2010-01-07 (Permalink)

About eleven months ago I believe the Lord spoke to me to begin holding Sunday evening evangelistic services somewhere in the New Orleans metro area. At the time, I had been broadcasting for a little over two years on WSHO 800 AM on Sunday mornings, and felt that founding a church dedicated to preaching sound doctrine would be a natural progression for my ministry here in the city.

After a year of prayer, God has made it possible for me to begin conducting a weekly service on Sunday evenings. I know a good number of people that listen to the radio program faithfully, so I'm confident that these meetings will be well-received, especially since very few churches here have service on Sunday evening anymore. I believe that the Lord is blessing the ministry, so perhaps we can fill a void on Sunday night.

The name of the work is Old Paths Tabernacle, which of course is from Jeremiah 6:16. The church has a website and is on Facebook.

It's my intention to continue to preach sound doctrine and to believe God for a move of His Spirit. Christ is the answer for the problems that men face today, of that I am convinced. Please pray with me that He will use this outreach to win many souls, and to comfort, strengthen and encourage the hearts of believers in New Orleans.

2009-11-28 (Permalink)

Revelation chapter one sets the tone here, by presenting the person of Jesus. Surely the title of that book is "the revelation of Jesus Christ", and while the book talks of horsemen, bowl, seals and whatnot, the emphasis is on Christ, not tribulation nor the Antichrist. The book closes out with the return of Jesus to the earth to set up His kingdom which will last forever.

Likewise, the book of Daniel presents Jesus Christ. Starting in chapter 2, we see the kingdoms of this world, beginning with Babylon and culminating with the reign of the Antichrist, but the stone from heaven that "was cut out of the mountain without hands" (Dan. 2:45) struck the feet and toes of the image (which symbolize the Antichrist's kingdom), destroying the entire image. Christ will soon and one day return, and all nations and kingdoms will bow to Him. Jesus is Lord, and none will stand before Him. Throughout the rest of Daniel, and indeed in every prophetic and non-prophetic book of both testaments, Christ is magnified as Lord.

In chapter 10 Daniel is told, "now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days" (Dan 10:14), demonstrating that God cares for and ministers to His people. While earthly kingdoms and the works of Satan are foretold, God's eye is upon His people, and the visions and dreams given to Daniel show him and us that regardless of circumstances and tribulations to come, God is on the side of His children, and when Jesus returns God will say that "the tabernacle of God is with men" (Rev. 21:3).

My sermon was recorded at Algiers Assembly of God here in New Orleans one week prior to its airing. You can listen to the podcast if you like. The singing and horrible piano playing at the end is yours truly.

2008-07-03 (Permalink)

My program is on WHSO in New Orleans each Sunday, but if you're not unlucky enough to live in the Big Floody, I've posted podcasts on my site, should you care to listen to any of my sermons. I've gotten quite a bit of encouragement from some of the locals that listen to my show, apparently faithfully.

I've been teaching from the Old Testament since January. I've had a burden for probably 20 years to teach through the historical books, finding the types that point to Christ and feeding the people along the way. Hopefully I'll be able to save my notes and fill out my typology lessons, neglected these long years.

2006-08-13 (Permalink)

My wife and I spent Christmas this year near Salt Lake City, visiting her sister who moved there several years ago after getting tired of being repeatedly mugged in her front yard in Lakeview, New Orleans. I had been wishing for an actual white Christmas ever since I was a kid, but the day we arrived a heat wave struck the region and we saw exactly zero snow, except for the one afternoon that we drove up the mountain to play for a few hours. Other than the lack of snow, a good time was had by most.

At my wife's insistance, we visited a local church in Sandy on Christmas eve. I normally do not enjoy visiting random churches, but they were having only a 30-minute service, so I went along with her, actually driving her there. They sang Christmas carols mostly, and the pastor gave a 5-minute sermonette. He preached on reincarnation, which certainly alarmed me. He made a joke about locking the church doors in case anyone had a mind to leave due to the presentation of false doctrine. He then explained that he was borrowing the term and didn't actually believe in that devilish doctrine, but his next remarks didn't calm my fears all that much. He claimed that Jesus was incarnated, or became flesh and tabernacled with men --- so far, so good. However, he then mumbled something about His disciples through the ages, when sharing the gospel, were supposedly a reincarnation of Christ. If he had left off the bit about reincarnation and stuck to the premise that we as believers were mandated to carry on the work of the ministry, thus perpetuating the kingdom of God here on Earth, I would have given him a hearty amen. Sadly, he did not.

The next morning, after everyone had finished opening presents, Cindy decided to attend the morning service at the church. When she returned, she said that the pastor had lifted the conversion event from the Grinch story as a way of describing the change that occurs when a sinner turns to Christ. Apparently this pastor cannot explain the bible without resorting to false religions and Dr. Seuss. Presumably he also leans on other devices such as psychology, knitting and baseball statistics. Thankfully my trip did not extend long enough to attend his church a sufficient length of time in order to ascertain the exhaustive list of his comparisons.

The prophets and apostles warned of those that would preach other messages in our pulpits. While I am not ready to label Sieg Krueger a false teacher, I have great difficulty accepting as a fellow minister someone who cannot explain the scriptures from the scriptures. Martin Luther's exhortation was sola scriptura (only the bible), and while every preacher uses analogies and other methods to make the gospel plain, Krueger seems to demonstrate a lack of separation from the world and an irreverence for the Lord and His word. How can the Spirit of God work in an atmosphere where the bible is not held up as the absolute authority and guide for every man? I feel sorry for that pastor's parishoners, for they are certainly being robbed of an opportunity to hear the gospel preached in sincerity, purity and power.

Mountain View Christian Assembly is not alone in watering down the gospel. We are in the last days, and the bible gives us sufficient warning about the great apostasy that will deceive many before the Lord's return. What saddens me is that Mountain View Christian Assembly belongs to a denomination that was born out of that great outpouring of the Spirit of God known as the Asuza Street Revival, an event which sparked a great missionary effort that saw millions of souls saved worldwide.

I am greatly concerned for the pentecostal movement. They've lost their way of late, their power is gone, and they've even resorted to leaning on Benny Hinn, that bulwark of sound doctrine, in an effort to somehow remain relevant in the postmodern age. Other full-gospel denominations and fellowships are little better, by and large.

All is not lost, for God has "reserved unto Himself 7,000 (preachers) that have not bowed their knee to the image of Baal". The true gospel will be preached in faith, and the lost gathered in, "before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come". It is my prayer that I am counted worthy to labor in the Lord's vineyard and to drink with Him when He returns.

2006-02-07 (Permalink)

Paul said that he knew how to be rich and comfortable, and he knew how to be poor and in want (Phil. 4.11-13). I too know how to be, well, not exactly rich, but I know how to be comfortable in the greatest and most prosperous nation the world's ever seen. I own my own computer consulting business, I live in one of the most well-off neighborhoods in unflooded New Orleans, I eat Japanese food at least once a week, my wife and I both have serviceable vehicles... in all, I live a comfortable life.

However, I also know how to be poor, both during my missionary travels and here at home before I fought my way into my current technical field. I've taken cold baths by the side of a gallon bucket in Haiti and eaten food from roadside carts that wasn't fit to give to a dog. I've also gone hungry, suffered grave illness and been shot at by a murderous band of political thugs while ministering there.

I must confess that I like my current lifestyle very much. I am quite comfortable playing the role of a 21st-century conservative American. There's a nagging little voice that I can't seem to get away from, though, that speaks to me while I'm watching television, or reading a book, or researching on the web, and happen to stumble across a scene or description of other lands or people groups. This little voice keeps reminding me of my other "comfort zone", the one that is happy to live among those that don't have any of the modern conveniences we take for granted in the western world. Sometimes I'll be shopping, or driving to a client's location, or doing some other random activity, and a burden for lost souls will come upon me, reducing me to tears. Truly I would be just as happy preaching the gospel in the third world than living here at home, or maybe even happier. I know that sounds completely stupid and insane to most of my readers, but it's the truth.

There is great honor in giving up one's friends, family, wealth and way of life in order to live among and serve those that are far worse off than ourselves. Jesus did it, as did Paul and most of the Apostles. Missionaries of today still forsake all to follow Jesus in some remote corner of the world. I know how they feel, at least in part, because I have been to these places, I've suffered, and I definitely feel the call of God upon my life in this regard.

I am ready to make that kind of decision and sacrifice. I very nearly moved to Haiti during the embargo, right before the US invasion in 1994, in fact. I am willing to go there, or to Central America, or to the ex-Soviet Baltic States, or anywhere else the Lord might lead me. I am also content to stay here in America, as the Lord wills, but you can be sure that I'll never forget the people in poor countries, and I doubt that that little voice will ever stop whispering to me.

2005-06-18 (Permalink)

While googling to see if Preach The Word Weblog had been indexed yet, I stumbled across this post where the blogger complains about a comment I left on Real Live Preacher's blog, dated December 28, 2002. I vaguely remember answering the "Preacher" after someone posted a link to that blog on irc.

Ok, so he thinks I'm a fool. Yet who's the greater fool? Christ says I'm to rejoice, knowing that my name is written down in heaven. Modern or post-modern rejection of the substance of biblical teaching can only lead to destruction. I know, I know, I'm doing it again, I'm "judging" bible punters. I'll stop now.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water --- Jeremiah 2.13

2005-06-09 (Permalink)

I still have my old Slashdot one around, but will probably reserve that one for technical issues, or retire it altogether. This one is dedicated to ministry-related stuff. Also, my scratchpad is still active, and gives me a place to jot down notes on various projects I happen to be working on at any given moment.

The scratchpad wiki also has some ministry-related pages on it, and is interactive, after a fashion. The theology section is still rather incomplete, but hopefully I'll get around to filling in the gaps.

If you're interested in the software that I'm using, I wrote it from scratch in PHP, with a MySQL backend, using a few tools I had previously written for other apps.