VBS presentation

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.

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Milestone

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?

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New Door to Door Resource

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.

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Reading Ephesians in the Open Air

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.

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June 3

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.

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What lies ahead

Having been doing door to door for nearly a year, I’ve been continually praying about how to do this more efficiently and also help others get started. In about two weeks we will have the following available:

A door hangar – the door hangar will be 11×4.5 inches. It will have an expanded Gospel message (more than twice as many words as our typical business card sized tracts). It will have an offer for a free DVD. The DVD that we will be using is “The Big Question” by Wretched. You can watch a preview below. The thought is that each group will stock the DVD themselves ($1 a piece in a spindle from wretched.tv). In the event you can’t stock them, then we may be able to help by providing you a smaller quantity than Wretched sells. Finally, the door hangar will have a place where you can affix a label with your personal or church contact information.

Prayer Cards – we will be making pads with 50 prayer request cards on each pad. We will also be providing the PDF to make these yourself via the web site. With the PDF you can either contact your local Office Max (or similar) and have them make pads for you. Or you can just print them and use them on a clip board without making them into pads.


Food Drive sheets – up until now, I’ve been using a sheet about the food drive that comes from the food pantry. However, in order to provide a level of indirection with the food pantry, I’ve contacted several other food pantries that I can donate food to. I’ve also made my own flyer about the food drive which lists the various food pantries we are working with. The food drive sheets will be available as a PDF with a place to put a label about the food pantry (or pantries) that you are working with. I may make these into pads, or simply just print a few pages out as I need them. I don’t typically go through very many of these sheets as I generally only leave one behind when the people are interested in making a donation later.

If you are thinking of getting started with a door to door campaign in your neighborhood, please check the video and information on the web site. Then let me know if you would like a starter pack of door hangars. What I am thinking is that we should be able to mail about 100 of them in a flat rate envelope. I wont know the exact logistics until I receive the door hangars. I am working with the printer to get pricing on these door hangars for you. So my thought is that once we send you the initial set, you’ll be able to order more direct from the printer.

Let me know your thoughts. I pray that these resources will be valuable.

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900

Yesterday I had Brian’s company as we went to another 35 houses door to door. We only collected about six cans of food. However, we had some wonderful one on one conversations. Tracts were left at each door where no one was home. We met a fellow believer in Christ who was very encouraging to our mission. And we met a man who had converted to Christianity from Hinduism! Praise God. With these 35 houses completed, I have now visited over 900 houses. I am estimating that in 2-3 more hours I can wrap up the houses in my immediate neighborhood.

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Who do you know in…

The Bezeugen Tract Club has been steadily growing since its inception in 2008. To date we have members in 41 of the US States. In the map below, the states in red are have tract club members in them.

That leaves 9 states plus the District of Columbia to cover the entire US. So the question is, who do you know in….

  • Idaho
  • Montana
  • Wyoming
  • North Dakota
  • Delaware
  • Massachusetts
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
  • Maine
  • District of Columbia
that you can refer to the Bezeugen Tract Club?
When you refer members, please ask them to put your name in the “how did you hear” field in the web form. For the tract club members name that is in the “how did you hear” field, we will send you a special shipment of 100 Gospel Tracts! And I am not talking about just any 100 Gospel tracts. I’ll send you 100 of our newest Gospel tract that is not available anywhere and will not be sent to tract club members until August. So refer your friends. And get this new tract now! Tell your referral that they can earn an extra 100 tracts too because after they enroll, they can refer someone else in another state on this list.
So what are you waiting for? Please send your friends to the Bezeugen Tract Club page to enroll!
Also, don’t forget to join the Bezeugen Tract Club facebook page. See the banner to the left of this article. Click the banner to join!
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Lifestyle Evangelism and Friendship Evangelism: Defined!

Lifestyle evangelism & friendship evangelism 
Here are two terms for evangelism that in my opinion have crept into the churchat large and have in a sense, been adopted as doctrine. They have given the body of Christ (the church) an excuse to be almostsilent about their faith in Jesus Christ and consequently have caused the church to be complacent & lethargic in regards to their witness for Christ. What a shame.
 
Here are the biblical definitions for these two terms.
 
Lifestyle evangelism … An individual who has made it his lifestyle to evangelize. One who has entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ through repentance & faith and because of his gratitude and love for Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit has determined to tell others about his gift of eternal life and the indescribable relationship that he now has with his Lord & Savior. See: Acts 4:31-33, Acts 8:26-40, Matt 9:35 See: Also in any typical bible, countless other examples. 
 
Friendship evangelism… One who is very friendly when he tells others about about the relationship that he has with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is also very friendly when he tells others how they can escape the judgement of a Holy God, have eternal life and likewise, enter into a relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. See: Acts: 10:42-48, Acts 16:30-32, Matt 10:5-15, See: Also in any typical bible, countless other examples.   
Thanks to Todd for providing this article!
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Some Tips for Sharing the Gospel

On Sunday, May 23rd, Bezeugen Ministries was invited to speak at Empowerment Christian Center in Farmers Branch, Texas. The two part audio was recorded while speaking at ECC. As you listen, you may like to review the rest of this blog which contains the handout from the message.

Please feel free to download this message, put it on your iPod, burn it to a CD and share it with your friends. It is my hope and prayer that through this message Christ is glorified and the members of the body of Christ is equipped, educated and empowered to share the glorious Gospel “As you go”.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
You don’t have to go to _Africa_ or _India_.
You can share the Gospel “As You Go” to work, school, the store (Matthew 28:19)
 “Evangelism is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.” Elton Trueblood
 “Have you no wish for others to be saved?  Then you are not saved yourself.  Be sure of that.” Charles Spurgeon
There are additional Bible references and quotes from famous preachers on the Bezeugen Website.

Handing out Gospel Tracts

·         In twelve packs of soda and beer
·         In letters to loved ones
·         In envelopes with bills
·         In books at the book store or library
·         On tables (doctors offices, malls, etc)
·         Public bulletin boards
·         Credit Card slots (gas pumps, ATMs)
·         Business reply envelopes
·         Cashier and people in line at store
·         Waiter/waitress in ADDITION to a generous tip
The Bezeugen Tract Club provides 30 Free Gospel tracts per month along with the encouragement to go and hand them out. You can enroll in he club online.

Biblical Evangelism

W D J D – What Did Jesus Do

Mark 10:17-23, John 4
Would you consider yourself to be a good person
Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments
Judgment
Do you think you will go to heaven or hell?

CcRAFT

Does that concern you?
Cross – Jesus suffered and died
Repentance– confess and forsake sin
and
Faith – More than belief, it’s trusting in Jesus for salvation
Truth – of the Bible. Encourage them to get right with God today!
Do’s
·         Smile & greet people, be friendly
·         Ask “Did you get one of these?”
·         Fit the environment
·         Make eye contact
·         Pray for the those witnessing
·         Speak the truth in love
Don’ts
·         wear Christian jewelry
·         …wear sunglasses
·         …use accusatory tone of voice
·         …force a “decision for Christ” or lead a sinners pray
This morning, we have compressed a 2.5 hour seminar into 1 hour. If you would like to go into more detail on the WDJD and CrAFT, then please join us for part 2 of our seminar this Wednesday night at First Baptist Hebron in Carrollton for much more detail on how to share the Gospel Biblically and effectively. Dinner is served at 6PM. The seminar runs 6:30-8PM. Future seminar dates are also posted on the Event Brite site.
We’d be happy to schedule some time with you to go and practice sharing the Gospel. You are welcome to join us at our witnessing events
For more training from Bezeugen, please see the As You Go page.
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