Living the Journey

Last week I was challenged to share the gospel with someone. I prayed for a divine encounter, and was able to share the Gospel in an unexpected way!

Early in the week I would look at people like the cashier at a grocery store and wonder what to say to them. Our time was always limited so I never was able to share the Gospel with them, though I learned to be a little more friendly to the people around me.

Then the Lord gave me the chance to share the message of salvation at the Good News Club I had been helping to lead each week! When I gave the invitation for anyone who wanted to believe in Jesus as their Savior, a little girl raised her hand and met me at the back of the room to discuss it further. It turned out that she was already a believer but wanted me to pray for her two older brothers who didn’t yet believe in God. We prayed together for them.

It was a neat time, and I am thankful to be a part of what God wanted to do this week in the Challenge to share the gospel!

~ Rachael

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Today was a day of delighting in the Lord as the young men pictured above spent the time in fasting, prayer, and Scripture meditation. Please pray that God would pour out His blessing on each fellow as they seek Him with a whole heart.

“Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” – Psalm 119:2

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Praise the Lord! We have been receiving lots of encouraging reports from those of you who shared the Gospel last week as part of the Challenge II! Not everyone was able to actually lead someone to the Lord, but some sowed, some watered, and some reaped! If you haven’t shared with us what the Lord taught you through this experience, please send us a note today. It doesn’t have to be long, just a couple paragraphs is fine.

Here is one story we enjoyed from Christen. We’ll look forward to posting many more similar testimonies on the blog this week!

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“This last week, God allowed me to talk to one of our neighbors about the Gospel. My mom was also there talking to her husband, so I knew that she was praying for me.

Before I got out a tract, I was really praying that God would help me know which one to share. It was getting dark outside, so I knew it would be impolite to expect the neighbor to be able to read it right then. The Lord then gave me an idea. These neighbors have grandsons, who would probably love a million dollar bill! I got out the million dollar tract and told her that on the front it looks like a million dollar bill and on the back it has a Gospel message. I told her that it has some of the Ten Commandments on it and then went through some of them with her. When we got to the commandment to not murder, I mentioned that God considers hatred to be the same as murder. She said that she does struggle with this, and thinks that everyone does all their life.

I also shared James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” She thought that she was saved when she was eighteen but at the time she felt like she was saved all of her life. We can pray for her because only God knows her heart, but I am not sure that she really is saved.

I learned quickly that I need to have a lot of Scripture memorized, and that I need to know it well enough that I can quote it even when I am nervous. Thank you for making this second Challenge possible!”

~ Christen

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Today is the final day to share the Gospel as part of the Challenge II! If you have not yet been able to tell someone about Jesus Christ this week, take some time this evening to ask God for an opportunity, step out of your box, and share the Good News! Be encouraged as you read how God used Priscilla last week in the following story:

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I am so excited about the Challenge that is going on this month! This past week my family was traveling to the Big Sandy Conference, and I enjoyed handing out the different tracks at each of the stops we made. One night my Dad wanted to treat us all to a really nice Mexican restaurant. I asked the Lord to give us the right waitress that would be hungering and thirsting after the Lord, and that would not reject the gospel. The Lord answered that prayer! Our waitress was very grateful for the tracts and books we gave her.

After dinner, my dad encouraged me to talk with our waitress, Christian, about the gospel. After thanking her for the great food and service, I asked her if she went to church. She said her background was Catholic, but began opening up and sharing how they had just moved and she had three little children. This was only her second day on the job, and she was sad for having to leave her children at home while working. I asked her another question, “Do you think you can get to heaven by just being a good person?” She thought she could. So many people believe this lie and are trusting in their good works to get them to heaven. I explained Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

We can never be good enough to make it to heaven and God knows that. This is why Jesus came to earth and died on the cross to pay for our sins. It is through faith, trusting what Jesus did for us on the cross that gets us to heaven. I also explained the importance of the heart attitude of repentance as it says in Luke 13:3, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Repentance is like a u-turn in your heart that says to God, “I am sorry I have been going my own way, but now by Your grace I am willing to follow You and let You be the Lord of my life.” She listened very attentively, and then said she wanted to pray right then to give her heart to Christ!!!

I was rejoicing for what the Lord did! I know it was the Lord speaking through me and helping me to know what to say. My family was also praying for me and was excited to hear what the Lord did. A verse keeps coming to mind which says, “Ye have not, because ye ask not…” I believe the Lord longs to show us His power and wants to use each one of His children to do great works and lead hundreds of souls to Christ. But we must ask. Ask Him for His power, boldness, grace, the filling of His spirit. Ask that God would bring you each day people that are hungering and thirsting for the truth and that He would give you the privilege of leading them to Christ. So many people are not willing to give their whole life to Christ and will reject the truth. But please don’t get discouraged and stop doing what God has called us to do, because if we are faithful God promises to bless us as it says in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” There is no greater message to share then that of Calvary’s love.

Jesus asked us to pray that God would send forth laborers. The fields are so white unto harvest, and I pray that you would be the laborer that God desires you to be. May the Lord bless you with His faithfulness to continue passing out His Word and sharing the Good News – not just for the Challenge, but for the rest of your life.

~ Priscilla Keller

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Phil Garvin has motivated hundreds of people to be “fishers of men” through his lifelong passion for soulwinning. Last week we sat down with him and learned how he does it. It’s a good thing we did! His questions really came in handy for me earlier this week as I sat beside a Muslim man during a long plane flight to Romania! They quickly got to the heart of the Gospel message and allowed me to persuasively show this Muslim man how Christianity differed from every other religion.

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We just received the following encouraging report from Rachel, who attended a Journey in November of 2007 and has been participating in the Challenge II:

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A couple of months ago, I was taking my friend “Mrs. Smith” on a couple of errands and started to share the Lord with her. She can speak English pretty well, but her first language is Spanish so some of the verses were hard for her to understand. I ended up writing the references down and encouraged her to look them up in her Spanish Bible.

The next time I saw her I asked her about the verses. I was encouraged to hear that she had read some of them and wanted to get together to talk about them more! However, a couple of weeks ago I found out that Mrs. Smith was going back to Mexico as part of the process to get her US citizenship. She would be away for anywhere from 2 months to a year.

Shortly before this, I heard about the next Journey Challenge and that the focus would be on witnessing. I already try and witness to others, pass out tracts, etc., but I thought that it would be good to learn a few more verses and have the accountability of the challenge. So I joined.

Because Mrs. Smith had had trouble understanding some of the verses I had shared with her the first time, I prayed that God would help her to understand more of what I was sharing. This time I decided to take a different approach. I started to witness to her almost as if I was witnessing to a child. I took the time to explain many of the verses to her phrase by phrase and would ask her if she understand it before moving on. I was able to share the whole plan of salvation for the second time to her. She still did not make a decision for Christ, but wanted to get together later that week to talk more.

That was Wednesday, April 22nd. Two days later I took her on some more errands. I brought a couple of Spanish tracts and a Gideon New Testament in Spanish. I gave the tracts to her and she started reading them as I drove. Sometimes after reading a verse or two, she would stop and ask me to explain it. She realized that what I had shared with her before was a lot of what she was reading in the tract.

A couple of hours later I was on my way to drop Mrs. Smith off at work. We got there a little early so we sat and talked about the Gospel more. I then asked her if she would like to pray to receive Jesus as her Saviour from sin. She said, “Yes!” On April 24th at about 2pm, Mrs. Smith prayed to receive Jesus as her Saviour!

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

~ Rachel

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