This guy pretended to be nice but then turned mean. Like a gremlin they come cute but when you feed him after midnight he becomes a monster!
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DL Moody
- Thread starter evangelist6589
- Start date
ChrisTheSaved
Active Member
I am nice! It takes a lot of time to bring someone to Christ. A tract will never do it, make it always personal.
Not true as many have been saved by tracts. I have met people that came to faith because of a tract.
There was once a famous musician who was all washed up, hadn't had a hit for years, had writer's block and was hitting the booze. Just before Christmas, someone handed him a tract (or maybe it was posted through his door; I forget). All the tract contained were some verses from the OT predicting the Coming of Christ.
He put those verses together with some others, set them to music and had one of the biggest hits in musical history. His name? See if you can guess.
So you keep giving out your tracts, brother. Who knows who may read them and who knows what the result may be.
He put those verses together with some others, set them to music and had one of the biggest hits in musical history. His name? See if you can guess.
So you keep giving out your tracts, brother. Who knows who may read them and who knows what the result may be.
I don't often agree with evangelist6589 but I have to in this case. I know of people who have been saved by reading tracts. A missionary friend gave me a book on missions from the 1800s which told the story of a missionary who was on his way to the south seas to take the Gospel to the heathen tribesmen of Papua New Guinea. When he arrived in San Francisco by train he was hosted by a local church that put him up with a family for the three days until his steamship left for Papua New Guinea. He was asked to preach the Sunday Service before leaving on Monday. He preached on the importance of missions and how everybody could be involved, either by going or by supporting those who go.
After the service, as he was standing at the door and shaking the hands of the members, a little girl who couldn't have been older than 5 or 6 handed him two pennies and told him that was all she had but she wanted him to spend it on his mission. He thanked the little girl and slipped the two pennies into his pocket.
The next day as he was waiting to board the steam ship he happened to put his hand in his pocked and felt those two pennies. He remembered promising that little girl he would spend them on his mission. He looked around and saw a small Christian book store and went in and bought a single tract for two cents and put it in his shirt pocket.
The ship sailed away from San Francisco and the young missionary got comfortable in his small cabin. About half way to Papua New Guinea the ship put into a small island to replenish its fuel supply, wood cut from the jungle on the island. The islanders carried the wood aboard the ship then went back to the island. One older man was the last to get off and the missionary pulled the tract from his pocket and asked the islander if he could read English. The man said he could as he kept all the records of the wood sold to the steam ship company. The missionary handed him the tract and asked him to read it when he got a chance. The islander agreed. The young missionary sailed on to Papua New Guinea.
6 years later the missionary was returning to the US on furlough when the steam ship stopped again at the island to replenish its fuel supply. As they tied up at the dock they noticed that the whole population of the island was standing on the shore, and one older man was on the dock. The captain walked down to the man, spoke with him, then came back and told the missionary all the people had heard he was coming to their island again and were waiting for him.
He walked down to the dock and saw the older man was the same man he had given the tract to 6 years earlier.
The man rushed up to the missionary and greeted him as "Brother." The missionary asked what had happened and the man said he had read the tract and trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He then shared the good news with all the islanders.
He then told the missionary that last time he was at the island the man was the hereditary king of the small island tribe, but he was no longer their king. The missionary asked why, fearing persecution for converting to Christianity. The older man looked at the missionary and smiled and said, "Now I am their pastor."
On the next trip the older man had asked the ship's Captain if he knew what the bible references on the tract were all about and the Captain gave the man his own bible to read. He read, learned, and preached from that old bible for the rest of his life. And his little tribe/church sent missionaries to all the surrounding islands taking the Gospel with them.
Tracts can have amazing results. They are certainly not the only way to see souls saved, but they certainly can be effective.
(In the interests of full disclosure, I can not vouch for the verity of this story. It was one of several anecdotes in the small book.)
Good tracts can be effective. But recently I have given away full Bibles to four friends. These folks have never been to church or know much at all of Christianity. Of course I gave them some introductory information on the contents of this Holy Book. They accepted the gifts with appreciation. Time will tell.
Oh, I would also like to relate that I was given the unique privilege December 23 to speak to roughly 30 adults (in a non-academic setting). I was given seven minutes to speak of Christ and the Bible. I was given liberty where it has been my experience here not to have such freedom of speech in a group context. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision of one of them to let me air my beliefs. It was just thrust into my lap. The Lord surprises me like that occasionally.
Any responses?
Curious.....did they express any interest? The folks I talk to on the streets often tell me at one time in there lives they were active in Church (generally mainline) but they either had a falling out with the church or they just lost interest. Others see no real value to church....no relevance to peoples lives today. That's what folks on the street tell me anyway. Finally my son & girlfriend were over for dinner the other day & I asked them what church they would be going to & establishing themselves with when they get married & their answer was "NONE." These kids are not atheists but are not happy with the status of church today. So I am hard pressed to see how tracts & handing out bibles has any impact.
Don't ever be surprised when unbelievers have zero desire to go to church...church is for the redeemed. Why would an unrepentant Unregenerate person have any desire to worship the Lord?
Make it appoint to preach to them Christ and Him crucified and why their soul needs Him. Help them to understand the Person and Work of Christ. Rely on the Spirit of God and give them the Word of God. Pray that their eyes be open up.
Make disciples even before they are disciples
you cant do that without the power of the HS.Don't ever be surprised when unbelievers have zero desire to go to church...church is for the redeemed. Why would an unrepentant Unregenerate person have any desire to worship the Lord?
Make it appoint to preach to them Christ and Him crucified and why their soul needs Him. Help them to understand the Person and Work of Christ. Rely on the Spirit of God and give them the Word of God. Pray that their eyes be open up.
Make disciples even before they are disciples
I prefer this. A few years ago Lifeway had Bibles on clearance (Holman and ESV study bibles) for $5. I bought several for this purpose. There are also paperback NT bibles that are very inexpensive. I think that these can be much better than tracts.
What? Horrible! Horrible! PERVERSIONS!
Oh, wait. For a second there I thought this was a KJVO discussion. Sorry.
You know I'm in China, right? They were quite moved and honored. They are friends. They know and trust me. One voluntarily said she would read a passage from it every day.
They have never been to church and never seen a Bible, much less owned one.
I am stunned that you would ever say such a thing.
Well...they were on sale.What? Horrible! Horrible! PERVERSIONS!
Oh, wait. For a second there I thought this was a KJVO discussion. Sorry.
Why?
That is great! Well done, Rippon! Who knows what the Lord will do through His word?
The wind blows where it wills. You cannot limit the Holy Spirit and say that He cannot work through a tract or through a New Testament, or indeed in a church.
In my church, we had a couple come for the first time on Christmas Day. In the UK, lots of people go to church on that day and are never seen again until the following year, but this couple came again last Lord's day. I was a bit concerned because the sermon I was proposing to give was intended towards the members, being the church's text for the New Year. However, they intimated their intention to come again and asked for a Bible. From our conversation, it appears that they rarely darken the door of a church and decided to come on a whim having seen our advert in a local paper.
We never evangelised these people or gave them a tract- we never knew they existed until they came through the door. So who brought them? 'Not to us, LORD, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness' (Psalm 115:1).
Actually, I have known many people who have come to Christ because they first desired to come to church. Often it is because of a life circumstance that has caused them to seek the comfort of what they once knew, whether it is someone who recently lost a loved one or a young family who is seeking to raise their kids with something that they had growing up. My husband has given the straight up gospel in a message because he sees someone new there and there have been times that they have not been saved but responded there in church. They came because they remembered going to church with grandma and wanted to experience that again. God had other plans.
You're right,Actually, I have known many people who have come to Christ because they first desired to come to church. Often it is because of a life circumstance that has caused them to seek the comfort of what they once knew, whether it is someone who recently lost a loved one or a young family who is seeking to raise their kids with something that they had growing up. My husband has given the straight up gospel in a message because he sees someone new there and there have been times that they have not been saved but responded there in church. They came because they remembered going to church with grandma and wanted to experience that again. God had other plans.
There are always exceptions
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