First John on July 4th, 2014

Hello Project Ezra! It’s time for our next reading, First John on July 4^th.  The 4^th is Friday, so there is still time to talk to your friends and church family about you in participating in this year’s reading.  You can participate anytime this weekend, though Thursday or Friday will probably be the best days.  If you want to spend the evening of the 4^th with your family, look for a local picnic, parade, or the like, and go there.  They make perfect venues for reading and open-air preaching.

1^st John is five chapters long, and the chapters are not very long.  its a good book for dividing up, so if you bring someone along, even if they may not have been planning to read, encourage them to do so anyway.  It’s also got an amazing amount passages that are good transitions into the gospel.  It’s one of my favorite books to read from before I open-air preach, particularly since it deals so directly with those who falsely profess Christ.  When I meet someone who states that they are a Christian, but I have questions due to their behavior, this is the book I recommend they read.  A false believer will have a hard time getting through 1 John without being seriously convicted, so use that to your advantage.  Press people on the passages regarding false conversion, and encourage them to take out their own Bibles when they get home, and read it for themselves.

 If you invite a friend or two to join you, recommend that they visit our Facebook page below, and let us know where they will be participating, and who they will be joining. The group has been very slow of late, and I would like to post an outreach report this year, so if you are able to provide pictures, video, or a written testimony, please send them to me or post them on the event page, which is now up.

Project Ezra on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/103701805742/

Mission Good Friday 2014: https://www.facebook.com/events/1522845594605869/?source=1

Here are a few suggestions for gospel springboards that I have shared in past years.  You can use one of these, combine them, or use your own.  But more than anything, please be sure to spend time in prayer and in study of the scriptures to prepare yourself, intellectually and spiritually, to share the gospel in a way that honors and glorifies God.  Don’t forget, we are just the vehicle that caries the message.  By God’s grace we have the incredible privilege of being used for His purposes, and of seeing His power in operation.  But the work is not ours, it’s His. 

Please be sure to post your location on the event wall, so we know where you will be reading and so others can be praying for you.  May God be glorified in your obedience!

All for His glory,

Dan

1 John 1:1-4  The words of life, being manifest through Christ Jesus, with the Apostles as eyewitnesses

1 John 1:5-10  Walking in the light, confessing our sin, and being cleansed by the blood of Christ.  If we say we have not sinned, His word is not in us.

1 John 2: 1-2  Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 2:3-6  Walking in obedience out of love for Christ

1 John 2:15-17  Do not love the world.  The world passing away along with its desires

1 John 2:18-28  The Antichrists, the deceivers who deny the Father and the Son

1 John 3:4-10  The practices of sin and righteousness.  The fruit of true repentance and faith

1 John 4:1-6  Test the spirits.  The Spirit of God and the spirit of error

1 John 4:7-12  The love of God made manifest through us in Christ Jesus

1 John 5:1-5  Those born of God overcoming the world

1 John 6:6-12  The testimony of God concerning His son.  He who has the Son has life.