Featured DL Moody

I don't often agree with evangelist6589 but I have to in this case. I know of people who have been saved by reading tracts. A missionary friend gave me a book on missions from the 1800s which told the story of a missionary who was on his way to the south seas to take the Gospel to the heathen tribesmen of Papua New Guinea. When he arrived in San Francisco by train he was hosted by a local church that put him up with a family for the three days until his steamship left for Papua New Guinea. He was asked to preach the Sunday Service before leaving on Monday. He preached on the importance of missions and how everybody could be involved, either by going or by supporting those who go.

After the service, as he was standing at the door and shaking the hands of the members, a little girl who couldn't have been older than 5 or 6 handed him two pennies and told him that was all she had but she wanted him to spend it on his mission. He thanked the little girl and slipped the two pennies into his pocket.

The next day as he was waiting to board the steam ship he happened to put his hand in his pocked and felt those two pennies. He remembered promising that little girl he would spend them on his mission. He looked around and saw a small Christian book store and went in and bought a single tract for two cents and put it in his shirt pocket.

The ship sailed away from San Francisco and the young missionary got comfortable in his small cabin. About half way to Papua New Guinea the ship put into a small island to replenish its fuel supply, wood cut from the jungle on the island. The islanders carried the wood aboard the ship then went back to the island. One older man was the last to get off and the missionary pulled the tract from his pocket and asked the islander if he could read English. The man said he could as he kept all the records of the wood sold to the steam ship company. The missionary handed him the tract and asked him to read it when he got a chance. The islander agreed. The young missionary sailed on to Papua New Guinea.

6 years later the missionary was returning to the US on furlough when the steam ship stopped again at the island to replenish its fuel supply. As they tied up at the dock they noticed that the whole population of the island was standing on the shore, and one older man was on the dock. The captain walked down to the man, spoke with him, then came back and told the missionary all the people had heard he was coming to their island again and were waiting for him.

He walked down to the dock and saw the older man was the same man he had given the tract to 6 years earlier.

The man rushed up to the missionary and greeted him as "Brother." The missionary asked what had happened and the man said he had read the tract and trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He then shared the good news with all the islanders.

He then told the missionary that last time he was at the island the man was the hereditary king of the small island tribe, but he was no longer their king. The missionary asked why, fearing persecution for converting to Christianity. The older man looked at the missionary and smiled and said, "Now I am their pastor."

On the next trip the older man had asked the ship's Captain if he knew what the bible references on the tract were all about and the Captain gave the man his own bible to read. He read, learned, and preached from that old bible for the rest of his life. And his little tribe/church sent missionaries to all the surrounding islands taking the Gospel with them.

Tracts can have amazing results. They are certainly not the only way to see souls saved, but they certainly can be effective.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I can not vouch for the verity of this story. It was one of several anecdotes in the small book.)

 

I prefer this. A few years ago Lifeway had Bibles on clearance (Holman and ESV study bibles) for $5. I bought several for this purpose. There are also paperback NT bibles that are very inexpensive. I think that these can be much better than tracts.

 

What? Horrible! Horrible! PERVERSIONS!

Oh, wait. For a second there I thought this was a KJVO discussion. Sorry.

 

Well...they were on sale.

 

Actually, I have known many people who have come to Christ because they first desired to come to church. Often it is because of a life circumstance that has caused them to seek the comfort of what they once knew, whether it is someone who recently lost a loved one or a young family who is seeking to raise their kids with something that they had growing up. My husband has given the straight up gospel in a message because he sees someone new there and there have been times that they have not been saved but responded there in church. They came because they remembered going to church with grandma and wanted to experience that again. God had other plans.