In July we got a new tract club member in Georgia. Over the next couple of months he and
Football Trivia Tract
I spoke on the phone a few times and over time have become friends. He has a strong desire to share the Gospel and has requested additional tracts a couple of times. We were able to meet that need and sent tracts to him. Last month he called me and said that he and a few others were going to go out to the Georgia vs Georgia Tech football game. He asked if I could send some college football trivia tracts. Since we still had a number of these tracts on hand, we mailed about 500 of them to him.
A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman called out 80-BEZEUGEN phone number and told me that he was a new believer, had received one of our tracts and was interested in receiving some materials to help him grow in the faith. We talked a bit and I found out that he is already connected to a Bible teaching local church and that he has his own Bible. I told him that I’d send him some resources and we ended the phone conversation.
I prayed about what to send him and asked for input from a couple of others. We agreed that the best resource for him was to read the Bible. I wrote him a letter suggesting that he read the Bible regularly. I found a couple of Bible reading plans online and included those in the materials I sent along with a couple of CD’s.
Since others may be interested in the Bible reading programs, when discipling other believers, I am providing links to them here.
- Scripture Union E100 Challenge takes you through 100 Bible passages – 50 from the Old Testament and 50 from the New Testament. I found the planner online and you can also download the e100_planner as a PDF.
- Navpress has a 5x5x5 New Testament reading plan to take you through the New Testament in one year reading five minutes a day, five days a week. You can get the planner online, or download a PDF.
The new believer called back several times and we had some more good discussion. In addition to the resources he also asked for some information on the Holy Spirit. CARM had an interesting article on the Holy Spirit, so I printed it out and mailed it to him as well. This was really interesting because about two weeks earlier another friend and I were talking about how Gospel tracts rarely mention the Holy Spirit and we had a long discussion about how the Holy Spirit is involved in evangelism. As I was discussing this with yet another friend today, we came back to the fact that the Holy Spirit is involved in the conviction of sin:
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; (John 16:8-9)
As he continued asking me questions about growing in Christ I suggested to him that if he really wanted to grow in Christ, then he could go and share the Gospel with others. I told him about our tract club and said that when he was ready he could join. He asked me to sign him up! I did that. The welcome pack of tracts went out to him on Saturday.
On Monday, someone asked me if I would include stories of people being saved when we mail out the letters for the Bezeugen Tract Club. I thought that would be a good idea so set out to document some of these stories. Little did I know I was right in the midst of one of the stories as it was.
On Wednesday, this new believer called me again. He asked me to send him some tracts. I told him that they had already been sent. He was excited about that. As we were talking I got to thinking that maybe I could connect him with someone locally. I got to thinking (or God told me) about the first brother in Christ whom I had sent the college football tracts to and asked him how far he lived from that brothers town. He told me that he lived only 15 or so miles away. So I told him about this brother and asked if he would like me to give him his phone number. He said yes.
Later on Wednesday evening I called the first brother, told him this background about the new believer and asked if he would be interested in calling him. He agreed to call.
Well, it turns out that the first brother actually had given the tract to the new believer at that George vs Georgia Tech football game. The tract played a role in the mans salvation. He received the Lord as savior the next day (three days before he first called me).
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7)
We are just seed planters telling people about Jesus as we go. God saves people. And sometimes like this time we get to know about the salvation so that we can rejoice along with the angels in heaven.
Please join me in praying for these two guys out in Georgia. They are planning to do some witnessing together, probably as soon as this Saturday!
