|
A "gospel tool" can be anything from a Bible to a small paper leaflet with
some portion of a gospel message printed or typed on it. It is something
that you, as a soul-winner, a witness for Jesus Christ, a Christian
evangelist, might use when taking the gospel message to others.
A gospel tool may also be a webpage (or an entire website) if it’s used to
share the good news of Jesus Christ. It can be your personal testimony,
a dramatic or silly story, a poem, a comic book, a movie, a picture of a
place or person, or even a small token, such as a cross, or even a
pebble or shell from the beach. It’s whatever you use in your
conversations and interactions with people when you share your faith in
Christ with them.
What is a Gospel Witness?
Every
truly born-again believer in Jesus Christ is a gospel witness. We may
not be very good witnesses. We may be great witnesses. We may be shy or
overbearing, loud or soft-spoken, friendly or gruff and harsh, but we’re
all witnesses for Jesus. We are His living letters to the world of what
God's grace can do right now, today. We should therefore pray that God’s
Holy Spirit will grant us the wisdom and courage to be effective and
useful as witnesses for the Lord Jesus.
Using
Gospel Tools
The use of
various gospel tools can often help us to be more effective in sharing
the life-saving truth of Jesus Christ. I especially like to use printed
tracts (booklets or leaflets) when I travel from city to city or if I go
through a neighborhood to talk with people. I like using tracts when I
have no time to really talk face to face with others. A gospel tract
left at a phone booth, on a magazine table in an office, or even a small
booklet left hanging from a door knob (with a rubber band) when going
door-to-door through a community can do much more than you may ever
imagine.
Printed
Tracts are Powerful Gospel Tools
Many
people right here in America, and in far away in India, China, Africa,
England, Japan, Germany, and many other nations, have discovered the
love and power of God through a gospel tract. You mustn’t think that our
generation is too sophisticated and technologically advanced for paper
tracts to be effective. People of all ages, all languages, all cultures
and societies can be reached through the printed word. While there are
still people groups in remote areas who have no written language,
billions of other human beings around the world are reading every day.
Why are printed gospel tracts such good tools? Printed tracts can do the
same work as living person or a web page. They offer information to
people when and where they are searching. A tract can offer straight
talk without embarrassing the reader. A tract can share helpful truth
and encouraging words from God's Word, the Holy Bible. A tract is often
exactly what a person in need really needs. It can offer genuine and
meaningful hope when someone needs it the most.
After finishing lunch in an East Texas restaurant one afternoon, I
casually included a small gospel leaflet with the tip. The waitress came
and took our money and the gospel message. A few minutes later she
returned with tears in her eyes. “What does this mean?” she asked. She
pointed to the gospel tract, where Bible passages from Isaiah talked
about having sins taken away. We invited her to sit at our table. My
wife and I talked with there, assuring her that the promises of God in
Scripture were true. That very afternoon the waitress surrendered her
heart to the Lord Jesus. But would it have happened without the little
gospel leaflet?
Good
Materials & Practices
The
sources listed above offer some of the better gospel booklets and
leaflets available. Obviously, this is only a partial list. There are
more sources out there, and some are very good. I always prefer to use
gospel literature that’s not too slanted toward a particular
denomination. I simply make certain the message is very clear and truly
the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in the Bible.
My objective in sharing the faith is not to simply get someone into church
or Sunday School, but to bring them to Jesus Himself. But you do want to
be sure you printed materials include your church address and a phone
number where people in need can find help or more information. Human
beings need Christ in their life in order to be rescued from a life
without God. But they also need to know where they can find the people
who already know the Lord Jesus — the people who shared Christ with
them.
God’s
Word is the Most Powerful Tool of All
I believe
the most effective printed witness will always include passages of
Scripture. God has spoken to us in His Word. And His Word in print is
the most powerful authority on earth. A favorite passage of mine reminds
me of this fact:
“Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has
my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat?
says the LORD. Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a
hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:28, 29 NRSV)
A person’s heart is often hardened, like a rock. Life may have already
been very bitter, and terrible sins and attitudes may be deeply rooted
in the very soul. God’s Word is able to provide whatever is needed.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He offered living water. God’s Word
provides hope, comfort and healing, as well as fire to burn away the
chaff and an awesome hammer to smash through the years of abuse and
hardship. Use Bible passages when you share the gospel message.
Sharing Scripture also provides something people can go back to, in the
Bible, and read and reread as they need, in order to reassure themselves
of what God is saying. We, as human witnesses, may die or move away. So
we don't make great final authorities in matters of salvation and faith.
The Bible, however, remains steadfast and true forever.
God bless you in all your efforts to share the powerful truth of Jesus
Christ. May you find that His Holy Spirit and power is with you as you
tell others what Jesus has done for everyone. His Word and promise
remains true:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:19,20 NKJV )
©2006 Jim
Sutton |
