bonded great with the son. Well she played video games with him anyway.

Prayer Request

Pray for this family that they find a church home that can minister to their needs. Both of them have bad back and are taking treatments for the problem. Pray for our ministries, both here and PMBS AIT in the Philippines.

Week 7

Buddhism

Buddhism was started by a man named Siddhartha Gautama, who later changed his name to Buddha. He was born in India, around where Napal is today. He was born into a Hindu family around 560 BC. When he was young, a seer said that he would be the greatest ruler ever and if he saw four things: sickness, old age, death and a monk that renounced the world, he would discover a way of salvation for everyone. To protect him, his father built a palace to shelter him from all this. The story goes that one day when he was 29 he did see all these things. He saw a man with sores, an old guy, a dead person being carried to his grave, and a begging monk who appeared peaceful and happy. So he left his family and ran away.

He shaved his head, put on a yellow robe and tried to find salvation by self-denial. When starving himself didn’t work, he sat under a tree for 40 days. There he experienced nirvana which means the “blowing out” of the flame of desire and the negation of suffering. It was here that he clamed that he found salvation and then changed his name to Buddha.

They believe that suffering is universal and nirvana will release you from that cycle, because you will be reincarnated until you are released. This suffering is because of our craving and selfish desires. To reach this state a person must overcome ignorance and eliminate these cravings. The way they say to do this is to suppress the cravings by the eightfold path: right viewpoint, right aspiration, right speech, right behavior, right occupation, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

Buddha clamed he knew how to get to nirvana, but what is was like when you got there he didn’t know. Buddha claimed to have found the way but Jesus said that He is the way (John 14:6). Buddha said that suffering comes from cravings and all desire was bad. Christianity says that suffering is caused by sin (Romans 8:18-23) and that we can have good desires like the desire to glorify and give glory to God (see Ps. 27:4, Matt 6:33). It all comes down to work, like all the other religions we’ve studied. People do have a “selfish desire”, a desire to save themselves and glorify our own deads. We can't save ourselves it is only God through Jesus Christ that can save and He should get the glory not us.

Our Visit

We had a scheduled visit to a family at the school. We never found that address but ended up close to a customer and friend of mine. This is a lady that has visited the church before and her son actually invited us the first time to victory. We had a great visit with her and invited her to Sunday school and a church. We prayed with her before we left.

Prayer Request

Pray for all our FAITH teams. Pray for a lady that the gospel was presented to and she accepted the gift of salvation. Thank God for moving in her life and allowing one of the team be involved.

Week 6

Hinduism

This week we have been studying the religion of Hinduism. So far, this has been the hardest one to grasp. With Catholic, Islam, and Orthodox, they a least had something in common with Christianity. Hinduism, on the other hand, is totally different. Right off, a big difference is their belief in God. A follower of Hinduism can believe in one god, no god or many gods. Hinduism is said to have 330 million gods.

There are two core beliefs in Hinduism that differ from Christianity: reincarnation and karma. Reincarnation is the belief that a persons soul comes back in different bodies. These bodies don’t have to be human. They don’t even have to be animate objects. This uncreated and eternal soul is totally different than the view in the Bible where were we are created being. The bible also says it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Heb. 9.27). Once we are dead that is it. We have one shot at this life.

Karma, which means action, is a process of cause and effect. If you are good, good things happen to you. If you are bad, bad thing will happen. This karma can even affect you status when you are reincarnated.

Regarding Jesus, Hinduism would believe that He is not God, but one of the many incarnations, or avatars of Vishnu, their supreme god. Remember they have 330 million gods that they can worship, so Jesus could be just one to them. This was a problem with missionaries. They would go into a highly Hindu region and a lot of people would make a decision for Christ. Their thinking is “we’ll accept Christ; we’ll put him with our other gods. When talking with Hindus we need to be careful. They need to understand that God has became incarnate only once (John 1:14) and that he is the only way to God (John 14:6)

Another point that we disagree with in Hinduism is their view on sin and salvation. Sin to them is an ‘utter illusion”. Everything including sin is just an illusion and not real. They seek the endless cycle of being reincarnated, by mediation, devotion, good works and self control. This will put them at one with Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. Christians see ourselves as sinners (Romans 3:23). Because of that sin we can not received eternal life and heaven. God didn’t want that and did a wonderful thing for us. While we were sinners, He came to earth as a man to pay for our sins(Romans 5:8). So that if we turn from our sins (Acts 3:19) and put our trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, we will be saved (Romans 10:9)

Our Visit

Our scheduled visit was not home. While trying to find the address at an apartment complex, we saw a lady getting out of her car. We initially asked her about the address we where trying to find. When we got back, with no luck, she was still trying to get her two kids, a suitcase and a backpack out of the car and up the stairs. Joanna got out to give her a bible and noticed that she needed help. So both Joanna and Sherri helped her upstairs. This was a great time to talk to here about the gospel. We asked the key question “What do you understand that it takes for a person to go to heaven” and she had no idea. We explained to her what it took by using what we learned in FAITH class. We had a good talk with here and prayed with her before we left.

Prayer Request

Pray for Brother Harris. He is out sick. Pray that he will have a speedy recovery. We also have had a scheduling conflict and I’ll be losing a very good team member in FAITH. Pray that God will find a replacement. Joanna had a chance for a long talk with someone about Jesus. Pray that this person will chew on the things that were said.

Week 5

Islam

This week before going on our visits we studied about Islam. Islam is one of the youngest and one of the fastest growing of the major religions. It is estimated there are 1 billion followers in the world. This would mean that 1 in 6 people on this planet is a Muslim. Muslim, meaning one who lives his life according to God’s will, is the name for those who follow this religion.

Islam means submission. This is the submission to Allah, the God of Mohammed. He was born in 570 A.D. He came from a well-to-do family, which had a lot of tradigy strike when he was very young. His dad died a few days before he was born. His mom died when he was six. He was grandfather raised him until he died when Mohammed was nine. The rest of this raising was spent with his uncle where he herded flocks.

Most of his Ideas and exposure to religion was by spending time in the caravan trade where he took trips with his uncle to Syria and Persia. It is believed that he draws a lot of influence from the Jews inspiration from the Talmud. He also came in contact with the Monophysites and the Nestorians. The Monophysites believe that Christ was fully divine without a being human. The Nestorians believed that Christ did have two natures but they were separate from each other. Keeping all this in mind you can see how the structure and beliefs about Chirst in Islam was built from these three influences.

Their Holy Book is the Koran. It is said that Mohammed received this from the Angel Gabriel. Since Mohammed couldn’t read or write, the Koran was dictated partly by Mohammed and written down by followers who remembered his teachings. With this in mind they believe the Koran is the only correct book with the original, written in Arabic, in heaven. The bible, theTalmud and other books of Judaism are said by Islam to have been corrupted. They also have an extra teachings in the Sunnah, meaning path. This Sunnah was gathered into a book called the Hadith. Doesn’t this sound real close on how the Talmud supplements the Hebrew Bible. They also have there teaching on the law which they call Shariah, meaning “law.

The main part of their faith is the 5 pillars which they must keep to be a “good Muslim”.

Statement of belief; they must recite “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah”.

Prayer; they must pray 5 time a day in the right position and facing the city of Mecca.

Alms; They must give 2.5% to widows, orphans, and the sick.

Ramadan; the ninth month on their calendar. They must fast during daylight hours and stay away from forbidden activities.

Pilgrimage to Mecca; at least once in their lifetime, if possible, they are required to make a trip to Mecca. If they can’t go they can send someone in their place.

It all come down to without the shedding of blood we can not have the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). I doesn’t matter if we think we are a good Muslim or a good person the bible says that there is none good no not one (Psalm 14:3) and all of us are sinner (Romans 3:23). There has to be a payment for our sins and I am glad Jesus did that. Ephesians 1:7 says that we are redeemed through the blood of Jesus. We must repent and turn away from our sins and our self-reliance of our good work to save us and put our trust in Jesus to save us.

Our Visit

My teams visit ended up not being home and since it was far out, we didn’t get a chance to make another one. We had a great time in fellowship and talking discussing our testimonies. There were some other great visits by other teams. The gospel was presented by one group and the girl that was saved last week was visited and baptism was discussed.

Prayer Request

Pray for the people that were killed in the auto accident the night of FAITH. Some of our teams were delayed getting to the church because of this. Pray for their families. Pray for our Missionary Glen Knight. Great work is going on in the newly renamed village of Bethany.

Week 4

Judaism

This week we are studying Judaism. It is unique in that it is both a nationality and a religion. We have, what we call, the Old Testament in common with them. They pay particular attention to the first five books, called the Torah. They also have teaching of their rabbis, which mean master or teacher, written down in a book called the Mishnah. Another book that they use is the Talmud. This is about 36 Volumes and is based on the Mishnah with more material added.

Without going into a lot of detail about this religion, the main difference in Christianity and Judaism is Christ. Christianity has its roots in Judaism. Most of our favorite bible characters were Jews. Even Christ was a Jew. They would have followed some of the same practices and rituals as today’s Jewish people.

Like us they believe in one God and it is the same God we worship, the God of Abraham. They don’t believe in the Godhead being in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The especially don’t believe Jesus was the Son of God. Some Jews accept Him as a good teacher. Their belief in salvation comes from commitment to the one true God and through moral living. As Christians we know it is through Jesus only. We understand that we don’t live a moral life. We know that all have sinned and that there is none good. For this reason we need a savior, someone to pay that debt that we have and to redeem us. We are saved thought faith in Jesus (Romans 3:24).

Our Visit

One of my team members had to be out this week so my prayer partner stepped in and came with us. We had a couple scheduled visits. These were a couple families from the Victory Baptist School. The first one was a family that had a couple kids at the school with the oldest one being in 6th grade. This family has been at the school for 7 years. It was dinner time so we had a quick visit at the door. We stated the purpose of the visit and asked how everything was going and if there was anything the church could help with. Before leaving we had a prayer with the family. Or second visit was not home so we left a church brochure at the door.

On the way back to the chruch, Joanna gave a bible to a police officer and she had a short conversation with him. He was asking questions about Satan. As we were pulling off there were some young men at the liquor store, so we gave a couple bibles to them.

Prayer Request

There as been a lot of children in the church and school asking question about salvation and a few the visits were geared toward them. There was even one saved last night on a FAITH visit. Please pray for each of these children and that God will continue to show them of there need for Jesus.