4/22/25

Today, Nick and I were at CSUF engaging students with the question, "What was Jesus' main message?", but didn't seem to have too many exciting conversations (which is rare for CSUF!). Eventually, we decided to put the whiteboard away, get lunch, and hopefully find some holy trouble elsewhere. We put the whiteboard away but decided to wait on the food and instead walk around campus. Without fail, we were given a very interesting conversation when we ran into the RCW leaders on campus. We talked with them for a while, but we were shocked to receive an apology from one of them! They expressed that they felt convicted about how they had been intentionally avoiding us and not engaging with us in conversations. This was very crazy and totally unexpected to hear! We expressed our concern for them as they teach a different gospel, but we are excited to see this new openness toward conversation from this leader. Please pray that God might change the hearts of these leaders much like that of Paul, that they might become great threats to the works of darkness and leave this cult and false gospel behind!

After that conversation, Nick and I continued to walk around campus when we ran into another member of that same cult! He is a super sweet young man that we've had conversations with in the past, and he came to us and asked us about the Mormon church. A fascinating question for the situation, but we happily sat down with him to talk about it. We talked about Mormonism for a little bit, but the bulk of our conversation was focused on the RCW cult that he is a part of. This young man seems to have a truly seeking heart that desires the truth of the Bible as he asked us why we disagree with this group! He took down a list of verses to study later and listened to our reasoning with them, and he even passed up the easy-out of a potentially hard conversation as he chose to be late to his next class to continue talking! Nick and I were so excited for these back-to-back engagements with members from the same group that appear to be increasingly open to further conversations! Please pray for these two young men as God is at work in their lives to draw them out of this unhealthy cult and into a healthy church that teaches the true Gospel!

Despite it not being the primary expression of ministry today, we've had this question on our whiteboard for a couple days and have found a variety of answers, many of which are "love", "be a good person", and "forgiveness". While I certainly agree that those, understood properly, are a part of Jesus' main message (or a natural result of it), I'm convinced that Jesus came with a message encompassing more than what is often understood to be Jesus' main message. Jesus was not just coming with philosophies and morals, as some believe, but rather He came heralding in the Kingdom of God. Similar to John the Baptizer, Jesus' first, and primary, message was that the Kingdom of God was at hand! It can be terribly easy to miss the boat on Christianity when we miss the main message. If I believe that Jesus' main message was merely forgiveness of sins, then my focus in life will be different than if I believe Jesus' main message was merely about being saved from hell. There are many ways that reductionistic or inaccurate views of Jesus' ministerial focus could alter or radically change the way we live and interpret the Bible. How might it change the way you live and think if you hold that Jesus' main message was about the arrival of the Kingdom of God?

It's wild how fast time flies, but I'm so blessed by the things that fill it! Thank you again for your generosity financially and in prayer! I am blessed by your partnership in this ministry!

With love and peace,

Ivan Penrose