Just Tires? Not today!

Last week before vacation I had taken my Mazda 3 to get the rim replaced. I ended up having to bring my car home before it got fixed because we had to leave for vacation. I took it back today and it was immediately evident why. God had a plan for today. I had with me my trusty trillion dollar bill tracts. As I waited, I noticed two ladies waiting for their car with their kids. I was going to give them a tract and try to talk with them but they were very preoccupied with themselves and I did not want to interrupt. I prayed, "God, if you want me to witness, please open a door. Give me the words to speak so I can share the Gospel." After that, I walked inside. The man, Paul, was from India. I kept asking him questions about himself and found out that he was part of a religion known as Sikh. I didn't let that stop me. I asked if that religion was based on being a good person then proceeded to ask him if he thought he was good. I took him through several of the commandments and shared the Gospel with him. Here's where it gets crazy! As we were finishing talking, another worker came in and asked what we were talking about. His name was Mario. I got to share the Gospel with him too! Then Frank came in while I was finishing with Mario so he heard the Gospel as well. Now you might not believe this but then Fern and Marcos came in and I was able to share the Gospel with them too! At this point Paul had returned with another guy without a name tag and I was conducting a mini sermon to 6 guys right in the lobby of Just Tires! All of them listened intently and some were reading the back of the trillion dollar bills. It was truly a divine appointment that God had given me. No one made a commitment today but they received and understood the Gospel message. Thankfully they were all open to at least listening to what I had to say. This group of tire shop guys gave me no hard time at all. I thanked them for letting me share and they all looked happy that I cared enough to stand there shaking and share the Gospel with them. I was so glad that I was obedient to the Great Commission today. I know that not all witnessing experiences go like this but these are the kind that keep me going and I hope it encourages you to share today.

Luke 3:18 (New International Version)

¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

Celebrity Tragedy

Another celebrity didn't announce their allegience to Scientology and no, nobody died. However, there was a celebrity tragedy at my son's high school graduation yesterday at Norco High School here in California. The tragedy was a shortage of celebrity million dollar bill Gospel tracts from livingwaters.com! On our way out the door I grabbed a stack of about 70 of these tracts that I had left over from the Ambassador's Academy. I pretty much had bought these for the Hollywood portion of our class. It wasn't till I got to the stadium that I realized the previously mentioned tragedy. I could have given away thousands of these things if I had them!! I stood right behind the people who were passing out the graduation programs with my little stack of bills. People already had the mindset to take what was handed to them so one after the next took what I offered them. The only problem was how quickly I ran out! I already have it in my mind to set this up as an annual "fishing" spot. If I can get a ticket to get in and just get to my spot behind the program guy again, I'm sure I can give out stacks of these next time. The other idea I had was for my wife to pass out the tracts and I could field the one-to-one conversations if anyone asks, "what is this?" I don't know if the graduations have passed already for you guys in your area. If they are still upcoming, try to get out there and do some fishin'. If the graduations where you live are passed, mark the calendar for next year and have some stacks'o'tracts at the ready!

Magnet and a Million

For those in Southern California or who listen to Pastor Greg Laurie, you may know that he does a Harvest Crusade every year in Anaheim. They usually start giving out bumper stickers, posters, fliers, etc a couple months in advance. So, last weekend at church there was a table with all of those things plus stacks of 25 magnets. I asked if I could take a whole stack and they replied, "sure." And with that, the Magnet and a Million idea came to life. I paired each of the 25 magnets with one million dollar bill tract from living waters and decided that I would go to my 25 closest neighbors' houses to give them this little gift pack. Of course this ends up being tougher than I thought between petrified housewives and scary dogs lol. But praise God that the Gospel message entered 25 households! I didn't get to engage in too many one-to-one conversations because I had presented the pack as a gift so people took it and shut the door but at least the message made it inside. I did manage to engage in conversation with a city worker and made it through the Gospel message verbally with him and his co-worker heard it too as he kept working nearby. I ask you guys for prayer for the tracts that did make it into a house. If it was a Christian household, pray that the magnet and my gesture will be reminder for them to share the Gospel with people or at least take an unsaved friend or family member to the crusade on August 6-8. For the Gospel tracts that made their way into unsaved households, please pray that the message will speak to them and that they will repent and trust in Jesus. If you are in the SoCal area, mark your calendar for the Harvest Crusade and make sure you take an unsaved person with you and remember it's not just a concert for Christians(that drives me crazy!). In the meantime, you don't need to wait for Greg Laurie to fulfill the Great Commission for you. Go out and share your faith with someone today!