The Lost Cause Ministries

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.’

John 14:26

Did you memorize last week’s verse? For a great aid for Scripture memorization, check out this FREE software here: www.memoryverses.org/smsw.shtml

Evangelism Quote:

“Here, then, is the Glory of the Gospel. It is declared that I, a poor struggling, self-wasted sinner, may by faith be so identified with Christ, that Christ and I become as ‘one man’. That is no ingenious phrase, the vehicle of a pious but fruitless fancy. It is the expression of a Gospel, which a highly privileged ministry has the glory to proclaim…”

–J.H. Jowett

Evangelism Opportunities:

1. Tuesday, February 17^th: TLC Ministries will be doing evangelism at the University of North Texas in Denton. We have reserved a free speech area (Area C) on campus near the Student Union and will pass out tracts, do one-to-one and open-air preach. You can find directions to the campus at www.unt.edu. If you would like to join us, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

2. Saturday, February 21^st, 5:00PM–??: Dallas is having their second annual Mystiqal Mardi Gras parade in downtown Dallas. We will meet at FBC Justin to carpool to the event at 5:00PM. The parade starts at 7:30 so this gives us some time before the parade starts to tract, open-air and do one-to-one. This will NOT be a family friendly event, so we’re asking that participants be 18 years of age or older. If you would like to join us, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3. Tuesday, February 24^th: Details same as #1 above.

Evangelism Report:

University of North Texas (Denton):

On Tuesday, I was a little hesitant about our outreach to UNT. Tim was not able to come out with me, and it’s always a little nerve wracking to go to any evangelism venue alone. I went out anyway, hoping that I would be joined by someone along the way; the Lord is always gracious to give me the help I need to do whatever He has called me to do. I arrived on campus, obtained the free speech permit, and began setting up my open-air preaching kit and tracts when Tom Sadowski showed up.

It’s always a blessing preaching with Tom because he is a preaching veteran of the UNT campus for the better part of 20 years. Tom had a message burning in his bones, so at the first class change he preached a powerful message. Many heard the Gospel; hundreds of students walked by as he preached, and some stopped and listened. One angry atheist approached him, cussing a blue streak. For a moment I thought that the guy would hit Tom, but he stopped short of that and just unleashed some vile comments on him. Tom kept preaching right through it and the guy left.

The offense for this atheist was not Tom’s demeanor, or his methodology, but simply his message. If we must offend, let us offend because of the content of our message and not because we are being offensive personally. Anyone who has open-air preached for any length of time knows the difference. May we never offend because our personalities are offensive.

During Tom’s first message, I had a great one-to-two with Neb and Yvonne. Yvonne is a former Seventh Day Adventist and recognizes the works based false teaching of that cult. However, it seems that she is still holding on to some of that theology, even while she attempts to break away from it. You can always take it for granted that we discuss the violated Law with every student; that is a given. But where misunderstandings about the nature of the Gospel exist, we take equal time with them on these issues. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we spent a good deal of time on justification by faith in Christ alone. Yvonne took a lengthy tract on the atonement by Charles Spurgeon (from Chapel Library). Please pray for her.

I also had good conversations with a couple of Catholics. Gina and (another young man) both were ignorant of church history and the cause of the split with the Reformers. The young man knew he had violated God’s Law and we talked at length about the teaching of the Vatican about justification and what the Scriptures actually teach. He was very receptive and found this grace of God to be truly amazing.

At the next class change, I was blessed to be able to get up and preach. The Lord was very gracious and gave me what I hope is some power in preaching. I don’t remember everything that was said, but I do remember that Christ was glorified. While I finished up, a young man mocked what I was saying by acting as if he were ordering fast food from a drive through window. I said, “Sir, if you have something intelligent to say, please say it. If not, then please keep walking.” He yelled, “Talk about something we haven’t heard before!” I responded with, “You haven’t heard this before.” He said, “Christianity! That’s all we hear about around here!” I said, “Sir, you haven’t heard this before. This is the Bible belt. There’s very little Christianity here.” I asked him, “Are you a former Baptist? I’ll bet you are a pastor’s kid! Are you a pastor’s kid?” It’s surprising to me how many unbelievers in the “Bible belt” are former Baptists or pastor’s kids. He replied with, “C’mon, talk about something interesting!” I said, “What do you want to talk about?” He said, “Buddhism!” I said, “Okay, let’s talk about Buddhism.” And with that he came storming over to talk about Buddhism.

He would not tell me what his religious upbringing was, but even his understanding of Buddhism seemed a bit makeshift. I’m not sure how many Buddhist monks would call him a Buddhist, but that is the way it seems to go these days. Most of the college students have a cafeteria type religion; they pick and choose from the buffet and what they come up with is unrecognizable as any religion. The whole interchange ended with a one-to-one; since the class change was over he drew no crowd.

Tom preached the last class change through and did a very good job. During that time Chris Diggs and James Anderson joined us for ministry. They both engaged in one-to-ones as the preaching went on. I started out alone, but the Lord brought plenty of back-up. I was blessed to speak to a couple of Christians. Joe, a student who attends Denton Bible, is prayerfully considering attending seminary. I’ve seen him mature quite a bit over the last year or so. Please pray for him to have wisdom. Alicia met Tom the week before and had many questions about the effectiveness of open-air preaching at that time. But she has since come to support it; Tom very patiently explained the philosophy of open-air ministry to her. This week she was supportive, as many of the students are becoming as they hear balanced preaching on the campus.

Just before we left, we spoke to a young man (whose name escapes me now) who was raised as a Reformed Jew, but whose mother is Eastern Orthodox. He is completely irreligious. However, Tom had a lengthy talk with him and we ended the conversation very amicably. We gave him a copy of Mark Cahill’s “One Heartbeat Away”. Please pray that he will read it and consider the state of his soul.

Southlake Town Square (Southlake, TX):

On Friday night, TLC Staff (Jon and Tim) were joined by Chris & Tamara Diggs (and family), Kim Speed, and Jimmy Reesman to share the Gospel in the mission field of Southlake. Just after we parked the car, Kim passed a couple of tracts to some teenagers and they showed interest. So, Kim did her first one-to-one with them, asking them to simply read the back of the tract and tell her what they thought. She froze up after they seemed interested, and that was all she could think to do. Surprisingly, they did it! This just goes to show that our presentation is not what matters; what matters is our obedience, even if it is trembling. The Lord uses weak vessels, not super-stars.

We had many good conversations with the many teenagers hanging out in the plaza behind Brio’s. The place was overrun with teenagers. I met a young man named Ryan who attended a very solid church in the area years ago, but who does not attend anywhere right now. After chatting for a few minutes, Ryan admitted that he does not know Christ and is headed to Hell! This was volunteered by him; I did not wring that confession out of him. I shared a bit of my own testimony with him and then gave him a tract that Randall Easter, pastor of First Baptist Church of Briar wrote called, “Are You Sure?”. It is an excellent self examination tract using 1 John as the basis of examination. I wrote my phone and email address on the back and asked him to read it and then contact me. Please pray that he does so and that the Word of God will find good soil in his heart.

Book Published!

TLC Ministries is pleased to announce that “Evangelism in the New Testament” by Jon Speed has been completed and is NOW AVAILABLE. Copies of this forty-six page booklet are available through One Million Tracts. The printing is extremely well done and includes two powerful color charts and an attractive cover. The cost is only $7.00 per copy. Listen to what some readers have said:

“Jon has done a wonderful job of showing exactly what it means to fulfill the Great Commission. ’Evangelism in the New Testament’ will be a great source of encouragement to those who want to do what Jesus commanded us to do—to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” –Ray Comfort (Living Waters Publications)

“It could easily be argued that this should be mandatory reading for all pastors, elders and deacons.” –John Legg (Way of the Master, Australia)

“I don’t know how you could more clearly state the need for us as Christians to be involved with evangelism unless you took a 2×4 and hit us over the head with it.” –Mark Mews (Flagstaff, AZ)

There is a bulk discount available: 10 copies for $5.00 per copy.

Evangelism Resources:

1. Here is a very good video clip of Paul Washer using a physics class analogy to illustrate the love of God’s Word that a true believer has.

2. Answers in Genesis is doing a massive Winter Clearance sale on their website, with titles discounted as much as 85%! Check it out here.

3. Here’s an interesting video clip of Ray Comfort sharing the Gospel with a “tough guy” who does TV and radio voice-overs.

4. I’ve mentioned this here before, but if you are looking for godly music for your family to listen to, please consider the music of Abigail Miller. The Speeds have been friends with the Millers for a few years and know them to be a godly family.

5. Here is an excellent resource! Check out these downloadable MP3 messages from Monergism.com on the topic of evangelism. There are more than 100 audio files here on Reformed Evangelism; more than enough to keep your iPod busy for awhile.

6. Here is the most recent version of my testimony that I was blessed to share at First Baptist Church of Briar, TX a couple of weeks ago. May the Lord use it to awaken those who are false converts.

Evangelism Training Opportunities:

1. Geoff Thomas, pastor of Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales will be coming to North Texas March 5-9. Thomas was a friend of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones and is considered one of the finest preachers in all of Britain. He will be speaking at FBC Justin. Here is the speaking schedule, as it stands at the present time:

Thursday evening-  7:00PM
Friday evening-  7:00PM
Saturday evening-  6:00PM
Sunday morning-  10:30AM
Sunday evening-  6:00PM
Monday morning (Pastor’s conference, First Baptist Church, Justin, Texas)-  9:30AM

Please mark your calendars and plan on coming out to this meeting series for your refreshment.  

2. The Texas Alliance of Raceway Ministries (TXARM) is holding its annual speedway ministry training event on Saturday, February 28th, from 8:30AM-Noon. TLC Ministries partnered with TXARM last year to help bring the Gospel to the three “big” races at Texas Motor Speedway (Samsung 500, Bombardier Lear Jet 550, and Dickies 500). We encourage everyone who is involved with TLC Ministries to consider volunteering with TXARM this year. Opportunities include tract distribution, handicap transportation (and evangelism), a pinewood derby event, staffing the information booths, serving coffee to Speedway workers, childrens ministry in the campground, and much, much more! Above all, the volunteers are encouraged to witness to everyone they serve.

The training will be held at the Media Center at the track infield. There is a chili dinner afterwards, but you need to RSVP if you would like to attend. To do so, please email me at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

Praise:

We (Jon and Tim) wish to thank all of the contributors who have generously donated to TLC Ministries recently. Our salaries were originally scheduled to be scaled back by more than a third effective January 1. Because of your generous giving, we are now able to delay that cut in salary until April! Words fail us. Please know that our families are grateful. We are grateful to have the opportunity to serve Christ at this time in history and we cannot do it without you. Thank you.

Prayer Update:

1. Pray for Ron and Jon as they prepare for upcoming court appearances on July 30, 2009. Pray for the CLA as they prepare the cases.

2. Pray for the upcoming outreaches.

3. Pray for all of those who heard the Gospel at UNT and Southlake.

4. Pray especially for those named in the report above.

5. Pray that the staff of TLC will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Pray for the financial situation of TLC Ministries. We have begun to raise support for the time when our salaries are cut by 33% by April 1^st. We are confident that the Lord will continue to provide. We thank God for all of the donations which have come in to delay this cut. Thank you!

7. Pray for all of the upcoming outreaches. We need protection from those who oppose the Gospel, favor with the authorities, good soil hearers, and wisdom to present the Gospel carefully and accurately.

8. Pray for those we have recently witnessed to and those who have received tracts and heard the preaching of the Gospel.

9. Pray for the establishment of the “TLC Dallas” evangelism team. Jason Sides and Byron Porter will co-lead this team.

10. Pray that the open-air preachers we are training will continue to mature in doctrine, love and passion for the lost and the glory of God.

11. Pray for the establishment of the spring schedule for both TLC and TLC East Side.

12. Pray for the Texas Revival Series as we begin planning for the next event.

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