Everyday Evangelism - What Can Tracts Do?

    Tracts are one of those interesting things in the world of evangelism. Some evangelistic people love them, while others hate them. Some prefer a clever type tract while others want an upfront type of tract. And there are others who prefer no tract, just an upfront conversation. God can work in all of these methods, and there isn't only one way of doing evangelism the right way.
   Last week, I was in the grocery store and was in a hurry as well. I actually opted for the bagboy to take my groceries out, because it would save me time to have to bring the cart in (You know I am in a big hurry when I decide to let the bagboy take the cart to my car!). On the way out, the young man told me that he had the tract that I was holding, a Giant Money tract  (I probably gave him one before). When we were outside, he told me he didn't understand it. I made sure it wasn't the quiz part that he wasn't talking about, and started asking him questions about the Gospel. I was able to share the Gospel with him in just a few moments, and direct him to my web site and email. He appeared to want to know more. Please pray for him. His name is Justin. I also gave him another tract (How Good Are You?). He seemed to get the Gospel message.
   Today, we were on our way home from a trip to Georgia, and I put a Million Dollar bill tract in the restroom. After we were all getting in the car, my daughter had just come from the restroom and told me what happened. An older lady who worked at the restaurant found the tract and wondered if it were real. She was having a conversation with another older woman and seemed pretty excited about finding the tract. I pray that she will take it home and read it (and still be excited about it!) and that God will work in her heart.
  A couple of miles down the road we stopped for groceries and gas. While we were out I was getting ready to pay for some coffee and I took out a Million Dollar bill tract. The cashier looked at it in wonder. I gave it to her explaining that it was my late Christmas present to her. She was excited about getting it to keep. I explained that it had the Gospel message on it. She seemed to be delighted with it, and another worker (I think) was in wonder of it too, so I gave her one as well. They were thankful for them.
  Things like this happen often when I give out tracts. That doesn't mean that everyone who gladly takes one gets saved. But I have seen people look at them and read them aloud! One lady couldn't get over the fact that looking with lust at another person was the same as committing adultery (at heart). Another bagboy found one and said that there is no way that anyone can know if they are going to heaven after they die, which started a conversation about the Gospel.
   Having said all this, I have to say that every person has their own style of doing evangelism and communicating with people. Please don't feel condemned if you don't feel comfortable using money tracts. Living Waters (www.livingwaters.com) has a lot of different types of tracts available for you to work with, or if you aren't comfortable with using tracts, there are other valid ways to communicate the Truths of the Gospel. But I love this way because it provides a natural ice-breaker that can lead to the Gospel.
   One more thing. It really does make a difference if you smile when you give tracts out. Take it from my experience. People are more ready to warm up to you and feel comfortable about taking the tract if you are smiling and friendly toward them. Remember, it is only 5% of the people that won't want the tract. And for the 95% that will take it, it is worth the risk of rejection by the 5%.
   I have heard reports that people have been saved by reading a Gospel tract. You really never know where the tracts will end up or who will end up reading them, but we pray over them and give them out and one day in heaven, we will see the fruit of our labors.

Everyday Evangelism - The Christmas Parade - Encouragement for Believers to Preach the Gospel

   There were six of us yesterday who did the parade in downtown Winter Park. There were challenges, but overall, everything went smoothly. We were not actually in the parade though. We were on the side lines passing out Gospel tracts that were in the form of postcards that the recipient could use to send to a faraway relative or friend. I brought along 30 beach balls, 10 maracas (see side picture) and 10 flying discs with Bible verses or a Gospel message on them. We ran out of tracts, which was rare and all the toys were easily gone. Please pray for those who received the toys and tracts, that they would be responsive to the Gospel.
   Most of the people actually were very open to receiving the tracts. There were a few on the ground or in the trash. After this many years of doing this activity, I'm sure that many of these people received a tract from us before. As a matter of fact, when Sean, our parade evangelism director started doing this, I was at the parade and received a tract from them!
  I did meet one such person. I gave a tract to a woman and she informed me that she knew what it was and said, "I just love what you all are doing." I have to wonder how many people we actually are affecting when we give out these tracts. I think it can be just as valuable for a Christian believer to see what we are doing and be challenged to go do the same (not being in a parade necessarily, but living a life that openly promotes the Gospel).
   So the word of God has been received by a couple of thousand of people and God can do wonderful things with that. Some might come to Christ and have a vital ministry. Others could be saved and become evangelists. Some might end up in another country having a serious impact in that country for the kingdom of God. But some could already be believers who would now be stirred up to tell the world about the Gospel.
   So our work of evangelism is at least two-fold. It can reach the lost and God can save them as they hear His word, and it can challenge believers to communicate the Gospel. God can and will do amazing things as we tell the Gospel to others.

Everyday Evangelism - The Sacrifice of the Lamb

   On Saturday, November 12th, I went to an arts and crafts festival in Longwood and was able to talk with several people about the Gospel. It was a challenging day, but it was a productive day. The first person I talked to, seemed to have a case of easy-believism as she was trying to get ahead of me by saying that if a person believes in Jesus than everything is ok with him. So we just skip over the sin part, I guess, and then assume everything is ok between us and God because Jesus died to pay for our sin. What is missing in this picture?
   Then as I was talking with some teenage girls, explaining the Gospel to them (which they seemed unfamiliar with), a woman comes up and starts questioning the girls about their relationship with God. She informed me that they 'have it' because she asked them if they had ever asked Jesus into their hearts, and of course, they did. I guess it didn't matter that they didn't understand about sin in the first place.
   But another time, as I was talking to a teenage girl, I was explaining about how a lamb would have to be sacrificed when people sinned in the Old Testament days. She became very sad as I was telling her about this. I think it was a good way to explain the Gospel to someone, in order to show them that something precious had to be sacrificed for our sins. I pray that the Gospel she heard that day will penetrate her heart and that God would do a deep work in her heart.
   One of the last group of girls I talked to were listening intently to the Gospel. They seemed affected by the Truth. Then the cell phone went off. It was one of the girl's mothers saying that they were going somewhere. Before my eyes they disappeared as the woman came to get them. I raced over and got some 'How Good Are You?' tracts and explained to them that they could read it at home. But I had to run after them because they were gone in a flash!
   I believe God was at work in all of their hearts. May much good fruit come out of this day of evangelism at the Longwood Arts and Crafts festival for 2011.
  I was able to make some videos of this event. I am not in most of them, but you can hear my voice in them as I share the Gospel with people.

Everyday Evangelism - Evangelizing at the Longwood Festival

The Longwood Arts and Crafts Festival - November 19, 2011 

    This day was a very good day as far as talking to people about the Gospel. Most of the people were very receptive and seemed to want to talk. But it didn't start out that way. I got there a little later than I wanted to, but we did find a parking place, pretty close to where we parked last year.
   As we were going toward the festival, I was pushing my cart which was overflowing with goodies. I was also carrying a big poster, and my son was carrying a card table. We were almost there and the wheel broke off my cart. My son suggested pulling the cart, which is how we did it the rest of the way.
   We got there, and I did a quick set up. I started talking to people right away and was in a conversation with someone when my poster blew over and the easel fell down. So I had to pick it all up again and try to arrange it all so it wouldn't fall over any more, which has always been the challenge. The tracts were blowing off the table, so I had to find something to hold them down. This time I put the poster on the ground leaning against the easel with Silly Putty stuck on the back so it wouldn't come apart from the easel! It finally worked.
   One of the first people I talked to was a young woman who was defensive about being a Christian. So I tried to explain to her that there will be some people who die, who call themselves Christians, who will hear the reply, "I never knew you. Depart from me..." She seemed to believe that it was easy to be a Christian. I'm not sure she really had a heart understanding of the Gospel.
  My son was talking to a man, and he looked really convicted. I didn't get his name, but after we asked him questions, he explained that his wife was a Christian, but not a born again one (Interesting), but his children were born again, and he was the heathen of the family. We gave him the the booklet "How Good Are You?" so hopefully, he will read it and take it to heart.
   Then I was talking with some young girls, and really having a good conversation with them, when a woman came out from nowhere and tried to finish what I was doing. The only difference was that she used the terms 'Ask Jesus into your heart'. I thought she was the mother, and I was thinking she was quizzing her daughters on the Gospel. But she wasn't their mother. She was a person who said she was an evangelist. She put emphasis on 'praying the prayer' and assured the girls they were saved. She gave them assurance, because they 'did it'. I know God is sovereign and can still work in the girls hearts in spite of it. I know the girls didn't understand the Gospel at the beginning.
     After we got done and packed up, carrying the poster and pulling my broken cart, while we were on the sidewalk, my son gets a bloody nose. I told him to just keep walking and was hoping he would try to make sure that the blood would drip on the sidewalk. We went a little ways, and a woman was trying to read the poster. She was friendly and wanted to talk. So I started asking her the trivia questions. I asked her a couple of questions and my son's nose started bleeding a lot. So I gave him the keys and told him to go to the car. The lady was very understanding, and said that it was ok and she understood that i had to take care of him. I left her with 2 tracts that I found on my way out in the trash can.
   Lots of beach balls were taken, and a few flying disks. All 100 tracts I labeled last night were given out. The people loved the posters with the questions and we asked many people if we could give them the Good Person Test, to which most responded with a 'yes'.
   God allowed us to have a profitable day with many difficulties to work through. We wouldn't expect a day to go perfectly would we? We know Satan isn't happy when God's word goes out. With God's permission, he will attack whatever we are doing, or try to discourage us. Even though the Word didn't get out the exact way I would have planned, it got out enough for God to be able to use it. And the results are His. We will look forward to seeing much fruit in eternity.

Everyday Evangelism - Far Reaching Results

   I was contemplating on the other day as I was walking down Park Avenue to go to the spice store. I made sure I had tracts ready to take with me and tried to prepare to talk to people, even if briefly. For the most part, people said 'no' to taking the tracts. I was not surprised as some of these people may have already received a tract and possibly knew what I was giving away. But there was one man I gave the tract to and he loved it. He was asking where he could get them. I explained to him how he could order them and pointed him to the many web sites on the back of the tract.  While I was talking with him (and his wife/girl friend?) I gave a tract to an older man (who I was sure would reject it). He seemed delighted and asked for another one for his wife.
   The point of this post is that while it seemed like an unprofitable day, by my standard anyway, I don't have an eternal perspective of what God can do. What if God spoke to that man's heart (who wanted to order the tracts) and what if he got inspired to order some and give them out? What if he gave out a couple hundred in his life time, and one person came to Christ? What if the one person who came to Christ had a neighbor that he led to the Lord? What if the people in this neighbor's family came to Christ and one became a pastor of a thriving, healthy Bible believing church?
   I don't know what God will do with the tracts I gave out the other day. But His Word says that it will not return to Him void. It will accomplish the purpose it was set out to do. And God is great in working through Divine appointments. Maybe the tract giving will end up being an answer to someone's prayer for their lost loved one. Only God knows what will happen when we are faithful to give away that which He has abundantly given to us. We need to be in faith for what He will do, in and through us.

Everyday Evangelism - "Isn't This the God House?"

Monday night we had our usual annual trick-or-treaters coming around. I had my graveyard aquarium set up (but the black light didn't work right. You couldn't see the details on the grave stones). I also had the 'Are you a genius?' poster set out. That was great. Older children and parents were looking at the questions. One child wanted his dad to take the Good Person test, but the dad refused. The mom was asking about it, so I asked her if she had ever told a lie. She said that she had. She was already disqualified from the $20 promised to anyone who could pass it.
   I had beach balls with one side imprinted "God is uncreated. He never had a beginning and has always been in existence" and on the other side it said "www.thegospelconversation.blogspot.com". Many children were grateful that they got to pick a toy out. They verbally thanked me for it and seemed to have an appreciation for the toys that they didn't have for the candy. I also had the flying discs out. They had imprinted on them John 14:6 "Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me". Then there were the maracas which had imprinted on them 1 Timothy 2:5 "There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Most of the people who choose a toy, usually pick a beach ball.
   There were a couple of girls who may have been around ten or eleven. As they were looking through the toys to pick one, one of the girls was sure that this was the house that gave out Million dollar bills with Justin Bieber's picture on it. At first,  wasn't sure of giving out anything with Justin Bieber, at least not intentionally. It wasn't until a couple of days later, I put two and two together and realized that I had celebrity Million Dollar bills last year and probably gave them out. Perhaps she got a Justin Bieber one and remember that it was here where she got it. The two girls were having a discussion about this, or maybe it was more like a debate. The other girl was convinced that this wasn't the house where the Justin Bieber million dollar bills were given out. Finally, the one girl asked out loud, "Isn't this the God house?". I thought that was interesting. For the past several years, I have been giving out pencils, coins, imprinted toys, etc with the Gospel or 10 Commandments out. I wonder if people ever remember where the 10 Commandment pencil came from, or the beach ball or flying disc. Now I am beginning to see that people are starting to remember.
   Most of the time, toys are very easy to give out, even if they have a sharp message pointing to the Gospel. I had a basket of toys at a college a couple of years ago. A Muslim lady who was a teacher came up to my table. She was very sad because she was a science teacher and this was the time when it became mandatory for teachers to teach evolution in the schools. That was going to be a hardship for anyone who knows that the world didn't just come into existence just by itself. This teacher was very distressed and talked to me about it. She explained that she wasn't interested in becoming a Christian because she had already studied it in a religion class in England. She took some of the material from 'Answers in Genesis' www.answersingenesis.org . She was also going to go to the web site later on to look for more help. The last thing she did was to take one of the beach balls for her little girl. The words were obvious to see "What can wash away my sins?" on one side. The other side reads "Nothing but the blood of Jesus. www.thegoodtest.net". She took the ball home to her little girl. I pray that the words will open up her heart to the Gospel.

Everyday Evangelism - My New QR Code - It really works!

I have a new tool to work with, but I'm going to need to be creative in coming up with ways to implement this for evangelism. I went to a QR generator web page and created a QR code for my web page. I downloaded a QR reader for my I-phone because people on Face Book have the QR code for the 180 movie. What you have to do is to get a QR reader, then when you see a QR code (kind of like a bar code, but square), you look at the code through the reader (or whatever the directions tell you to do). The QR reader then picks up the code then brings you to the web site that is connected with that code. So I created a code for my Gospel Conversation blogpage. The code is on the right and if you have a reader, it will take you to The Gospel Conversation page. Maybe I can print them up on labels and put them out on tracts or literature. I wonder if I could have the code imprinted on helium balloons. Any ideas from you guys would be appreciated. And if you haven't gone to the 180 movie yet, make sure you watch it.

My Universalism Experience One Saturday Morning

  This actually happened a couple of years ago. One Saturday morning I was out giving out tracts and talking to people on Park Avenue. There was a group of four college age kids sitting on the lawn. Not wanting to be disruptive to their conversation, I carefully gave them tracts and started talking to them. Needless to say, they weren't happy about what I was doing. Two of them professed to be believers. The other two seemed to be more followers.
   I did ask them a couple of questions about themselves (which they denied later on) to get to know them. The young girl who did the most talking explained to me that Jesus wouldn't be happy about my passing out tracts and talking to people, and that Jesus didn't do that when He was here. She continued to explain that her parents were unbelievers and she wouldn't want me talking to them because it would turn them off. One of the other girls explained to me that every time I gave out a tract, I was putting a check mark in my box (kind of similar to Rob Bells's explanation of putting a notch in your belt whenever you give out a tract). They went on to explain that the people that were around Park Avenue already knew about Jesus. I would be making enemies with people if I did that (excuse me, but where is that in the Bible?).
    I basically let them talk to see what kind of reasoning they would have. They went to a local church geared to single people in their 20's. I must have sat there for a half an hour listening to them talk. At the very end, the one girl accused me of not even showing any interest in them (You never asked our names, etc). Excuse me again, but I did ask their names and where they went to school along with a few other things. Well, the other girl actually came to my defense and repeated something I told them.
    The girl recommended that I read two books. She was very impressed that I had an I-Phone too. Now I seemed to synchronize with them a little more. The two books were, 'Blue like Jazz' and 'Velvet Elvis'. I don't have to explain too much more to show where they got their information on Christianity. I found an excerpt done by Mark Sohmer on 'Velvet Elvis' and was appalled by what was written in that book. The author, Rob Bell, definitely hates evangelism. He doesn't have a deep respect for God's Word, and I didn't detect any recognition of the Gospel or Who Jesus is in anything I read about from that excerpt. If that is where they are getting their basic instructions on discipleship, no wonder they said the things they were saying.
  One of the things the girl said at the end of our conversation, at least I thought I heard her say this, was that when Scripture and the culture go against each other, Scripture has to bow to the culture. Now maybe I remembered this incorrectly, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone really believes this, if they are a fan of Rob Bell. The girl commented about Rob Bell in saying that people say that Rob Bell is a Universalist, but she says that he really isn't. What do you think?
   I would hope that the church you attend doesn't support this kind of thinking. If those in a church are supportive of Mr. Bell's teachings and books, I think it would be wise to point out to the pastor or leaders in that church of the errors in Rob Bell's books/videos/teachings. If the leaders hold on to that kind of teaching and are not looking for change, I would be praying to see if God has another place for me somewhere else. Books like 'Velvet Elvis' promote Universalism, which basically believes that God doesn't really send people to hell (unless they are really bad, like Hitler). Somehow, because Jesus died for everyone's sins, everyone is ok before God. We know that is not true. We need to be careful to correct wrong doctrine. When a teaching goes against Scripture, we have to go along with what Scripture teaches. The church needs to be kept pure from error. And it is our responsibility to do that.

Everyday Evangelism - Thoughts About God's Standard vs. Ours

   Oftentimes, I encounter a response from people that sounds something like this; God will judge the really bad people, like Hitler, or, the ones that God sends to hell are those who are murderers and do really bad things like that.
   I went through the Gospel and the Law with one such lady a couple of years ago. She technically understood the Gospel and even admitted to lying, etc. Then it came time for the question, "Why would God allow you into heaven? Do you think you are a good person?" Her response was typical of our Western culture. It was something like, "God won't punish me in hell, because I haven't murdered anybody. I'm not a bad person!"
        People are having a hard time seeing what God's holiness looks like. Many people answer like the woman I talked with that night. "God won't punish me in hell because I haven't murdered anybody." The problem with these people in their thinking is that they see a difference between the sin of being angry and outright murder, such as the acts of Hitler. It seems like Hitler (and his name always comes up) has become the standard of who goes to hell. Since people aren't as bad a he was, they reason, that they won't go to hell. I can understand their reasoning. But it is hard to communicate to them that even their 'white lie' is evil enough before a holy God to send them to hell for eternity.
   This same criteria has come up again in a group setting which I am part of. Hitler's name comes up a lot and these people are using him as a standard of right and wrong, instead of seeing the Law of God (or even understanding it) as the correct standard. It sure sounds logical to them to talk about their white lie in comparison to someone who intentionally wanted to kill as many people as he could. Now to figure out how to bridge the gap.
   The main way to bridge the gap starts with who God is and what He is like. Not only is He different than human beings, but He is holy, and He is without any kind of sinful flaw. How can we explain to people what He is like? What does His word say about Him?
   People can read in History books what Hitler did. They can't see God with their eyes, because He is invisible. Unless people understand that God is all-knowing, and that God is a Spirit, they will fail to see Him as He truly is. They will be like the heathen in the book of Psalms, or like the scoffers who say that God doesn't notice their sin. He doesn't care. "When is He coming back anyway? We've been hearing this for centuries, and it hasn't happened yet, and I don't think it ever will." These people assume that a holy God isn't watching or they don't have to give account to Him because if they did, He would be visible to them.
   God is the One who reveals Himself to people. That is why we need to pray that will happen. We have to pray for a deep conviction of sin in the hearts of these people. Only when they see their 'white lies' and 'taking something small when they were children' as serious sin, they won't truly come to Christ. They can technically understand the Gospel, but will personally not see a need for it. From that will only result false converts to deal with later on. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that is what we need when presenting the Gospel to others.

Everyday Evangelism - October 1, 2010 - Planet X

  I went to eat lunch with a friend on Saturday, and while I was waiting in the parking lot, I gave out some tracts. It can be an interesting adventure, as I really never know who I will run into. I didn't have any recording devices on me, and didn't plan to have any conversations at length as I didn't know when my friend would show up.
   I talked with a man who was parked on the other side of the parking place. Seemed like a real nice guy. He was on a mission. He just got through bypass surgery and says that it is a miracle that he is alive. His mom was praying for him, and also told him that he would have three signs that had to do with God. He said he was going to read the tract I gave him. Perhaps that was one of the three signs? I would love to have talked to him about the Gospel, but he said he was on a mission. He went on to explain that Planet X would be here pretty soon and we need to be ready. Planet X comes once every 3800 years, he continued. When it comes, it causes severe tidal waves and most of America is going to end up under water. Planet X came by when Noah was in the ark. This man has bought some property that is way above sea level in Colorado, and encourages others to do the same.
  Like I said , I wanted to get some words in about the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, he was really a kind man, just on a mission. He believes the most important thing that we can do is to get ready for Planet X coming.
   I did get to explain that we need to get ready spiritually, and he seemed to understand what I was getting at.
   We all should be on such a mission. Not to warn people about Planet X coming and creating gigantic tidal waves, but we need to warn people about the Judgment to come. The Bible is very clear that God will never destroy the earth with a flood again, as He did in Noah's time, but He will destroy it by fire. If we are not ready, when that day comes, we will be thrown in the Lake of Fire. God help us to take our mission seriously. May God give us compassion for lost people and the desire to make His name known.
  The prayer request here is that God will show Himself to this man, named Dominic. Dominic needs to be preparing himself for the day he will see God. He needs to be clothed with righteousness. He needs to be washed. All of us need to be ready for that day. We will either die in our sins, or, die with our sins completely erased. We need to hear the Gospel and respond. So do those around us. Let us love our neighbors as ourselves and preach the Gospel to them.

Everyday Evangelism - Tongue Tied Evangelism

   Are you sometimes afraid to talk to people about the Gospel? Maybe you are one of those people whose mouth dries out while you are speaking. Or maybe your voice quivers or you lose your voice when you start talking. Maybe you can't remember what to say or your mind goes blank. If your like me, you fit in all the above listed categories. On top of that, you listen to a message on evangelism, then feel guilty because you remember the last time you tried to talk to somebody, they wouldn't listen and you never wanted to try again, at least for a long, long time.
   It is not easy to share the Gospel. In fact, it really is impossible. That is why Jesus promised that the disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Evangelism takes the power of God to carry it out and be effective.
 One time Moses told God, that he didn't want to go to where God was leading them, unless he knew that God's Presence was going to be with them. The Bible says that the power of the God is in the Gospel. That is why we cherish it. That is why we need it.
  I will give a little bit of my story to encourage you, if you are one of those people who feel like you are slow to speech, when it comes to evangelism. I was a very unlikely candidate for being a person that could share the Gospel. First of all, I didn't really know how to talk well. I had a small vocabulary, plus just didn't know how to communicate about anything. I remember as a child, going to the doctor's office and the doctor would be talking to me, and my mom had to do the responding for me because I didn't really know how to answer him. Kids bullied me around because I didn't talk, and I ended up being very disadvantaged because of my lack of ability to speak. I felt stupid around other people, and basically didn't really even want to socialize very much because of that.
  At the age of seventeen, something dramatic happened to me one Sunday morning. My life was changed and I believe it was because the Gospel connected in my heart. I got it, finally. I was never the same. My friends tried the year before to get me to pass out tracts. I didn't really understand what that was all about, but God was working in my heart making me ready to respond to Him. God helped me understand the Gospel and it took root in my heart. I had a great desire to share the Gospel and preach the word after that.
   But there were still problems. I was still a tongue tied person. It was still hard to communicate. I gave tracts out to my classmates, but if they were to ask me questions about the Gospel, I felt so unprepared. Time went on. I got married. I went to an evangelism course called "I Found It". I took Evangelism Explosion classes. I join Child Evangelism Fellowship. I had a lot of teaching on evangelism. But I still found it hard to talk to people. Usually, my mouth would dry out. If I could get words out, then I would lose track of what I was saying and couldn't follow the conversation. I was still leaving tracts out at the mall when I was 22, but the desire to evangelize became weaker. Then after having four children over a period of about 13 years and homeschooling, who has time for evangelistic activities? Evangelism was now a foreign concept to me, or just a fading memory by this time. I thought maybe one day it would happen, at least maybe I could still leave tracts around, but even that seemed a long way off. Even though I continued to go to evangelism classes as they were offered, I was pretty much resolved to the fact that the best I would ever be able to do would be to lay tracts around, or, maybe if I could get brave and make my voice strong, I could actually give them to people. But it would only happen if someone else were leading that way. I certainly was not now envisioned to lead in this area!
    Well, it happened. We had an evangelism class at our church that used videos from 'The Way of the Master' and I came to the church building at 8:30 am, which was way too early for me to be anywhere. There were opportunities to go out and evangelize. The desire came back into my heart again to do this. I wondered if it would be different. I certainly had a better understanding of the Gospel. It looked so easy on the videos watching Ray and Kirk talking to people. Guess what? I went out there and it was still hard. My son and I would go out there with the group and since he wasn't afraid to start conversations with people, I took advantage of this. I would jump in and be able to talk to people once the conversation started. But there were still problems. Sometimes, it was just me talking to someone, and my mouth would still dry out. I still had some fear of man. My mind would still go blank. Sometimes, I would start shaking and couldn't talk. But my heart really wanted to do this. Why would God give me the desire to do something and then have it not work out. Again, I was resolving myself to just pass out tracts and lay them in conspicuous places.
   It came to the place where I had to be in prayer about this. Since it was a major struggle, I would have to wrestle in prayer. My desire to carry out this 'work of service' would have to be strong enough for me to stay in prayer over it. So that is what I did. I prayed for God to change me. I am still praying that I will have the grace and ability to do this, and that I will not be afraid of people. I will have to pray for this until my last day on earth, because I cannot do this in my strength. I need help, God's help.
  Now, we are at the place we God has allowed me to be prepared for this work. I am still afraid at times, but I am not paralyzed anymore. My mouth dries out occasionally, but most of the time, everything goes well. I can have conversations with people and help them understand the Gospel better. I need to keep reminding myself that there are some people who really are interested in listening to what God says. There is only a small handful of people who are antagonistic toward the Gospel. And God can give wisdom in those situations. He can also lead us to talk to the people He wants to hear the Gospel, on that day. We can be in faith that God is at work, because He is here with us. He will help us when we get stuck. He will give us courage to talk to people. He will do all this for us, but we need to be in prayer for ourselves and for the lost. The key to all of this being successful is trusting God and being diligent in prayer.
   If God can take one person and help this person to learn how to go from just leaving tracts in places to actually communicating the Gospel in conversations with people on a regular basis, He can do it for anyone who has that desire in his or her heart. It may take months of praying, but praying is a must. The fruit that will come out will be amazing and many people will hear the Gospel that would never have had any opportunity if that person did not learn to share their faith. God is able to make us able. Let us trust in Him now.

Everyday Evangelism - People Need to Wrestle with God

     Here is my evangelism thought for today. People need to wrestle with God. The problem with modern evangelism is that we have the idea that everything should be easy for us. We try to make the Gospel easy for people to understand. When we see people start to wrestle with God, we try to stop it. We mistakenly think that people are rejecting God when they are in wrestling mode. We make false assumptions because of our misunderstanding. We think because they are wrestling, that the Gospel is too hard for them to accept. So then we water the Gospel down to make it easier for them to grasp. In doing that, we have taken out the workings of God in their hearts. I think the reason we fail in this area is because we don't understand the power and greatness of God. We think that a person is credited with righteousness if they have a good understanding of the Gospel. We give more credit to a person than we should. Salvation is of the Lord and we need to be careful to not stop the work of God in their hearts.
   When people are afraid of going to hell, do we help them understand why people end up there in the first place, or do we try to give them a false comfort leading them to believe that they won't go there because they are afraid. How many times have we seen something like that. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved..." or "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.."? Don't get me wrong, those Bible verses are effective in their context. But when a person begins to wrestle with the things of God, how easy it is for us to just pop a verse and try to solve a person's problem. Let's take time and talk over things with people, instead of just trying to give them an answer that will make them calm. Every time God works in a heart, there will be conflict. That is good. It is kind of like pouring peroxide on an open wound. When there are bubbles, that means the peroxide is working. Pouring peroxide on a wound is painful. Be prepared for discomfort if you try it! But teaching the word of God to people has a similar effect. People will feel pain and struggle. That is a normal reaction of God's working. As God begins to work, and people begin to feel growing pains, that is good. Don't interrupt that with trying to make the person feel good. Help them by applying the Gospel to their hearts. It will be amazing to see what God does in a heart that wrestles with Him.

Everyday Evangelism - No Fail Card Trick with Gospel Point!

Everyday Evangelism - A Letter to an Email Spammer

Here is one way to tell the Gospel, especially since we get a lot of these types of emails in our email boxes.

I was going through my junk email box, and came across this type of letter which I have received from supposedly different people. This tim I wrote back. These letters are usually from someone in the Middle East supposedly, who had a relative or spouse who died. Somehow the money is supposed to be delegated to us. Here is what I wrote back to Mrs. Gore Thorsten:

Hello Mrs. Gore Thorsten,

   I don’t know who you are and I can only imagine why you are writing to me. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I have gotten this same kind of letter from hundreds of other people at different times. It looks like you are sending out emails like this in order to get personal information from people. Needless to say, it looks very suspect.

   I can’t really help you with sending any more information, but I can tell you of something that is far more valuable than all the money in the world. You may or may not have heard of the Gospel. It involves information that we need to know, in order to understand where we will spend eternity.

   Mrs. Gore, have you ever thought about what happens after a person dies? There are only two places that people go to after they leave this earth. One of them is Heaven, and the other is hell. Heaven is where God is, and because He is holy, no sin can ever be present there. Hell is a place for eternal punishment for sin. The problem is that every person that has ever lived (except one) has sinned. Each person will stand before God after he or she dies. If that person dies in their sin, they will spend eternity in a place of torment and will never be relieved of it, nor will they be able to leave that place.

  You might ask, how does a person stand before God without sin? You might be thinking, do I have sin? Here is a way you can find out. Take the 10 Commandments. Look at them. Ask yourself if you have ever lied, stolen, lusted, cheated, loved other things more than God, hated, and many other things we do. If you have even broken one of those Commandments, ever, you will be marked with sin that God will judge one day. That is the bad news. You might be asking, what is the Good news then?

   The Good News is that you don’t have to die in your sin. Here’s why; God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago to take the punishment for all our sin. Your sin and my sin were put on Him when He was dying on the Cross. He never broke any of the 10 Commandments and always obeyed God, His father. After He died and was buried, He rose from the dead. You can turn from your sin and trust in Him as your Savior today. You can have a life that pleases God and glorifies Him. The choice is yours. Please consider this before you put your head on your pillow tonight. Life has many choices. Eternity has only two.

Susan Seifert

Everyday Evangelism - The Stolen Beach Balls

  I was recalling a funny story in my mind today, and wondering what God was doing in it. A couple of years ago, I ordered a bunch of beach balls which had some words imprinted on them. On one side, it asks the question, "What can wash away my sin?" and on the other side it reads "Nothing but the blood of Jesus. www.thegoodtest.net "
  I had them in a basket at a garage sale at my daughters house. I put a sign on top of the basket telling people to take one per family (actually, if someone asked, I would let them have more if they had other family members that would want one). I had the basket of beach balls near the sidewalk so that when people were walking up to the garage sale, they would notice them first.
  It was later in the day, and the traffic was slowing down, as far as the amount of people that were garage sailing that day. A car pulled up to the side walk and stopped. It had a couple of what looked like to me, African American men in it. The driver opened his door, and grabbed whatever beach balls were in the basket, about five or six. Then he took them and went back to the car and drove away. Now I can't imagine why someone would have done that. Perhaps he wanted to use them for his own evangelism, or maybe he was going to resell them. Maybe he had grandchildren and wanted one for each one. No one from that car even looked at the garage sail items. It was all very interesting anyway. God knows where each of the beach balls ended up and He will get glory for that whole incident. It was kind of funny though, and I will never forget that incident. Maybe someone will end up in heaven one day, because they saw the message on the beach balls. Maybe God used it to reach into someone's heart, that we have no idea of at this time.

Everyday Evangelism-My Letter To Jay

Jay will probably never read this, but I will never forget the encounter I had with him a couple of years ago at the park. My heart goes out to him. This is for any 'Jay' who fits in this category.

    We were learning a lot about evangelism a couple of years ago. I feel like I had been through boot camp or college because of the teachings of Ray Comfort, Mark Cahill, and several others. One thing I had learned, not only through teaching, but by personal experience, is that people resist God. They don't want to hear God's voice. This is not surprising, since Scripture teaches this, as well. Sometimes people react in a strong way when the Gospel is being preached. Sometimes, people make fun of the person telling the Gospel, or of Christians in general. One such irony, happened to me. I was running into people who would say they were going to hell, after I would give them a tract or start a conversation. Were they happy about this 'going to hell' situation or were they perhaps looking for help? I don't know. I went to an evangelism forum and posted a message about it. One person responded by saying that, if someone were to have asked her questions about the Gospel, she would have said to them that she was going to hell (a couple of years before this). But she did get saved and now she knows where she is going. Why would she have said such a thing? It was because she felt like it would have been too hard for God to save her. It was just that simple. So from that time on, I had a new perspective on this response. Maybe people really did care about where they would go into eternity. Perhaps God was working in their hearts, but they were listening to the Enemy of their Souls who was telling them that their sin was too great for God to forgive.

   I was at a park one Saturday afternoon, a couple of years ago. There were a group of young men playing football or some kind of game on a field. I went up to them and gave them tracts and started talking with them about the Gospel. I asked them if they knew where they would spend eternity. They gave me their answers. But one stood out. He told me that he was going to hell. At first, I thought he was just mocking, so I focused on the other guys. But it kept coming back to him. He kept saying that he was going to hell. After I was finished talling with the guys as a group, I started asking this young man questions. Still trying to figure out if he was being antagonistic or mocking, I wasn't sure where he was coming from. I continued to talk to him about the Gospel. He still had doubts that God would or could forgive him. I explained about the Blood of Christ, and how it was powerful enough to cleanse even the worst of sinners. He explained to me what he had done. He just came back from Afghanistan and was trained in shooting people. He had shot people at random and had killed innocent women and children. He really believed that God could not forgive him for that. We continued to talk for a little while. He seemed a little more hopeful at the end of the conversation. I left him with some tracts. His name is Jay. Jay, if you are out there I hope you have considered what we talked about that Saturday afternoon. Please know that God will forgive you, if you turn from your selfish ways and trust in what Jesus did on the cross for you. Please repent and turn to God. Trust in Him. He is bigger than all your sin and failures and will forgive you if you turn to Him. 

   This letter is for all the 'Jays' out there, whoever they may be. If you are like Jay, please consider what God has done for you by sending His Son to pay for your sins so you could be cleansed from sin and have a right standing before God on Judgment Day. You can be free from the traps of sin and guilt. The Bible says, "If any man (person) is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. All things have become new." Please write to me if you have any questions about this.

Everyday Evangelism- Tracts in High School-Eternal Results

  I was just remembering when I was a senior in high school, I used to take tracts with me wherever I went. I think I had written to every tract company that existed at that time! Each company sent me samples, which I would collect. Some of the tracts were silly, like the one that said on the front page, "To wear or not to wear, the bow tie".
  I would bring them to school with me every day. I had some good tracts though, even though the selection back then was narrow.
  In a class, there was a young man sitting in the desk in front of me, named Ray. I knew Ray from a couple of years before, when I used to go to a place called, 'The Winter Park Youth Center'. Ray had a hard life and I knew he was on drugs. But now I am in a different place and I can give him tracts to read during class.
  He seemed to like the tracts. I would bring an assortment each day. One day, I didn't have tracts with me. He asked me for some, and I told him I didn't have them. He seemed disappointed. I then asked him if he wanted to become a Christian, to which he said, 'no'.
  He did open up to me and told me about his breaking up with his girl friend. He seemed like a nice guy, but I don't know that he was even able to do his school work well. Not sure if he even graduated or not.
  The next year, I got married, and the year after that I was doing something called, "Open Air" work in evangelizing children. I used to go out and tell the Gospel using a plastic nut that had a ribbon inside of it that I would pull out. There were five different colors on it that corresponded with different parts of the Gospel message. At our apartment complex, there was a school behind it. Sometimes, I would go to the school and use my little nut to talk to kids about the Gospel.
    One day I went over there and planned on talking to the children I would find (I don't know that I would recommend people doing this today). As I started going into the school yard, there was a man who was with a group of children. He looked familiar and indicated that he wanted to talk to me. He looked a little bit like Ray, but I was sure it couldn't possibly have been him. He looked too clean cut and organized to be Ray! Nevertheless, I waited and when he got the kids involved in something, he came over. I was shocked as it really was Ray! He looked different. He told me that he was praying that he would be able to see me to tell me that he had become a Christian! He explained that he had a girlfriend (not the same one as mentioned above) and she led him to the Lord. He wanted to make sure I knew. God answered his prayer!
   I saw Ray, maybe a year or so later, in a church band. I am glad that I had some tracts, albeit primitive ones at that, but God used the truth in them to help Ray understand his need for a Savior. One never knows what will be revealed in eternity because of using tracts, until we are in eternity! Sometimes, God will allow us to see something on this side of eternity. And that encourages us all the more to do evangelism.

Everyday Evangelism-Mini Beach Ball - 6 Inch

Mini Beach Ball - 6 Inch

I want to order these and put on one side, "God is uncreated. He never had a beginning and has always been in existence." On the other side I will put "www.thegospelconversation.blogspot.com" If we had enough people interested, we could sign up to be in the parade. We could toss them out as we go down the street.

Everyday Evangelism-The Weapon

I was recalling an event that took place years ago, when we lived in Winter Haven and went out to share the Gospel late one evening. This was a long time ago, and I know we did the best we could with what we have. There was no 'Way of the Master' or Mark Cahill yet to teach us. We stepped out in faith with what we had.
   During the day, the thought came to my mind; What if someone were to pull out a gun or try to kill us tonight? How would I respond? Would I be ok if we got hurt or killed? Could something like this even happen to us?
  Somehow the group we were with got dispersed. We were at the mall and we were still out there even though the mall was closed for the night. It was just my husband and I at this point. We went to some kind of trailer that was on the mall's property and my husband knocked on the door. There were two younger men in that place and one of them was interested in conversing. The other one wasn't. He was walking back and forth and was holding something that looked like a ball attached to a rope. It looked like the ball had spikes on it. I think he made some remarks while my husband was talking with the other man. Meanwhile the man with this 'weapon' just kept going back and forth swinging his weapon around.
  Looking back, I am glad we didn't run away when we saw the guy with the strange looking weapon. We could have been intimidated with him. I hope that other people were able to share the Gospel with these two men, and hope that their hearts were softened as they heard the message over thirty years ago. God protected us from harm, and we are grateful for that. Let's keep preaching the Gospel while there is time.

Everyday Evangelism-Truth and Grace-08/04/2011

Truth without grace= legalism. Grace without truth = lawlessness. Truth and grace together = liberty. When I first heard these words, I was reminded of a home group meeting we had a very long time ago. We were discussing what was taught in the pulpit about grace and truth. Somehow, if I remember correctly, the topic came to a conclusion that we had to balance grace with truth or we would either end up in legalism or lawlessness. Well, the truth of the matter is that it is not a matter of balancing the two. They are two different categories of the same truth that need to work together. If Truth stands alone, it can lead to legalism in our lives. If grace is without truth, it will produce a cheap grace, not a valuable one. So what is the answer? If I look at myself and see which way I am leaning toward, I would lean toward the side of truth alone. I love the Truth and would probably die for the Truth. Whenever I see any kind of truth being violated, something rises in me to protect it and make sure people believe it. Does grace negate truth then? Not at all. The truth of God in our lives needs the grace of God. It would be like trying to make a piece of machinery work without oil. The machine could be perfectly made, but if it doesn't have oil in its parts, it will not work. If we have grace without the truth, it isn't true grace. It would be like oil without the machinery. It wouldn't make sense. 
How does this affect evangelism? Most people I see who participate in evangelism seem to love the truth. They have a handle on preaching the truth, but does it always have grace with it? If it doesn't, it will end up preaching legalism, or that is the way it could be received by the hearers. Some things we have to keep in mind are, we need God's grace in our lives, just as the hearers need God's grace in their lives. We cannot give away what we don't have. The Gospel and its effects should be working in our lives primarily, as we share it with others. We are not saved by obeying God. We have to first recognize our continual need for the grace of God. It was not a one time need being met when we first came to Christ. Although we are forever justified in God's sight, we still need His grace to live out our lives for His glory every day (the process of sanctification). Again it is like the piece of machinery trying to work without being oiled. It just doesn't work. And it involves humility. We don't have the ability to preach the Gospel and teach God's word without God's anointing on us. And we dare not try. The fruit that comes out of our obedience is also an evidence of God's grace. We obey God, but the results are always up to God. He will get the glory. If we take the glory, it will not represent the True and Living God properly. It would be, in a sense, like lying about who God is. Not a good thing to do.
   On the other hand, we could put such an emphasis on grace. There would be a variety of reasons we would be tempted to do this. The main one I think would be because we think that if we talk about sin with people, they will reject us or our message. If they reject us, and that is distressful to us, to a point where we want to change the message of the Gospel, we should ask ourselves if we are dealing with the fear of man. All of us have this to a degree, and it does need to be dealt with as idolatry, but if it affects how or why we share the Gospel, then it is sin. Another reason people do this could be possibly that they really don't understand the Gospel. Perhaps they think because we are saved by grace, that sin isn't involved. After all, Jesus died for our sins, so basically, we are saved, as long as we believe that is true. Well, if that is true, then the devil could be saved because he knows that is true. Yes, Jesus died to pay for our sins, but we must repent and put our trust in Him, or nothing will happen. People tend to go to one extreme or the other. Either they believe God's Word is true, and we must respond by obeying Him, or they think that God's grace is a free ticket for us to stay in our sins and be ok on Judgment Day. We do need to obey Him. But we can't obey Him. We are dead in our sins. But we can trust in Him and He can set us free. It is not about having the truth or having grace, we need both! When we have both of those together, we will be like the piece of machinery that has been oiled. We will work properly and will have the power to obey and love God, something we could not do in ourselves. The grace of God teaches us to say 'no' to sin and 'yes' to righteousness. We need to hear the truth and receive it to be set free. When we have both truth and grace, we have the liberty in Christ that God promises us. See Ephesians 2:8 and 9, Titus 2:11 and John 8:32

Everyday Evangelism-Can Evangelism or 'Heretic Hunting' Be an Idol?

I am writing this article because I am very distressed about some of the activities that are going on in the evangelism circles I am in. This article is for those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ already. If the reader is not yet a believer, I encourage you to go to one of the other blog pages I am doing. You can find them at www.thegospelconversation.blogspot.com or www.thecolorfulstory.blogspot.com
   It is an easy trick of the Enemy to get us distracted and to lose our focus on the Lord. For me, I would have the temptation to take something good, like evangelism, and make that my life goal. I would spend all my strength and energy on it and everything it involves. Evangelism is good. But our focus needs to stay on the Lord.
  I have another concern as well. I am seeing a lot of posts in my evangelism forums and Face Book that are written by people who, I am sure well-meaning, would consider themselves to be 'Heretic Hunters'. Is there anything wrong with exposing false teachers? Absolutely not. The Bible tells us to do so. How much of a priority should this be then, and how can it best be accomplished? Is God glorified in the way it is being handled in the church today?
  Well, before we answer any questions, we always have to look at the motive of our hearts. What is the reason why we would expose false teachers or teachings? The Bible tells us to do so in order to serve the Body of Christ so that those who are weak in faith or new believers won't be sucked into deception. At the same time, the Bible helps us to learn how to be discerning so that we can learn how to detect false teachings. It is part of learning truth. As we grow in our Christian walk, we learn more and more how to separate the Truth from the Lies. If we look around the world right now, we can see how the world is permeated with lies. As we grow in our knowledge of the Scriptures, we see those lies more clearly. Having said this, should we make a big part of our Christian life talking about these lies and those who are teaching them? There may be times and situations that will call for that, but overall we should keep our focus on the Lord and continue to grow in the knowledge of the truth.
  Don't misunderstand. We tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are teachers who do a great job of exposing false teachers. Some of the well-known men of God, such as Justin Peters or Al Mohler have done an excellent job of exposing Rob Bell and his erroneous teachings. Can or should we add on to what they have done in this? I think we have to be careful and here's the reason why; something in our sinful flesh loves to talk about other people in a bad way. We love to put others in a bad light. But it looks right when we do this because we are exposing the bad guys right? If the false teachers have been exposed, should we continue to try to make them look worse? How much time should we spend on this anyway?
   I expose false teachers on Face Book. But it doesn't have to take up much of my time (unless someone wants to argue about it). It doesn't require much space either. I repost the works that Al Mohler or Kevin DeYoung have done and leave it at that. Their messages speak for themselves.
 Also, we need to be on the same page when it comes to 'Heretic Hunting' as far as the definition of a heretic. We spend way to much time picking people apart. I'm concerned also that we might hear a bad report about someone, and we might start to believe it ourselves. Then we tell so and so that this person is a heretic without even knowing why we believe it! How easily this leads into slander. Slander is a very serious sin in God's eyes. Let's be careful who we call a false teacher or heretic. If someone disagrees with you on a doctrinal issue, it doesn't necessarily mean he is a heretic. If he is teaching lies about the deity of Christ or about the Gospel message then he is to be confronted. If he doesn't listen, or consider his error or rebellion, and has no desire to change his message, and if he continues to preach the fallacy, then yes, his doctrine needs to be exposed. It needs to be exposed carefully though, because if we are not careful, we will be gloating over someone else because of their sin. That is pride and pride is an abomination to God. We don't have a right to become prideful when someone else is in sin. It doesn't give us a right to slander. There is a difference between exposing false teaching and slandering. We need to know the difference. Remember, the only people that Jesus came down hard on were the Scribes and Pharisees. Other people rejected Him and did things to Him that were awful. He had mercy on them because of their ignorance. There are a lot of Bible teachers that are weak or even in ignorance. They need help. They need someone to come alongside them to help them to see the truth. There are those who are a stiff as a board and will never bend their knee to God until that Day. It takes a skill to see which category people are in sometimes, because it can be hard to see the difference at first. Time usually reveals who a person loves and what they will stand for and ultimately die for. Let us be careful how we judge people in the church. Let us be patient with those who are weak, and let us stand up for the Truth at all times, gracefully and by the grace of God!

Everyday Evangelism-06/23/2011-The Carpeting Guys and the Movers

For the past three days, our house was in turmoil. We have some guys from a moving company move all of our furniture out on Wednesday, then on Thursday we had new carpet put in. The moving guys put the furniture back on Friday, at the same time the carpeting guys were finishing up with the carpeting. Nevertheless, our household was busy. Always wanting to take opportunities to present the Gospel, I started on Wednesday when the moving guys were working. I played the program I had prerecorded called, "The Way of the Master" which is also called, "Kirk Cameron" in the TV guides. It is a show that has the Gospel presentation on it, with quite a few actual dialogs with people doing one-on-one. We had to pay the guys for the work on Wednesday, so while I was writing out the check, the TV was on as loud as it could be, without trying to be obvious. I noticed one of the guys was watching it out of the corner of his eye.
   I decided on Thursday, I would make something delightful for the men to take home to eat when they all finished up on Friday. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, with an assortment of chips in each cookie. When I finished, I realized the it wasn't quite enough cookies for each guy to have 4 of them to take home, so I made another batch Friday morning.
   The men came on Friday, all five of them! I only planned on four! Good thing I made that extra batch of cookies. I set up five paper plates with four cookies each. Underneath each plate was a Giant Money tract. I also pulled out some beach balls, frisbies, and maracas that have Gospel messages on them, and offered the men to take one for each child they had. So they all went home with their tract, cookies, and toys for their families. One of the men also wanted to take some cookies home to his kids, so I had enough to make another plate for them. I might also add here, that when the movers were finished on Wednesday, somehow a million dollar bill showed up, and the guy showed it to me. I let him keep it.
  One of the guys from the moving company told me that he seems to know me from somewhere. He asked if I were a teacher. We tried to decide where we may have had contact somewhere before. I have a feeling he might have been a person that I gave a tract to one time, or maybe shared the Gospel with him somewhere. I found that interesting. I have had a couple of people say that to me already. They seem to know me from somewhere else, but can't remember where. Anyway, my theory is that if we share the Gospel often with people, I think that will happen more and more to us in later encounters with people. I'm glad that God gave me the opportunity to give tracts out to the men and have a show on TV presenting the Gospel. I will trust the Lord for more opportunities like that, and also times to present the Gospel to people as He leads.

Everyday Evangelism-Saturday Morning Park Ave. 6-11-11

The weather was great today for being outdoors. As I got to Park Avenue, there were a lot of people there. I ended up giving every tract out that I took with me. I saw groups of young men and asked what was going on. They said there was a basketball tournament. Even though there were a lot of people who rejected the tracts, there were some that were open to hearing the Gospel. I know that is the way it is supposed to be anyway, at least it appears that way in the Scriptures. I was able to talk to two different young women and have a decent conversation with both of them about the Gospel. I know if I were to have stayed there longer, I would probably have ended up talking to more people. This is really a good place to go to promote the Gospel message. I would encourage people to come out with me on Saturday mornings. During the week I will prepare the tracts by labeling them with web sites and a phone number to the church I am part of, along with my email address.

   I do find it interesting that many times when I am able to talk about the Gospel with someone, they seem to be very familiar with the Gospel, but sometimes I am concerned that something is missing. I take the person back to the Law and help them to see their sin, then explain the Gospel to them. But their response is kind of like, "I already knew that. You're not telling me anything new." They can answer the questions and seem to understand why Jesus had to die for them, but if they were born again, it seems like something would resonate in their hearts. The first woman I talked to told me thank you for taking the time to talk to her. I have a concern that there are many people who may have a knowledge of God, but are lacking the relationship with Him. So I explained to the woman that people have that knowledge many times, but don't really know God personally. It seemed like the conversation I had with the second woman was very similar to the first one. She knew the answers, but I am not sure she was getting the Gospel. I told both women that my email address was on the back of the tract and if they had any questions to feel free to send me an email. Please pray for both of these women. I believe their names are Trey and the second was Anna. They were very nice to talk to and not defensive like so many people are. Please pray for them.

Then there are also people like a man who was sitting on the bench. I offered him a tract and told him what it was and he explained he didn't need it because he was a Christian. He already knew about God so he wouldn't take a tract. It is true that knowledge can make us stumble, and that is only because we fail to apply the knowledge to our own hearts. The Bible says to be 'doers of the word and not hearers only..', for when we don't apply the Word to our own hearts, we end up in deception. We have to remember that Satan knows the Bible better than we do, and the Truth is working against him. "let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you..." It is of utmost importance....

Everyday Evangelism-Pennies for the Poor-Inroads to Evangelism

I am constantly looking for ways to break the ice, so to speak, in order to create an inroad to preach to Gospel to people. Most of my explaining the Gospel is done one-on-one or one-on-two, sometimes there are three or four in a group. My usual way to bring about an opportunity to present the Gospel to someone is to give out tracts, hoping someone will have a puzzled look on their face, or have a lot of time on their hands, while having a spark of interest in hearing more about the Gospel. It starts out like this; "Did you get one of these?". They answer (or hopefully answer), "No. What is it?". "It has a fun little quiz on it. If you get stuck, the answer is on it but I'm not going to tell you where it is. Don't cheat unless you really can't figure the answer out," I answer them. If they look like they would continue in a conversation, I tell them it has the Gospel message on it. If they don't hand it back to me by this time, I usually ask them if they have ever heard the Gospel. Then I ask them about the 10 Commandments, and so on, using all of that to present the Gospel. Depending on their interest and response, I will elaborate on the Gospel beginning with the Old Testament in Genesis. Once I get started in presenting the Gospel, it is pretty easy to go on from there.
But how can we create ice-breakers and make inroads that will lead to presenting the Gospel? Well, here is one small idea. It can minister to the homeless people on the streets or anyone in need that we might encounter.
  If you have ever ministered to the homeless, you probably have many questions about this type of ministry. You might wonder why the person you are ministering to is homeless? You might be wondering if the person even wants to be helped? Can the homeless person be helped, or is there a place they could go to in order to get back on their feet again, and not be homeless anymore? Maybe the person is mentally ill and has no place to go? There are lots of questions when dealing specifically with the homeless. There a also a variety of reasons why people are homeless and you probably won't be able to figure out why the person you are talking to is on the streets. But there is one particular way you can minister to homeless people that would be considered safe. It also provides an inroad to presenting the Gospel. Because the homeless person will probably ask you and expect out of you, he or she will ask up front for money. That presents a problem because of the possibility of their using the money that you will generously give them, on liquor, cigarettes, or possibly drugs, or maybe even something worse that we wouldn't even think of. There is a better way than just handing money to a person. They can receive gift certificates for food. There was a time, not too long ago, when I went to McDonald's and picked up some gift certificates for people. After all, there are some things they can order from McDonald's that are nourishing, plus there are McDonald's on almost every corner. That worked for a while. Because I don't really have a fund for this, I would squeeze out enough money for a book of five $1 coupons. I would take each $1 coupon apart and put two of them in an envelope with some tracts that will fit into the envelope. Then when I see a homeless person on a street corner carrying a bucket for money, I will have something ready to give him or her. The envelope will have more inside of it than he or she ever expected.
  As of today, I have graduated from McDonald's gift certificates to Publix gift certificates. Instead of just $2 worth of food, I have come up to $5 worth of food value. I know that Publix is limited to Florida and Georgia, so readers of this blog will not necessarily know about them. I have heard that Publix will not honor the use of the gift card to buy liquor or tobacco products, and that makes me feel better about using them. I'm sure there are other stores and options that will work as well. Feel free to comment about them in the comment box.
  The difficulty for me is to come up with the funds to buy these gift certificates, but I did come up with a plan. Years ago, earlier in my marriage, my husband would put his change into containers around the house, like cups and empty jars. We had lots of change in a short period of time. He allowed me to collect the pennies. I could use them for whatever I needed. I now have my jar that I put collected pennies in. I take pennies from my wallet and from my husband's change and put them in my jar. When I get enough, I roll them up and take them to the bank. Then I buy the gift certificates from Publix, put the gift certificates into an envelope with tracts, and have them ready for when I meet a homeless or needy person. If I'm in a parking lot, and I get to talk to one of these people, I will not only have something to give them, but will also have an opportunity to talk to them about the Gospel. It can be used to serve a needy person with and show kindness, while speaking the words of truth to that person at the same time. Plus, I don't have to be concerned that the person who asked for money will run with the money to the next liquor store. Now to be diligent and keep my eyes open for every penny. I would like to raise the amount of value on the gift card. And I pray that people will be blessed by them and ministered to, and most of all, that the Gospel message will stay with them the rest of their lives.

Everyday Evangelism-Is Salvation a Completely Free Gift?

I may have made a post on this before. The above statement is true, but it is also one that has different angles to it. For instance, the Bible teaches us that salvation is a gift from God. It doesn't cost us anything. God freely gives it to us, and we can't even work for it at all. In fact, if we did try to do some work to help pay for it, it would be an insult to God. Why would it be an insult to God? Because He did the work for our salvation that only He could do and we could not do. We cannot work for our salvation. We cannot do any work to add to the finished work of Christ on the Cross for our salvation, nor is there any work we need to do to keep the gift of salvation that we have received from the Lord, if we have received it. So why is there a struggle with this concept or how can we look at it from another angle? It is kind of like looking at America as being a free country. Is America a free country? We all know that it is, well at least up to this point it has been. But does that mean that Americans are totally free? Does it mean that American citizens can do what they want in living out their freedom? I think you understand now where this is going. Yes, America is a free nation. But was it free for everyone involved? The answer is 'no'. Two hundred plus years ago, people fought hard to bring about the freedom we have in our country today. No, Americans today are not free to do whatever they want. There are still boundaries that they have to live inside of. The point is this; We have freedom today. Many people paid a large price so that Americans would have freedom. It cost somebody, and it was expensive to them. They probably never enjoyed the freedom that was accomplished because they may have lost their lives in doing so. Freedom always costs somebody something.
  I hear people boast that salvation is a free gift. What do they mean? Well, they could mean the same thing that a man told me a couple of years ago. I gave a tract to man before I went into the store. When I came out, he was reading it. I went over to talk to him about what he was reading. As I started talking, an older man came by. He informed that the salvation was a free gift. He was very emphatic about it. I didn't know what his point was, so I informed him that it wasn't free for One person. He continued on. He informed me that you can do anything you want as a Christian and still go to heaven. I explained to him that you have to repent first and trust in Jesus. He then accused me of believing in salvation by works. The conversation went on and on. Back and forth we went on this. Finally, we ended on a note where he made his final decision about me being a Jehovah's Witness. Does this man really understand that salvation is a free gift? Does he understand that one needs to receive this gift in order to have it? Yes, salvation is a free gift to us. The crux of the matter is how it is received. Is it received by our doing good works? Not at all. Is repentance a good work? It is a work of God in our hearts, but we don't do our own repenting. We do turn from living sinful, selfish lives to living out our lives for God's glory. Even repentance is a gift from God that has to be granted to us. It is the flip side of the coin. On the other side is faith. Just because repentance and faith are tangible, doesn't mean that they are good works. Yes, we have to have both in order to be saved. Salvation is a gift from God. The result of salvation is God's workings in our hearts. We are saved to do good works. That is how God is glorified in our lives. It is God who does the good works in us.
   So, is salvation then a free gift? It is for us. It wasn't for God's Son. He earned salvation for us, and He gives it to us upon repentance and trust in Him. Salvation is the free gift that will cost you everything you have though. Now you might be wondering what that is all about. Does it cost anything to get pregnant? The obvious answer is 'no'. What happens though when the baby grows up and becomes a teenager or young adult? What will it cost the parents then? It costs an arm and a leg. College, weddings, housing, food, school, and many other things will cost you because of your child. But we love our children and gladly do that for them. In a similar way, when we come to Christ, we are born into God's family. God adopts us as His own. We have a new love in our hearts. We are learning to live a new life in a new way. It costs us. And it will continue to cost us. We give up time, money and possessions, not just for the sake of saying that we gave them up. "Look at me. Look at what I gave." No, when we really understand salvation, we will want to give. We have new hearts. We have thankful hearts.
   Salvation is free to us. It is a gift. We have to receive it though. Jesus paid for the gift. He bought it for us. It is free to us in the sense that we can't do a thing to atone for our sins. But now it will cost us our lives because we belong to God. We are not our own anymore. "And he said to them all, If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." (Luke 9:23-24). "And every one that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew 19:29)

Everyday Evangelism-GM 28 App For I-Phone

Here is a really neat tool for evangelism that looks promising. If you have an I-Phone, go to I-Tunes app store and look for GM 28 app put out by Living Waters. Watch the video and you can get a feel for how it works. There are a few different languages available and the Gospel is preached in those languages. For example, if you want to present the Gospel in Spanish, you can select Spanish language and select the option for preaching the Gospel mode you desire. I imagine if you have speakers, you could even make it louder. This would be good if you have a table set up with tracts on it. The nice thing about this tool is that you can help people who don't speak English to hear the Gospel. I know that in our area there are a lot of Spanish speaking people. This would be one way for them to hear the Good News. And you don't have to know a lot about the Spanish language, although that would always be helpful. Some of the languages available are Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish Castillian, Spanish Neutral and Turkish. Have fun with this app and use it to help fulfill the Great Commission.

Everyday Evangelism-Writing in the Sand

Every time I hear a particular song, I have a memory that goes with it. The song is called, "Here I am to Worship". It reminds me of a time when our family went to the beach a couple of years ago. My son and I came up with a new hobby while at the beach; writing in the sand. One time he wrote the 10 Commandments in the sand at the beach. Every time I wrote something, it took up so much room. I don't remember what exactly I wrote most of the time, but I know it was related to the Gospel. There is a part to the song, "Here I am to Worship" that goes like this; "I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that Cross." I wrote that in the sand while we were on this particular beach trip. Late one afternoon, there was no one on the beach because of red tide. Occasionally, some one would stroll through. I believe I was writing this verse of the song during that time, in the sand. A group of people that consisted of what looked like two moms with some children were walking along the beach. They seemed polite and one of the moms was trying to get her child to be careful around my writing. If I remember correctly, as they were going past the words, the mom had the strangest look on her face as if she were thinking, 'Get me out of here!'. We had fun at the beach that time. We also took a bottle and put some tracts in it, and launched it on the water. I left my email address in it, but have not heard from any recipients. God's word will go out with power, whether we see the effect or not. It will not return to Him void.

Everyday Evangelism- New Ideas to Open Doors for the Gospel

I was thinking of some ways to create open doors that will enable opportunities to present the Gospel. Some of these ideas we have already done, and can elaborate on them more, others have not been incorporated yet. These opportunities do not replace the usual everyday opportunities that we have to preach the Gospel while we are at the stores, parks, or wherever we go to give out tracts and talk to people. I will try to expound on some of these ideas. Any other ideas would be appreciated as well. Post them underneath this post and tell if you have already used this idea and how it went.

Evangelism Outreach Ideas

1. Make bread and deliver it to the neighbors on a regular basis. I used to make bread at Christmas time and give it out to the neighbors, but this was such a burden because we were so busy and the neighbors were rarely home! However, one time I did give some goodies to the neighbors and somehow a lady I just met asked me some questions about the church. I was able to answer them with the Gospel. I am thinking about just making bread and giving that out periodically instead of at Christmas. Maybe more people will be home and I will have more time to talk to them and get to know them.

2. Christmas Caroling Project-I have a post on this already. We get together and go in a neighborhood and sing authentic Christmas carols and give each family we visit a bag with things related to the Gospel and a few other goodies.

3. Easter Idea- Show movie of Passion of the Christ and give out John Piper’s book to each participant. This is an idea from John Piper. I would imagine it could be done the day before Easter or Good Friday, either at a church building or a home. I have not done this one yet.

4. Have something cooked on hand when people come to work on the house. Give it to them as they leave along with a tract or a toy (with Scripture). I have done this at times, and it is very effective. If I know someone is coming to my house to work on something in the house, I will make some cookies or something appealing for them. People really seemed touched by this. I also give them a tract as they leave. I make sure that people who are doing strenuous work have a bottle or two of cooled water as well. Sometimes by the time they get the tract, they start a conversation.

5. Hold a class in the neighborhood on apologetics. Have a Bible club for children at the house.I have quite a few videos on apologetics and would love to share them in a setting. While I know this isn't primarily evangelistic, it may end up being just that. It is open to anyone who has an interest in finding out the reasons why Christianity is valid. It can also spur believers into action in defending the faith and evangelism preparation.

6. Free Speech Green at UCF- UCF is a nearby college that has something called a Free Speech Green where evangelists go to do open air as well as other evangelism methods.

7. Table at the local community colleges. This is great if you can do this. We set up a table with tracts and books and have other items on it too, like an electric billboard. I would put interesting questions on the electric billboard to create an interest to come to the table. One question I asked was about why God would allow wars. A Jehovah's Witness young woman came up and was trying to argue, but I was able to say things to her to make her silent. By the way, they had a table out there too.

8. Farmer's markets-I haven't done this yet, but imagine that it can be done. It is better to do it in winter or spring around here before it gets too hot to be outside.

9. Walmart- There are people in the US that have gotten permission to set up a table outside of Walmart. I tried a couple of them around here, but they didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. Walmart is a great place to share the Gospel. If you can get permission to set up a table, go for it.

Everyday Evangelism- Tracts and People

Usually when I go out with the intention to share the Gospel, I run into situations that have to run their course. Sometimes, I will run into Jewish people. Other times, I try to talk to people who believe the Bible was written by man. These situations seems to run in groups. Last week, I got a couple of people who told me they already got a tract. It happened more than once. When I asked them, "Did you get one of these?" they tell me that they did. That used to happen occasionally. But it happened a couple of times last week. One time, I gave a man who was going into the store, a tract. Then I went to the store across the street. I gave a tract to a man sitting in the car in front of the store. He then told me that I just gave him one at the other store! But the other challenge I got last week was that of two different cashiers telling me that they weren't allowed to take the tract because it was considered soliciting. I have my definition on soliciting, but didn't bring it up. I am sure it is an excuse to not take the tract. I am tempted to lecture these people, but I would be doing it out of anger because they are (and I know they are) probably rejecting the tract because they know what it is. I will have to think more about this soliciting excuse. For one thing, solicitation has to do with asking the other person for something. Anyway, maybe it's time to start thinking of another tract to use as an ice-breaker. I would have to come up with something to say when I give them out. I know that time will come someday, maybe even soon, because at some point, I'm sure that most of the people in this area will already have received a tract. That is good because the person can either respond and want more information, or, they can just not want to take the tract because they know what it is. I can give the tract to someone else who will want to know the truth.

Everday Evangelism- Feruary 25 th

Nothing earth-shaking has happened recently in my world of evangelism. I'm still looking for places where there are lots of people that I can talk to. Park Avenue seems to have a lot of people. I went there on Saturday and had a limited amount of tracts with me. I talked with a woman who was a professing believer and she was very encouraging to talk to. I seem to talk to a lot of people who really like what I am doing. Hopefully, it will encourage them to be out there with the Gospel message.

I have an idea of taking a little longer when I go to the stores, and roam the parking lots. I will still be a customer, just in case someone wants to report me. The other day, the weather was great, and I was at an Office Depot store to pick up some ink cartridges. After I got done, I walked over to the gym next door and saw a man getting on his motorcycle. His name was Will. He took a tract. He had never heard the Gospel before. I was able to share a little with him. What was neat to share with him though, was the use of his motorcycle as an example of a way people can get killed. I told him that he could get on the motorcycle one day, and it could be his last day on earth. He said he was actually talking about that the other day with someone. He wasn't ready to respond to the Gospel though. But I hope to have said enough to him to make him think of eternity and want to prepare for that time. Pray for Will to be granted repentance and faith. And for God to be real to him. Thanks.

Everyday Evangelism-Around the World in a Minute

Last week, I was reading through my Face Book updates, and one of my Face Book Friends was in a conversation with a Muslim man. He explained a little bit of this in his status. I asked him a question about what he thought the Muslim man might say in response to a question I had. I didn't realize that the Muslim man, Aji, became friends on Face Book with my friend, so he started answering the questions himself! The conversation centered around the deity of Christ. We started showing him verses out of the New Testament that Jesus said about Himself. Aji has shown us verses out of the Quran that talk about Jesus and Mary. They don't agree with the Biblical account though. So it appears that one of us is wrong. Now we are showing him verses out of the Old Testament that prophesied the coming of Christ. He is very knowledgable about the Quran and tells us about it in detail.

Aji lives in Indonesia. The time zone makes us have a difference of 12 hours. So when we are on Face Book during the day, he is probably sleeping, and vice-versa. Please by praying for Aji to have eyes to see the True and Living God, and his own need for a Savior. He is asking questions and we are giving the best answers we know. But he is still defending Allah and the Quran. Please pray for me and the others in this conversation on Face Book to have good answers for him that he will understand. We can inform him of what the Bible says, but it is God who reveals Himself to people. Salvation is of the Lord. And it is amazing that we can preach the Gospel on the other side of the world and not even go outside! Who would have thought of this ever happening, except for God?

Everyday Evangelism-Wordless Color Evangelism Open Air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv0w3wovWII