It seems as though I will have a subject on my mind all week then when I sit down to write God gives me something else entirely different and that is the case this week. God in His glorious grace saved me a few years ago; I came to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ after spending many years as a false convert. It was as though for the first time I saw myself in the light of God’s moral law and knew who He was, who I was and what I had done; then I saw the Savior Jesus Christ in a light I had never seen Him in before, the cross of Jesus Christ meant more to me in that moment than anything in the world. I am a sinner who deserves death and hell yet God Himself paid for my sins through the shedding of His own blood. How could I go on sinning, how could I continue to live a life of sin and reject Him, I could not, He brought me to repentance and faith. From that time I knew through the reading of His word that I was no longer my own but that I was His bought at a high price, the price of the blood of God Himself.
I very quickly understood that, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” I could not and would not carry on with life as I had; I also knew as I pored over scripture that it was very evident what He expects of His disciples. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” So I knew what I was supposed to do; so now the question for me is ok Lord, how do I do that? I made a commitment to the Lord in January of 2010 that I would do just that, be a witness for the Lord. So the quest was how to do that and what was I to do? My church had no evangelism training so I began to search, through reading books and through the internet. Some I found to be very helpful and much I did not. For something that in scripture was of utmost importance to Christ; there seemed to be very little information about in the Christian community. Most of what I found had me witnessing to people with a message that caused me to be a false convert. (Say this prayer and ask Jesus into your heart.) I knew that was wrong because I knew scripture and scripture says that a man is saved by repenting and believing in the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ. One of the ways God used to get the gospel to my ears was through the movie by Sherwood Pictures “Fire Proof” starring Kirk Cameron, in fact it was while watching this movie while home alone and hearing the gospel message in the movie I realized my sin before God and shortly after would come to repentance and faith. I had heard that Kirk Cameron was involved in ministry so I looked him up on the internet and found a TV program called, “The Way of the Master” Starring Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. These two men would talk about the moral law and the gospel then go out on the streets and witness to people using the law of God to bring the knowledge of sin and then share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. I knew when I saw this that what they were doing was biblical, I went to the parent ministry Living Waters and bought and read a couple of books written by Ray Comfort called “The Way of the Master” and “Hells best kept secret”; also listened to the sermons by Ray Comfort “Hells Best kept Secret” and “True and False Conversion”.
So I set out that next year (2010) to be a witness for Christ, I bought Trillion Dollar bill gospel tracts from living waters and began passing those out, also in June of that year began writing this blog, by the end of that year I began to make my own tracts on my computer but it got to be that I was handing out so many tracts that I had to then go to a print shop to get a larger volume made, these tracts have changed much over time. To date it is now a single verse, John 3:16 and a link to a letter. So I would pass out gospel tracts with whomever I came in contact with, also sharing the law and the gospel with some, I would even at times with much fear after praying set out to hand out large volumes of tracts at a time, a few thousand this past year. Then 2012 many of you may have read my blog “Sick of Church” in that blog I laid out how I cannot understand how we can sit in church week after week and not be out sharing the gospel as Christ commanded for us to do. In writing that letter and through prayer I set out to at least once a week do something purposeful in sharing the gospel, tracts are very good witnessing tools but are passive I can do that all the time, I needed to set out at least once a week with the sole purpose of sharing the gospel. There is a 30 minute internet TV show Monday – Friday Called “On the Box” with Ray Comfort and two other men named Tony Miano and Mark Spence. In this program they talk about evangelism and open air preaching. One of the men, Tony Miano, goes out in his community one hour each day with a wooden cross with the words “Are You Ready” on the cross beam and John 14:6 on the other side. I thought how most people in Tyler are driving so I would do the same, so I have done just that about once a week since. I have been able to talk to several people because of doing this and will keep doing it, for that purpose.
Now I have to tell you I had begun wondering if I was the only one. Hear is this command by our Lord that says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” And as far as I could tell no one was going, it made no since to me. Sure I would see missionaries that would come into our church once a year raising funds to go off and share the gospel, and then they were gone. Also there are these guys from Living Waters ministries out in California but that seemed so distant. Well yesterday the Lord gave me a boost, I met a man that is a true witness for Jesus Christ and at the time I didn’t even know it. My wife and I went to eat on the outside patio of a local restaurant, got into our car, just before pulling away she said, “I think that man is giving that couple gospel tracts.” I didn’t know what to think at the time but thought maybe he was a Jehovah witness or a Mormon so I got out of my car and handed him a tract, got back into the car and left, handed the card he gave me to my wife and she read it to me as I drove. I said, “That’s the gospel” or at least a summary of it, but what peaked my curiosity the most was the words at the end of the tract which you almost never hear. And I quote, “His obedience to God’s Law can be yours (2 Cor. 5:21) if you repent (turn from sin) and trust in Jesus alone.” I thought to myself and probably said out loud, Wow! A true believer out sharing the gospel, I actually met one, Wow! There was a website on the bottom of the card www.WhatifTexas.com , so I asked Darlene to go to it and she read it to me and we both knew that everything that was said was right on. I also found out that this man does something that I have thought about doing often and am yet to do. Break the sound barrier, go out and preach the gospel in open air. I learned later that this brothers name is Seth Capps, I tell you what, seeing another brother in Christ sharing the gospel in a lost and dyeing world was like a breath of fresh air, and a wonderful gift from God.
Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved,
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
Verses and quotes: Luke 10:2, Mark 16:15, 2 Cor. 5:17, John 3:16, John 14:6, 2 Cor. 5:21
