Living the Journey

The Lord gave Priscilla and I the wonderful opportunity of passing out Gospel tracts in a park on Sunday afternoon. We prayed that He would bring into our path just the right people He wanted us to encounter. Feeling assured that He would do just that, we entered our “mission field”! Our encounters included a 16 year old public school girl who was not walking close to God (we passed a Journey brochure on to her), and then we met a Christian Romanian family who attended church in the area.

After about an hour in the park, we had not gotten a soul yet, but Priscilla was praying for one. As we started walking back, the Lord brought into our path a Spanish lady whom I will call Maria. Priscilla handed her a tract which she stopped to accept. It seemed like she wanted to talk more!

Priscilla then asked if she could get to Heaven by being a good person. She sighed and said she was trying. It was as if she was carrying a huge weight, working so hard to be good enough to go to Heaven. Priscilla opened her Bible and shared with her Ephesians 2:8-9, emphasizing that salvation is a gift, not earned by works. If we could get to Heaven by being good, then we would have to be perfect all our lives, because there can be no sin in Heaven. But Jesus shed His blood on the cross as the payment for our sins. It is only by trusting Jesus alone that we can have eternal life, and then we must let Him be the Lord of our life.

It was about this time that the Lord prompted me to pray for Maria. It seemed like she was pretty set on her idea that you could be good enough to go to Heaven. But then the Lord said, “Just ask Me! I can bring this soul to repentance!” (See Psalm 2:8)

Maria then shared her story how she had been divorced after 22 years of marriage, and it was hard for her to trust anyone now. Priscilla then explained how people will let you down, but Jesus never will. He is the only friend that you can trust. As Maria read Ephesians 2:8-9, tears came to her eyes as she saw Christ’s free gift and how much God loved her. “It’s so beautiful!” she exclaimed.

Priscilla asked her if she wanted to pray right then, and she did, thanking God for His gift of eternal life and telling Him that she was trusting Him for her salvation. A joyful smile broke across her face and she gave us both a big hug, thanking us for taking the time to tell her of all this! “I love you girls!” she told us. I told her that God had given us such a wonderful gift of salvation, and we wanted to share it with others. Priscilla encouraged her to read her Bible, and I gave her a copy of The World’s Greatest Question. We parted and went on our way rejoicing and praising the Lord that another dear soul was on her way to Heaven! (Luke 15:10)

~ Hannah

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On the Thursday of the soulwinning week during The Challenge II, I noticed a girl I had never met studying a textbook. I knew that the Holy Spirit was prompting me to share the Gospel with her. I went over to her and invited her to a Bible lecture. Then, I began to ask her if she thought she was a good person and to begin to introduce the Ten Commandments. She seemed convicted, and I shared my testimony and left her with two tracts. However, I had a feeling that it had not gone well.

I went home that night and began to look at the podcasts on the Journey website. Mr. Garvin’s and Pastor Pierpont’s message were especially inspiring. I felt encouraged that I did not need to “bring someone to the Lord”, but rather that I just needed to show an interest in them and be willing to share God’s work in my life. My mother and sisters encouraged me that I had sown a seed that day in my classmate’s heart, and I did not need to feel defeated.

The next day, I was scheduled to have lunch with a friend that I had known for two semesters. I purposed to try to learn her story, as Pastor Pierpont suggested, and to let God’s love flow through me.

During this time, I began to focus more closely on the amazing passage in the Song of Solomon 5:8 through 6:1. I prayed that God would enable me to inspire others to follow the Lord as the Shulamite did. The Shulamite talked rapturously about the joy of God, and His beauty was evident in her life.

I could not have imagined how wonderfully my prayer would be answered!

While I waited for my friend that afternoon, the Holy Spirit instantly quieted me and led me to be still and enjoy His presence. I left my time of prayer sure that I need to fellowship constantly with my Lord, and not worry about how I would witness to my friend.

As we started lunch, I tried to encourage her to talk about her story, and her interests. I was prompted to be less opinionated but to receive her ideas and to allow her interests to express themselves. Then, I remembered the FORM acronym Pastor Pierpont mentioned, and decided to ask her about her religion. She told me her grandmothers had been Catholic and Protestant, but she didn’t really understand what it meant to be a Christian.

So I began to share my testimony, but a most unusual thing happened – continue reading…

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During this challenge, I learned that being prepared to share the gospel makes a huge difference in helping me overcome my fear. I became convicted that, if God’s kingdom is truly my priority, sharing Jesus should be the first thought I think when I meet someone, so I am not caught off guard.

The Lord reminded me of Ephesians 6:15. I realized He wants me to have my “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” wherever I go, so I will be ready, willing, and able to share the good news of salvation!

As the week went on and I took time to prepare myself physically, psychologically, and spiritually, God rewarded me with new boldness. What a joy to share Jesus with the lost, and to discover fellow believers along the way! I praise God for His work in my own heart.

“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands” Psalm 138:8.

~ Tia

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These past couple weeks have presented many exciting opportunities to share the gospel around the world! Not just here in Illinois, but in Washington, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Hungary, Switzerland, and Romania!

I think the most important thing that God taught me was to pray beforehand that He would provide the person, opportunity, and the words to speak. It is humbling to have to share that when I just witnessed because it was the right thing to do without asking for His help, I could tell in retrospect that I got in the way of what God wanted to do!

The days I did not specifically request those three things, and went out and shared in the course of the day, were definitely not as effective. I trust that God will use the Challenge verses I shared, but it is a clear reminder that I may have all these verses in my holster, ready to draw at a moment’s notice, but if I’m not pointedly asking the Commander for orders and allowing His reconnaissance, I cannot expect an opportunity for active duty or victory.

Also, all around the world people really do think they must do good works to get to heaven. No matter what “language” I found myself sharing in, I learned that this is an important point to get across, even if not much else made sense that I was saying!

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When I first heard about The Challenge II, I knew that I had to do it! The motivation and accountability to get out of my comfort zone was just what I needed! After memorizing the Scripture verses, receiving the tracts in the mail, watching the DVD by Ray Comfort on The Secret of Boldness, and reading the updates here on LivingtheJourney.com, I was incredibly excited about sharing the gospel with others!

The whole challenge gave me a new perspective and caused me to look at the people around me differently. I no longer went about my day thinking only of myself and my own little world. Everywhere I went, I saw the hopeless and searching eyes of dying souls. As I began passing out the tracts, I learned that I never regretted giving one to someone, but I always regretted not giving one away.

Last week was our annual end-of-the-school-year testing with a group of homeschoolers, and I prayed for the Lord to provide someone He wanted me to share the gospel with. Besides my sister and I, there was one other girl in the 9th-12th grade group. As soon as I met her, I knew God had answered my prayers. I began to talk with her and learned that her family didn’t go to church, but that they “believed in God.”

The next day, I wanted to go deeper and go through the good person test but didn’t find a seemingly perfect opportunity to. The next thing I knew, she had left. I immediately realized that I would probably never see her again, and feelings of regret and shame came over me because I had wasted a God-given opportunity. I broke down in tears at the realization that I had been disobedient to the Lord’s promptings. After apologizing to the Lord and asking for His forgiveness, I pleaded with Him for a second chance. Praise God, my cry was answered—she came back!

I was able to share the gospel clearly with the help of one of the LivingWaters brainteaser tracts and the verses I had memorized earlier in the Challenge. While she didn’t accept Christ right then and there, I pray the Lord will use the seeds that were planted that day to bring forth fruit in her heart. If nothing else, I know the Lord taught me a valuable, unforgettable lesson that day. He taught me that boldness is not waiting for the “perfect” moment when witnessing will feel comfortable. Boldness is stepping out in faith, knowing that God will supply the words. In our weakness, He is strong!

~ Kayla

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While I was out shopping during the week of The Challenge II, I saw a man sitting on a bench by himself. I went over and sat beside him and said “hi”. He turned out to be a really nice person. I started talking to him about various things and then asked him if he had ever received one of these tracts by Ray Comfort. He accepted it and said that he hadn’t.

Then I asked him if he knew what today was (it was the National Day of Prayer) and he replied that he did. That led right into asking him some spiritual questions about prayer and being born again. He had been born again and started talking about how much our nation needed prayer.

Then he asked what school I went to. When I replied that I was homeschooled, he said that he wished his grandson was being homeschooled because though he had tried to teach him God’s way, his friends at school led him away. Because of this he was getting bad grades. Then the Lord reminded me of Psalms 119:99-101 about being wiser then your teachers if you memorize and meditate on Scripture. I started sharing about how to meditate on God’s Word with his grandson. He really liked the idea!

After this he had to go, I gave him the book The World’s Greatest Question and told him to read it and give it to his grandson or anybody else that might need it.

~ Jonathan

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