Where did the summer go? Seems like yesterday the children in the neighborhood were playing in the lawn sprinklers to cool off, and the purring of lawnmowers could be heard almost daily. Now the purring of snow blowers is about to fill the air. Yet no matter what season we are in, God continues to reach out to a lost and dying world with the truth that Jesus took our wrath so we could be free from it in eternity.

Since our last update, God has answered the prayer we asked for regarding He providing the funds for about 20-25 Neil Anderson books: Victory Over The Darkness to be used in prison outreach, praise God! Funds were provided through Alpha Prison Ministry. Details are being worked out at the prison with the Staff and the Chaplain as this is being written. Though our involvement in prison outreach is on a part-time basis, and broadcasting testimonies through the Internet, Video, Audio Cassette, and Printed form remains our primary call, ministering to prisoners on spiritual warfare issues is hopefully equipping us to be more useful and able ministers as we continue to be used in the media outreach and however else God may want to use us.

God has been directing us to start emailing out more testimonies, though we've encountered a lot of resistance in being able to consistently do so from the enemy. (Would that surprise anyone?!) We are asking and trusting God to speak to people's hearts as to whom recipients of these Weekly Testimonial Encouragers should be passing them along to. We are also asking people to supply us with email addresses of friends and people who they believe could benefit from receiving these Weekly Testimonial Encouragers. Please pray and ask the Lord about email addresses He would lay on your heart to forward to us. Fear quickly surfaces in these matters, and we want to exhort you to not let it keep you from being used of the Lord to be used of Him in reaching lost souls. We will not divulge the identity of people who give us email addresses to send these testimonies to.

We are also privileged to be used of the Lord to help start disseminating an anointed testimony book that has been made available to us to help get into the hands of the unsaved.  This book is entitled: Real Life Stories. It was published by Step-by-Step Ministries (www.step-by-step.org) and Jubilee Worship Center in Hobart, Indiana.

This book contains 67 testimonies of people whose lives were dynamically changed by Jesus Christ. This book is one of the best witnessing resources we have ever seen, because the book is put together in such a way that unbelievers will be attracted to read it if it is given to them, or simply placed in front of them to read.

Christians are obtaining copies of this book and passing it along - giving them away to loved ones and friends at work - placing them in doctor and dentist offices ... God is really using this book to draw the unsaved to Him! We'll be using testimonies out of this book as part of our Weekly Testimonial Encouragers to let people be exposed to it.

May we encourage you to contact Precious Testimonies and request a copy of Real Life Stories to find out for yourself just how powerful this book is? We're asking for a suggested donation of $5.95 for each book. All proceeds from this book will go to Precious Testimonies after expenses have been deducted to help meet the financial needs of the ministry.

Sometimes it's good to re-realize the importance of using testimonies to help lead people to Christ (and to encourage the discouraged, and to impart hope and faith to them...letting them be a very useful tool the Holy Spirit can use to glorify God). One of the most classic illustrations of God using the "power of a Real Life Story" is found in Chapter 5 of Mark. It's the familiar account where Jesus crosses the sea and lands in the country of the Gadarenes. Immediately He comes face to face with a demon-possessed man who was in great torment. Jesus casts out the demons that has the man bound; the demons go into a herd of swine and all rush into the sea and the pigs drown.

In Mark 5:18 we read: And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. In verse 19 we read what Jesus says to him. [Notice what Jesus does not say to him: "Go to seminary and become a Bible scholar." Nor, "Go preach hell, fire and damnation to those heathens back home." Nor did he say, "Stay silent about what has happened because a lot of people aren't going to want to hear what you have to say, and I wouldn't want your feelings to get hurt."] What Jesus said was: "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion On you."

Why would Jesus tell the man to do such a thing? Because Jesus knew full well the "power of life changing testimonies." People called to "testify" in court...who simply share the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...are valuable sources to help win a case.  Prosecuting and Defense attorneys both use witnesses to testify to help win their case. Should we find it strange that God would use the same means to help win His case?!  Let's say the courts of our land made it illegal for Prosecuting and Defense Attorneys to allow witnesses to testify. Then what would we have? We would have lawyers talking, talking, talking...using every word they could think of to convince a jury that they were right. That's their job. However...are there easier ways to help convince a jury? Certainly: produce credible witnesses to simply tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and let their testimony do much of the "convincing."

Jesus could have gone into the demoniac's hometown and immediately began preaching and teaching, but the Holy Spirit knew the people weren't ready for that. The ground had to be plowed some. The yeast had to be added to the dough and begin its work. Seeds had to get planted before they could get watered later on once the church began to spread after Jesus resurrected.

People are still the same today as they were since the beginning of time, when it comes to believing something that is new to them, or something that seems odd or threatening. They want "proof' that it is good for them, or is useful and beneficial. They want something of "substance" that they can bounce their thinking processes off of to come to a logical conclusion about the matter. Credible testimonies of people whose lives have been changed for the better is something that the wise have used to help make their case convincing since the beginning of the human race, so it should not surprise us in the least that God uses the same means to try to convince resistant people that Jesus is the real need every person has, and God's Word applied to every life situation is the power of God released for those who have put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ and God's Word properly applied to help them.

In our present age of marketing products and services, we constantly are barraged with testimonies of customers and clients who have become converts as they "testify" of how the product or service has somehow benefited them. Marketing people know testimonies are a priceless source to help persuade skeptical potential customers, so it should not seem strange at all that God would use testimonies of born again Christians to help.

We have a secondary purpose for helping make this book: Real Life Stories available to the Body of Christ. Brother Jim Barbarossa, Director of Step-By-Step Ministries, has unction to be used of the Lord to get other local churches to tap into one of the most priceless assets God has given them...the testimonies of their congregation...and make them available to people outside the four square walls of their local church for purposes of helping reach the lost in their communities. Local church growth should be trusting God constantly for new converts with Holy Spirit inspired action placed behind it (not simply gathering new sheep all the time from dissatisfied congregations elsewhere with no evangelistic thrust whatsoever put forth by the leadership).

We believe every Pastor in America would do well to examine this book, Real Life Stories. For it isn't just a book of born again testimonies that glorifies Jesus and serves as an awesome evangelistic tool in Hobart, Indiana. What that church and brother Jim has done by tapping into the treasure of born again testimonies within their congregation is something any local church can do in America, once they will get past all the objections Satan will hand them for not pursuing it.

I'll say that again, yet in another way: Whatever is spoken about from the pulpit of the local church week after week is what the sheep respond to. If one's born again testimony is not valued from the front of the church, Satan will make certain it remains buried. If you want to see healing come forth in your congregation, it must be addressed continuously from the pulpit. If you want fruitful one-on-one discipleship being conducted by your congregation, leadership must continuously reinforce it from the front of the church. If you want your church to grow with new converts (and not just hardened and embittered sheep from other congregations all the time), then you'll have to continuously be talking about it from the pulpit. Because the congregation has fears about personal evangelism that reaches the moon, why not let their testimonies be a buffer in the matter?

However, Christians do not easily rise to sharing their testimonies in public easily without the church leadership doing a lot of continuously addressing their congregation about it on a frequent basis. Getting them to write out their testimony first, to allow them to diligently hear from the Holy Spirit in how it can best be more effectively spoken...is wisdom, wisdom, wisdom on leadership's part. Once the testimony is written with power from on high, then it is very easy to assemble those testimonies together and put them into a book that your local church can use to place into your community.  Please pray about contacting brother Jim Barbarrosa from Step-By-Step Ministries if something jumps in your spirit, leaders, about what we are addressing here. God has given him a special gift in motivating others to share their testimonies...for the glory of God, and for outreach purposes. Again, Jim can be contacted through: www.step-by-step.org or calling: 219-762-7589.

Until next time, may God keep the fire burning in your soul and spirit to help take Jesus to a dark world that is growing even darker by the day. God told us it was going to happen as we near the return of Jesus Christ. Yet the Good News is that the true church will grow brighter and brighter in the midst of the darkness all around us. Let's keep a fresh flow of "new oil" in our lamps continuously!

In His Love & Service,
Norm & Kathleen Rasmussen