Bezeugen Tract Club

Are You Ready? It’s a simple enough question. It could apply to many things. Are you ready to go to work? Are you ready to go to school? Are you ready for bed? But the ultimate question in life is are you ready to die?

Are you ready for eternity?

This tract gets to the heart of the matter. Giving the ready a chance to answer the tough question. We often use this question in transitioning conversations to the spiritual.

For a long time, I had wanted to take some pictures at a cemetery and use a picture from there on a Gospel tract. In June, my wife and I were spending the weekend in East Texas. As we drove we came across a number of small cemeteries along the highways. I kept mentioning that I wanted to stop and final did. My wife waited in the car. I walked around and snapped some pictures. I was not exactly sure which picture I would use, or what I would use it for.

Are You Ready? First Version

A month or so later, a friend suggested a tract with “Are You Ready” on it. Finally, I had the idea for the tract with the tomb stone on it! So, I picked out one of the pictures and the tract was made.

We initially printed 15,000 of the tracts. Roughly 9,000 were used for a mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club for January 2012. The remaining tracts were used for outreaches around Dallas. Thousands of them were handed out at the State Fair of Texas, McKinney Trader Days and many other venues.

Are You Ready? Second Version

This tract really makes people think. Some look at it and are scared to consider the truth that one day they will die and be buried under neath a stone like this. One of the first ones I handed out I handed the tract to a guy who worked at the mall and asked “Are You Ready?” His response was “I took care of that in the military.” It turns out when he was in the Navy, they gave him the chance to plan his own funeral including picking out the plot and the headstone. On more than one occassion, my friend who helped with the tract was mistaken for a “tomb stone salesman”. He then suggested using a different picture so maybe people would not have that same reaction. We reprinted the tract with a new picture and sent that out in the February 2012 mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club,.

Although we have had a few occasions when people think we are talking to them about funeral arrangements, overall the tract is well received and really gets people thinking. The Are You Ready tract has become one of our favorite tracts. Although this tract has just recently reached our tract club members, we have been using it successfully for months to reach those in Dallas with the Gospel!

What is the true meaning of Christmas? Turn on a movie and you’ll hear that it is about tradition and happiness. Talk to someone at the mall and nine out of ten will say it has something to do with getting together with family and friends or exchanging gifts. But ask people if there is a spiritual meaning to their Christmas celebration and most will say no. We have found that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year to share the Gospel. And it provides an opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas.

The Christmas Defined Gospel tract provides a concise definition of Christmas on the front – right out of the dictionary. On the back, it provides the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke along with a message of why we need Christmas.

Last year at Christmas time several people sent several different ideas for Christmas tracts. One of the ideas was to make a tract about the Candy Cane. We did some research on the history of the Candy Cane. While we could not exactly confirm the details of the origin of the candy cane, we did find some interesting things to include on the tract. As you hand out these tracts, you might consider handing them out with a candy cane.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be present when Brad Aldrich recorded Pastor Biggs speaking on what he calls “God Sized Questions” or GSQ’s. These are giant questions that get people thinking about God and eternity. As you watch this video, you’ll hear Pastor Biggs mention asking someone a question “are you doing today what you were created to do?”

I’ve used that question many times in witnessing to people. In fact, one day after I first heard Pastor reference this, I challenged my friends at lunch one day to use this question in witnessing to people that day at the mall. You can read about that in the Bezeugen BLOG. Following that day, I used this question off and on. Praying about it, it seemed to be a good opening line to use to make a Gospel tract. So I started working on the text for the back.

Conversations with this question are really interesting. Having “created to do” in the question implies creation without specifically stating anything about God. Most people will think about their job and whether that is what they were really created to do. Some people will say “yes” to the question. So we then ask “what do you think you were created to do?” and time and again they will say that they have no idea. The Bible says that all people were created to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

One night when the text was done and approved, I realized that all that was left was to have a picture for the front. I was searching the internet for a picture and found one of a flying boat. I did not think that was the right picture. Then I found a picture of a Volkswagen Bug that had been turned into a bug. I did not think that was the picture either. I found some pictures of cars that had been turned into plant pots. And other strange things like these.

I kept going back to the picture of the VW Bug turned into a bug. Not finding anything I liked better for the tract, I decided to go with it.

I pray that the Are You Doing Today What You Were Created to Do tract will be used for striking up many interesting conversations with people that lead to sharing the Gospel.

Last Christmas some friends told me about a song on YouTube by Becky Kelly called “Where’s the Line to See Jesus?” After listening to the song a few times, we started using that line as a God Sized Question to open up conversations with people in the malls about Christmas, Jesus and Eternity. Have a listen to the song and see what you think about it.

We prayed about it and decided it was a good line to use on a Gospel tract. The tract is suitable for Christmas or any time. We are thinking it will be good to hand out starting on Black Friday when people are lined up in long lines to shop like is shown on the picture on the front of the tract.

The Where’s the Line to See Jesus tract will debut in the November 2011 mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club.

A couple of years ago we developed the Good News Bad News tract which uses scripture to present the Gospel as good news and bad news. These cards have been found to have universal usage around the globe any place where people speak (and read) English. Recently we under took to translate this tract into Spanish. The Spanish version makes its debut in the November mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club!

From time to time we get requests for tracts for various types of occasions or for specific age groups. This tract is the result of a number

Play by the Rules

of requests for a tract specifically for kids. We have intentionally designed this tract for kids. Probably any kid that can read could understand this tract. We focused on lying, stealing, cursing and disobedience instead of some of the other commandments (adultery). Then when we name repentance we describe it as “turn away and do the opposite”. We put a picture on the front that we hope many kids will connect with because they play lots of games either for fun or in highly organized ways.

We pray that by doing these things that the tract will be useful to lead many kids you know to Jesus Christ and that they will repent and trust Him for salvation. The Play by the Rules tract will debut in the August 2011 mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club. If you are not already enrolled, you can enroll online!

The I’m Sorry Linda tract uses and image from Reverend Fun on the front. This is our third tract to feature a cartoon from Reverend Fun (the other two are I’ll Get This One and Nothing is Certain). When we made the first two Reverend Fun tracts, we had looked through the archives and selected this comic to use for a third tract. However, it had taken some time in order to settle on the text for the back as well as find the right timing to release it in the tract club.

The tract leverages the idea of jeopardy where you are trying to answer a question – in this case – the BIG question – why should you get into Heaven? The message on the back is adapted from our popular Get Out of Hell Free tract.

Handing this tract out is both fun and easy. Sometimes I’ll simply ask people “do you like jeopardy” and hand them the tract. Or ask “do you know the answer to the big question?”

We pray that this tract will be fun to hand out, bring glory to God and lead many to repent and trust Jesus for salvation!

The new What is Hell Like tract is not currently slated to go out in the tract club. However, you can read about that tract on the main Bezeugen BLOG.

We took these tracts out for the first time today. While getting into a number of conversations with people we were able to offer them this new tract to show them how the Bible describes Hell.

Perhaps we will put these in a future mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club.