Your Great Hope and Future

Jer.29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Check out the MP3 below for more on what that means. Just to give you a sneak peak, here is a great acronym that will help you remember the FUTURE God has for you: your Fellowship with God will get sweeter over time (Ps.63:3, 84:10), you'll experience Unconditional Love, acceptance, blessing and abundance (Rom.8:38-39, Jn.10:10), you'll have Triumph in all areas of life (Rom.8:37), you'll leave an Unforgettable legacy (Pr.13:22, Jn.15:16), you'll have true, satisfying and meaningful Relationships and you can look forward to an Eternity in heaven (Ps.16:11). That's just a very small snippet of what you'll get out of this very encouraging talk. Check out the notes here and the MP3 below.

6 Ways to Reach Your Neighbors for Christ

It is always hard thinking of ways to share your faith with your neighbors and it seems my neighbors have typically been the group of people I have been least effective at reaching out to. I want to be more intentional about sharing with them and thought I'd share a few ideas I'll be trying soon, with you. I hope you get a chance to try some of these as well. Here are 6 ways you can share your faith with your neighbors. 

1. Host a pot luck or BBQ and invite the neighbors over. Play christian music in the background (KLOVE is a good choice) and be intentional about working through the sound barriers. 

2. Invite your neighbors to enjoy something special you have that they may not. You might invite them to watch a big game on your big screen TV, swim in your pool, let their kids play in your back yard or borrow your tools. The main idea is to use what God has given you to bless them and then be intentional about sharing the Good News with them as well. We were just given a hot tub and can't wait to invite neighbors over to sit in the hot tub with us!!!

3. Pray for a need they have. Whether it is a health problem, a financial need or whatever, ask your neighbors if you can pray for them. This will open up an obvious opportunity to share with them. 

4. Help them with a need they have. You could water or mow their yard, shovel their snow, help them cover a bill, give them a ride or find any number of ways to serve them, opening a door to share with them too. Get more servant evangelism ideas here. 

5. Give them a Christ centered gift (for Christmas, birthdays or just for fun). Books are a good idea. Get more ideas on gifts by clicking here. 

6. Invite them to church. Inviting your neighbors to church will bring up a conversation about Christ regardless of whether or not they come, and maybe they will! Here are some ideas on inviting friends to church. 

Well, those are just 6 ways to share Christ with your neighbors. Have you tried these? If so, what happened? Do you have other ideas? If so, please share them with us. I hope these ideas encourage you to reach the sphere of influence called your neighborhood that God has strategically placed you in! Have a great time sharing your faith this week!

Nightvision 2011 Recap!

Nightvision was amazing this year! This picture shows Malcolm and Brandon praying as they look down on a crowd of about 14,000 right before heading out to share the Good News that night. We had a total of nearly 20 volunteers over the course of the 2 day event, helping out with the evangelism team. It was amazing. You'd think that most of the people at an event with Josh Wilson, Charlie Hall, Lincoln Brewster, Casting Crowns and MercyMe would be Christians. That is NOT the case. There were so many people hungry to hear about Jesus and so many made decisions to trust Him!

The PHM staff invited us to train all 500+ volunteers how to share the Gospel. We did a short evangelism training with the SHARE acronym (get that here) at each of the volunteer orientations. Here's a picture of Brandon doing that training at the last orientation, Friday morning.

One of my favorite stories is that of Damian! You probably remember the "Jesus Tract" we put together (if not check it out and the reason we put it together by clicking here). Chris (who came with Tim Clemens form Ignacio to serve on our team) got to share the Jesus tract with Damian on Friday and Damian, as far as I know, became the 1st person to trust Christ as a result of hearing the gospel via the Jesus Tract. below you can check out pictures of Chris and Damian right after he trusted Christ and Damian getting baptized the next morning (yes, we had baptisms at the event!). 

Most everyone on the team got to lead someone to Christ. It was a great time. Here's a picture of Malcolm praying with someone. 

I'm not sure exactly how many people trusted Christ at this event but there were a ton. Margaret cried tears of joy as I shared the gospel with her before she trusted Christ. Here is a picture of Malcolm, Leah and Brandon doing follow up with a group of young people who all trusted Christ after the strength team event. 

Here's a picture of David Bowman sharing the gospel with the evangecube; this young man also trusted Christ. 

It was a great weekend of evangelism. I heard there were 300 follow up packets and we went through pretty much all of them. I'm not sure about those numbers yet so I'll get some official stats soon. The theme of this year's Nigtvision event was life and the pro-life message. It was great getting to meet Frank Pavone and Dr. Alveda King at the lunch before the event (pictured below) and then hearing them at the event. 

This issue is one that is very close to our hearts! You can get some of our posts on this topic here and check out the short version of our now famous debate on the issue below (get the full debate here). 

For all of you that were praying, thanks a ton! God did great things and brought many people to Himself. Thank you all who prayed. Thank you Erin (my sweet wife), Roger and Joanne (my in-laws), Malcolm and Leah, Brandon, Alex, Tim, Chris, Stephanie, Sunny, David, Greg and the rest of you who served so diligently, sharing the Good News. Also, thanks a ton Miss Victoria, Mona, Brenda, Erika, Lucretia, Jimmy, Susan and all the PHM staff for putting this event together! God did great things!

Well, if you'd like to get some good training on how to share your faith, check out the videos below! Have a great day and don't forget to share the hope that you have with those around you - they desperately need Jesus! Also, get over 100 easy, creative and fun evangelism ideas here. 

How to share your faith with confidence part 1:

How to share your faith with confidence part 2:

QR Code Evangelism

You've seen them, the weird, square bar code things (pictured above). They're actually called QR codes if you didn't know and they are a neat way to share info with the growing smartphone owning population. You can scan these with a QR code scanning app. I have the free QRReader app for my Iphone. You simply download the app onto your phone, then open it and scan the QR code and it will send you to whatever the code is linked to. In this case (the picture above) it is linked to everystudent.com, a great evangelistic site (go ahead and try scanning this picture and you'll figure out what I'm talking about). So that's where I'm going with this, why not use this media trend to share the Good News?

It is simple. Find an evangelistic site you would like to share with non-christians (here are a few possibilities) or write a note on your blog and copy the URL for whatever website you choose to use and paste it into the "Enter URL" section at quickqr.com. Then click the "Generate Code" button.

That will produce a .png image of your QR code that will direct anyone that scans it to the evangelistic site you choose. You could then upload that to facebook, other social media, e-mails or just print it off with a little note that you could leave around town. You could try to come up with creative ways to get people to scan it - like saying, "answers to life's questions" and then the picture of the QR code.

Whatever you do, this is one more simple way to share your faith. Why not give it a shot? Let me know what you think and how it works for you! Here's my example:

Evangelism Idea: Share on a Bus!!!

This is a really simple idea. Share on a bus! I was recently riding on my dad's bus and had numerous conversations about Christ and was amazed by the number of people he had been sharing with as well. It is very easy to meet someone by saying "hi" when they or you first get on the bus. From there you can quickly start a conversation and begin transitioning through the sound barriers. Usually, you'll have a captive audience long enough to share your testimony and/or go through a gospel presentation. It also seems that many of the people you'll find on the bus will be down and out and seriously needing prayer and encouragement. You'll undoubtedly have opportunities to pray for them as well. This is a super easy way to practice sharing your faith. Just head to the bus station, pray, get on a bus, and go for it! As Bill Bright would say, "Take the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit and then trust the results to God!"

Crush Fear 2011 was AMAZING!!!

Thanks for your patience the past 2 weeks (I haven't blogged since the Crush Fear project started)! It was unbelievable. 30 students from all over the US were here for 2 weeks of crushing fear to remove the bariers to all God has called them to be. These students were pretty much AWESOME!!! We did a ton of activities, had numerous training sessions each day, ate weird food, raised money for ministry to Muslims, shared the Good News and had a blast. You can also check out the CF students on the radio by clicking here! We're tired right now but also feel like we're still floating. Have I mentioned that it was an amazing time? For all you students, we already miss you a TON!!! Spending the past 2 weeks couped up in the lodge with you was one of the greatest times of our lives. Keep going hard for Jesus! Well, check out the video below for a quick view of some of what happened on Crush Fear 2011. More stories to come!!! P.S. Please click follow to the left to follow our blog! Thanks!

What's in a name? An evangelism opportunity!

What's in a name? An opportunity to share the gospel!!! Seriously, every name presents an opportunity for the gospel. This evangelism idea is so easy and it is a great way to get started working through the sound barriers! Simply ask someone you meet what their name is. Then (quickly), try to think of someone that has influenced you for Christ with that same name. Tell your new friend you have a friend with their same name. Continue from there to share who that friend is and what their influence on you has been. This friend could be a pastor, mentor, encourager or just a friend from church. The bottom line is that as soon as you tell them about this friend and their influence on you, you can begin transitioning into a conversation about Christ by asking what their experience has been with Christianity.  Check out the 4th story (about Chuck) in this post for an example. Well, I hope you enjoy applying this simple evangelism idea!

"Perspective on Osama and Current Events" - God Solution 5/8

Listen to the MP3 of "The God Solution" show #9 - "Perspective on Osama and Current Events" below! Get all our previous shows here. We are on the air Sunday mornings at 8:30 am. "The God Solution" is an interactive show that will discuss answers to humanity's questions about God and God's answers for Humanity's questions. I really hope you'll tune in and listen and share the program with friends as well. If you live in the area listen to the show on 91.9 or 93.9 FM. If you don't live in the area, feel free to check out the show online at http://kdur.org/. If you like the show please let the wonderful folks at KDUR know. You can contact them by clicking here. Thanks a ton and tune in every Sunday at 8:30 am!

Perspective on Osama and World Events!

What a week! The news of Osama's demise has consumed most of the media this week and I won't get into that any more. You can read some thoughts on that here. I thought it would be good to talk about current events across the board and what the Bible has to say about it all.

Check out this week's God Solution show on this topic below!

So the big question, is this world getting better or worse? Well, just turn on the news. Scripture tells us to be ready for these types of times. Daniel 9-12, Isaiah 13 and 34, Mt.24, Mr.13, Lk.21 and the book of Revelation all tell us what to expect. 



Things are going to get worse! 
People will be happily ignorant, lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, they will have a form of godliness but deny its power; they are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desire and always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
 What we should do about it: 
Mt.24:42-44 - keep watch, understand, be ready and Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart. 


What about nations and politics. 
Globalization is happening like never before. 
The political climate is chaotic. There's been a resurgence of socialism and communism, dictatorships prevalent and a global secular worldview is being pushed. There is uncertainty everywhere. What God’s Word tells us nations will rise against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms, and eventually, the Antichrist will establish a one world government and a new world order. 
What we should do about it? Exercise your freedoms, pray for your leaders, take a stand for the right issues, vote your faith and recognize your only lasting hope is in Jesus.
 The people of Jesus’ day sought a political savior in the Messiah and didn't recognize Jesus.
 Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart.


What about peace and security.
 We're experiencing wars and rumors of wars, like Jesus promised. God’s Word tells us to be ready for warfare becoming so fierce that at one point there will be a lake of blood several feet deep and 200 miles long and finally, Armageddon. 
What we should do about it: 
 Mt.24:6 - don’t be alarmed and, again, Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart.


What about the environment.
 Pollution is everywhere.
 Many argue Global warming is occurring (and even though I think the science is out on that right now, there are Biblical references to extreme global warming in the last days).
 Resource scarcity is a real issue.
 We're losing nature and wilderness at an alarming rate. 
What God’s Word tells us:
 Get ready for sickness and disease, earthquakes and famines, tsunamis and hurricanes, hail and fire will destroy most of earth’s plant life, some hail reaching up to 100 lbs, metorites, death of sea life, rivers turning into blood, hard core Global Warming, darkness, drought (the Euphrates dries), the largest earthquake in history, islands and mountains being devastated and eventually the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light; metorites will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
 What we should do about it:
 Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart.


What about the economy.
 The DOW has had one of the the biggest drops in history. 
Total unemployment at ~10%, Unemployment including those underemployed and given up searching - near 20%. 
Numerous bank failures including some of the largest in history. Home values are plummeting; some areas have seen values drop over 20%. 
Foreclosures are at their highest level in history. 
Many other economic indicators are down and multiple economists, politicians and leaders are fearing and predicting a recession at best and a global depression at worst.
 The president and congress have passed hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts which so far have done close to nothing and world leaders are scrambling for answers. Either way, we’ll be in debt for centuries. 
What God’s Word tells us to prepare for (in Mt.24, Mk.13, Lk.21, and Rev.6 and 13):
 Famines in various places, terrible poverty - it will take about a days wages for enough bread for one person for a day and eventually a one world economy and the mark of the Beast. 
What we should do about it:
 Trust Phil.4:19 - “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
 Mt.6:25-34 - “Therefore I tell you, do not worry...but seek first His kingdom...”
 Share with others! Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart.


What about morality and society.
 We're seeing crime, mass shootings, kidnappings and rapes, abortions, sexual perversion, porn, etc. G.K. Chesterton said, “You are free in our time to say that God doesn’t exist. You are free to say that He exists and is evil. You are free to say, like poor old Renault, that God would like to exist if He could. You may talk of God as a mystification or metaphor. You may boil him down with gallons of words or boil him down to the rags of metaphysics. And it is not merely that nobody punishes but that nobody protests. But if you speak of God as a thing like a tiger as a reason for changing one’s conduct, then the modern world will stop you if it can. We are long past talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent; it is now thought irreverent to be a believer.”
 We've removed God from society and in this society without standards, morality is virtually non-existant. God's Word tells us to be ready for increasing wickedness (
Mt.24:12). What we should do about it:
 Pr.3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart.


Keep world issues in perspective 
(2Cor.4:18) - the BIG picture: this world is not our home.
 Read Ps.91 - DO NOT FEAR!!!
 Do vote, but remember, the election in 2012 is not THE answer. 
Walk by faith, live with hope, love God and others actively (Mt.28:18-20). 
Lk.21:36 - Watch and pray
. 1 Cor.16:13-14 - Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.


Finally, you have real hope that few around you have so as things get crazy, share the Good News with those around you!!!

I hope that encourages you!

The Share Acronym!

Here's a little acronym (SHARE) to help you share "the Good News that He saves" each day (Ps.96:2)!

Spend time with God! Get in His Word, pray and walk in the power of His Spirit!

Have an expectant attitude! Look for opportunities and expect God to use you!

Ask Questions:

1. Ask a conversation starting question.

2. Follow that up with a transition question.

Ex. What’s been your experience with Christianity?

3. Transition to the gospel by asking if you can share how they can know God personally.

Resources: Use transferable resources like the "Jesus tract" or the KGP and be ready to share your testimony.

Encourage those you share with!!! Help them take the next step and help them get plugged in!

“Take the intiative in the power of the Holy Spirit and then trust the results to God.” - Bill Bright

People Like Jesus!

Lat week we got the opportunity to share the "Jesus tract" on campus (check that out here). I wanted to know if our thinking on this was right so I asked a student that came by, "On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you think about the question, 'would you like to hear how the Bible says you can become a Christian?'" He replied, "a 2, not very interested." I then asked, "on a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think about Jesus?" He replied, "a 10, Jesus was awesome!" I then asked, "would you be interested in hearing what Jesus tells you personally?" He said, "absolutely!" This is exactly what I expected. People might not like the church but they don't have those bad views about Jesus. If we want to share Christ with people I think it is vitally important to reach out to them based on their high perspective of Jesus! That's why were developing the "Jesus tract" (get it here).  

1 Cor.3:11 - "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."

Evangelism Idea: Share a Verse!

God's Word is powerful and God's Word always changes peoples' hearts and minds! We often make the mistake of trying to share the Gospel without actually going to scripture. We can also believe the lie that people won't appreciate scripture until they know Christ. So here's an evangelism challenge: look for opportunities to share a verse with people you cross paths with! You could share a verse that God has been using in your life and tell a non-Christian friend or co-worker what you've been learning. You could share an encouraging verse with a non-Christian friend or co-worker that is going through a hard time. You could post a verse on facebook. You could also transition to a verse in conversation with a stranger and see where that leads. I did this the other day and it wasn't awkward at all. I got up to the line at Walmart and saw a gentleman waiting. I asked him, "are you in line?" He said, "no, just looking for my wife." I immediately responded, "I don't know whether you've ever read the Bible but the Bible says he who finds a wife finds a good thing." The man laughed and responded, "well I hope when I find her she doesn't have too much in her cart." At that point the line opened up and, being in a hurry, I had to go. I didn't get to go further in that conversation but realized how easily that fun verse transitioned the conversation to a spiritual conversation! Whether you're bringing up a verse with a stranger, co-worker, neighbor, friend or relative, sharing God's Word with people is always a good way to get into a spiritual conversation! 

There is a student that has been coming by to get a random verse from me in the cafeteria on a very regular basis the last few years (It was great seeing you in church yesterday Stephen!!!). Once he asked me for a random verse and the random verse I opened up to had to do with salvation. That opened up into a conversation about the gospel and a lot more verses. About a week later another guy I had met a time or two came up and told me, "you remember how you were talking to that other student about receiving Christ last week?" I said, "yes." He continued, "I've always been spiritual and have always watched church services on TV every Sunday but something was always missing. As I eavesdropped on your conversation last week I realized the thing that was missing was receiving Christ. I had never done what you were talking about so I took that step last week. Thank you for sharing that verse with that other student." Wow!!! That amazing story would never have happened if I hadn't been applying this idea. 

So the challenge for today, bring up a verse in some conversation you are having and see where it leads! Have a great day!

Easter Evangelism Idea - Bake Cookies!

To celebrate Easter this week, why not bake some cookies with a friend?

When I was in high school, I desperately wanted someone to tell me about Jesus. I remember hoping that someone would invite me to youth group because it sounded so fun. There was also a group of Christians that went to lunch every week together. I would say things like "That sounds so fun!" or comment on how much I loved the restaurant where they were going, but nobody ever invited me. I even found this recipe for cookies that talk about Jesus and asked someone who I knew was a Christian to bake them with me hoping I could finally know what it was all about.

So why not make cookies with a friend this weekend? Not only do you get a yummy treat, but while the cookies are baking and cooling you have plenty of time to break through some sound barriers and share the gospel.

One great idea comes from Sasha at Lemonade Makin' Mama for Resurrection Cookies. These yummy cookies (the same ones I made with my friend in high school) are made with meringue and pecans. They bake overnight so are great for your family (a way to explain Jesus to your kids) or for a sleepover. If you don't have overnight you can bake them at 275 for 3 or 4 hours until they dry out.

Each step is associated with a Bible verse and describes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Hop on over to her blog for the recipe!

Another great idea (especially for kids) are the Resurrection Rolls from Quit Eating Out. They rolls are so easy and are made with things you probably have on hand! Crescent rolls, marshmallows, butter and cinnamon sugar are all that it takes to make a powerful picture of Jesus and the empty tomb.

So head on over to Kim's blog and make these rolls! (I'm telling you these are AWESOME!)

Get more Easter evangelism ideas here.


"Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him" Psalm 34:8

14 Fun Easter Evangelism Ideas!

Happy Easter! Easter is here and what a great time to share your faith! I am listing several Easter evangelism ideas below. Some of these came from Campus Crusade for Christ's 10 Easter evangelism ideas and Evangelism.net's 6 Easter evangelism ideas. Each of those posts have other ideas I haven't listed here and we've also added a few of our own. I figured it would be easiest to put them into one post in stead of trying to cram them into 12 posts over the next few days.

1. Do an Easter Egg hunt with Resurrection Eggs (buy them here). Invite friends' and Relatives' kids over and share the real reason for Easter! This activity will open up conversations with the parents about the gospel as well.

2. Invite people to a sunrise service or your church's Easter service. Get info on that here.

3. Share the evidence. There are a ton of great reasons to believe, with confidence, that Jesus rose from that grave 2,000 years ago. Share those evidences with your friends. Our "God Solution" radio show will focus on that evidence this week. Check out this post with more ideas on this topic. Get this week's God Solution show on that topic below (and get our notes, with a lot of the evidence, here). Please click here and share this link with friends that you think would be interested in hearing the evidence for Easter.

4. Give your friends a good card with an Easter message (here are a few ideas from Christmas about picking a good card to share with - you can easily adapt them to Easter).

5. Give out a great book. Lee Stroble's "The Case for Easter" would be a great little handout. You can get it here (in bulk) for $1.50 each. "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" would also be a good choice. Include a good card.

6. Give out a great DVD. You could give them "The Passion of the Christ" (get them ridiculously cheap here) or something different. Include a good card.

7. Create an Easter gift basket for friends, co-workers, kids or neighbors. Include an invite to your church, reading material about easter or a movie (you could include some of the ideas above in this gift basket or just keep it simple).

8. Share a short Easter message online (you could use our online evangelism ideas here).

9. Ask someone if they celebrate Easter. You could modify this Christmas evangelism idea for Easter.

10. Host a Passover celebration. This is a fun, interesting and unique cultural experience that most of your friends would love to be invited to. Here are few ideas for getting started. A lot of churches are starting to do this so you could invite people to a local Passover celebration if there is one happening in your city. We'll be doing one here (get the facebook invite here). The main point is to bring Christ and the Gospel into every aspect of the meal. Check out this short video on Christ in the Passover.

11. Host an Easter celebration. Go all out. Host a huge Easter meal and gat-together. Invite friends, neighbors and relatives. Then, make sure to mention the reason for the celebration.

12. You could also bake a bunch of Easter cookies and share them, and the gospel, with friends. Get more info on that here.

13. Witness at Church!!! Get more on that here. 

14. After Easter, ask people you see next week what they did for Easter. This will open up a conversation about Easter that you can then bring back to the Gospel.

Well, I hope you enjoy applying these 12 evangelism ideas. Whatever you do, please demolish the number one reason people don't believe Jesus rose from the dead. Let me know if you have any others to add to the list and please let us know how it goes when you try these! Check out the video below and have a great day!

The "Jesus Tract"

(Update: here's what happened 1st time we tried this out). The average young person (college students included) have fairly low opinions of the church (they think church is religion and religion is bad), Christians (they think we're all hypocrites) and the Bible (most of them, even Christians, believe it is full of errors). Even though those 3 opinions are all wrong, we can get into trouble when we package the gospel as "how the Bible says you can become a Christian." Jesus, on the other hand, has a great reputation. Young people across the board think He's great (they may not know who He really is but they think highly of Him). To add to the confusion, most tracts encourage a "personal relationship with Jesus" but rarely if ever even quote Him. Christians know the Bible is all His Word but the non-believer your talking with hasn't quite gotten there yet. For the past 2 years I've been wondering how to use that high perspective of Jesus to initiate conversations about the gospel from a better starting point, one of His direct words. In stead of saying, "Do you want to know how the Bible says you can become a Christian" (or something to that effect), I want to ask them, "would you like to hear what Jesus says to you personally?" Based on that premise, I put the "Gospel from Jesus' Mouth" up on the blog last summer and it has become our most read post (with almost 3,000 reads). We have also been handing out printed single page versions of this on campus and everyone seems to appreciate it. I finally got a chance to put it into a "tract" form to be used in evangelistic conversations. I haven't even used it yet and would love your feedback. Get the new tract here. This is just a rough draft but I'd love to see how it works in real conversations. Print it 2 sided front and back, then fold, staple and cut along the yellow border. Then, use it just like you'd use the KGP (see the training video below). You could transition to this tool as you'd transition through any of the sound barriers and then just share this and see how it goes. I would LOVE (!!!) to get your feedback on how it goes and anything you think would improve it. Let me know. Thanks!

Evangelism Idea: Share with a Facebook Ad!

Sharing your faith with a large number of people has never been easier! Go to the facebook ads page here for answers to questions you may have to get started. Create an ad for your ministry, church, website or blog by going to the create ad page here. You will pay around $1.00 per click on your ad but can set the limit you're willing to pay per day (ex. $10 / day). For every click there are usually thousands of impressions (people that see your ad but don't click it). That means for every dollar you spend thousands more will get a quick view of the gospel. Carefully select specific demographic conditions to target your ad to specific audiences (ex. college students in your city). Make sure to use your 25 character title to portray the big picture of the gospel in a unique way (example: Jesus loves you!!!) and then summarize the gospel and your link in the next 135 characters. You probably won't be able to afford to run this forever but for a short time period you can reach a large audience with the gospel and a link to your ministry. I hope you get a chance to try this idea and the many more we've posted!

March Madness!!!

We just got back from our staff retreat (that's the team in the picture)! It was a great time. Sorry I haven't blogged in about a week. Below are the top 5 posts from March! I hope these encourage you a ton!

1. 532 words Jesus Died to Tell You!

2. 91 Easy Ways to Share Your Faith!

3. Rob Bell on Hell.

4. How to share the gospel with gay & lesbian friends

5. The God Solution Show 1 (get all the God Solution shows under the tab at the top of this page).

Having grown up an MK all around the world I am always excited about what God is doing around the globe. More than 90 countries have read this blog: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, India, Indonesia, Isle of Man, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Quatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Uruguay, the US, Venezuela, Vietnam and others. If you live in any of those countries, please comment on this post and let us know what God is doing in your part of the world. Thanks!

Expanding Your Expectations!

I love 1st B! I had the privilege of speaking at 1st B here in Durango today! Thank You Jeff, Gary, Nate and everyone that makes 1st B so awesome. I am sure this message will encourage you on living by faith and expanding your view of God and expecting Him to come through in every situation you find yourself in. There is a lot in the talk (and you can get the notes here) so I won't get into all of it here.

Here is the EXPAND acronym for expanding your view of God: Engage with God!
 Get to know God and your expectations will inevitably increase!
 It’s been said that we only respect God as much as we respect His Word!
 XXL - Ps.69:30 - Magnify God with Thanksgiving!
 Pound your comfort zones! 
Take risks for Him, in His power, for His glory!
 Accountability and Spurring Fellowship (Heb.10:24-25). Never look back, press forward. Php.3 tells us to worship by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus, put no confidence in the flesh, consider everything else trash compared to Christ, knowing Him and His power, forgetting everything that is behind and pressing forward!
 Do it in the power of the Holy Spirit!
 Get in the action & get addicted to a life of seeing God come through and watching Him show up, doing more than you ever imagined He could or would, for His own glory. Trust Him and put it all on the line!


I hope that encourages you. Check out the MP3 below (sorry for the sound quality - I recorded it on my phone)!

Sharing with Mormons!

The Mormons are on campus!!! Yesterday, as I walked past a new table in the Union trying to see who it was, I realized it was the Mormons at exactly the same time they asked me, "What do you think about the book of Mormon?" I told them Joseph Smith should have read Gal.1:8-9. I continued by sharing a few problems I have with the book of Mormon, like Alma 7:10 saying Jesus was born in Jerusalem. They answered that that was written because the Jews wouldn't have known where Bethlehem was. I reminded them that Bethlehem was prophesied to be the hometown of the Messiah in Micah. Other problems include the reality that nothing in the Book of Mormon has been archeologically verified, no Hebrew artifact has ever been discovered in the US and both linguistics and DNA trace Native Americans back to Asia, not Israel. I also asked them why LDS doctrine, if true, constantly changes (they used to believe minorities descended from Satan, polygamy was O.K., etc) and  compared Jesus to Joseph Smith: one was pure, the other a polygamist pedophile, one died peacefully to pay for my sins, the other died a sinful death fighting to the bitter end. It was at about that point that one of the precious young missionary ladies told me they were through talking to me. I asked her if she had been serious when she asked what I thought of Mormons. She said yes so I asked if I could continue. She said I could. After that I transitioned to the real issue with Mormons, that of working for our salvation. I think these two young ladies were the 1st I've ever spoken to that readily admitted they believed works were necessary (usually Mormons try to play this game where they act like they just agree with you and you really have to fish it out). We discussed salvation by grace through faith alone and then we discussed how you can know you are saved. They told me about the "burning in the bosom" and I told them a lot of non-Christians get similar experiences by doing drugs, partying, drinking and sleeping around. I encouraged them that we can only have confidence in our salvation through faith in God's Word and what Jesus did at the Cross, not through a "Burning in the bosom." We wrapped up the conversation from there. I encouraged them to check out saintsalive.org and then left. It was the first time I've met Mormons evangelizing on campus. Very interesting! Anyway, here are a few links to get you started sharing with Mormons: Christian Answers for Mormons, CRI ideas and Utah Christian Publications ideas. I hope you'll apply those ideas and share with your Mormon friends as well!

I haven't watched this whole video yet but it looked good. Let me know what you think!

Japan!

Everyone is talking about Japan! What a tragedy. Before I go any further, please remember to pray for those in Japan and please donate to the relief effort. That being said, there are a lot of people all over the world wondering how something like this could happen. They are searching for hope! Some are asking how a good, loving and all powerful God could allow this (for great answers to that question, listen to our most recent episode of "The God Solution" by clicking here). Each one of us should be sharing the hope we have with them! A great way to get to the gospel in this situation would be to bring up Biblical prophecy about these types of issues. Earthquakes, tsunamis and much more are prophesied in scripture. God’s Word prophesies sickness and disease, earthquakes and famines, tsunamis and hurricanes, hail and fire will destroy most of earth’s plant life, some hail reaching up to 100 lbs, metorites, death of sea life, rivers turning into blood, hard core Global Warming, darkness, terrible drought (the Euphrates dries), the largest earthquake in history, islands and mountains will be devastated and eventually the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light; metorites will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken (in Mt.24, Mk.13, Lk.21, and Rev.6, 8, 9 and 16). Those prophesies can bring up a spiritual conversation which you can easily transition to the gospel. Probably even more important than that though, is to be able and ready to share the only Good News, God's love and hope, with those you happen to be talking to about this, especially if they have been personally impacted by this tragedy. You can get more ideas by checking out our post on transitioning to the gospel from anything in the news by clicking here. Also, for more on how to understand this and other end times phenomena, check out the MP3 below. Have a great day and don't forget to pray for Japan!