Newsletter

As most of you know by now, Luke 2:11 is one of my favorite verses and not just at Christmas time. It is the greatest message ever heard by human ears. Without those words, we all would be eternally separated from God and without hope. Please read those words again, and praise God for His great gift to us.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” - Luke 2:11


 From the book of Malachi, until the story of John the Baptist birth, and then Christ birth, 4oo hundred years of silence was finally broken. Can you imagine about four generations passed away with no word from God, and no hope? Then, hope was born in a manger in Bethlehem in the city of David. God stepped out of eternity in the form of a baby lying in a manger, and into time to save His people. The baby would soon become a man who would suffer and die for the sins of the world. Take some time this Christmas and thank God for His amazing Grace toward you, by giving us the greatest gift we could ever receive. Ephesians  2:8 says, “ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ministry Needs

As a ministry, we have had a great year! This year we went back to the Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains. We went to a U.T. football game, and were on the U.T. campus twice this year apart from game day. Some of the guys from the ministry went down to help out with the Water Angel’s Ministry back to school party. We have also had some great encounters at West Town Mall this year, and also made a video about the ministry, and partnered with another ministry “Lighting the Way”. God has been so good to us this year!

This will also be the first time this year that I have had to ask for support for the ministry. Just this month alone, we have had the privilege to give out close to 2,000 tracts. Your tax exempt gift to the ministry allows us to give out those tracts. Without your support, we could not have done all that we have done this past year. Would you please begin now to pray about your gift to the ministry? Please pray about a one time gift or ongoing support monthly or quarterly. You could even have your business, Church, or Sunday School class adopt the ministry. You may not feel led to come out with us, but by giving to the ministry you allow us to go out. Without you, we could not go.


For all of you facebook fans, we are now on facebook .Go by and “like us”.

Encounters

   This past Tuesday, we had the privilege to partner with “Lighting the Way Worldwide” for the first time at the U.T. campus to hand out tracts and share the Gospel. We had a great time!  We were able to hand out around 1,000 Gospel tracts and talk with some of the students at length. Please pray for the students who took the tracts and a student named Will who I spoke with about the Gospel for some time. Please pray for both ministries as we seek to proclaim the Gospel.  

Newsletter

   This past Saturday, I had the privilege to go to the U.T. football game and hand out 700 tracts to the people at the game. Please pray for the people who took the tracts, that God would grant them saving grace. This Tuesday, we will be partnering with “Lighting the Way Worldwide” for the first time at the U.T. campus to hand out tracts and share the Gospel. Please pray for both ministries as we seek to proclaim the Gospel.  

Newsletter

   This Saturday we will be at the U.T. football game to give out gospel tracts. The game starts at 7pm., so we will be there a couple of hours before kick-off to hand out tracts and to share with people if we have a chance. Last year we were able to give out 1,500 tracts in a short amount of time. I would like to give out even more tracts this year. We could do that with your help. If you have never been involved with public evangelism, this is a great opportunity to try it out. This is a very non-threatening way to evangelize. If you would like to go, just reply to this e-mail for more details. If you can’t make it, please pray for the people going and the ones who will receive a gospel tract.  

Encounters

This past Thursday night, we had the privilege to meet a man named Sean. Sean is a 40 year old construction worker from Connecticut who is down here working after the Spring storms hit. While Ed and I were sitting on the bench in the mall talking and preparing to share the Gospel, Sean “just happened” to sit down on a bench across from us. He heard us talking about the Gospel, and then asked us if he could borrow a cell phone, because he didn’t have the ten dollars to reactivate the one in his hand. He told us he just got out of jail this past Monday and needed to get in touch with his boss to get paid. Ed and I did not have the ten dollars, but we gave him what we had. We spent the next part of the night trying to find him some money and driving him to get his phone turned on. The night did not turn out the way Sean planned. We could not get his phone turned on, but during all of our running around he agreed to listen to the Gospel. At the end of the night, standing in the parking lot of the mall, we had the privilege to tell Sean the Gospel. He listened, but with no response. He did tell us more than once how he was so impressed that two strangers would go out of their way and do so much to minister to his needs. Please pray that God would grant Sean saving grace.

Newsletter

This past Saturday, as you know, we went to the Sugarlands Visitor Center to share the Gospel. We had a great turn out and were able to give out 1,500-1,700 tracts. What a great day it was to sow the seeds of the Gospel! Please pray that God would grant His saving grace to the people who received the tracts. While we were there, I also had an answer to a prayer. I had been praying that God would send more people to get involved with us in local evangelism. I met a lady there who does just that. Her daughter operates a ministry very similar to what we do, only on a larger scale. We will be working together in the future to reach even more people in this area. You can visit their website here www.lightingthewayworldwide.org  Please continue to pray for Words of Life as we try to reach the lost in our own backyard.

Encounters

This past Thursday night at the mall, we met a few guys, which some of the names we were able to get and some not.  One of the guys that we met was named Ashley. He was a young man who said he was saved but was out of church, do to the fact he worked in retail and on Sundays. We spoke for a while, and he said “ he knows that he needs to get back in church.” He also thanked us for talking to him. We also met two young men named Angus and Brendan. They both said that they were saved, but after further questioning they began to see themselves as lost. They heard the Gospel and went away thinking about their standing before a Holy God. Please pray for all of the encounters we had at the mall, and that the Holy Spirit will reveal His truth to the young men we spoke with.  

Newsletter

I am pleased to announce that we will be going back to the Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains. We will be there on Saturday, October 15th. We plan on being there for a few hours handing out tracts and talking with the visitors in the park. This is a great time to be in the park with the leaves changing and all of the visitors. We had a great time last year, and it was a great success. If you have never been involved with evangelism, this is a great opportunity to experience evangelism in a non-threatening way. This is by far the easiest way to try public evangelism.  If you would like to be a part of this outing, or have any questions about what we will be doing, please contact me before then. I would like to take as many people as I can to this event.

Encounters

Last Thursday night at the mall, we met at least 6 people.
The first person was Hank, a young guy who did not believe in absolute truth and was lost. After we spoke with him, he said he would honestly think about what I told him. He also told me that he really appreciated me telling him the gospel. We also met two guys from Madison County, TN. Their names were Matthew and Dillion. Matthew stated that he was lost. Dillion said that he was saved, but had drifted and then returned to Christ. The last three were from Detroit, Michigan and stated that they were all lost. Please pray that God would grant all of these young men saving grace.

Encounters

I will be posting our most recent "Encounters" under the labels column. It will be an update/prayer request to tell you about the people we meet out in the public. The people we meet are usually lost and stand in the need of prayer. I will be posting their names, if we get them, for you to pray that God would grant them saving grace. If they have other needs or are other types of encounters, I will post them also. Please check back often under the "labels column" to pray for them.

Newsletter

Summer is almost over. We are now approaching Fall and cooler weather. As a ministry, we are planning some outdoor activities. We plan on going back to Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains and to one or more U.T. football games.  Please begin now to pray for the ministry as we go, and your involvement with these outreach efforts. 

Newsletter

Growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, I went to a Royal Ambassadors class (that tells my age). I remember as a kid thinking that it was so cool to be able to speak for God, and have such a high position as a Royal Ambassador. I am much older and a Christian now, and it is sill a tremendous privilege to speak as an ambassador for the King. God has chosen us to be His mouthpiece to a lost and dying world. To me, that is an awesome responsibility, and one that we should all be doing in someway.  The scripture for that thought is: 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”    
What a great passage of scripture! May we all have the boldness to live that verse.

Newsletter

I hope all of you had a safe and happy 4th of July. As Christians, we know and celebrate our “true freedom” in Christ (John 8:32). Thanks be to God that we are free from the penalty of sin, and one day the presence and power of sin altogether. That is truly something to celebrate above all things.

Newsletter

I ran across this acrostic using the letter “P”, and I thought it did a great job  defining what we should be doing as a church and as individuals.

Our Purpose is to win souls.
Our Program is to seek out the lost.
Our Position is that of an ambassador for Christ.
Our Proclamation is the Gospel.
Our Power is the Holy Spirit.

This is a great way to remind ourselves what we should be doing and how we should be doing it.

Newsletter

     I bought a new CD this past weekend called, “Glory Revealed II.” I already had the first one. The first song on the CD is “How Great”. It is a song based on I John 3:1 and John 3:16. All of the songs are either based on scripture or are scripture put to music. I John 3:1 is one of my favorite verses. It says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” John expresses utter astonishment at God’s love for all believers by making us His children. We should be just as astonished. God’s great love toward us is amazing. Take some time this week and reflect on that verse, and praise God that you are called His child.

Newsletter

How is your walk going? I don’t mean your physical walk, but your daily  walk with God. I hope it is going good. Often times in our walk with God, when “things” are going good, we tend to leave or forget about God altogether. In my own life this past few weeks, I have been moved out of my comfort zone with God. I found a verse in Psalms that has helped me a great deal. It is (Psalm 119:71) It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.  When things are not going as we planned, or we are being challenged to grow in a particular area spiritually, that is good. We are forced then to turn to scripture and trust in a sovereign God, not ourselves. The Psalmist said ‘it was good for me”, because it forced him to study God’s word and thereby grow in His grace. So wherever you and I are in our walk, let us stay close to God.  

Newsletter

Is God’s grace still amazing to you? I hope it is. Sometimes I think we take the grace of God for granted. It is God’s sovereign grace that saves us. (John 6:44, Ephesians 2:8-9) It is God’s grace that sustains us. (Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 12:2, Ephesians 1:13-14) All that we are, or ever will be is because of  God’s grace. Apart from God’s sovereign grace, we would all be lost and hell bound. (Ephesians 2:1-3) R.C. Sproul once said, “Until you face a God that is altogether Holy and altogether Sovereign, you don’t know what grace means.” It is all grace. Our life is all about His grace. Let me ask you again is God’s grace amazing to you? May it never cease to amaze you.   

Newsletter

I had the great privilege this past Saturday to be the half-time speaker at our church for the Upwards Basketball program. I was able to share the gospel with three different groups of Upward players, their parents, and grandparents. In all, I think between 150 to 200 people heard the Gospel message. I was told by a staff member later, that several people, adults, and children alike responded to the gospel message. What a great privilege it is to play a small part in proclaiming the greatest news anyone will ever hear. To God be the glory.

Newsletter

As a ministry, we have a great opportunity to share the gospel on February the 6th. It is Super Bowl Sunday. We have the opportunity to go to the Knox Area Rescue Mission and fellowship, and share the gospel with some of the people that will be there. What a great privilege we have to share, not only our time, but the gospel with someone else. Please be in prayer for us as we go.

Newsletter

We have had a lot of snow this year. It made me think of a verse in the bible that talks about snow. It is Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” King David also talks about snow in Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”  Both of these verses speak to the power of forgiveness and grace, provided by God and His great mercy toward us. He washes away our sins and makes us  white as snow. Stop, and think about that for a minute! We can not get ourselves clean enough to stand in the face of God, only He can do that for us. Just like the snow that covers the dead grass, mud, and ground, our dirty sins are covered with the righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) of Christ that makes us white as snow. The next time you see snow on the ground, think of these verses, and thank God!    

Newsletter

  I hope you are having a good new year so far! If you have not chosen a daily devotional to read this year, may I suggest Daily Readings from the Life of Christ Vol. 3 by John MacArthur. I have been reading these devotionals for the past two years, and I cannot say enough great things about them. This is the last volume in the trilogy. You can find all three of them at his website www.gty.org
I hope you have a great 2011 serving the Lord!