Tract Evangelism Multiplies Your Eternal Investments

Tract Evangelism Multiplies Your Eternal Investments (Acts 1:8)

As believers we know we are commanded to be His witnesses in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the utter most parts of the earth. (Acts 1:8) When Jesus gave that command He recognized that all of us may not be able to physically go to all of the 24,000 people groups of the world, but we need to find a way to reach them where they are at.

As New Testament believers in America, about 2% of Christians are sharing their faith on a regular basis. Evangelistic tracts do not take the place of sharing our personal testimony but can be a valuable tool for being His witnesses in all four demographics of Acts 1:8.

First let us consider some of the advantage of uses evangelistic tracts:

1. EFFICIENCY - Tracts help you share Christ with people who you may not have time to explain the gospel in detail. Tracts allow you to say to a person in a grocery line or to a clerk:

"Did you get one of these." Rarely will a person not take the tract. This affords you an efficient way of being obedient to the Lord in sharing the gospel on a regular basis. Tracts allow you to share the gospel with many people who will then have a clear presentation of the way of salvation in their hand perhaps for the first or only time in the life.

2. BREADTH OF OUTREACH EXPANDED - Tracts allow you to share the gospel’s message with people who you may never meet personally. One church in Indiana offers free gospel tracts for anyone who will go to the web site and order them. These tracts can be sent around the world to many places and people who are yet to understand a clear explanation of the gospel. Go to the website and order 100 tracts today. www.fellowshiptractleague.com

3. SUCCESS - Success in witnessing is merely sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. When we pray and allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit we will see God do great things. Sowing the seed is our responsibility, but the giving of the fruit is God’s promised assurance. Jesus said, "The sower went out to sow the seed and some fell on the good soil and yielded 30, 60 and 100 fold." (Mark 4:1-22)

Illustration: Library: Economic Update

The Economic Update is a Crown exclusive featuring consumer and financial news (updated weekly).

A CRITICAL LOOK AT NET WORTH

For the week of January 19, 2004

By Tom Lipp

What is your net worth?

I hate this question. Expressions like this one can inadvertently diminish human dignity.

Every industry has its own lingo and jargon. Many terms are of no real consequence, but sometimes a particular expression can be misleading and even harmful.

In the financial planning industry, the term "net worth" is a prime example of a poor choice of words—which in this case is used to identify a person’s financial resources or net equity. This calculation is made when a person applies for credit or makes a non-guaranteed investment.

If you added all your assets (bank balances, cash on hand, value of home, car, furniture, RRSPs, investments) and then subtracted all your liabilities (mortgage, credit card balances, loans, personal lines of credit), this numeric total would be called your net worth.

For some, this can total hundreds of thousands or even billions of dollars. For others, their net worth may be zero or even a negative value. High net worth individuals are rich and low net worth people are poor.

The proper accounting expression for net worth is net equity. This is technically more accurate but not as commonly used.

Although net worth is widely recognized, my contention is that sloppy terminology leads to sloppy thinking. Have you ever considered, "What was Jesus’ net worth?" Using this measure, Jesus’ net worth was about zero. After all, at the time of His death, His only worldly assets were the clothes on His back.

But it’s ridiculous to say that Jesus was worth nothing. He changed the world more than anyone else in history. He purchased back from Satan the entire human race. Christians are redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is more precious than all the gold and silver (1 Peter 1:18-19).

There is no way whatsoever that the term "net worth" can be used to identify the worth of an individual.

Each one of us is priceless in the eyes of God, because He died for everyone, making each of us infinite in value. By saying John Smith is worth $50 million, while Peter Brown is worth $500, or even worse, has a negative net worth, we tie their dignity to their financial resources. How degrading!