Everyday Evangelism- Winter Park Art Festival-03-20-10

"My job is to put a pebble in your shoe." says Greg Koukl. Today a group of us went to the Winter Park Art Festival on Park Avenue, and there were a lot of people there. The weather was great and I managed to put label stickers on 125 tracts this week, so I was ready. We prayed before we left to find a parking place somewhere out there. Well, it was interesting because for all the people we saw out there, there were only a few people who were interested in talking to us about the things of God. A couple of times, while I was talking with someone (and I could tell they really weren't into the conversation), they would just walk away. Just when I was getting to the good part about the 10 Commandments! And it happened more than once. I am guilty of prejudging people that I think would take the tract, as well as those who I would have thought would reject the tract. Only the opposite happened today. Many older men and women took the tracts gladly, and the ones I thought would take them didn't want them. I was able to share the Gospel with 2 men, but I could tell there wasn't a deep desire to stay in the conversation. And, of course, there is always one who will be nasty. I got her too. I offered her the tract and she asked what it was, so I told her. Then she told me to leave her alone, with which I left her the following; you need to think about eternity! I believe that today was ordained by God and we did not fail because there were no fish to catch out of all of those people, but, I can see that we sowed a lot of seeds. We were able to talk a little about eternity to people who, at this moment, were dull of hearing. Tomorrow or next week they might not be. Many took the tracts home and trustingly, someone in the home will read the tract and it will spark a thought about eternity, God, heaven and hell in their minds. So, even if no one was interested today, we trust that we were able to "put a pebble in each shoe" of the person we encountered, even the nasty lady.

Everyday Evangelism- Walmart Again

"I know that God sent you to talk to me today" was the words that I heard from a man yesterday whose name was Kyle. When I approached him, and offered him a tract, he said that he got one just like it while he was at work. Somehow it seemed as if his heart was being prepared for this day. As I talked to Kyle, I could see he was hungry for hearing the truth. After I shared the Gospel with him, he told me he was agnostic, but he did believe some parts of the Bible. He said there were parts that he didn't understand so he couldn't believe them. He also said that he had a lot of questions he wanted to have answers for. He seemed to understand the Gospel, and appreciated what I was doing. And it was amazing that he really believed that God sent me to talk to him that day. Please pray for him as he took the tract home with him, that he will consider the Gospel and think about eternity. Also, pray that someone else will share the Gospel with him again. God's word is at work in his heart and I hope to see him again, if not here on earth, one day in heaven.

Here is the tract I used called "Giant Money" https://www.livingwaters.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=100&category_id=8&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=199&lang=en

It has a little quiz on it and that is what I tell people when I give it out.

Everyday Evangelism- Is Jesus Really God?

I am amazed at the thinking of people and trying to figure out where they are coming from. For example, you can talk to a Muslim, and they will tell you that Jesus is a good prophet, but that He is not God in the flesh. Jesus is in their Quran, but their understanding of His death and resurrection are way off. Mormons believe Jesus was God that became a man, possibly in the way that they believe human beings will become a god. That is why the terminology of Jesus becoming a man can be misleading. It would probably be better to say that Jesus is God who took on flesh. Then there are the Jehovah's Witnesses who believe that Jesus is a god, according to their own New World Translation, which was supposedly translated by Greek scholars. Both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but they do not believe He is God in the flesh. Well, how do we remedy this problem? There are a lot of Bible verses that are very clear about Jesus being God in the flesh, or equal to God. The problem that we have on hand is that many people today do not take a whole section of Scripture to get the meaning of a Bible verse. They take a particular verse and build a doctrine (usually false) on it. A common example of this would be, and I have heard this from both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, quoting a verse that says "Faith without works is dead", implying that we are saved by our works. The whole chapter in the book of James has to do with our living out the Christian live and having the evidences of faith shown by the way we live. People do this with the deity of Christ. They say things like, "Jesus didn't even know the time when he will return" or Jesus said, "My Father is greater than I". They miss the whole point of what that part of the Bible is telling us, because they think they have found a verse that proves their doctrine (and religion) right! Well, I have written this all to say that I am on a hunt to find sections in the Bible that will clearly indicate the deity of Christ. So, one that came to mind this week is this; in Mark 13:31 Jesus said that His words will never pass away. I thought that was interesting because in Isaiah 40:8, it says that God's word abides forever. So, it appears that Jesus' words has the same characteristics as God's does. Of course, we need to know the full context of both settings to appreciate what the Bible is saying to us. But I did think that was interesting. There have been studies put out that have verses to refute the doctrines of the Mormons and JWs, in particular, because they claim to have the same Bible (essentially, though we know that the NWT is twisted, and the Mormons use other books as well and on the same level as the Bible). Over time, these groups have learned how to refute those Bible verses that we give them. So, it is time we come up with concepts to deal with their error, concepts out of the Scripture. We need to have a clear, biblical understanding of who God is, who we are in our fallen state, what the problem is, and what the remedy is. Any comments or insights on this would be appreciated.

Everyday Evangelism-Evangelizing from your home

I once read somewhere (but can't remember where) that a man who loved to do evangelism, became unable to leave his house, therefore wasn't able to share the Gospel with people anymore. What is a person to do in such a case? He prayed for God to bring people to his house, and God listened. People continually were coming to his house asking for directions to where they wanted to go. Now I remember reading that story with amazement because I'm sure it was true, even though I have no idea where I read it from.

What about us today? Is there a way for people to do evangelism from there own homes? Well, I'm glad to report that there are ways to evangelize from your computer and phone. Also, I have heard of people using the postal system to share the good news. So the good news for shut ins and people who can't get out is that you can preach the Gospel right there in your own home.

First of all, be in prayer about it. God may show you other ways you can do evangelism from your home. If you have a computer with Internet access, you can sign up for Face Book and go into some of the applications available there. Two of the applications that lend themselves well to preaching the Gospel are 'Yoville' and 'Castaway'. Yoville is a virtual town where you create a character and get an apartment to start off with. From there you can work at the factory and do various things to make money. When you make money, you can buy houses, furniture, clothing, food, pets, and many other things. While the goal of the game is to live in a virtual city, the goal for us is to preach the Gospel. There are areas in Yoville a person can go to and find groups of people developing conversations. I'll admit that the people on Yoville, many times, are harder to talk to than people on the streets, but there are those who listen. It is worth any obstacles to go through to minister to the ones that are just listening on the side lines. I've had people want to become my friend because of the posts I put out there about God. Also, you can design white boards and put messages on them, then put them on a wall in your house and as your new friends tour your house(s), they can see what you put up there. God's word can minister to their hearts through that.

Another program Face Book has is called, Castaway. It is a program in which you can write a message and put it in a bottle that goes out into a virtual sea. You could put a Bible verse out, or write out the whole Gospel message. I have gotten some interesting responses from my message bottles. In both my bottles, I have the question asking how well the person thinks he or she is doing in keeping the 10 Commandments. Sometimes people send back a number. Other times, people are hostile to hearing the message. I had a dialog with an Atheist about a month ago. Very interesting and good practice for me.

If you have an I-phone, there is an app you can download for 99 cents. It is called, "Balloons", and it works on the same idea as the 'Castaway' program in Facebook. You download the app, then pick out a balloon, write the message that goes on your balloon, and then launch it. Someone who also has the Balloons app can receive your balloon, then opens it up (pops it) and reads the message you put in there. I've sent out three of them and all three were popped. The recipients weren't open to the Gospel, but the Gospel is exactly what they need to hear. How else will they know the Truth?

Finally, you can wait for your telephone in your house to ring, and pick it up, talk to the sales person or survey taker, then ask him or her the important questions. I've had some excellent conversations sharing the Gospel over the telephone with people either taking a survey or supporting a political candidate.

So, if you are home bound and can't get out, don't despair! Always be in prayer, and wait for that phone to ring. If you can get an I-phone, get one and find some of the apps that you can put out the Gospel message in, especially the Balloons one. There are probably other means of putting the Gospel out by using such means and I would love to have new suggestions of how this can be done. I'm sure this is not limited to Face Book or the I-phone. Please send any comments to me if you have a way to communicate the Gospel from your home.

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?