Bezeugen BLOG

Craig and I met at the mall to do some witnessing. On the way into the mall, I came across a new “kiosk” called EURO Bubble. There is a pool of water that had about a foot of water in it. There were these bubbles that you get inside of, they zip it closed and then blow it up with air. Once inside, the person in there tries to run around like a gerbil in its little ball. All this for just $7 for 3 minutes or $10 for 5 minutes!

I walked up right as two guys were getting in to the bubbles. I stood and watched them try to stand, walk and run in their bubbles. It was pretty entertaining. And the kids seemed to be having a blast. I used my phone to take a picture and a short video. When the kids got out, I talked to them briefly and then showed them the video. I gave them my card and offered to send them the picture and video if they emailed me. I also gave them and several others that were watching some Gospel tracts. The kid emailed me the next day and I sent him the picture and the video.

We then went to the Vonage booth to try to meet back up with a gal we had witnessed too the week before. She had said that she attends and LDS church so we had brought a copy of Joseph Smith vs The Bible for her. However, she was not there. Instead, a new employee there was a strong believer in Jesus who had converted from Catholicism about six years ago. We tried to witness to the other guy at that kiosk, but he ran off as soon as we asked about the ninth commandment. He got a tract anyway.

Before we left, I ended up back at the Euro Bubble kiosk talking to the two guys that were working there. I started by asking them about the business, how many customers they had and the like. Then I asked if they had any spiritual beliefs. One of them spoke very little English. So the conversation remained more with the other guy. The one that spoke only Spanish stood more to the side. When I swung the conversation to the spiritual by asking about beliefs in God, Heaven and Hell, the Spanish speaking guy got interested. So I gave him a Spanish tract. He took it and started reading, then said, “this is great.” We were able to have some brief conversation. He is a believer. At that, the other guy started suddenly saying “I am a Christian too”. So I asked him why he calls himself a Christian. Obviously, he had no idea, because he is not a Christian. I was able to share the Law and the Gospel with him. At that he went back to saying he is trying to be good.

At that, I was able to use the Euro Bubble as an example. I said, “imagine if you have to cross to the other side of the pool without getting even one drop of water on you.” He said, “it can’t be done.” I said, “on your own, you are right, but if you get in the bubble, you can get across the pool without getting wet.” Then I used that as an example to explain that in the same way the Bible says to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” I explained to him that the bubble protects you from the water. Likewise, when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are clothed in His righteousness and God sees us as His perfect Son.

He seemed to understand. I gave him a copy of “Why Christianity?”

Our August First Thursday Day of Prayer will be held on Thursday, August 5th. We have at least two locations:

• Carrollton, TX – meet by the flag poles at the Carrollton City Hall at the NE corner of Josey and Jackson for prayer at noon. We will pray for 15-20 minutes, then go to Quiznos across the street for lunch and fellowship. Contact Carl with any questions.
• Dallas, TX at HOBI International office – Contact Craig for security pass. Arrive at 11:50. Prayer starts at noon.

Would you like to host a prayer group in your city? Just post a comment to indicate where you will be. Contact Carl to be included in future months. It is our plan to pray for our nation on the first Thursday of each month at City halls all around the country.

Recently I worked with Tyler McNabb to develop a tract to refute Islam and Mormonism. The tracts arrived on Monday. Today I was at the mall with a friend sharing the Gospel. We had a good discussion with the first guy we talked too. As I was handing him a tract he said, “I’m a muslim”, so I took that tract back and handed him one of our new Mormon / Muslim tracts. He took it. We had a brief discussion from there about the difference of the Jesus and Heavenly Father in Mormonism than in the Bible. Please pray that he reads the tract and seeks the truth which he heard from us.

A short time later we were at the sunglasses kiosk talking with the guy who was working there. When we asked about spiritual things he said he was a muslim. He said he did not have time to go into things much more because he was working. So I handed him the new tract and told him he could contact me through the web site on the back and we could set up a time to talk more. Please pray that he will contact me.

It was really encouraging that the first time we took this tract out, we were able to give one to a Muslim and one to a Mormon. Both said “thank you” when we gave it to them.

The message on the back of the tract reads:

Answer: False. Imagine you’re watching a TV show. Most of your community watches it every day. This tradition has been going on for years. You know the plot, the characters and almost everything about the show. Then, one day a person outsid…e your community comes and states that everything you know about the plot, characters and TV show is completely wrong. Would you believe him? Muhammad and Joseph Smith made claims like these about the Bible when they preached without reason or evidence that the Bible was corrupted and needed a new revelation. Though the burden of proof belongs to these two religions, people have been quick to believe them without any rational judgment. The Bible says it is appointed once to die and then the judgment. Ever lied, hated (which Jesus calls murder) or looked with lust? God says if you fail to keep all the commandments you are under a curse (Deut 27:26)! The good news is that God sent His righteous Son, Jesus Christ, (Isa53) to bore His people’s curse and to fulfill the law for His people. From taking on His peoples curse He died and then rose again, conquering sin and death. If you repent (turn from sin) and believe the Gospel, then God will give you everlasting life. (Mark 1:15, John 3:36) www.AfterLifeCatalog.com / www.romans121.com

These tracts will be shipped in a future mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club. Enroll today to be sure you get yours when we send them out. Aside from using them to reach people in the malls, these should be great to have on hand at your door when the Mormons come calling! 

Today I watched the second episode of The Adventures of Roman and Jorge. I must say, Dru and Greg and all the folks at Last Words Radio really have done a great job on this. Episode 2 picks up two months later from episode 1. There are some nice flash backs scenes to show what has been happening in the lives of the characters. They do a wonderful job of showing how many within the church are not supportive of evangelism, how kids get excited to join their dad’s on the streets, how scary it can be to get up on the box, etc. I really enjoy the way that they can use humor to drive a point home. One of my favorite scenes is how they “go fishing”!

The show also has several really interesting threads running through it which have me anxiously awaiting the release of Episode three.

So far, I’ve watched Episode 1 and 2 on my computer via download. I am looking forward to receiving the DVDs and watching them again and again on my TV. You can order the DVD from Last Words Radio. But, hurry, first edition run is while supplies last!

Updated on August 7, 2010
You can now download the first two episodes from Last Words Ministry web site.

Today I had the privilege of watching the first episode of The Adventures of Roman and Jorge that is being produced by Last Words Radio. If I had to sum this up in one word, I’d have to say it was simply “Excellent.”

The show is set as a reality TV show where the main character Roman, attends an evangelism conference and then decides he is going to go hand out tracts and witness to people using what we commonly refer to as Biblical Evangelism called The Way of the Master. Along the way he is met with the very real fact that his best friend, Jorge, is not so “gung-ho” about the idea. In twenty minutes, they present a fun and engaging show (that even made me cry – but you’ll have to watch the show to find out why).

You can watch the preview of the show on YouTube.

I could especially relate to the fear of handing out that first Gospel tract when I started evangelizing, and the joy of actually doing it. Thousands of tracts later, that fear is not gone.

The first two episodes of The Adventures of Roman and Jorge are available for download today, and will ship on DVD on Friday. I encourage you to get these videos. Watch them. Share them with your Bible Study group, your church and your pastor. I pray that God is glorified through this project, that many Christians will step out and share the Gospel and many will come to repentance and faith in Jesus through it.

Updated on August 7, 2010

You can now download the first two episodes from Last Words Ministry web site.

Greg Elasser provided me with the following information to share in order to obtain your own copies of the videos:

On behalf of everyone at Last Words Ministry, we’d like to thank your for your interest in purchasing the first two episodes of The Adventures of Roman and Jorge.  If you are a Christian, we are praying that these shows will light a fire under you, however small, and encourage you to get up, get out, and share your faith.  If you aren’t a Christian, we ask that you’ll watch through to the end so you can get a clear understanding of why Christians feel such an urgency to share Jesus Christ with you.

This message here is our FBI copyright warning.  As of this moment, we have provided these episodes without charging any upfront fees, but unfortunately, producing these films are costly. So here is what we ask: if you would like to order the first two episodes of the series, would you
please make a donation so we can keep producing future episodes?  All proceeds go straight to the Roman and Jorge films and to any other efforts to further the Gospel.  We appreciate your honesty and also ask that you do not burn extra copies of this DVD.  One disk per person.  Thank you!**

All DVD requests and donations can be made by sending an email to info@lastwordsministry.com or you can snail mail the request and gift to

Last Words Ministry:  PO Box 2734 Downey CA  90242

Thank you,

The Crew at Last Words Ministry

** We have also made the episodes available as a download.  Please send us
your request to info@lastwordsministry.com

On Friday night, Mande and I meet up with Tim Crawford (Lost Cause Ministries), Jason and a few other brothers in Christ for some Evangelism in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. We had a wonderful evening, preaching the Law and Gospel, handing out tracts, having one on one conversations and having fellowship with each other.

Just before we left, a woman came by. I handed her a tract and she handed it back saying she is already a Christian. So I encouraged her to take it and give it to someone else who needs to hear the Gospel. She said that she does not use tracts and that she prefers to just talk to people and meet them “where they are.” I had no problem with that and she walked off.

Mande and I were listening to Tim preach when suddenly the woman came back. She asked if what we are doing is effective and how many people come to Christ because of it. I explained to her that only God knows how many people receive Christ because of our street ministry. I explained to her that we have seen people come to Christ on the streets. I also explained that we may not be priviledged to see that. 1 Corinithians 3:6-8 says:

⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

So although we plant and water a lot of seeds, only God can make it grow and knows the result.

Something to consider. Each person who has a conversation with us about the Gospel, hears an open air message, receives a tract or sees the cross displayed makes a choice. At that moment, they may choose to accept or reject the Gospel. They may choose to stand and listen. Or they may choose to call the police, as is happening regularly at our Project Ezra outreaches at the park. They may choose to keep the tract, or they may choose to throw it away. They may choose to engage in a conversation, or they may choose to run away, pretend that God is not real and that there is no coming judgment.

Tony Miano’s words from ambassadors academy ring true. We are 100% effective at bringing each person to the foot of the cross. The rest is up to God. We must keep being faithful to glorify God and share the Gospel truthfully and Biblically.

While out witnessing today I shared with my friends a new “segway” question that I’ve been using since one of the pastors I know had shared it with me. The question is:

Are you doing today what you were created to do?

Notice that the question does not mention God, but it does convey the presupposition that you are created not evolved. So, today at the mall we were talking with a gal at the Vonage booth. She was telling us that before she started the job, she did a bunch of research to determine the types of questions that she was likely to be asked. At that Craig, said, “I have a question for you: Are you doing today what you were created to do?”

At first she said yes. Then as he probed more, she realized that working at the Vonage booth was probably not why she was created in the first place. What followed was a wonderful conversation about creation, God, heaven and hell. She heard the Biblical Gospel and received a tract. We will try to follow-up with her next time we are there.

So as we were leaving the mall, we talked about how we should challenge each other in witnessing by suggesting various transitional questions and then seeing who can use them in a conversation.

So let’s start here. My challenge to you this week is to transition a conversation with this question:

Are you doing today what you were created to do?

Then post a comment here to share how it goes, the response you get and how you were able to share the Gospel with the person. Are you up for the challenge?

On Sunday mornings, Pastor Ben and I meet at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, TX to read for Project Ezra, preach the Gospel, hand out bottles of water and distribute Gospel tracts. Often David, Josh and / or Brendan will join us. Recently, our efforts have reached a lot of resistance. Fortunately, the Plano Police have been there to defend out rights.

Sunday was more of the same.

I arrived at the park at 8AM. I walked to the spot where we set up. Opened the cooler of water, set up the preaching stool, put down my Bible and prayed. Then I looked up and offered the guy walking by a bottle of water. He said, “you don’t remember me, do you?” Turns out he was the atheist who had called the police on us about two months ago. I began to engage him in conversation and got him talking about his background. He made some bold claims both about science and the Bible. When I asked for details he would say, “it doesn’t matter, you won’t listen anyway.” He said that on several occassions when I asked for clarification. His speech was filled with various cuss words and blasphemy of God. Eventually he announced his conclusion that Jesus died because of a talking snake and a magic tree. Then he walked off and said he was going to call the police. The amazing thing was that I had not even preached or shared a tract with anyone yet!

As he walked off, I got up and started reading the Gospel of Mark starting in Chapter 1. About that time Pastor Ben arrived with Josh and I filled them in on what had happened. We read from Mark rotating chapters.

About a half an hour later the atheist came back and asked if the police had come. I told him no. Then he got angry, took out his phone and called the police again. We tried again to engage him in conversation. He kept saying that we should not be there. Finally, Ben got up and preached again. At that, the atheist started heckling him. As he was saying “you should not be here” another guy at the park walked by and told him that if he did not want to hear what we had to say he should just walk off.

At that he started to walk off, then came back threatening to call his attorney and sue me or something. I am not sure exactly what he thought his attorney would do. He asked for my contact information. So I gave him one of our “Reject Jesus” Gospel tracts that has our Google Voice number on the back. He looked at it and claimed it could not be my number because the area code was not local. I said, “well if you won’t believe something simple like that this is my phone number, then I can’t expect you to believe anything I say.” You should have seen the shock on his face when he called the number and I answered.

A few minutes later, two police cars arrived. One of the officers was the same officer I had spoken too a few weeks earlier when someone else had called the police. The officer asked me where the man is who had been harassing and cussing at me. I pointed him out. The officer went over to him and explained that what we were doing was perfectly legal and actually a right granted us in this country. He then explained that harassing and cussing at people is not allowed. The officer asked me if I wanted to press charges. I said, “no”. The officer then took the mans identification and spoke with him for another 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I got back on the box and read some more of the scripture.

Eventually the officer came over to me explained the conversation he had had with the man and reiterated that we were doing nothing wrong. I thanked him for his time and he left. (Before you ask, no I did not witness to the officer because I did that last time and learned that he is a believer!)

Now, the truly amazing part of the story happened after we left.

While I was driving to church I got a text saying “you win, you were right, thanks for not pressing charges, that truly showed the love of Jesus Christ.”

But wait, that is not all. While I was in church, he called me on the phone and left a message of apology. So after church I called him back. He apologized, said he was out of line, hurting, asked for forgiveness and said he would not bother us again. I told him that I forgave him and offered to help him in any way that I could. He said he might take me up on that. And then ended the call saying “God bless you”.

Please pray for God to work on him and lead him to salvation.