Bezeugen BLOG

Today, I continue my investigation of the 3:16’s of the Bible. I started with a look at John 3:16, probably the best known verse in the Bible. Then last time I looked at the fall of man and the original prophecy of Jesus in Genesis 3:16 and surrounding verses. Today I move on to Exodus and look at the verses surrounding Exodus 3:16. So here we go…

¹³Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” – Genesis 3:13-14

Staring in verse 13 God is giving Moses the charge to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land. Moses has many excuses why he is not the right man for the job; not the least of which is being concerned over what to say if someone asks who sent him. I find two interesting things here. First, when it comes to us, do we make excuses or question who is sending us. Jesus in Matthew 28 commands us to “go” and make disciples. When He commands that, do you “go” or do you make excuses like: I don’t know the Bible well enough, I have not studied apologetics long enough, I am afraid of what people will say about, etc; or do you “go”. Second, Jesus quotes verse 14 when He declares to the people that He is God. Consider the following passage:

⁵⁷“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:57-59 NIV)

People that don’t believe Jesus is God, Muslims for example, demand a verse that Jesus actually says, “I am God”. There are such verses in the prophecy, but that is not the point of this discussion. Here Jesus referencing back to the Exodus 3:14 verse is declaring that He is God. Make no mistake about it. The first century Jews believed it. They took his claim very seriously, that is why they tried to stone him. For more investigation about the diety of Jesus, I encourage you to read the verses and listen to the Timothy Keller sermon on the “Is Jesus Really God” page of the AfterLifeCatalog.

Moving back to Exodus 3:

¹⁵God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. ¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, ¹⁷and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”‘ – Exodus 3:15-17 (ESV)

Here in these verses God is promising Moses to deliver the people of Israel out of their affliction through him. In a sense, this may be a forshadowing of Christ leading those who will repent and trust Him out of thier sin and back into a right relationship with God.

Finally, God makes a promise to Moses to encourage him.

¹⁸And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ ¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. ²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. ²¹And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, ²²but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.” – Exodus 3:18-22

In verse 18, God gives Moses some encouragement saying “they will listen to you”. That goes back to address his original concern of Who am I to do this? God has command him. He also has offered a plan to redeem these people.

Three take aways
Maybe today you fall into one of three categories
First, do you need to be redeemed? If you die tonight would you go to heaven? If you have any doubt at all then consider this? The Bible says it is appointed once for man to die and then the judgment – based on the Ten Commandments. Have you ever lied, stolenn, murdered or even hated, looked with lust, or used God’s name as a curse word? If so then God will find you guilty on judgment day of being a liar, a thief, a murdered, an adulterer and a blasphemer at heart. He would have no choice but to send you to hell when you die. The good news is that just like the Israelites, God wants to save you. And he has already offered the perfect gift. Two thousand years ago, God sent his only son Jesus to live on earth. Jesus being fully God and fully man was the only one capable of living a perfect life. He fulfilled the Law. Then after living 30-33 years, He willingly laid down his life in a sacrifice for all mankind. He was crucified and died on the cross. Three days later he rose from the dead defeating sin, death and the devil. He took the wrath of God upon himself instead of leaving it for you. The Bible says if you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus then you will have eternal life. If you fall in this category, would you read the more detailed Gospel message on our web site?

Second, perhaps you consider yourself to be a believer in Christ already, but you have not yet headed the call to “go” from Matthew 28. Please consider 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” if after examination under the conditions of option one above, please consider giving your life to Christ through repentance and trust in Jesus. If you are already in the faith, then why not tell others. Sign up for a seminar to learn more about sharing your faith with others or enroll in the Bezeugen Tract Club so that you can have a fresh supply of Gospel tracts each month to share with everyone you meet. If Christ has changed your life, then go tell others! If you are in this category, I challenge you to read to books. First is Jon Speed’s book, “Evangelism in the New Testament“. The second is Mark Cahill’s book, “One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven“. These are great books that will challenge you to reach the lost and rethink your position on many things including Evangelism. I have a limited number of each of these books available. If you will read it and would like a free copy then contact me through the comments and request one of the books. Or you can obtain copies from One Million Tracts or Mark Cahill’s site by clicking the links above.

Third, if you are already in the faith and you are actively sharing it with others, then let the words of Tony Miano’s call at the Ambassador’s Alliance ring clear in your head, “Don’t Quit“. Maybe it is time to step up your efforts. Maybe God is calling you to the study the School of Biblical Evangelism, attend the Deeper conference or to attend the Ambassadors Academy to equip you for Open Air. Whatever it is, be bold for Christ. Remember, study God’s Word every day. Continue to seek Him in prayer. There is a lost and dying world out there that needs to hear about His plan of salvation!

Your thoughts are welcome. Please post a comment!

Here are a couple of ways to make sharing the Gospel easy. Neither requires you to even talk to anyone or hand them anything. Check this out.

First, here is a use for all those postage paid envelopes that come in the mail. Rather than throw them out, save them. At our house, we have a basket where we collect them all. You could use something similar, put them in a drawer, or just process them as they arrive and put them in the mailbox right away.

After we collect 30-50 envelopes, we take them and give them to our youngest son along with a stack of Gospel tracts. Million Dollar Bill tracts work well. But other tracts work fine too. Put a tract in each envelope. Seal the envelope. Then go put all the envelopes int he mail box. These tracts will now be delivered to someone. We never know if the seed falls on good or rocky soil. But at least it is planted!

Second, whenever I go to the computer store, I like to play with the new computers. A radio station used to talk about converting the radio when going to a store. They meant if you are in a store where the radio is accessible, or one on display that is on, tune it to their station. The same can be done with computers, say at the Apple Store where the computers are all on the internet. I’ll bring up the web browser and point it to Bezeugen Ministries, AfterLifeCatalog or our YouTube video account. You never know when the next person will walk by and see the message on the screen!

My son and I were at Fry’s Electronics on Sunday afternoon looking at computers. None of the computers had working internet access. So my above method was foiled. On one computer, I brought up notepad and typed an entire Gospel Tract and message with the Law and the Gospel. I set the font really big so that it would be easy for someone to read. Then while looking at the new Macs, I brought up iCal and set an event in the calendar for about 30 minutes later. I typed a simple Gospel message in the event and then closed the calendar. Approximately 30 minutes later, someone using that computer or coming by would receive a Gospel message! See image of iCal being configured below:

Give these ideas a try. They are easy, yet effective ways to share the Gospel. Please post a comment and let me know how these ideas worked for you. If you need some tracts to go into your business reply envelopes, then sign up for the Bezeugen Tract Club.

I’ve talked about making my own t-shirt for awhile. Over the weekend I mentioned it to my wife. She asked what I wanted. I told her I thought we could find a place online to print it. She decided to make it for me! (Thanks, Honey!) So today, was my first day to wear my new t-shirt.

On the front it says, “Where will you spend ETERNITY?”

And on the back is the web site, www.AfterLifeCatalog.com

I wore the shirt out this evening to physical therapy and then to Target. Got some looks of people checking it out. Hmmm… I’m thinking a tract with the question on the front and the Law and Gospel on the back would go nicely with the shirt.

So, if we got these printed would anyone be interested in one?

Why make a shirt like this? Well, certain shirts make nice invitations to spiritual conversations. Check out my YouTube video that discusses this.

I wanted to take a minute to provide an update on the Carrollton for Christ effort. This effort is to go door to door to the entire city of Carrollton, Texas and share the Gospel. A video and description in my first post on this effort provides background on how I am doing this. A second post update provided some additional detail.

The Clip Board
The basic method still holds. I carry a clip board with me. The clip board serves the following purposes:

1. The top paper is a flyer from Metro Crest Social Services. This gives me credibility that I am really representing Metro Crest. It has the added benefit that if someone wants to give later, I simply give them a copy of the page. I’ll have about 10 of these on my clip board at one time.
2. Below the stack of flyers from Metro Crest, I have slips of paper for praer requests. Currently the slip just has a place for name and prayer request(s) with some lines to write in. However, I am finding that I at least need to include the date and the address. In addition, it would be beneficial to include a place for email address and phone as well as general comments. I tend to write some or all of this information onto each slip, so it would be useful to have a spot for it. (Note to self – update the card, then share it with this blog). I’ll note here that the request is typically what the person speaks to me. However, if they tell me they have no prayer request and then we get into a discussion and I realize they have not repented and trusted Christ, then I write in a prayer request for their salvation. The general comments section allows me to capture notes like if they are interested in helping, or what religion they said they were.
3. Below the stack of prayer request cards is a couple of sheets of paper. The primary purpose is that I use this to track each house I visit. I primarily only tract that I went to the house and that I had a one on one conversation. So, when I head out, I’ll write the date and draw a line, then skip some space and write 1:1 and put a line. I find it is best to capture the chicken scratch at the same point of each house visit. Otherwise, I get confused and think “did I already mark that house down, or not”. So what I’ve decided to do is that as I walk AWAY from that house back to the sidewalk, I’ll make a mark for the house and a separate mark for a 1:1. Then I move on to the next house.

Before you “go”
The most important thing we do before we “go” is PRAY! I do not want to enter the battle field with out first being prayed up. If my wife is home then we will pray together in person. If not and she is available, we will pray together over the phone. Otherwise, I’ll spend some time in prayer by myself before heading out. If you are going to go door to door, please, do not skip this step!

Three steps to the Gospel
At each house, I am using the approach that I am at the door for three reasons. Then I go through the reasons one by one. Notice that these lead into the Gospel slowly. As Ray Comfort says, we don’t want to come to the door and sudden shine a flash light in their face. We need to awaken them slowly and then bring up the things of God. So the three purposes for visiting are:

1. I first explain that I am conducting a food drive for Metro Crest Social Services and ask if they would be willing to make a donation. As I’ve been doing this, I’ve stressed to people that the food is re-distributed right here in the City of Carrollton. I like for them to know that they are making a local impact. Some will give one can of food. Some a whole bag full of food. The ones that give little will sometimes say they wish they could give more. Some say they would give at a later time. In the latter two cases, I will provide them with a half page flyer from Metro Crest that has their contact information so that they can make a donation at a later time. Some people will go get the food at this point and come back with the food. Others want to know the other two reasons first. Be flexible. As much as my intent is to drive the conversation towards sharing the Gospel, I recognize that it’s their house and respect their wishes whichever way they want to go here.
2. Once the food collection item has been discussed, I turn the spiritual things saying something like, “the second reason that I am here is that my friends and I are having a prayer meeting and we’d like to know if there is any specific way we can pray for you and your family?” Most people regardless of any faith background are receptive to this question. A few have said, “no, we’re good”, but most say something like, “we’d love that” or “can never have too much prayer”. I try to get the prayer request to be something personal about that person because then we could come back in a few weeks and see if the prayer has been answered. One time, I had a man identify himself as a Christian and he offered to pray for me. That was awesome. Another time, the prayer request was for a woman who was caring for her mom. The mom has less than three weeks to live. We discussed the Gospel and realized she and her mom we both saved. We prayer with her right there on the spot. Many tears were shed at that door.
3. Finally, I turn to the Gospel. I tell them, “the third reason that I am here is that I am taking a spiritual survey to see what the neighborhood believes. For instance, do you have any spiritual beliefs, like do you believe in God?” This can lead in a number of directions. They may say right off that they are a Christian, Catholic, Budhist, Muslim or whatever. Or they may say, “no, I don’t believe in God.” Basically I have to be prepared for any possible answer. The good thing is that God will guide the conversation and provide the right response. At the conclusion of the conversation I’ll give them a good news / bad news Gospel tract.

When no one is home
Figuring out if no one is home is not an exact science. There are a couple of key things I check for. First, when I ring the door bell, I try to listen to hear the bell actually ring. If it does, then I know that if they are home and coming to the door, then they should come in 30 seconds or so. If I don’t actually hear the ring, then I am never sure if possibly they are not answering the door because the door bell does not work. If the person has a dog, then you can usually tell that the bell works because you’ll here the dog barking inside. If I didn’t hear the bell, then I may knock instead. I then have to wait a unspecified period of time until I decide if I should move on. Some indicators as to someone being home is seeing light in the windows above or beside the door.

If there is no answer, then I’ll leave a good news / bad news Gospel tract on their door and then move on to the next house.

A few times after waiting what seemed like “long enough”, someone answered the door as I was walking away. In this case, I just go back and talk to them.

Thoughts on experiences
There are a couple of additional thoughts to share.

• I’ve had women come to the door wrapper in a bath towel or wearing a bath robe. In these cases, I’ll excuse myself and move on to the next house.
• Follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. Although it is not my intent to actually pray with the person at thier door, in the case of the woman whose mom was dying, the Spirit lead us to do that and I believe it was a great encouragement to her.
• Look for No Soliciting and No Trespassing signs. Although I don’t believe that what we are soliciting, I have decided to pass by any house that has either of these signs. This avoids getting into a debate about whether it is soliciting or not. I pray for this household as I pass by.
• Be mindful that some people don’t want to talk about spiritual things. God may not be calling them at this time, or their heart may be so hardened to spiritual things that they won’t discuss it. That is okay. I still try to leave them with a Gospel tract.

Finally, when I am rejected, I remember that it is not me that they are rejecting, but Jesus. I take comfort in these words from 1 Peter 4 as I remember words that Mark Cahill wrote in his book, “One thing you can’t do in heaven“

¹²Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:12-15, NIV)

Mark Cahill writes that there are three responses a person may make to hearing the Gospel: repent and trust Jesus, think about it or reject it. (BTW, if you have not read Mark’s book, it is excellent and highly recommended. You can request a copy from his web site. I may have a few copies left. If so, I’ll send you a free copy if you send me your address.) The last case can come in the form of personal attacks. Although persecution in Carrollton is nothing like what Voice of the Martyrs sees around the world, people still reject the Gospel here. And sometimes, they are not very nice about it. For example, yesterday a Muslim woman said, “there is one god. whether you want to call him allah or Jesus is up to you.” I said, “mam, what if your understanding was wrong, would you want to know about it?” My intention was to give her a Living Waters Why Christianity booklet. However, as I finished my sentence, she stepped back and slammed the door! I don’t take it personally. I take it that she is rejecting Jesus. Breaks my heart. We will be praying for her.

That’s it for now.

Until next time, if there are any questions please email me or post them in the comments. Let me know if you are able to use any of these ideas to reach your own neighborhood or city for Christ. Please keep my efforts to reach Carrollton for Christ in your prayers!

The fall is an exciting time of year. There are many sports fans (me included) that eagerly await the start of football season. On the next three weekends we will see kick off first of the High School season, then of the college season and finally of the NFL season. People arrange their schedules, travel to games and spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and souvenirs. They organize fantasy leagues so they can compete against their friends. In short, they prepare for football above all else.

Statistics say that less than TWO PERCENT of professing Christians share their faith regularly. It got me to thinking: “what if there were an Evangelism season?” Would people gear up? Pray up? Print tracts? Plan to get going to share the faith? Would they travel to other cities just to share the Gospel? Would they create fantasy leagues to track their favorite evangelists to see who would preach the most or share the most Gospel tracts? Well, I submit that it is Evangelism season:

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:1-3 (NIV)

Look at Paul’s charge to Timothy, “Preach the Word.” OK. That is pretty clear. Now the question is when should we do it? The verse continues, “be prepared in season and out of season”. That covers all the time. We should preach the word both in season and out of season. Or any time.

So it is not really accurate to say that it is the beginning of Evangelism season. Rather it’s just a continuation. If you are already involved in preaching the Word, great! If not, here are some ideas how to get involved:

• Join the Bezeugen Tract Club. Receive 30 tracts per month and hand out one each day.
• Attend a scheduled Evangelism Training Seminar or schedule on for your church, small group or Bible study class.
• Participate in Project Ezra and read the Word in the open air.
• Or purhaps God is calling you to one of the Ambassador Accademies in 2010.

Please keep in mind, that I love football as much as the next guy. This fall we will be at the Hebron High School games every Friday night. I’ll tune into Oklahoma games and other collge games as well. And Sunday’s, well, you might catch me tuning in the NFL and tracking my fantasy team. The thing is, keep it in perspective. Football is not the most important thing. Jesus is! So if you are not already engaged in sharing the Gospel, let’s get started!

Tonight, I continue the series on the 3:16’s in the Bible. In my first post on this subject, we looked at John 3:16. John 3:16 is perhaps the best known verse in all of the scripture. That verse is known by believers and unbelievers alike. It is the central theme of the Bible. That God loved man so much that He sent His only son to die for the sin of the world. I’ve looked at verse 3:16 in other books of the Bible as well as the surrounding verses to read them in context. As I’ve studied this, I’ve seen some amazing consistency throughout the scripture. God’s Word is repetitive enough, that if a man will seek Hi, he will find Him. So let’s go to the beginning of the Bible and look at the 3:16 of Genesis.

These verses immediately follow the “fall of man”. Adam and Eve were in the garden. They had free reign. But, they did have one rule. Don’t eat of the tree in the center of the garden. Enter satan, The serpent! Satan did not like Adam and Eve and he does not like you either. Satan knows his final destination is the lake of fire. His goal now is to take as many with him as possible. He tempted Eve and she ate. Then she also gave some to her husband. Man’s eyes were opened. So Adam and Eve hid from God. When God found them, he pronounced judgment on all three saying:

The LORD God said to the serpent,

¹⁴ “Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:14-19 (ESV)

God pronounces judgment first on the serpent, then on the woman and finally on the man. Did you catch it? In Genesis 3:14, God says to the serpent, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the first prophecy of a coming savior! The rest of the Old Testament provides clearer and clearer description of who this savior would be. Eventually, the savior is born in Matthew 1:23:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).

I hope you’ll check back as we continue to walk through the 3:16’s of the Bible.

This week something dawned on me as to why people don’t respond to the Gospel. They don’t see the seriousness of sin. Even this week I’ve had people say things like “yes, I’ve lied, but only little white lies, nothing serious.” One man that I was witnessing too when I asked him how many lies he had told in his entire life said, “less than ten”. Wow! I was amazed. For comparison, I asked a Christian teenager the same question and his response was, “I have no idea.” Then I asked a Christian adult and her answer was the same, “WOW! I don’t know.”

When man minimizes sin, then he has minimized his need for a savior!

Why is it such a big deal. Well, God has many attributes. Many people like to look at God as loving, forgiving and merciful. Indeed, He is all of these things. However, many people over look the other attributes of God. Think of it this way. If you told me your house is made of brick, I could get the picture that everything is brick. The outside walls are brick, the door is brick, the floors inside are brick, the windows are brick! But, that is not really what you mean. You mean that one characteristic of the house is that it is brick. It has other characteristics like the floors are carpet, the windows are glass, etc. In the same way, God has other characteristics. To not recognize that is a violation of the second commandment to make an idol to suit yourself.

So what is the Holiness Dilemma. First, we need to look at some of God’s other attributes.

God is Holy

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” – Isaiah 6:3 (ESV)

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!” – Revelation 4:8 (ESV)

One of the definitions of Holy from www.dictionary.com is “having a spiritually pure quality”. This is the quality of God that we need to look at. You see, in addition to many other attributes, God is Holy.

Now let’s see the condition of man.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. – Genesis 6:5 (ESV)

there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.” – Romans 3:11-13 (NIV)

Want to see if someone is good? Run them through the Good Test to see if they have kept the Ten Commandments. Ever told a lie, stolen, looked with lust? If you need some training in this area, please see the information on our seminar.

The Holiness Dilemma
The www.dictionary.com entry for dilemma includes the following definition “any difficult or perplexing situation or problem.”

Heaven is living in the presence of God forever! How wonderful that will be. No more sickness or sorrow. No more pain. Only time to enjoy being with God forever. The way it was intended to be in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. That will be great. Except…

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. – Psalm 5:4-6 (ESV)

And herein lies the Dilemma. As much as every person wants to go to heaven and have all the rewards that come with it, no man is able to. There is a “great and perplexing problem.” Man wants to be with God. God says it is impossible. Why? Because man is evil and God is Holy.

Man’s solution
Men recognize this problem. They make up their own solutions to it. Some religions teach that if you do enough good then you can overcome the bad that you have done. In a sense they are saying that their own good works can actually please God. This, according to the Bible, is ridiculous:

We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. – Isaiah 64:6

Or, they downplay the seriousness of sin. Saying things like “it is only a white lie.” Again we have to look to see what God says about this:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. – James 2:10 (ESV)

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. – Revelation 21:8 (NIV)

Man wants to downplay the seriousness of sin. Make it like it is not so bad. And therefore God should not be so strict to punish sin. Men want to say that their god will simply look the other way and have mercy upon them and let them into heaven anyway.

God’s solution
Yet, this is the dilemma. In addition to the qualities of God we have discussed so far, God is also just. Because he is perfect and just he must punish each and every sin. If He does not punish each and every sin then He would not be perfect. If even one sin went unpunished, then He would not be perfect. God could punish each man for each and every sin. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 3:23). But God choose another way:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. – John 3:16-19 (ESV)

God had a dilemma. He must punish sin. He choose to pour His wrath out on Jesus on the cross instead of on you and I. Man must understand the seriousness of sin so that the Gospel can save him (Romans 1:16).

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. – John 3:36 (ESV)

A two part video that explains this is also online. Part one is the reading of Romans 5. Part 2 explains the Gospel.

If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, I invite you to read the full Gospel presentation on our web site.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope and pray that this information will be helpful to you as you witness to others about the seriousness of sin and the need for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. if you would like additional training on sharing your faith effectively and Biblically then please see the information about the Basic Evangelism Training Seminar.

The Lord has given me a vision to take the Gospel to every household in Carrollton, Texas. From my research this appears to represent about 40,000 households. Yesterday I got started. I started from my house, turned left up the street and went around the block.

• I went to 35 houses.
• Talked to 10 people.
• Gathered 8 prayer requests.
• Collected 8 food items for Metrocrest Social Services
• I left a Gospel tract with each person and put one on the door if there was no one home

I have posted a video on YouTube with some thoughts about how the time went on my first time out door to door to reach Carrollton for Christ!

The conversations went basically like this. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. When someone would come to the door then I would say, “Hi, My name is Carl. I live here in the community. I have three reasons for coming to your door today. The first reason is that I am conducting a food drive for Metrocrest Social Services.” I showed them the list of items that I am collecting and then asked, “do you have any of these items that you would be willing to donate? They will be distributed to those less fortunate right here in Carrollton.” At this point they would say yes or no and possibly go get some food to donate. I thanked them for their donation. Several people were not able to donate at that time. They said they would like to donate later. So I gave them my business card that contains my phone number and email address and asked them to call me when they were able to donate.

I then proceded saying, “the second purpose of my visit is that we are having a prayer meeting and are wondering if there is anything that we can pray about for you and your family?” People were very receptive to this question. Eight of the ten people that came to the door gave me prayer requests. One did not speak English and the other had no specific requests at the time.

Finally, I said, “the third reason I am here is that I am taking a spiritual survey. Do you believe in God?” The conversations then went to spiritual things and gave me a chance to share the Gospel with each household. These conversations need to be tailored slightly to each person based on their beliefs, questions and background. My general outline follows the Way of the Master WDJD as follwos:

• Do you believe in God?
• Do you believe in Heaven and Hell?
• How do you get to Heaven?
• Do you consider yourself to be a good person?
• Have you kept the Ten Commandments?
• Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, used God’s name as a curse word, looked with lust? You know, walk through some of the Ten Commandments.
• Would you be innocent or guilty?
• Would you go to heaven or hell?
• Does that concern you?
• Then share the perfect life, crucifixtion, death, ressurrection of Jesus
• Share that if you repent and trust in Christ alone for salvation then you will have eternal life

Finally, I would thank them for their time and hand them a Gospel tract. I am using the Good News / Bad News tract that we developed.

If no one came to the door, then I left a Gospel tract on the door and moved on to the next house. The three pictures below show three ways that I was able to leave tracts on the door wihtout using any tape!

The simplest case is that the tract could just be slipped between the door and the jam like this:

Some houses have storm doors. These doors did not allow simply putting the tract into a slot. In this case, if the door was not locked, I could open it slightly, stick the tract in and then close the door against the tract to hold it like this:

Finally, some doors, neither of those methods would work. In this case, since the tract is made of a heavy business card stock, I could put a slight bend to it and then put it into the handle. The pressure of the bend would hold the card in place like this:

I calculated at the rate of 35 hours every hour and forty five minutes that it will take approximately 2,000 man hours to cover the entire city! Please keep this effort in prayer as we reach Carrollton for Christ!