Today was our First Thursday Day of Prayer for October. We had two meetings running. In Dallas, Craig reports the biggest turn out yet: about 60-70 people in prayer at his office. In Carrollton we had five people including the Mayor! We opened our time with readings from 1 Pet 3:8-12 and 1 Peter 2:13-25. It was great to get to chat with him and pray specifically for his prayer requests while praying for the rest of the leaders of the city, state and country. Lord bring a revival to our land!
The next, First Thursday Day of Prayer is Thursday, November 4th. Please consider joining us in prayer for our country, leaders and revival at your place of business or City Hall.
There is one day per year when kids come to your door and you have the chance to share the Gospel with them. That day is Halloween. They come asking for candy – trick or treat. Why not give them something that could give them eternal life? Each year at Halloween we like to give the kids tracts with a piece of candy. Normally what we will do is tape the tract to the candy like in the picture. They get something the like like M&M’s or Skittles and also something that they need – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The October mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club included 10 of the Great Pumpkin tracts. If you are already a member, then you probably have already received these. If you are not a member, we still have some of the October envelopes ready to ship out. So if you just need a few of these tracts for your Halloween outreach, I encourage you to enroll today and get these tracts.
If your church is having a “trunk or treat” or other activities, then these tracts might be the perfect addition to hand out to the kids that visit there.
Or maybe there is a haunted house somewhere near your house that you’d like to go to and hand out tracts.
Check out this video to see how Tom Burgee and his family share the Gospel at Halloween!
Do you need tracts for your Halloween outreach?
As it turns out, because we order tracts for the tract club in bulk, we have about two thousand extra tracts after doing the mailing. When we have tracts left over that are not for a specific holiday or event, we will re-use them in future months to distribute them to tract club members. However, with a time sensitive tract like this, the best thing for us to do is to get them out to people that will hand them out.
UPDATE:
These tracts have been spoken for. If you still need tracts for your Halloween Outreach, please contact One Million Tracts.
We’d be pleased to send 25, 50 or 100 of these tracts to you for your Halloween outreach.. We simply ask that you consider making a tax-deductible donation to Bezeugen Ministries to help us cover our costs. Keep in mind that most places sell tracts for at least $3 per hundred plus shipping. Please remember that we have a matching fund until the end of 2010, so your donation would be macthed dollar for dollar.
This week I got the Pocket Lie Detector from Living Waters. On Friday, I got the first chance to take it out to the mall to try it out. We had a great time using it to start conversations with people.
Three boys While we were eating lunch in the food court, three boys walked by our table. I asked them if they are good and would be interested in trying the lie detector. I told them to simply put the cube on the yes or no depending on if they consider themself to be a good person. One boy took the little cube and was trying to put it on the yes, then the magnet ripped the cube from his hands and it stuck to the no. The kid about jumped when the cube was pulled out. We gave them each Good Cards and they went to join the rest of their group.
Ice Cream
The cashier at the ice cream kiosk was next. I asked her if she would like to help us with a study using our Lie Detector to see if she is a good person. She asked how long it would take and I told her it would just take a quick minute. She agreed. I gave her the cube. Again as she tried to put it on the yes, it pulled to the no. We had a good conversation with her. She had been raised in the church, but when we took her through the Law she agreed she would go to Hell. We shared the Gospel with her and encouraged her to get right with God right away. We gave her a Good Card tract as well.
Guy at a Kiosk Next we went over to talk with a Christian guy we know that works at the Vonage kiosk. I always like to stop in and show him the latest tracts. We pulled out the Lie Detector and showed it to him. He thought it was interesting. While he was looking at it the guy from the next kiosk over came to check out what we were doing. So we let him try the Lie Detector. We took him through the Ten Commandments and he agreed he would go to Hell. However, he did not believe in Hell. We talked a bit. But since he never expressed concern over going to Hell we simply gave him a tract and moved on.
A Jew Next we talked to a Jewish man at a kiosk that we had talked too before. When I asked if I could ask him a question he said no, so we moved on.
Starbucks Near the Starbucks in the mall a guy was sitting by himself drinking a cup of coffee. I asked if he wanted to check to see if he was a good person. He said no, I know I am not good. We joined him at the table and talked to him about spiritual things. He is an atheist and said that nothing is out there when we die. We just go in the box and then the ground. We talked a bit. He was totally closed to the things of God and would not even take a tract.
Best Buy Mobile The mall has these small versions of Best Buy. We went in. I was looking for an extra battery for my phone. We had a short conversation with one of the sales people. He was a Christian and we had a nice time encouraging one another.
A Sikh Our final conversation was with a man who identified himself as being a Sikh. He choose not to try to the Lie Detector. I asked what he thought happens when a person dies. He said they get reincarnated. So I asked if he drives a car. He said yes. So I asked if he was concerned about the bugs he might be killing as he drives which might be killing his relatives. He said that it is all part of the cycle of life. Interesting. He said that what happens to a person when they die is based on their beliefs. So I tried to use a logical argument with him to show him that what is true is more important than what he believes. I saw an item for sale on the counter that was $30. I said if I want to buy two of these and I believe $30 plus $30 is $32 then I could just pay $32 because that is what I believe. But, he said that it would be $60 because what he believed took precedent over me. Yet when I then switched back to the spiritual realm he went back to saying that it is more important what one believes. I said, “so then there is no absolute truth?” and he agreed. And I said, “then that statement is an absolute truth.” He said it was not. We wrapped up talking to him, by sharing the Law and Gospel. But he declined to take a tract from us.
The Pocket Lie Detector is a great witnessing tool. I am looking forward to using it again soon! Head over to Living Waters and order one!
On Thursday, September 2, we held the First Thursday Day of Prayer at two locations. This post is to report on these meetings.
Carrollton, TX
Carl, Mande, Nita and Todd met at City Hall at Jackson and Josey. A light rain was falling. Initially we stood under umbrellas, but then we realized that we could stand under a tree that provided enough coverage from the gentle rain. A couple of pastors who had planned to come had to cancel. Regrets were received later from the mayor. We started out time by singing “seek ye first”. After that we read Isaiah 58 and selections from Matthew 6. The passages from the Lord’s prayer for “your kingdom come” and “seek first the kingdom of God” were the direct ties to the prayer requests. Then we prayed for the nation, leaders and revival. We prayed specifically for the mayor of Carrollton and other leaders. We concluded out time together by singing a song based on 1John 3:1 (Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. ) After wards we witnessed to a man who was nearby then went to lunch and had some fellowship together.
Dallas, TX Craig reports that more than fifty people gathered at his office. Craig reports, “We started with Psalm 103 and concluded with versus from John 8. We had some specific prayer requests and then prayed for our country and our leaders.”
If you participated in another location, please post a comment with your experience.
Our next First Thursday Day of Prayer is October 7th. Please consider participating then.
On September 2 we will have our First Thursday Day of prayer for our nation, leaders and revival. Please join us at one of the following venues if you are able:
Carrollton, TX – meet Carl at noon at the City Hall flag poles at the NE corner of Josey and Jackson.
Dallas, TX – meet at noon at Hobi International office. Contact Craig for access to the building.
If you are unable to join us at one of these locations but would still like to join us, then you can go to your local City Hall or gather at your own office by yourself or with other believers to pray for our nation, leaders and revival. Please post a comment so we know where you will be participating from.
A suggest scripture text to read and focus a short devotion around comes from Matthew 6
5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’ 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
On Saturday night, I had the privilege of going witnessing at the Frisco Rough Riders game with a group of over 25 people. We teamed up with a group from Gospel For Asia who are on fire for the Lord. In addition to them, I had my two sons, and my friend Brian and his two sons. For 90 minutes before the game we handed out tracts and had one on one conversations with people.
I brought my Lie Detector from Living Waters. This is an excellent new resource that they have provided. The box has two magnets inside. On the front it says “Lie Detector Are you a good person? Yes No” You hand the person a magnetic wand and they try to point to yes, but the magnet repels them from the yes and forces a NO! I had so much fun using this to witness to people. If you get one, I highly recommend having some Are You a Good Person or Good Card tracts to hand out to the people who take the test and even those that don’t.
We had some wonderful one on one conversations with people that were started up by using the lie detector. What seemed to work really well was to walk up to a group of people, get several of them to do the lie detector and then have a group discussion with them. In one case a couple and their sons got to over hear the conversation that I had with a group of four teens even though that had returned the tracts we’d given them. Praise God that they got to hear the Gospel anyway!
The group from GFA was encouraged to be able to share the Gospel with us. For many of them it was their first time out evangelizing. I’m expecting they will be joining us again in the near future for additional events!
I was able to put out 87 more door hangars this afternoon in Carrollton. Please pray that people will be touched by the message of the Gospel that they find on their door this evening.
It is interesting to notice that since switching to using door hangars, it seems like almost no one is home. Out of 87 houses, it only seemed like about five or so people were even around. This is just from noticing that houses were dark inside. There were a couple of people outside and I managed to talk with them briefly.
I was listening to Mark Cahill’s message Hey Stranger yesterday while driving in my car. Mark cites statistics from Jon Speed’s book Evangelism in the New Testament and then gives real examples of how sharing the Gospel with strangers has been a blessing to him. Not only was his own personal salvation related to strangers talking to him and giving him tracts, but he named countless times when strangers he witnessed too would come back to him and later and say that he shared the Gospel with them six months or a year before. Most of those cases, the person would remember the exact day, time and location of their encounter. And most, we extremely thankful for the encounter. A couple of things that Mark pointed out really stood out to me.
First, everyone that we know was at one point a stranger. All of our friends were at one point in time strangers to us. Even our spouse was at one point a strange to us. Every single relationship we had started out as two strangers. It all starts with someone taking the first step in talking to the other person.
Second, it is not about whether we are being effective in our efforts, but whether we are being Biblical. He quotes an unnamed “famous” pastor (and I don’t have the exact quote written down since I was driving my car and unable to take notes) saying essentially that we need to “earn the right” to share our faith with someone by developing a relationship with someone over time. Mark goes on to describe how he has asked people that have this mentality how long that takes. Six months? A year? The problem is that that approach is not Biblical. And the reality is that it is much easier to share the Gospel with a stranger than it is with a friend anyway. As Mark put it, “we don’t have to earn the right to share the Gospel. We have the right.” In fact, we are commanded by Jesus himself to do it!
Third, if a person really knows Jesus, they will talk about him. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” If Jesus is the most important thing in a persons life, they will talk about him. People talk about the weather, their jobs, their families, their favorite sports teams. If Jesus is more important than all of these, then they will talk about him.
One final thing, I took from the message. In the closing prayer Mark, says “Let’s not have 2010 Christianity, let’s have Biblical Christianity.”
I encourage you to listen to the message yourself. Then go share your faith with someone. The message is the first resource listed on his free audio downloads page.
As I was driving, I felt the urge to share the Gospel with someone. So I stopped at RaceTrac to refill my free drink cup. When I got out of my car, one of the managers of the store was standing nearby smoking a cigarette. I grabbed a stack of tracts, headed over to him and said, “did you get one of these?” He looked at it and I added, “it has a Gospel message on the back.” He said thanks and started to read the card. I went inside and refilled my drink. As I went back out, he was still there. So I asked him what he thought of the card.
He said that it was really interesting because the card had the same verse that his pastor had preached on the previous week. So we talked for a few minutes and got to know each other. I asked him how he got saved and he told me. So I asked if he ever shares his faith. NO! He then explained the exact reasons that Mark was talking about in his message. I encouraged him to share his faith with others because they might not have tomorrow. Then I gave him a copy of Ray Comfort’s book God Has a Wonderful Plan for your Life. I encouraged him to read the book and then pass it on to his pastor.
Barna recently released an article titled “Do American’s Change Faiths” in which they examined a survey response of approximately 2000 respondents to determine if Americans change faiths or if they maintain the faith of their childhood. This is interesting to consider for a couple of reasons.
First, as we are sharing the Gospel sometimes the objection that we here is something like “you are a Christian because you were raised as a Christian and I am am Muslim (Hindu, etc) because I was raised that way).” For the Christian, this is not really a valid argument. Being born in a Christian home does not make one a Christian. Being born in a garage does not make you a car and being born in a Christian home does not make you a Christian. Jesus said that a man must be born again (John 3) and this is done by repenting of sin and trusting the Gospel (Mark 1:15).
Second, since we engage in evangelism the question becomes do people really change faiths from hearing the message? According to the article:
Among those who were shifting toward Christianity, the most common motivations were going through difficult life events (such as divorce, a health crisis or death of a loved one); getting older and seeing life differently; wanting to connect with a church and grow spiritually; discovering Christ; or wanting to know what was in the Bible.
I believe this is where the problem lies. I would submit that none of these are the reason to change faiths. Don’t get me wrong. Christ and the church can provide comfort in difficult times and there is nothing wrong with wanting to connect and grow spiritually or knowing more about the Bible. But, the real reason to turn to Christ (and be called a Christian) is when one recognizes that they have sinned against a Holy God and deserve only His wrath for all eternity.
The Bible says that a day is coming when each man will be judged for his own deeds. Hebrews 9:27 puts it this way “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”. We know from the scripture that this judgment is based on the Ten Commandments. Give yourself a quick test to see how you will do. Answer yes or no to each of the following questions:
Have you ever had a god before the true God of the Bible?
Have you ever bowed down to an idol? This might be as obvious as worshiping an idol carved of wood, or it might be putting your job, car or house before God.
Have you ever used God’s name or Jesus’ name as a curse word or in any irreverent way? This is called blasphemy and is a very serious offense.
Have you ever failed to keep the sabbath, or not set aside time to worship God?
Have you ever dishonored your mom or dad either to their face, or by giving them a bad name by your actions?
Have you ever murdered anyone? Before you answer consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 that says that if you even hate someone or call them a fool you are already guilty of the judgment. Have you ever hated someone or called them a fool?
Have you ever committed adultery (had sex wth someone you were not married too)? Again before you answer, consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 that say if you even look with lust that you have already committed adultery in the heart. Have you done that?
Have you every stolen anything?
Have you ever lied?
Have you ever coveted (desired) something that belonged to someone else?
How did you do? Ten simple questions. Did you get 10 no’s? If so, please go over the list again? The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The truth is that every person has broken every one of these commandments in thought, word, or deed. God is perfectly good and just. He must punish sin. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man to die in the place of sinners. Jesus never broke God’s law. He claimed to be equal with God, and to have power to forgive sin. He claimed to know all things. He said of Himself, “I have power to lay down My life (crucified), and power to take it up again (resurrected).” Jesus died in the place of sinners, and was raised to life on the third day. It was not the price that was paid that satisfies God, but the worth of the One who paid the price: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God commands you to repent, and to place your faith in the indescribable gift of Jesus alone, that you may not be condemned, but have eternal life. (Mark 1:15, Acts 17:30, John 3:16)
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he whoconfesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.Proverbs 28:13
For a video presentation of the Gospel, please watch this 5 minute video:
The point is that coming to Christianity because life is hurting is the wrong reason to come. The reason to come to Christianity is out of repentance, to confess and forsake sin and then to cling to Jesus Christ, the one and only sacrifice for sin.
My we boldly proclaim this truth to the whole world so that they may be changed to the one true faith!
For more on proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus Christ, please listen to Tony Miano’s message “Him we proclaim!“
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Sometimes when doing evangelism we run into situations where there is a question of whether we are expressing our freedom of speech on public property or not. This is an important question because on public property, our first amendment rights to free speech are maintained. When dealing with private property, we may not always enjoy the same rights. However, sometimes we do. In NY near the NASDAQ building, I took these two pictures. The first shows the sidewalk from a distance. The second shows a close up of a little plaque in the sidewalk that clearly shows the public verses private property. Wouldn’t it be great if all property were marked this way?
