The Delivery

“Would you like to have this magazine?”

I stared at the Awake magazine twenty inches from my face.

Startled, I replied, “no way!” I kept walking and reflected on the encounter. I thought some other shoppers probably will take offense at these two women walking the store aisles like they do when going door-to-door in our neighborhoods.

Someone later suggested to me that I should complain to the store management. That thought also flitted through my mind as I headed to the grocery section. I decided I really did not want to see a sign on the store window saying: “The distribution of literature is prohibited.” After all, I hand out tracts regularly in stores.
Two minutes later, someone stopped me.

“M’aam, which one of these would be better in potato salad?”

I turned around and looked into the smiling dark face of a man in his early sixties. We discussed the merits of regular dill relish or relish with larger chunks.

As I began to leave, he still had a pickle jar in each hand. I offered “The Passage” tract to him and tucked it under his thumb.

“Thank you!“ He beamed, “I know the Lord!”

“Well, then you can share that with someone else,” I suggested.

“I will,” he promised.

I could not help thinking of the contrast of these two encounters. They were close in time and space but they were worlds apart in delivery.

In His Time

“It’s you!” Angela exclaimed.

I looked at her with a puzzled look. She had just taken a sample for a blood test and I held out a tract for her like I usually do.

“I had just started working here last May when someone gave me a little booklet,” Angela explained as she took “Beginning Your Journey of Significance” from me. “Since I was new here, I did not know who gave it to me. I still have it and read it.”

“Yes, it was probably me.” I actually had been at the doctor’s office quite a few times in the past nine months, but not in the lab area. I continued, “Have you ever heard before about knowing God personally?”

Angela then told me how she was interested in church and her husband wasn’t, but he finally, reluctantly, went with her. He was interested after he discovered the church had a motorcycle “club” and got involved in the group. I learned more about her husband and asked if Gregg liked computers.

“Yes,” she replied.

I rummaged in my purse but did not have what I was looking for. “I will bring something for Gregg next week when I come back to see the doctor about the test results,” I promised.

After my doctor’s appointment the following week, I stopped off at the lab and waited for Angela to be finished with a patient.

“Hi,” she smiled.

“Here’s something for your husband,” I said, as I handed her the Who is He? mini-CD.

“Thank you so much,” Angela said, and then her next statement almost knocked me off my feet. “I’m so glad to have this for Gregg; and he will be interested in this because he just had a mild heart attack.”

God is so amazing! I am so grateful that Gregg survived his heart attack and apparently is more open to spiritual things. It could be that he was more open to receiving the mini-CD after his heart attack and now has a chance to learn more about Christ. It is such a privilege to step into the stories of people’s lives and watch God at work. I was only a bystander watching God fit different pieces together to woo Angela and Gregg to Himself.

The Sower and His Seed

I learned a lot from Joe Jack Dement. Since the excellent video on the Parable of The Sower, featured in the last post, is only on the web temporarily, I am posting some thoughts I gleaned from this 80-year-old wheat farmer. Jesus explains the seeds and the meaning behind the birds, the footpath, and the other parallels in His parable. Mr. Dement’s knowledge of wheat farming adds to our understanding of the parable.

WHEN and WHERE
Just as the farmer casts the seed away from him, we can drop a little word about Jesus, a Bible verse, or a Scriptural truth as we interact with people every day. For instance, one day last week, I ran errands to five different stores. What normally would be drudgery for me was a joy as I shared a little conversation and tracts with nine people! My perspective was sowing, not shopping, as I went about my work.

WHO
We do not choose who gets to hear God’s message. God wants everyone to hear. God promises His Word will be active in a person’s life, even if we don’t see it. The seed becomes a fruitful plant over time and under the right conditions.

According to Mr. Dement, birds gather around the farmer, waiting for the seed sown on the path. Pray for the people who are not open to God’s Word to retain even a little bit of what you have sown. You do not need to fear that “the enemy” knows you are sowing. Pray for those who need to hear what you have to share with them. They are really the ones under attack!

Shallow soil means the plant will have no resistance and will dry up and die before maturity. To grow in Christ, people need to grow in their knowledge of the Word. As much as you possibly can, help this person get into the Word and into fellowship with believers. Even so, they may still have trouble when their faith hits the bedrock in their soul, so again, prayer is needed.

The seed growing in a weedy area was competing with a huge weed and did not yield fruit. Many people, rich or poor, are worried about their things and other financial concerns. When I share my faith I may even find that the Christians that I meet have not dealt with the weeds in their life and bear very little fruit for God. I suspect a lot of Americans are in the weedy category. Perhaps God will use the current economic woes to bring more people to follow him wholly.

I was very fascinated with the seed planted in good soil. One seed resulted in twelve plants, each with its own head of seed. I could not help but think of Jesus’s twelve disciples with their disciples. Farmer Dement said that 85% is a good, and a typical, yield. What if EACH Christian could leave a legacy of 85 mature Christians who are also telling others about Christ?

WHAT, HOW, and WHY
I named this blog The Sower because I envision that my Christian readers will be encouraged to speak about Christ frequently and everywhere. Thank you for visiting and please come back for more stories and answers to your questions to help you share your faith.

The Disconnect

I was glad and sad when my husband bought a transponder for the van I drive. I liked the convenience of not having to stop to pay tolls, but was saddened that I would not be handing tracts to the toll collectors anymore.

Have you ever thought of the many ways we have been disconnected from the people around us? We swipe a card at the gas pump. We use an ATM instead of chatting with the bank teller. We can do our own checkout now at several stores.

Increasingly, we can do many things without interacting with people. When I have the choice, I’ll choose a person over a machine. If you can, make a choice to interact with people and to plant a thought about God and their relationship with Him.

The Amazing Ministry of an “Ordinary Man”

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch this encouraging video.

Frank Jenner may have seemed ordinary on the outside, but spiritually, he was extraordinary!

Frank Jenner spoke just a two-sentence witness to ten people daily on George Street in Sydney, Australia. He may have spoken to over 100,000 people in the twenty-eight years of his ministry. For sixteen of those years he never knew if these brief conversations with strangers ever bore any fruit.

God arranged for him to learn that countless people from all over the world had not only responded to the Gospel, but went on to lead many others to Christ as well.

Whatever God calls you to do, even if it seems simple and even if you may never know the impact of your message, remain faithful and know that God is making an eternal harvest come from the seed you planted in someone’s life.

The Message in the Writing

“Here’s $5.05 for your $2.02.” I handed the optician my money with a bemused smile.

“And here’s $3.03 for your $5.05,” he replied as he handed me my change.

We were both amused with how the money came out. I was still smiling as I offered him a tract, Would You Like To Know God Personally.

“I already know the Lord,” he said as he handed it back to me. “Please give this to someone else.”

“Here is something for you, then.” I took the tract from him and offered 4 Laws – Discovering God in Chinese Characters to him. “This tells how God preserved the message of Genesis in the Chinese language.”

“Thank you!” Keith was intrigued. “My boys love Japanese. I think they will like this!”

When I share my faith, if the person turns out to be a Christian, I still see this as an opportunity to share my faith to encourage or equip another believer. (See related stories on sharing your faith with Christians and another related story: What I keep in my purse)

Also, next time I use this tract, I plan to suggest a search on “Chinese characters” at Answers in Genesis if they would like to read more about the hidden message in ancient Chinese characters.

Recycling

“Thank you,” Doctor Marty said, “these look interesting.”

I handed four Creation magazines to him to leave out in his waiting room.

If you are a frequent reader of The Sower, you may have noticed my posts have been irregular lately. I’ve been very busy with a lot of doctors’ appointments. Quite a few of these doctors are believers, so I’ve been offering them my back issues of Creation magazine.

By sharing your old magazines, books, videos, and music, you will touch people’s lives.

I also have more waiting room suggestions and more ideas about giving away Christian materials on two of my other blog sites.

The Word Association

One day last spring, my daughter slid the door open and stuck her head in the van. “Can Leon have a ride home, Mom?”

“Sure, Sweetheart,” I replied.

My daughter introduced me to Leon, a freshman she knew from riding the school bus.

After we were underway, Jennifer said to Leon, “My mom and dad work for Campus Crusade for Christ.”

“Oh…” Leon said. “Halloween!”

“Wow!” I thought. “Where did he make that connection?” I had to chuckle when I learned it was because of the tracts I hand out every year for Trick-or-Treaters.

Last year, I learned to plan ahead and buy the tracts I will need in plenty of time.

This year, thanks to Leon, I’ve decided to get more of the Who Is He? Mini-CDs for the many teens who come to our door. I know many of the tracts may go unread, but I suspect the mini-CD will rouse their curiosity.

Go to The Sower: Tools and Tips for more Halloween suggestions.

The Encouragers

“I already know the Lord,” she smiled and tried to hand the Passage tract back.

Pearl was the third, vibrant Christian I had given a tract to in the past ten days. I said she should keep the tract and share it with someone else. I would much rather have her share Christ with someone I may never meet than get the booklet back! Besides, if any of these Christians need to share their faith, I hope my example may encourage them to start.

Also, last week, Jenny and I stopped in the Wal-Mart hair salon for some shampoo and got into a great conversation with Jorge.

“I have been in a dozen countries on twenty-two missions trips!” he exclaimed. “I wish I could get out of debt so I could be a missionary full-time.”

“Next time you go on a mission trip, your group should take the Jesus film,” I explained. “It’s been translated into over 1,000 languages!”

Jorge had not heard about the Jesus film and was very interested to learn about it. He was willing to start receiving our email newsletters. I hope we can encourage him over time in his desire to be a missionary.

I also gave him some new tracts for women that he could share with the ladies that come into the salon: Beginning Your Journey of Significance and Living a Life of Significance?

Ten minutes later, as we checked out of Wal-Mart, I handed a tract to Vince in the Garden Center.

“Thank you for sharing, Sister,” he remarked.

I was very touched that he encouraged me to “keep on sharing.” We talked only briefly because he had a LONG line of customers. It also encouraged me to see how God has placed His people as His ambassadors in the workplace.

The Olympics

The two young men carried on with their conversation and ignored me, even though I was just three feet away from them.

You’ve been there before, too. You stand in a grocery line and the bagger and the cashier chat with each other while they work. This situation makes it harder to connect with them, but I still try to talk, even briefly, and give them the Gospel in a tract they can read during their break or at home. The natural time in this case is when they are finished working and the cashier asks for my payment.

After I swiped my card and signed, I handed each of them a tract.

“This is for you, if you would like it,” I said. “It’s about Jesus.”

This is the minimum conversation I hold with cashiers, especially when I did not get to chat with them while they worked and when people are waiting behind me.

I did not run off this time, though.

“Did you guys watch the Opening Ceremonies last night?” I asked.

The three of us agreed that the drummers were awesome.

As I left the store, I remembered that the Olympics is a great conversation starter, so I have put some thoughts together on the Sower Tools site on how to use the Olympics to communicate the Gospel to others.