Everyday Evangelism-Beautiful Balloons

Up, Up, and Away goes my beautiful balloon. Balloons can be beautiful. Here is the reason why; because they can carry the Gospel message wherever they are taken by the wind. In North Korea, people launch balloons that have the Gospel of Mark on them. They also carry lots of tracts on them and the tracts are distributed wherever they are taken by the balloons. There is another way that the Gospel can be carried around in a virtual sky. It is an I-phone app that is called, "Balloons". It costs 99 cents to download it to your I-phone if you have one. Then you can open the program up and launch your own balloon. You can put a message on it and send it out. I did this last week. After I downloaded the app, I opened the program up on my I-phone and typed in this saying, "Are you good enough for Heaven? How good do you have to be? Go to www.thegoodtest.net and take the test to see." I have checked periodically and no one had caught my balloon, until this morning, when I checked its tracking. Someone had popped it and responded like this, "Don't go there its wrong way. Go to www.kuran.gen.tr... if you know what "really" Jesus said then you become a muslim, but you changed it". Now to learn to help people involved in Islam. God loves them and wants them to know Him also. Pray for me to have wisdom in responding to this person. I don't know yet how to work with this 'balloon' program, or if I can respond, but I will look at it later.

Everday Evangelism- Are Tracts Beneficial?

First, I want to make it clear that not everyone I offer a tract to will take it. Most of the time they do, and sometimes they will come to me and ask for more. At Sam's a couple of weeks ago, as I was entering the store, the lady who was the greeter noticed the Giant Money tracts http://www.livingwaters.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=100&category_id=8&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=199〈=en I had in the basket. I am somewhat apprehensive about boldly carrying in the tracts, especially the large ones, because one time when I was at a Sam's Club, upon entering the store, the lady who was greeting informed me that I was not allowed to pass them out (I didn't think I was passing them out in that area anyway). She assumed that I was and was angry about it. Back to the Sam's Club a couple of weeks ago. One of the cashiers must have received a Giant Money tract from me, and wanted to have more. Of course, she didn't know how to contact me, but mentioned this to the woman who was the greeter. This cashier asked the greeter lady if she would keep an eye open for the person who was giving them out. When I came in, this greeter told me about the cashier who wanted to have more tracts so she could give them out to her friends. I didn't bring in too many that time, so I gave her about 4-5 to give to this cashier. Interesting.
Another time, a couple of years back,at this same Sam's Club, upon entering the store, another greeter lady remembered me from giving out those tracts. She thanked me for that, and was affected by my doing that. I was unprepared for that event, and didn't know what to say. She didn't speak good English, but she gave me a hug.
Yesterday I went to Sam's Club and as I went in there was a new greeter lady. I had the tracts in the basket, remembering how the one greeter lady was angry about them. The lady showed an interest in them and wanted one, so I gave it to her. A few minutes later I could hear someone talking with this greeter and I knew it was about the tract that I just gave her. Before very long, a woman came up to me and wanted one. I gave it to her, and told her what it was, and also explained that the Gospel was on it. She was so grateful for it. She offered to pay me for it. I told her it was a gift from me. You would have thought that I gave her a piece of gold! Well, a couple of hours later, I was at another store, and noticed a small group of women talking in the parking lot. They obviously worked at the same place because they dressed alike. I don't like to give tracts to people who work at the places I visit while I'm in the parking lot because they could tell me that I am not allowed to do that in the parking lot of their store. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I gave one to one of the women and she was very excited! She wanted more for other family members. I explained that the Gospel was on it and she was very glad. She said that it was a good way to witness. There are many stories like this, and I could go on, but this is what happened to me recently in just passing out tracts. Of course, the neatest thing that can happen is when you pass out a tract, and use it as an ice-breaker in sharing the Gospel. That happened last week with a man named Shawn. He only went to church occasionally, maybe even only once in his life at Easter. He didn't know what the 10 Commandments were and I was able to explain the whole Gospel to him. It was great. So, do you think tracts are beneficial? You can decide.

Everyday Evangelism- The Atheist Challenge!

I rarely encounter Atheists when I preach the Gospel, at least not in this part of the country where I live. There is a man on the other side of the country who has responded to a message of the Gospel that I put in a message bottle that goes out to a virtual sea in Facebook. He opened the bottle and responded by telling me that my god does not exist, and that is the happiest news ever. Well, I responded by asking him what proof he has that led him into Atheism. He said that it is obvious that there is no evidence of God, and that the proof of burden is on me. This is a new one for me. Help. You can't prove God from a scientific experiment anymore than you can measure the color of an apple. They are in 2 different categories. This discussion has been ongoing for over a week now and the man continually rebuts whatever I say by saying there is no evidence of a god. Basically I am the one who is blind because I can't see that. My god is imaginary. Well, I left him with the concept of the fact that he is blind because the light that he had at one time is taken away from him. Not only does he not have eyes to see with, but even what light he had has been taken away. What does one do with such a person? Any comments?

Everyday Evangelism- Parking Lot- 10-26-09

I have heard a saying somewhere that said something like this; "I go to the grocery store to preach the Gospel and to pick up a few groceries". Today I went to the grocery store and on my way in were two young men talking. I gave them a tract and was able to have a conversation with them about the Gospel. One of the young men was named Freddie. He told me later in the conversation that he was a youth pastor at a local church. Later he thanked me for what I was doing in sharing the Gospel. The other man was Robert. I enjoyed dialoging with him about the Gospel. I left them with a couple of tracts and said that I would be praying for them. They appreciated that. So if anyone who reads this blog would like to pray for Robert and Freddie, please pray for them. Freddie was very quiet. Robert was answering the questions with honesty. Seemed to understand the Gospel. Not sure if he has come to that place yet where he is grasping his desperate condition before a holy God. I told them to consider the things I shared with them. So please pray for Freddie and Robert. Pray that God will have mercy and that they will have a conviction of sin in their hearts and come to Christ.

ACLJ : ACLJ On Television

ACLJ : ACLJ On Television

Everyday Evangelism- The Message Bottle

In Facebook, there is an application you can go to and make a message that goes inside a bottle into a virtual sea. The recipients of the message bottle are other people who have sent messages out. You send a bottle with a message in it, and you receive other people's bottles. The bottles go all over the world. I have sent 2 bottles out. Both have to do with the "Good Person Test". The second bottle I sent out has a good explanation of the Gospel in it. It is called, "True Love". The bottle was received by an Atheist. The first comment I received from him was that 'there is no god and that is the happiest news of all'. I wrote back asking him what proof he has found that has led him to believe there is no god. He wrote back and said there was no evidence. So I will be praying on how to respond to him. His name is Alexander if anyone wants to be praying for him. He lives in the United States. This is good practice for me. Be praying for me too, that I will know how to answer Alexander. Pray that I will learn to give an answer for every person who asks a reason of the hope in me. Thank you.

Everyday Evangelism- Tuesday In Yoville

Yoville is a game that one can play from Facebook or Myspace. It is a cute game in which a person creates an avatar, gives it a name, receives an apartment, can earn coins in Yoville, can go shopping in Yoville, and do a host of other things. One advantage of being in Yoville is that a person is in a chat room like setting in which conversations with other avatars can take place. We have used Yoville to preach the Gospel to other characters in there. There have been a few that appreciate what we are doing, but some don't. Here is the latest short conversation I had with someone on Tuesday night. Read it and see what you think. Note that it interesting that this other avatar is calling herself a believer. Her name is Yoville is Musha. Here is our short conversation:
Musha: Susan, pls no fire and brimstone.
Susan: Well, not my choice. God is the one Who says so.
Musha: Susan, I am a believer as well, but Jesus wants us to season our speech so that all will taste and see the (this was the end of the sentence. Then she left).
Now I never used the words 'fire and brimstone' so I find this interesting. Somewhere during the conversation we talked about eternity, and probably used the word 'hell' and 'judgment' and 'eternal punishment' at various times. I hear people talk like this a lot. What concerns me is that people are calling themselves Christians, and then in the same breath almost, they say things like "Jesus said..." or things that imply that God is different from what His word tells us. I think we need to be praying for our churches, pastors, country, and our own lives, so that the light of the Gospel can shine through us. I am concerned that there are churches that are probably teaching lies about who Jesus is, probably subtly, but its there. We need to be studying the Scriptures so we can help people understand what the Bible really says. So the next time someone rebukes you for preaching the Gospel and says that Jesus doesn't want us to do that, what will you tell them? "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature". "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation...." "Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel"