“What is the difference between these two statements?“The minimum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people”“The maximum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people”Only two words: minimum, maximum. But those words constitute a difference as great as night and day. The first statement unfortunately seems to summarize the goal of much contemporary evangelism. The second describes the historic and biblical goal in evangelism.” (Will Metzger, “Tell the Truth,” p.33)    Today we live in a fast track world. Everything we do is to be done in lightning speed. There is no room for turtle speed. We need faster and faster cars, internet, postal services, Christmas shopping, etc. We hail, ironically, the “Hare” in the fairy tale as our hero and the turtle as a “dud.” We have no tolerance for the slow pace just get into the far left lane on a freeway and you will soon find out. Nevertheless, our society has been programmed to believe that faster is better! In addition to all this, is the fact that less is better. What do I mean? This means that alongside the faster is the so called better philosophy where we want less work involved. Today, also, is a day where we desire earnestly for less work, less effort, less diligence, less study, less sweat, less pain, etc. I hope you get the picture. Both of these philosophies have reeked havoc on society. My friend, we have done the same with evangelism! We want fast-track presentation with the least amount of information. We want less and less information--easy to read tracts that really say very little. Don't settle for less when telling the people about the gospel. Just get used to saying as much as you can. Give truth after truth, if and when it is available. Pastor Jim Cater

“While apologetics (defenses of the faith) play an important part in evangelism, it's vital to realize that they have a limited function in reaching the lost. If we confine our witness to arguing about the existence of God, the inspiration of Scripture, the age of the earth, etc., we are like a man who goes fishing with bait, but no hook. While he may attract the fish, they will end up fat and happy ... and they will get away. The function of bait is to attract the fish and disguise the hook. When the fish come around, the fisherman pulls the hook into the jaw, and catches his fish. Apologetics are the bait, and the hook is God's Law. It is the Law that addresses a man's conscience and brings the knowledge of sin. So, don't spend too much time fishing in the intellect. Do what Jesus did-go for the conscience. There goes another minute. Gone forever. Go share your faith while you still have time.” (The Way of the Master Minute, Dec 9, 2010, www.livingwaters.com) They are right, many times we get caught up in the arguments of whether God’s Word is true and whether God truly exist than really proclaiming that our sin is what keeps us from embracing the truths of the gospel; and that grace is what is needed to lift the blinders. Our gospel message is to be centered on the truth that we are lost and that any of our good efforts are not good enough. We can never earn our way to heaven. Without receiving Christ, the truth is that the unbeliever must be faced with the piercing, stubborn, and sure reality of the afterlife and its dreadful consequences. The negative to the good news is the effects of sin on the life of the unbeliever. The positive side of the gospel is what grace can do. In other words, both of these truths need to be shared without hesitation and timidity. The law is used to show that we are bound by an unbreakable yoke that can only be severed by the cutting edge of the gospel of grace. The Law is the mirror, the image is the reflection of sin, and the Windex of grace is the cleaner. Behind a dirty mirror is a poor reflection of the old man, grace can bring clarity to a new image and a new man. The bait can certainly be the periphery of additional elements (i.e. Apologetics) but the hook must be the center of the truth. Beloved, don’t argue for argument’s sake when telling people about Christ, but be gentle and meek and patient. Be aware of their real need. Don’t get caught in constantly defending the inspiration of Scripture, and the like, but go for the jugular—the heart and conscience. Emphasize that good behavior, high status, family, finances, etc. is not enough for a Holy God to permit you into heaven.   Pastor Jim Cater

Dear friends, co-laborers, and prayer partners,   It continues to be a delight to be part of the advancement of the kingdom. The kingdom will advance (Mathew 11:12) and we just need to be part of the train ride. As we continue to be faithful and obedient to the Great Commission, we continue to see ourselves being used, as "privy pots" (2 Corinthians 4:7) for the glory of God. "Earthen vessels" that is all we are, yet used for God's glory. Saturday we had another great day of "reasoning from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:1-3). More and more we see how clearly and boldly we must proclaim the gospel. There is no substitute for the power of the gospel! We must proclaim the "maximum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people" not "the minimum amount of truth to the maximum amount of people." (Will Metzger, "Tell the Truth") Please keep the following people in your prayers:               1. Angelic Nelzi, senior in high school, was very inquisitive and understood the gospel. This is the first time in our questionnaire that someone answered no to the question: "would you say that you are a good person." Once we went through the gospel message, which we went through in detail, she affirmed her faith and was very interested in growing and wanted to know more about our church. She gave us her phone number to contact her for youth activities and growing in the Lord. We had a senior in my group that related with her and answered her questions about how does God speak to us. He answered flawlessly since he had just read the entire book, "Decision Making God's Way," by Gary Meadors. This book we started to read in a study group together at our church and it stuck! Pray for her as we do follow-up.            2.   Myra, is a Spanish lady who could not spend too much time with us but was very interested in hearing us and talking to us. Pray for the follow-up as we present the gospel to her.            3. Amanda, this young lady was babysitting for her sister. However, gave us the time to present the gospel. This young girl is in need of prayer in a big way. This young lady believes that everyone and every religion leads to life. She has a father who is Islamic, a boyfriend who is Hindu, and she's been attending a Presbyterian church following a pastor that she knows and likes. She is the typical person that has a "patchwork" religion, an amalgamation of every type put together. We reseasoned with her by pointing to Scripture as the only revelation that is truth and authoritative. We presented that "all" truths cannot be "all" right and that Jesus came to "testify to the truth." This was a great opportunity to relay the gospel yet a sad scenario of the "god of this world" blinding the mind and heart. Once again here we see a person claiming to be good (how she answered our question) yet acknowledges she doesn't keep the ten commandments, hmmm. She needs a Savior!           4. Jim, elderly gentleman, who did not have time but once we told him we were not JW's, Mormons, or selling something he then was very interested and told us to return so that we can talk. He was in a middle of a house project.           5. Ivory Nelson, a police officer, this gentleman was very interested in talking to us but was also preoccupied. He asked us to return because he was very interested. We would love to have the opportunity to present the gospel to him as well as as Jim above. Please pray for follow-up.           6. Daniel, young man, said he went to a church. However, his claims to follow God were very confusing and not very convincing. His desire was to learn about Zoroastrianism! It sure was not about the gospel, however, we still were able to present the essence of the gospel.           7. Ana Luisa, an elderly Spanish lady in the neighborhood who cheered us on. This was an amazing thing. This Christian woman of 30 years we met on the way while she was gardening. She began to encourage the work as we circled the community back to her house area. This was exciting!   This is just a sampling of our "door2door encounters." We share this with you all so that you may be encouraged that, with God on our side, we can still evangelize boldly to a lost world--our community. God's Word will spread as in the days of the early church as long as we discipline ourselves and be faithful. It's not easy all the time but very rewarding. Also, we share this so that you would pray and keep these folks in your prayers. Pray for the follow-up. We need to be disciplined and faithful. We need to trust God for the results of our partnership with Him.   Thank you all for your constant prayers, friendship, and comradery. Together we can turn the world upside down for Christ! Let's get to it. The plow is in our hands, don't look back for anything whatsoever.   "Each Christian should have his or her's own fishing spot"  (The Way of the Master, session one training video)   Blessings,     Blessings, Pastor James T. Cater Miramar Church 6390 SW 32nd Street Miramar, FL 33023 (954) 981-4677 pastorjim@miramar.org www.miramarchurch.org

“Great things are done by the Holy Spirit when a whole church is aroused to sacred energy…Contemplate at the outset the possibility of having a church of soul-winners. Do not succumb to the usual idea that we can only gather a few useful workers, and that the rest of the community must inevitably be a dead weight: it may possibly so happen, but do not set out with that notion or it will be verified…Labor to gather a church alive for Jesus, every member energetic to the full, and the whole in incessant activity for the salvation of men.” (Charles Spurgeon as quoted in Mark Dever, “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism,” Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) p.117 Once again we are confronted with the mighty injunction to evangelize! Now you might be thinking this command is only for the professionals, the evangelists, the pastors, the clergy, the leaders, the others of position of some sort. This may get you off the hook for just a small while. But Spurgeon, as quoted above, did not believe this to be so. He exhorted the pastor to teach about evangelism, to model evangelism, and to encourage others of the congregation to do the same. The problem with many of us, and the church at large, is that we have relegated the mighty commission to evangelize to something or someone else. We have all too often felt the need to do this because of sincere yet erroneous ideas: I don’t know how to share my faith, what if I’m rejected, I get confused with hard questions on the Bible, I usually give my testimony, etc. These are common reasons given from those that do not engage in evangelism. However, this must not be so! We are all commanded to go and disciple. We are all commanded to get out into the harvest field for the field is ripe.  Several tips for improving your evangelism:1. Ask God to show you that importance of the Great Commission through Scripture.2. Pay attention to the messages and the teachings on evangelism.3. Be willing to follow your pastor and leaders as they commit themselves to this sacred task. 4. Be faithful, available, and teachable without which your success will be seriously hindered.5. Ask God to place in your heart and soul a burden, desire, and love for the lost so that you may imitate your Heavenly Father who is in heaven.6. Ask God to help you become more obedient to the evangelistic campaign as set forth in Scripture. 7. Be diligent, fervent, consistent, and content at your God-given efforts.       

“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that” (Charles Spurgeon) When you think of “salvation,” what comes to your mind? Do you think of praying a prayer and “chas-sam” you’re instantly saved? Do you think of walking down an aisle and having someone pray over you? Or, do you think of being saved as an emotionally fuzzy feeling that you can’t tell where it came from? Although, salvation may have elements like the ones above or may occur in a radical way as that described above, chances are that much more was involved. You see, salvation is described in the Bible as a radical, indisputable, and un-creature-like transformation. What do I mean with this? Well, that true salvation causes an internal transformation and change that generates changes in attitude, will, desires, thinking, perspective, values, morals, and so on, which are the necessary, inevitable, and natural corollary. In other words, the Bible clearly declares that we are new creations, and that as new creations, we stubbornly desire the heavenly things. This new proclivity is supernatural and rises out of a new heart, a new birth, regeneration, true conversion, repentance, and so forth. We cannot deny this precious truth or else we will not know the difference between a true child of God and a child of the Devil (1 John 3:1-10). In fact, we cannot allow the individual conscious or personal motives or testimonies to be the only voice of true salvation because there is a real possibility that self-deception can occur (1 John 1:6-10, 2 Corinthians 4:1-5). For this reason the Bible also says that there is fruit that accompanies our salvation. Objectively visible, seeable, and evident fruit is a corollary to true salvation: Js 2:14-26, Gal 5:22-24, John 8:31, 15:1-11, 1John 2:3-6, 3:4-10. This is not to deny the internal witness of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16-17), however, the internal witness of the Spirit is not enough. Two evidences of salvation, and therefore, proofs or assurance is: the internal witness as well as the fruit generated by the Holy Spirit. Notice the simple declaration or statement in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc.The by-product or effect of a true child of God is the fruit of the Spirit. Hanging fruit is clearly noticeable and overtly seen, that cannot be denied. In sum, a true Christian truly has a desire to see the lost saved. Three visible fruit of salvation is a genuine love for God, love for others, and then a sense of true delight in obedience. It is no surprise that Spurgeon said what he said above. True Christian, proclaim the gospel! Share your faith! Love the lost!

"For the church to evangelize the world without thinking of the Jews, is like a bird trying to fly with one broken wing." Franz Delitzsch How many of you are like me that we want to be faithful and obedient to Jesus’ call to evangelize the whole world? How many of you would agree that sometimes our earnest and sincere desire outweighs our actual practice? I would say that many of us fall into the rut of doing a lot of thinking but not enough sinking into it. I would suggest that we re-look at the commands in Scripture to evangelize: Mat 9:36-38, Mat 28:18-20, Mk 16:15-16, Lk 24:46-49, John 4:34-38, Acts 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:2, Mt 5:13-16. These commands are not just for the professional clergy, pastor, leaders, evangelists, nor to the specialist. These are commands for every disciple to take seriously. We are not spectators but saints meant to be part of the harvest field. We live in an evangelical milieu where the contemporary church has been obsessed now with “target-driven” evangelism for so long that the true contours of “biblical” evangelism are hardly or scarcely observable or discernible. What do I mean? I mean we as a church have been reaching out to select groups (Seeker-Sensitive philosophy) now for so long we’ve forgotten the statements of Scripture that send us out to “all creatures.” It’s no wonder the Jews have been left out!! Our churches depend on specialized ministries to do the work. We’ve become accustomed to special groups that we can use to do the work for us. This should not be the case. We are commanded to go to everyone (this includes the Jews). This includes people of all colors, nationalities, cultures, ages, and so forth. This means we learn and prepare ourselves to reach out to everyone. This spells out work. Are you ready? Are you willing to sacrifice? Then, I applaud you for joining the ranks of true evangelists. True evangelists see neither color nor race but see only a harvest of lost souls to proclaim the life-giving message of the gospel. Be a harvester, laborer, evangelist, soul-winner, discipler, and preacher of the kingdom!!! Pastor Jim Cater

“Mistaking the gospel for “right living” is one more common error. Sometimes people think that the news, the message of the Bible, is simply that we should live moral lives. Christianity is sometimes presented as nothing more than virtues—public and private...The gospel, you see, is not simply an additive that comes to make our already good lives better. No! The gospel is a message of wonderful good news that comes to those who realize their just desperation before God.” (Mark Dever, “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism,” Wheaton Illinois: Crossway Books; 2007, p.40) In this book mentioned above, Dr Dever tries to let us know that the gospel is sometimes mistaken for the wrong things. He says that the gospel is sometimes mistaken for personal testimonies and apologetics among other things. Indeed the gospel is not a message of “right living” as he rightly comments above. Some offer people the wrong gospel in theses instances. They suppose that our lives are in need of some minor tune-up in order to be improved. They wrongly suppose that the gospel is a message that helps with your broken marriage, wayward kids, alcoholism, etc, like some instant pill you can take. Albeit, God really wants you to be Christ-like in these areas, but we are not to mistaken this for the gospel. These are nothing but felt-needs. The needs are real but the answer is not only to get rid of the problem that is felt but to submit yourself to a Holy God and desire repentance, forgiveness, and turning to Him who can honestly lead you in the most important area of your life first. In fact, going for the felt-needs first only tries to allay the symptoms of a deeper disease—sin. Herein lays the counseling blunders that are caused daily by modern leaders. We are to be “root-cause analysts.” In other words, when we goepelize, we should always be clear about the gospel message. It should not be a “life-enhancement” message (Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, “The School of Biblical Evangelism,” Gainesville, Florida, Bridge-Logos Publishers: 2004, p.26). The cause of any unsaved man, woman, and child’s distress in life is much more than their external disarray. It is an internal disruption, disintegration, and decadence. Their hearts are filled with callousness, enmity, and hostility toward God and, until they “realize their just desperation before God,” they will only try to alleviate the cancer with morphine and pain-killers and not with chemo-radiation therapy. They will only substitute a real cure for the superficial and temporary alleviation. They are therefore left powerless! The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. If it is the power of God, then we should let this be the instrument of real change and not our cheap substitutes.  Beloved, let’s evangelize with this mind.