Follow Death is Gain (Ben) and SaulBecomesPaul (Virgil) as they share witnessing experiences, tips, devotions, encouragement and encounters with the unchurched.
Ben, our very own Death is Gain, sent me this book last month and I am finally getting around to reading it. To be honest I had a hard time putting it down even to write this. Slave, by John MacArthur, is an amazing look at what it truly means to have Jesus as the Master of your life. Of course if He is the Master, that necessarily makes His followers slaves. This book looks at all of that and it also takes time to look at some of the history of the Reformation. Please take the time to check out this book and find out what your true identity in Christ is today! There is also a study guide that allows slave to be used in a small group setting. If you are involved in some sort of shepherd group this would be a great book to go through together! Below are some links to where you can pick up your copy! Hope that it blesses you as it has me, Virg.
I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.
So I have been on vacation this week in a small town called Bemus Point in New York. It has been very relaxing with the family. I have looked down at my don't quit bracelet several times and been reminded that no matter where I am I need to answer the call and share with people. So everytime I leave the condo I make sure that I have tracts in pocket and that I find somewhere or some person to give them too.
One store I went to with my family for souveniers became a place to pass out tracts. As we were leaving I gave the owner a Million dollar bill and she thought it was the neatest thing! The next thing I knew I was giving one each to the others in line behind me and they all took one and were amazed at it. I pray that they took time to read it and share with someone else too!
One night I got to have dinner with my boys so we found that the Are you a good person mini tract are about the size of sugar packets so we placed one there for the next person needing sugar and tipped the waitress well and also gave a million dollar bill. Then as we left the restaurant I gave a Million dollar bill to each table that had customers sitting there. Some thanked me while others looked with terror as I approached them and gave them a tract. I pray these folks will also read them.
While we have been here we have heard this siren in the background from time to time each day. At first I was like is that a air raid siren? It was really loud and made me think of movies where there was an air raid taking place. Then one time I looked at clock and it was noon, I was thinking it was like a Church bell sounding at noon. I dismissed it but would continue to hear at different times of the day each day so I dismissed the clock reference. While at a gift shop I asked the owner and she said it was to alert the volunteer fire and ems crews that their was a emergency. The siren is so loud so that the volunteers can hear it from anywhere they are at within the city.
I kept thinking about that siren and how it was becoming part of the background noise, only now I was starting to pray for those in need and those on the way to get there safely and to help those in need. Then I realized that while I was becomming use to hearing that siren and it becoming part of the background noise now that I knew what it was, it dawned on me that this is how most Christians are with the lost. They hear this noise, have this drive to reach and share with the lost, but over time it becomes background noise and they stop sharing their faith with others. So I wondered what if we all heard this loud siren that I heard this week and it was to alert each of us to the 150,000 people that are dying and may or may not know Christ and have not gotten right with Him. What would we do? Would we hear that call or would we ignore it?
So I decided that I will continue to use my Don't Quit bracelet as a reminder since I can't make that siren sound all the time to keep me from getting lazy with sharing the lost. What will you use as a constant reminder about sharing with the lost? Maybe a bracelet or something you can carry with you? Maybe you will just look at every person and crowd differently and wonder if they are in fact saved or doomed to Hell?
While reading and studying at night this week I came across these words from the book "Evangelism in the New Testament" that rea
lly fell in line with this post and thought I would share as it can be very convicting and make you wonder why that siren becomes backround noise to some alerting them to those that are perishing around them and do nothing....
"Is it because of our fear for our own comfort, our own safety? Have those fears ever been endorsed as valid reasons to refrain from preaching the gospel, biblically speaking? Of course not. If fears paralyze us, in any kind of evangelism, it is because we do not have adequate love for the Lord or for the lost? (1 John 4:7-21)
Don't quit, wherever you are, whatever you are doing or going through, Don't quit! Persevere.
