In our second video question from The Oaks Christian School, Jaylee asks John Cross two questions: Which is his favourite location in Israel and when did he decide to go into full-time ministry. Standing on a lookout above the Sea of Galilee, John points out the town of Capernaum on the northern edge of the lake. To answer both of Jaylee’s questions, he discusses an incident that happened at Capernaum—the story of the royal official from John 4:46-54.
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:
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.”
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?”
Example of a church (not Diane’s) using The Lamb on Easter
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.”
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.
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.
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:
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!
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:
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.”
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