San Jose State University

We preached two days in beautiful San Jose, though it was a difficult campus to preach on. Crowds drew of up to 30, and we had several great one on ones. In California, the number of atheists outnumber the number of Christians by far. Many students came to hear the Word preached that did not know God nor the things of God.


Below is a short video taken from the preaching at San Jose. I take one student through the Law using the Ten Commandments, and then answer about the classic "death bed repentance":



"And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent." (Luke 4:43)

SJSU was yet another campus that heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached this last semester. Glory to God! May the Lord use our feeble endeavors to do great things for His Kingdom in the earth. Amen.

University of California, Santa Cruz

Dear saints,

Our stay at UCSC was short and sharp. The campus is a beautiful one, spread out upon a vast landscape of forests, farms and hills, which made it difficult to find a good central location to preach the Word of God. The Student Union was located in a steep valley, and when we arrived we weren't sure how many people would be around to listen, however, Evan began to preach and instantaneously there formed a crowd of about 40 students.

Evan was doing a sound job of exalting the righteousness of God, yet around us many students were exhibiting terribly lewd behavior. Two girls set up a table behind us to give away condoms, and they kept shouting over Evan: "Free condoms, .25 cents!" It was so awful to hear everyone cheer and applaud them while Evan was preaching the suffering of Jesus on the cross. We were being mocked intensely; some students ran up to Miles and I and threw condoms in our faces. Two other girls began kissing in the middle of the crowd. Even the professors were cursing us.

Then all of a sudden, out of the crowd an angry student approached Evan and violently kicked over our briefcase. Immediately the police jumped in, and rather than subdue the crowd or stop the attacker, told us to leave campus or else we would suffer consequences. The entire situation was against us. I don't think one person wanted to hear the Bible being preached. When we had no other choice, we left campus. The crowd clapped and cheered as we walked through them.

"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet." (Matthew 10:14)

It was very sad to leave, but it was even sadder to see the students reject the very God who gave them everything that they have. Jesus shed His precious blood for these dear people! Father forgive them!

Please pray for those at UC Santa Cruz who so fiercely opposed the gospel. May their hearts be softened, may their ears be opened, and may the light of God shine into their poor darkened lives.

God bless my dear friends. Yours in the service of Jesus,
-Eli


"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

San Francisco State University

We preached one rainy day at San Francisco State and drew a small crowd at the free speech arena. A brother from the local church we were attending came out as well and open air preached; he also had a one and one with a young man who gave his heart to the Lord! San Francisco is an extremely liberal city and full of immorality, but the Gospel still was proclaimed boldly and people did stop to hear.

"A sower went out to sow his seed..." (Luke 8:5)

Cal. Berkeley

Cal. Berkeley has a famous history of being one of the most liberal and controversial schools in the country, harboring both the Black Panthers and the Hell's Angels during the anti-war years of the 1960's and 70's. Also famous at Berkeley was a dear brother named Hubert Lindsey, who during those turbulent years preached every day in front of Sproul Hall by Sather Gate in the middle of campus. Hubert received over 100 beatings his first year of preaching, and eventually went blind because of them. The Lord supernaturally healed brother Hubert and he continued to preach faithfully to the roughest bunch of people in the whole country. He was stabbed and shot and beaten near to death, but the testimony students remember of him was that he loved them with the love of Christ despite all of it. Hubert eventually went blind again but continued to preach, and so many people were saved because of him that he is considered the father of the Jesus Movement. Billy Graham was also saved because of the preaching of brother Hubert. For more on brother Lindsey, click here.

Therefore it was great honor for us to preach at Berkeley in the place where Hubert preached. The day we arrived it was pouring rain, but regardless, we still were able to draw a crowd and have one of the best meetings we've seen so far. The whole day students were civil, had great questions, and were interested in hearing what we had to say. Many of them stayed for hours and hours.


We probably covered every topic under the sun with these students! One lady came up to us during the meeting and said, "You guys have revived my faith." Another young man took a Bible and left, but later came back and gave Evan a great big hug! Two Muslim students stepped into the middle of the crowd and objected to the preaching of Christ, but it wasn't long at all before the truth of the matter became clear and even they conceded when I preached about the folly of Muhammad and the divinity of Jesus! Throughout the whole day we saw many mouths stopped before the perfect wisdom of God. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3:19) Glory to God!

Here is a video available from Cal. Berkeley. Click below:

Judas or Jesus

I thank God for the fruit we've been seeing already this semester. Our sincere desire is to see the pure gospel of Jesus Christ preached on every campus we go to, and to see many souls reconciled to God through the precious blood of Christ. Please continue to pray for us as we carry out the great commission. Thank you to all for your dear prayers and support. May God bless you.

Yours in service to Christ,
-Eli

The Incarnation of Christ

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1-2, 14)

God Almighty is supreme above of all things. The totality of His essence knows no man. He is the Alpha and the Omega; neither reproduced nor reproducible, neither mimicked nor matched, for there is none like Him in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth. His glory consumes all earthly glory and His beauty eclipses all carnal beauty. His righteousness is the standard of all righteousness, and by His sovereign judgments is the nature of justice understood. The knowledge which He possesses is not subject to boundary, for He Himself is the basis of all knowledge. There is neither word nor words that can perfectly describe who He is though all human languages were to collectively try and define His infinite Being. Therefore He has providentially declared Himself that title: I AM THAT I AM, and also: JESUS, that name that is above every name; and we wonder in awe.

It is a profound mystery, then, that the Lord of glory should become a man; a divine oddity that the Immortal should be clothed in flesh. Who can grasp its implications? We fumble within our inadequate understanding, but oh the majesty of even our lean knowledge of the incarnation of God; the first great exploit of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


CHRIST’S SACRIFICE RESOLVED

It is necessary in our learning about the redemptive work of Christ to begin with the very first act of divine grace shown towards men, an act which occurred outside the realm of carnal experience… unseen by men, yes, unseen by angels as well… before the heavens and the earth were spoken into existence; in that state of timelessness, when all that was, was God. A decision was made by the One who sees the end from the beginning: for before the foundation of the world, God, knowing the outcome of rebellious creation, knowing the fall of Satan, knowing the deception of Eve, knowing the sin of Adam, knowing the murder of Abel; God, knowing the sin of Ham, knowing the tower of Babel, knowing the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah: God, knowing and approving that the wages of sin is death, chose before the foundation of the world to reconcile fallen man back to Himself by His own death on the cross at Calvary. “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) Oh, what glory! Christ, with the costliness of creation laid bare before Him… He, being entirely justified in 1) sentencing those wicked, abominable, guilty criminals to the damnation they so rightly deserve, or in 2) not creating the world at all, but casting aside such an unsuccessful conception; God, out of the unfathomable greatness and riches of His love chose yet another option: to redeem those miserable sinners again unto Himself, for nothing but Himself, and by none other than Himself.

On what grounds then? Human worthiness? No! But by sheer grace did He save us. At what cost? By His own precious body and blood. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:18-20)

Oh, the wisdom of God! What natural man would make such an investment? “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20) How Jesus did count the cost of redemption; how He knew what was required for the souls of men! Our Lord steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem long before His triumphal entry. Can you see Him saying to His Father: “Yes, I am willing”? What love and determination of Christ! What an Alpha! He resolved to be our sacrifice from before the world began. Yes, truly all Heaven declares: Worthy is the Lamb.


THE MAJESTY OF CHRIST’S HUMILITY

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Now here we find a most magnificent peculiarity: that the Son, being the very form of God and having endless glory, power and honor with His Father before the world began, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant. But what does it mean, that He made Himself of no reputation? Why, it is answered in the following text, “And was made in the likeness of men.” Imagine! The likeness of men being equated without reputation? This is a difficult medicine for the pride of man to swallow, but Scripture tells us that He was made “a little lower than the angels.” (Hebrews 2:9) And not only was He made lower than the angels, into the restrictive flesh of weak and mortal man, but after being found in the fashion of man, He furthermore “humbled Himself”! What? Should not the infinite God, when compressed into the confines of a finite body, receive praise and glory and worship from His very own handiwork? Should not the creatures fall at the incarnate feet of the their King and Creator, the Lord of glory? But look! We find our beloved Savior washing the feet of the very ones who pierced His feet; we see Jesus pinned upon the tree while His own creation mocks the very One who gave them the breath to do it! We hear our God cry, “I thirst!”, and the One who causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust is offered vinegar to sate His burning tongue! Vile treachery! Brazen mutiny! But oh, our Lord did so willingly… He "opened not His mouth…" (Isaiah 53:7), “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not...” (1 Peter 2:23), for “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.” (Acts 8:32) It is here that the beauty of God is manifested. In Christ’s humility we see His majesty.

“He that is least among you all, the same shall be great.” (Luke 9:48) What glory, then, in the Immortal humbling Himself in this fashion! What an example! What a sacrifice! How contrary to human wisdom. Even the disciples of our Lord imagined the Messiah would come as a conquering warrior and establish the kingdom of Israel by force. What an antithesis that He should be born in a cattle stall, unto a carpenter’s occupation, unknown for most of His life, to finally appear riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and lastly to be rejected, scorned and beaten, hung naked upon a cross, numbered with the transgressors and surrendered over to a borrowed grave. Oh, the humility of Jesus that makes the great men of earth as nothing; their strength as weakness; their wisdom as foolishness; their riches as dung.


GOD'S LOVE PROVED

"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." (2 Corinthians 5:19)

It was needful for us that Christ should come and save us. Oh, where would we be without that blessed incarnation, had Christ chosen not to condescend upon our sinful plane?

In lovingkindness Jesus came
My soul in mercy to reclaim,
And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace He lifted me.

Praise God! The proof of God’s love toward men is Jesus Christ in the flesh. He is the overwhelming evidence of God’s love! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16) It is not solely the death of Christ that reveals God’s great love for us, no, but from every direction that we look upon Jesus we shall see the love of God resplendent. Oh, the love of God! “That ye may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.” (Ephesians 3:18) It was the unfailing, unrelenting, indomitable, undeserved love of God that sent Christ into the world to save sinners.

Hallelujah to the incarnate Son of God!

Santa Rosa Junior College

"I got born again today", a young man from Santa Rosa Junior College said to us as we were leaving the campus the last day of preaching. Like this, we saw wonderful fruit after two days of labouring on this college in northern California, which was a real encouragement after the last campus in Fresno. Praise God!

I began preaching when we first arrived and immediately there was a crowd that gathered to hear what was being proclaimed. Everything was very civil and a lot of good questions were being asked... even the Bible professor of the college attended our meeting. We could see clearly that he was doing a great disservice to the Kingdom of God by teaching the students that the Bible was not the Word of the living God, but simply mythological tales. Many students had been influenced by his teaching, so there was a lot of apologetics that were needed to reestablish the authenticity of the Scriptures. It was obvious that Bible could withstand all scrutiny, but mere apologetics can in no way soften a hardened heart.

One young man named Brady opposed and objected against what was being preached, but afterwards followed us as we were leaving and wanted to talk more about Jesus. It was amazing to see a visible change of heart in him; his eyes grew wide as he said, "Maybe my Christian uncle has been right all along!" Brady thanked us and eagerly took a new Bible. Some Christians on campus saw this and decided to have us sponsored to return the next day.

Brother Paul Kaiser of 'Reformed Evangelist' speaking with students at the end of the day.

Paul joined up with us the first day to preach and to do an interview with us for his website, www.reformedevangelist.com. After the interview, the Bible professor and a following of his students came out to challenge us, and so we talked with them long into the evening, even after it got dark.


The following day it was raining, but even under umbrellas we gathered large crowds and had an excellent meeting. Since we were sponsored, the college allowed us to use their free speech podium which they call "Hyde Park", based on the famous Hyde Park in England. It was an awesome time of strong, clear, unashamed Bible preaching. It was a great blessing to see people come under conviction and others receive a real touch from the Lord.

"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, dear saints. May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering! May Jesus Christ be lifted up that all men might be drawn unto Him. God bless.

Sonoma State University

Evan shook Sonoma State for a good half hour before being shut down by the police, but a dear brother in the Lord who was with us captured most of it on video. Brother Evan lifted up the standard of Gospel of Jesus Christ boldly and powerfully. Watch the video here.

Fresno City College

Fresno is known for being one of the roughest cities in California, and our experience there only proved this assessment to be true. There's really only one word I can think of to describe our day spent at the City College: madness.

While Evan decided to sit out this one, Miles and I (accompanied with brother Steven Barry), drove to the college in the heart of the inner city. After choosing our spot in the center of campus, we waited until the class change began then ripped open the banner and started preaching. It didn't take Miles one minute before he had a crowd amassed around him, and the chaos slowly began.

The first wave of attack consisted of the "we're up-to-no-good" crowd; the sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll guys who sadly don't exercise their brains enough. Their objections come in the form of: "Jesus made wine!" and "God made weed!" and "ONLY the Dark Side speaks in absolutes!"

Next it was the campus Christians with their technicolor Bibles shouting out their purpose driven accusations. "Thou shalt not judge!" and "Jesus never talked about hell!" and "You're turning people off!" Believe me, after 40 campuses, this gets old.

Then a U.P.C. student stood up and started preaching his version of Acts 2:38, followed by two witches singing their mantras and screaming "Burn all Bibles!" who were followed by a man with no teeth reading out loud the gospel of John. Everybody was shouting at the same time and the crowd had grown to fill one entire side of the central courtyard! Obviously Fresno City College had never seen a preacher before.

Finally, after we could bear it no more, Miles and I ducked out of the crowd and ran to the other side of the courtyard to shift the momentum of the meeting, which worked. The people followed us over to hear what we had to say. However, it was only a few minutes before the police arrived on the scene and closed everything down. Someone must have called 9-1-1 because we nearly had a riot.

So that was our day at Fresno City College; a total of 45 minutes of sheer madness. Although between blasts of venom and shrieks of incoherency, we did manage to preach the Word of God to the students. May God use whatever little seed was sown.

"And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater... Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together... And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." (Acts 19:28-34)

"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." (Acts 20:24)

California State University, Fresno

The west coast is an interesting place. People are liberal, "tolerant" and politically correct, to the point of being hopelessly apathetic or downright hateful. So it was with California State University, Fresno. We arrived to preach while students flocked from class to class, and we threw out our nets. At first it was very slow to gather in a crowd and start a good meeting. Most students out here are too afraid to voice any opinion or stand up for what they believe, but eventually we caught some people to talk with.

"Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things." (Proverbs 8:1-6)

Talking with some people who had serious questions about the Bible.

By the end of the day many heard the gospel preached and the Word of God declared, but it was still very sad to see so many others slip past untouched, their minds conditioned to reject God and ignore His judgments. May the Lord raise up labourers to help plow the field and break up the fallow ground.

Dear friends, please lift us up in prayer during this time; specifically for a door of utterance to be opened unto us to speak boldly on these colleges without snares and setbacks (lately, police have been making things difficult). We want the Word to get out to as many people as possible, with as little hindrance as possible. Pray also that the hearts of the students would hunger after righteousness and that their ears would be open to receive the truth. Pray also that the birds would not snatch away the seeds that are sown. And above all else: May Jesus Christ be magnified! Amen.

God bless, saints.
-Eli

California State University, Bakersfield

Click the picture to read the article.

San Diego State University

San Diego State University was really the first campus of this half of the tour, since our time in Las Vegas was spent mainly on the streets rather than in the world of academia. We had the great privilege of sharing this time with three excellent brothers: Steven Barry of Alpha Omega Outreach, Greg Gordon of Sermonindex, and Leon Brown of Evangelism Team; which was wonderful fellowship and a blessing to my heart. In all, we preached at SDSU for four very intense days.

Day one, Greg, Steve and I arrived on campus late in the afternoon and handed out tracts while Miles and Evan were helping some people who had car trouble. We spend a considerable amount of time in prayer for the following days ahead, that God would shake the campus and defend the honor of His holy Name.

The next day proved wild. Evan began preaching and in a short while had about 50 students crowded all around him, yelling and mocking. I got up to preach and soon there were two Rastafarian guys causing a lot of disturbance, trying to steal the crowds attention away from us (unfortunately these two men continued to come out to our meetings daily and disrupt the preaching of the Word... the devil at work). However, we continued on and though the crowd itself became divided, still many students heard the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ and we saw a lot of conviction.

Brother Greg speaking one-on-one with a student.

At one point when Evan was preaching, a student came forward smoking marijuana and blew it in his face.

I spoke with several people in particular who I believe came under true conviction of sin. One young man, a European student, discussed with me God and morality for about half and hour and finally came to a place where he had no grounds to stand upon his atheistic beliefs and acknowledged his difficult predicament. He immediately became anxious and walked away. Another young man, not actually a student but a sort of drifting hippie, talked with me for a while about his faith, for his parents were strong Christians and had raised him to be so, but he had walked away. At the end of our conversation he said, "Maybe I'm that prodigal son." All of us had awesome one-on-ones like this.

I believe our time spent at SDSU was not in vain according to our prayers. It saddens me to see so many young people totally blind and walking in darkness, full of sin and carelessness, but it is very encouraging when "the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." (Matthew 4:16) May God raise up laborers to bring in the harvest in these perilous last days.

Praise the Lord Jesus Christ! Bless His Name forever and ever! Dear saints, please pray for me during this difficult trip... the work is great, the battle is fierce, the devil is roaring like a lion, millions and millions are going to hell, and without the power of the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. Pray for us that we would be filled overflowing with love, joy and peace; lighthouses in the billowing storm.

Firstfruits of Second Semester

Greetings, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

I apologize for the wait in receiving an update from me, dear friends; these last few weeks have been very busy and we have not had much access to the internet, but have been living quite regularly out of the van. Lord willing the site will be updated much more frequently from now on. To give you an update on what we've been up to:

I reunited with Miles in Los Angeles on the 13th, and we spent the first few days with brother Andrew Strom, preaching with him and a wonderful group of saints in the place known as "Skid Row", the worst homeless location in America. There were thousands of homeless people destitute in the most filthy and neglected section of L.A. It was a real eye-opener and life changing experience.

Following this, Miles and I headed south to meet up with Evan, and then the three of us drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, or "Sin City", to preach at UNLV. There we found out that another ministry called The Great News Network was there preaching, and we joined them in their outreaches. I had the privilege to watch Ray Comfort preach open air; the founder of Living Waters and Way of the Master. We also preached downtown Las Vegas, which was in itself an overwhelming experience. Las Vegas is not called Sin City for nothing. It is disturbing just how wicked that place truly is. Prostitution is legal in Las Vegas, and thousands upon thousands of people visit Vegas to indulge their sinful desires in gambling, drunkenness and immorality. Darkness covers that place...

We then headed to San Diego and continue on in our journey. I have many pictures and videos to upload so be sure to keep frequenting the website and message board. Above all, saints, please continue to pray for us as we fight the battle on the front lines of this generation: the battle is fierce and our adversary is ruthless, but "through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." (Psalm 108:13) I miss you all very much. Continue in the grace of God, and may this year be full of victory and growth for each of us as we steadfastly look unto Jesus, our King, our Saviour, our God.