Since Christmas is past, it's time to get ready for the new year.  This morning, at the nursing home, I preached a message about New Year's resolutions. I thought it appropriate to preach about patience. If anyone needs patience it's nursing home residents. They are in perpetual care, waiting for someone to attend to their needs. This is a place where needs continue to be renewed. They are always needful. We, who are healthy, are always wantful (is that a word).  Being wantful carries an adjective, impatience.  Either way impatience probably should give way to patience. We live under some interesting opposites. We are to be patient yet look forward to the return of our Savior. I'm getting a little impatient for that. I want it now!
Hmmm, oh well, still here.  
In the meantime, while we patiently wait, others who are lost keep dying in their sins. We have a responsibility here. Dying in sin is not necessary and we should say so to as many people as possible. We can say it verbally or in writing. God chooses to communicate to us through His word. It's in writing. Why not carry that forward. Using a tract is helpful. It's concise, clear and direct. Using a tract that someone will read is also important. I have seen many tracts that, quite frankly, offend me. I'm a Christian and I cringe at the approach some people use to attempt to win someone to Christ. Paul talked about persuading some. Being persuasive begins by someone listening. Nobody listens to offensive language. The Kristin tract gets past the first barrier to persuasion. They begin to read a story that is not offensive. It offers a message of hope that is not offensive. It offers scripture that may offend some, but not all. It offers a prayer of redemption.  It offers scriptures of assurance of salvation. Get a new box of tracts. Give them all out as soon as possible. If He comes soon at least a few more will get in.

I had to post a second blog because of this story I just read. This situation seems impossible, but it gives us a glimpse of just how evil Satan is and how influencial this evil can be. 

A mother in Syria was video taped in a burka hugging her seven year old daughter goodbye. The Jihadist father is seen hugging her also. Underneath her clothes is a bomb vest. She will soon enter a police station where the father will remotely detonate the bomb carried by his daughter, killing and wounding those inside the station. 

​Many will say that we must kill the supremely evil people. I don't disagree, but our assignment is to lead others to Christ. Most Christians have abandoned that assignment or never accepted it. Shame on us. We aren't getting the job done. A born again believer wouldn't do this to his daughter. .... Order some tracts. Give them to someone.

Sitting next to a young lady on a recent flight allowed thr opportunity to give her a tract. She took it and read the contents. She asked me if Kristin was my daughter. "Yes", I said. She then offered the most sincere and seemingly heartfelt condolences that I have ever experienced. She was deeply touched. I was amazed at the capacity of this lost young lady to feel compassion and empathy for someone else. If I were God, I would really want this one as a child of mine. I asked her what she thought of the prayer. She said she would consider it and asked to keep the tract. We parted as new friends after I got her name. I hope she isn't so nice a person that she doesn't believe she needs a savior.