Bezeugen BLOG

Jesus commands his followers to go and share the Gospel. Yet many don’t. Why? For the last two and a half years Bezeugen Ministries has been presenting the Basic Evangelism Training Seminar. In that seminar we ask that very question. The number one answer we get is fear! Please watch this video. See if you relate to any of these reasons why you don’t share the Gospel:

Would you like to overcome these fears?

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.  (Acts 4:13)

Notice that the key is not a seminary degree or even a lot of study. The key is knowing Jesus. Peter and John were both ordinary men. But they had spent time with Jesus and testified about Him.

Need more? We can help. Enroll in a Basic Evangelism Training Seminar. We will help you overcome your fears. If you can’t make it to a seminar, then contact us. We may be able to meet you one to one around the Dallas Metroplex to provide training and mentoring. For more information, contact Carl.

Two weeks ago we went to Brookhaven College at lunch and did some evangelizing. This past Monday we went back again. There were five of us sharing the Gospel. We gave out 50 bottles of water with Gospel Tract labels. One thing is for sure, we did not bring near enough water. The bottles were gone in about 20 minutes. We also handed out about 300 Gospel tracts as well as a few New Testaments and some Gospels of John.

We had a number of good one on one conversations and conversations with the students in small groups. The conversations reminded me of Acts 17:32

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

Here are some of my comments favorite moments:

• One guy said he did not want to think about death until he is about to die. So I handed him my business card and asked him to call me on the day he is going to die. He took it and said, “I’ll call to make an appointment.”
• A woman said that when she dies she gets to come back and torment people like me that are telling people about their religion. I told her that I hoped it worked out for her, but that according to the Bible there is no coming back: only heaven or hell
• Todd was speaking to two students. One is a Christian the other is not. He encouraged the non-Christian to continue some dialog with his Christian friend.
• I saw Charlie engage in a one on one conversation. This may have been his first time!
• Pastor Tony was a real tract distribution machine!

The following is from Bill Swearingen:

Not too long ago a friend of mine shared with me the five top excuses that most people use instead of sharing their Hope in the Salvation and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Brother and therefore in us.  I took his five excuses and looked up some bible verses that “trumped” the excuse.

With that in mind, here are the five excuses along with Bill’s rebuttal from the scripture.

1. Evangelism – this is NOT your job.  This is Why we hire a Paid Helper – the pastor.  Let him handle this – He’s a Pro & we pay him to do jobs like this.

2. There is plenty of time.  Take it easy.  Lay back, kick off your shoes, slow down,

A couple weeks ago I posted a BLOG entry called to the end of the earth that described some ways the Bezeugen Ministries is reaching the end of the earth. The English, Swahili and French versions of that tract should be coming from the printer soon. Today, I’d like to turn the attention to other efforts world wide to reach the ends of the earth. Here are three ministries that can use your prayers and financial support.

Evangelist Moses in Uganda
Since January 2009 I have been in contact with Moses in Uganda. He takes monthly mission trips around the country preaching the Gospel. Many people are coming to Christ. Through meeting Moses, I’ve been blessed to also get to know Pastor Steve Dollar of Grace Bible Church Troutville, VA. You can read more about Moses on the Grace Bible Church website. Today, I got an urgent prayer request from Pastor Steve. He writes:

I just found out this morning that Moses is in the hospital.  I thought he was on the trip to produce our film but apparently he fell ill during the trip.  He is in the hospital with typhoid and malaria.  He has to pay for each day plus the drugs he uses.  The cost will be several hundred dollars.   This is an urgent plea for funds to you and to all those you know.  If you can support our effort in this, please make checks to Grace Bible Church with a memo ‘For Moses Hospital’. 

Thank you in advance for anything you can contribute.

The address is:

Grace Bible Church of Troutville, VA

2355 Stoney Battery Road

Troutville, VA 24175

Please be in prayer for Moses to get well soon so that he can get back out to serve the Lord. If you are lead to provide support for his hospital care, that would be wonderful.

ECC Mission Trip to Kenya
I started working with Empowerment Christian Center Dallas in November 2009. Our ministry provided training and then introduced them to door to door evangelism. Currently the church is going door to door in the Spanish speaking neighborhoods around their church inviting people to attend a new Spanish worship service that will being on May 16. Pastor Tony has shared with me that the church has plans to go on a mission trip to Kenya in June 2010. They are asking for prayers and financial support. Pastor Tony writes:

I thanks God from the bottom of my heart for your unwavering support to the ECC family as we execute the mandate God has given us. The Lord has laid such a burden in my heart for the victims of the recent civil unrest in Kenya. On the 4th of June 2010, The ECC mission team will leave for Kenya to minister to the Mbaruk IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp. As I write, these people are living in old leaking tents, have little if  any food, deteriorating health conditions and the list goes on and on. Our Budget for the trip is $12000.00. This excludes the airfare (the missioners are paying the fare for themselves). Every dollar donated will benefit the residents of this camp. We need your help please. Together we can pull together and meet this goal. So come and let’s worship God

Proverbs 19:17 One who is gracious to the poor lends to the LORD, And He will repay him for his good deed.  

For more details on the Kenya trip including how to make a tax deductible donation to support the effort please see the Kenya Mission 2010 article on the church web site.

Christ Assemblies International Ministries in Pakistan
This group is building a church in Pakistan. They have already acquired the land, cement and bricks. However, they still have a financial need to do the construction. Please watch this video with an update on their work.

It is my prayer that this church will be built to glorify God and bring many to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Please pray for God’s work in Pakistan through these faithful brothers in Christ. For more information or to make a donation please visit their website. I have spoke with Jack Robbins at Lovem Ministries who personally knows the leadership of this group in Pakistan and has visited there a number of times.

Lovem Ministries
Lovem Ministries has a vision to have 250 counties in the United States praying for and supporting 250 countries. Please check out their web site for details on how to pray and support their efforts to win the world for Christ.

Note: if you are looking for the Bucket List Door Hangar, please visit the Carrollton for Christ BLOG.

Members of the Bezeugen Tract Club receive 30 Gospel tracts per month (for Free). We supply these tracts from generous gifts from our donors. Sometimes we are able to provide additional tracts as people need them. Some of our tracts are stocked by One Million Tracts and can be ordered from their web site.  However, many of our tracts are limited runs and once we are out, there are no more.

Today, I am pleased to announce that Marv at One Million Tracts has agreed to print any of the tracts designed by Bezeugen Ministries in quantities as low as 250 tracts. He is offering the following pricing on all of our tracts:

• Ten packs of 100 tracts each (1000 tracts of any one style) for $30
• Five packs of 100 tracts each (500 tracts of any one style) for $20
• 250 tracts of any one style for $15

So whether you would like Get Out of Hell Free tracts, the Good Card, Why? tract, good news / bad news for door to door witnessing or 2+2= please contact Marv by email to place your order.

My thanks to Marv at One Million Tracts for making this offer available!

If you have been following this blog at all then you probably saw my article recently which referred you to the messages and research that Matt Johnson did on preaching about the Excellencies of Christ. I had been praying for awhile about reading the entire list of attributes of Christ in the open air. Lately, I’ve been doing Project Ezra with Pastor Ben from First Baptist Hebron. However, when he was unable to join me today due to illness, I decided to use the list of the attributes of Christ instead of the normal Project Ezra reading.

My Facebook friend Rob-Roy Nelson provided me with some water bottle Gospel tracts. My youngest son went with me me to Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano.  I’ve done Project Ezra at this park many times. Brendan handed out the bottles of water. While I read.

So, I am standing on my box reading “Jesus is … Advocate with the Father. John 1 says ‘My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.'”

Then moving on to the next attribute I said, “Jesus is The Alpha and the Omega. Revelation 22 says, ‘Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'”

I continued reading off the attributes of Chris. So over and over people in the park heard “Jesus is…”

Brendan was doing a great job handing out the bottles of water. He would take the water bottles and track people down to give them to people. I notice a few people once they had the water, walking away reading the label.

Eventually a man came up and said, “do you have a permit to do this?”

I said, “no, and I don’t need one. I am simply exercising my right to free speech.”

He said, “I don’t think it is right. You should stop.”

I told him that I had the right to be there and the command from God to share the Gospel. We spoke briefly. He said he was an atheist. I asked where creation came from. He said that scientists are “working on it.” He claimed that if we give the scientists enough time they would figure it out. I told him they need to look no further then Genesis 1:1. He had his cell phone in his hand when he turned to walk away. Brendan gave him a water bottle and I returned to reading the attributes of Christ.

As I looked over towards the direction he was walking off I could see that he was on his phone. I told Brendan that he was probably calling the police. I told him not to worry, that I am not doing anything wrong and that if the police come to just remain calm.

Sure enough, five minutes later a police car came up. I got down off the box and greeted the office. He said, “you don’t have to stop. I simply came by to let you know that we got a complaint, but that you are not doing anything wrong and can stay as long as you like.” I thanked him for his time and offered him a bottle of water which he declined.

So add to the list, “Jesus is offensive!” Actually we know that the cross is an offense to those that are perishing.

After I finished reading all the attributes of Christ on the list, Brendan and I packed up and went to the car. We handed out the last two water bottles as we loaded the cooler into the car. We then drove home and went to church.

At church we first had Sunday school. After Sunday school, Brendan’s teacher said, “we prayed for the guy that called the police on you!” So I shared the story with a number of people at church.

I am thankful that the officer knew the law and my rights. I am thankful that it was not a hassle. We have already had to “fight” the City of Plano over free speech issues. And I certainly did not want to have to do that again. The Gospel went out.

I was at the mall at lunch with a couple of friends sharing the Gospel. One friend had ridden to the mall with me. As we were leaving, he was saying how we see so many people and we don’t even know if they are going to heaven or hell. As we walked out through one of the department stores towards the parking lot, he said, “for instance, there are three women over there and we don’t know if they are going to heaven or hell.”

So I pulled some tracts out of my pocket and I went over and asked them. I walked up and said, “my friend and I were just discussing that we see all these people around here and we don’t know if they are going to heaven or hell. So I thought I’d tell you how to get to heaven.” With that, I simply handed them each a Gospel tract. They said thanks. Two of the three started immediately reading the tracts. The other put them down. Since they were all working, I said goodbye. They thanked me for stopping!