Welcome to the Lanterns of Light blog. In 2010, I created a blog called Manna For The Journey. It chronicled my training and eventual bicycle ride from my home in West Central Illinois to Colorado Springs in September. The ride became a missions trip to raise money and awareness for a non-profit organization called Bibles For The World whose corporate office is in Colorado Springs.
I rode thru Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, a total of about 925 miles. I did this also as a vacation and to celebrate my 50th birthday. You can read about my training and the complete trip at www.mannaforthejourney.blogspot.com.
When I arrived at BFTW’s office in Colorado Springs, they had arranged a wonderful celebration for me. I was so impressed with the staff and all those who support BFTW who welcomed me. Even some of my family was there. It was a very emotional time for me.
Even though I had accomplished most of my goals during the trip and had raised a goodly amount of financial support for BFTW, I wanted to do more in the future. It is very easy to see the impact that BFTW is making in the lives of people all over the world and especially in Northeast India. They are winning souls for Christ but also ministering to the physical and educational needs of thousands of people every day. You can read all about their many ministries at www.bftw.org.
This is a new blog that I wanted to start to help follow my work while representing BFTW where I live and the surrounding areas. Bibles For The World has graciously supplied me with material so that I can visit local churches and speak about the importance of Missions work, my bicycle missions trip and the ministries of BFTW. I’ll be posting about the churches and other local events that I speak at or set my promotional table up at.
Along with the BFTW material that I display, I also give away a lot of evangelism material from Living Waters. This is a ministry that is founded by Ray Comfort out of California. Kirk Cameron is also a partner in this ministry. They have some of best resources for evangelism that you’ll ever find and they are so easy to distribute. You won’t find any better courses for witnessing than theirs (in my humble opinion).
I run out of their tracts often because many people ask for them. Their Million Dollar tract is my favorite and easiest to hand out. You can visit their websites at www.livingwaters.com and also www.wayofthemaster.com.
The name of this site is significant for a number of reasons. For one thing, my family and I are Colonial reenactors. I love pretending to be one of our family’s relatives who served in our countries war for independence. I don’t have a lot of talent at anything, but I do like to make colonial lanterns which we utilize at our camp sites. These wooden lanterns are cheap to make, don’t take too long to make and people seem to really like them. A few of the people I’ve gifted them to don’t even utilize them for light, but only for decoration. I’ll be selling these at local events, businesses and churches to help raise money for BFTW.
The most important reason for naming this blog Lanterns of Light is, as Christians, we need to be lights in a darkened world. That may be where we work, in our homes, at school or where ever; we need to not hide our candles (light) under a bushel (cover). A born again Christian represents God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit. We must live a life that illuminates the light of God’s grace and love.
God’s Word is full of scripture that relates to “light”. The most important one I believe is found in the book of John, chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Do you have the light of life in your life?
As I try to continue to update this blog I’ll mention Scriptures that refer to “light”. I pray that you may get some benefit from what I write and that you’ll be in prayer for me as I continue to try and be an ambassador of Christ and also a representative of Bibles For The World. Any support you can give to BFTW will be greatly appreciated. May God richly bless you.
Our Lord and King, first served,
Mark Bentley
No comments:
Post a Comment