After attending a TERM Seminar, Jacob* was eager to try leading a course just as he had been shown. He booked a room at his church and publicized that a course was about to start. He told a church leader he would be going through the book The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. The church leader quipped, “You’ll be doing well if you get three! The study is a bit long and Friday night is not a good night.” Undaunted, Jacob trusted the Lord to bring people. He is now mid-way through the course and he sent us an update:
The ladies’ tea and book club
Jody* is a hairstylist who has many co-workers and clients whom she has come to know as friends. Recently, she took a step of faith and discovered a simple and effective way to help her friends clearly understand and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jody explains how she makes meaningful connections with her clients:
“As a stylist, I work hard to make the women who sit in my chair look and feel beautiful. As a Christian, I want to be a good listener, so that each one knows I truly care for them.”
Nudged across our paths
A colleague once observed, “It seems God takes great delight in nudging the unsaved across the paths of believers who are ready—those who are equipped to clearly communicate the Bible’s message.”
I thought about this recently while travelling to Winnipeg from Calgary. I was standing in line waiting to board my plane when an elderly woman stepped in behind me. I wouldn’t have noticed her except she suddenly leaned past me and motioned in the direction of two men ahead of us. Pictures of human skulls decorated their jackets, ear rings, hats, boots, and even their hand luggage. Granny’s rheumy eyes asked the question first before she whispered hoarsely, “What’s with the skulls?”
“The Lamb” for the very young and very old
On our new website, there is a contact form that anyone can use to contact us. We were pleased to receive this note from Diane:*
The Lamb is a great tool that God has given. I have seen Him use it in the salvation of my five-year-old granddaughter’s life and in the life of a 75-year-old Japanese lady.
I am currently using it each Sunday for children’s church. We have kids from second to fifth grade. I take The Lamb DVD and play a chapter at a time, and then ask the questions found in the book. On Easter Sunday, I plan to show the DVD in its entirety… with popcorn! We want the children (especially those who might have missed a Sunday or two) to see the complete story. We have several unchurched children attending these sessions. May God use the The Lamb to bring about salvation for all the children.
Pray along with us, that the Holy Spirit will help the children understand the gospel message and that each precious child will be able to declare, “Jesus is my lamb! He died for me.”
(*Name changed as per GoodSeed policy.)
Speak another language? Read eBooks?
We could use your help
Around the world, we see a growing number of people who are reading books on iPads, Kindles, Kobos, smart phones, tablets and other eReaders. Over the last few years, we’ve been converting our range of books and testing them on a variety of devices. Now, we’re about to release the eBook versions of our tools so that more people across the globe can have access to them. The first versions to be released on our website are in English with translations into other languages to follow.
What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I share the gospel?
Remember when…
Remember when you first believed in Christ? Like a new parent showing off baby pictures, you would tell anyone who would listen about the gospel—you couldn’t help it! Being an ambassador of Christ was exciting and natural.
But after a while, we sometimes find that our joy, as believers, begins to wane, as well as our zeal for sharing the good news with others. Why does that happen? Is there a way back to where we began?
The world over, people are coming to a simple but profound new understanding and appreciation of the Bible’s message. A clearly understood gospel is a powerful gospel—it saves! But it also saves us from a life of joyless toil and ineffectiveness.
Continue reading “What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I share the gospel?”
Bringing the gospel to restricted access countries
In many places around the world, people do not have the freedom to investigate the Bible, nor do they have the liberty to decide for themselves whether to believe or reject its message.
Sixty percent of the tools that GoodSeed is developing are meant for people living in such countries where they are not allowed freedom of thought or religion.
On a recent trip to Israel, John Cross stood at the border overlooking the Valley of Tears and reflected on this challenge. See John’s video below:
Continue reading “Bringing the gospel to restricted access countries”
Church gives the gospel at Easter Parade
The folks at Bethel Baptist Church of Parkersburg, West Virginia, are busy getting ready for the fifth annual Mid-Ohio Valley Easter Parade. Their float—a rolling visual aid complete with a cross, empty tomb, music speakers and Bible verse placards—is almost complete. Volunteers from the congregation plan to walk alongside to greet and pass out candy to the crowds of onlookers.
Last year Bethel Baptist ordered 300 of the booklets What are Christmas and Easter All About? The problem, though, was that they ran out of them part way through the parade route. So, last week one of the pastors, Kevin Brosius, called the GoodSeed USA office to place an order for 1000 booklets. They’re determined not to be short this year!
Question Time with Oaks Christian School No.1: Spiritual Warfare
The eighth grade class from Oaks Christian School did a Bible study using The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus VideoBook. When they had finished, the students had a number of questions for the author. Rather than just sending their questions over email, the class made a video!
We’re pleased to have John Cross reply, also by video. Over the next few weeks, we will post the series of video questions along with John’s replies.
The first Q&A video features a question about spiritual warfare. We were charmed by Molly, who asked if John had encountered any spiritual attacks while he was filming the Stranger VideoBook. Though he didn’t experience any overt spiritual attacks, John pointed out that the Bible tells us we are waging spiritual battle daily. Each day, we have to make choices in life and the Bible says we can either make wise choices or foolish ones.
The choices we make are part of the daily spiritual battle we each fight. In the video, while near Nablus (biblical Shechem), John points to two large visual aids that God used to teach this truth. There in the background are Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal, the mountains of blessing and cursing (see Deut 11:26-32). They are God’s reminders that in our daily spiritual battle, wise choices lead to blessings while foolish choices bring curses on our lives.
Watch Molly and John Cross below:
See more Question Time videos with The Oaks Christian School:
- J’Leigh asks about John Cross’s favourite location in Israel
- Richard asks about the use of visual aids
- Manon asks John what the funniest moment was when filming The Stranger VideoBook
- Ben asks about the second most important point of the video series
- Emily asks which is John’s favourite verse
- Cameron asks which is John’s favourite book of the Bible
We would like to express our thanks to The Oaks Christian School, the students’ parents and the students for allowing us to feature the kids’ videos!
Related resources: The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus VideoBook
It’s an Xbox 360 controller, Grandpa!
Editor’s note: When one of our staff spent time playing video games with his grandson, he gleaned an insight into the challenges that face us when we try to explain the gospel message to someone who is biblically illiterate.
My wife and I were visiting our grandchildren for the first time since they acquired a state-of-the-art video game console—a gift from a generous neighbour. The youngest, 7-year old Thomas*, was beside himself with excitement. He could hardly wait to show me his prowess.
I was no sooner in the house when Thomas plopped a strange-looking object into my hand. The clear plastic, kidney-shaped device immediately reminded me of the cockpit of a commercial jetliner. Buttons, toggles, switches, levers, dials and diodes of every size and colour poked out at odd angles and from all sides. I asked Thomas, “What is it?”
The look on his face betrayed utter surprise that someone as old and wise as Grandpa could be so uneducated. “It’s an Xbox 360 controller, Grandpa!”
Well of course! I guess I should have known that. But the truth was, I didn’t know. “You’ll have to show me, Thomas,” I ventured, for I knew full well this was the response he was hoping for.
Thomas led the way downstairs where he plugged the controller into another mysterious piece of equipment, turned on the TV and began pressing and poking buttons with the dexterity of my great aunt’s knitting needles.
A snazzy red race car appeared on the monitor, sound effects and all. In response to Thomas’s nimble fingers, the powerful car navigated the speedway with amazing precision and realism. Thomas’s body twisted and jerked in concert with each bend and turn of the racetrack. It was obvious my grandson was on familiar ground, in his element; I was definitely out of mine.
Later, when it was my turn to operate the controller, disbelief and frustration were evident in my grandson’s face as he watched me struggle to extract my race car from high in the grandstand.
Reflecting on the experience later, it occurred to me there are multitudes of people who are as unfamiliar with the Bible as I was with my grandson’s video game. The pages and events of Scripture are a complete mystery to them. It may seem incredulous to us that a person could be totally ignorant of the Bible but, in reality, more and more people in our society are biblically illiterate. Put a Bible in their hands, and they will feel much like I did trying to operate my grandson’s Xbox 360 controller.
The Scriptures record how a Middle-Eastern man—a very intelligent Ethiopian official—struggled to make sense of the Bible. When he was asked if he understood what he was reading, he replied, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” (Acts 8:31 NIV)
In our eagerness to share the good news of God’s Word, are we doing enough to help our friends and loved ones understand the gospel message? If we hand them any Christian book, or a tract with only brief explanations, wouldn’t it be akin to handing them an XBox 360 controller for the first time without any explanation?
Instead, what if we handed our friend a tool specifically designed for people with no knowledge of the Bible, a tool that will gently, respectfully and objectively explain the Bible’s core message. Wouldn’t that be a better help?
To understand how we’ve carefully written our tools in order to simply and clearly explain the Bible’s message, please visit our Tools Architecture Page.
(*Name changed as per GoodSeed policy.)
Photo credit: “Xbox 360 Controller” by Scott Ackerman is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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