Bezeugen Tract Club

Every tract has a story. This one originates from the middle of a conversation. Or the middle of many conversations I should say. What happens at times is you get into a conversation. You transition the conversation to spiritual things. Eventually you are talking about how awesome God is. Except, the person you are talking to, doesn’t even believe that God exists. What do you do?

Recently a caller to the ministry had received a Gospel tract at a National Day of Prayer event in Ohio. He suggested that when we hand out Gospel tracts the tract should first “prove that God exists.” I asked if he could prove that God does not exist. He said, “you can not prove a negative.” Well, actually you can, if you possess all the knowledge in the Universe… in which case you yourself would be God!

Over the past few years as people bring up things like the Big Bang and evolution, I’ll ask them questions like “who is responsible for the Big Bang?”, “where did the energy for the bang come from?”, “Where did the first living cell come from to create the chain of events to start the evolutionary process.

Amazingly each one who puts their trust in these things and science in particular will answer “I don’t know” or “scientists are working on it.” So I ask them to imagine two old jalopies driving down the road at high speed right towards each other. When they reach a very high speed they crash right into each other – head on! Then I ask them, “what happens next?”

As if they don’t get it, I go on to explain that a Ferrari is not going to come driving out. Yet that is what some would have you think – a massive explosion that creates order. Nope! The answer is right in the Bible – Genesis 1. God spoke it all into existence. He created it with order. Order that would have the sun rise in a particular way. Order that would allow your eye to focus on this text and read it.

A few months ago my friend Chris Fox sent me a text that said something like “have you thought about making a tract about creation?” We talked on the phone. I shared the background of how I’ve used this analogy plenty of times. So we worked together to develop the text.

So how do you use this tract? It could be one that you “hold in your back pocket” until the time arises that someone opens this box of science, evolution and the Big Bang. When they do, you’ll be equipped to share this with them. Or, it could be you just go up to someone and say, “can I ask you an interesting question?” when they agree follow with “see these two cards right here crashing at high speed? What do you think happens next?” Then see where the conversation goes from there. Or maybe, this is a good tract to leave in a gas pump credit card slot for people to read while they are pumping gas into their car.

Which ever method you use to get the two cars crash head on tract distributed we hope and pray it will be used to the glorify God and bring men to the foot of the cross so that they can repent and believe the Gospel.

“If there is a Heaven, will you go there when you die?”

I’ve asked this questions hundreds if not thousands of times by now. Notice the question is intentionally vague asking “if”. Rather than asserting that there is a Heaven it asks the question in the hypothetical. The answers vary. But all to often I hear “I hope so” or “If I am Lucky!”

I’ll ask the person if they are counting on luck to get home today. Or do you have a plan of which plane, train or automobile to take? Do you have a route in mind? Or do you just travel aimlessly until you might reach your destination. Most reasonable people will agree that they would never make it home without a plan.

Getting to Heaven is the same. There is one way (Jesus). Hope and Luck have nothing to do with it. This tract is a fun way to engage people in a conversation. The question on the front merely asks them if they are lucky and a quick test to find out by pressing their thumb on the shamrock for 8 seconds. People love the intrigue of these tracts to find out if the shamrock will change color. When it doesn’t change it gives you an opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

We hope and pray that the Are You Lucky tract will make sharing the Gospel fun this St Patrick’s Day.

Many times in the course of witnessing to someone they will say “I believe in Jesus.” Yet, Jesus says, “who do you say that I am?” You see it is one thing to believe in Jesus, it is another to believe in the Jesus of the Bible who is fully God and fully man who came from Heaven, lived a perfect life, died on the cross and rose from the dead to defeat sin and death. Is that the Jesus they are referring to when they say “I believe in Jesus?”

Or, are they referring to some Jesus who is the brother of the devil, is the incarnation of an angel, a prophet, or just a good teacher? I know many people named John. Some of you might know one or two of them. If speaking about a particular John you happen to know him, then we both know the same person. But what if I know John Jones and you know John Doe. Then when we are both referring to John we are speaking of completely different people.

Take another example. Perhaps I make a coke bottle into an idol. I call it Jesus. I take it with me every place I go. I bow down to it. I worship it. I hold it in high esteem. I tell people it has taught me many good things. Would this “Jesus” Coke bottle be able to save me? No! Of course not. That is ridiculous.

The same may be true when speaking about Jesus. Religions have two things in common that separate them from Christianity. They replace grace with work and they remove the Deity of Jesus! Thus subtle lies may not seem like much. But they may just be the difference in eternal life in Heaven or Hell.

Jesus had some very harsh words for those that thought they knew Him and don’t. Let’s not let anyone we know hear these words because we failed to tell them about the true Jesus.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

So as you go and tell people about Jesus, make sure we are crystal clear about which Jesus we are talking about. Use the Who Do You Say That I Am tract to tell them!

#YOLO – You Only Live Once!

Scott messaged me on Facebook one night and told me that he had been witnessing to people on Twitter using #YOLO. Now, I am not up on all the hastags and such, so honestly, I had no idea what he was talking about.

The world uses #YOLO – you only live once – to imply that since you only live once you might as well live it up, have fun, sin all you want! The saying is also Biblical. Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed once to die and then the judgement.

As we discussed it and prayed about it we decided to make a Gospel tract. Here is a video of Scott explaining the background of the English and Spanish versions of the tract!

The tract is fun to hand out. People will engage in the a conversation. Sometimes the easiest entry into a conversation about this tract.

The What Happens After #YOLO tract is available in English and Spanish.

You could probably say this is something like a “third generation tract.” Let me explain. For several years we had wanted to create a Gospel tract for Thanksgiving. We released the Give Thanks tract in the November mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club. Shortly after releasing that tract, someone commented on one of our BLOG posts suggesting a Thank You tract. We prayed about the idea and earlier in 2014 released the Thank You tract. That tract has been very well received.

A short time later someone suggested, “why not a tract for you’re welcome also?” We were praying about the idea when I had a meeting with two gentlemen with the Texas Alliance for Raceway Ministries (www.txarm.org). They described that their ministry is about servant evangelism. They are there to serve. But they are also there to share the Gospel. As we talked about what partnership the Lord may have for us together, I suggested that we could develop a racing trivia tract as well as a “You’re Welcome” tract that they could hand to people who thank them for their service. Both of these tracts were developed and distributed at the Texas Motor Speedway at an Indy Race the beginning oh June 2014.

With that in mind, we then create a different front for the tract and printed it for use in the Bezeugen Tract Club. The tract will be released to the entire tract club in the September mailing. However due to a mistake that was made it is referenced in the letter for the August mailing but only some of the members of the tract club actually received it in that mailing.

So whether you are serving someone or simply saying “You’re Welcome” after they thank you, may the You’re Welcome tract be used to glorify God and share the Gospel with the lost!

One day a couple of years ago I was standing in line at the Chick-Fil-A at the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco, TX to buy my lunch. While I was standing in line I struck up a conversation with the guy behind me, a young man probably in his mid to late 20’s. As we stood in line we were talking and I learned that he worked in the mall. Eventually, the topic of spiritual things came up. I was explaining that eternal life is a free gift because the penalty has already been paid for our sin. I said, it was as if his lunch had been paid for. I was next up to order. I placed my order and when the cashier, who turned out to be the manager on duty, asked me “is that all” I said, “no, I also want whatever he is getting” and pointed to the young man I was talking with. So that manager looked at him and said, “what would you like?” The young man felt uncomfortable having me, a complete stranger, buy him lunch and refused to order. But the manager, who had been hearing the conversation, said, “I can’t close out this ticket until you place your order.”

So finally he placed his order.

What happened next amazed us both!

As I was expecting the manager to tell me the total for the order instead he said, “I’ve taken care of it for you both.” WOW! What an awesome demonstration. The young man was deeply impacted. When I walked by the kiosk where he worked a little later he told me that he had called his wife and shared with her what an awesome thing had happened.

There are many ways to make the connection to something that has been paid in full. Start in the natural realm with things that people think about being paid. Or use a real world demo like described above. You can pay for someones coffee, gas for their car, groceries, etc. You can even pay for the car behind you at the drive thru and then hand two tracts to the cashier. Ask them to give one to the people in the next car along with their food and let the tract explain that their food has been “paid in full” just like their sin!

The week before Thanksgiving (2013) a friend and member of the tract club called me and suggested the idea for this tract. He described the whole thing in a voice message. Seemed like a great idea and it tied in nicely with the things that we have done to use the analogy. Then a couple days later another friend called left a message and said, “I’d like to talk to talk with you about an idea for a tract.” When I called him back the idea he shared was the same idea of a tract to hand to someone to let them know a bill had been paid in full. Isn’t it amazing how God uses multiple people to share an idea. Prompting each of us in our own way shows that He is at work in the midst of it. So we continued praying, had more discussion and this tract is the result of all of these things.

We pray that the Tetelestai tract will be used to glorify God and share His Gospel message!

John 3:16 is perhaps the most widely known Bible verse for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is the simplicity of the Gospel in a single verse. What is the verse? And more importantly, what does it mean? We made this Gospel tract so that engaging people could be as easy as asking, “do you know John 3:16?” and seeing what they say. Either way whether they know it or not it is an opportunity to share with them what it means.

We pray that the John 3:16 Gospel tract will lead to many conversations about Jesus and eternal life only found through him!

The July mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club will feature a new tract called The End. The idea came from Scott Thompson. Check out this video of Scott describing the tract!

We pray that The End tract will be used to glorify God and share the Gospel!