Wonderful Plan of Martyrdom

I just finished reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and I was deeply moved by it.

It is a historical document on how the church has suffered for their choice to follow Christ. They were tortured, beheaded, burnt, etc. The martyrs were just sincere, firm believers in what Bible teaches and true followers of the Lord Jesus. They all had to face a lot of pressure from their families, friends and authorities but they all endured until the end.

All of them died in the flames, worshiping God and holding on until their last breath.

Would you die today for believing in Jesus? Would you be ready to stand in the fire? Worshiping God and to die for his name?

Do you consider martyrdom as a wonderful plan that God has for you and that it can be accomplished through your death in the fire?

Did you know that there are hundreds of Christian brothers and sisters suffering daily all over the world where Christianity is forbidden?

Do you think they lived a wonderful plan while dying in persecution?

The truth is that the wonderful plan and the hope to live and have a glorious future, that was all accomplished thru the Glory of Christ’s victory on the cross.

We will have a glorious life in Heaven.

But until then, we have to remember that we are in war against our enemy, Satan, and our only glory and victory are in Jesus. Every time you are comfortably sitting at your desk, remember there are still so many Christians giving us the example of endurance. One day (sooner or later) it will be our turn to endure.

So go, conquer your fears, your fake beliefs and hopes; to finally start reaching the lost, on the side of our Savior; the one who died for you…

Please take a moment to also read this post.

Trying Hard

The woman had 3 huge empty containers and started filling them up with filtered water at the local Walmart.

I approached her, since I needed to buy a water container too, and started a friendly conversation about the prices for water, saving money, etc.

“Did you get one of these,” I asked handing her a Michael Jackson tract. So we started the spiritual conversation, she said she thought there was a heaven and that she was trying hard to go there.

I explained the gospel clearly and I used a few examples but in the end, she was still saying that she has to try hard.

She even quoted Scripture from James (faith without works) and I thought she was a Mormon since Rey use that passage a lot. But no, she was a Catholic.

She finished filling the 3 containers up and she started to walk away. She listened carefully but she was convinced that we must try hard to deserve Heaven, kind of complementing Jesus’ death and resurection with our good works.

Please pray for her, that the seeds planted will grow. That she will give up trying and fall completely in the arms of our graceful Lord and Savior.

Encouragement

A couple of days ago, I shared the law and the gospel with a lady in a clothing store, while my wife tried a dress on. Our conversation lasted about 5 minutes but the consequences have remained until now. And I pray they will continue for eternity…

This post is a word of encouragement, so that you share the true gospel with people around you, in every and all occasions. Just plant the seed, then pray.

The lovely lady I witnesses to, met somebody else that I know and she told this person about our 5 minutes encounter:

She said that before talking with me, she was very sure that she was gonna go to heaven because she was a good person and because of her good church (Evangelical-Christian) going history.

But that our conversation impacted her so much that she realized she wasn’t as good as she thought and in fact not everybody who thinks will go to heaven, will actually go there. She said, with goosebumps in her arms, that her eyes had been opened to true salvation!

She grasped the true gospel.

She said that she hasn’t stopped thinking about our conversation since then!

She also said that nobody, in her more than 50 years of age, had shared the gospel like that and that Christians should share the same message with others.

Please continue keeping her in your prayers.

Go, share the everlasting gospel with someone today.

Food For Thought

This is an example of how we don’t need to build long relationships with people, hoping to one day share the gospel with them…

I waited while my wife tried a dress in the fitting room. After exchanging short dialogues with the lady in charge, I offered her a tract, “did you get one of these?” I asked.

I explained it was a gospel tract and as she started to read the back (Million Dollar Question), I asked if she knew where she was going. “I am going with Jesus,” she replied.

I pressed it a bit harder and asked if that was because she was a good person and she said, “yes.”

I explained that if I compare myself to Adolf Hitler, I am pretty good but if the standard is God’s perfection reflected in the Ten Commandments, then I am not good at all. She nodded so I took her thru 3 commandments and she acknowledged that she had broken “all the Law,” she said quoting the book of James.

“You see,” I explained, “we ain’t good people and if we die like this, God will give us a very deserved punishment. But this is when Jesus comes in!”

Her face brightened as I explained the courtroom example and the fact that God can legally dismiss our case because Jesus paid our fine in his life’s blood.

We aren’t good but God imputed us Christ’s perfection. Then I explained repentance and asked her to transfer that trust she had in her own goodness to the person of Jesus.

“Very interesting, thank you. You’ve given me food for thought,” she said.

My wife came out from the fitting room, we shook hands and we left.

All this took like 5 minutes… I didn’t have to spend months getting to know this lady and being friends to then share Jesus with her. I might never see her again, this was my only chance.

Please pray for this lovely lady, that she will come to total repentance and surrender trust in Christ.

Thanks for reading.

Are u saved?

I had the opportunity of going “phone fishing” again for the Ambassadors Alliance Radio.

Circumstances brought me to find a Bible School student from Arizona, and Bart McCurdy challenged him to explain Christianity and his own salvation. “Are u saved?” was the question Bart was pressing.

You can listen to the complete interview HERE, starting at minute 83:30. Please let me know your comments…

We all need to hear the gospel, saved and unsaved, over and over again… and sometimes knowing the “right answers” to crucial questions will make us become mature in our walk with the Lord.

Please pray for him, as he continues his studies at CFNI.

Thanks for reading.

Never heard of Him.

Right after the Cotton Bowl outreach, I crossed the street and entered in a McDonalds. I got my order but there wasn’t any table available, so many people!

So I stood up for maybe 10 minutes waiting for a table to be freed… and finally there it was, so I sat down and started eating.

A couple of minutes after, a gentleman quietly sat in front of me. It was my table, but I guess he was so hungry or didn’t have time to wait so he sat. I acknowledged his presence with a smile and told him “bon appetit.”

I just knew he sat there so I could preach the gospel to him. God had me standing for 10 minutes so I could meet him and share his saving grace with this gentleman. It was as if we had an appointment.

After a couple of questions about life in general, I asked him, “What do you think happens after someone dies?” And the conversation began. But what really impressed me, was that after I took him through a few commandments and then explained him God’s grace thru Jesus, he said, “Jesus? I’ve never heard of Him.”

That statement was pretty shocking. I was talking to a guy, in his mid forties (probably), living in Dallas, Texas; who had never heard the name of Jesus.

It should just motivate us even more to share the gospel in every and all opportunity that comes to us. Or better, we have to make the opportunities.

He was very receptive to the message and in the end he said, “I will get right with God tonight.”

Please pray for him… and share your faith.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
-Romans 10:14

Cotton Bowl

It was awesome to get together with brothers and sisters from the Dallas area to go out witnessing at the new Cowboys stadium for the 2010 Cotton Bowl.

A brother-in-Christ, Carl, from Bezeugen Ministries; open air preached and together with a team that came with him, we gave out around 4′200 tracts and also had some nice conversations to present the Gospel.

It was really great to labor with fellow believers that are committed to biblical evangelism.

Please pray for each and every one of the seeds planted and praise God for the very nice and trouble-free morning we had.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your prayers.

Meet Adrina

I had the honor and privilege of going “phone fishing” for the Ambassadors’ Alliance Radio. The show has a segment in which the host, Tony Miano, director of the Ambassadors’ Alliance, shares the gospel with people in the street.

We prayed that the Lord would provide someone willing to be on the show and that will be open to the gospel.  I drove to a local Kroger and after being rejected about 9 times, I found Adrina that was putting her groceries in her trunk. She was very gracious and gladly agreed to be on the show, even if she seemed to be in a rush, she spent around 25 minutes talking with Tony.

She is an unfortunate product of  bad church experiences from the past and she used all kinds of arguments to justify her own goodness. But the gospel was preached and heard loud and clear.

You can listen to the complete interview HERE.

When she gave me back the phone, she seemed very happy. I asked, “how did it go?” and she said, “oh very well, it was great. Very interesting.” I gave her a couple of tracts and a gospel of John.

Please pray for Adrina.

Up

I just watched Disney’s “Up” for the first time in a flight from Amsterdam to Dallas.

Tears filled my eyes in a couple of moments throughout the movie. The main reason was because the movie shows in a very simple but powerful way, the reality of death. It shows how helpless we are, since we all form part of the ultimate statistic that says that 10 out of 10 people die.

It will come to us, sooner or later. I am not trying to dramatize it, it is simply the truth. To some it will come in an old age, like it happened to Ellie but to others it can happen in their thirties or in thirty minutes. We just don’t know when it will be our turn, and when it comes the effects can be devastating for our loved ones. Just as it happened to Mr. Fredricksen.

But if we could have the assurance that our loved ones 1) will be in a “better place” and 2) we will see them again; then death looses its power.

Imagine if Mr. Fredricksen had that assurance. The effect of Ellie’s death would have been different. He would have mourned for a period of time (of course) but having that assurance would dramatically change his future.

We should, as Christians have that assurance. We will be “Up” in Heaven (way more “better place”) not because of our own good deeds but because Jesus took the punishment we deserved. We will be declared righteous on judgement and will be forever and ever with God, in Heaven together with those we loved and were saved by God’s grace too.

Whom do you know that doesn’t have this assurance? Or worse, whom do you love that doesn’t have Christ?

Close this blog now, shut down your computer and share with them the gospel. Today they are here, tomorrow you don’t know.

Amsterdam-Dallas

She slept probably for 5 hours straight. But I had prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel.

After 5 hours the opportunity came. We started with a general conversation, she is from Nigeria but lives in Dallas. I told her that when I lived in Canada, I had a friend from Nigeria that had to leave his country because he was a Christian Pastor and his life was in danger. She said that now there are many big Christian churches in Nigeria.

“And what about you,” I asked, “do you have any belief?” She replied, “Yes, I am a Christian, there is a heaven and a hell.”

At this moment, I thought for a split second: Ok, conversation is finished, she is a believer. But I threw other couple of probing questions, “Do you go to church in Dallas?” She responded, “Yes, I go to XYZ church, it is a Pentecostal church.”

I don’t have anything shandy any denomination, but I know from experience that in some circles the gospel message is diluded with prosperity, motivation and emotions.

So I asked, “Let me ask you, if I am not a Christian and I ask you what must I do to go to Heaven, you answer…?” She said, “Well you pray to God, try not to sin, ask for forgiveness and read your Bible.”

That was it. That was her gospel presentation.

I asked if she thinks she is a good person and kept the commandments. “I try,” she said. I took her thru the ninth (lying), sixth (murder) and seventh (adultery). I told her that of all we have to do is ask for forgiveness, then a criminal guilty of 3 crimes could leave the courtroom just because he/she said ’sorry’.

So forgiveness is just a small part but justice has to be served and if a judge only forgives, there wouldn’t be any justice. And, above all, Jesus’ sacrifice would be necessary.

“Jesus took your punishment, he paid your fine,” I explained, “Justice can and must still be served but now you aren’t condemned but justified because the death and resurrection of Jesus.”

“Saying sorry is a small part,” I continued, “but you have to actually turn from your sins. That is repentance.”

She was listening carefully and I could tell that it was making sense.

I told her the example of she being guilty but Jesus standing between her and the Judge, paying her fine; justifying her.

“I am telling you this so you can share with your Chrisian friends because if you care about them,” I said, “You wanna make sure they understand the gospel.”

She smiled and thanked me. I then gave her a Gospel of John I had prepared for the occasion and two Celebrity Tracts.

Please pray for her, that the seeds planted today will be watered and will grow. That she will explain the gospel to her close ones.

Thanks for reading.