Alberta

We made it to Edmonton and are happy to see that there is no snow.
We now begin a 5 show/8 day tour hitting Lloydminster, Edmonton, Innisfail, and Lethbridge.
Currently Reading: The Gospel According to Jesus, John MacArthur, Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, Randy Alcorn
IMG_0311
This is what we left.
|

The Shack - Now this book gets around

the-shack
I don’t think I’m in the minority, when I say I’ve encountered a lot of people reading and referring “The Shack.” From my experience over the years there are many Christian Fad books that come and go. They sell millions and become very popular. (does anyone remember the Prayer of Jabez? How about the Purpose Driven Life?). Often times these books sell millions of copies, and are forgotten a few years later. What shocks me, is that people will not do any research into a book before spending 5-12 hours of their life reading it. Such as reading reviews. The sad part is that often these kind of books have many problems from a Christian perspective, ranging from theological error, to outright blasphemy. Sadly the Shack contains both of these. With Christian discernment at an all time low, it is not surprising that a book that is fresh, fast paced, easy to read and touches on something that everybody contemplates (pain and suffering, and where God is through it), has done so well.
I was going to list some quotes from the text that send chills down your spine - but I’ll let you read them for yourself in the following reviews.

This one is short and Sweet by Hank Hanegraff
Tim Challies does a very in depth and balanced look at it. Check his site for many many other great reviews.
Thirteen Heresies in the Shack by Dr. Michael Youssef
10 minutes of thoughts about "THE SHACK" by Jason Robinson - a lot of stuff I never thought of
Chuck Coleson’s Review, Stay out of the Shack
Wretched Radio Resources - Three Different Reviews, including Geisler’s.

Mark Dricoll's take on the book's depiction of the Trinity.
|

Ambassadors Acadamy in LA - WOW

Two Weeks ago Jane and I returned from LA where we attended The Ambassador’s Academy. The Academy was three and a half days of intensive and fast-paced training and street evangelism under the teaching and leadership of members of the Living Waters staff including Tony Miano, Ray Comfort, Mark Spence, Emeal Zwayne and Kirk Cameron. After attending the Deeper conference near Atlanta just two weeks prior, we were pumped to continue in our evangelism training. However that doesn’t mean we weren’t nervous. After the first day and a half of in class training we were to hit the streets, starting with Hollywood Boulevard (the walk of stars) in LA.

IMG_0244
Fifty people were accepted for the weekend. Our team had 7 people all from varied walks of life and evangelism experience. One couple in our team was particularly inspiring. Dwayne and Mary Ann from Norther California are 71 years old. They have a desire to reach the lost and are willing to get out of their comfort zone and be “fools for Christ” to make it happen. Neither of them had done any type of street witnessing before, to say nothing of open air preaching. One girl had been soundly save from a new age background. One of the fellows in our group was a pastor. And Brenda from New England had an inspiring testimony. She had grown up in the church but was a false convert. She came to a saving faith through her husband’s witness. He had become a christian after finding a Gospel tract in a porta-john! Now they are on fire believers who have started their own ministry training others how to share their faith. They have taken their one day seminar to over 50 churches in New England in the last 2 years - and it all started with ONE gospel tract that led to many being saved.
IMG_0242


This summer Jane and I had begun open air preaching using my juggling as a way to draw a crowd (see here). But we were definitely going to be challenged by learning to open air preach to the masses, (without a juggling draw) and even something as scary as “Stop light” preaching. In big cities, many people bunch up on the sidewalk for about 90 seconds while they wait for the light to say walk. You have about 60-90 seconds to get the message out! Jane did a great job - see the video below. We also got to street preach out side of the famous Grovman’s Chinese Theatre where many movie premiers are held. (see video below) We all had many great one on one encounters with people in which we were able to share the Law and the Gospel.
IMG_0267
With Trish Ramos, from www.fishwithtrish.com

It was a delight to meet Ray Comfort. We got along great with me being naturally goofy as a performer and he being very down to earth and fun loving. He even let me open one of his sessions with a 5 minute juggling act to break the ice. We can’t say enough about a Ray. It was also a delight to meet Kirk Cameron. We had lunch with him and I told him that he inspired me, as a Christian Entertainer. It is hard to find mentors (for lack of a better word) in the entertainment field as a Christian. I read his recent autobiography, and then passed it along to another friend of mine who I thought might be able to relate who was a star on the television series Star Trek Voyager.

We were inspired to see how preaching open air can be effective even if you don’t have a “crowd.” Because a preacher’s voice can travel astonishingly far if you have the wind behind you. It may not look, or seam like people are listening, but God’s word will never be preached in vain. I once said that everyone needs to experience being a missionary and door to door salesman in their life. (Both events I’ve had the honour of doing). But now I must add open air preaching to the list. It’s not easy to explain the feeling of having everyone in the crowd walk away from you as you preach.
Pasted Graphic
I’d like to encourage anyone who’s read this to think more seriously about evangelism. Maybe for you it’s as simple as inviting someone to church, or leaving one gospel tract somewhere. But in the worlds of Spurgeon...

"Brethren, do something; do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitutions, let us win souls. I pray you, be men of action all of you. Get to work and quit yourselves like men. Old Suvarov's idea of war is mine: `Forward and strike! No theory! Attack! Form a column! Charge bayonets! Plunge into the center of the enemy! Our one aim is to win souls; and this we are not to talk about, but do in the power of God!" - Charles Spurgeon

IMG_0264
It was halloween the day we were on Hollywood Boulevard.

DSCN2177DSCN2180IMG_1534IMG_0261DSC00019


bob open air hollywood blvd Pasted Graphic 1
jane open air hollywood blvdPasted Graphic



|

Here goes nothing

Well I finally decided to enter the 21st century by starting a blog. It may just end up being a place to put things... we shall see.
|