On the heels of our annual meeting celebration in Bowling Green, I continue to hear many positive comments and compliments about the “Tell Your Story” theme and the testimonies shared by those who lead Kentucky Baptists and our agencies and institutions. The testimonies set the tone of the annual meeting and kept us focused on celebrating and sharing God’s work in our lives.
We continue to see people get on the TYS bandwagon as a way of sharing the gospel story that those who are lost might be saved. As an update on this effort, let me share with you that, as of Dec. 10, we had 280 stories posted on the tellyourstory.today website. From Nov. 10 through Dec. 10, we counted more than 30,000 visitors to the site. Just in the past 10 days, visitors from nine different countries listened to approximately 2,500 stories.
The international witnessing opportunity provided by the TYS website should not be overlooked, especially as a gospel presence is being systematically removed in places like Syria and Iraq.
A recent report on the ongoing brutal slaughter of Christians in Iraq revealed an unimaginable brutality. In one reported incident, four Christian children under the age of 15 were called upon by ISIS to declare their allegiance to Mohammed. Instead, they declared their love for Jesus. The Jihadists responded by cutting off the heads of those children. In another reported incident, a Christian father was assured that his children would be decapitated if he refused to swear allegiance to Mohammed. He had every reason to believe the jihadists would do as they promised, so, to save the lives of his children, he declared his allegiance to the false prophet. He then called his pastor to ask if Jesus would forgive him. His pastor assured him of the love and grace of the Savior.
Kentucky Baptists continue to make sacrifices to get more resources to our overseas missionaries. TYS allows us to share not only our resources but our stories with the nations, as well as with our neighbors here at home.
Let me encourage you to go to www.tellyourstory.today and record your story. In 2-3 minutes, share how you came to Christ. A brief but clear presentation of the gospel will be tagged onto the end of your story so that anyone who listens will not only know how you were saved but also understand how they can be saved. Within a day or so of recording your story, you will receive a text message letting you know it has been posted. You will also receive the web address so you can share it as you invite people to listen to your story.
If you want to hear my story, go to bit.ly/paulcky1.
Paul, I read what you had to say about medical marijuana in KY. I strongly disagree with you on this issue. I go to church like a good Christian should try to do. I had an uncle that worked hard everyday of his life, he retired from work within a few years he found out he had cancer. He never used drugs of any kind, but when the chemo and cancer he started losing weight he couldn’t eat right. A friend suggested marijuana so he tried it and guess what he started eating and even though the cancer took his life he was able to gain weight and eat right. So until your personally affected by a tragedy of this type you’ll never understand. You think the FDA really needs to approve something that God made. Which would you chose for your loved one, marijuana or morphine? The drugs the FDA approves kill and addict people daily. Also marijuana isn’t a gateway drug, that term is ridiculous anyway, everything is a gateway including beer and cigarettes. Another thing you never say that Mohammed is your God, denying Jesus is blasphemy. God loves us all, but blasphemy? Read your bibl about blasphemy. I’d rather be in heaven beside my children, dying in the name of Jesus. What if every Christian did this? It is weak to deny Jesus and as a true Christian I’ll never deny Jesus under any circumstance, and you should never condone it and say it’s alright to deny our lord. You need to realize marijuana is natural and no one has ever died from it, God created it. You need to focus on getting prayer back in schools and the Ten Commandments back in courthouses. Christians have become weak on so many issues and your worried about people using marijuana for medical reasons, really? Do you think all these people that say marijuana helps them are lying? They choose to use a natural medicine created by God. You’d rather people take pills approved by the FDA that is the most ignorant statement I’ve heard, especially coming from a Christian man.