Hello Everyone,
New updates have been posted from last weekend at the booth here in NYC. God is at work so much here in our outreach alongside Central Park I feel like I can barely keep up. This new ministry is by far our busiest location, as God keeps bringing people up to the table from all over the world and every walk of life to hear the Gospel and get answers for their questions about God. I called Global Gospel Recordings today and placed an order for sermons in 13 different languages! They told me they were 3.00 each, and I have asked them to please sell me the sermons for less, because I cannot afford many copies at that price. They said they would get back to me on a lower price per copy hopefully tomorrow. We have people coming up to the booth from all over the world and many cannot speak English well enough for me to communicate with them. I know that God will provide. We have added some new books and tracts for the table. Pictures from last weekend are posted on the blog at:
http://lightingtheway.blogspot.com/2007/06/ltw-update-nyc-how-can-i-thank-him.html
and
http://lightingtheway.blogspot.com/2007/06/god-at-work-in-nyc.html.
New Resource for NYC Booth Exposing Spiritual Dangers of Contemplative Prayer
We have permission to download this new interview just posted today (6/18/07) online on the dangers of Contemplative Prayer practices and make copies on CD for our booth in NYC. Listen here (track 15). Brian Flynn and Pastor Bob DeWaay expose why this movement is not biblical and at best takes the focus off of the sufficiency of Christ and Scripture and intimacy to Jesus through obedience to the Bible, by His grace and not our works. At worst, it is an open door to the occult and the realm of counterfeit spirits.
Contemplative Prayer Practices are used in New Age Yoga Retreat Centers and Hindu Worship
See what I have written against Contemplative Prayer on the blog here to show that this monastic pious movement offers a counterfeit humility which is not Christian:
http://lightingtheway.blogspot.com/2007/06/contemplative-prayer-sweeping-nyc-i.html
Some of the same “prayer practices” such as walking Labyrinths, “silent” gatherings (silent retreats where no one is allowed to speak to anyone, where people are taught to “listen to the voice within” because that “voice” is “god”; practicing yoga meditations in silence—all of this is cloaked in Christian terminology in “Christian” contemplative prayer gatherings), “centering”, visualizations, and “breath prayers” are being promoted in pagan, New Age retreat centers, and we are sadly now being taught by many pastors that this is “Christian” (see 1 Cor. 10:20-21).
I was on the radio once and a Christian called in to ask if God couldn’t also make people levitate. I assured her that God can do anything, but we are told for our own protection and for God’s glory to test the spirits. God brings glory to Himself through our self-control and by the fruit of the Spirit as described in the Bible in Galatians 5 and 2 Timothy 1:7. Consider these advertisements below for pagan retreat centers and the description of their “prayer practices.” Keep in mind that many of these same practices from the “ancient mystics” are being promoted at “Christian” Contemplative Prayer gatherings:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0410,ogden,51622,1.html
http://www.grailsprings.com/site/thesecret.php
An exciting update on our Venice Beach outreach has been posted here: http://lightingtheway.blogspot.com/2007/06/ltw-update-venice-beach.html
Read about how God brought up a psychic to the booth who was open and searching and how the Holy Spirit used Mike and Bob to witness to her and give her a book of Brian Flynn’s testimony of how God saved him from being a New Age medium to a follower of (the real) Jesus Christ.
I will be in Boulder in August to work the booth with Jeff Thomas and friends from Shepherd’s Community Church for a weekend. I hope to work with a home-schooled, teenage apologetics group, too, out at the booth while I am there from Shepherd’s Community. It will be great to see Ron and Donna Prosise and serve the Lord with them again in that area. As Ron Prosise told me by phone, “ By God’s grace, we are going to keep this [ministry of apologetics on Pearl Street] going.” I praise God for bringing Jeff Thomas to the church and for how God is leading and showing us all that the little ministry I began on Pearl Street truly is HIS as God is continuing to provide for His ministry there. I pray that God will use Jeff Thomas and Ron Prosise in a mighty way when they are out there this summer witnessing at the booth, making a stand for God, “contending earnestly for the faith” to reach the lost in Boulder for Him.
Thank you again for your prayers. I know that God is bringing up all of these people in NYC, more than I ever expected. I pray that I will be faithful to give an answer for the hope that lies within me about such a wonderful Savior and many will be saved to the praise of His glory.
With God lighting the way with the LIGHT of the Bible,
Dwayna
