“Did you get one of these?” or “Did you get your million?” are questions that we typically ask while we are handing out gospel tracts. Frequently, people will say, “No, I’m good.” Sometimes we’ll respond back, “that is THE question: How good are you?”

What they don’t realize, is that they are answering the real question we want to ask them (and it’s on the back of the tract): Are you good enough to go to Heaven? That’s why we go out witnessing. We are concerned about where people will spend eternity. The reason we go out witnessing is because most people think that they are good. Proverbs 20:6 (KJV) states “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” So the Bible even tells us that most people think that they are good.

Psalm 14:1 states The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. None of us are good, none of us are righteous on our own (Romans 3:10-12). Righteousness is credited to true believers only through the righteousness of the Son of God, Jesus.

Jesus Christ, the sinless one, died a horrible death on the cross for guilty sinners. God’s wrath was poured out on Him for our sins. Then he rose from the dead on the third day. He defeated sin, death and Hell. Jesus is the only way to salvation. You must turn from your sins and put your trust in Jesus. Then, God will see you through the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ instead of your own unrighteousness.

Some people may intellectually know this, but they have never truly surrendered their life to Jesus. They are going through life thinking that they are “good.” That they are “alright” the way they are. They don’t realize that Jesus said that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8).

Friends, all includes everyone who is trusting in their own “goodness” to save themselves. They are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of judgment (Romans 2:5). Please don’t go through life thinking that you are alright – that you are good person. Don’t continue saying “No, I’m good.” Cry out to God to have mercy on you, repent and believe the Gospel. Put your faith in Jesus today.

When the preaching began we immediately encountered resistance. The event staff did not want us to be there telling us that we were not going to have any kind of religious meeting. I explained to the staff person that since this was the St. Patrick’s Day parade I simply wanted to begin with sharing some history on the life story of St. Patrick. During the preaching the crowds became hostile some were calling us names and one person tried to kick the stool out from under me. Despite the difficult time preaching the tract distribution along the parade route went great with several thousand people receiving tracts.

The story of St. Patrick

St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland who was born in 373 A.D., along the banks of the River Clyde in what is now called Scotland. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather a priest. At that time the Scotland area was tormented by Irish pirates who would sweep into the villages, pillage and burn the houses, and then kidnap the children. When Patrick was about 16, raiders descended on his home town. His house was burned and when one of the pirates spotted him hiding in the bushes he was seized. The pirates hauled Patrick aboard a ship and took him to Ireland where he was sold into slavery.

Patrick lived the life of a poor slave. His owner made him keep the pigs and sheep which meant he was often exposed to frost, rain, and snow. It was during this time in his life that he starting thinking more about the God of his father and grandfather. At age 22, Patrick submitted his life to Jesus Christ saying, “The Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.”

Shortly thereafter, in vivid dreams, Patrick sensed the Lord telling him, “See, your ship is ready.” Mounting a daring escape, Patrick traveled many miles afoot to a harbor where, at the last moment, he jumped aboard a ship. He eventually arrived back home to Scotland, where his overjoyed family begged him to never leave again.

When God saves someone through the Gospel it changes a person so that they now see the world in a completely different way. They now have a love for other people which flows from a love for the Savior. This love compels us believers to want to share the Gospel with others so that they too might come to a saving faith in the Lord. This is what happened to Patrick, he couldn’t get his mind off of his Irish captors. One night, in a dream Patrick dreamt of an Irish man who begged him to come evangelize Ireland.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but Patrick, about 30 years of age, packed up, said his good-byes, and returned back to Ireland with only one book tucked under his arm, the Bible. As he evangelized the countryside, multitudes came to listen. The superstitious Druids constantly opposed him, and he repeatedly narrowly escaped assassination plots. Despite these difficult hostile circumstances the Lord was with him and his preaching was powerful. The Lord caused thousands to be converted through the Word as he preached and many new churches were established.

Patrick said, “For I am very much God’s debtor, who gave me such grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that ministers were ordained for them everywhere, for a people just coming to the faith.”

Patrick loved the people of Ireland and wanted to give them the lasting gift of the Gospel. In his book titled, “Confessions” Patrick writes the following:

“I nevertheless wish that my brethren and kinsmen should know what sort of person I am, so that they may understand my heart’s desire. . . . I ought to cry out aloud and so also render something to the Lord for His great benefits . . . . I must spread everywhere the name of God so that after my death I may leave a gift to my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord—so many thousands of people.”

Following in St. Patrick’s footsteps

The most fitting thing we can do to honor St. Patrick on St. Patrick ’s Day is to do what he would of done when he saw a large Irish crowd and that is to preach the good news of the Gospel. So that’s what we did this March 17, 2012 at the Springfield St. Patrick Day Parade. The crowd was hostile but the Gospel went out. After explaining sin and it consequences, we told them of the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We pleaded with people to come and be reconciled to the Lord Jesus Christ but they did not want to hear it. It pains me to see people reject the free saving gift of the Gospel but the results are not up to us but to God and we simply trust in His Word.

Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)

¹¹    so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Click here to read more about our time at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade from our friend Brad St.Clair with Repent and Turn Ministries

On February 27, 2012 Todd Friel with Wretched Radio played a snippet of Dave Ramsey complaining about all the open air preachers at the Super Bowl and especially about one that called him out by name. Take a listen:

Dave_Ramsey_Superbowl

Four of us with Born of Him Ministries were at the Super Bowl doing open air preaching with the Super Bowl Outreach. There were 110 open air preachers from around the country that surrounded the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday. We were  in nine groups, so Mr. Ramsey was correct that we probably had the stadium pretty well covered.

The ironic thing is the Greg Marlin, the founder of Born of Him Ministries was on the box, open air preaching when Dave Ramsey walked by us. Greg did call out his name, hoping that Mr. Ramsey would engage in a conversation because Mr. Ramsey is well known and he probably could have drawn a very large crowd.

But when Mr. Ramsey heard his name called out, he just raised his hand in the air and waived. He honestly didn’t seem too embarrassed to me at the time. The ministry partners with Born of Him Ministries are sorry to hear that Mr. Ramsey felt embarrassed. We are sorry to hear when any Christian is ashamed or embarrassed when the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is being proclaimed in the open air.

We want to publicly thank Todd Friel with Wretched Radio for being so kind on his radio show to open air preachers. Mr. Friel played a little bit of someone yelling at Rosie O’Donnell after he played the Dave Ramsey segment.

The person that yelled at Rosie O’Donnell has a much different style of preaching than we do. We don’t call people names. All of us are born with a sinful nature. The Bible clearly states that if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior while you are alive on this earth,  then you will spend eternity in Hell after you die.

At Born of Him Ministries, we try very hard to get people to see their sinful nature and we warn them that they need to flee from the wrath of God (John 3:36). After we go through God’s Law with people, we then tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).

Again, we thank Mr. Friel for his kindness to the many open air preachers around the country who proclaim the Law and the Gospel. As Mr. Friel so wisely pointed out on his show, there are many people in America that don’t know the Law and they don’t understand the need for a savior. So open air preaching is not only biblical, it is much needed in our day and time.

Back to Dave Ramsey and the Super Bowl. Greg Marlin was very kind to Mr. Ramsey. When Mr. Ramsey continued walking by us, Greg did say something like “people, you need to flee from sin and run to Jesus like a gazelle.” I thought it was quite clever and appropriate to say.

As far as Mr. Ramsey being embarrassed or ashamed of open air preachers, all of us at Born of Him sincerely hope and pray that Jesus Christ our Lord is not ashamed of Mr. Ramsey on Judgment Day.  Christians, you should never be embarrassed by the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, in public or in private.

If anyone asks us if the MDB we hand out is real, we always tell them that it is not real money, but that it “has a real question on the back” or that “it is real paper.” We don’t try to deceive them, we don’t try to fool them into thinking that it is real money. There are no real million dollar bills in America. (Zimbabwe actually printed a 100 Trillion dollar bill during their time of hyper-inflation).

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 states, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan, the little “g” god of this world has already deceived many people through their love of money. He will use any means to keep people spiritually blind.

So, yes, we use Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts to get people’s attention. Our goal is to get them to turn the MDB over and read a clear presentation of the Gospel on the back side. Our purpose is to spread the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. That is our desire; for God to use the tracts to open the eyes of people who are already deceived. Our hope and prayer is that they will see the light of Jesus.

Born of Him Ministries also appreciates the prayers from our loved ones, our friends and our churches during SBO. It was such a blessing to meet and to serve God alongside over 100 evangelists from around the country. The weather was in the 30′s and 40′s, which we were also very grateful for.

We are thankful for each an every encounter we had through handing out Gospel tracts, witnessing one to one and open air preaching. It was such a thrill to see so many team members get up on the box for the first time. (There were 13 members on our team and they were from Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas and Florida). We pray that everyone will continue sharing their faith with others, now that they are back home. Several of us are already talking about going to SBO next year – to New Orleans – God willing.

SBO Video
Super Bowl Outreach 2012

How an Abortion Saved the Lives of Many from Rebecca Keliher on Vimeo.

Some people go to the doctor once every year for a physical checkup, for an examination. People do this to see if they are in good health. The doctor examines you to see if you have any undiagnosed health problems.

The same way a doctor examines our physical health, we are to examine our spiritual health. In 2 Cor. 13:5, the apostle Paul says “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test.”

I’m afraid a lot of people mistakenly think that because God is love that He will forgive them no matter what they have done. God is love. God is forgiving and He is full of grace. But this love, forgiveness and grace is not cart blanche. It is not given to everyone. In other words, salvation is not universal. Not everything goes. That’s why the apostle Paul said that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

The standard for this examination is very high – it is perfection. The standard for salvation is the perfect Law, the 10 Commandments. Have you kept all of the 10 Commandments all of your life? Of course not. None of us have. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned against our Holy God (Romans 3:23). The penalty for missing the mark is eternal separation from God in a very real place called Hell.

Now here’s where the love, forgiveness and grace from God comes in. God realizes that none of us can meet His perfect standard. That’s why He sent Jesus to live and walk on this earth 2,000 years ago. Jesus did what none of us can do. He lived a perfect sinless life. He never sinned in thought, word or deed. Then He died an unimaginably painful death on the cross for guilty sinners. On the third day He rose from the grave. Jesus defeated sin and death. Jesus meets the perfect standard of God.

God offers us eternal salvation through Jesus Christ if we repent and put our trust in Jesus. Salvation is by the grace of God alone (Eph. 2:8-9). There is nothing we can do to earn it. We can’t be good enough. We can never make up for the mountain of sin debt that we have accumulated.  But God made a way for us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We need to acknowledge that we are sinners. We need to recognize that we can’t earn salvation on our own. Then we need to repent  by turning away from our sins and put our faith in Jesus. We surrender our lives completely to Him. Then through Jesus, God sees believers as being perfect. Not due to anything on our part, but solely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Please examine yourself and see if you are truly in the faith. Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? Have you truly surrendered your life to Him? If you’ve been playing church or going along with the crowd, please stop doing this. Today is the day of salvation. Get right with God today. Universalism is wishful thinking. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for everyone. He died on the cross for those who turn from their sins and put their trust in Him. Examine yourself today and make sure that you are really saved.

A lot of us are thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Some of us are committing to lose weight, exercise, quit smoking, take better care of ourselves, be a better person and other such resolutions.

But what about spiritual resolutions?
Christians, are you resolved to:

1. Draw closer to God this new year.
2. Listen more closely to what God is telling you to do this new year.
3. Boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.
4. Read the Bible more.
5. Spend more time in prayer.
6. Fast.
7. Really spend time alone with God without distractions.
8. Worship and praise our awesome God.

This short list is provided to help you think about the spiritual resolutions you are going to make this year. Since Jesus Christ our Lord has given you eternal life, how are you going to thank Him this coming year?

Happy New Year from all of us at Born of Him Ministries and may God use you mightily in 2012 to help further His kingdom and bring God all the honor and glory.

I think I’ve learned my lesson!
WHAT A DESPICABLE, DEPRAVED WORLD WE LIVE IN.
Working over the road I spend a lot of time in Hotels. Endless bombardment of a sexually saturated society reveal it’s self on billboards, magazines, conversations and straight out of Hollywood.
One night while at a Hotel as I was wrapping things up to turn in for the night. Already running behind on a goodnights sleep I took a shower.
After that shower the prospect of turning in with a little read appealed to me. But wanted to check on the weather for tomorrow first. (my first mistake) So I turned my attention to the TV. I caught the weather right off the bat and took a notion not to stop there. (that’s my second mistake) So thought I’d just flip through a few channels…AND WHAM!
I catch a glimpse of something I didn’t need in my brain.
Listen folks, don’t let it fool ya. Pornography is a WICKED act. It distorts Gods reason for marriage WHICH is a picture of the Gospel. It points to Gods grace.
THAT MAKES ME SO MAD!
Nasty-nasty-nasty.
Hebrews 13:4 “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Ephesians 5:22-33 ~excerpt~”This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it (marriage) refers to Christ and the church.”
…and if your NOT married?
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality…”

Ephesians 5:5
“For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
There are more scriptures…
PLEASE, if your in this addiction repent (turn from this wicked act) and put your trust in Christ and Christ alone.
And God will forgive you even for those sins and all the others.

I thank God I’ve never fell into that addiction. Not to say I’ve never viewed the stuff. But it was nothing that I bought and desired constantly. In fact, when I was a unsaved, I wouldn’t avoid the exposer… I welcomed it. Now it frightens me. Much like other things that I’m exposed to day in day out. Being a sinner-I would always have that temptation and never claim to be invulnerable to acting upon any sin. 1 John 1:8,10 says that if we say we have no sin we’re a liar and are calling God a liar and the truth is not in us. That is the first of many problems to come is to deny that we have a sin nature.
I say that, to say something I heard in a sermon years ago. “Sin never happens by explosion, but by erosion.” in other words a slow gradual, small exposer, dulling the conscience till one day you look around and your HOOKED.
THAT’S why we are told to flee from all appearances of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 & 1 Peter 3:11.
Don’t give the Devil a foothold.