Bezeugen BLOG

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in Project Ezra in Austin, on the edge of the campus of the University of Texas. It was a great experience. I actually was not sure what the suggested reading for Project Ezra was. I had in my mind to go to the state capital and preach there. However, as I drove by the University of Texas, there were many people congregating and crossing Guadelupe St. So, I felt like God was telling me that this was the place. So I parked the car and walked over to the cross walk area. I had a new folding stool that I had bought the night before at Bed Bath and Beyond. This new stool is very lightweight and compact. I expect to be able to put it in my backback. On this occassion, I simply took it, my Bible and about 100 Gospel tracts.

Since I was not sure what the Project Ezra reading was for the week, I had in mind to read 1 John again since it was the reading from the week before. When I got where I was going to preach from, I sent a text message to a few friends to ask them to pray. After sending the text, I noticed on my phone that there was new email. When I pulled up the email there was a message from Project Ezra that the suggested reading was 1 Peter 1. I read over the email and then the text.

I prayed.

And then I got up on my new stool.

I read 1 Peter 1.

Then I preached the Law and the Gospel. Many people walked by and heard the preaching. Several stopped to listen. Several listened while waiting to cross the street.

When I had preached all I could, I turned to the attributes of Christ that I have pasted into the front and back of my Bible. I began reading these attributes as I have done several times in the past. I continued reading and lifting up the name of Christ.

Eventually the wind began to swirl and some clouds rolled in. A felt a couple of rain drops. Then some drops hit my Bible and the ink in my list of the Attributes of Christ started to run. I decided it was time to go.

I handed out a few more tracts on my way back to the car. As I walked, the rain steadily increased until it was pouring by the time I got to the car.

The new folding stool is available in four colors at Bed Bath and Beyond. I got mine for $14.99. The tag says that the weight limit is 300 pounds!

Since March, we’ve been planning an outreach in The Colony, TX along with First Baptist Church Hebron from the Fourth of July weekend. The events were to take place on Saturday, the 3rd. We had been to the park a few weeks prior to map out where we would set up to hand out water and Gospel tracts and preach the Gospel. The weather did not cooperate. When we realized the rain was headed that way, we moved up our meeting time and headed out to the park thinking we could get some tracts and preaching out before the weather hit. However, about 15 minutes after we arrived, it started to rain. And, not just rain, but a good old fashioned Texas downpour. We took cover and started praying for a backup plan. Mande was checking the weather map via her phone and also different towns to see where there might be another July 4th celebtration we could go to. I pulled out my phone and saw an email from Jon Speed. He had sent a message that Tim Crawford was going to Southlake Town Square. Mande confirmed the radar looked clear. I called TIm to verify they were still going. So we headed to Southlake.

When we arrived we grabbed about 500 tracts and headed out on the streets to meet up with Tim. We found him and he said, “we are out of tracts.” He had brought about 20 youth group members to teach them how to evangelize. So we gave them the tracts we had and then headed back to the car to get the rest of the ones that we had there. When we returned, we loaded up Tim’s team again.

Then we got to work handing out tracts. There were people everywhere. As we handed out tracts most would say “thanks!”
I walked up to a group of teens and handed them Bucket List tracts. Then I asked them “if you had one week to live, what things would be on your list of things to do before you die?” I thought the eyes of one girl were going to pop out of her head when I asked this. We had a good discussion and it turned out several of the kids were Christian. Then one boy asked me, “why does God send some people to hell.” So I talked with him alone and explained that because we have broken God’s Law that we deserve to go to hell and that God is just in sending us there. But, if we repent and trust Christ then He will give us eternal life. He thanked me for talking to him.

I had two really great conversations with two different groups of teens by handing them “can you name ten beers” tracts. The two conversations went a little different. Both groups named the ten beers. The first named all ten of the commandments too. The second group, got stuck on 8 commandments. What was neat was that as they tried to get the last two, they would stop people who were walking by to ask them “do you know the second commandment?” I was giving tracts to those that came by as well. Eventually I told them the last two commandments and shared the Gospel with them. The first group was soundly saved, members of the same youth group. We had a wonderful time of fellowship. The second group was mostly Christians. One Catholic girl claimed to have actually kept the Ten Commandments. I tried to explain to her that “all have sinned” but she clung to her religion.

At that point we went to grab a hamburger for dinner. While we were eating, fireworks began going off right across the street. (See picture above) We watched most of the show then headed towards the car and watched the end of the show from the parking garage.

All it all, it seems that over 3,000 tracts we distributed by our group. Please pray that all these seeds take root!

Pastor Ben reported to me that when they got home from Southlake that The Colony fireworks were just ending. So they went over there and handed out tracts and did a little preaching. Then on Sunday (4th) they went to Lewisville and handed out another 500 tracts and preached for an hour. Praise God!

For those of you waiting to receive door hangars from us, there has been a delay. The first order has been lost by UPS. We are trying to get this located. I’ll post an update when we have a better idea of when we will have the door hangars to send out.

This week our church is hosting its annual Vacation Bible School. Nearly 400 kids attended to learn about Jesus. On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to address the kids. I was asked to speak about obedience and re-visit the Ten Commandments that I taught the kids how to memorize last year. I started with a video of the kids reciting the Ten Commandments that I made up of shots from the kids on Sunday night.

I then spoke to the kids about two ways to remember the Ten Commandments.The first is the summary of the Ten Commandments in Matthew 22:

³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:26-29 (ESV)

The second is like it. I showed the kids how the first four of the Ten Commandments point to mans relationship with God. This makes a vertical relationship. I asked for a volunteer and handed her the upright portion of my cross. Then I explained how the last six commandments point to mans relationship to each other. A horizontal relationship. And then I placed the cross bar on the cross. So I showed them that the cross is the symbol of the Ten Commandments.

Next I explained that following the Ten Commandments is how we can obey God, not to earn salvation, but to show gratitude for Him saving us from our sin.. I explained that God has other ways for us to obey him, like telling others about Christ. I read Matthew 28:19 to them. Jesus’ commands us to “go and make disciples.”

Since the VBS theme was Africa, I showed them a map of Africa and pointed out three countries: Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa where I know people who are doing evangelism – obeying God and telling others about Jesus. Our first stop is South Africa. This is Tim and Bill. Bill runs Sports Fans Ourtreach International. Tim is a partner in The Lost Cause Ministries.

 Together they are Evangelizing in South Africa during the World Cup soccer tournament.

This is Belmon. He lives in Cameroon. He rides his motorcycle from place to place. You can see the box of Bibles strapped to the back of his motorcycle.

At each stop he tells people about Jesus.

This is Moses. He lives in Uganda. He makes monthly mission trips around the country preaching the Gospel
and handing out tracts and Bibles.

In Uganda, the people live in small huts.

But, they love to come out to hear Moses preach.

There are a long list of things that are different between the United States and these regions of Africa. But there are also some things that are the same. For instance the Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore all people need to “repent and believe the Gospel.” So the Gospel message for the United States is the same as it is for the people of Africa. So, I showed the kids these Gospel tracts in Swahili that we have sent to Uganda and Kenya. (Note: these are the tracts that we printed in Swahili, French, Portuguese and English for the Ends of the Earth Project).

I also showed them the English translation.

(Note: if you’d like to order these tracts in English or Swahili or any of the other tracts from the Bezeugen Tract Club in bulk, then you can contact One Million Tracts to have them printed.)

Now, at this, I expected that they might be thinking, “well fine and good, but all those preachers are adults and I’m just a kid.” So I introduced my concluding video. The video shows three kids all 11 years old and under preaching the Gospel in the open air. The first is reading from the book of John, the second is reciting memorized scripture and the third is reading a Gospel tracts.

All three were giving glory to God, obeying Christ and preaching the Gospel. We know God’s word does not return void, but always accomplishes its purpose. We trust in that promise!
So I encouraged the kids to do the same. I suggested that they go home and get out their Bibles, turn to John 3 and read it to mom and dad! I pray that some did.

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. ⁵And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, ⁶that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ Joshua 4:4-6 (ESV)

This verse came to mind as a reminder to remember significant events. On Saturday, I reached a milestone in my door to door ministry when I completed door to door in the neighborhood where I live. Granted there are still nearly 39,000 more houses to go in Carrollton. But, it is good to remember the steps and milestones.

Since July 25, 2009, I have been to 968 houses. I had 239 one on one conversations.I gathed 153 prayer requests and over 750 cans of food. I clocked 48 hours of work. Much of the time I was by myself. But, when others were with me it brought the total man hours to 68 hours.

So, what’s next? I’ll move on to another neighborhood and keep going. I would also like to encourage you to get involved going door to door in your neighborhood. We have a new resource coming next week. Please consider requesting some and getting started with a door to door ministry in your neighborhood.

I must say, that going door to door can be very tiring, difficult and discouraging. But, it can also be incredibly rewarding. Let me just share a couple of thoughts from Saturday. When I started out, I went nine houses in a row before anyone even answered the door. At the tenth house was a man who welcomed prayer as he was leading a group of teens from his church on a mission trip the next day. The next door after that I spoke with a woman who did not know Christ. But she was very open to the discussion. She did not say she repented and believed while I was there, but she agreed to consider what we had talked about.

At another house, possibly one of the saddest experiences I’ve had door to door. A woman pastor told me that everyone goes to heaven and that they don’t even have to repent. I reminded her that the Bible says that “a man must repent”. At that she was offended because she thought I was saying women could not be saved. I merely was just referring to mankind. It was really sad because this woman is leading her whole flock astray.

As I reached the home stretch in my neighborhood, I had one short street to go with just ten houses left. At the first of those houses, I was greeted by a man who was a strong believer in Christ. After talking to him, I asked a favor – to refill my water bottle – and he agreed. At the next house, another Christian greeted me. After talking for a few minutes, he invited me in. He asked about the ministry so I briefed him on what we are doing door to door and with the tract club and training. He offered me water, but I just had some from the house next door. So he called to his wife to come and pray over me. That was a tremendous blessing and encouragement.

So, yes, it might be tough out there. But, you must not quite. In the words of Tony Miano, “Don’t Quit!” There are people out there that are destined for hell. We must take the Gospel to them and give them a chance at heaven. Will you join me?

Today I approved the proof of our new door hangar. Having been doing door to door evangelism for nearly a year, it has become apparent that having something larger than a business card to leave on a door when no one is home is needed. Having been praying about this for months, it was amazing today to see the final proof of the door hangar. We have two plans for this.

First, we intend to continue doing door to door using the same three pronged approach that we have been using with a food drive, asking for prayer requests and sharing the Gospel. However, with the door hangar, we will be able to leave something larger with a more expanded Gospel message on it.

Second, we have plans to go out an canvas some neighborhoods with the door hangars. We have already identified a couple areas of Carrollton, TX to canvas.

Would you like to start a door to door evangelism ministry in your neighborhood? Check out our door to door page on the web site. We’d like to help. To get you started we will send you 100 of our new door hangars. Could you commit to putting them up on the houses in your neighborhood? We will also include 5 copies of the Big Question DVD from Wretched TV. Estimating five percent respond on the Free DVD offer then five DVDs would be enough for you to go and hand deliver DVDs to people that request them. Requests would come to us via the web and then forwarded to you to go and hand deliver the disc.

The door hangar is based on the new “Bucket List” tract that we developed in conjunction with One Million Tracts. The back has an expanded Gospel message. The door hangar also features the free DVD offer. Finally, there is a place on the back suitable for putting a label onto the door hangar with your contact information or the contact information of your church. You can get Avery 5160 labels, print them and put them on the door hangar.

So, are you ready to join the door to door alliance and go out into the neighborhood to share the Gospel. Contact me if you are interested in getting some of these door hangars. I expect to receive them from the printer in about a week. If you are ready to get started, then please listen to the foundational messages and then contact me.

Ben and I have been reading Project Ezra at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano for the last several months. These week we were blessed to be joined by Ben’s son, David and David’s friend Josh. After Ben read Acts 10 from the suggested reading, David got up and read from John 3.

I then encouraged Josh to get up an read. He was not sure what to read. So I suggested he read Ephesians Chapter 1. Before I knew it, he was up on the box.

After he finished, I read Chapter 2.

Then Ben read Chapter 3. You’ll notice at the 1 minute and 55 second mark of this video two women walk by. One of them mutters under her breathe, “you should not be here.” After she walked to her car, she drove up and sat in the parking area near where we were reading. I could see that she was on the phone. Around the 4 minute and 50 second mark in the video you’ll see her car drive off and then stop in the distance behind where Ben is reading.

When Ben finished reading Chapter 3 he said he had to get to church. I said, “that’s too bad, you are going to miss all the excitement.” I then explained what the woman said and how I saw her talking on the phone and expected that she was calling the police. I told him that if Josh and David wanted to stay with me, we’d finish reading Ephesians and then I could drop them off at church in time for Sunday School. He agreed and left. David read Chapter 4.

Then Josh read Chapter 5. About 29 seconds into the video you will see a police car drive by in the distance. At this point, I had the video camera to David and ask him to keep filming. I then go and talk to the police officer. He asked what we were handing out. I told him Gospel tracts. I showed him one and he said we were doing nothing wrong. I did have a chance to talk with him briefly and he confessed to being a Christian. He even made a comment about how people get upset over the Bible, but are concerned about defending the quran instead. I explained how I knew some friends who were arrested for reading the Bible in public in California. He was very surprised. You’ll see me talking with the officer at the 2 minute 52 second mark of the video.

Finally I read Chapter 6 to complete the reading. While reading the officer comes and explains that the only possible issue someone could have is that we are on the sidewalk. So he advised moving to the grass which we did.

It was a real blessing to be out in public reading God’s Word. Having Ben, David and Josh along was very encouraging.

Our first First Thursday, was June 3rd. Mande, Todd and I met at the Carrollton City Hall. After Todd read Daniel 9, we prayed for our nation, state, city, leaders and churches.

Craig reported that over fifty people joined in prayer at his office.

Prayer is powerful. We pray that you’ll join us in prayer on the next First Thursday, July 1.