Bringing Scripture to Life

Back in 2005, my wife and I were blessed to go on an all expense paid Trip to Israel with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and Horizon C.F. and one of the places we went to visit was the Holocaust Museum, in Israel. This was a very sobering experience to say the least. When you arrive at the Museum, there is a large cafeteria that you have to go through before you go into the actual museum itself. Because we were there with well over 300 people from our 2 churches the lines through the Cafeteria were very long. While my wife and I were in line waiting to order our lunch, I was talking to one of the other Assistant Pastors that I worked with, and Lyndsey was talking to some of the ladies from our church. I was ahead of Lyndsey in the line due to the fact that the group of women she was talking to was behind us in line. And at one point, the ladies must have been talking intently, not realizing that the line had moved up a few feet, which left a gap between them and us. I...

Witnessing to a Buddhist While serving at a church in San Diego, I had befriended a young Asian man who was a Buddhist. He worked at one of the local restaurants nearby the church and we would see each other on a regular basis. Whenever I saw Biz I was very purposeful in how I used our time together. I would ask lots of questions in order to get to know him. I would talk to him about his family, life in America, and his dreams for the future. One day our conversation naturally shifted over to “religious” stuff, because he mentioned to me that even though he was a Buddhist, his wife was actually raised Catholic. I remember thinking to myself this was the moment I had been waiting for, s o I asked him a simple question. I asked him what he believed would happen to us when our life was over. He said he believed we would possibly be reincarnated. After dialoguing with him for a while longer I found out that even though he is not a Christian, he believes that Jesus was ...

WHAT THE TELEPHONE COMPANY TAUGHT ME I actually came to know Jesus while working at Pacific Bell Telephone company back in the 90's. One of the things that I learned at Pacific Bell Telephone Company that is a very helpful tool for doing the work of an evangelist, is scripts. I stopped working at the phone company back in 2002, and I still remember the script they had me read from. Whenever I received an incoming phone call I would say, "Thank you for calling Pacific Bell. My name is Jason. How can I provide you with excellent customer service?" I can say it today with just as much oomph as I did way back when I worked there. Why? Because I memorized it, and it became a part of who I was, and now it is permanently inscribed on my heart. This idea of scripting is not some robotic reciting of certain words and phrases. It is a time-tested proven method for memorizing key words and phrases of any given subject, in order to help us become familiar with, a...

The reason it is important to grow in our effectiveness as communicators is so that we will not be as intimidated in sharing our faith with others. Knowing what we are talking about, and having confidence in how we are communicating that message is a huge benefit for us when dialoguing with others about Jesus. Charles Spurgeon said, “We must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task until it becomes easy.” The reason we are to not excuse ourselves from training ourselves to communicate with the unconverted is because once we put in the time to train ourselves, it will become easy for us!  In addition to this, another reason we should strive to be effective in our communication, is so that those we do share the gospel with will want to listen to what we have to say; and in turn they will in most cases take us more seriously. This is something I have personally experi...

What does the Bible say about the Great Commission?  The Bible says that the primary focus of the Christian church is to proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ has come to rescue us (John 3:16). For those who turn to Jesus for salvation, the church is called to invest in them so that they too become fruitful followers themselves, and in turn these new believers are to repeat the process of reaching the lost and help those that are reached become disciples as well (Matthew 28:18-20).

   As a pastor, one of the things I believe every pastor hopes and prays for is that every member of the Body of Christ would regularly and openly share the gospel with others. A shepherd cannot reproduce sheep, but only lead them to food and water to keep them nourished and healthy. But ultimately, it is the sheep that must reproduce sheep. In other words, in order for any flock to grow, the sheep must be the ones producing other sheep.    The reason I bring this up is because I think I may have come up with a solution to help get the Body of Christ to begin sharing their faith. I was inspired by something I read this past Sunday at church.  This past Sunday our church was studying Mark 7, where at the end of the chapter Jesus encounters a deaf and mute man, and then heals him. After healing this helpless man the Bible says, "Then Jesus commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it."  ...

The Bible encourages us to "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2). The other day I took my wife Lyndsey out on a date to a family friendly movie. While we were at the movies I went to get us some refreshments. One of my absolute favorite foods in the world are Nachos with extra cheese from the Movie Theaters, and so this is what I was longing to have. While I was waiting in a very long and crowded line, I began to soon understand that the food that I was primarily sent to the refreshment stand for, was not my long-desired Nachos, but instead, my food was to do the will of God, and to sow where it didn't appear anyone had been laboring yet. You see, standing behind me were these two teenage boys. While I was standing in line admiring the beautiful picture of Nachos on the Menu at the counter, I overheard one of the young men say, "J.... C.....". Anytime I ever here som...