A Gospel Tract Ministry — E.A. Johnston

Dear friends, I cannot stress enough the value and importance of Christian literature, and a gospel tract is an excellent way to witness for Christ. My wife and I both hand out gospel tracts on a regular basis, and it's a wonderful ministry platform.

The Gospel Tract as a Daily Witness

God will bless the reading of His Word, and a good gospel tract will be a blessing to the persons you hand them to. You can be a soul winner every day with a vital tract ministry, for to be an active soul winner just means to be a constant witness for Christ.

In soul winning, one plants, another waters, and finally another reaps and sees a fruit of the other two. Gospel tracts can do all three. They can plant, water, and reap. Many have been brought to Christ through the reading of a gospel tract.

A gospel tract ministry will open doors and allow you to share your faith one-on-one with people throughout the week, for we all must be soul winners. D .L. Moody was a soul winner long before he became a famous evangelist.

D. L. Moody's Example of Persistent Evangelism

Moody was converted in the back room of a shoe store in Boston where he worked as a clerk. He was a teenager at the time. His Sunday school teacher had a great burden for him, and he nervously went on a God sent errand that day to witness to young Moody.

Well, God did His work that day in D .L. Moody's heart, and his life was never the same again. Soon after his conversion, Moody moved to Chicago, and there began to witness to every citizen in that great metropolis.

He refused to go to bed at night without sharing his faith in Christ. One night, he got into bed around midnight and realized he had not witnessed to a lost soul that day. It was pouring rain outside, but Moody got up out of bed and put on his rain gear and went into the night.

There was a man leaning on a lamppost beneath an umbrella, and Moody walked up to him and asked him if he was a Christian. The man was offended and cussed Moody, and called him Crazy Moody. That was his nickname the citizens of Chicago gave Moody, Crazy Moody, because he would stop anybody on the street any time and ask him if they were a Christian.

Well, after Moody asked the man if he were a Christian, the man flew into a rage, doubled up his fist, and cursed Moody. Moody replied, I'm very sorry if I have offended you. Mind your own business, roared the man.

That is my business, Moody replied as he walked away, returning home to his bed. Several nights later, there was a knock on Moody's door. It was around 2 a .m. Moody got up to answer the door, and to his astonishment, there was the man who had cursed him for talking to him as he leaned against the lamppost.

Moody asked him, what do you want at this late hour? I want to become a Christian, was the reply. I'm very sorry, said the man. I haven't had any peace since that night. Your words have haunted and troubled me.

I couldn't sleep last night, and I thought I would come and get you to pray for me. Well, that man accepted Christ that night, and then asked Moody what he could do for Christ. Moody put him to work in the Sunday school until the Civil War broke out, and that man was one of the first to be shot down dying on the battlefield.

I ask the questions, friends. Who have you witnessed to today? Moody just didn't talk about reaching the lost with the gospel. He went out and did it. Oh, God, how I would need an ounce of Moody today.

Everyone Can Begin a Tract Ministry

Well, friends, our message today is on witnessing with the gospel tract ministry. I firmly believe in the power of a tract ministry, and I have handed out tracts for several decades. Have you ever been handed a gospel tract?

Have you ever handed a gospel tract to someone? It's easy to do. You don't have to be a scholar or a theologian to have a vital tract ministry. You don't need a seminary education, and you don't even have to have a winning personality.

All you need is obedience. Anyone can have a vital gospel tract ministry. I have my personal favorites, but I fell in love with tracts when I worked as a teenager in a Bible bookstore. That store had hundreds of different tracts, and I read every single one of them.

I've always kept a supply of tracts in my car or in my pocket to hand out to people as the Lord leads. It's important to share our faith on a regular basis, and it's a shame. Many church members fail to witness for Christ.

They want to keep Jesus to themselves, I guess. But I will say this. If you are truly saved, you will be a witness for Christ. You want others to know your Redeemer, the one who bought you with His precious blood.

You want to rescue the perishing and depopulate hell. When D .L. Moody got saved, he was praying one day, and God told him, Moody, here is a lifeboat. Go out and fill it. And Moody did just that. Moody should be our example today as we live in these last days where society is unraveling all around us.

And for those timid Christians who are hesitant to approach strangers with the gospel, I recommend a tract ministry. This will open many doors for you to share your faith, obtain some good tracts, and pick out your favorites.

I always keep my glove box in my car full of tracts. With the dollar bill attached to them. And when I see a homeless person, I'll stop and give that person the tract with the money attached and ask him to read it.

Divine Appointments in Ordinary Encounters

Let me share with you how valuable a vital tract ministry can be just in our daily course of the week and how easy it is to have a gospel tract ministry. Recently my teenage daughter asked me to take her to Florida for vacation.

It was going to be a daddy daughter trip and she was excited as we drove down the highway. On the way there, I got a flat tire and barely made it to a gas station. A young man fixed my tire and in front of my daughter, I handed this man a tract and thanked him for helping me.

I put some extra cash in the tract and asked him to read it. In fact, I made him promise me that he would read it. It was my little booklet I wrote called, Are You in the Book of Life? And in it, I present the gospel message.

Well, this young man took that booklet and he did promise me he would read it. And as we drove away, I could see him reading it with interest. And this was a good opportunity for my daughter to see how important a tract ministry can be as a gospel witness.

Well, once we got to Florida, I had another flat tire and this time I made it to a Goodyear store and the attendant fixed that tire as well. I handed him a tract in front of my daughter and thanked him for his work.

I told him I wrote the little booklet I was giving him and I would like him to read it. He promised me he would read the booklet. The point is, friends, those flat tires were divine appointments for those two men.

I won't know until the judgment if they got saved from reading those tracts, but I do know I was able to plant seeds of the gospel in their lives for the God of the harvest of water in his time. Handing out tracts made a frustrating day more worthwhile because I was able to share the gospel during those flat tires.

But you don't have to wait for something bad to happen to you to hand out a tract. Gospel tracts work whether it's a good day or bad. They do their job regardless. Our job is to hand them out and let God do the rest.

He is the one who saves. We are just the laborers. Recently, while driving through Georgia, I got pulled over for speeding and as the police officer came up to my car, I apologized for breaking the law.

I asked him how his relationship with God was and I promptly handed him a tract. He was interested in speaking about spiritual things and he took the tract gladly and started to read it. When I saw that he was interested in spiritual things, I reached into my glove box and pulled out a little New Testament and I asked him if he'd like a Bible too.

He gladly accepted it and said he would read that as well. By the way, he didn't give me a ticket, but I wrote down that police officer's name and I prayed for him daily for the next several months. I believe that was a divine appointment.

It all began with my handing him a tract, but I don't recommend speeding as a means to witness to police officers. You see friends, a tract ministry can become a vibrant ministry platform. There is no limit to how you can utilize a tract ministry.

Creative Ways to Distribute Gospel Tracts

When you walk, you leave tracts behind you and you can do the same with a gospel tract ministry. Leave tracts in doctor offices, leave one in the grocery cart, leave some at a bus depot. You can hand them to the pizza delivery person.

You can hand them out as people walk into the mall or a restaurant. The point is it's up to you how creative you'd like to be with handing out tracts. Tracts are very inexpensive and so there's not a big cash outlay.

I would suggest the following tract distributors. Contact them and order a catalog and choose some tracts that appeal to you. The following two tract distributors can assist you greatly. The first one is the American Tract Society.

They were founded in New York City in 1825 and since that time they have produced millions of pieces of Christian literature, mainly tracts. They have a wonderful catalog. The other tract distributor I use is Bible Truth Publishers.

They have a great selection of tracts. I've been using their tracts for 40 years. You can order tract packs in color and black and white. My two very favorites they put out are entitled The Faithful Friend and The Richest Man in the Valley.

Some of my other favorite titles they put out are Explain Me, Honor the Son, Saved or Lost, and The Settling Day. I have handed out these tracts for years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I was walking the streets of glory and a person walked up to me and said, you probably don't remember me, but you handed me a tract on earth one day and God used that to save me.

Oh friends, who knows the eternal dividends that await a fruitful tract ministry. You may wish to compose and design your own tracts as I've done. It's more costly, but the eternal dividends pay handsomely.

When you write your own tract, you can target a certain age group or ethnic group. You can write holiday tracts or thank you tracts. It's up to you. I take the tracts I write to a local printer and have a thousand copies printed at a time.

Perhaps some of you have book top publishing on your computer and you can do it yourself. That would be cheaper. One of the big reasons why I decided to write my own tracts in addition to handing out others is this, I felt the gospel needed to be explained today.

You see friends, in D .L. Moody's day, people understood the gospel and were better acquainted with their Bibles than they are today. We must understand that in our day, especially in America, it's a pagan society with little understanding of the basic gospel message.

Therefore, it's critically important to educate people and present them a full presentation of the gospel with a tract. With that, the Holy Spirit can do His work and convict of sin and woo them to Christ.

Writing Tracts That Gain the Reader's Attention

I have composed several tracts. I have found it is important to catch the reader's attention right off the bat. This is important. In the introduction to one of my tracts entitled, Are You in the Book of Life?, I try to relate to a person right where they are.

Here is my introduction and you will see what I mean. Life is short and full of the unexpected. We may lose our job or learn we have cancer or lose someone close to us. If trouble has not found you yet, live long enough and it will.

Not only is trouble part of the human experience, the world in which we live in is becoming more and more dangerous. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and droughts are on the increase.

Terrorism has targeted our cities and nuclear attack seems inevitable. How can a person live in a world like this and have peace or hope? Someone has said that the only two things certain in life are death and taxes.

However, many rich men know how to avoid paying taxes. No one knows how to avoid death. Death is a fact of life. Most of us will someday have to have a death certificate with our name written on it. If this death certificate proves to the world that we are gone and no longer have to pay taxes, did you know that our name can be written in a book of life?

There is a book that will be open someday in the future. On that day, if your name is not found written in that book, you will experience terror in your heart. For if your name is not found written in the book of life, you will be cast into a burning lake of fire.

This lake of fire is hell. Perhaps you don't believe in hell or heaven. Your disbelief does not alter the fact of their existence. I then go on to explain that the great white throne judgment awaits. I quote the passage from Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 -15.

I then present the gospel message in that tract and show them how they too can have their name written in the book of life. The point is friends, you can design your own tract and make it say what you want to.

It is fun to design your own tract. My wife has creative talent and she makes her own tracts. She puts Bible verses on a colorful card and then laminates it and gives them out as bookmarks. They look so attractive, people are reluctant to throw them away.

Often, when she hands out these tracts, she will hear from a person, I still have the one you gave me three months ago. I put it on my refrigerator and look at it every day. My wife hands out more tracts than anybody I've ever known.

She puts me to shame. The neat thing about a tract ministry is this, while you are asleep at night, your tracts are out witnessing for you. If you hand out enough tracts throughout the week, someone will more than likely be reading it when you least expect it.

Usually, someone with a boring job will welcome a gospel tract to pass the time. I've handed out tracts to gas station attendants who were grateful to have something to read while they stood there doing nothing.

Story Tracts and the Man in the Bog

I have found that story tracts work best, one that tells a story to get the interest of the reader. I love story tracts the best. My favorite are story tracts. J. Vernon McGee was downtown in a city one day handing out tracts.

He handed one to a homeless person who asked what the piece of paper was. J. Vernon McGee told the man it was a gospel tract. The man slowly took it and replied, now you go on and I'll see what kind of tracts you make.

Did I mention that it helps if you smile when you hand out your tracts, friends? People are looking at us. I hand out a tract I wrote entitled CPR for the man in the bog. On the cover of this tract is an old drawing of a scene in Scotland of the moors and a man sinking in a bog of mire and another man is shown pulling him out with a long cloth.

I have received much interest when I hand out this tract. The man who recently fixed my air conditioner sat exhausted in a chair while he billed me. I said to him, do you feel like you are in a bog sometimes?

He said yes. I handed him my tract and he looked at the picture on the cover and he said, I'm that man in that bog. When he left, he promised he would read that tract. I think it might be helpful to you if I present to you now that tract, CPR for the man in the bog.

It will give you an idea of the framework of gospel tract writing. Hopefully, it will inspire you to begin writing your own tracts, but either way, whether you write your own or purchase tracts already published, I hope this inspires you, friends, onto a vital tract ministry and that you too will realize the immense value of handing out good Christian literature.

Here now is the content of this tract and my prayer is, friend, that it will inspire you and encourage you to take the plunge into a vital tract ministry. The world perishes, friend. Be a DL Moody and do something about it.

Reach them with the gospel and the Christ of that gospel. Here now is CPR for the man in the bog and may it encourage you on in your own gospel tract ministry. In the medical world, CPR is used when you want to bring someone back to life physically.

CPR: Humanity's Condition and Spiritual Death

In God's economy, CPR of God's word is used when you pass from death to life spiritually. Allow me to explain. You may be dead while you are reading this little pamphlet, not physically dead, but dead spiritually.

You see, the word of God states that a person can be alive and dead at the same time. If you will take two minutes to read the following outline, this will all be explained and you will benefit from reading this.

We will demonstrate to you that CPR equals life using the word of God. The following acrostic will be the focal point of our study. C-P-R. C is for condition, P is for position, and R is for reconciliation.

Man is born into the world alive but dead to God because of the sin of Adam. The entire human race is spiritually dead. We lie, we give in to our lusts and the desires of our flesh. We live our lives for ourselves rather than the glory of God.

God is holy but we are sinful even though we try our best to be good people, honest and caring about others. The first part of CPR we need to know is our C, condition. The Bible describes man's condition, and you, hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

We each are born in a lost condition apart from God, dead in trespasses and sins. That means spiritually dead and lost. We cannot know God in this lost condition, and we are dead to the things of God.

Humanity's Perilous Position Before God

The next part of CPR that we need to be aware of is our position. Because of our lost condition, we are living in a perilous position. Our position is perilous because we are on the wrong side of God.

Because of sin, God views us as his enemies, and he considers us objects of wrath. God tells us, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

You see, in the CPR of God's Word, we are awakened to the fact that we are children of wrath, on the wrong side of God, and following the course of this evil world. Where in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Because we are living our lives for ourselves and not for God, we are following the world set of values, and we are treading a dangerous and perilous position. Since we are enemies of God because of our condition and position, this is how God presently views us.

God is angry with the wicked every day. Any moment we can die, be killed in a car wreck, or fall victim to an unforeseen fatal accident or illness, God is the giver of life, and he can take it from us without any notice.

To me belong a vengeance and recompense, their foot shall slide in due time, for the day their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. We see how fragile our life really is.

It can be taken from us quite suddenly. We can slip into death at any moment in this perilous and dangerous world. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou cast them down into destruction. How were they brought into desolation as in a moment?

So we must pay attention to our present perilous position before God. But there is good news in this CPR. The last part of CPR of God's word is wonderful news. We want you to know the third letter, R, reconciliation.

Reconciliation Through Christ's Mercy and Resurrection

What does this word mean? It's God's solution to man's dilemma. Look, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.

Did you notice that the word mercy comes before the word love from this verse of scripture? As sinners in a lost condition, we need mercy and the forgiveness of sin so we won't go to a terrible place called hell.

You see, God is a holy God who hates sin. God is a just judge who must judge sin and sinners. Hell is a place where people are cast when they die apart from Christ. The Bible tells us that hell is a place where the worm dieth not.

Jesus spoke of the agonies of hell, describing it as outer darkness, where there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wailing speaks of great loss and sorrow, and gnashing of teeth signifies regret and anger.

Good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people go there. Angels escort the saved person to heaven, and demons drag the lost down to hell. I beg you to repent of your sins and place your trust and faith in Jesus Christ immediately.

I don't want you to go to hell. God does not want to send you to hell. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

The CPR of God's word provides a remedy to our sin problem. That remedy for sin is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

Christianity differs from other religions because Jesus rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. To partake of God's gracious offer of mercy, we must repent of our sins and place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, our sin substitute, paid it all on the cross, bearing the wrath of God on our behalf. He took our sins upon Him so we can escape God's wrath. But we must repent and run to the cross, kneeling there in brokenness over our sins and rebellion against God, and seek His forgiveness.

The Bible promises us that if we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, He is able to save also, to save them, to the uttermost, that come unto God by Him. Jesus said, But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Jesus came to save sinners. Will you admit you are a sinner? Then you can be saved. Listen to what Jesus tells us, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Do not take these truths lightly, or reject them, for we have this warning from the word of God, He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

O friend, please take this remedy for sin. Please place your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and surrender all to Him. He offers this gift of salvation freely, it can't be earned, it is a free gift, it is freely offered.

Listen to the invitation of the Gospel, And the Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

The Man in the Bog: A Picture of Redemption

Let me close this outline of CPR equals life with the following story of the man in the bog. I heard a preacher by the name of Dr. Stephen F. Oford relate the following incident in his life. Born in Africa to missionary parents, Dr. Oford grew up in the African bush in a humble little cottage.

It was Christmas, and young Stephen decided to sneak out of the cottage early that morning to go bag a wild turkey for Christmas dinner. Before daylight, he made his way out of his parents' home quietly so not to wake them.

Into the darkness he stepped with his rifle under his arm. Making his way to the gate, he unlatched it, but it made a squeak. He kept going into the dark bush to a distant field where he knew wild turkeys would be.

He moved slowly in the darkness, but unfortunately his next step led him into a treacherous bog of mire. There he was, sinking in the miry bog as he held his rifle above his head with one hand while frantically trying to extricate himself with the other.

He realized he was in grave danger and sinking to his death. But unknown to him, the native servant of his father's house was awakened by the squeak of the gate, and this African man had followed him in the darkness without his knowledge.

There stood the African as the sun began to break over the field. He was attired in a colorful robe of silk which was wrapped around his naked body. Quickly, the native began to unfold his cloak about him.

It unfolded into one long piece of material, and as he unfolded it, he reached the garment over to the desperate Stephen Offord. Stephen grabbed it and hung on for dear life as he was pulled to safety.

Dr. Offord would relate that this action of the African was like the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus stepped out of the glories of heaven to come to earth to save lost man who was sunk in the mire of sin, and in his great mercy, he unfolded his royal robe of righteousness and reached it out to us to grab hold of.

Jesus redeems us from sin. Once we acknowledge that we are sinners, lost and without God in the world, we see our great need of a Savior who saves us from sin, and when we turn to God in repentance and play our faith in his dear Son, Jesus Christ, and God imputes his righteousness to us, we stand justified in his sight and no longer guilty before him.

We then have the promise of heaven and eternal life. Friend, will you grab hold of Jesus Christ right now? The Bible depicts our need for deliverance. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. God has offered the remedy for sin in his dear Son, Jesus Christ. We see the love of God displayed in the following.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But we, too, see the wrath of God in the following. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

In the CPR of God's word, you have been shown your present state apart from God and Christ. You have been made aware of your condition, lost, and your position, perilous, and you have been offered the remedy of God's reconciliation.

I now make this final plea and pray that God will grant you grace and light to be reconciled to him. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

May God bestow upon you his marvelous grace that you may have life. This is the CPR of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus declared, I am come, that they might have life, and they might have it abundantly.

Repent immediately.