Moved to a New Location

Thank you for reading The Sower. I moved all these posts to http://mikeandsus.org/category/our-ministry/helping-you-share-your-faith/.

After I get all the kinks worked out, I should be posting every Tuesday with true stories, quotes, tips, and resources, so please sign up here for a weekly email with a post from The Sower. The default on the sign-up page is to receive updates from ALL my other blogs and/or our newsletters, so if you only want news from The Sower, go to

• “Choose the news you want”, click “no thanks” and then
• click on “The Sower: encouragement to share your faith”

Self Pity or Reaching Out to Others

Here’s another encouraging post from our brother-in-law, Pat.

“Had another quiet, peaceful time with Jesus this morning on radiation table. Before I got on the table I was having one of those self pity moments. You know, why me Lord, why can’t I have just a normal day, no treatments, no pain, feel good, enjoy the sunshine, etc. While on the table He reminded me in His still quiet way that He loves me and cares for me every minute of every day. Lord, thank you for that and forgive me for those moments of selfishness. He is great and greatly to be praised!!

“…After my treatment this morning I had about hour to sit until my next treatment, so I sat in the waiting room. Soon a man came in and sat at the table with me, looked at me and said, ‘do I know you?’ I did not know him, so I told him my name was Pat and with tears in his eyes he told me his name was Jim. He wiped his tears and began to tell me his wife was there for treatment for breast cancer. He said they have been married 54 years and he could not imagine life without his life mate. He told me through his tears that he had no one to talk to about this and just needed to talk. We sat and talked for almost 45 minutes (it would have been 15 minutes except they were having trouble with the radiation machine). God is so faithful! I was able to share some of my story and faith with him as mostly I just sat and listened to him as he shared much of his life and feelings with me. Before he left, he was so excited to have someone listen to him, he gave me the name and location of the place he works part time and asked if I would please stop by and see him so we could talk more!!

“God is so good!! In just over an hour He showed me how much He loves me and that it is not about me, but about what He wants from me!! Obedience!! To Him be all glory and honor!!”

Read more from Pat.

American Street Preacher in Peru

This is a good video to send to a Spanish-speaking friend.

I like the flow of his thoughts and plan to come back to this video to “borrow his outline.”

Loving Cancer Patients by Pat Hale

My guest author today is Pat, our brother-in-law. Pat, only 52, is going through chemo and radiation for lung cancer. He has seen these daily treatments as an opportunity to focus on the Lord. He enjoys resting in God’s loving presence and sharing his faith in God with the people he meets each day. Pat’s faith has been encouraging to all of us as we read his daily journals on Caring Bridge.

I’ll let Pat speak for himself:

“At chemo this afternoon I saw three people that we really need to pray for.

“I spoke of Rena last week. Her husband (I believe his name is John) was diagnosed with colon cancer two weeks ago and last week as I spoke to her in the waiting room, she was very discouraged as they were still in shock of the news and were still learning of all the options of treatment, etc. She is the one who along with another Christian lady in the waiting room; I was able to share my experience and my encouragement due to my faith in my loving Savior. She saw me getting my treatments today and ran across the room smiling and telling me that their doctors came up with treatment options that they are very confident in!! I told her we have been praying for them and she hugged me and said ‘please Pat, keep praying.’ So please pray for them that they would understand God’s love for them and that they accept Him as their Lord and Savior.

“Soon after she left a woman, maybe 5-10 years younger than me, came and sat in the chair. They were having a hard time with the port that she has only had for three days. She was very distraught with the trouble of this port and was generally very much in despair. Her husband came in soon after and sat next to us. As she began to cry he began to share with me their experience and despair they have had the last two weeks since her diagnosis. She has stage three colon cancer and through tears and sadness on her face she looked at me and said ‘I don’t know how much longer I will live.’ I was able to share right then of the faith I have placed in my Lord and Savior and the peace and comfort He has provided for me and my family through this journey He has us on. I promised them I would pray for them that they would know His love for them and that they would not feel the despair they feel now. Their names are Dean and Pam. Pray that as I look for them every Monday that I would have much more opportunity to share the love of Jesus and their need for Him. As they were leaving they both thanked me for listening to them and for caring enough to share my encouraging faith with them. To Him be all glory and honor!!

“One of the last verses Nancy and I read last night was Psalm 11:7—’For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.’–Can’t wait for that, how about you?!! He loves us so!!

“We remain now and forever in the palm of His hand and HE WILL NOT LET US GO!!”

Pass the Salt, Please (via Kindling)

Jesus said we are salt: “You are the salt of the earth.” (Matthew 5:13)

Our presence, even a few of us, should be discernable, making a difference. Where there are many of us, we should have great influence. The things that Jesus brings to a life– love, joy, peace, truth, patience, kindness, self-control, trust, holiness, righteousness, justice and many other character qualities—should be so evident in the children of God that we permeate the community around us. We salt society.

So here’s the problem. In too many places, you can’t taste the salt. Read More

via Kindling

God Is Never Late

“God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” 2 Peter 3:9 (The Message)

He was a hard man in life. At 89 years old and in poor mental and physical health, Wilbur lay dying in the emergency room.

Two years ago, his son opened his home to “Pappy” and Grandma, hoping that living with them would soften his heart to the Gospel.

While Wilbur was in ER, his son, Jim, shared with him that this was going to be his greatest battle, and that it was not yet too late to accept Jesus. After giving Wilbur some time to think about all that he had said, Jim asked his dad if he wanted to pray to accept Jesus. Wilbur agreed. He seemed to understand what was being said to him and he indicated he accepted the Lord just before he lost consciousness.

Do you have loved ones who have lived their lives in opposition to God? Have you given up hoping that they will ever come to faith in Christ? God can do all things, including taking a sinner to Himself just before he loses awareness of what is being said to him. God has answered many years of prayers for Wilbur’s salvation.

This story was shared with Wilbur’s granddaughter’s permission to encourage you with what God has done.

The Sower in 2010

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 35 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 181 posts. There were 15 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was May 25th with 149 views. The most popular post that day was Redeeming the “Lost”… Fan.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, networkedblogs.com, equipping4eministry.wordpress.com, thesovereign.wordpress.com, and thesowertoolsandtips.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for example of persuasion, bonnie witherall, what can man do to me, jesus memorial, and example of persuation.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Redeeming the “Lost”… Fan May 2010

2

Persuasion and Example May 2007

3

The Jesus Memorial March 2008
6 comments

4

“I Don’t Understand” September 2006

5

What Can Man Do To Me? May 2006

A Living Mystery

“To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.” ~ Cardinal Suhard

I love the idea of being a living mystery to those around me who do not yet know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Can my life be explained apart from a living Christ within me? Do we, as Christians, make Him attractive to others?

Of course, I also still advocate that we must also speak up about, and not just live out, an authentic Gospel to everyone we meet.

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” ~ Romans 10: 14 – 15 NLT

A Chat with Angel Gabriel

I had just picked out some envelopes and fifty-percent-off Christmas cards. The gal who helped me find the envelopes was very friendly and very pregnant.

“When’s your baby due?” I asked.

“January 20th,” she smiled.

I held out a tract. “This is for you if you’d like it; It’s about Jesus.” She accepted the booklet and I wrote my email address on the back.

The clerk behind the counter had rung up my purchase and waited as we had this conversation. I turned to him and noticed his name tag.

“Angel,” I commented. “That’s a good name for this time of year.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “my middle name is Gabriel, too.”

“Really? Do you have a Catholic background?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Are you still following your faith?”

“No, not really,” he replied.

Our conversation stalled out, but I was back in the store a few days later. When Angel saw me, he walked up to me to say, “hi.” We talked more about his name and I found out his father is “Angel” and his brother, too.

“Wow,” I remarked. “Do you go by your middle names?”

“Yeah, but what’s really hard is when the mail comes for us.”

I visited this store early in the morning when they weren’t very busy and I expect I’ll be going back to have more chats with Angel Gabriel, and hopefully, talk to him more about Christ.

Understanding Muslims

Miracle of Miracles is full of amazing stories of God reaching into Muslims’ lives. I couldn’t put it down! Go to Touch of Christ Ministries to order the book.

I also just started reading Muslims Next Door, which is a very good book to understand American Muslims and how to love them to Christ.