LAUNCHING THE GATESTONE PROGRAM
Dear friends,
I hardly know where to start. The Holy Spirit has burdened me with a vision of the end times and the unharvested fields of grain. No, it is not a vision that I have seen with my eyes, but rather a vision that has been burned into my spirit. Jesus said, “The fields are white already unto harvest.” (John 4:35) That was 2,000 years ago. If the harvest was ready then, how much more so would it be today? In Matthew 9:37-38, He said that the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. And then we are to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the fields to harvest the souls.
You may have heard that I have just completed a commentary on Revelation. It is not yet ready to publish, but the matter of the harvest is an urgent priority. Do you realize that on the Day of Pentecost enough power was released to evangelize the whole world? What ever became of that? Are you baptized in the Holy Spirit? Have you ever won a soul to Christ? I wonder what the statistics would reveal if we could survey every Christian around the world. It’s a sobering thought. Pardon me for being preachy, but we really must get involved in the Harvest of Souls. We are not talking about building churches, pastoring, having evangelistic outreaches, or filling our church buildings with the “seeker-friendly” element. And, no, we don’t need to add a Sunday School class on “How to Win Souls.” This is about getting the word out regarding salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is The Word Incarnate.
As a child, I was exposed to the ministry of handing out gospel tracts. My mother would take her three sons downtown and we would pass out tracts to everyone who came our way. Some of the tracts were tucked away in pockets, some were thrown on the ground. Some people refused to touch them. Even at the wise old age of six, I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t working. I held that view until God gave me a wake-up call one day, many years later, when I was headed out of town for a service call in southern Iowa. There was a billboard alongside the road and it said, “Do you know the way to God’s house?” The Spirit began to work on me. He said, “How will they know if nobody tells them?” At the first rest area, I stopped and wrote my first gospel tract in a spiral notebook. It was, what they call, a religious experience. I felt like I was talking to a real person. I told that person the way to God’s house and included the sinner’s prayer. Soon after that, I typed it up on my computer and made several copies. I began to put them everywhere I could think of. In the dispensing tray of vending machines; inside of books in the library or book store; on shelves in stores; on bulletin boards in the grocery store; and in motel rooms next to the Gideon Bible. They have been distributed as far east as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. South to Florida and Texas, west to California, further west to Hawaii, and—oh yes—overseas to Belgium and France. Along the way, of course, I have written several different themes, but they all lead the reader to Calvary.
One day I began to question whether or not this ministry was effective. Then the Lord took me to Isaiah 5:6-11 (read the whole passage) it ends with the words, “My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” There it is. I could forget all my background in sales and personal persuasion. This assignment was from the Lord and He is the One who will see it through. As a further example of the effectiveness of sharing the Word, I was made aware of the Parable of the Sower—as told in Mark 4:1-20. You should be familiar with it, but if not—check it out. You will find that only a few seeds were productive. A sales manager would fire that sower after the first day. Most of his efforts ended in failure. But the overall results were amazing!
The take-home message from the above scriptures is this:
Now it is time to close the deal. Why am I telling you this story? Because I need your help. I feel that this is a good place to start an outreach of the written Word. Here is how it works: If only a few people take up the challenge—say 5 or 6—then my efforts have multiplied. You supply the paper and the ink to print out some “tracts.” 8½ by 11 has always worked for me. (I will send you the written text by email.) Fold the article so that the title is showing. Put them anywhere. Mail them to random addresses from the phone book. Be creative. Can you imagine the sudden impact if, all of a sudden, people in California, Florida, Colorado, etc. find the printed Word of the Gospel in unusual places? Sounds crazy? No. God guarantees results. We are the feet and legs that can distribute the Gospel EVERYWHERE.
Please take up the challenge. Time is short. The need is urgent. This is a ministry that every Christian can get involved in. Will you answer the call?
IN THE SERVICE OF THE KING,
Bud Collins
Please contact me if you can help in this ministry!
P.S. There is more to come. There is always more.
P.P.S. I mentioned being creative. One Sunday I was going through my email folder. There seem to be a lot of people out there who want to sell me something. Guess what? A reply to an email is not SPAM. So I hit REPLY. And I said, “Thank you for your Sunday message. Now here is my Sunday message:” And I pasted a copy of “The Way” into the space and hit SEND.
Find "THE WAY" here.
Be creative.
Believe.
Send the Light.
One more word. One day a book store customer picked up and purchased a book on the occult. When he got it home, he probably found a folded sheet of paper inside it with the message of salvation. See how it works?