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Volunteers Of Christ Institute of Leadership RESOURCE Illustrations

EVANGELISM - Stories and Illustrations

This longer story has been placed first due to the quality of the illustration:The following article is based on a sermon by missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West Africawith another mission agency. His story points out the price some people pay to sow the seed of the gospelin hard soil.I was always perplexed by Psalm 126 until I went to the Sahel, that vast stretch of savanna more than fourthousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month

period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracksfrom dryness, and so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw itthousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West Africa as a fine grit. It gets insideyour mouth. It gets inside your watch and stops it. The year's food, of course, must all be grown in thosefour months. People grow sorghum or milo in small fields.October and November...these are beautiful months. The granaries are full -- the harvest has come. Peoplesing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour andthen a mush with the consistency of yesterday's Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll itinto little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meallies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep.December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal.Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day.By February, the evening meal diminishes.The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don't stay well on half a

meal a day.April is the month that haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the daysare passed with only an evening cup of gruel.Then, inevitably, it happens. A six-or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with suddenexcitement. "Daddy! Daddy! We've got grain!" he shouts. "Son, you know we haven't had grain for weeks.""Yes, we have!" the boy insists. "Out in the hut where we keep the goats -- there's a leather sack hangingup on the wall -- I reached up and put my hand down in there -- Daddy, there's grain in there! Give it toMommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!"The father stands motionless. "Son, we can't do that," he softly explains. "That's next year's seed grain. It'sthe only thing between us and starvation. We're waiting for the rains, and then we must use it." The rainsfinally arrive in May, and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the walland does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his desperately weakened family, hegoes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. Hescatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest(Italics added).

The seed is his; he owns it. He can do anything with it he wants. The act of sowing it hurts so much that hecries. But as the African pastors say when they preach on Psalm 126, "Brother and sisters, this is God's lawof the harvest. Don't expect to rejoice later on unless you have been willing to sow in tears." And I want toask you: How much would it cost you to sow in tears? I don't mean just giving God something from yourabundance, but finding a way to say, "I believe in the harvest, and therefore I will give what makes nosense. The world would call me unreasonable to do this -- but I must sow regardless, in order that I maysomeday celebrate with songs of joy."

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions,but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, hewasn't able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller,hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. But to his great dismay it had been sold to a collector. Kreislermade his way to the new owner's home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become hisprized possession and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had

an idea. "Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?" he asked. Permissionwas granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector'semotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself," he exclaimed. "It's yours, Mr. Kreisler.Take it into the world, and let people hear it."

Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Before the two parted,his client said to him, "I've often wanted to ask you a question, but I've been afraid to do so." "What do youwant to know?" asked the lawyer. The man replied, "I've wondered why you're not a Christian." The manhung his head, "I know enough about the Bible to realize that it says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of

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Volunteers Of Christ Institute of Leadership RESOURCE Illustrations

God; and you know my weakness!" "You're avoiding my questions," continued the believer. "Well, truthfully,I can't recall anyone ever explaining how to become a Christian." Picking up a Bible, the client read somepassages showing that all are under condemnation, but that Christ came to save the lost by dying on thecross for their sins. "By receiving Him as your Substitute and Redeemer," he said, "you can be forgiven. Ifyou're willing to receive Jesus, let's pray together." The lawyer agreed, and when it was his turn heexclaimed, "O Jesus, I am a slave to drink. One of your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God,forgive my sins and help me overcome the power of this terrible habit in my life." Right there he wasconverted. That lawyer was C.I. Scofield, who later edited the reference Bible that bears his name.

The late Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopalian bishop, summed up the situation this way: "In the GreatCommission the Lord has called us to be--like Peter--fishers of men. We've turned the commission aroundso that we have become merely keepers of the aquarium. Occasionally I take some fish out of your fishbowland put them into mine, and you do the same with my bowl. But we're all tending the same fish."

The Order of the Mustard Seed founded by Count Zinzendorf had three guiding principles, namely:1. Be kind to all people. 2. Seek their welfare. 3. Win them to Christ.

The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager helamented, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The managerreplied, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it iswith evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a thirst for the Gospel.

Dr Paul Brand was speaking to a medical college in India on "Let your light so shine before men that theymay behold your good works and glorify your Father." In front of the lectern was a oil lamp, with its cottonwick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, andthe smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity. "Some of us here are like this wick," hesaid. "We're trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That's what happens when we use ourselvesas the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit. "Wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly andwithout irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy "Spirit, is in constant supply."

Even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them. A good example of this was reported by RalphNeighbour, pastor of Houston's West Memorial Baptist Church in Death and the Caring Community byLarry Richards and Paul Johnson:Jack had been president of a large corporation, and when he got cancer, they ruthlessly dumped him. Hewent through his insurance, used his life savings, and had practically nothing left. I visited him with one ofmy deacons, who said, "Jack, you speak so openly about the brief life you have left. I wonder if you'veprepared for your life after death?"Jack stood up, livid with rage. "You *** *** *** Christians. All you ever think about is what's going to happento me after I die. If your God is so great, why doesn't He do something about the real problems of life?" Hewent on to tell us he was leaving his wife penniless and his daughter without money for college. Then heordered us out. Later my deacon insisted we go back. We did. "Jack, I know I offended you," he said. "Ihumbly apologize. But I want you to know I've been working since then. Your first problem is where yourfamily will live after you die. A realtor in our church has agreed to sell your house and give your wife hiscommission. "I guarantee you that, if you'll permit us, some other men and I will make the house paymentsuntil it's sold. "Then, I've contacted the owner of an apartment house down the street. He's offered your wifea three-bedroom apartment plus free utilities and an $850-a-month salary in return for her collecting rentsand supervising plumbing and electrical repairs. The income from your house should pay for yourdaughter's college. I just want you to know your family will be cared for."Jack cried like a baby. He died shortly thereafter, so wrapped in pain he never accepted Christ. But heexperienced God's love even while rejecting Him. And his widow, touched by the caring Christians,responded to the gospel message.

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