Fall Newsletter – November 2010

Dear Friends in Christ

This has been the most splendid last several months. As you know I have been on the road since last September with brief stops back here at home base in Sacramento, California. You can see what the Lord did city by city by clicking one of the tabs on the top of this page.

Health & Praise

The Lord has given me the strength I need to preach the Gospel in the cities I have been to. I have had some success now in weight loss by changing my diet towards a healthier one. The Lord has given me this desire and helped me with self control. My recent lab results showed my cholesterol to be down to very excellent levels. I had an A1C (a test that shows blood glucose levels over the duration of several months) and it showed a 5.7 which is very good, especially when my last test was a 9.3. The doctor said he never saw such a drastic reduction. I really think the breakthrough is the Lord’s doing. I had several people come up to me on the streets and want to pray for my health. This came unprompted by me. Those prayers are being answered.

The Virgin Birth

As it approaches the Christmas season and we think of the birth of Jesus Christ, it is an excellent time to reflect on one of the many important doctrines of the faith – The virgin birth. This miracle is fascinating. There are so many aspects to this subject; it deserves much more time than I can give in this newsletter. What I will do is bring up a few points for you to consider and then you can look into it for further study. Personally I will also study the virgin birth so I can give a better discourse on the street regarding the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The Seed of the Woman – Back in Genesis after Adam & Eve sinned resulting in God’s curse and what we call the “fall of man” we see in Gen. 3:15 the remedy. God’s promise to conquer the serpent through the Seed of the woman, this was speaking of the coming Messiah. Any good biology student knows that the man has the seed and the woman the egg. Looking in the new testament we see that Christ was born without sin. Jesus in order to become a human being had to be born, yet without sin. Because Jesus had no earthly father He did not inherit the sinful nature found in Adam. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived without having sexual relations with a man. Jesus was born from God because He was God. This is very deep when you ponder it. If it were possible, and it’s not, that through genetic engineering one could come up with an egg that produced offspring without the sperm. It would always produce a female because of the chromosome makeup. Yes the virgin birth was a miracle or sign, and God’s Word tells us that it is.

This Will be a Sign – Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 Some critics say that the word virgin here could mean just a young maiden. This would not make sense however because what great sign would that be if just another young maiden had a baby. Women have babies everyday. No, on the contrary this is a sign or miracle. The Lord came to this planet in a unique, miraculous, and fabulous way. Just as you would expect God to do, and yet He came humbly and virtually quietly as well. He came through the birth canal like me and you and lived under the curse; He hungered, got weary, grieved, and cried at the loss of a friend. On the cross He cried out, “I thirst”. He died our death and became a curse for us. Won’t you live for Him today?

Fruit of the Month (or Season)

On my recent trip to San Francisco; Eric the Pastor of Calvary Road Christian Fellowship, Sergio, and me were preaching at Fisherman’s Wharf after Church. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people as usual. Toward the end of our time out there a young woman came up and was visiting with Eric and Sergio. I was just finishing my preaching session and only heard that she was from Seattle. Her name is Devon and as it turns out she is from Kent, Washington and attended Victory Life Center where a good friend of mine is one of the pastors. Devon is attending the Urban School of Missions in Oakland. She has been down here about one year and is involved in many evangelistic events. Eric asked her if she wanted to share her testimony on the microphone and she agreed. She did very well and was encouraged that we were out sharing the faith. There was another young man with her and we all had a great prayer together before going our separate ways. It is good to see others out witnessing and especially the younger generation. The Lord seems to qualify those He calls. Devon mentioned that her parents were not too thrilled about her moving to Oakland, but agreed in the end that it is the Lord’s will. My friend up in Kent, Rich Dover, had a great impact on her and helped equip her for this time in her life. I told him about the encounter and he said that he figured we would eventually run into each other. Well San Francisco is a big city, however when it comes to the Lord’s work, well like brother Andrew says, “I’ll see you out there!”