|
|
|
Join Our List
|
|
|
|
Volume 4, Number 8
|
February 24, 2010
|
|
Greetings!
This week I am in New York on company business. In the evenings, I'll likely be in Times Square witnessing. If you are in NY or know others that are that would like to meet up for some witnessing please contact me. Your prayers are appreciated.
For those that have provided financial support to Bezeugen Ministries, you should have received a letter in the mail with our 2009 report. These were mailed last Tuesday. If anyone else would like a copy, please email me.
I was asked recently "how do I change my email address I recieve the newsletter to?" Well, there are two ways. First, if you scroll to the bottom of this email, you can click the "Update Profile/Email Address" link. Second, you can go to the Bezeugen Website and enter your email address in the "Join our mailing list" box. In either case, you will be taken to a web page to confirm your email address. Then a link will be mailed to you that will allow you to change your email address and your other constant contact settings. In the future we plan to use the Constant Contact to maintain the Tract Club addresses allowing you to maintain that information yourself. In addition, you can select which of our mailing lists you are subscribed too. In addition to this weekly Blast, there is a monthly seminar reminder and a periodic (about every 10 days or so) witnessing events list that you can subscribe too. |
| As You Go |
|
Friendship Evangelism ... or just tell them the good news?
At the mall, Todd, Byron and I were having a discussion about the difference between "friendship evangelism" and "contact evangelism". Friendship evangelism supposes that someone needs to "earn the right" to share the Gospel with their friend by developing a long lasting relationship. Then in some cases, the "Christian" might invite the non-Christian to a sporting event or something in order to share the Gospel with their friend. On the other hand, "contact evangelism" is what many would consider a more confrontational approach. In this method, the Gospel is shared up front with strangers. I highly recommend Jon Speed's book, "Evangelism in the New Testament" for an expanded explanation of these subjects. I'll summarize, what Jon states in his book, that true Biblical friendship evangelism "begins, not ends" with the Gospel.
Consider for a moment, what is the most important thing in your life? Now consider when you meet a new friend. Do you tell your new friend about this "important thing" up front? Or do they have to wait two years and then you invite them out to lunch and you sit down and say, "Oh, Joe, I just wanted to let you know that the most important thing in my life is..." No. That is ridiculous. If it is important to you, then you would tell them up front.
Please read the rest of the article in the BLOG.
|
| Bezeugen Tract Club update |
|
 New Look
Tract Club members will notice a new look to the mailing envelopes when they receive their tract club mailing that went into the mail on Monday. The envelope now features the logo of Mountain Movers International. Bezeugen is a project of Mountain Movers.
Starting in April we will be shipping the tract club out using the Mountain Movers bulk mailing permit. This should save us about 2/3rds of what we currently spend on postage. In order to use this service, our envelopes must feature the Mountain Movers logo. So, please watch your mail for the new look. You get the same 30 tracts as before. But, now that the club has grown past 200 members, we can benefit from lower postage as we try to be the best stewards of the resources that God has entrusted to us.
I'd also like to express my deep gratitude to Mountain Movers. They provide all of our administrative services as well as receiving and receipting your generous gifts to Bezeugen.
Check out the Members Area
Tract club members can preview the new Easter Tract and other tracts that are being printed in the members area. The login information is in the tract club letter.
You can also view the updated members map. We now have over 200 tract club members in 34 states! Who do you know that would enjoy handing out tracts "as they go"? Why not refer them to the Bezegen Tract Club. If they put your name in the "how did you hear field" you could win the "Luther Gold" book for the most referrals by the end of February. Currently the leader has 3 referrals signed up! |
| Confessing Jesus |
|
| Todd Cormier
Is it possible for a person to have a relationship with the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ and never or rarely speak about Him? Not according to scripture. Do dead men breathe, speak, eat or do any of the natural functions that a typical human being does? Of course not. They are dead. We don't expect them to. But living people do. It is only natural. They are alive. Likewise, when a person has been born again, receiving the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, it is only natural for that person to exalt Jesus. It is as natural as breathing. As a matter of fact if a person is a sincere believer in Jesus, he can do nothing other. The apostles, John & Peter confirmed this after being threatened by the religious leaders and commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus. They declared in Acts 4:20, "For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard."
There is a very well known passage in Romans 10:9,10. It says" If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth one makes confession unto salvation." It has been taught and many people still believe, as I once did; that this passage is saying that if you make a confession with your mouth, walk an isle or say a prayer that you will have salvation. However, that is not what the scripture is saying or meaning. The meaning for the words confess and confession in this context is to praise. Taken from the Greek word, Homologeo. The definition as it applies in this context means, " to declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts", " to confess by way of celebrating with praise." The confession here is the evidence that one has believed in Jesus Christ for salvation. It is not the confession here that saves the person. It is the fruit or evidence of salvation. Believing in Christ is the means for salvation. Therefore, according to this scripture it is not possible to believe in Jesus and never confess or make praise unto His name. In fact, it will be as automatic as breathing!
Furthermore, knowing Jesus is not a private matter. He is a public matter. If we really have been saved, redeemed and have a relationship with Jesus. We will make Him public. If we spend time with Him in the word, in prayer, with other believers and in proclaiming Him. He will be magnified. John 12:32. You might think of it like this. If we are yielded to the Holy Spirit and saturated by Jesus through the ways that have been mentioned. He will make Himself public. Notice what caused the boldness of the apostles. Acts 4:13, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they knew that they had been with Jesus." So what were their qualifications? Untrained, uneducated. Ah ha! They had been with Jesus! They, like you and I will be like a conduit that Jesus will flow through and spill out unto others. |
| Meet Manuel and Mariya |
|
 www.Dikayo.com
Recently, I've had the pleasure of meeting Manuel and Mariya. They live in the south of France. They are evangelists too. For the past couple of months they have been in the Dallas area visiting his parents. Manuel and I met via Facebook last year. Once he came to visit the US we were able to witness together at the Cotton Bowl and during the NBA All-Star weekend. At the All-Star game we had the pleasure of seeing Manuel witnessing side by side with his father! Because of their geographic location and the thousands of international tourists that visit Cannes, they have a website for believers and non-believers www.Dikayo.com where they blog in 4 languages (spanish, french, russian, english) and updates of the ministry. They will be attending the March Ambassadors Academy in LA next week and then returning to France. Please check out their web site and also keep them in prayer as they continue to develop an evangelism in France. |
| Prayer Requests |
|
We appreciate your prayers
- Please pray for God to provide airfare for brother Belmon in Cameroon so that he can attend the Living Waters Ambassadors Academy.
- Safe business trip to New York and opportunities to share the Gospel.
- Pray for training this Saturday at First Baptist Hebron in Carrollton as well as the door to door outreach to follow.
- Pray for preparations for outreach to the community the Saturday of Easter weekend, April 3
- Pray for preparation for Fourth of July outreach in The Colony, TX.
- Pray for the names of people that we have witnessed to that they may receive eternal life through repentance and faith in Jesus.
- Pray for those in our ministry who are attending Ambassador Academy in the next few months
- Pray for healing for tract club member Tim Heaton who underwent surgery. He is now home from the hospital and continues to recover.
- Please pray for Moses in Uganda as he continues to take mission trips and share the Gospel. The tracts we sent in June have arrived in Uganda. Read the latest Grace Bible Church monthly newsletter to hear how they were used.
- Please pray for the 2010 Basic Evangelism Training Seminar dates, typically the third Thursday of each month. The next seminar is February 18 in Pilot Point. Please pray about attending. You can register online.
| |
|
Thank you for your support and partnership in the Gospel. Your prayers are appreciated.
Please use the link at the bottom of this email to forward this email to your friends and ask them to subscribe to the Bezeugen Blast!
God Bless,
Carl Kalbfleisch
Bezeugen Ministries
|
|
|
|
Witnessing Events
and Calendar |
We now have a separate mailing list for the complete list of witnessing events. If you are interested in receiving this email with the complete list of events so that you can participate in the events or provide prayer support, then please send me an email and I will add you to that distribution. A partial list of witnessing events is provided here. In addition, there is now an events calendar on the website. Monday's and Thursday's at lunch: witnessing at Valley View Mall, Galleria Mall, Gravevine Mills Mall, Irving Mall or Brookhaven College. If you would like to join us, please contact me for the specific location and time for a given day. Friday, February 26 - Witnessing at Winter Jam in Dallas at the American Airlines Center. We will meet at the corner of Olive and Houston on the Southeast corner of the American Airlines Center. Time is TBD pending my arrival back in Dallas from my business trip. If you plan to join us, please let me know so that I can coordinate the meeting time with you. I hope to be there at the AAC at 5:30PM. But this is dependent on my work schedule.
Saturday, February 27 - Way of the Master training at First Baptist Hebron at 10AM followed by door to door evangelism in Carrollton. We appreciate your prayers. Please come join us!! Need more witnessing opportunities in the Dallas / Fort Worth area? Check The Lost Cause Ministries BLOG. |
|
Memory Verse
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved..
Romans 10:9
|
|
| More Memory Veres Online: http://www.bezeugen.org/verses.html | |
|
