EP 117: Stay after Souls (Lifestyle Evangelism)

Welcome to Part 3 of my series on Christian Discipleship: We’ve already covered Stay in the Book and Stay on Your Knees. Today we’ll address the last imperative: Stay after Souls. So let’s discuss what that means and what evangelism should look like in the life of a born-again Christian.

Stay after Souls

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 117

Hello, friend. Welcome to Episode 117 of Loving Life at Home. We’ve now come to Part 3 of my 3-part series on Christian Discipleship, based on an adage my youth pastor drilled into me and my friends back in the 1980s: “Stay in the Book. Stay on Your Knees. Stay after Souls.”

So today, I want to tackle that last imperative: “Stay after souls.” This has the idea of evangelism at its heart, but it really goes far beyond simply sharing the gospel. And that’s what I’d like to examine with you today.

If we truly want to live with a missional mindset, we need to:

1. Start at Home
2. Model Jesus
3. Work Heartily
4. Love Others
5. Share Christ
6. Glorify God

So let’s look at each of these individually. First, we need to…

1. Start at Home

Acts 1:8 tells us – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”

Notice the order: the disciples were to begin first in Jerusalem, then expand to the broader region of Judea, then spread even further out to Samaria, and then continue expanding out from there until they reached the very ends of the earth.

The same pattern applies to us. Our efforts should start at home, with the people who know us best, and spread out from there.

One of my daughters has a sign hanging right beside the door to her apartment that I love. It reads “Now entering mission field.” She sees it every time she goes out – whether she’s heading to work or going to visit family or friends or traveling to the other side of the planet to serve with a disaster area response team. It’s a great reminder that she is representing Christ wherever she goes.

Of course, she is currently single and lives alone, so posting such a sign beside the door is perfect for her situation.

If she ever gets married and has children, she may need to move that sign to her nightstand, right next to the alarm clock — or maybe paint it on the ceiling over her bed. That way, it’ll be the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes each morning, because – guess what? – if you have children, you have a built-in mission field.

For moms, our Jerusalem starts within the four walls of our own house.

Jesus calls us in Matthew 28:19-20 to go and make disciples… teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

That imperative (also known as the Great Commission) dovetails nicely with  Deuteronomy 11:18-19:

“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”

I have some friends who set that whole passage to music, and I used to sing it as a lullaby every night to our babies. “Ye shall lay up these My Words in your heart and in your soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes, and ye shall teach them to your children….” Now, I can never read those verses without hearing that very Jewish-sounding tune in my head.

I’d link their CD in the show notes, but it’s no longer available that I can find, and it looks like their business is shut down now, too. Which makes me so sad!

However, one of my sons sent me a link to an app just last week called The Singing Bible which is super cool. I’ll be sure to put that one in the show notes. It lets you pick a particular passage plus the voice, language, and song style – country and western or calming lullaby or barbershop quartet or children’s choir or sea shanties or even opera (they have 15 different styles to choose from) – then the app will set those verses to music according to your specifications.

Which is super cool. But it’s also a little off topic…

So… back to my point: Our evangelism efforts are supposed to begin right where God’s has currently placed us and spread out from there. That means mothers – and fathers – are in a unique position to make disciples among their own children right at home….

One of my daughters – the same one who has the “Now entering mission field” sign by her door — was telling me recently about meeting Edward Graham. Edward is Franklin Graham’s son and Billy Graham’s grandson and is currently the COO at Samaritan’s Purse. Anyway, he tells people who want to work with SP or DART or any of their other ministries, that if they aren’t already sharing Christ at home — in their own communities – then they shouldn’t even bother applying to go overseas with Samaritan’s Purse because “you’re a coward, and we don’t need you.”

That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Jesus tells us in Luke 16:10, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

That applies to missions, too. If you are not faithfully sharing the gospel right now, in the circumstances and surroundings where God in His sovereignty has currently placed you, then there’s no reason to expect that you would be any more faithful to share the gospel in any other part of the world.

I once had a friend tell me she felt like God was calling her to Africa, but her spouse (who was also a Christian) was not on board that plan. So she was wrestling with whether or not she should leave her husband to answer that call. 

Now please understand: She wasn’t talking about going on a week-long mission trip with the church youth group while he kept the kids at home. She was contemplating abandoning her spouse and school-aged children to move overseas long-term.

I know another woman who actually did do that. She divorced her husband and gave up custody of a very young child in order to go into full-time Christian ministry. Which is distressing on so many levels!

What I tried to explain to that first friend, and what I wish the second woman could’ve also understood, is that if you are a wife and mother with underage children still in your home, then God has already assigned you work to do right here. Right now. The Bible gives crystal-clear directives to such women:

• To respect and honor our husbands (see Ephesians 5:33)
• To train up our children daily (see Deuteronomy 6:6-7 and Proverbs 22:6).
• To love our neighbors and share Christ with them, beginning with the people who are closest to us in proximity and expanding out from there (refer to James 2:8 as well as to the Great Commission). And what closer neighbors do we have than the spouse and children who share our home?
• To look to God for further direction as we faithfully fulfill the responsibilities He’s already given us, knowing that He desires obedience rather than sacrifice. (see 1 Samuel 15:22)

Now, some may ask, doesn’t Matthew 10:37 say that anybody “who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; [and] anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”?

And that’s true. The Bible does say that. And in some parts of the world, if you convert to Christianity, your unbelieving family members will disown you. They’ll consider you dead. They might even put a price on your head so that you aren’t just metaphorically dead to them, but physically dead, as well.

And for such people, picking up your cross daily and following Jesus means being willing to suffer such rejection from your family, and possibly from your entire community, because you love Christ more than anyone else, including your family, and you find greater satisfaction in Him than in any earthly relationship you’ve ever known.

For these persecuted believers, the words of Deuteronomy 13:6-8 also apply: “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” …you must not yield to him or listen to him.”

So, yes, obviously, following Jesus does and should take precedence over all other earthly attachments. And there are sometimes circumstances that make such a dramatic choice necessary. Situations where you cannot cling to Jesus and simultaneously remain with your family, because your family is going to ostracize you the minute they learn about your conversion.

But, for most of us, loving and serving God and loving and serving our families are not mutually exclusive activities. And we should think twice before choosing to ignore or neglect the work God has clearly given us to do – and something He has uniquely equipped us to do: Love your husband, love your children, and keep your home, as well as doing the next thing on my list, which is to faithfully …

2. Model Jesus

We share Jesus by accurately reflecting His character – including His love and grace and patience and joy and justice and goodness and mercy and truth – to everybody around us. I know modeling Christ is a tall order, but Philippians 2:5-8 calls us to do exactly that:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus… who emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and… humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

So that’s my goal. I want to be able to say with Paul, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) I want others, and especially my own children, to be able to observe me — how I think and speak and act and respond — and thereby gain a better idea of what following Jesus should look like and how our faith should affect and inform every other facet of life.

Of course, none of us will be able to do this perfectly, nor can we ever hope to do it in our own strength.

In fact, just yesterday, I was trying to back up some files on my computer, which I almost never do, because almost every time I try, I somehow manage to erase something important that I was trying to protect.

And, sure enough, last night, as I was moving files around and putting them on a thumb drive, my entire photo library ended up in the trash, which I didn’t realize until I tried to empty the trash, and it was taking forever, but by the time I realized it was there, the process was too far gone and the file couldn’t be opened or replaced because it was already empty.

Which, I’m sorry to say, isn’t the first time I made that mistake. So, once I discovered my mistake, I googled to see if there were any way to fix it and read that I’d need to act fast if I hoped to recover any of those files before my computer began overwriting them. And right at that moment, as I read that ominous sentence, my husband called to let me know he’d ordered dinner for the family and was on the way to the park to celebrate our daughter’s birthday and wanted me to rally the troops so we could all meet him there.

And so, I was a little terse with my husband on the phone, which I imagine he interpreted as my being in a hurry to fulfill his request. But really, I was annoyed by the fact my photo library had just disappeared.

Then, I was snappy and impatient with the kids while trying to mobilize them and get them into the cars so we could go meet Dad and they all seemed to be dragging their feet to a degree that normally wouldn’t have been a big deal but that I found incredibly annoying when I was already stressed about the photos.

And by the time we got loaded into the cars, it was apparent to everybody that Mom was upset about something, and so my 18-year-old asked me what was wrong, and I started explaining my irritation over the computer situation in a very animated tone of voice. But then I started feeling guilty that I was letting something so stupid and insignificant that didn’t really matter in the long run steal my joy and threaten to ruin our party, so I repented, right there on Fifth Street, and prayed out loud in front of everyone in the car that God would help me put that problem out of my mind so it didn’t spoil my daughter’s birthday and that, if it were important for me to have those photos, He would make a way for me to recover the files, and, if it weren’t, that He’d help me get over it and move on.

Well, I’m very pleased to report that the LORD answered all those prayers. We had a great time at the park, and when we got back home, I found that all the photos I thought I’d lost were safe and sound, in a different file than the one which I’d accidentally deleted. Which was such a kindness from the LORD, and made me feel even more foolish for having let that situation so upset me in the first place.

Then, our goal should be to model Christ.  Doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. Your family will undoubtedly know better than anybody else on earth that you aren’t perfect. The problem arises when you won’t admit when you’re wrong and seek forgiveness.

So, whenever we fail to reflect His character accurately, rather than hypocritically pretending to be perfect or trying to excuse wrong behaver—which will be a bigger stumbling block to our kids than whatever sin or shortcoming we’re trying to hide or justify—when we fail, we need to be quick to admit it, apologize, ask forgiveness, repent of our sinful behavior, and purpose to do better in the future by God’s enabling grace.

Thankfully, the longer we abide in Christ and His Word abides in us, the more conformed to His image we’ll become. Which is great motivation for staying in the book and staying on your knees!

I have a little poem written in the front of my Bible I love. I didn’t note the author when I first copied it there, and I’ve since seen the poem (or a close version of it) attributed to Arthur McPhee, Paul Gilbert, Warren Wiersbe, Sharon Jaynes, and others. I’m not entirely sure where it originated, but I think it’s still worth our consideration. It reads…

“You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do and the words that you say.
Men read what you write—distorted or true—
What is the gospel, according to you?”

Isn’t that a scary thought? That if we don’t abide in Christ, and we don’t allow His Word to abide in us and to conform us to His image, that other people – and especially those who, like our spouse and children, know us best, who spend the most time living alongside us, who are continually observing us, up close and personal– that they might end up with a distorted understanding of the gospel?

I found a similar poem, also by an unknown author, that reads like this:

“You are writing each day a letter to men
Take care that the writing is true;
‘Tis the only gospel that some men will read,
That gospel according to you.”

That’s a sobering thought, too, isn’t it? That our lives may be the only gospel some people will ever read?

Exodus 20:7 commands us, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

Well, that admonition extends far beyond just using God’s name as a curse. I think it also means we should not take upon ourselves the name of Christ, then dishonor Him by the way we live. If I call myself a Christian, but harbor habitual, unrepentant sin, hypocritical pride, or a bitter and unforgiving spirit, then I have taken the name of Christ in vain. That label is empty and meaningless if Christ doesn’t rule in my heart and make a visible difference in the way I think and speak and act and work and live.

Which brings me to my next point. Another way we can point others to Christ and model His character to a watching world is by doing our…

3. Work Heartily

Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

And Ecclesiastes 9:10 reads, “Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might…”

I love what Dorothy Sayers has to say on this topic. She writes,

“The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. No crooked table legs or ill‑fitting drawers ever came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and Earth. No piety in the worker will compensate for work that is not true to itself; for any work that is untrue to its own technique is a living lie . . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it…. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming.”

Isn’t that an ennobling reminder? That the only Christian work is good work well done? That is true whether you are doing missions or doing laundry. Changing hearts or changing diapers. Feeding famished tribes or finicky toddlers.

All these things are a reasonable service of worship when done to the glory of God, just as Romans 12:1 explains, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” 

It brings God glory when we do our work well, without grumbling or complaining. (Philippians 2:14) Doing good work well is also a way to love others and to treat them the way you’d want to be treated.

And that is yet another way we can point others to Jesus and stay after souls: by loving them.

4. Love Others

As Jesus explains in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Love should be the distinguishing mark for the Christian. “We love because he first loved us.” (as 1 John 4:19 points out.)

And, if we are going to faithfully model God’s character, then our love must extend beyond our family and friends.

God also calls us to love our enemies. Jesus makes this expectation clear during His Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’” (Matthew 5:44) “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” (Luke 6:27-28)

So, loving our neighbors includes loving and praying for our enemies, as well as for our family and friends. But it also includes loving and praying for the lost.

After all, it was Jesus’s great love and compassion that compelled Him to come to earth to seek and save the lost. (see Luke 19:10)

John 3:16 tells the story plainly, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

And Christ commands us in John 15:12-14, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

So, then, Jesus loves the lost, and so should we. And our love should also compel us to pray for the lost.

I offer a free printable prayer guide with lots of scriptures for you to pray over your unsaved friends and family members. I’ll link it in the show notes.

Like so many of my prayer guides, this prayer for the lost takes the form of an acrostic:

L-O-S-T.  Ask that God would:

• Lead them to repentance
• Open their eyes to His goodness
• Save them by His grace and
• Transform them to His image

But we shouldn’t just stop at praying for the lost, as James 2:15-16 makes clear. James writes, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that?”

And Philippians 2:3-4 commands, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others”

When we do this – when we help the needy and address their physical as well as their spiritual needs –we become the hands and feet of Jesus.

This, too, is a spiritual service unto God. In fact, Jesus tells His righteous servants, “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

And His servants answered back, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’”

So that’s a good thing to keep in mind. We can serve God by serving others, and love God through loving others.

But it’s a two-handed gospel. Just as it is ineffective to give a spiritual blessing without also attending to a person’s physical needs, we also fall short when we meet their physical needs without also addressing their spiritual state. At some point, we must also…

5. Share Christ

Perhaps you’ve heard the quote, often (and mistakenly) attributed to St. Francis of Assissi, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”

Well, I agree that every facet of our life should point others to Jesus, but we shouldn’t stop there. Words are a necessary part of clearly communicating the good news of Christ’s sacrificial death, burial, and bodily resurrection on behalf of sinners. Jesus, alone, is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through Him. (just as we are told in John 14:6) So it is of vital importance that we share the gospel verbally, as well as by way of example.

“[For] how can people call on [Jesus] if they haven’t believed in Him? [And] How can they believe in Him if they have not heard His message? [And] How can they hear if no one tells [them the Good News]?” (Romans 10:14)

The gospel must be proclaimed, and Christ has given us, as believers, the responsibility of sharing it.

Peter bids us to “sanctify Christ as Lord” in our hearts. He says, “Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is within you. But respond with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

So, at the very minimum, we must always remain ready and willing to give an answer to anyone who asks us questions about what we believe and why we believe it.

As Paul commanded Timothy, we must “Preach the word; [and] be prepared in season and out of season; [to] correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

Ideally, we should share Christ naturally as it comes up in conversation. My faith in God affects the way I view and think about everything in life. So I would have to consciously bite my tongue for that perspective NOT to enter into the discussion anytime I talk with anybody about anything.

But why would I do that? So, if I’m speaking with somebody, whether I’ve known them for years or I just met them five minutes ago, and our conversation makes me think of a verse of scripture or a word of encouragement or exhortation or the need to pray about a situation, I go ahead and say it.

So, pray for boldness and discernment to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to share your faith as they present themselves. Which they will, if we keep our eyes and ears open to them.

As for specifically sharing the good news of salvation and the forgiveness of sin that is available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, it helps to memorize a few Bible verses you can refer to when explaining that concept to somebody who may have never heard it before.  

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, John 3:16 provides the gospel in a nutshell: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

I also love Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”

What sets Christianity apart from every other world religion is that we DON’t get what we deserve. We get grace instead. Salvation is not something we earn, it is something God freely offers and we must accept in faith.

In every other world religion, you get what you earn, what your deeds deserve. Those false religions teach a works-based salvation. If all the good you do in life outweighs the bad, then you get admitted into paradise. Or obtain a higher rebirth. Or achieve Nirvana. Or gain better karma. Or get your own planet to populate. Or earn a place in the House of Song.

But for Christians, we get what we don’t deserve. We get what we could never earn. We get forgiveness of sin and eternal life in heaven bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ and applied to our otherwise hopeless estate by grace through faith in His finished work on the cross and His triumph over the grave.

Yes, works are important. James 2:26 tells us that “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”

But works are the evidence of our salvation. Not the basis for it. They are our grateful response to the new life in Christ God has made freely available to us.

Works are not our ticket to heaven. They are merely the celebration that ensues once we realize and accept the fact that our fare has already been paid.

According to Scripture, salvation comes only through what the Reformers called the five solas (I’ll link a beautiful illumined free printable copy of the original Latin in the show notes for those who are interested).

Translated, the five solas simply say: By grace alone…through faith alone… in Christ alone… according to Scripture alone… for the glory of God alone.

That’s all straight out of the Bible, starting with the verses I just quoted from the book of Ephesians.

So if you are trusting in your own works to get you into heaven, you are trusting in the wrong thing.  Not even walking an aisle or praying a prayer or being submerged in the waters of baptism – and I did all those things, by the way, when I first came to faith in Christ. They are a natural response to the work God had already wrought in my heart.

But none of them, in and of themselves—not the aisle I walked or the words I prayed or the water in which I was baptized—have any power to save apart from the finished work of Christ on the cross. So Christ is where I put all my faith and trust. Jesus is hope and stay.

And any good fruit I bear and any good works I do—including evangelizing the lost—are all the result of my faith in Christ, not the foundation for it.

So, back to sharing the gospel. I’d say, make sure the gospel you are sharing is the one the Bible teaches. And one way to do this is by following something called The Roman Road. It’s a set of six Bible verses, all of which can be found in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, that clearly present the way of salvation. The first verse,

1. Roman 3:10 says, “As it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.’” See? The Bible tells us right here that trusting in our own efforts to get us to heaven is futile, because none of us are righteous enough to earn our own way – not even one. The second verse,
2. Romans 3:23, tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means all. We were born with a natural tendency toward sin, and we have all chosen to act in accordance with that tendency. Nobody had to teach us to be selfish or to demand our own way or to whine or lie or pitch temper tantrums or hit our brother on the head when he took the toy we wanted. And so none of us even come close to meeting up to God’s perfect standard of holiness. But in His great love and mercy, as the next verse…
3. Romans 5:8, lets us know…. “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And the reason that was necessary can be found in…
4. Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When you do a job, you expect to be paid. That’s what earning a wage means. And the payment for sin is death. That’s what all of us deserve, because all of us are guilty. But Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, took on flesh and came to earth and lived a perfect life, a life without sin, and then voluntarily offered His own life to pay the debt we owed and took upon Himself the penalty of death that He did not deserve, but that our sin demanded, and died in our place. And He did all that so that we could be forgiven if only we’ll put our faith and trust in Him alone, and do as
5. Romans 10:9 urges us to do – “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Which is such a wonderful promise. And one that
6. Romans 10:13 repeats: – “… for ‘whoever will call on the name of the LORD will be saved.’”

So that’s The Roman Road. Those six verses from the book of Romans. We offer a pretty, free printable of these verses on our family website. In fact, we’ve made it available in several different languages, so I’ll link those in today’s show notes in case you’re interested in downloading the list for yourself and committing those verses to memory.

Another popular way to share the gospel, especially with strangers when you might not have time for a lengthy conversation, is to carry gospel tracts to pass out in the hope that they will read the message later.

Just last Sunday, our pastor told the story of a man named Frank Jenner who spent 40 years doing exactly that. He had promised God when he first gave his heart to Jesus that he would share the gospel with at least 10 people every day, and he had faithfully kept that promise.

He’d usually go down to George Street in Sydney, Australia, on his lunch break and talk to the people he met there. It was a busy place with lots of crowds, so Jenner would approach a stranger on the street, thrust a pamphlet into their hands, and quietly say, “Excuse me, sir,” or “Excuse me, Ma’am.  Are you saved? If you died tonight, are you going to heaven?”

It wasn’t a long or flashy or eloquent speech proclaimed to the masses. Just a quick, simple, direct question asked of individuals who would stop long enough to hear those 15 words and accept the little tract he offered them.

And we probably wouldn’t even know Jenner’s name if it weren’t for a Baptist pastor in England who kept meeting one person after another after another whose testimony included a “chance” meeting on George Street with a “courteous, little white-haired man” who had asked them a question they couldn’t stop thinking about.

And the more this English pastor referenced in his sermons this unknown evangelist in Sydney, Australia, the more people he met who shared such a divine appointment in common, until he’d become acquainted with dozens if not hundreds of people who’d been influenced by this little old man on George Street.

So when that Baptist preacher later found himself in Sydney, he managed to track down this street evangelist and sat down with him over a cup of tea. And as he told Frank Jenner about meeting so many believers who had given their lives to Christ after having met him in the street, tears began streaming down Jenner’s face.

When the pastor asked why he was crying, the little old man explained about the promise he had made when he first became a Christian – a promise he’d faithfully kept – but he said that, in forty years of sharing the gospel this way, he had never heard of one single person coming to Jesus through those efforts… until that day.

Now, that is perseverance, isn’t it? He had made a huge impact, and never even known it, yet he remained faithful to keep planting the seeds.

One plants. Another waters. But God alone makes things grow. Only He can ripen the fruit unto harvest. (1 Corinthians 3:7)

That’s why Ecclesiastes 11:6 encourages us to “Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.”

We need to faithfully do our part—the part God has called and commanded us to do—then  leave the results up to God.

Incidentally, tracts are still an excellent way to get Bible verses into the hands of strangers.

And that is key, because God’s Word never returns to Him void, as the Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:10-11,

For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, / so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.”

We offer a wide assortment of free printable gospel tracts on our website, which I’ll link in today’s show notes.

Some of the very first tracts we ever published were the trick-or-treat tracts we designed to tuck inside little snack-sized bags of quality candy to be distributed on Halloween.

I’m not a huge fan of Halloween, but for several years, we lived in a neighborhood that attracted tons of trick-or-treaters. No exaggeration, we would often have as many as a thousand kids show up on our doorstep in the course of one evening asking for candy – and that just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up! So we started staying at home and passing out gospel tracts along with our Halloween candy to all those hundreds and hundreds of kids.

And even though we now live in a different neighborhood –one that attracts zero trick-or-treaters – those Halloween tracts are still finding their way into the bags and buckets and pillowcases of trick-or-treaters all around the globe. I’ve heard from readers all across the US and Canada and England and Australia and many other corners of the world who are faithfully printing and passing them out every year.

In fact, just last week I received a message from a reader named Jan. She writes:

Well, obviously, I agree with that sentiment. If even one hits its mark, it’ll be worth it!

And that’s entirely possible, as that story about Frank Jenner attests.

Another reader wrote me several years ago to share her testimony. She said that’s how she came to faith. Back when she was in high school, she spotted a tract lying on the ground in a parking lot (probably one somebody else had discarded). So she picked it up, read it, was convicted by it, and ended up putting her faith and trust in Jesus that same afternoon.

Anyway, it’s already September, so Halloween will be here again before we know it. I’ll put a link to our free printable trick-or-treat tracts in today’s show notes, in case you want to use them too. I have 10 or 12 styles to choose from — just for Halloween. Plus, we offer dozens more free printable gospel tracts for other occasions, as well.

In addition to handing out tracts to trick-or-treaters, we also put them in bags of food we carry in our cars for homeless. We fill gallon-size ziplock bags with bottled water, granola bars, tuna pouches, peanut butter and crackers – stuff like that – plus a gospel tract or two, then keep them in the door of the car so they’re ready to share if we see someone with a “Please help” sign on the street corner.

Some of my readers have told me they put our tracts into the boxes of groceries they distribute at the local food pantry, a different one each month.

We have general gospel tracts that are good for any time of year, but we also have special themed tracts for all the major holidays.

• tracts for New Year’s
• tracts for Valentine’s Day – my kids used those free printables for years at our homeschool co-op’s Valentine’s party, or passed them out at the nursing home along with handmade cards.
• tracts for Easter – we’ve passed those out to all our neighbors before, along with little bags of jelly beans.
• tracts for the Fourth of July – I handed a whole stack of these freedom-themed tracts out to fellow fair goers at America’s 250^th celebration in Washington, DC this year.
• tracts for Thanksgiving , which we’ve given to neighbors along with pumpkin bread in November, and
• tracts for Christmas, which we tie to candy canes in December and pass out to neighbors, as well, when we go caroling door-to-door

And my readers have found even more creative ways to use our tracts.

One of them, a man named Steve, wrote to me several months ago to tell me that he and several other people from his community passed out copies of my zombie tract (which uses Colossians 2:13, “You were dead because of your sins & because your sinful nature was not yet cleaned away” to compare us to “the walking dead” and present Christ as the cure)… but they printed out lots of copies of that tract to share with people who were attending a live drag queen show and drag-zombie movie that had been advertised in their hometown.

He writes,

It’s tempting to become discouraged when you don’t see immediate results from your efforts in evangelism – or when those with whom you attempt to share the gospel react with hostility or distain – but I’d encourage you to keep at it, bathing all those efforts in prayer, leaving the results to God, and living your life to His glory…

6. Glorify God

We need to do as1 Peter 2:12 tells us to do – “Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”

Or as Titus 2:7-8 urges – “In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.”

Romans 15:6 – “so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And my personal favorite: 1 Corinthians 10:31 – “Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Jesus commands in Mathew 5:16 that we – “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

 “This is to My Father’s glory,” He explains further in John 15:8, “that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.”

1 Timothy 5:25 – “In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even the ones that are inconspicuous cannot remain hidden.”

Which circles back to modeling Christ, reflecting His character, and making certain your life, as well as your words, point people to Jesus.

This is my prayer for you! May you grow in grace as you seek to make Christ known every day, in every way you can, to all the people who, through the providence of God, come across your path.

More Printable Prayer Guides

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