Christian Celebrities and Tebow Worship

I think in the Body of Christ we have this idea that if someone is a Christian and a celebrity, it some how validates the gospel we are preaching. I remember as a young convert when witnessing I would point out current "Christian" celebrities while witnessing so it would give people the image that if so and so is a Christian, I should be a Christian as well. I remember the story AW Tozer told in his book The Pursuit of God, where he tells the story of the "conversion" of Mickey Cohen, the infamous LA gangster. Mickey Cohen came to "faith" in Christ under a Christian evangelist's message. The message he heard was so and so was a Christian athlete, and so and so is a Christian politician, and this guy is a Christian actor, and Mickey came forward to "receive" Christ. A few weeks later Cohen rejected the message after reading in the bible that he had to leave off his former life to follow Christ. He was quite angry, because he thought with the message he heard, he could be a Christian gangster. 

So we come to Tim Tebow. While I respect his stand for God, the idol worship that is going on inside the body of Christ is absolutely appaling. I have heard of people getting his name tattooed to their bodies. I have seen fans get a Tebow #15 jersey with the name of Jesus on the back. Tebow even appeared in a magazine article under the title, "Does God Have a Tebow Complex?" How absolutely blasphemous! Whether Tebow has repented of appearing in such an article, I do not know, but as far as I know, he has never come out publicly to rebuke such a blasphemous title. If I am wrong, please show me.

Do you remember Evander Holyfield? Everywhere he went, he proclaimed thanks to Jesus, all the while he was having tons of children out of wedlock and through affairs on his wife. Everybody billed the Holyfield v Tyson match as Christianity v Islam. What a sham that proved to be. 

I am sorry folks, but Tim Tebow, Albert Pujols and even Kirk Cameron do not validate the message of the Gospel. Jesus Christ needs no cheerleaders. In heaven there will be no celebrities, only one, Jesus Christ, and his fame will be exalted throughout all eternity. As Christian's we need to exalt Jesus Christ alone, and stop exalting and idolizing fallen men, who will fail. Just because celebrities believe, doesnt give an ounce of credibility to the message. We need to proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and leave famous Christian's to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

The Unstoppable Gospel!

I am writing this post 1 week after the most amazing time in my life, to reflect back on what happened and to encourage the saints who helped support this mission trip to know that their finances and prayers were not in vain.

A few months ago I was visiting Bill Adams website and saw that he was going to South Africa for the World Cup and knew he needed people to join with him to bring the Gospel to the World. Right away I knew I wanted to go, very badly, but being out of work with an injury and my wife making all the money, I knew it would be near impossible for me to go. I immediately called Bill and let him know I was interested in going, so he suggested that I send out letters to try and raise the support. Right when he said that, I thought to myself, what about my Christian facebook friends, maybe they could help? I sent out a letter to my facebook friends and within a month the money was mostly raised! I was amazed at the amazing providence of God in using His saints to support this trip. I knew the hand of God was on this. Around $2500 dollars raised, mostly from facebook and the rest from my amazing church family. God blew my mind!

So fast forward to the trip. While on the plane, I got sick. I either got food poisioning or motion sickness, but when I got off the plane, I felt awful! I got so disappointed, I went all the way to South Africa to preach the Gospel and now I am sick and may not get to leave the house we were staying at. The hosts were wonderful people and took me to the doctor the next day. The doctor gave me some medicine but I didnt feel a whole lot better, until my wife suggested I have some tea. Afterwards I felt a million times better. I missed the first day of ministry and was determined not to miss any more. I will include the most memorable events in this.

The next day we went to Rustenburg, which is about 3 hours away, And through circumstances we didn't get to go near the stadium, so we went to a marketplace that we saw on the way there. And man was it worthwhile. The Gospel tracts were passed out so quickly, in fact I was almost trampled by the people(no joke) as I was giving away tracts. I had to throw them in the air so I could survive. We preached the Gospel and people listened attentively and asked questions. Vincent Piater and I had a conversation with a guy who was genuinelly concerned for his soul and he was a minister at one time who realized he was never converted. He asked, (we didn't even bring up election) what if he wasn't elect, I told him just the fact that he is concerned about his soul is a good indicator that God is drawing him to Himself. He agreed and asked us to pray for him.

One of the most memorable events was one day when we were in Ellis Park. We were preaching downtown and moved towards the stadium, when Tim saw a guy dressed in a suit and figured he was going into one of these heretical prosperity gospel churches, that is so prevalent in South Africa, and decided to witness to him. Tim and I walked him through Scriptures of last days moneygrubbing preachers and you can see the concern come on his face. Tim walked him through the law and the Gospel, and the guy named Prince said "What must I do?" How can I be saved? and Tim walked him through what Jesus did and he must be born again. The guy wanted us to pray for him, and the guy dropped to his knees in a thunderous slam into the ground and cried out to God to save him. That he knew he deserved hell and wanted to be saved! It was so amazing to be apart of. I gave him my bible and told him to get into a bible believing church, not a money grubbing church. He thanked us with tears in his eyes and we went to the stadium. That night another guy left weeping over the grace of God when Tim and the guys fed a homeless guy, and sat with him for about 45 minutes talking and sharing the Gospel with him. He wept as he got up and hugged us all.

Another day the most amazing thing happened to me. We were preaching in downtown Pretoria and I was going to get something to eat. I was walking through a square that Tim and I preached earlier and noticed a Nigerian street preacher, preaching parts of the Gospel, but it was moralism. He was very vulgar in his preaching, grabbing his crotch as he was telling them not to have sex, and not to use condoms, and not to smoke cigarettes, and not to hug their girlfriends because it leads to other things, and it reminded me of when I was in youth group; all outward reformation and no inward transformation by the Gospel! The guy had a heckler messing with him, so the crowd of around 100, were very engaged in the dialogue between these 2. I waited for them to stop because I knew I had to expound on the full Gospel. The Nigerian got done and walked away when the heckler saw I had a Bible in my hands and asked me if I had anything to say, and I said yes I do. I raised my voice so all could here and said, "Ladies and gentlemen you heard the preacher say you need to repent, but what does that mean, and what do you need to repent of?" So I walked them through the demands of God's laws, the perfection God requires out of us all and the punishment for violating His commands, I walked them thriough the court room, and showed them the necessity of punishment for crime, and the scenario of what if someone stepped in and paid the fine. Showed them how Jesus Christ paid the fine for us, satisfied the demands of God's laws and how if we would turn from our sins and put our faith in Jesus, God could legally dismiss our case and forgive us because of Jesus. And when I got done the most amazing thing happened, the people cheered! They applauded the Gospel. People came up and thanked me for sharing the message with them. I asked the crowd if anyone isn't sure whether they would end up in heaven or hell when they die please come and talk to me, When I got done, a guy came up and was very tearful asking about his soul. I talked to him and we prayed where he asked God to have mercy on him! I was amazed that God would open the hearts of these people and have mercy on them.

While I was there I got to preach the Gospel to tens of thousands of people, we passed around 20,000 tracts at least, and saw people cry out for mercy, I got interviewed 7 times, by 7 different news organizations, from 7 different countries. The Gospel cant be stopped, for centuries the world has tried to do whatever they could to stop it, but it will never stop! His kingdom is advancing! Would you pray for laborers to enter the harvest field, especially of South Africa! They are hungry for good God centered Gospel preachers there.

This is the most disheartening part of what happened while I was there. I was preaching in downtown Johannesburg, when a guy came up and wanted to know about how he can be saved, I explained the Gospel to him and shared how he could be saved, And he was real thankful, Then he asked me, if I could direct him to a church. And I couldn't! I didn't know any good sound churches in that area and I got his contact info so I could give it to our hosts. He said what is this you are doing, preaching and not leaving me with a good church to go to. I just about cried. The Lord broke my heart while I was there, I want so desperately to go back and plant some good solid churches. there is such a need. It is time to start looking into going to bible college and find out how I can go back.

Thank you my friends for all your support and prayers because I know without your help none of this would have been possible. I am truly grateful for you.

The Champ Has Been Knocked Out!

This weekend has been by far the most adventurous weekend as a street evangelist. Friday night we worked the streets of downtown Orlando until about 2 in the morning and it was quite an interesting evening! I had my first physical attack while preaching. While preaching I had a drunk man come up to me and attempt to give me a, and pardon my french, "tittie-twister." I was amazed at how brash this guy was and thankful that he was too drunk that he missed his target. He walked away and I believe I thanked him, although I don't really remember what I said because the shock of such a weird attack really threw me for a loop.

The amazing thing was this was the most at home I felt preaching the Gospel, I never saw while I was preaching the crowd being hit square in the jaw and angering them to such a frenzy. The words were flowing naturally and I didn't feel as if I was forcing anything. I pleaded with the crowd of the severity of their sins against God and the reality of death. Crying out to them to repent today because tomorrow isn't guaranteed! I pray they heard the pleads and cried out to God for mercy.

While one of my brothers was preaching a man came up and started arguing about how the Earth wasn't 6000 years old. So a brother and me pulled him aside so he didn't stop the preaching of God's word. Eventually it was just me and him. He said he was an atheist but agreed that he wasn't a true atheist because he didn't have absolute knowledge. He was very combative and his language was very nasty, so to try to calm him down I told him my name and asked him his. He said his name is Seth Petruzelli. I have a background that knows a lot about fights and fighters and I kind of recognized him and his name and asked if he was a UFC fighter. He said that he is. Seth a couple of months ago scored one of the biggest upsets in MMA history when he beat a Goliath of a man named Kimbo Slice. While reasoning with him of his conscience, right and wrong, and trying to reason with him about how there had to be a Creator of some sort, because something could never come from nothing. I asked him if he could be wrong, and he admitted that he could. After talking with him for about a half an hour, I gave him Mark Cahill's book "One Heartbeat Away." He said that he would definetely read it because he is always trying to learn. What was amazing was this guy who was very angry and didn't want to listen was humbled and admitted he could be wrong. Please pray for him that God will convict his sinfullness and the love of this world will not keep him from the amazing grace found in Jesus!

Saturday we went to the Champs Sports Bowl here in Orlando, and we did some open-air outside of the Citrus Bowl! Until the police told us to stop preaching where we were at and move down the street without amplification. Before we were stopped I would estimate 5-10 thousand people heard the Gospel or at least portions of the Gospel! Praise God! After we moved we got into a conversation with 2 guys who listened to the law and Gospel and promised to read the Mark Cahill book we gave them! Pray for Gameel and his friend that God will show them the truth of God's word and bring conviction of their sins! They also promised to read the book.

Saturday night we went downtown again and did more open-air! The first time I got up I said about 4 or 5 sentences when this gentleman stopped me and wanted to argue whether Jesus was a black man or not. He was very angryand wanted a fight, when a woman came up and said excuse me you mentioned that liars and thieves couldn't go to heaven who can? That is basically what she asked and the guy was like hold on im talking, and after trying to get away from an argument to a fruitful conversation, I told him if he wanted to continue the conversation he would have to wait because his conversation would take a long time! I started talking to the girl and her boyfriend about the reason of punishment for breaking the law, the evil in people's heart and the punishment of hell! I walked her threw the 10 Commandments and asked if she would be innocent or guilty, she said guilty! I then began to show her how the punishment for our sins was placed upon Jesus and the wrath of God was satisfied In what Jesus suffered on the Cross! She said she was agnostic but she appreciated everything that was said. She was very nice and humble and I gave her Mark's book and she promised she would read it. Please pray for Jess ansd her boyfriend!

I talked to another guy named Christian, who was a Catholic and thought he was good enought to go to heaven. I talked to him for about 30 minutes, reasoned with him about God's judgment, God's law, and how God could save us through the death of Jesus Christ! He thought he would go to purgatory, but after explaining how it was made up as a money making scheme for the priests, he said he heard that before and said that he would end up in hell. I gave him the book, with my phone number in it, and at 3 o'clock in the morning in which I was sleeping he called. He left a message that he wanted to get things right or something to that effect. I'm sure the conviction while he was partying got to him. He said he felt like we were Judas for leaving so early. I called him this morning but he didn't answer. Please pray for Christian that God would save his soul!

Thousand's this weekend heard the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ deserves all the glory!!!! Please pray for us that God would enable us to preach with even more boldness! Pray that more would join us in the harvest field! Pray that more souls get their pride knocked out and humbled before the Cross! And to you who read this please get out and preach the Gospel! There are countless souls waiting for you to be obedient to the Great Commission! Go while it is still today, 150,000 people die everyday!

I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me?

One of the greatest and greatly misused Scriptures in the modern Church is this declaration from the Apostle Paul to the Philippian Church. I have seen this Scripture under the eyes of a Heisman quarterback declaring in essence it was Christ who strengthened me to do better than you. I have seen this by a well-known champion boxer declaring he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him after he obliviotes some opponents face. I have seen this on a Ultimate Fighting Championships fighters website, in essence it was Christ who gave him strength to knock an opponent out or "choke" him out into submission. All these are gross misinterpretations of the Word of God, but a couple of Fridays ago I had to have witnessed the most disgusting and blasphemous interpretation of this powerful Scripture I have ever seen in my life!

We were in downtown Orlando evangelizing and passing out tracts, when I gave out 4 or 5 of my Giant $100 dollar tracts to a group of guys looking to party. After I gave it to them one of the group asked if I knew where a "strip club" was. I told him laughingly, "that is a Gospel tract I gave you." The shock of his face said it all, he was embarrassed to have asked such a question to someone sharing the good news, and probably felt a little guilt. I asked a probing question to get a response of him and one of his buddies, "What do you think happens to us after we die?" He and his buddy said I don't know. I said that is a scary place to be isn't it because 150,000 people die everyday! They both nodded their head in agreement. I began to walk them through the law of God when one of their friends, smoking a cigar and wearing sunglasses at night chimed in, "I know what happens after we die!" I said, "Oh yeah and what is that?" He said "This is what happens" and pointed to the back of his sweatshirt that said "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I shockingly said, "You are wearing that to a strip club?" Trying to keep my cool remembering obviously this guy is a false convert, he said "we're not going to a strip club." I told him, "your buddy just asked directions to one!" Just about then his other friends grabbed the ones I was talking to and told them they had to leave. I spoke to the first two and said please read that tract and take it to heart, you might not have tomorrow, and they said they would.

The audacity of the modern Gospel!!!! This man maybe not in word but in thought must have thought it was Christ's strength that empowered him to go to the strip club. It was Christ's strength to live a life of sin. Oh we need a great awaking in this country! Oh we need a voice crying in the wilderness make straight the paths of God! Oh we need prophets in this country with voices like trumpets that will alarm sleeping Christians and dead sinners! We have been crying out, Oh where is the Lord God of Elijah?" And God has been asking, "Where are the Elijahs of God?" We need a baptism of tears in the Church, to sew in tears and reap in joy! Sinners are going to hell by the second and we are worried about the state of the economy.

Oh God forgive me for my indifference to the lost you poured Your precious blood out for. Please forgive me for my indifference to the world around me. Please forgive me for my selfishness and pride. Please oh Lord wake us up! Please oh God do it for Your name's sake.

Letter to the Editor of the Orlando Sentinel

This is a letter that I wrote to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel,

Dear Editor,
First of all I would like to thank you for the time it takes to read every letter that comes across your desk.

My problem in why I am writing you is this, my Constitutional rights were trampled on this 4th of July by the city of Sanford and their police officers. First of all I want to premise by saying I am a veteran of our military and have fought for our rights in this wonderful country of ours. While exercising my freedom of speech at the 4th of July public celebration, we were abruptly stopped by some police officers, who told us to stop immediately. My friends and I are Christians and we made a casket with a mirror in it to show the reality of death, and to use it as a springboard to draw a crowd; nothing draws a crowd like a funeral; to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ from. We gave the stats to show the reality that we are all part of the ";Ultimate Statistic;"; 10 out of 10 die. We talked about how everyday 150,000 people die and face a holy God. We showed through God's law that none of us are good in His sight and our only hope is the grace and mercy of Jesus to save us. When the police stopped us and told us we couldn't preach at all any longer because people said we were threating them. We offered to show the police what was in our casket but they refused to look in it. We told them what we were doing, and they said well people feel threatened. We told them we were just giving the statistics of the reality of death to warn them they never know when it will be their time to face God. They said they didn't care and we couldn't do it any longer. After much time being harassed by the police and our threating the police with civil action for violating our Constitutional rights they reluctantly allowed us to continue preaching without a casket. We weren't causing any trouble and the police totally desecrated our ";Independence";and freedoms. We have video evidence if needed to show exactly what we said and the awful treatment we received from Sanford's finest. I told them that we didn't intend to scare anyone and let them know that any function we hear about on city property where there will be large masses of people we will continue to exercise our rights as citizens of the greatest nation in the world to share the greatest news people will ever hear of a God that loved us so much He sent His wonderful Son to die and to pay the awful price to satisfy God's justice. Thank you for your time and consideration

Confessions of a False Convert

This is my first official blog and while the writing may be harsh and the tone tough know this is all about what the truth of the Gospel is and what it is not.
For 16 years I thought of myself as a Christian and the truth is I did have some experiences with God, but I can't say with any certainty I had a saving experience with God. I never saw the depth of my sinfulness, of my own depravity, in the light of the absolute holiness of God. I never cried out be merciful to me a sinner. I did not see the King of Glory lifted up and cry out woe is me I am undone.

I came to the Lord, not as Lord of all, but as a modern Gospel presentation that said come to God and you will be happy, healthy and wealthy. It was all about what God wants to do for you, a Divine Butler in the sky here only to meet my needs, and as a 16 year old who had a tough upbringing the promise of happiness really made me excited. I was miserable and the joy promised was more than enough for me to "come just as I am." The excitement of being a Christian never lasted long and every time the "high" left I departed from the faith.

Sin was never hated only the effects of sin, i.e. it made me feel bad. A true love for God that laid down my life was never evident. There was always an escape clause, a way to get out of my "commitment" to the Lord. Don't get me wrong there were things that were better in my life, but there was never an overhaul of darkness to Light. I was just more comfortable in my sins but never saved from them. I was like a man on his death bed and taking pain medicine to ease the suffering, but never taking the pills that may be hard to swallow, that was able to heal me.

I thought the disease was cured in my life. I believed the Gospel. I said the "sinners" prayer many, many times. I was a happier person! I had a smile on my face! But I never came face to face with what the disease was. The disease was not MY happiness. The disease was not MY depression. The disease that separated me from an infinitely Holy and Just and Righteous God was MY extreme sinfulness! My violation of His Holy and Just law. Not only was I criminal in my actions but I enjoyed sinning against God, knowing that I was sinning against God! Not only were my actions wicked but in my heart I was so vile. Murder, adultery and everything wicked from the beginning of time was in my heart. The law of God never stripped me of my self-righteous and prideful heart, to cry like the men of old "what must I do to be saved?"

So how did I learn I was a false convert? I looked at the fruit of my life! A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. I looked and saw all the hypocrisy and wickedness I practiced. I kept on hearing the words of Jesus- Depart from Me I never knew you, you worker of lawlessness. I looked into the law and saw all the wickedness in my life and cried in desperation, oh God have mercy on me. And God forgave me and the pattern of my life is now ongoing holiness. And when I do fail there is no making excuses for my sins but repenting of them quickly.

Now you may be reading this and seeing your own life and now question what is the Gospel? The Gospel isn't about your happiness and your wealth. The Gospel is this we have sinned against an infinitely Holy God. We have violated His laws, the 10 commandments. Look at them and see how wicked you truly are in His sight. The punishment for breaking His laws is hell. God who not only is Holy but Loving at the same time, did not want to send anyone to hell so He sent His only Son to die in our place. The just for the unjust. We broke God's law and He paid our fine in His own blood. He suffered in our place and three days later He was raised from the dead! If you repent(turn from all known sin) and put your faith in Jesus Christ He will forgive you and grant you the gift of eternal life. He will give you a new heart and new desires, you will end up hating sin and loving God. If you refuse you will have to pay for your own crimes against God. It will take all eternity to pay for your crimes. Please take this to heart and repent and believe the Gospel today, you may not have tomorrow. Thank you for your time in reading this.