Graduates of Crash Course Go Fishing

On Sunday we had the 'graduates' of the Crash Course go 'fishing' at the mall to practice what they had just learned. Every one of the new fishers talked at least once which was awesome! Matt watched the four children while Sam H. took the guys with him and I took the ladies with me.

All of the new fishers are from another church nearby who we will be doing a Halloween Outreach (Trunk or Treat) with on the 31st. It sounds like they will be bringing the Way of the Master teaching to their church soon and may also start doing a "Fishing Night" at the mall on a different night than when our church goes.

-Sarah

Crash Course Saturday

Way of the Master Crash Course
Saturday, October 27th
Noon - 4:00 p.m.

Bring a covered dish for a potluck lunch

Workbook costs $4.00 (four dollars) payable that day.

Completely Optional Activity:
Dinner that evening at Lindale Mall with a time of practice beforehand. If you're only comfortable watching, that is completely fine!

If you know us in 'real life' you're welcome to join us as Matt teaches this one-day class. Call or email us for location details.

A Plentiful Harvest

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."

Luke 10:2,3

Tonight's trip to the mall was interesting...

I was a bit shy/nervous and not really looking forward to being there. I felt (like I have these past few weeks for other reasons) that I was to wait on the Lord patiently. I'm glad that I did because...

It turned out to be maybe the most encouraging hour of witnessing I've been given by the Lord yet. Although there weren't tons of people at the mall, it seemed that every time I finished talking to one person, another was available to be talked to. In fact, I know that there were probably three people I could have talked to if I would have transitioned mentally from one to the next faster - I wasn't expecting so many opportunities and will work on preparing for this for next time.

I talked with two male teens, two middle aged men from the Lions Club, two ten year old girls together, two teen girls and a tract to a sales lady. And, there might have been those three others if I had just been able to transition faster! Andria and I walked together which was an encouragement to me - I don't think I would have talked to all the people that I did if she hadn't been there.

Plus, the two teen girls that I talked to... Well, let's just say that it was pretty awesome! They both went to church but thought you could be good enough to go to Heaven. After seeing themselves through God's Law, they were humbled, and were genuinely thirsty for Jesus Christ - our Savior. Then... They thanked me! I told them that I don't usually get thanked and they thanked me again! That was an encouragement.

-Sarah

Know God? Or, know of God?

Matt and I had the amazing opportunity to have a conversation with one of the members of our extended family last night. It was amazing because I had wanted to share what God requires of us, and, the Good News of having a Savior in Jesus Christ, with this person for the past six months but hadn't had a chance yet.

What continues to amaze me is when people tell me that they have a relationship with God or a 'higher power' that is personal but yet they don't know Jesus. I got a similar comment last night so I asked the person to tell me about this relationship they have and who God is. I got a strange look... So I said, "You have a personal relationship with your spouse and should be able to tell me about that relationship and who your spouse is, so, can you do the same thing regarding your relationship with God? What is that relationship like?" The answer was a more general knowing that a higher power exists because of seeing air, trees, birds, etc. (not exact words but the jist of it, I think).

So, this makes more sense to me as to why someone might say that. But, it's not accurate. Here is why... Let's say I was married to a movie star (sorry, Matt!) who was 'known' by many fans because of the popular movies he was in. Would a fan actually know my husband -or- would they just think they knew him (but instead just had an 'idol' or a fictitious version of my husband in their head)? Who would actually know my husband?... His wife? Or, a fan? Wouldn't the fan just know of him but not know him? I know this is a bad analogy but it is similiar with God... If you don't have a saving-relationship with God's Son Jesus Christ, you don't know God the Father (you just know of Him). *gasp* How can I be so bold?! Because the Bible says it straight out! And, if you don't trust the Bible... Keep reading (I've got something for you).

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5)

"Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." (1 John 2:23)

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:11,12)

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18)

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

But, what if you don't trust the Bible as the Word of God? Think about this... Everything historical (as opposed to spiritual) in the Bible has never been proven inaccurate. Archaeologists used to dig to prove the Bible wrong - now they read the Bible to know where to dig (re-read that). Many, many people dislike the Bible with such a venomous hatred and yet nobody has ever been able to prove any part of the Bible as being in error. One more thing, most books nowadays have probably a handful of original transcripts. Homer's Iliad has the most at around 600, I think is the number I heard. Six-hundred... That is an amazingly high number. Get this, though... The Bible has thousands upon thousands (I think I recently heard around 24,000 but I could be wrong here). If every current Bible today were to be destroyed, we would still be able to re-create the entire Bible except for a few verses using original transcripts/manuscripts. Amazing, huh?

Note: I'm going off memory here (never a good thing with me!) so you might want to read A Case for Christ by Lee Strobel to check my facts. He was an investigative reporter and an atheist who went out to once-and-for-all prove the Bible as being false and instead became a follower of Jesus Christ.

-Sarah

Edit (from Lisa)...

The oldest manuscripts we haveof the New Testament are not originals but copies of the originals. Yournumbers of copies were close though - there are more than 5,000 Greek copies of the NT, over 10,000 of the Latin Vulgate and more than 25,000 copies of portions of the NT in existence today. That is overwhelmingly more than any other ancient literature.

Paired with Tony

Tony's post (see below) explains a lot so I won't re-say the same things. But, after we left Casey (Jacob had already walked away earlier saying that he was "an atheist, anyway, and I don't believe in God") Tony talked with two other male teens using the Intelligence Test/Survey which seemed to go really well.

I had been standing right next to Tony waiting for the end of the survey (this is the 2nd set of teens - not Casey and Jacob) so that I could help him transition to a deeper spiritual discussion but a female friend of the boys was standing nearby... I was torn because I wanted to help Tony but I felt like I should really be talking to the girl. So, do I do what I want to do right then or do I follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit?! Uhhh....

Plus, I had no idea how to transition with this girl because she had already been listening to Tony and her friends talk for a few minutes. I noticed that she had a shirt on that said, "Shellsburg," so I walked up to her and asked her about that. After a couple of minutes of me asking spiritually leading questions, she started to clam up on me which I somewhat expected because of the situation where her friends were already involved and she just walked into it.

I then just straight out said to her, "You know, it isn't every day that you run into someone who is willing to have a spiritual conversation with you, right? Is there anything that you would like to talk about?" That got her attention and she turned back towards me, perked up and started actually talking to me. I was able to start going through the Law with her at that point but then her friends and Tony said, "Goodbye," and walked away. I asked her if she needed to go, too, and she said, "Yes," but looked sorry. I told her that was fine and that I could give her something to read. I reached into my purse and grabbed a "A Gift for You" tract with a $5.00 bill in it at gave it to her.

-Sarah

More teens at the Mall, Mt. St. Helen's and "A Case for Christ"

Tonight I paired with Sarah - one of our more "aggressive" witnessers (it that is even a word..). Since I tend to be a little timid in transitioning from the light-hearted questions on the "Intelligence Test" into a spiritual conversation, Sarah was coaching me.

We talked to two young men (Casey and Jacob) who, if left to me, would have walked away when they sounded sort of 'ho-hum' towards the intelligence test. Sarah, however, would not be so easily put off by their lack of interest. The result was a 20+ minute conversation where, at the very least, some seeds were planted.

Sarah asked the guys some fairly direct spiritual question (neither one of us could remember what it was when we talked later). Whatever she said got us going, and she dived in and talked about how all roads do NOT lead to God, using the analogy that 'all planes do not fly to Phoenix.' We talked about Revelation. We talked about creation, evolution and the 'Big Bang.' We talked about how there is no explosion known that resulted in more order. I jumped in and talked about Mt. St. Helen's (my wife and I had just visited there in May).

Then we got onto people trying to disprove the Bible. By this time, Jacob decided that he had enough of the conversation, so we were talking only to Casey. I told him about Lee Strobel and his book, "A Case for Christ." I asked him if he would write down his address and I could send him the book. Sarah pointed out that a teen might not be comfortable giving a middle aged man his address (duh!!), so I apologized and wrote down the titles to Strobel's book and to Josh McDowell's "Evidence that Demands a Verdict." I wish I had thought to offer to give Casey some money to buy the books.

The funny thing was, during the course of our conversation with Casey, he didn't seem to be bothered by our questions. He seemed genuinely interested in what we were saying (even if he didn't agree with all of it). And his cell phone rang twice during our conversations, and he answered it and said, "Can I call you back?" I thought that spoke volumes.

Pray for Casey - I left him with the challenge to investigate the claims of Christianity. I asked him to consider what is at stake if he is wrong in his belief that being a good person gets you to heaven. He asked me what happens if I'm wrong. I said - if there is no God, or if Jesus wasn't the Savior - when I die, I just cease to exist. If he is wrong, however, the consequences are much more dire.

-t