Even Kids Pass Out Tracts!

Meet Gabye. You might remember her from this post a while back. Well, she is still at it and passing out tracts like crazy all over town. Just the other night after our Friday church service I heard a wonderful message from the Word of God, with a great time of worship and then to top it off Gabye ran up to me with her big smile and said, "Look! I got a new tract purse!" Then she opened it up, as fast as she could, to show me all of her tracts inside, and I just about fell over--isn't she adorable!

A Call to Discernment--An Interview with Justin Peters

This video was one year in the making. Don't be disappointed...the editing isn't that great though. I did it myself. Just remember it's the content that counts. :-)

Thanks Jason Delgado for your help with filming this!

A new springboard for budding preachers

This past Saturday night the Sovereign Joy Evanglism Team went to the Southlake Town Square to preach the gospel. It was a great night for most of us.

Shortly after we arrived, an ambulance and fire truck pulled up on the scene and the crowd of individuals that were casually strolling down the sidewalk, with ice creams in hand, immediately scurried to see what the action was about.

That’s when our wonderful evangelism leader, Dennis Cain, jumped up on the soapbox and used a new movie, that will be released the end of this month, as a springboard for the gospel. Below is a basic account of what Dennis said last night. I thought it was so good that I wanted to provide it for you to use when you hit the streets.

I stood in the front of the crowd and was glued to every word that Dennis said...I think others were as well. Here's what Dennis said in a nutshell...

“A new movie will be released soon called “Drag Me To Hell.” The story is of a women who was cursed to be tormented for three days by a demon and then would be dragged to Hell for eternity. The tag line to the movie is “Even nice people go to Hell.”

Well, it's true. Nice people do go to Hell. 150,000 people die every day. You would consider most of these people to be nice and good. Some of the nicest people you've ever met will end up in Hell when they die.

What about you? Do you think you are a good person...good enough to get into Heaven when you die? The Bible says to examine yourself. This exam is a 10 question test known as the Ten Commandments.

How many lies have you told in your life? A person is called a liar who has told as many lies as you have. Have you ever taken anything that does not belong to you? A person that steals is called a thief. Have you ever taken God's name is vain? That is called blasphemy and God will not hold anyone blameless who misuses His name. If you ever had an improper sexual thought toward someone then Jesus says you are an adulterer at heart.

These are just four of the Ten Commandments. How did you do? God does not grade on a “good deeds” curve. Your “good” deeds do not give you any credit towards God favoritism. The test is pass/fail and you must score a perfect hundred to pass His test.

If you honestly examine yourself you know you are guilty of breaking God's laws. And if you are guilty, God, being just, cannot you let you into Heaven. He cannot allow liars, adulterers, thieves, and blasphemers in to Heaven and remain holy and just.

If a person wronged you and a judge let the person who wronged you off free without any penalty, you will cry foul and state that the judge was crooked. God's standard of justice is much more strict and he will see that justice is done for those who break His laws.

The Bible says that all liars will have their part in the Lake of Fire. Think of is like this. If you lie to a child, nothing can happen. If you lie to your spouse, they can get angry. If you lie to your boss, you can be fired. Lying to the Government is called treason and you can go to jail. You can be telling the same lie to each person. So it is not the size of the lie that gets you into trouble, it is the person you lie to that determines the punishment. When a person lies, God sees it as an infinite offense since He is infinite, without beginning or end.

God must send law breakers to Hell. But unlike the tag line in the “Drag me to Hell” movie, there will be no dragging. The law breakers will be cast into Hell. This casting will be like you tossing a wadded piece of paper into a waste basket. And it will not be a demon that does the casting into Hell but God Himself.

But you protest “God is Love”. That is true, God IS Love. He is 100% Love, but He is also 100% just, 100% pure, and 100% righteous. The Bible does not ever say God is love, love, love or kind, kind, kind. But the Bible says He is Holy, Holy, Holy and it is His Holiness, His perfection that is the reason you are in big trouble.

So, how do you balance God's 100% Love and 100% justice? 2000 years ago the Son of God came to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life; He willingly went to the cross. He willingly had sin placed upon Him. God's fierce wrath toward sin crushed Jesus on the cross.

Jesus died and was buried. Three days later he rose from the grave and was seen alive by over 500 people. He ascended into Heaven and will one day return to earth. You broke God's laws but Jesus paid your fine, your debt to God, for you in His own life's blood.

Please humble yourself before God. This means you repent of your multitude of sins. Forsake your sins, turn from your sins and yourself and turn toward God. Then trust in the person of Christ and receive His righteousness in exchange for your sin. If you repent, then you have been born again.

It will be the hardest thing you ever do in this life; to humble yourself before God. If you think you are a good person, then God will not save you. God resists the proud but give grace to the humble. This is why people, who think they are “good”, will go to Hell when they die. They have not humbled themselves to the point to realize they are not good at all but wicked and sinful in His sight. They compare themselves to each other and not to God who is the standard.

We are Christ’s ambassadors, as if God was pleading through us. We implore you on the behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. God made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might have the righteousness of God, in Christ.”

***Visit Dennis Cain's website where you can access past Way of the Master Radio archives (just scroll down and on the right look for "Way of the Master Radio Podcasts"). Thank you Dennis for making this available to us!***

Elevating Christ & the Mercy of God—Emilio Ramos

It brings me great joy to be able to share this short writing from my dear husband, Emilio Ramos (Teaching pastor at Sovereign Joy Community Church, Keller, TX). I hope you are encouraged by this as much as I was. Here's what Emilio writes:

I have been saturated in the virtue list of Galatians 5:22-25, these virtues stem from the fruit of the Spirit. Upon reflection I have noticed how many of these are mere reflections of God’s own character. Researching the kindness of God I came across its close relationship to God’s mercy. As I looked at how the mercy, kindness, and goodness of God were elevated and praised in the OT, I could not help but to make the consummate connection between Christ and all of this. God’s mercy is an inexpressible and unimaginable grace and gift of God.

God’s wrath is the greatest wrath. It is as Edward’s put it, “the wrath of a Being that is All Mighty”. One moment of reflection upon our own wickedness, one instant of retrospective thought toward our depravity and we should instantaneously see the mercy of God for what it is, exceedingly merciful.

In the word of God, mercy is a powerful thing. It shows us the nature of God. It shows what the world of men ought to be like. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). It helps us to see what we deserve in its place. Apart from the force field of God’s mercy we would be crushed into oblivion. Without God’s sustaining mercy toward us we would be ground to powder by the strength of His Justice and Wrath. God’s wrath is the greatest wrath. It is as Edward’s put it, “the wrath of a Being that is All Mighty”. Simply put, the mercy of God keeps us from utter destruction and eternal devastation. For this reason God’s mercy is exalted in the Word of God. It is spoken about from generation to generation. God’s mercy is acclaimed with praise because it is the cause of such great and everlasting joy. The Hebrew word for mercy is /hesed/, the NASB tends to translate this as “lovingkindness”.

One Psalm is sufficient to see just how precious this attribute of God has been to His people,

Psalm 136:
“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

To Him who made the great lights, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

The sun to rule by day, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

The moon and stars to rule by night, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And brought Israel out from their midst, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

To Him who smote great kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And slew mighty kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

Sihon, king of the Amorites, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And Og, king of Bashan, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And gave their land as a heritage, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

Even a heritage to Israel His servant, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Who remembered us in our low estate, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And has rescued us from our adversaries, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

Who gives food to all flesh, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the God of heaven, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Yet if we have not elevated Christ and the mercy of God, we have not elevated mercy because Christ is our only access to the everlasting mercy of God. Indeed all of God’s spiritual graces are poured out upon us “IN CHRIST”. He is central. His is essential. He is preeminent in all things least of which is not the way in which we receive the mercy of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” - Ephesians 1:3

From this great all inclusive phrase i.e. “in Christ”, Paul now begins to tell us what we have as a result of being in Christ. Election, Sanctification, Predestination, Adoption, Redemption, Forgiveness, Knowledge, Inheritance, and Preservation. God no longer relates with us on the basis of our own merits, deeds, or lack there off. God now sees us through the lens of being in His Son, in Christ. God is kind to us by virtue of the fact that we no longer are seeking to have a righteousness of our own but we now have God’s own righteousness because we have been found in Christ and that by faith.

“so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” - Ephesians 2:7

“and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,” - Philippians 3:9

For this reason it is all in Christ. This is why Christ is right at the heart of it all. Based upon Christ’s merits, Christ’s righteousness, and God’s commitment to show His Son love, mercy, kindness, gentleness, patience, goodness and any other God emanating virtue we can conceive, we have these joy producing blessings “in Christ” and in Christ alone.

Solus Christus!

Pastor Emilio Ramos

The Youngest Evangelist at Sovereign Joy--so adorable...

Meet Gabye (pronounced like "Gabby")

Gabye passes out the million dollar tract...

...she's my new best friend :-)

GOD Centered Preaching!

Looking For a Solid Church?

I would like to tell you about my home church, Sovereign Joy Community Church

At Sovereign Joy Community Church (SJCC) the Word of Almighty God takes precedence. Above all else SJCC believes in the supremacy of rightly dividing the Word of truth through expository proclamation. In an age of uncertainty, skepticism, and easy-believism, SJCC is committed to displaying the glory of God through the Word of God being preached and applied. SJCC is unique in its equal emphasis upon heartfelt, God-centered worship and praise. SJCC takes all of their vision for preaching, theology, and worship and applies it to practical outreach by evangelizing the lost on a regular basis.

If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and are looking for a solid church that teaches the Word of God expositionally, has a high view of worship, and reaches out to the lost. Come visit Sovereign Joy Community Church. Visit HERE for more information!