Soulwinning

John Currier was found guilty of murder in 1949 and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.

Suppose someone were to offer you a thousand dollars for every soul you would earnestly try to lead to Christ, would you endeavor to lead any more souls to Him than you are endeavoring to do now? Is it possible that you would attempt to do for money what you hesitate or shrink from doing now in obedience to God’s command? Is your love of money stronger than your love of God or souls?

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

A pastor was passing a big department store and followed a sudden impulse to go in and talk to the proprietor on the subject of his salvation. Finding him, he said: “I’ve talked beds and carpets and bookcases with you, but I’ve never talked my business with you. Would you give me a few minutes to do so?”

Gaylord Kambarami, the General Secretary of the Bible Society in Zimbabwe, tried to give a New Testament to a very belligerent man. The man insisted he would roll the pages and use them to make cigarettes. Mr. Kambarami said, “I understand that, but at least promise to read the page of the New Testament before you smoke it.” The man agreed, and the two went their separate ways.

The story is told of a Jewish woman in New York City who was approached by a Christian worker. He began to tell her of Christ and her need of salvation. He explained that she was a sinner and was going to Hell. She cried out, “I don’t believe in hell!”

“Why not?” asked the Christian.

“Because 6 million of my Jewish brothers and sisters were murdered at the hands of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. I cannot believe they will all go to Hell!”

Carol Fuller was a 72-year-old grandmother living alone in West Hollywood in 1995. During a home invasion robbery she was locked in a closet, her home was ransacked and her car was stolen. All of this took place without anyone knowing. But the worst part followed.

Days later, investigators found her dead in the closet with her fingers cut from trying to claw her way out.

Dr. Walter Wilson, ever on the alert to speak to men about their souls and need of the Saviour, asked an attendant at a service station who had filled his car with gas: “How did sin get in Sinclair?” pointing to the lighted sign atop the gas pump. “I do not know, sir, how sin got into Sinclair; but, sir, I have wished many times that I knew how to get sin out of my life!”

When Dr. Broadus was a boy in a little town he was converted to Christ. He had been attending some meetings, and he went to one of his playmates, Sandy Jones, a red-haired, awkward chap, the next day and said to him: “I wish you would be a Christian. Won’t you?”

And Sandy said, “Well, I don’t know, perhaps I will.” And sure enough, after a little while, one night in the little church, Sandy Jones accepted God. Straightway he stalked across that little meeting house, held out his hand and said, “I thank you, John, I thank you, John.”

Four years after the Titanic went down, a young Scotsman rose in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and said, “I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper, of Glasgow, on a piece of wreck near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘are you saved?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’

He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’

The waves bore him away; but, strange to say brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’

John Wesley was robbed as he was returning from a service one night.

As the bandit was leaving, Wesley called out, “Stop! I have something more to give you.” The surprised robber paused. “My friend,” said Wesley, “you may live to regret this sort of life. If you ever do, here’s something to remember: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!“ The thief hurried away, and Wesley prayed that his words would bear fruit.

Mr. Kimball, a Sunday school teacher, in 1858 led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist and in England in 1879 awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Frederick B. Meyer, pastor of a small church. F.B. Meyer preaching on an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, engaged in YMCA work, employed a former baseball player Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work. And the list goes on.

Zach Dunlap said he feels, “Pretty good,” Just four months after the doctors almost removed his organs because he was declared brain dead.

Mr. Dunlap was pronounced dead November 19, 2007 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas.

While family members payed their last respects just before his organs were to be given for transplant, he moved his foot and hand in reaction to a pocketknife being scraped across his foot and pressure being applied under one of his fingernails.

After witnessing to a band of people that had murdered some foreigners, David Livingstone wrote: “I had more than ordinary pleasure in telling these murderers of the precious blood which cleanseth from all sin. I bless God that He has conferred on one so worthless the distinguished privilege and honour of being the first messenger of mercy that ever trod these regions.”

Source: The Personal Life of David Livingstone, William Garden Blaikie

I went to the UCLA Medical Center with my high school anatomy class and saw a cadaver on a cold, stainless steel counter. A dead person is totally powerless. It’s impossible to reach him. I could have handed that cadaver a Gospel tract or witnessed to him, but he couldn’t do anything to respond to an appeal or to change his condition in and of himself.

Submitted by Ray Cazis

Only one person is reached for Christ for every eight-five church members in America.

Source: Surprising Insights, Thomas S. Rainer

At the age of five, Hannah made an insightful statement about her newfound faith. She told her mother, “I think Jesus has moved out of my heart.” With curiosity and concern, her mom asked where Hannah thought Christ had gone. She replied, “He has moved to my throat, because all I want to do is tell people about Jesus.”

Source: Mature Living, March, 2009

An eight-year-old Israeli boy was stuck floating overnight in the Dead Sea after his father left him there by mistake. Fortunately, the high salt content in the water keeps swimmers afloat or he probably would have drowned. The ordeal lasted six hours!

Rescue workers said the boy, Shneur Zalman Friedman, from Jerusalem, was in the sea with his father and two brothers on Thursday evening when currents swept him away from shore, without anyone noticing.

Jim Elliot was one of the martyred missionaries in 1956. He was a passionate Christian who journaled many of his thoughts and prayers. One such entry addressed his concern about impact. He wrote, “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” His impact continues on even though he died over fifty years ago at the age of twenty-nine.

Source: Shadow of the Almighty, Elisabeth Elliot

Normally the flight from Nassau to Miami took Walter Wyatt, Jr., only sixty-five minutes. But on December 5, 1986, he attempted it after thieves had looted the navigational equipment in his Beechcraft. With only a compass and a hand-held radio, Walter flew into skies blackened by storm clouds.

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, “I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The manager replied, “Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.” So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a thirst for the Gospel.

Source: Unknown

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College