Aug 02 2010
1 Comment
Baptism, San Francisco Ministry Plant, Update

Another College Student Baptism at Lake Merced – Monica

Airiel and I have enjoyed getting to know Monica over the past few months.

She and I have had some great studies, and yesterday she gave her life to Christ!

It’s wonderful to be part of a church that’s impacting the lives of people.

A good chunk of our congregation was able to show up for Monica’s baptism, and it was hugs all around afterward.

One of the neat things about the Lake Merced Church is the sense of family that’s present … new people can plug in quickly. Monica felt that, and others have as well.

Congrats to Monica – we’re all proud of you!

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Aug 01 2010
3 Comments
Apologetics, Sermons, Teaching, Theology

Lessons on what NOT to do from the life of Saul

1 Samuel 15:1-3
1 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD.
2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'”

The above is a Scripture some who oppose Christianity point to in order to illustrate the “meanness” that exists within the Christian God. I admit – this command to wipe out the Amalekites is pretty tough.

Saul, Israel’s first king, was commanded by God to completely wipe out the Amalekites from the face of the earth in retribution for their attacking Israel in Exodus 17. This including killing “men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys” – everything. That’s really tough.

And Saul obeyed God … sort of. Actually he only carried out part of God’s command – the part that made sense to him. The rest I guess he determined God had been mistaken about, and he decided to disobey.

In the end, Saul paid for it dearly. A valuable lesson is learned therein.

There are a few fundamental questions dealt with in this lesson:

  1. Is God good, just, and righteous? How could He be when He commands one group of people to completely wipe out another?
  2. How does God view partial obedience?
  3. What are the consequences of partial obedience?

If this lesson on 1 Samuel 15 sounds interesting to you, listen here:

For more, visit westcoastwitness.com’s Sermon Archive.

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Aug 01 2010
1 Comment
Prayer Requests

Prayers for Marvin Crowson & Anna Wolfe

I received word this morning that my dear friend and mentor Marvin Crowson was in a bad car accident yesterday evening along with his granddaughter while travelling through New Mexico.

I’m not sure of the details, but Marvin rolled his truck four times and he and Anna had to be cut out of the wreckage.

Both are in serious condition at a hospital in Albuquerque; the doctors are saying they’ll be okay, but both have serious injuries to recover from. What’s worse, Marvin just had surgery a few weeks ago to install a pacemaker and defibrillator on his heart and is still recovering from that. He was pretty sore before this crash.

You can get details and updates on Marvin and Anna’s condition at Murphy Crowson’s blog here (Murphy – thank you for keeping us all updated).

I spent most of last week with Marvin – many hours driving with him in a car from Arkansas to Oklahoma and back. I love this man and his family a lot, and I know they will all appreciate your prayers as will I.

Please lift Marvin and Anna up.

Thank you.

For those of you who don’t know Marvin – he’s on staff as the Domestic Missionary in Residence at Harding University, is the director of an organization called OutReach America (which connected me to the church I’m working with here in San Francisco), and serves on the board of Campus Ministry United. He and I have worked closely together on projects for many years now. Marvin also regularly comments on this blog.

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