The New Biggest Question!

Something to add to your arsenal of Gospel tracts...

The (new and improved) Biggest Question DVD from Wretched featuring Todd Friel, Ray Comfort, Emeal ("E.Z.") Zwayne, and Voddie Baucham. 

More info & trailers available here: 

http://www.wretchedradio.com/store/product_details.cfm?id=507

So what are you waiting for? ;-)

Fishing With Trish...

Question: Do you ever feel like not witnessing?

Answer: Yes, and I have many perfectly legitimate reasons not to. Like, I’m too busy, it’s too cold, I’m tired, I don't have anything to wear, someone else will witness to them, and besides I have 100 emails in my inbox that I must tend to. The list goes on and on. In fact, this list seems to pop up in my mind every week right before we head out to our regular fishing hole.  Suddenly my staying at home seems so cozy. Grabbing a warm blanket and some super sweet hot chocolate sounds better than being at the mall with a bunch of teenagers that don’t want to hear about Jesus. Every single excuse in the book rises up. 

One Friday night I decided to go witnessing with a couple of friends from church and we invited someone new to come along with us. When Jessica walked into my house she looked like she had seen a ghost.  She was really uncomfortable. I thought maybe my house had a foul smell or that maybe something green was stuck in my teeth. "Maybe she just had a bad day", I concluded. I found after our evangelism night that she was absolutely terrified to share the gospel, which surprised me since she seemed like such a confident person. Then more information came out. When she received our text message inviting her to come along with us to share the Gospel she was totally overcome with fear. That same day she had some bad news come in regarding her job too. Talk about a double whammy! During the car ride to the mall you could tell she was off kilter. She quietly followed us around the mall observing our encounters with people. Towards the end of our time there, I nudged her to pass out a tract. She did it with flying colors and said, “Wow…that wasn’t too bad.” On the car ride back home, we sat in the back seat together and her entire countenance had changed. Her face was brighter and she looked over at me with a smile and said, “It was the best thing that I could've done tonight.” 

Many times I feel that way. The words of Mark Spence (Dean of the Biblical School of Evangelism) aptly describe what the evangelism experience can be like, “When we go to share our faith, we leave dragging our heels, but we come home clicking them.”

The next time you have an “excuse” not to share the Gospel read Act 27 and 28. That should help put your perspective right.

Why It's Wise to Wait on The Lord

First, it is wise to wait because God gives clear direction only when we are willing to wait. Remember, we don’t operate like the world operates. Instant gratification of need defines society. But we, as believers, live differently. We don’t take our cues from the world. We take them from God. He will give us clear direction, whether it is guidance for making a move or changing a career or choosing a mate. However, much to the distress of many, He seldom does it quickly. We must wait until He is ready to give direction.

God says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Ps. 32:8). We must wait until He is ready to give counsel to us. I know it’s hard. No one ever said it would be easy. However, it is absolutely worth it.

Second, it is wise to wait because God uses that waiting time to get us in step with His timing. Being in step with the Father’s timing gives us a sense of peace. However, when we run ahead of Him, we will constantly be trying to figure out how to make our decisions work. Instead of peace, we will feel the chaos of our choices.

Third, it is always wise to wait because God uses the time of waiting to prepare us for the answer. As earthly parents, we don’t give our children everything they ask for. Sometimes we know that the timing isn’t right. How much more our heavenly Father knows this for His children. He waits until we are able to handle the blessing with grace and trust.

Fourth, it is always wise to wait because waiting strengthens our faith. We might want to say, “Okay, God. I’ve learned as much faith as I care to. You can act now.” But when we realize that God is more interested in our character than in our comfort, waiting is a lot more palatable.

Fifth, it is always wise to wait because God gets our attention and sifts our motives. While waiting and praying for the promotion at work, we have time to think through our motives. Why do we really want that promotion? Do we want it to get more money or so others will think we are powerful? Could it be we want the promotion so we have a greater platform to serve the Lord? If we allow God to sift through our motives, the truth will surface—good or bad. It is amazing what we learn about ourselves through this waiting period.

So it is wise to wait because:

1. He gives clear direction.

2. He gets us in step with Himself.

3. He prepares us for what He has in store for us.

4. He strengthens our faith.

5. He gets our attention and sifts our motives.

Waiting is one of the more difficult things in the Christian life. However, it is never wasted time. God teaches us His path, changes our circumstances, keeps us in step with Himself, prepares us for His answers, and uses times of waiting to sift our motives and strengthen our faith.

The question comes: With all the advantages of waiting, why do we rush ahead as if we don’t have a trustworthy Father? We need to hit the pause button in our lives and take our lives out of the fast forward mode. God will amaze us with what He is doing while we wait on Him and watch Him work. 

~Charles Spurgeon

Powerful Song and Animation

Fishing With Trish...

Question: How do you deal with rejection? For example, when someone throws your gospel tract in the trash or doesn't want to hear the Gospel?

Answer: It used to really bother me when someone threw my tract in the trash or when they got visible upset at the gospel. Well, okay, honestly sometimes it still does bother me - but the next time you get rejected for the Gospel's sake or someone takes your tract and throws it in the trash or you're yelled at, just move on to the next person.

Think about a honey bee. It doesn’t sting the flower when it doesn't have pollen, it just moves on to the next flower to see if it can find pollen there. So when you have a "bad" witnessing encounter take courage friend and don’t get upset and “sting” the individual. Just move on to the next person.

Remember not to take it personal. It's the message they are rejecting, not you. Perhaps the Gospel has struck a cord in them. You just never know, do you? There's a saying, "the dog that barks the loudest is the one that most likely got hit".

I'm comforted by Jesus' words towards the Christian: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt 5: 11-12). And 1 Peter 4:14, says, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

Be encouraged! There's no such thing as a bad witnessing encounter. Every time we share our faith it is a winning situation! We can never lose when we share the Gospel. Either the individual will get saved, or a seed will be planted, or their heart will be hardened (and God is glorified even in that). And if they throw the tract on the ground, another could come by and pick it up. I've watched this happen many times.

Don't ever give up sharing the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through the foolishness of the preaching of the Gospel that people will be saved. I pray that God will empower you to preach the Gospel in 2014 more than you ever have before.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16

Fishing With Trish...

A Little Note of 

"Hey Trish, wanted to tell you how grateful I am that I missed my 2nd flight on my trip to Knoxville. I got on the next flight and got to witness to a guy named Jeremiah. He seemed to have a surface knowledge of God and the Bible, knew the right answers sorta, said he thanked God for everything, but was very casual about his beliefs. He said his dad had just died and he was on his way to the funeral. What a perfect opportunity to witness! I gave him the gospel, encouraged him to repent and place his faith in Christ, and said that I hope if we ever meet again that we can testify to God's goodness and we would love Him more than we do now. I wrote down the websites for Wretched Radio, RedGrace Media, and Heritage Grace. Praying he looks at those sites and the Lord uses them to grow him" ~Amanda

The amount of women I have seen evangelizing has become encouragingly greater.  I have met many sweet and dear women who are passionate for God’s glory in evangelizing the lost. These faces and voices, with their testimonies and stories have burdened me to further encourage women everywhere to share their faith since God does desire to use women in evangelism. 

And I’m so thankful that He desires to use us in this way. What a tremendous honor it is to serve Him in any way at all, and that He would want to make women "fishers of men" too. :-)

Fishing With Trish...

Got Stranger-itis? There's a cure for that.

I have always been a very outgoing person, and talking to strangers has usually been easy for me. A few of my friends, however, were shy growing up, and talking to strangers was painful for them. They had stranger-itis. That’s why it came as such a shock to their family and friends when they got saved and started sharing the Gospel. One friend in particular recalls after becoming a Christian many years ago, her young daughter asking her husband, “what happened to mom?” because there was such a drastic change in her.  She went from totally avoiding strangers, to handing out tracts, and to this day is what my husband calls one of my “partners in crime” as she goes out with me regularly and boldly shares her faith. That’s the power of the Gospel and the desire it puts in us. We go from being dead and fearful, to being alive and bold in Christ, which compels us to share with others. I’ve been asked many times, “Why did you start sharing the Gospel?” to which I answer, “I don’t know. I just got saved.”

I’m not totally immune to stranger-itis though. Once I was on a flight from San Diego to Dallas/Ft. Worth seated in the very back of the plane of a full flight. After 2 1/2 hours, we landed and when the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign I was quick to unbuckle and stand up to stretch my legs. I was glad to be home. Several others got up as well. For five minutes we stood in silence as we waited for the line to move, which took unusually long. I looked in my purse to dig out tracts to hand out, but was struck with stranger-itis and quickly closed it. I repeated the same pattern two more times. One guy looked at me strange as if he saw the struggle going on in my mind. Then I was reminded of Judgment Day and thought about everyone in line giving an account to God. It immediately moved me to action. I grabbed my money tracts and began to pass them out, saying "Did you get one?" and to the next person, "Did you get one?", and to the gentleman that helped me with my what probably felt like a 100 pound bag (it was packed with tracts and books), "Here, thanks a million for helping me!" He smiled. They all did.

After over a decade of sharing my faith, I’m still nervous but I let my compassion for the lost swallow my fears. And I remind myself of what the Proverbs say, “The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted” (Prov. 29:25). If I meditate long enough on Hell it moves me to action. It moves me to press pass my fears and share my faith. But if that's not enough to cure your stranger-itis, then be sure to listen to my friend Ray Comfort's message called "Freedom From the Fear of Man": http://www.wayofthemaster.com/audiolessons.shtml, and then get fishing!