SPLASH!

SPLASH is the title of the new book by Ken and Paula Hemphill. More than a book, it is a lifestyle of evangelism that fits so perfectly with my own philosophy of sharing Jesus. The acronym SPLASH stands for Show People Love And Share Him.

I have always believed that the best way to effectively share the story of salvation is to build a relationship that allows for the free discussion of eternal matters. For the next two days, Dr. Hemphill will be sharing the nuts and bolts of SPLASH with the pastors and lay leaders of the Tri-County Association of Missouri Southern Baptists.

New evangelism strategies can be expensive for churches to purchase all of the necessary training materials. The Hemphills have made this an affordable tool by putting all of the training materials online...for free. You only have to purchase the books. Even though my work schedule won't allow me to attend these training sessions (they actually expect me to show up like 5 days per week now) I'm looking forward to reading the book that Dr. Hemphill practically gave me.

I was buying some of his books and devotionals yesterday (I've decided to drop by and pick up a couple more today) and was totaling up what I had when he came over to help me. All of his books were discounted by 20-25%. I had my total at $39 plus the $7 SPLASH book. But he said just to make it $40 for the whole thing. He said that he knew that I would be telling pastors and churches about the material as I travel to churches and wanted me to have it. Nice, huh?

Looking back over my posts for the past few months, it's easy to see that I'm not your stereo typical Southern Baptist Evangelist. I'm not positive that's a good thing, it's just the way it is. What is positive is that I really believe that God created us; that He loves us; and that He has redeemed us (bought us back) from our sin. I really believe that there is no way for us to earn salvation and so we have to trust that God has paid for our souls by the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. I believe that to be as true for you as it is for me.

A while back, I had a short conversation with an atheist. He wasn't really an atheist, more of an agnostic. He believed that there could be a supreme being--a designer of the universe, but really wanted some proof. In our conversation, it came out that he also believed that we have souls that live beyond our physical bodies--he believed in ghosts. He really wasn't comfortable talking about the possibility of places like heaven or hell but admitted that those places may indeed exist. My question/challenge for him was this: If you believe that there might be a supreme being (and you do) and you believe that we have souls that live beyond our physical lives (again, you do) and you think that there might be places like heaven and hell; then don't you think that it would be worth your time to investigate what it takes to get into one and stay out of the other?

What about you? What do you believe happens to you when you die? Is that it? You take the big dirt nap and life is over. You live on only in the brief memories of those that knew you and then...nothing? Does the soul cease to exist, the mind grow quiet when the lights go out? Against the background of eternity, the Bible says that life is like a vapor...here for a moment, then gone. Have you made any plans for whatever is beyond living?

I know that there are readers from beliefs that vary from atheism to Christianity to "I believe in a god," and many in between (or outside of these). For the past few weeks, we've been open about our political beliefs. How about an open forum for our religious beliefs?

Any takers?
Be nice.

John