New Witnessing Tract

Forget Romans Road or The Bridge.

I've got a great new idea for a new witnessing tract.

I shall call it ..............(drum roll) ..............

"Don't wait to P.  It might be too late."

By "P." of course, I mean Pray. 
Specifically the Sinner's Prayer. 
The one admitting to God you are a sinner whose relationship with a holy God has been severed due to your sin.  Realizing you are hopeless of reaching heaven without the redemptive work of Christ, you repent of your sins and accept Christ's free gift of salvation.  Inviting Him into your life as your Savior, Lord, and Friend.

But what is beautiful about the title is that I could work another P word into the tract's message.....  "Pee" 
This revelational (oooh, revelation.  I'm on fire!) tract would make use of the similarities between waiting too long to Pray and waiting too long to Pee.

As a valued reader of my blog, I shall give you a sneak-peak.

Imagine, if you will, the following:
       You are 5 years old.  You are enjoying a rousing game of Candyland when a slight urge to pee registers in your brain.  No need to quit the fun for a minor bodily function, so you do the "wiggle" or slight "rocking" motion, buying you another 15 minutes of game time. Then the urge to pee becomes a bit more pressing.  However, you have almost won the game.  Be a shame to take a time-out now.  So you stand and do "the dance".    Sure you look a bit ridiculous, but it keeps you in the game.  Finally, the game ends, and now it is time for the panicked "ahhhhhhhh" cry to the bathroom.  Fortunately you wore elastic waisted pants.  Unfortunately, your older brother just stepped into the only bathroom to do a "big number". 
Are you gonna make it?

Now imagine, if you will, the following:
        You are 35 years old, enjoying a rousing game called Life.  You feel slightly uncomfortable about your spiritual functionality.  But hey, you are young.  Time to have fun - not make spiritual pit stops.  Then you get to be 65.  Still going strong.  You ate your Wheaties.  However, the pressures of Life are a bit stronger. Grandparents are long dead.  Parents are dead.  Several friends are no longer alive.  You think, "Maybe I should take that pit stop now."  Well, that depends....  maybe you can wait a bit longer.  Both grandmas lived well past 80, after all.   But in the blink of an eye you are 80.  Your spirituality is pretty uncomfortable.  You decide to grab the walker and shuffle down to the local church.  Fortunately, it's only two blocks away.  Your artificial hip can make it.  Unfortunately, as you cross the busy street, a semi-truck with failed brakes runs you over.
Are you gonna make it?

Other analogies to be featured are:
       **Don't wait to pee when your button fell off your pants and you had to use a safety pin.
          (could relate to using "religion" as a temporary patch/fix instead of a
           lasting,true personal relationship with Christ)
       ** Don't wait to pee when you're in most other countries of the world and you don't have either
            a) exact change   or    b)  football-player-like quad muscles.
          (could relate to planning ahead.  Never too early to think about P-ing)


The tract probably has a few kinks to work out.  But I think it has potential.

Gotta go...........  (literally)  :)

Mis-Matched Flatwear

If you are ever at my house and you open up my utensil drawer, mismatched silverware flatwear will greet you.  Laying in their green untensil holder, they'll put on their best face, hoping you'll pick them.  You might have to rumage through the top few spoons to find your favorite.   You see, I own two different styles of butter knives and tablespoons, three different forks, and five styles of spoons.  And that doesn't even include a wide assortment of mismatched baby/toddler utensils.  Usually, I think nothing about my lower-class, mismatched flatware.  (I think at least one set is Oneida, afterall).  I even call it "silverware". 

However, this past Thanksgiving we ate dinner at a friend's house.  Just before eating,  she pulled out something peculiar.  A rectangular shaped wood box with red-velvet lining.  Imagine my surprise when upon peering inside I discovered real silverware.  All matching.  Even novelties such as serving spoons, jelly spoon, pickle fork, and meat forks matched all 12 coordinating place settings. It was a site to behold.

If my friend hadn't invited me over for dinnner and used her box of real silverware, I might have forgotten such items even existed.  I am used to my mismatched flatware.  I think nothing of it.  Digging 4 spoons down for my favorite is normal.

What if instead of flatware, it was my lifestyle?  What if I lived a cheap imitation life - void of the real deal?  I would think it normal.  I would need someone else to show me real LIFE existed.  Open their red velvet lined box life and let me experience the real deal.  Then I would know what had been missing in my life.

If you know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you have the real deal.  The red velvet lined box.  People living without knowledge of His love and goodness, living in sin or bad life circumstances, only know cheap imitation flatware.

Here is to letting others into our lives so they may experience the real deal. 

Street Evangelizing

I did it............. almost. Remember my Lysol post?  The one about reaching out to non-believers where they are?  Well,  I was *this* close to some street evangelizing last Sunday. See the diamond shadow on the sidewalk?  Yah.  That was me.  Inches from the street.
Who was my mark, you ask?  My neighbor four houses down.  Four.  It's as if God brought a foreigner to my doorstep sidewalk.

As Dan got the children ready for bed, I sat in my comfy living room recliner relaxing.  Staring out the window at the lovely sunshiny evening and reflecting on my blessed Mother's Day. When all of a sudden my distant, 4-house-down-neighbor strolled into view.  Pushing her three year old son on his little tricycle. 

I considered armchair praying for this woman's salvation.

Then I felt the Holy Spirit's nudging to get off my rocker (my little Britt-sized recliner is also a rocker!) and meet the heathen where she was. 

Outside.....  In the neighborhood.

She smiled.  I smiled.  We said hello and exchanged the customary "Happy Mother's Day" - even though we are not each other's mother.

Anyhoo..... after a nice little chat I thought I'd test the spiritual waters.  It was a Sunday.  I could casually work church into the conversation.  Church could lead to the gospel bridge illustration and BINGO!  I could convert a heathen right there on my sidewalk!

. . . .

. . . .

Oh.  You went to church this morning?  You go to Holy Apostles Catholic Church?

As I said, my blog readers, I was  *this* close.   If you're protestant like me, you know how close. Catholocism is practically not Christian.

(Disclaimer...... I have nothing against Catholics.  I have Catholic friends.  I believe Catholics are just as "Christian" as Protestants.  Just a little cross-religious humor, my friends.)