Beast of the Forest

Some years ago when I was still in high school, I heard a Christian college group in a Sunday morning church service.  They sang a song entitled “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.”  It was a fun song, to be sure, but I was impressed with the lack of spiritual content in the song, especially for a Sunday morning service.

Unfortunately, this message follows much the same vein: very little spiritual content.  That being said, God does remind us that “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”  I suppose that we have seen the cattle upon a thousand hills since crossing the Mississippi River back in May.  Today, we saw one the beasts of the forest.

When confronted with an animal like this, especially this close up, two things come to mind.  First of all, Praise the Lord who made such a magnificent animal!  Second of all, When and where can I get my tag?  Pass the rifle; this looks a lot like dinner.

The Chinese would have us remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.  You really don’t want to read a thousand words from me, so I will simply endeavor to say what I am thinking in pictures.

New Name and Design

 

Most of you only get my e-mail version and will not be affected by what I have to say here.  But for those who read my online version, the name of my blog has changed from “Notes from the Road” to “Crowing About.”  The reality is that I usually have at least something to crow about.  Hence the name.

Paul

Highways and Hedges

It was the first time I had ever done something like this as evangelist.  Several months ago, Pastor Ken Schultz of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Box Elder, SD, called me and asked if I would come and go soul-winning with him and his people for two weeks.  We would go out several hours each day, five days a week.  In addition to going out with him and his people door to door, I would also preach in the services while I was with him.  He requested that I teach on Baptist history while I was there.

The plan of his outreach was something called “The Book of John Project.”  The idea is to encourage people to read a specially prepared copy of the Gospel of John.  The copy of John is printed alone—that is, without any of the other books of the Bible with it—and has specially prepared explanatory notes introducing the reader to Christ.  Since the Gospel of John was written with the express purpose of convincing people to believe in Christ and so be saved, the book is given out to unsaved people with faith in this divinely inspired purpose statement.

But the New Testament gives us reason to believe that reading the Bible is not enough to understand the Gospel.  (See Acts 8:26-39.)  Therefore, The Book of John Project calls for personal workers to follow up with those who have read John’s Gospel so that they might answer any questions the person might have.  Of course, the objective is to see people saved.

In Box Elder, we gave out books and took names.  The plan was for the pastor and his people to follow up later, first by phone and then face to face.  In the time that we went out, we had nearly 70 people sign up to read the Gospel of John and have someone from the church return to follow up with them.  Pastor Schultz was both encouraged and nervous at the same time: that is more people than he has in his church.

I suppose I could fill a decent-sized volume with stories of encounters from these two weeks alone.  Suffice it to say that it is a joy to go out into the highways and hedges and preach Christ to sinners.