Take a journey within a journey

Photo credit: Hajime Nakano on flickr

[This post is part of our “Give away the gospe” series. Eric* writes from his personal experience.]

One day three years after receiving a bone marrow transplant, I was in the cancer clinic for my annual check-up. As I sat in the lab, a young nurse came to do routine blood work. I asked her, “Are you taking a vacation this year?”

She replied, “Yes, I am starting my holidays day after tomorrow.” She went on to say that she was leaving on a trip to Dubai to see a friend. I asked her how long the flight was, and she told me that with layovers and flight time, the trip was almost a full 24 hours. I asked her if she liked reading. She said she did.

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This is what I’m going to do!

Idaho Worldview Rethink Workshop

The team just completed two Worldview Rethink Workshops in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. As one of our staff members mentioned, the best word to sum up the workshops was “motivational.” More than just providing good knowledge and solid Bible teaching, the workshops encouraged participants to start sharing the gospel, whether it’s leading a study or simply giving a book to a friend. Many participants came up to us to say, “This is what I’m going to do!”

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Children with a passion for the gospel

Photo Credit: Andrew Mitchell on flickr

(This post is part of our “Give away the gospel” series.)

We received a note from a parent on how her two children have a passion for sharing the gospel with their friends.

Our 4th grade daughter decided that she wanted to give The Lamb as a part of her Valentine’s to her classmates. We are not allowed to distribute these at our public school, so she plans to mail them. Our 7th grade son takes [copies of] The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus wherever he goes to give to his friends. There is no greater joy than when your own children walk in the truth!
—Caitlin*

We think we can learn so much about giving the Gospel from them. They use every opportunity to share the good news to people in their lives, even Valentine’s Day. Maybe we can pause to think how we can share the good news with those in our lives.

(*Names changed as per GoodSeed policy.)

 

Photo Credit: “I Love Apples” by Andrew Mitchell is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Video Clips for “By This Name” Interactive Edition

Video editing for By This Name Interactive Edition

The video clip editing for By This Name Interactive Edition has been slow-going.  This upcoming edition will include a DVD with video clips that help teach the material. As people read through the book, some sections will have a DVD icon, and they can view a video clip to help understand the message better.

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Worldview Rethink Workshops and Missions Fest Alberta

Come meet us and check out GoodSeed tools and resources!

Join us in February and March and tell others who are living close by!

How do you share the Gospel with someone if you only have five minutes? What if you have several hours? What are the essentials you need to cover? What challenges are you up against and how do you overcome them so they can simply understand what you are saying? Learn more about how to give away the Gospel and guide someone through a course at the Worldview Rethink workshops.

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Give away the gospel during Lunar New Year!

Chinese New Year decorations

(This post is part of our “Give away the gospel” series.)

Lunar New Year is coming! Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans in Australia, Canada, the US, Europe and, of course, in every corner of Asia, are getting ready to celebrate this major festival on the Lunar calendar.

If you were to visit a Chinese home during this season, you might find greetings and wishes in red and gold adorning the house, while pots of New Year plants and lanterns grace the entrances. Mandarin oranges would be carefully arranged in baskets alongside jars and trays of New Year goodies. The air would be filled with the aroma of pots of delicacies gently cooking in the kitchen. Occasionally, you might hear the booms and clangs of drums and cymbals of a passing lion dance troupe or the tunes of New Year music coming from a music player.

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This “John 3:16” makes no sense to me…

John 3:16 in the Bible

(This post is part of our “Give away the gospel” series.)

A GoodSeed staff member tells us of a Thai friend who was trying to understand what the Bible was all about. He writes:

My Thai friend Aroon* told me that he used to have a manager who was a Christian. This manager had spent several months trying to explain the good news of the Bible to him. He used John 3:16 as his starting point. He told Aroon, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son…”

Aroon halted his manager right there and articulated several problems he had with that verse. First of all, God to him was not a person. God was a universal force, the kind of force that holds the universe together, like gravity. Aroon couldn’t understand how a force could love him. Secondly, what was love anyway? Was love just a warm feeling in the heart? And this universal force had a son? How could that be? If God had a son, did he also have a wife?

The problem was that Aroon had absolutely no background about God and the Bible. Those very precious words had a different meaning for him because he lacked the biblical perspective.

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I gave a book. Did it have impact?

I gave a book. Did it have impact?

(This post is part of our “Give away the gospel” series.)

We’ve talked about “Personal Distribution Points” and “Be Ready Boxes” and living a lifestyle of just giving away gospel tools. But does it have impact? Here are several testimonies from people who received a GoodSeed tool.

My colleague of 20 years
Tony* had witnessed to his colleague at work for 20 years, but to no avail. He then decided to give him a copy of “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus.” To Tony’s surprise, his colleague read it twice! Tony said his colleague could explain the Gospel back to him very clearly, from A to Z. Because they were at work with many people present, they decided to get together at a later date. When they met, the man again explained to Tony the whole Gospel very clearly. Tony said, “I’ll pray for you.” He replied, “Why?” Tony said, “Because now that you have the information, you need to make a decision” to which the man replied, “But it’s black and white, and I’m in the white! You can pray for my wife and children so that they too will understand.”

She said “Wow” every five minutes
“I just want to thank you for your prayers for Irina*. The Lord is doing something incredible in her heart! The book you gave her for Christmas—‘The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus’—she has read it in one weekend. She kept turning the pages and saying ‘wow’ every five minutes… This book totally changed her perception of the Bible… She can see how the Bible answers all the questions that we might have. Now she recommends the book to everyone, saying it should be a bestseller and that all her friends in Russia should read it. Moreover, she started reading the Bible as soon as she was through with this book!”

A brand new believer brings another
“As you know, our church has ordered almost 1000 copies of ‘The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus.’ People use them for witness and follow-up. Very helpful!  Recently a believer from our church led a young woman with cancer to the Lord. He then gave her a copy of ‘The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus’ for follow-up. She read it and passed it on to a visiting unsaved friend who read it all in one day and got saved. PTL! She said, ‘I never thought I could get my sins forgiven.’  She is planning to come out to our church soon.”

Passing it on and impacting lives
“I met you at your sister’s funeral as I knew your [other] sister. At that sad time for you and your family, you gave me a book ‘By This Name’ by John Cross. It was such a great book in that it was so easy to understand and the history of the Bible and its correlation to other related events was fantastic. I enjoyed the book so much that I passed it on to my nephew’s wife; she passed it on to her sister and [the passing on of it] is on going. I wanted to tell you this because it has such an impact on the people who passed it on. So thank you.”

Many of GoodSeed’s tools are designed for just “giving away” or passing on. They explain the message of the Bible clearly and simply in an objective manner. The three key books that you may find useful to have on hand to give away at a moment’s notice are:

(* All names changed as per GoodSeed policy.)

Are you ready to give the Good News?

t's so easy to share the Good News. Just give it away!

(This post is part of our “Give away the gospel” series.)

All believers are given the biblical mandate to live a lifelong lifestyle of being ready to share the Gospel at a moment’s notice. This sharing doesn’t happen by accident. It starts with us cultivating a deliberate lifestyle of being ready so that when God puts into our lives the opportunity to share, we won’t miss it!

Over the years, the GoodSeed staff members have found that giving a person a book, audiobook or DVD is the simplest way to give someone the Gospel. In under a minute, we can give someone a well-developed tool that will explain the Gospel, step-by-step, story-by-story, to a person with absolutely no understanding or knowledge of the Bible. Through giving away, we have seen so many people come to put their trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Being ready to give away a gospel tool requires some very simple planning: 1) Identifying your Personal Distribution Points and 2) Preparing a “Be Ready Box.”

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Can I shine your shoes?

Photo Credit: Alex Barth on flickr

Davi* met a 13-year-old boy when he was getting the tire of his car fixed. Thiago walked up and asked if he could shine Davi’s shoes. Davi agreed, and struck up a conversation with the boy as he worked. He asked if Thiago had ever drank living water. Thiago had no idea what Davi was talking about but was curious. Davi shared that 34 years ago, he had learnt about the living waters and when he understood what it was, he drank it and found new life and everything he had ever longed for in his heart. Davi offered to lead the boy through a study and at the end of it, he would understand what living water was and how to drink it, just as clearly as he understood how to shine shoes.

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