Newsletter

This is the first newsletter of the new year. I hope you are having a great year so far. We took off the month of January. Although we did not go out, we were still busy. We had our second Evangelism Conference on February 9th. It was a success. We had about 20 people attend. I’m looking forward to what God is going to do this year with the ministry! Please continue to pray for the ministry this year, and the lives that we have the privilege to touch with the Gospel.

Newsletter

As most of you know by now, because I tell you every time Christmas comes around, Luke 2:11 is one of my favorite verses regardless of the season. This year I would like to share with you the verses that come before that verse. Luke 2:8-10 says, “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
I once heard a preacher ask the question, after reading those verses, “Why do you think the first people to hear about Christ birth were a bunch of lowly shepherds?” Well, the Bible does not answer that question for us. Although the Bible is silent in regard to that question, I told the preacher after class that, in my opinion, it was because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. When John the Baptist saw Christ coming to be baptized in John 1:29 he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” Jesus is often referred to as the Lamb throughout scripture, so what better people to be the first to hear about His birth than shepherds who take care of lambs.

Take some time this season to thank God for providing a worthy sacrifice for your sins. (Rev. 5:12) For without the sacrifice of that spotless Lamb, none of us could stand in the face of a Holy God.     

Newsletter

We will be going to the Sugarland’s Visitor Center again. This will be our third trip up there. This is a great trip. The weather and the leaves have always been beautiful. We will be going on October 20th.  Mark your calendars and plan on joining us this year. This is a great event for those who would like to try their hand at evangelism for the first time. The people are friendly, and most, if not all, people take a tract and keep on walking. Let me know if you plan on coming, and I will give you more details. Please pray for us and the people who will receive the tracts.

Newsletter

I am excited to announce that the new website that I have been working on is finally up. It is more interactive and has more videos. Also, it has more information about Words of Life. The URL will remain the same. It is wordsoflife4u.com. Go by and check it out. Let me know what you think, and give suggestions to improve the website.

We will also be going to the U.T. vs. Florida game this coming Saturday. We meet a couple of hours before the game starts and leave before kick-off. This is a great first time event to go to. If you have never given out gospel tracts, this is a very non-threatening way to experience evangelism. Let me know if you would like to go, and I will give you more information. 

Evangelism Needs

   We have had a great year this year! We have been to the U.T campus, the Water Angel’s Ministry, and the mall. We are planning trips to the Sugarland’s Visitor Center and some U.T. football games this Fall. We are also about to reach another milestone in giving out our Gospel tracts. We are  close to giving out 20,000 Gospel tracts in our own backyard of East Tennessee. That is a lot of “seeds planted”! Thanks be to God!

   None of this would have been possible without the support and gifts you have provided over the years. Once again, we need your financial help. You may not feel led to come out with us. By giving a gift to the ministry, it is as if you were there with us. Your giving makes it possible for us to go, so you play a huge part in the ministry by giving.

Please begin now to pray about your gift to the ministry. Maybe you could give monthly, quarterly, a one time gift, as a Sunday School Class, or as a corporate sponsor through your company. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so all gifts are tax deductible, and legal receipts are provided. Would you help us reach the lost here in East Tennessee? We cannot go without your help. Thanks for making this a matter of prayer.  

Newsletter

We have two opportunities this week to share the Gospel and minister to the community. The first opportunity is this Thursday night at the mall. We will be sharing the Gospel. Our second opportunity is this Saturday the 11th. We will be working with The Water Angel Ministry thewaterangels.com during their “Back to School Party”.  They do a great job helping the homeless in our community. We will be on site to share the Gospel and counsel with anyone who comes over to our tent. If you would like to be a part of either one or both of these events, please let me know before then. If you can’t make it out, please pray for the people going and the people who will hear the Gospel.

Evangelism

Are you saved? We ask that question a lot, or we ask it about other people. Is he or she saved? Let me ask you, what does that question mean. “Are you saved?” What exactly are you saved from? Some might say, “I’m saved from sin, hell, wondering through life, etc…” How would you answer that question? The Bible gives us an answer that might surprise you. The Bible says we are “saved from God.” In Romans 5:9 it says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.” When we say we are saved, what we are saying is “we are saved from God” and the wrath we deserved.

 The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:3 that we were by nature “children of wrath.” One of the greatest verses in all of the Bible follows it. In verse 4 it says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in or trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.” Take some time this week and thank God for saving you from the wrath to come. Rejoice in the fact that you are no longer an enemy of God and a child of wrath, but a friend of God.

Newsletter

Would you like to share the Gospel more? Do you feel intimidated, scared, fearful of what to say, or inadequate? If you answered yes to any of those reasons or have your own reasons, then we have the perfect class for you. I am excited to announce that we will be starting a free Evangelism Training Class in late March. The class will be open to men, women, couples, singles, high school, and college age adults. The class will give you 4 easy steps to share the Gospel with anybody you meet. The 4 steps are a great “track to run on” when sharing the Gospel with friends, family, co-workers, and strangers. I have been using this method (biblical evangelism) myself for years now in public with people from all walks of life and religious backgrounds. I have also used this method with my family, and it works. Please begin now to pray about joining us. This class is not about going out into the public arena with us (unless you feel led to). This is simply an opportunity for you to equip yourself with the Gospel message to use as God directs you within your circle of influence. We will meet at First Baptist Concord on the last Thursday night of each month starting in March. I will be sending out more details later. If you are interested, please let me know ASAP so we can plan on you being there. 

Newsletter

I think one of the greatest motivations for sharing the gospel is that there is a place called Hell. I say to people, “if there is a Heaven, then there must be a Hell.” Warning people of the terror and wrath of God to come is to me a great motivation to tell people, not only of the wrath of God, but His great love for them in sending His Son. I think 2 Corinthians 5:11 says it best, “ Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men….”  In Romans 2:5 we read, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”  The last verse I read before I came to faith in Christ was Hebrews 10:31 that says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Knowing that God is Holy, and Righteous, and would one day judge me, I repented of my sins and came to faith in Christ. The bible tells us why men do not come to Christ. Romans 3:18 says, “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.” I think people must know of the “wrath to come” before they will ever flee to the safety of the Savior. Without the fear of the Lord, the “good news” of the gospel is just news to them.

Newsletter

I hope everyone is having a good New Year so far. If you have not chosen a devotional book to read this year, I would like to suggest the one I will be using. The book that I’ve chosen is At the Throne of Grace A Book of Prayers by John MacArthur. This is a great book not only on prayer, but a good study of the Word of God. Please pray for the ministry as we start a new year serving the Lord and your possible involvement with the ministry. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to go out and share the gospel this year. We will also be starting a new class to teach people how to share the gospel in a non-threatening way, and to know what you believe and why you believe it. I am excited about this coming year and look forward to all that God is going to do!

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”.

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.  

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.

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.

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.