Pamphleteers Of Jesus - The Trackers Of Jesus

The Trackers Of Jesus

Tract #2 in the Pamphleteers Of Jesus series

Inspiration From The Lives Of Frank Jenner and David Smethurst

From A Pioneer Tracker In India To Another In Australia. . .

All in all, I Have Labored In Vain was a very edifying and inspirational sermon— a long and thought-provoking message, certainly one of Pastor Wilkerson’s best. But it was his brief description of the George Bowen experience in India that particularly touched my heart... it's the part of his message that has really stuck with me. On first reading this account of Bowen’s life in India, I immediately thought of the obvious parallel to the now-familiar story of Frank Jenner, as brilliantly told by Dave Smethurst in his often-distributed, non-copyrighted audio account titled I Got Off At George Street.

I had heard Dave's audio account of the story first, long before I ever got hold of a very detailed and factual biography about Mr. Jenner that was produced by Dr. Raymond Wilson. His quite excellent book, which I urge everyone to purchase and read, is entitled Jenner Of George Street: The Story Of Frank Jenner, Sydney's Soul-Winning Sailor. My reading of Dr. Wilson's book at a later time would confirm my certainty of the parallel.

I learned about George Bowen by reading a message from Rev. David Wilkerson, and I had immediately seen a connection with the life of Frank Jenner...

What a marvelous parallel is here. It is so much like the case of Frank Jenner. The two lives were similar in several important ways.

I remembered how powerfully God had used Frank Jenner's little tract ministry, coordinating it in such a way that it had made a big impact on many lives. The lives that Frank Jenner had shaped through his little street ministry were many. I saw then that Rev. Francis Dixon, David Smethurst, and myself are among the people whose perspectives had been transformed, and whose actions had been redirected, by the daily routine of a humble street evangelist in Australia.

The Word Of God When Sent Out Always Has Effects. . .

I could perceive a rather clear connection with the lifetime of George Bowen, since Frank Jenner's lifetime was an obvious illustration of what Bowen must have accomplished in Bombay. In my own mind, I felt certain that George Bowen's impact on lives in Bombay had certainly been at least as effective as that of Frank Jenner upon lives in the city of Sydney, Australia.

In fact, I had a very strong feeling that George Bowen's "ineffectual" tracts ministry in Bombay must have shaped India in an even more powerful way than Frank Jenner's lifetime had shaped the future of people he met on the streets of Australia.

Did George Bowen somehow accomplish much less in India than Frank Jenner was able to accomplish in Australia? No, the difference in results is illusory, caused by a false perception of what was happening.

The only real difference between these two street evangelists is that George Bowen died without ever understanding the repercussions that came forth from his little tract ministry in Bombay! George Bowen died without ever glimpsing what God had been accomplishing through his evangelism efforts. That's regrettable, but it doesn't mean that God wasn't achieving great wonders through his tracts ministry.

You see, when the Word of God is sent forth, it can never return void of effects. There are always results from a sending forth of God's Word. In fact, there are endless repercussions as a result of any such evangelism effort.

It doesn't matter how small the action of faith may be. God will always use the sending forth of His Holy Word to get some powerful results. Even if we can't see them right away. Even if a person can't see them for 40 years, right up until the day he dies... as in the case of George Bowen.

Jenner + 100,000 Contacts + Dixon + Smethurst +Wilson = A Legacy Of Light. . .

Now before I tell you about the life of Frank Jenner, I first need to tell you a bit about how Dave Smethurst’s wonderful message on the life of Frank Jenner had rescued me from a very strong mood of discouragement on an earlier occasion, circa February 1 of 2005. You see that one bout of discouragement I felt about my tracts work, which I suffered and described for you in booklet #1, was not the first time that I very much needed encouragement from some inspirational writer or speaker. It was actually the second time (at least) that I was terribly discouraged and in need of help. I had wandered into that little swamp of despair and self-pity once before, getting the unhappy feeling that all my tracts ministry efforts were perhaps ineffectual and inconsequential.

When I discovered the lifetime of George Bowen in Dec. 2005, I had climbed out of a mood of discouragement that was exactly like the mood of discouragement I felt in the last days of January and on Feb. 1, 2005, when I first discovered the lifetime of Frank Jenner. Frank Jenner's story was a glittering jewel that I found in the endless stream of the internet; there I had discovered an astounding MP3 audio file which Dave Smethurst had created and made available for free distribution. The audio file turned out to be a rarity in another way besides: it was a "non-copyrighted" message about the power of God, one called I Got Off At George Street.

On Feb. 1, I had downloaded Dave's 9-minutes-long account of Frank Jenner’s life, and listened to it for my own edification. As it began, I noticed that an announcer stated that "The following message is non-copyright. Duplication is encouraged." I probably thought at that moment how nice it is that this file can be freely distributed to poor people like me, all around the world, without anyone charging them money for the privilege. Then I heard the audio account of Frank's activities in Australia... and I was utterly amazed by Dave’s story!

I had never heard of Mr. Frank Jenner before, so I was very glad that someone finally told me a little about his lifetime on planet Earth! I was able to learn from this marvelous message, beautifully rendered by Dave Smethurst, many fascinating details about the life and impact of this little-known street evangelist of Sydney, Australia.

Frank Jenner Reached Out To 10 People Per Day For 40 Years. . .

Mr. Frank Jenner, I learned, had confronted 10 people per day (and witnessed with tracts) for about 40 years on the streets of Australia. Frank Jenner had spent about 16 of these years witnessing just in one famous Sydney location known as George Street. It was there that he confronted a great many pedestrians, especially military men, and challenged them with a very important question: “If you die tonight, where will you spend eternity— in Heaven, or in Hell?”

As he asked this question with a genuine concern, people would stop for a moment, and Frank would usually manage to pass an evangelism tract to each person that he so encountered.

Frank Jenner was an enormously diligent lay evangelist, utterly devoted to the cause of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Frank had a determination to get the message out, and he had faith in Jesus. It's possible that his speaking ability was a little less impressive than his determination and his confidence in Christ.

He continued this diligent and virtuous habit day after day, year after year, for a total of 40 years.

But as the Dave Smethurst story reveals to all listeners, it was not until Frank was rather near the end of his lifetime of witnessing that this humble gentleman would start to understand his own fruitfulness. Even then he got the merest inkling of a real comprehension. His lifetime as a street evangelist and tracker would ultimately amount to a grand total of 40 years spent in persistent street witnessing, yet for most of his lifetime, Frank Jenner was not at all aware of the great fruitfulness of his own lay ministry.

Frank Jenner was finally informed, near the end of his lifetime, that his street work in Australia had not been futile! He had not labored in vain!

Indeed, God had given his work a fruitfulness far beyond anything that he could ever have dreamed! The Lord had greatly blessed Frank’s labors in the harvest fields of Earth, and all those seeds Frank had planted kept growing and growing, year after year.

Repercussions And The Power Of God's Holy Spirit. . .

Frank had challenged 10 people every day, and that makes about 3,650 people every year. He had done this every day for all of the 16 years that he spent ministering to the people on Sydney’s George Street. As he had faithfully carried on his street evangelism ministry for the persons in this one little area where he lived, he had encountered a lot of people. Frank Jenner may have challenged as many as 58,400 people on George Street to choose an eternity in Heaven with Christ.

Frank Jenner had been God’s Watchman, one who fully saw the danger that lies ahead for all men (and women) at the moment of death. He had warned as many people as he could by making for himself this diligent habit, in which he confronted and challenged at least 10 people every day. Rather than letting all of his fellow humans blindly fall into an eternity in Hell, Frank bravely challenged many of the pedestrians he saw on George Street. He tried to force them to wake up, see Reality, and make a decision in their own minds: Would they choose Eternal Life with Christ, or would they choose an Eternal Torment with Satan?

But Frank really had no idea whether or not he had been truly successful in “getting through” to the hearts of any of the more than 58,000 people whom he had confronted on George Street. Whenever they had stopped to listen, he would talk more with them about Jesus, telling them that He was coming back soon. Often he chose to confront sailors and soldiers, and during World War II, his challenge to them took on a new urgency.

Sometimes Frank had persuaded someone to come along with him to a church service nearby. More frequently, they had at least been willing to accept a tract. Frank had even seen some of them stop and pray with him right on the street, willing to make an open profession of faith in Christ and their need of salvation... but he did not know what had become of any of the many thousands that he accosted.

Frank Jenner was first informed of some fruitful results only in the later years of his long life, after he had already spent 16 long years on George Street, where he had been confronting passers-by and handing out his tracts to them. He had seen few signs of success. But after 16 years of diligent street evangelism, something important happened to him. The possibility of his fruitfulness was then revealed to him by means of a world-roaming British pastor, Rev. Francis Dixon, who tracked him down during a visit to Sydney.

Rev. Dixon informed him that Frank's street ministry had a definite impact upon the lives of 4 people he had discovered, all of whom had gone on to become evangelical Christians. Remember that this is a number of merely 4 persons out of more than 58,000 to whom Frank had witnessed in the 16 years he had already completed on George Street.

Just 4 people! Yet even that small number was enough to make Frank praise God and be willing to spend a total of 40 years, including all the remainder of his lifetime, in continued efforts at street evangelism. The little glimmering of an understanding that he got from Rev. Dixon on that day was enough to keep him going for 24 more years.

God's Holy Spirit touched Frank's mind then and gave him just a tiny little glimpse of what was being accomplished by his actions. And that kept him at it for an additional 24 years. He kept right on going, standing firm in Christ... because he knew he was standing in the Right Track. He knew the Way of Jesus Christ, and he sensed that God wanted him to show other people that Right Track. Because it's the only way that anyone will ever get to Heaven.

You might even say, as I will here venture to proclaim, that "Frank Jenner just kept on trackin'!"

I hope that you are inclined at this point to think, as I do, All right, Brother Frank! Go for it, in Jesus' Name! He did, and I am sure that he got far more results than he ever realized.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, Frank never got much more feedback, after that first 1953 encounter with Rev. Dixon, in the following 24 years. He remained largely uninformed concerning the fruitfulness of his little tracts ministry... right up until the day he died, on Sunday, May 8, 1977.

But he kept right on going, even without much encouragement. His evangelism efforts continued through most of the subsequent years, until he was 73 years old. That would be his final year on Earth.

A Walk Of Faith On George Street. . .

As Frank Jenner had walked by faith, not by sight, on George Street in Sydney, so he had walked by faith, not by sight, on many other streets in Australia that he had afterward traversed. Everywhere he went, he continued to confront people with the good news that Jesus can rescue them from Death and Hell. Everywhere he went, he continued to pass out tracts.

Personally, I'm inclined to think that this fellow was smarter than Albert Einstein. Einstein was convinced that God made the Universe, but he didn't spend his life evangelizing for Jesus Christ.

I'll leave it to your own imagination: Whom do you think God is more likely to reward with an Eternal Life in Heaven— Albert Einstein, or Frank Jenner? Who is likely to have gotten a lot of eternal rewards from Jesus Christ, the Lord of our Universe, when he finally got to Heaven?

Frank Jenner, without the shadow of a doubt!

Albert Einstein's lifetime on Earth was incredibly short when compared to the Eternity that he could have spent in Heaven with Jesus Christ! Now there is a truly fine example of relativity for you!

A Stephen Tucker web page I found has a version of the story that describes Frank's encounter with Rev. Dixon a bit more concisely than the longer account in a book by Dr. Raymond Wilson. There Stephen Tucker writes:

"Later, in Frank and Jessie Jenner's humble town-house, as Francis Dixon told the four stories of the men who had responded to the evangelist's simple question, Frank Jenner, with tears in his eyes, fell to his knees and prayed: 'O Lord, thank you for tolerating me.' After a time of prayer, Jenner confessed that after speaking to 10 people a day for the previous 16 years, this was the first time he had heard of lasting results. 'You know, I never heard that anyone I ever spoke to had gone on for the Lord. Some made professions of salvation when I spoke to them, but I never knew any more than that," he said to his guests."

The British pastor had ultimately discovered quite a few people, in England, in the United States, and even in India, who had all become Christians because of Frank Jenner, a humble servant of God who witnessed and distributed tracts to by-passers on the streets of Australia. Frank Jenner's little evangelism ministry continued for 40 years, from 1937 till his death in 1977.

It is believed that in his grand total of 40 years spent in street-witnessing and passing out tracts, Frank Jenner must have confronted and passed tracts to as many as 100,000 people or more.

Some of these persons, all coming to faith because of Frank’s street ministry efforts, had even become great Christian soul-winners, so they had been bringing many thousands of additional people to Christ! And all this had happened, in the grace of Christ and in the power of God's Holy Spirit, merely because of the faithfulness of this one Christian layperson!

The British pastor, whose name was Rev. Francis Dixon, was a bit of a detective, but he was guided by the Holy Spirit to "track down" Frank Jenner, and he was quite correct to do so. I'm not surprised that he got so very curious to meet this layperson, a non-charismatic Christian who had done so much good work for the cause of Jesus Christ. He just had to meet this fellow, and thus he had tracked him down.

That's when Frank apparently got his first inkling of understanding concerning his own evangelical accomplishments. I'm sure that even this small insight came to Frank as a bit of "sudden awakening"... by which God's Holy Spirit momentarily allowed him to get a gestalt view of the larger world-picture.

Contacts Who Had "Gone On With The Lord". . .

Frank was by then rather old, and he was quite amazed to learn about the secret fruitfulness of his street-witnessing work and the ultimate effectiveness of all his tracts-passing evangelism efforts. Frank Jenner revealed to Rev. Dixon that “I never knew that anyone I witnessed to had gone on with the Lord.” He was surprised that some of his “targets,” if I may use that term, had also become big evangelists at a later time. It was all “good news” to Frank Jenner, and it brought tears to the old man’s eyes. He finally realized that his life was not futile, and his labors had not been in vain.

Later on, Rev. Dixon discovered several more of Frank’s George Street contacts who had "gone on with the Lord." One was a lady who, when converted to faith in Christ by the concern that Frank expressed to her, had actually "gone on with the Lord" by becoming a missionary to India! This Australian woman had been working in India for years, alongside many other missionaries in that country. Together, they were diligently working to bring many thousands of people in India to a new faith in Christ!

Now that, to me, was one of the most impressive parts of the Frank Jenner story. His words and his tracts had inspired a large number of people to become, not only Christian believers, but fiery evangelists for Jesus Christ! His words and his tracts had ultimately resulted in thousands more people being saved in the far-away nation of India!

Frank’s long labors on George Street, without his knowledge, had grown to become an astounding worldwide outreach. He had inspired a number of people to become, not merely Christians, but sold-out evangelists for Jesus Christ. He had made converts of so many persons that some of his contacts had actually become evangelists— in Australia, in Britain, in India, and in the United States. Perhaps in other countries as well.

You see, Frank Jenner had put them on the Right Track, and so they had "gone on with the Lord" by following the path of Jesus Christ. Frank Jenner had showed them the Way of Jesus, which is the only way that anyone can ever get to Heaven.

These men and women, for whom Frank Jenner had once reached out with a divine concern, were now continuing his own evangelism work all over the world.

A Celebration In Heaven. . .

Dave Smethurst, at the end of his wonderful audio message about Frank Jenner, which I consider to be absolutely one of the most inspiring that I have ever heard, makes a very reasonable comment.

At the end of his message, Dave said, “You know, I would say that he has to have had commitment. To show gratitude and love for Jesus, to do that for 40 years, and not hear of any results. That simple little non-charismatic man witnessed to perhaps 147,000 people. I think that what God was showing that Baptist pastor from London was just the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Goodness knows how many more had been arrested for Christ and were doing huge jobs out in the mission fields. Mr. Jenner died two weeks later. Can you imagine the reward he went home to in Heaven?

“I doubt his face would ever have appeared on Charisma Magazine. I doubt there would ever have been a photograph and a write-up in Billy Graham’s Decision magazine. No one except a little group of Baptists in Sydney knew about Mr. Jenner, but I tell you his name was famous in Heaven. Heaven knew Mr. Jenner, and you can imagine the welcome and Red Carpet and the fanfare that he received when he went home to Glory.”

That was the end of the Dave Smethurst story that is usually called I Got Off At George Street, or occasionally The Man On George Street.

A Personal Application. . .

I must tell you that the ending of Dave’s audio message actually brought tears to my eyes, when I heard it that first time. Frank Jenner had labored in the harvest field for Jesus a total of 40 years, and for most of his lifetime, he was not able to see that he was having any real success. He had done it without much in the way of practical reinforcement, without many earthly rewards. He had labored persistently, without any acclaim or encouragement, without any visible signs of effectiveness. He had kept going for 40 years on blind faith alone, just because of his gratitude to Jesus and his conviction that he must try to help Jesus rescue the imperiled people of a lost and dying world.

Yet Jesus had used the labors of this humble and seemingly “ineffective” Christian in ways that he could not even imagine, to accomplish great and mighty things for the Kingdom of God.

It brought tears to my eyes, I guess, because I saw in Frank Jenner a “kindred spirit,” someone else who was pouring out his life as a sacrifice for Jesus without any visible signs of success.

In a self-centered way, I thought then mostly of my personal distress: How my own family members, my closest relatives, and most of my “old friends” had done virtually nothing to encourage me or to lend support to my tracts ministry, as I had continued to produce, year after year, the evangelism tracts that I gave away freely as booklets and through the internet sites. I had already been writing and distributing my evangelism tracts, at that time, for a period of 16 years without many visible signs of success.

That number of 16 years, as it happens, was the same amount of time that Frank Jenner had spent on his George Street witnessing, without ever knowing of the impact his efforts were having upon the larger world.

A Tamil-Language Tract Would Be Distributed Soon In Tamil Nadu. . .

The first of two evangelism tracts I had written specifically for India was being published in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, India, at that very moment. But I had not yet even seen a preview/model copy of the first Tamil booklet. Rev. Dr. W. S. Vedha was already talking about having my new series of India tracts translated and published, albeit in small numbers, in 4 different languages of India, yet I felt like a complete failure.

You see, my English-language tracts had been around for 16 years already, yet few Americans seem to have paid any attention to them. I hardly ever got e-mails to indicate that people were even discovering my tracts, and I almost never got one that actually commented on the contents of a particular tract... or that thanked me for it having been a beneficial influence in someone’s life. No one was reporting in to me about the usefulness of the tracts. So I felt I was a lot like Frank Jenner, just working away, year after year, without any visible signs of effectiveness.

At the end of Jan. 2005, I knew the Tamil tract would be going out soon, and that at least 11,000 or more would soon be distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. Strangely enough, I was still a little depressed then, because I was wanting the tracts ministry to grow a lot faster than it had been doing so far.

My 2 new tract messages were about to be reaching people in India through translations into the Tamil language, and maybe someday they would be translated into the Malayalam and Telugu languages as well, so I was certainly praising God for that. Glory to the Lord! But in the U.S., in my own native land, it seemed that our evangelism tracts were going completely unnoticed, and were unknown to most of the population. If people were printing up their own copies (as I permit) and distributing them in the U.S., they were not bothering to tell me about it.

Then On Feb. 1, 2005, I Finally Heard The Frank Jenner Story. . .

I was inclined then to remember the words of Jesus— that a prophet is not without a certain degree of honor... except in his own country, and in his own home town. That seemed to have been likewise true for Frank Jenner.

Frank Jenner’s experience was not unique. I certainly had a similar life-experience in my own efforts to establish a tracts ministry. I had listened to the Dave Smethurst audio account with amazement, and of course I had felt a lot of sympathy for Frank’s situation.

On Feb. 1, 2005, I heard the story of Frank Jenner for the first time, and it lifted my spirit immensely. Suddenly I felt motivated to continue in my tracts-writing efforts! On Feb. 2, 2005, the very next day, I received in my mailbox a present from India. Rev. Dr. W. S. Vedha had sent me a "model" copy of the first Tamil tract made for Tamil Nadu!

Needless to say, on Feb. 2, I got another big boost for my previously-sagging confidence, because on that day I got to see my preview copy of the paper booklet for our first Tamil-language version of The Temple Of Miraculous Fire. Suddenly I could again see the huge potential of an evangelism-tracts ministry!

On Feb. 1, 2005, if I recall correctly, I had written slightly over 20 tracts in a period of 16 years. In the following 1 and 1/2 years, I brought that number up to more than 80 tracts. Suddenly I was motivated.

Frank Jenner, Dave Smethurst, and Dr. Raymond Wilson were a big part of my sudden burst of enthusiasm, and they helped me get my tracts ministry going forward. Now it seems that, in the grace of God, this tracts ministry may end up being somewhat international in nature. God lifts up the humble and often does a lot more with a simple act of faith than anyone quite realizes. Frank Jenner is proof of that.

I was vastly inspired by that little audio story about Frank Jenner, so beautifully rendered by Dave Smethurst. I didn’t know it then, but another street evangelist had an experience much like that of Jenner, almost 100 years before him, in a different and equally far-away land.

It would not be until several months later that I learned of another fellow, George Bowen of Bombay, who had done something very similar in the 19^th century.

And Ultimately, The Effects Were Strongly Felt Even In India. . .

When I finally learned about the life of George Bowen, I was astounded to realize that he, like Frank Jenner, had passed out his evangelism tracts for 40 years without visible signs of success. Rev. Bowen’s street evangelism had been done in Bombay, India, and if anything, his real-life experience was even more bleak than that of Frank Jenner.

George Bowen, in the earlier century, had died in Bombay without knowing of a single native of India who had been converted through his ministry efforts. He died in 1888.

Frank Jenner died in 1977, when he was 73 years old. He died on a Sunday, just the way he had wanted: It was at the end of Sunday night on May 8, 1977. Perhaps not coincidentally, 8 is the Biblical number for “a new beginning.”

On Feb. 1, 2005, a frustrated tracts-writer named Ken Street would finally learn of Frank Jenner's lifetime.

Drawing much inspiration from the diligence of Frank Jenner, and getting much encouragement from the enthusiastic wisdom of David Smethurst. . . I went back to work again.

Having acquired from Frank Jenner and David Smethurst a wisdom and enthusiasm that I did not previously possess, I was now motivated to write/create additional evangelism tracts for India. And new ones for the Native American Indian Tribes. And some that were customized for Africa as well.

It was the encouragement I got from the story of Frank Jenner, via an excellent rendition from David Smethurst, that allowed me to slay the giant Despair and get back to work again.

This motivation allowed me to return to my former efforts as what I call "an armchair missionary." By this phrase I mean to suggest that I was living at home in the U.S. and still doing a kind of "vicarious" missionary work, in which I was repeatedly writing evangelism tracts for foreign parts of the world. I was also producing the printing-patterns for these cross-cultural tracts and posting them on our various websites. So anybody anywhere on Earth could download them and start printing out 10,000 copies or so of any one of my international tracts, any time he/she might wish to do so.

Without the encouragement I got from Frank Jenner's life-story, I might not be living in Seoul, South Korea, right now— where I am currently trying to produce some new evangelism tracts for East Asia. I'm busy praying for new translations into Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, since I also hope to print up paper copies for Taiwan and Japan... as well as the ones we will try to make for South Korea.

This might not be happening right now if I had not gotten a lot of inspiration and motivation from the powerful story of Frank Jenner and his own little tracts ministry... as I heard it related by a remarkably energetic evangelist named David Smethurst.

Just as Rev. David Wilkerson was greatly impressed and inspired by the life-story of George Bowen, an American missionary in Bombay, so I myself have found a great source of encouragement in the life-story of Frank Jenner.

For 40 Years, Frank Jenner Walked By Faith— Not By Sight. . .

Frank Jenner walked by faith, not by sight, as he continued his little ministry of tracts and street evangelism year after year... for a grand total of 40 years. Now I'm trying to have that same kind of "blind" faith as I continue my own little tracts ministry, year after year. I've been at it without much visual support for about 17 years already.

May God give me strength to continue in my tracts-writing work, and help me to trust Him even when I'm not seeing the grand success or the world-shaking results that I may wish to see.

I must be eternally grateful to both the humble street evangelist named Frank Jenner, and to the dynamic church speaker named David Smethurst, for the encouragement they have given me. It helps me to keep going.

David Smethurst seems to have focused much of his boundless energy toward motivating church people, and I can say that he certainly gave me the motivation I was looking for, an encouragement that I was desperately needing. God bless him for it!

* * * * *

How To Be On Fire For Jesus. . .

Now, you may be wondering how on Earth anyone could ever get to be like Frank Jenner— so enthusiastic and determined about the idea of evangelizing for Jesus Christ. Imagine— someone so obsessed with Jesus that they are actually passing out evangelism tracts on a daily basis! How does anyone ever become one of these Jesus nuts anyway?

Well, I’m glad you asked, because it’s really not so difficult to explain. It happens quite frequently, you see. What happens is that someone prays for the Holy Spirit of God to come inside and take control: You just ask that He will come into your heart and make you His humble servant... you ask that He will lead you and make Jesus become the absolute Lord of your life.

When the person really means that prayer, it’s not long before he (or she) finds himself evangelizing for Christ and running around everywhere “on fire for Jesus.”

That's what happened, for example, to Dave Smethurst, an Australian evangelist that I greatly admire. He has loads of energy and enthusiasm as he seeks to reach the entire world. He's "on fire for Jesus" and burning brightly for his Lord!

You should do as Charles Wesley once said: "Fuel yourself each day with the Word of God, and people will come from miles away just to watch you burn!"

Would you like to see your own life “on fire for Jesus Christ”?

If you’ve never asked Him to become the Lord of your life, here’s how you can do it: Just pray to God in faith, believing that Jesus always was, and is, and always will be God The Son. Believe that Jesus exists for all time and for all eternity as the Holy One of God. Believe that He was there in the Beginning as part of the Divine Trinity which is Almighty God.

Believe that Jesus lives eternally, and know that all things in this Universe were created by Him, through Him, and for Him. Believe that He came from Heaven and that He was born into our world with a human form, in order that He could grow to adulthood and one day rescue our world from the due punishment of sin.

Pray to God, in faith believing, and ask Him to become the absolute Lord of your life. Just ask, and you will receive.

Express what's in your heart. You can say, for example:

"God Above, have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. For too many years I've been following the World, the Flesh, and the Devil instead of Your Son Jesus Christ. I've been living in the darkness of sin and Hell, but now I'm finally starting to see the Light. Almighty God, I want You to become the absolute and awesome Lord of my heart. I don't want to live in arrogance and rebellion for even one more day. I want instead to live in humble reverence before You... as a servant who shows You proper respect and one who gives You all due honor. I want to be Your humble servant and a genuine follower of Your Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Forgive me for all my sinful habits and my unbelief, I pray. Help me not to live like a pagan any more. Make me a genuine believer and a follower of Jesus, I pray. Transform me with Your Holy Spirit. Make me a "soldier" of Christ. I pray all this believing, in Jesus' Holy Name. Amen."

Before you know it, you’ll find yourself running around to tell everybody all about Jesus and why He came to Earth, and you’ll be talking just like one of those Jesus boosters.

On the other hand, if you are already claiming the name of “Christian,” but you certainly don’t consider yourself to be “one of those Jesus nuts,” then don’t worry about it too much. It’s not too late for you. There’s still time for you to become one.

If you’ve never done much for Jesus before, even though you’ve claimed to be a Christian, it’s not yet too late for you to make Jesus truly the Lord of your life. You can just pray to God in faith, telling Him that you know you have often failed him in the past... and say frankly that you know you have in past years been a lazy and unproductive servant, not worthy of Him.

Ask Him to become truly the Lord of your life. Ask Him to help you repent of your laziness and to transform you into a fruitful evangelist. Tell Him that you want to be a better representative of His Holy Name, and that you would like to become a real “soldier” of Jesus Christ.

Ask God to transform you into a humble servant, one who is fearless and effective, as Frank Jenner and David Smethurst have proven themselves to be. Ask to have your heart set "on fire" for Jesus. Ask that your breast will be utterly filled with the fire of God's Holy Spirit, and that His Light will shine, through you, for everyone to see!

Just say something like this: "God Above, hear my prayer. Almighty God, I want You to become the absolute and awesome Lord of my heart. I want to live in genuine reverence before You. I want to be Your humble servant and a genuine follower of Your Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Forgive me for all my sinful habits and my unbelief, I pray. Help me not to live like a pagan, an unbeliever, or what Jesus calls "a lazy and worthless servant." Help me to be productive and fruitful for You, the way You want me to be. Help me to plant a lot of seeds for You, and then please shine Your Light upon those seeds, so that they also grow up to be fruitful trees. With the Light of Christ upon them, and with nourishment from His Living Water, let these many seeds grow into tall and strong trees for Your Garden... like mighty oak trees planted by a river of Living Water. Let's bring many more people, many lost souls, into Your Kingdom. I ask this in Jesus' Holy Name. Amen."

If you say words such as the above, you must truly believe them in your heart, and you must confess this desire with your mouth as a proclamation of faith. When you do that, your life as a nominal "Christian" will be forever changed.

You need to put the Sun of Righteousness in your heart! Let Him be truly your Lord; let Him illuminate any darkness and unbelief that is still hiding there in your breast. He will vanquish the Prince of Darkness and make you victorious, if you just give Him a chance.

Any human being can gain inner peace and Eternal Life with God by placing Jesus Christ, Who in the Trinity of God created our Universe, upon a throne at the center of the heart! He deserves that position and that kind of respect. He was first God The Son, but when born in human flesh He became the only sinless and righteous person who ever lived. Yet He sacrificed Himself on a cross for your sake, taking all guilt and sins upon Himself— for you and for me, and for all people everywhere on Earth— that whoever wishes for salvation might be rescued from the due punishment of sins.

If you will do this, you will gain a new contentment and peace as you accept God's organizational plan for the Universe. . . because you'll be letting God be the Ruler of All Things in this world. . . and in your own life. He will forever after be the "Sun of Righteousness" Who shines in your heart!

All it really takes is a simple but sincere little prayer— one that you should make up in your own words. The prayer for faith, for deliverance, and for God's leadership... should come from your own heart!

Some important elements that you might include are:

1) your desire to turn away from all the wrongness or evil of your past life, and your remorse over all the sins of your previous life,

2) your desire for God's forgiveness and mercy through the act of sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ),

3) your desire to know God's leadership in your life,

4) your desire to learn more of God's truth through Bible study,

5) your desire to find fellowship with genuine believers.

When you’re saved, you’ll know Jesus is King of the Universe and the Lord of your life.

You’ll know the three faces of God Almighty: God The Father, God The Son, and God The Spirit. His Holy Light will start to be visible in your own face and actions!

Jesus said of the people of God that "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that God has cast into the sea, and it gathers of every kind: When it is full, it will be pulled up on the shore, where they will sit down to sort the catch, and they will collect the good fish in baskets, but the bad things will be thrown away. This is the way it will be at the end of the world: The angels shall come forth, and they will separate the unrighteous persons from among those justified by God. . ."

Excerpt from the book of Matthew, who was a constant companion of Jesus

and his devoted disciple [13:47-50].

Jesus spoke of the people of God as being like a seed that is growing secretly, saying, "As for the kingdom of God, it is as if a person should cast seed into the ground; and then he sleeps, and he rises up night and day to see that the seed is springing forth and always growing up, although he knows not exactly how. The Earth is bringing forth fruit from itself; first the blade, then the ears of corn, and after that the fullness of the ears of corn. And when all the fruit of the Earth has come forth, immediately God will use the sickle to reap the fields, because the harvest-time has come."

Excerpt from the book of Mark [4:26-29].

It's also important for all of us to remember this:

1) WE SPEAK TO GOD by our prayers.

2) GOD SPEAKS TO US by the words of Holy Scripture.

So we must try to read His words and His Book just as often as we possibly can!!

God wants to bless you for all your long efforts to understand this very confusing and difficult Universe in which we live— so let Him reward your search with the grace of His forgiveness and enlightenment!

* All factual data in this tract booklet concerning the lifetime of Frank Jenner is of course derived from Dr. Raymond Wilson's excellent biography Jenner Of George Street. It's the only book I have about him, so the only one available for my use. Take it from a former librarian (me): This is a very good book, well worth reading. I recommend it to everybody. But be sure you have first heard the remarkable audio account by Dave Smethurst, and that will make the biography a lot more interesting for you. And by the way: David Smethurst has a couple more evangelism stories in his repertoire that are almost as impressive as his account of Frank Jenner's impact on our world! — RKS

THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU BY. . .

Ken Street, a baptized follower of the Way.

This is one of more than 80 Street Tracts available from Christian-Tracts.net,

WorldwideChristianTracts.net , and OnlineChristianTracts.org ...!

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God is continuously harvesting the Earth... as His long-range plan for the Earth's transformation goes ever forward...!