Evangelism Tip

Here is an unusual evangelism tip that Greg S. suggested, taken from the Adventures in Christianity website.

I was at the airport (where I work) yesterday and I saw a huge group of Japanese tourists, and some Muslims all decked out in their Mohammad outfits. Well, if you go up to them and start sharing Christ they will ask the security to get rid of you quickly, but what I do is just pick up my cell phone and put it up to my ear and let her rip for Jesus!

I can preach to my heart’s content if they think I am talking to someone on my phone; they have never yet complained or even let out a peep of protest. If you want to really cover yourself you could call a buddy and tell them what is going on. Or you could call someone you know who needs the Lord and get two jobs done at once! At any rate, I have really enjoyed cell phone preaching lately… [It's a great way to avoid security problems when] we can’t preach in these private property venues.

With a cell phone in hand, you can preach wherever and whenever you want!

HT - Stone the Preacher

Law - Gospel

"The law sheweth us our sin; the Gospel sheweth us a remedy for it. The law sheweth us our condemnation; the Gospel sheweth us our redemption. The law is the word of wrath; the Gospel is the word of grace. The law is the word of despair; the Gospel is the word of comfort. The law is the word of unrest; the Gospel is the word of peace.

The law saith, Pay thy debt; the Gospel saith, Christ hath paid it. The law saith, Thou art a sinner, despair, thou shalt be damned; the Gospel saith, Thy sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort, thou shalt be saved. The law saith, Make amends for thy sins; the Gospel saith Christ hath made it for thee. The law saith, Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction? The Gospel saith, Christ is thy righteousness, thy goodness, and satisfaction. The law saith, Thou art bound and obliged to me, to the devil, and to hell; the Gospel saith, Christ hath delivered thee from them all."

Patrick Hamilton (1503-1528)

All roads lead to God -

Sometimes, when witnessing, a person will tell me that its fine that I believe what I believe but he has his own way to get to God. Sometimes I will even hear a person say, "All roads lead to God".

Whenever I hear that from a person I immediately agree with them. I say, "You are right, all roads do lead to God!"

If you are an atheist, your road leads to God. If you are a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Wiccan, an agnostic, a Jew, a mother Earth worshipper or any other belief system; your road leads to God.

However, if you want forgiveness of your sins and eternal life in Heaven, then there is only one path and it is a narrow one. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Life and that no one goes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

Only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ can you be forgiven of the thing that separates you from God; sin.

Yes, all roads lead to God. But the real question should be, "What will become of me at the end of my road that leads to God?"

Not sure?

Please visit http://www.needgod.com/

What should be the result of a witness encounter?

Todd Friel in the Wretched Radio Newsletter.



When all is said and done, what should be the result of a witness encounter?

Like Horshack, you probably just shouted, “Ooh, ooh, pick me!”

Not so fast Ron Palillo.

Let me give you four options before you give your final answer.

1. The heathen feels like a wretched sinner.



2. The heathen understands the love of God.



3. You made it all the way through without passing out.



4. Jesus is exalted.

The correct answer: 4.

Yes, 1, 2 and 3 are important, but if you take a survey through the book of Acts, you will discover that the ultimate goal of apostolic Gospel preaching was: Jesus.

Let’s see if I can prove it. And if I can, you and I may need to reconsider how we share and preach the Gospel.




Acts Sermon #1: Acts 2:14-40
The Holy Spirit has fallen on the apostles and 120 others as they begin to speak in foreign languages. After Peter explains to the devout Jews that they are not drunk but fulfilling the prophecy in Joel 2, he launches into his sermon. How does it begin?

“Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst.” The remainder of Peter’s sermon is all about…Jesus.

Acts Sermon #2: Acts 3:11-26
After the lame man was healed and a crowd gathered, Peter sees the opportunity to launch into an open air sermon (gotta love that). How does Peter begin the sermon? By explaining that the miracle was performed by Jesus. How does Peter end the sermon? He proclaims the resurrection of Jesus. What did Peter talk about in between? Jesus.

Interestingly, the reason why Peter and John were arrested was because “they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” (Acts 4:2)


Acts Sermon #3: Acts 4:8-12
Peter and John have been arrested for healing the lame man and Peter gives his defense. What does he preach? Bingo! “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

What is that name? Jesus.

Eleven More Sermons

There are at least ten more sermons in the book of Acts and each sermon either begins with Jesus or climaxes with Jesus.

Consider Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7. He didn’t give the learned Jews a history lesson for nothing. He preached through the Old Testament to demonstrate that it was all headed toward a fulfillment in…Jesus. That is when the rocks started flying.

“Phillip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.” (Acts 8:5)

Phillip then approached the Ethiopian eunuch and “preached Jesus to him.” (Acts 8:35)

Saul got saved on the road to Damascus. The scales were removed from his eyes and what did he do? “Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus.” (Acts 9:20)

Peter preached “peace through Jesus Christ” to Cornelius and his household. (Acts 10:36)

Paul preached Jesus in the Areopagus in Acts 17. Paul preached Jesus in Acts 22 as he presented his defense before the Jerusalem mob. Paul preached Jesus to Felix in Acts 24 and to Agrippa in Acts 26. In fact, “Agrippa replied to Paul, ‘In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.’” (Acts 26:28)

Consider the last words of the rather abrupt ending to Acts. “And Paul stayed two full years (in Rome) in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.”

The conclusion is unmistakable, the main emphasis in the preaching of the apostles in the Book of Acts is: JESUS.

What do we do with this? Well, I am not entirely sure. I am still digesting the above information since hearing a magnificent sermon by Pastor Ty Blackburn just ten hours ago. I think I have three conclusions (ugh, that sounded kind of emergent).

1. Lighten up on the apologetics
Do we lose apologetics entirely? Nope. We are always prepared to give a reason for the hope we have (I Peter 3:15). But as we study Paul’s apologetics, he reasoned with people from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2). The emphasis of Paul’s apologetics was not big bang cosmology, but Jesus. Paul used the Old Testament Scriptures to demonstrate their fulfillment in Jesus.

Yes, we use apologetics; after all, the mind has to be convinced of the truth. But perhaps we have been letting the atheists take us down apologetics rabbit trails that take the focus off of the name that gives them the shakes.

2. Start in different places, end in the same place

It is obvious in the Book of Acts that each sermon has a distinctly different starting place. With the Jews, the sermons typically began with Jesus the Messiah. With the Greeks, Paul began with creation. We also notice that each circumstance demanded a different opening. The first words out of our mouths don’t need to be “Jesus the Nazarene”, but our sermons and witness encounters should be like the apostles: Jesus centered.

While we may spend some time (and it may be quite a bit of time) discussing creation and the Law, we better make sure that we end our message with the name that saves.

3. Dwell on Jesus

Does this mean we should no longer use the Law and preach the Ten Commandments? Certainly not. But I am suggesting that maybe our (ok, my) witness encounters have not been as Jesus centered as they should be.

As Pastor Blackburn preached, “After our witness encounters, Jesus should be left ringing in their ears.”

What does all of this look like?

I am not sure.

As we make our way through the month of August, will you ponder this with me? How can we make sure that Jesus is the star of our message?

I will be trying to do this in witnessing and preaching. Will you kindly offer your suggestions and give your critiques? If I fail, chastise me. Should I stumble across a particularly good presentation, tell me.


Be listening. I will be trying. Give me your advice, opinions and suggestions.
idea@wretchedradio.com

Together, let’s make sure that Jesus rings in everyone’s ears.

- Todd


Hat Tip to Street Fishing!

Evangelism, AMISH Style

Ephraim Stoltzfus, raised in the Amish culture, was disfellowshipped from his community for having the audacity to share the gospel with the lost, conducting Bible studies with his family, and for reading the Bible in English. As he studied the Word, he realized that that his leaders’ traditions didn’t exactly line up with Scripture.

This clip is taken from a one hour BBC documentary of this incident called “Trouble in Amish Paradise” (currently unavailable, but you can read a synopsis here), and you can listen to Ephraim’s amazing story by clicking here to go to Ambassadors’ Alliance Radio. Ephraim’s tesimony is at the start of the second hour.


Hat Tip - Stone the Preacher

That's my King...do you know Him?

The Power of a Tract

This is an account of an outing with a couple of the customer service reps from Living Waters recently. Another great testimony that tracts are a great resource for sharing your faith.


We just concluded our 11th Academy here in California a couple weeks ago and the June Academy participants are now home hopefully continuing in all that they learned.

The day they left, just to end the weekend with a bang, some of the Academy Lady Mentors and Team Leaders joined up with a team of ten others to pass out tracts and engage in one-to-ones in Hollywood at that Sunday's Gay Pride Parade.

We met up at someone's church for a time prayer before going out, then caravanned to our destination. We parked on the same street, loaded our bags and backpacks with money tracts and a specially designed tracts just for this event.

One of the leaders put a tract together that was on simple pink card stock, with what looked like wedding bells on the front with a text that read: "GOT EQUALITY?"

On the back, it talks about our American constitutional rights and equality... then continues to talk about how we all will equally be judged according to God's holy standard, the Ten Commandments, followed, of course, by the gospel message.

Nothing on the tract said anything about homosexuality, gay marriage, or the like, but those tracts flew out of our hands and in to the hands of both male and female attendees living in homosexual living styles.

Arriving early before the parade started, we began where the parade would later end and made our way toward where the parade would begin. Many of those I handed these tracts to gladly received them, having not yet read the back. And at one point my friend and I ended up breaking off from the rest of our team and hitting up everyone setting up to watch the parade. We covered the entire parade route from where it was to end to where it began and back again.

It was like nothing I have ever experienced! I didn't really stick around long enough to hear what people had to say after they read the tracts, but my friend had a couple of friendly conversations with individuals out there.

When we later met up with one of our fellow evangelists, and the others that were out there with us at the end of the day, his eyes were blood shot, having been in tears over a conversation he had had with a young lady he'd given a tract to.

She had taken the Million Dollar tract and continued on her way, but ended up sometime later coming back to him later (he had been 75 yards down from where he handing her the tract), imploring him to take the tract back. Of course he said that he would not take it back and, "We care for you that's why we give them to you."

She said, "I read the back and you're just here to condemn my homosexuality."

He said, "No ma'am. No where on there does it talk about homosexuality, nor would I speak of it to you."

She told him that he had to take that tract back because she had become very convicted by reading it and explained that she was living in a lesbian life-style.

She said, "I read the back and it talks about lusting and things of that nature."

He said, "Ma'am, that is the moral law of God."

She said, "Sir, I am a Christian. I'm a back-slidden Christian. I'm aware of my homosexuality. I have read this and I am living in a back-slidden state, but I am a Christian."

He went on to say that she needed to heed God's conviction by repenting, trusting, and committing her life to Jesus Christ alone and that God would then deliver her from that lifestyle. He was able to go through the law and the gospel with her, and told her if she was truly born again that there were many lost people around her that she could give the tract to.

She even ended up thanking him for speaking with her that way and turned and walked away with the tract. Usually we try to engage people like this, my friend was just passing out as many tracts as he could at this event and this fish came "swimming" from 75 yards back to him to "jump in to the boat" so-to-speak! THAT'S THE POWER OF A GOSPEL TRACT!

There were estimated to be thousands of attendees there that day and even though there were others passing out all kinds of other flyers, which covered the ground in certain areas of the parade route, I didn't see even one tract on the ground, and my friend and I alone passed out thousands of tracts.

The parade, of course was quite obscene at times, at which points my friend and I had to warn each other not to look at it.

So God alone knows what impact that was made and we trust in Him that His Word will not return void!

May God be glorified!


HT: Street Fishing & Living Waters