Gregg Harris

The Apostle Paul once wrote to the Christians in Rome, “For  I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” — Rom. 1:16   And to that Isay “Amen!”  The Gospel has not lost its power. What has been lost is modern man’s ability to believe it. Let me explain.

We live in a time of post-modernism and secular humanism.  In our current culture, very few people actually believe anything.  Even in the church many give in to the flawed logic of post-modernism in order to avoid having to stand for any absolute truth beyond our own feelings.  As one bumper sticker put it. “I’ve given up on my search for Truth. Now I’m just looking for a good fantasy.”

The sad result of all of this is that many people who profess to be Christians do not really believe the Gospel. They merely suspend their disbelief in order to participate in their Christian family and church. That is why there is no power. Their hearts are not in it.  They are just going through the motions. They are going along in order to get along with others who themselves may or may not really believe the Gospel. They are “nominal Christians.” They have what Paul called a “form of godliness” but they deny the power from which all true godliness springs and that is faith in the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ and His kingdom.

So, what can we do about it?

We can hit the world hard right where it is most vulnerable. We can preach the Gospel all the more boldly and clearly. That is what I have been doing and God has been honoring it. In just the last four years over 1000 people, from all walks of life, all across the country, have responded to this presentation with bold professions of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. If God is using this message in this way elsewhere, why not present it here in the Gresham area at least once each month? So, Lord willing, that is what I intend to do. I will present the Gospel.  You help me fill the room each month with an attentive audience. I am calling it The Householder’s Breakfast because it is an evangelistic presentation especially targeted to reach those men and women who have a household that they could manage for the glory of God. I fully expect to see entire households come to an authentic faith in Christ and begin to manage their own homes as embassies of the kingdom of God. Lord, make it so!

Here are the Specifics

Time: 6:30 to 8 A.M. on the 2nd Wednesday morning of each month (beginning Wednesday March 10th)

Location: Persimmon Country Club, 500 SE Butler Road, Gresham, OR 97080 (just off 242nd/Hogan Rd.about 2 1/2 miles south of beautiful Downtown Gresham)

Costs: Free! The Householder’s Breakfast is a $20 per plate breakfast offered free of charge to all first-time guests. Read Terms & Policies below for the details of how this is supposed to work.

RSVP by the Monday Prior! If at all possible, please RSVP all breakfast reservations to gregg@ghofcc.org before 2:00 P.M. on Monday the 8th

Description: The Householder’s Breakfast is a compelling multimedia presentation that explains in the clear and simple terms how being born again is “the ultimate paradigm shift” and why it takes place only in the lives of those who trust in Jesus Christ enough to actually obey Him. Using state-of-the-art presentation technology, beautiful full-color photography, terms understandable to all and the same simple analogies used by Christ Himself the speaker “connects the dots” between one important truth and another so that the bigger picture of God’s eternal purposes comes into clear focus even for those unfamiliar with the Christian faith. For those who have grown up in church, and grown weary of “organized religion,” this presentation will explain why what commonly passes for Christianity is not working for those who think they have “tried it,” and how they can personally experience the life-changing power of the new birth that Jesus promised.

The VIew of Mt. Hood from Persimmon

So, That’s the Plan.

Lord willing, this breakfast presentation will be repeated on the 2nd Wednesday morning of each month from now on. Please pray for this first attempt as I prepare. Just to be clear, this monthly evangelistic breakfast is open to everyone, male and female. Not all householders are men. It is a $20 per plate breakfast offered free of charge to all first time guests. That simply means others (like you) have been generous enough to cover all the costs so that first time guests may attend the breakfast for free.  We have sponsors for 20 seats thus far. But we will need more for each month.

Whereas this will be everyone’s first time, you may either make use of one of these already sponsored seats for you and your guests, or you may sponsor yourself and your guests for just $20 per person. You may enter the partnership immediately. Any sponsored seats not filled in this month’s breakfast will simply be carried over to our next breakfast and thereafter on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. If you do choose to be a sponsor this month, you may pay for your seats by making a check to Noble Institute and designating it for The Householder’s Breakfast.

Everyone is welcome to attend. But keep in mind that the presentation will be especially geared to those who are in a position to not only come to Christ or rededicate themselves to Christ, but also to lead their own household as an embassy of Christ’s kingdom on earth. That is why it is called The Householders Breakfast. Thanks for your prayers and feedback as we engage in this outreach.

As Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” The Gospel has not lost its power. May our sovereign God allow our fellow man to really believe it and experience its power in their own lives!

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Terms & Policies

Sponsors Are Both Needed & Appreciated: Obviously, there is no such thing as a free breakfast. But we trust God to raise up an army of generous sponsors to pay for our many guest’s each month. The first time guest’s breakfast is always free. Thereafter we ask each believer, whenever reasonable, to pay for themselves and a few guests as a part of their monthly partnership in the Gospel. Sponsoring donations should be mailed in to Noble Institute, P.O. Box 2491, Gresham, OR 97030 or made on-line through our secure commercial website at www.noblebooks.org in order to keep on-site transactions to a minimum. Those whom God impresses to assist us in a greater way are encouraged to consider sponsoring an entire table of eight for each breakfast. The cost is always $20 per seat or $160 per table. Our goal is to sponsor all the seats we fill and fill all the seats we sponsor.

In addition, I ask my sponsors to do their best to fill the seats they sponsor each month by inviting and bringing (or if need be, sending) their own family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, clients and customers to The Householder’s Breakfast. Prayerful attention should be given to those with whom the sponsor has some personal acquaintence, social or business relationship (e.g. those who serve you in stores or restaurants, etc.). Another primary target would be those who profess to be Christians, but who seem to be missing the spiritual power that normally would accompany an authentic new birth in Christ. Pray for God’s direction, then be intentional.

Open Seats: Some of our sponsors have designated their steats or tables as “open seats” to be filled by anyone who is able to bring a guest.  If you choose to do so, please make this designation on the memo line of your check or when you donate on-line. Any sponsored seats not reserved by the sponsor for his or her own party by the Monday prior to the breakfast may be made available to other guests free of charge at the door, or held back to be used in a future breakfasts as needed. Any sponsorship funds received each month beyond the actual breakfast expenses of the breakfast may be used by Noble Institute for other evangelistic activities, including, but not limited to developing and publishing evangelistic articles in the local newspapers and producing and placing evangelistic radio spots on local radio stations in order to further promote the Gospel and The Householders Breakfast to the general public.

Tax Exempt Donations: Noble Institute is a non-profit, tax exempt, educational organization recognized by the Federal Government under IRS code 501(c)3. Therefore, all donations from our sponsors are tax deductible up to the limit that the law allows.  You may give to support the breakfast on-line HERE.

Many men in the audience openly wept as I taught on making our homes an embassy of the kingdom of God and opening them by hospitality to be a place where others can taste and see that the Lord is good. I discovered that the culture of South Korea is so competitive that many young school children are driven to despair trying to get into the top 5% of test scores. High school is even worse and the university is very unreasonable.  Then after school is completed the people go to work for the government or in large companies that allow no time for their employees to be with their families. Men normally leave at 6 AM and return home after 9 P.M. six days a week.  I am told that 70 to 80 hour work weeks are not uncommon. People live to work.

The Christian home schooling movement in South Korea is rejecting this unreasonable school and work culture with a new vision for family and family business. As I taught on the relationship between the individual, the family, the church and the state, many said they could see a way to turn their own lives around and to shine as lights in the midst of the darkness of South Korea’s excesses. One dear brother even discussed starting a new men’s movement in South East Asia under the banner “BE REASONABLE!” He is a respected professor at the major university and I encouraged him to write an article or even a book by that title and see what God might do. He thought that God may have placed him in his position just for such a reason.

I will share more of my adventure at church this Sunday as time allows.

Pray for South Korea.  They are very dedicated brothers and sisters in Christ and they are under a tremendous amout of pressure to conform to the materialistic culture that surrounds them.  But how well are we doing here in the United States? Let’s double our efforts to be salt and light in our own country.

Providentially, I taught on this very topic this last Sunday in Gresham Household of Faith.  You can listen to the message online by going to the sermons section of this website.

Blessings in Christ to all.

Gregg

John the Baptist

The birth of John the Baptist was the first recorded miracle in over 800 years. The announcement by Gabriel to Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth would have a baby boy was the first recorded communication from God in over 400 years. This amazing story breaks into history with the same forcefulness that John the Baptist himself would display in his ministry as the one sent by God to prepare the way for His Son, Jesus Christ.

As Zacharias says to his infant son in Luke 1:76-79 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of  the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

In this message entitled The Forerunner, The Opening Miracle of the Coming of the Messiah, Larry Barclay  brings the story to life for us.

Recently, I have been meditating on the attributes of God. Having read Dr. Wayne Grudem’s excellent treatment of the subject in his Systematic Theology, I am drawn especially to what are called the “communicable moral attributes of God.” These include God’s goodness, love, mercy, grace, patience, holiness, peace, righteousness, jealousy and wrath. I recommend that you read his entire 12th chapter for a solid doctrinal foundation for what I want to share in this brief post.

One answer is that they have believed “another gospel,” different from the one Jesus and the Apostles preached.  What was this Gospel that Jesus & His apostles preached?

Jesus explained it clearly in Luke 24:45-46 …“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations…

Peter preached it in Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Paul also reported it in Acts 26:19 “Therefore, [I] declared …that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

Do you see a common theme in their versions and explanations of the Gospel? Each one makes much more of repentance than most preachers do today. But as Dr. Wayne Grudem has written on page 717 of his Systematic Theology “Preaching the need for faith without repentance is preaching only half of the gospel. It will result in many people being deceived, thinking that they have heard the Christian gospel and tried it, but nothing happened.”

This is why Jesus told His disciples in Matt. 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

In his continuation of his series The Gospel of the Kingdom, Gregg Harris presents this message entitled The Individual Believer in the Kingdom of God. After you listen to this, be sure to go back and listen to the entire series.

In his Thanksgiving Sunday message entitled Celebrate the Holidays That Keep History Alive, Gregg Harris tells the Story of the Pilgrims to offer a ringing challenge to make intentional use of the Holiday season to honor our elderly and instruct our young in each family by setting the stage for the telling of the true story at the heart of each holiday.  Share this important message with family and friends during this year’s holiday season.

If you are able to do so, please visit us for our Sunday worship services and the other ministry events on our calendar. God bless you as you do your part to advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!