Born To Reproduce by Dawson E. Trotman

[    No copyright is claimed for this
etext. To the best of the editor's
understanding of the law, the undated
booklet which served as the basis for
this edition is in the public domain.
     N.B.: Pages 5-22, "Converted
Through Prayer And Scripture
Memorization" in the older booklet are
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somewhat revised) booklet published
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Some of the revisions of the later
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etext.
     It must have been published some
time after June 1956. The date of D.T.'s
"Today" on p.17 must have been the date
(?, not specified) of the Back to the
Bible broadcast, the transcript of which
served as the basis for the printed
edition.

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"Reprinted by Permission
Back to the Bible Broadcast
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<2>
[Picture:] Dawson Trotman

"And the things that thou hast heard of
Me among many witnesses, the same commit
thou to faithful men, who shall be able
to teach others also" (2_Timothy 2:2).

<3>

                FOREWORD

     In the summer of 1955 it was my
privilege to meet Dawson Trotman,
director of The Navigators, for the
first time.  My heart was thrilled not
only with his vision of soulwinning but
also with the manner in which God had
used this man to promote a method of
first winning an individual, then
teaching him how to win and teach
others, multiplying the ministry in this
manner, supplementing the mass approach.

     Through the years I have met
Navigators who were trained by either
Dawson Trotman or one of his men and I
have usually found them to be people
with a passion for souls, a good
knowledge of the Word and something that
made them stand out as individual
Christians.

     From the day when I met Dawson
Trotman, our friendship and fellowship
grew by leaps and bounds.  We spent many
hours together on various occasions, and
almost overnight a David- Jonathan love
grew.

     As I came to know this man better,
I soon discovered the secret of his
power.  Early in his Christian life, he
and another young man covenanted
together to meet for prayer every
morning for six weeks in order to find
God's will in a certain matter. This
spirit and practice of devotion was a
rule of his life.  He rose early to pray
and read God's Word.  Without this
devotion to God he could not have been
so successful in his service.

     The unselfishness of Mr. Trotman
could be seen on every hand. There was
no trying on his part to hoard
information or knowledge that he had
gained in 22 years of experience, but
rather there was a willingness to share
and to cooperate with us in producing a
much more thorough follow-up system for
the Back to the Bible Broadcast.

     The Back to the Bible Broadcast
Home Study Course, a follow-up method
for young Christians, was the result.
Different <4> ones in the organization
gave many hours of their time in helping
to produce this course, and Mr. Trotman
himself supervised every phase of it.

     Possibly one of the last major
accomplishments of this man was his
untiring work in making this Bible
course a reality. It was a pooling of
both experience and knowledge which we
believe will bear much fruit.

     Mr. Trotman went to be with the
Lord June 18, 1956.  In rescuing another
person from drowning in Schroon Lake,
New York, he lost his own life.  How
characteristic this was of his lifelong
ministry!  One man summed it up in these
words:  "I think Daws has personally
touched more lives than anybody I have
ever known."

     The work of The Navigators
continues under able leadership.  It was
solidly built on the principle of one
person training another instead of one
person being the teacher of all.

     My own life is dedicated to a
greater effort than ever before to
follow persistently this great principle
of Bible memory work and
person-to-person evangelism.

     These messages were given by Mr.
Trotman at a Back to the Bible Broadcast
conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, and
have been condensed for use in this
booklet.
               -Theodore H. Epp

<5>

 CONVERTED THROUGH PRAYER AND SCRIPTURE
              MEMORIZATION

     Twenty years of my life were lived
on the wrong side of the cross, and
twenty-nine and a half were lived on
this side with Christ. I can honestly
say that the joy and pleasure I
experienced in any week or month of
these 29 years outweighs all the joy and
pleasure that I could squeeze out of
those first twenty.

     As a little boy I began trying to
get some of the world's pleasure. I
remember the first time I wanted
something that I shouldn't have had. My
father had left home, and Mother was
working at Woolworth's for our living.
She used to put her dimes in a little
bank on her dresser. Many a time I
looked at that bank but could think of
no way to get those dimes out. As I
watched her drop dimes in from time to
time, I decided that she could not tell
if one was gone. So one day I put tins
in the slot, and all of a sudden the
dimes dropped out. I put them all back
but one.

     I went down to a store and bought
ten pieces of round, chocolate-covered
marshmallow candy, each of which had a
little lead prize inside. I ate all ten
pieces, though I did not know what to do
with the ten prizes, because Mother
would see them and ask me where I got
them. I became sick from eating so much
candy, but I also felt sick at heart to
think that I had taken a dime from
Mother.

     How I wish I had been caught then!
I was not caught until ten years later,
when I was twenty years of age. During
my teens I robbed my employer of
hundreds of dollars. I had been the
president of the student body of the
high school and valedictorian of the
graduating class. My subject was
"Morality versus Legality," yet I was
stealing from the school funds. Such is
the deceit of the human heart. Down in
the heart of each person there is a
twofold desire -- a desire for happiness
and a desire to be somebody  <6>  and do
something. Sometimes we give serious
thought to these matters.

     I tried to find a way out of my
difficulties. I joined the Boy Scouts
and took the oath to be "trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous.
etc."  I put on a Scout uniform, and I
felt like a new man. But it was all on
the outside.  Nothing happened to change
me for the better. At 14 I joined the
church, but I had not met Christ. At the
age of 17 I began going with a Christian
girl. She asked me to go to a young
people's meeting. I went with her and
kept on going until I became president
of the young people's society. Then on
high school graduation night I ditched
that Christian girl and went out with a
beautiful unsaved girl.

            THE PATH OF SIN

     After that I thought, "I just can't
do what is right. It's not in me to be
good. I guess I'm one of those guys who
just can't win." It seemed that the
longer I lived, the weaker I became and
the more I traveled downhill. Finally I
gave up trying. I had not touched a drop
of liquor until that time, but just a
week after I graduated from high school
I went out and got drunk at the
suggestion of some of my acquaintances.
They told me I would have fun. What a
lie!

     I woke up the next day at two
o'clock in the afternoon. My suit was
ruined, my vest was gone, my mind was
blank and I did not know where I had
been.

     You would think that would have
been enough, but it was only the
beginning. In my twentieth year I was
picked up four times and hauled away in
an ambulance. Four times the police were
after me. Two months after I had reached
my twentieth birthday I was arrested and
was on my way to jail. Mother was at
home sick in bed with cancer. She must
have had a premonition of this, for she
had said to me that very week, "Son,
you're breaking my heart. I'm  <7>
praying for you, but you know, I'm
afraid if I ever hear that you are in
jail, I'll die. It will kill me."

     On the way to jail, though I was
under the influence of liquor, I did
what any man does when he gets into
trouble -- I cried out to God. I said,
"O God, if You will get me out of this
mess tonight, if You will keep me out of
jail, I'll do whatever you want me to."

     It frightened me as I said that,
because just one month before, I was
nearly drowned in a lake. The girl with
whom I was swimming across the lake
could not make it. I had a bad heart,
and I was hardly able to make it myself.
She yelled, and I grabbed her, and we
both went down under the water. I just
said, "God, save me! I'll do what You
want!" We bobbed up, and a couple coming
along in a boat (they had not seen us
until that moment) pulled us out.

     I had forgotten that promise I made
to God, but this time I thought, "God,
if You will save me this time, I will do
what You want."

     That big policeman had me by the
arm, and he was angry because I had done
something he rightfully hated. But the
moment I cried, he looked down at me and
said, "Do you like this kind of a life?"

     I said, "Sir, I hate it!"

     He took me to a park and made me
stay there three hours, until I sobered
up. Then he let me go with a promise to
do better.

     THE BEGINNING OF BETTER THINGS

     That took place on Friday night,
and Sunday evening I went to church.
This was in a little town of 5,000
people, where there were four churches,
with young people's groups in all of
them. And though there were some young
fellows my age among them, still there
was not one whom God could put His hand
on and say, "I've got a job for you."
<8>  There was not one fellow whom God
could guide to Dawson Trotman to tell
him the Gospel story.

     God picked out a couple of
schoolteachers, Miss Mills and Miss
Thomas, to have a large part in my
coming to Christ. Miss Mills was a
general science teacher, and I was one
of her problem pupils. She wrote my name
on her prayer list and prayed for me
every day for six solid years.

     On the Friday night I was arrested,
she was home with Miss Thomas, looking
up verses in the Bible, trying to find
ten on the subject of salvation which
they could give to the young people to
memorize. Little did she know that the
boy for whom she had been praying for
six years was going to memorize those
verses. When Sunday came along, I
decided to go to young people's meeting.
The pool hall where I played billiards
and gambled was about half a block from
the church. That evening I looked around
to make sure none of the pool-hall bays
were looking, and I sneaked down to the
church and joined in the young people's
service.

     A young couple who knew me from
high school days were standing in the
entrance to the church. They recognized
me and gave me a warm, kindly greeting.
"We're starting a contest tonight," they
told me.

     "Be on my side," said Johnny, and
Alice said, "You be on my side." I went
on Alice's side. She gave me a piece of
paper and said, "Now, you hang onto
this."

     Then we went inside, and the young
people had the usual preliminaries and
service. I do not remember what was
said, except that they discussed a party
and a contest in which the points were
to be given for various things, among
them the memorization of Scripture.

     "What do I do with this piece of
paper?" I asked.

     Alice said, "Do you see those
numbers? They indicate the chapter and
verse in the Bible. When you learn a
verse, you get five points -- 10 verses,
50 points."  <9>

     I went home and dug out my little
Testament, and in the course of a week I
learned all ten verses. Here I was, an
unsaved fellow, learning, "For all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of
God" (Romans 3:23); "For the wages of
sin is death..." (Romans 6:23); "And as
it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment"  (Hebrews
9:27); "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth My Word, and believeth
on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life" (John 5:24). John 1:12 was
also in that group: "But as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God..."

     My side was ahead on the following
Sunday because of my 50 points, and
Alice came around and gave me ten more
verses. Miss Mills and Miss Thomas had
thought that if anybody memorized the
first ten verses, there should be ten
more; and this second ten should be for
new Christians, to help them live the
Christian life. How they prayed that
first week for me!

     In the new group of ten verses were
these: "Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are
become new" (2_Corinthians 5:17);  "But
the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish
you, and keep you from evil"
(2_Thessalonians 3:3)  "If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness" (1_John 1:9).

     I went back the following Sunday
and got another 50 points for the Reds,
The Reds were ahead of the Blues, and I
helped put them there. We won the
contest.

     GOD'S WORK IN A SOUL

     One unforgettable event resulted
from that. During the third week of my
renewed interest in young people's
meetings I was on my way to work with
these 20 verses of  <10>  Scripture
stored away in my memory. I walked
along, minding my own business, with my
lunch pail in my hand. I was back in my
sin. My promise to God, made that night
when the policeman was taking me to
jail, did not change my life. Going to
young people's meeting on Sunday did not
change me either. I was the same guy. I
was spending Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at
the taverns and beer joints, and going
to church on Sunday and feeling, "Well'
I'm a little better. I guess a little of
this good won't hurt me after all."

     But Miss Mills was praying, and the
Word of God was working; and all of a
sudden that morning, as I walked along,
the Holy Spirit brought one of those
verses to my mind: "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, he that heareth My Word,
and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath
everlasting life..." (John 5:24).

     Those words "hath everlasting life"
stuck in my mind. I said, "O God, that's
wonderful -- everlasting life!" I pulled
my little Testament out of my pocket and
looked it up, and sure enough, there it
was -- "...hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is
passed from death unto life."

     There for the first time I remember
praying, after I had grown to be a man,
when I was not in trouble with the
police or something like that. I said,
"O God, whatever this means, I want to
have it." And just like that the Holy
Spirit brought John 1:12 to my mind:
"But as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of
God..." I then looked up that verse, and
there it was, just as I remembered it.
"O God," I said, "whatever it means to
receive Jesus, I do it right now."  That
was my new birth.

     Do you know how I know? I did not
know the next verse, which tells of the
new birth -- "But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the
sons  <11>  of God, even to them that
believe on His Name: which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God" (John 1:12-13) -- but a distinct
change had taken place. I could no
longer enjoy the dirty stories or taking
of the Lord's Name in vain. I used to
think it was fun to use bad language
when I lost my temper, but that grew
distasteful to me. When I cried to God
for help, the Holy Spirit brought one of
the 20 verses to my mind. "If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins..." So I said,
"Okay, God, forgive me."

     My Bible teaches that if any man
can bridle his tongue, he can bridle his
whole body. That was one of the first
lessons I learned at the beginning of
the Christian life. That is one of the
reasons why I love to see a brand-new
Christian begin to get the Word of God
down into his heart. If it had not been
for those 20 verses, I would have been
back in the dance hall and the beer
joints.

     Immediately after my conversion I
began learning verses, and I learned one
a day for the first three years. In
those years I learned my first thousand
verses.

     My preacher said to me when I went
to him for help in leading others to
Christ, "I'll tell you something, lad.
There is an answer in the Bible for
every excuse that any man can give for
not coming to Christ." I believed him.
Then I went alone to prayer and said,
"God, if there is an answer to any man's
excuse, I promise You I will never be
caught on the same excuse twice."

     That is a little promise to make,
but it changed the course of my life.
After all, there are only so many
excuses. This was the seed from which
the Navigator work started and grew.
<12>

       ASKING GOD FOR BIG THINGS

     One day I said to my second
daughter, when she was about seven years
old, "Now, honey, if you get all that
work done by Friday night, I'll see that
you get a pony ride."

     Then I happened to hear Bruce, who
was nine, whisper to her, "You may not
get it. He promised me one once that I
didn't get."

     I had made Bruce that promise but
had forgotten about it, and he had not
come around to claim it. When I
overheard him say to his sister, "It may
not work, because it didn't work with
me," he got his pony ride within 24
hours. I would not feel very good toward
the man who promised his child something
and then refused to give it to him.

     God says in His Book, "...what man
is there of you, whom if his son ask
bread, will he give him a stone? Or if
he ask a fish, will he give him a
serpent? If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your
Father which is in heaven give good
things to them that ask Him?" (Matthew
7:9-11).

     In line with this read what God
promises in Jeremiah 33:3: "Call unto
Me, and I will answer thee, and show
thee great and mighty things, which thou
knowest not." In substance this
particular verse says that if you will
ask God for something big, He will
answer; and He will show you things that
you have not even imagined.

     For those who might say, "Well,
that might have been good back there,
but how about in this day and age?"
there is this corresponding verse in the
New Testament: "Now unto Him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to
the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians
3:20).

     Every person who knows Jesus Christ
has a hookup with heaven.

     When you say, "Father in heaven,"
you have addressed  <13>  God the Father,
the Maker of the universe, the One who
holds the worlds in His hands. What did
you ask for? Did you ask for peanuts, or
toys? Or did you ask for continents? It
is a tragedy when we think of the little
things we ask of an Almighty God. When
He says, "You call unto Me, and I will
answer you, and show you great and
mighty things which you know not," we
should believe Him to mean what He says.

       A SIX WEEK PRAYER MEETING

     I asked a friend of mine, whom I
will call Dick, if he would join me in
praying on the basis of that great
promise. He agreed to. We figured that
we were not going to take any chances on
anything. We examined some verses of
Scripture which dealt with importunity
in prayer. We read that the Lord got up
in the early morning and went out into a
solitary place (Mark 1:35), so we
decided to meet every morning up in the
hills, where we would be away from
noises and distractions. We agreed to
meet with God from five until seven
o'clock each morning of the week,
including Sundays.

     Dick was a plumber and I was a
truck driver, and we had to be in
another city ready to go to work by
eight o'clock. We agreed to meet two
weeks, five weeks, ten weeks -- the
whole year, if necessary; but we were
not going to quit until somehow down in
our hearts we could say to God, "We
believe You've heard us; we believe
You're going to give us what we've asked
for."

     We decided to ask first for the
things that we were doing and for the
people around us and to keep our hearts
open, so that God could widen our
interests to the fullest extent.

     We were challenged by Acts 1:8:
"... ye shall be witnesses unto Me both
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." We were going to let God
lead us by His Holy Spirit to ask for
the biggest things possible.  <14>

     THE BEGINNING OF GOD'S WORKING

     God had already worked in our home
town. I had taken a Sunday school class
of six boys, though I had been a
Christian for only a short time. The
superintendent of the Sunday school said
to me before I had my first session,
"We're going to give you this Sunday
school class, and we're going to pray
for you, because this class has killed
off two teachers already."

     "What do you mean?" I asked.

     "Well," he said, "the two teachers
have already given up; they could not
get these boys to listen." I had prayed
about that, and the Lord had given me
the hearts of three of these kids.

     On the first Sunday they did not
listen, and I prayed to the Lord about
it. I said, "Lord, I had my lesson
prepared, and those boys didn't listen.
How am I going to get them? You made
little boys. Give me some idea."

     He gave me an idea. I went down to
see George, who was the ringleader. I
saw him alone, and I learned something
right there. A boy is different when you
get him alone. George was not blowing
any beans when I looked him in the eye.
I said, "George" (I had read him Mark 4,
where it says that the sower tried to
sow the seed, and the devil snatched it
away), "you know, the devil didn't have
to be in Sunday school last Sunday. He
just used you. While I was trying to
give those other boys the Word, you were
drawing their attention away. Those five
other boys failed to hear what God
wanted them to hear because of you."

     "Oh," he said, "what'll I do?" Now
this is not good theology, but I told
him, "You come back next Sunday and be a
good boy and act like an angel, and
maybe the Lord will forgive you. The
better angel you are, the more He's
likely to forgive you."

     Although I was not very well versed
in theology in those  <15>  days, it
worked! The class listened, and George
was saved, and so were Jimmie and his
other buddies. We did not get through
our lessons. We found that we had to
meet in the middle of the week, and that
little class of six boys grew to where
it was 225 boys who had accepted the
Lord. The Sunday school grew from 100 to
400.

     Dick and I had already seen this
victory, and he was helping me with the
boys. We began praying up there in the
hills for each of these boys by name.

     Since we had calls from other towns
-- San Pedro, Long Beach, Glendale and
Pasadena -- to come over and help them
because of our work with the boys, we
began to pray for those cities also. We
prayed for Pasadena and for Redondo
Beach; as the weeks rolled on, we found
ourselves praying for Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego.
When we began these morning prayer
meetings, it seemed a big thing to pray
for those towns, but soon it did not
seem any bigger to pray that God would
use us in those places.

            ENLARGED PRAYING

     About the fourth week I said,
"Dick, would you be willing to pray that
God would use us in every state in the
United States?"

     "Well, He's big enough," Dick said.

     So we made a list of 48 states, and
we prayed. Morning after morning in
these little prayer meetings we would
look at our list and ask God to use us
and other young fellows in Washington,
in Oregon, in California, and in all the
other states of the Union. Five weeks
went by, and we did not miss a morning.
We met at four o'clock on Sunday morning
and spent three hours in prayer. During
the sixth week the Lord put it on our
hearts to get a may of the world, and we
took it up to our little cave in the
hill. We  <16>  began to put our fingers
on Germany, France and Italy. We put
them on Turkey and Greece. I remember
looking at one little island near China
-- you had to look close to see what it
was -- and we prayed that God would use
us in the lives of men on Formosa.

     We could not have prayed like that
the first week. I don't think that time
has much to do with whether God hears
you or not; but I do believe that time
has something to do with whether or not
your faith is built up as you pray and
ask. I don't believe that God will ever
give much to those who hove their little
conscience-easer prayers in the morning
and evening. If you cannot take 1/48th
of your day to be alone with your mighty
God and King, I rather doubt that He is
going to do very much through you.

        SOULWINNING IN THE HOME

     My wife and I took Isaiah 60:11,
"...thy gates shall be open continually;
they shall not be shut day nor night..."
as the motto for our home. We were
married on Sunday, and we opened our
home on Wednesday. It was not long until
the first sailor accepted the Lord. Men
from every one of the 48 states have
since then found the Lord in our home.
There was a period of six months when we
seldom ate breakfast or our evening meal
alone, because sailors were there. I
believe with all my heart that one of
the greatest soul-saving stations in the
world is the home.

            WORK IN FORMOSA

     Five years ago I went over to
Formosa as a representative of The
Navigators and got together all the
ministers in the city of Taipei. There
were nine churches in that city then. I
met for a week with the pastors of those
churches and other pastors who came in
from some of the towns around,  <17>
explaining how our Navigator plans
worked in the Navy and Army. We
inaugurated this plan in Formosa, began
to work with Dick Hillis, and took
charge of the follow-up.

     Today there are 90 churches in
Taipei. Over a sixth of a million
converts, spiritually five years old or
less, have finished at least one
Navigator Bible study and parts of the
Topical Memory System, and they have led
another hundred thousand to Christ. We
have 27 full-time Chinese secretaries to
handle the work we are doing with both
young and old in Formosa. Similar work
is carried on in Okinawa, Hong Kong,
Saigon, the Philippines and Korea.

     Such soulwinning starts in this
way: First, you have to believe the
Book, then you must ask, and keep on
asking. Before you can touch people in
48 states, you have to touch them in one
state. And before you can touch them in
one state, you must touch them in one
city. And before you can touch them in
one city, you must be able to touch them
on one street. Any person who knows how
to be saved and is saved has enough
knowledge, if imparted to another, to
reach that one for Christ.

          FEAR IN SOULWINNING

     Sometimes I am almost afraid to ask
the Lord to give me a soul, because I
know that if I ask Him, I am going to
have to get busy. I have been a
Christian for 29 years, and it still
frightens me to talk to a man about his
need of salvation.

     Having that fear after so many
years of doing personal work used to
bother me. Suddenly I realized that such
fear was only a little red light going
on and off to remind me that it was
"...not by might, nor by power, but by
My Spirit, saith the Lord..." You never
get to the place where you can do it on
your own. You need Him.

     I made such a request one day; then
I began to look  <18>  for a man. I was
driving an old Model T at that time; and
as I rode along, I saw a man hitchhiking
on a six-lane highway. I kept my eyes
straight ahead and watched the red
signal light at which I had to stop.
Looking at the fellow out of the corner
of my eye, I saw that he looked big and
tough, so I decided that he was the
wrong one. As I waited for that red
light to change, I don't know what
happened to it, but it was on for a long
time, it seemed. I thought the man had
gone back to the curb, but when I looked
at him, he was looking right at me.
Inviting him in, I lost no time in
getting a Gospel tract into his hand. He
read it through and then handed it back
to me.

     "What did you think of it?" I
asked.

     He replied, "I think it's
wonderful."

     I was startled at his answer and
said, "Oh, you're a Christian!"

     "No," he answered, "I'm not a
Christian. I've been going to some tent
meetings down this way every night for
two weeks, and I can't get through. I
have gone down to the front every night,
but I can't get through."

     "Through what?" I asked.

     He answered, "Isn't there something
to get through?"

     I pulled over, stopped, and said,
"Buddy, I've got news for you. Somebody
already got through." All he needed was
the simple Gospel instead of being told
to do something, and he accepted Christ.

     Do you know what I had been doing?
I saw this rough character, and I
thought, "He won't repent. He won't
believe." That was not my business. I
have no right to decide for any other
man whether or not he will accept the
Lord. My business is to tell him the
story and let him decide.

WE NEED TO REACH NEIGHBORS AND RELATIVES

     "So then every one of us shall give
account of himself to God" (Romans
14:12). We must all appear before the
<19> Judgment Seat of Christ to give an
account of the deeds done in the body,
whether they be good or bad
(2Corinthians 5:10). And I want to tell
you that to him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not, it is sin (James
4:17). I do not know of any greater sin
than to let a man or woman next door to
you go to Hell. You have the pardon
written right out in the Book; but they
have never seen it, and you have not
told them.

     I read over in Proverbs, "If thou
forbear to deliver them that are drawn
unto death, and those that are ready to
be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we
knew it not; doth not He that pondereth
the heart consider it? and He that
keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it?
and shall not He render to every man
according to his works?" (Proverbs
24:11-12).

     When I first came to know the Lord,
I talked to my brother about the Savior.
He laughed at me and said, "I'm not
interested. Don't talk to me any more."
I do not talk to a man when he tells me
not to, but I talk to the Lord.

     Three years later I said, "Roland,
could I talk to you for a moment about
Christ?"

     He said yes, and smiled a bit. The
Lord had just brought him to Himself. He
had seen some things that had touched
his heart. Three weeks later headlines
in the Los Angeles Examiner read, "Hero
Gives Life To Save Girl." How do you
think I felt when I found out that my
own brother was gone? What if I had not
spoken to him about Christ?

     The very first trip I ever took on
United Airlines was on a 12-passenger
Boeing plane. It was about a three-hour
trip, and I wanted to witness for
Christ, but it was not until the last
half hour that I got up the nerve to
talk to the stewardess. She said, "Do
you know what? I've never heard this
story before."

     She was a church member, but she
did not know that Christ died for her.
She thanked me for speaking to her about
her need of salvation. Evelyn Sandino
accepted the Lord just as we came into
Burbank.  <20>

     Three weeks later while riding on a
train, I picked up a newspaper and read:
"United Airliner Crashes in Utah
Mountains 40 Miles From Town." Evelyn's
picture was there. She was the
stewardess on that ill-fated plane. We
do not know how soon a person may die.

     I do not know what it is going to
take to wake up God's people to the fact
that we must get this message out now.
As I look back over the past 29 years
and see how God has taken a few little
things and made big things out of them,
I covet the same for all of God's
people.

       WHY MEN LOSE OUT WITH GOD

     I told you that Dick prayed with me
in those early days. Do you know what he
said to me about three years ago? "I've
got my seventh church, and I don't have
one person in my church who is down to
business for Jesus Christ; and I don't
know anybody I've had in the past six
months who has been down to business in
the manner you describe."

     Then he added, "Maybe it's because
I never got down to business." No
"maybe" about that!

     I remembered the one event that
turned the course of his life. It
happened while we lived in Long Beach.
The Long Beach Municipal Band used to
play for all of the people who came to
the seashore on Sunday afternoons. The
Fishermen's Club, of which Dick and I
were members, had the right to come in
at the close of the band program and
announce that we were going to preach
the Gospel. About ten percent of the
audience would stay, and then we boys
would get up and give our testimonies.
It was in June, just the time when the
swimming was best. We had to decide
whether or not we would give our Sunday
afternoons to that or to the Lord's
work. Both Dick and I made the decision
that we would go to the band shell. <21>

     A couple of weeks after we stopped
praying together, Dick did not show up
at the band shell. The following Sunday
it was the same story; and as I rode
home that day after giving my testimony,
I passed a car in which were Dick and
his girl friend in their bathing suits.
It is possible for some Christians to do
that and get away with it; but I do not
think it was possible for Dick, because
he had made a covenant with God.

     I did not say anything to him, and
he did not know that I had seen them; so
when I met him the next Tuesday evening
at Fishermen's Club, I gave him a little
piece of paper with Isaiah 58:13-14
written on it. "Don't look this up now,"
I said to Dick, "but you go and get
Nancy. Then read these verses together
and pray about them. Now, promise me you
won't read this by yourself." He gave me
his word.

     I left the church and went on out
to catch the bus, but as I waited for
one to come along, I became very thirsty
and decided to go back into the basement
of the church for a drink of water.
There I found Dick reading by the light
of a match the paper which I had given
him. He had broken his promise.

     Here are the verses which I wanted
Dick and Nancy to read: "If thou turn
away thy foot from the sabbath, from
doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and
call the sabbath a delight, the holy of
the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour
Him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words; then shalt thou delight
thyself in the Lord; and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the
earth, and feed thee with the heritage
of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it" (Isaiah
58:13-14).

     I gave it to him to make him face
the fact that maybe it was not the best
thing for him to be going swimming
instead of  <22>  witnessing for Christ
on the Lord's Day, but he did not come
back to the band shell.

         GOD HAS A WORK FOR YOU

     Suppose Dick had taken that word of
exhortation and asked the Lord's
forgiveness. Is it possible that God
would have let him zoom right ahead on
His plan? It is not only possible; it is
probable.

     "If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). I believe
that verse will hold right down to the
last minute that you take a breath. If
you have drifted from the Lord and from
His will for you, return now. If you
will do it, I believe He will permit you
to go ahead in His plan for you.

<23>

           BORN TO REPRODUCE

	A few years ago, while visiting
Edinburgh, Scotland, I stood on High
Street just down from the castle.  As I
stood there, I saw a father and a mother
coming toward me pushing a baby
carriage.  They looked very happy, were
well dressed and apparently were
well-to-do. I tried to catch a glimpse
of the baby as they passed and, seeing
my interest, they stopped to let me look
at the little, pink-cheeked member of
their family.

	I watched them for a little while
as they walked on and thought how
beautiful it is that God permits a man
to chose one woman who seems the most
beautiful and lovely to him, and she
chooses him out of all the men whom she
has ever known.  Then they separate
themselves to one another, and God in
His plan gives them the means of
reproduction!  It is a wonderful thing
that a little child should be born into
their family, having some of the
father's characteristics and some of the
mother's, some of his looks and some of
hers.  Each sees in that baby a
reflection of the one whom he or she
loves.

	Seeing that little one made me feel
homesick for my own children whom I
dearly love and whose faces I had not
seen for some time.  As I continued to
stand there I saw another baby carriage,
or perambulator as they call it over
there, coming in my direction.  It was a
secondhand affair and very wobbly.
Obviously the father and mother were
poor.  Both were dressed poorly and
plainly, but when I indicated my
interest in seeing their baby, they
stopped and with the same pride as the
other parents let me view their little,
pink-cheeked, beautiful-eyed child.

	I thought as these went on their
way, "God gave this little baby whose
parents are poor everything that He gave
the other.  It has five little fingers
on each hand, a little mouth and two
eyes. Properly cared for, those little
hands may someday be the hands of an
artist or a musician."  <24>

	Then this other thought came to me,
"Isn't it wonderful that God did not
select the wealthy and the educated and
say, 'You can have children,' and to the
poor and uneducated say, 'You cannot.'
Everyone on earth has that privilege."

	The first order ever given to man
was that he "be fruitful and multiply."
In other words, he was to reproduce
after his own kind.  God did not tell
Adam and Eve, our first parents, to be
spiritual.  They were already in His
image.  Sin had not yet come in. He just
said, "Multiply.  I want more just like
you, more in My own image."

	Of course, the image was marred.
But Adam and Eve had children.  They
began to multiply.  There came a time,
however, when God had to destroy most of
the flesh that had been born.  He
started over with eight people.  The
more than two billion people who are on
the earth today came from the eight who
were in the ark, because they were
fruitful and multiplied.

               HINDRANCES

	Only a few things will ever keep
human beings from multiplying themselves
in the physical realm.  One is that they
never marry.  If they are not united,
they will not reproduce. This is a truth
which Christians need to grasp with
reference to spiritual reproduction.
When a person becomes a child of God, he
should realize that he is to live in
union with Jesus Christ if he is going
to win others to the Savior.

	Another factor that can hinder
reproduction is disease or impairment to
some part of the body that is needed for
reproductive purposes.  In the spiritual
realm sin is the disease that can keep
one from winning the lost.

	One other thing that can keep
people from having children is
immaturity.  God in His wisdom saw to it
that little  <25>  children cannot have
babies.  A little boy must first grow to
sufficient maturity to be able to earn a
living, and a little girl must be old
enough to care for a baby.

	Everyone should be born again. That
is God's desire. God never intended that
man should merely live and die -- be a
walking corpse to be laid in the ground.
The vast majority of people know that
there is something beyond the grave, and
so each one who is born into God's
family should seek others to be born
again.

	A person is born again when he
receives Jesus Christ. "But as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God...Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God" (John 1:12,13) -- the new birth.
It is God's plan that these new babes in
Christ grow.  All provision is made for
their growth into maturity, and then
they are to multiply -- not only the
rich or the educated, but all alike.
Every person who is born into God's
family is to multiply.

	In the physical realm when your
children have children, you become a
grandparent.  Your parents are then
great- grandparents, and theirs are
great-great-grandparents.  And so it
should be in the spiritual.

     SPIRITUAL BABIES

	Wherever you find a Christian who
is not leading men and women to Christ,
something is wrong.  He may still be a
babe.  I do not mean that he does not
know a lot of doctrine and is not well
informed through hearing good preaching.
I know many people who can argue the
pre-, the post- and the amillennial
position and who know much about
dispensations, but who are still
immature. Paul said of some such in
Corinth, "And I, brethren, could not
speak unto you as unto spiritual (or
mature), but as unto carnal, even as
unto babes..." (1 Corinthians 3:1). <26>

	Because they were babes, they were
immature, incapable of spiritual
reproduction.  In other words, they
could not help other people to be born
again.  Paul continued, "I have fed you
with milk, and not with meat: for
hitherto ye were not able to bear it ...
ye are yet carnal (or babes): for ...
there is among you envying, and strife,
and divisions..." (1 Corinthians 3:2,3).
I know a lot of church members, Sunday
school teachers and members of the
women's missionary society who will say
to each other, "Have you heard about so
and so?" and pass along some gossip.
Such have done an abominable thing in
the sight of God. How horrible it is
when a Christian hears something and
spreads the story!  The Book says,
"These six things doth the Lord hate:
yea, seven are an abomination unto
Him...a lying tongue..." (Proverbs
6:16,17).  Oh, the Christians I know,
both men and women, who let lying come
in!

     "...he that soweth discord among
brethren" (Proverbs 16:19) is another.
This is walking as a babe, and I believe
that it is one of the basic reasons why
some Christians do not have people born
again into God's family through them.
They are sick spiritually. There is
something wrong.  There is a spiritual
disease in their lives.  They are
immature.  There is not that union with
Christ.

	But when all things are right
between you and the Lord, regardless of
how much or how little you may know
intellectually from the standpoint of
the world, you can be a spiritual
parent. And that, incidentally, may even
be when you are very young in the Lord.

	A young lady works at the telephone
desk in our office in Colorado Springs.
A year and a half ago she was closely
associated with the young Communist
league in Great Britain.  She heard
Billy Graham and accepted the Lord Jesus
Christ.  Soon she and a couple other
girls in her art and drama school were
used of the Lord to win some girls to
Christ.  We taught Pat and some of the
others, and they  <27>  in turn taught
the girls whom they led to Christ.  Some
of these have led still other girls to
Christ, and they too are training their
friends.  Patricia is a
great-grandmother already, though she is
only about a year and four months old in
the Lord.

	We see this all the time.  I know a
sailor who, when he was only four months
old in the Lord, was a
great-grandfather. He had led some
sailors to the Lord who in turn led
other sailors to the Lord, and these
last led still other sailors to the Lord
-- yet he was only four months old.

	How was this done?  God used the
pure channel of these young Christians'
lives in their exuberance and first love
for Christ, and out of their hearts the
incorruptible seed of the Word of God
was sown in the hearts of other people.
It took hold.  Faith came by the hearing
of the Word.  They were born again by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  They
observed those Christians who led them
to Christ and shared in the joy, the
peace and the thrill of it all.  And in
their joy, they wanted someone else to
know.

	In all our Christian audiences, I
am sure there are men and women who have
been Christians for five, ten or twenty
years but who do not know of one person
who is living for Jesus Christ today
because of them.  I am not talking now
about merely working for Christ, but
about producing for Christ.  Someone may
say, "I gave out a hundred thousand
tracts."  That is good, but how many
sheep did you bring in?"

	Some time ago I talked to 29
missionary candidates.  They were
graduates of universities or Bible
schools or seminaries. As a member of
the board I interviewed each one over a
period of five days, giving each
candidate from half an hour to an hour.
Among the questions I asked were two
which are very important. The first one
had to do with their devotional life.
"How is your devotional life?" I asked
them.  "How is the time you spend with
the Lord?  Do you  <28>  feel that your
devotional life is what the Lord would
have it to be?"

	Out of this particular group of 29
only one person said, "I believe my
devotional life is what it ought to be."
To the others my question then was, "Why
is your devotional life not what it
should be?"

	"Well, you see, I am here at this
summer school," was a common reply. "We
have a concentrated course.  We do a
year's work in only ten weeks.  We are
so busy."

	I said, "All right.  Let's back up
to when you were in college.  Did you
have victory in your devotional life
then?"

	"Well, not exactly."

	We traced back and found that never
since they came to know the Savior had
they had a period set aside for daily
devotions. That was one of the reasons
for their sterility -- lack of communion
with Christ.

	The other question I asked them
was, "You are going out to the foreign
field.  You hope to be used by the Lord
in winning men and women to Christ.  Is
that right?"

	"Yes."

	"You want them to go on and live
the victorious life, don't you?  You
don't want them just to make a decision
and then go back into the world, do
you?"

	"No."

	"Then may I ask you something more?
How many persons do you know by name
today who were won to Christ by you and
are living for Him?"

	"The majority had to admit that
they were ready to cross an ocean and
learn a foreign language, but they had
not won their first soul who was going
on with Jesus Christ.  A number of them
said that they got many people to go to
church; others said they had persuaded
some to go forward when the invitation
was given.

	I asked, "Are they living for
Christ now?"  Their eyes dropped.  I
then continued, "How do you expect that
by crossing  <29>  an ocean and speaking
in a foreign language with people who
are suspicious of you, whose way of life
is unfamiliar, you will be able to do
there what you have not yet done here?"

	This is not for missionaries and
prospective missionaries only.  It is
for all of God's people.  Every one of
His children ought to be a reproducer.

	Are you producing?  If not, why
not?  Is it because of a lack of
communion with Christ, your Lord, that
closeness of fellowship which is part of
the great plan?  Or is it some sin in
your life, an unconfessed something,
that has stopped the flow? Or is it that
you are still a babe?  "For when for the
time ye ought to be teachers, ye have
need that one teach you again..."
(Hebrews 5:12).

       HOW TO PRODUCE REPRODUCERS

	The reason that we are not getting
this Gospel to the ends of the earth is
not because it is not potent enough.

	Twenty-three years ago we took a
born-again sailor and spent some time
with him, showing him how to reproduce
spiritually after his kind.  It took
time, lots of time.  It was not a
hurried, 30-minute challenge in a church
service and a hasty good-bye with an
invitation to come back next week.  We
spent time together.  We took care of
his problems and taught him not only to
hear God's Word and to read it, but also
how to study it.  We taught him how to
fill the quiver of his heart with the
arrows of God's Word, so that the Spirit
of God could lift an arrow from his
heart and place it to the bow of his
lips and pierce a heart for Christ.

	He found a number of boys on his
ship, but none of them would go all out
for the Lord.  They would go to church,
but when it came right down to doing
something, they were "also rans."  He
came to me after a month of this  <30>
and said, "Dawson, I can't get any of
these guys on the ship to get down to
business."

	I said to him, "Listen, you ask God
to give you one.  You can't have two
until you have one.  Ask God to give you
a man after your own heart."

	He began to pray.  One day he came
to me and said, "I think I've found
him."  Later he brought the young fellow
over. Three months from the time I
started to work with him, he had found a
man for Christ, a man of like heart.
This first sailor was not the kind of
man you had to push and give prizes to
before he would do something.  He loved
the Lord and was willing to pay a price
to produce.  He worked with this new
babe in Christ, and those two fellows
began to grow and spiritually reproduce.
On that ship 125 men found the Savior
before it was sunk at Pearl Harbor.

     Men off that first battleship are
in four continents of the world as
missionaries today. The work spread from
ship to ship to ship, so that when the
Japanese struck at Pears Harbor, there
was a testimony being given on 50 ships
of the U.S. fleet. When the war closed,
there was work by one or more producers
(I am not talking about mere
Christians), on more than a thousand of
the U.S. Fleet ships and at many army
camps and air bases. It had to have a
start, however.  The devil's great trick
is to stop anything like this if he can
before it gets started.  He will stop
you, too, if you let him.

	There are Christians whose lives
run in circles who, nevertheless, have
the desire to be spiritual parents. Take
a typical example.  You meet him in the
morning as he goes to work and say to
him, "Why are you going to work?"

	"Well, I have to earn money."

	"What are you earning money for?"
you ask.

	"Well," he replies, "I have to buy
food."

	"What do you want food for?" <31>

	"I have to eat so as to have
strength to go to work and earn some
more money."

	"What do you want more money for?"

	"I have to buy clothes so that I
can be dressed to go to work and earn
some more money."

	"What do you want more money for?"

	"I have to buy a house or pay the
rent so I will have a place to rest up,
so I will be fit to work and earn some
more money."  And so it goes. There are
many Christians like that who are going
in big circles.  But you continue your
questioning and ask, "What else do you
do?"

	"Oh, I find time to serve the Lord.
I am preaching here and there." But down
behind all of this he has the one desire
to be a spiritual father.  He is praying
that God will give him a man to teach.
Perhaps it takes him six months.  It
need not take that long, but maybe it
takes him six months to reach the other
for Christ and get him started taking in
the Word and giving it out and getting
ready to teach a man himself.

	So this first man at the end of six
months has another man. Each man starts
teaching another in the following six
months.  At the end of the year, there
are just four of them. Perhaps each one
teaches a Bible class or helps in a
street meeting, but at the same time his
main interest is seeing how the new
fellow he won to the Lord is doing. So
at the end of the year the four of them
get together and have a prayer meeting
and determine, "Now, let's not allow
anything to sidetrack us.  Let's give
the Gospel out to a lot of people, but
let's check up on at least one and see
him through."

	So the four of them in the next six
months each get a man. That makes eight
at the end of a year and a half. They
all go out after another and at the end
of two years there are 16 men.  At the
end of three years there are 64 men; the
16 have doubled twice.  At the end of
five years there are 1,024.  At the end
of fifteen and a half years there  <32>
are approximately 2,147,500,000. That is
the present population of the world of
persons over three years of age.

     But wait a minute!  Suppose that
after the first man, A, helps B and B is
ready to get his man while A starts
helping another, B is sidetracked,
washes out and does not produce his
first man.  Fifteen and one-half years
later you can cut your 2,147,500,000
down to 1,073,7500 because the devil
caused B to be sterile.

     God promised Abraham "... in Isaac
shall thy seed be called" (Genesis
21:12), so Abraham waited a long, long
time for that son. God's promise to make
Abraham the father of many nations was
all wrapped up in that one son, Isaac.
If Hitler had been present and had
caused Isaac's death when Abraham had
his knife poised over him on Mount
Moriah, Hitler could have killed every
Jew in that one stroke.

	I believe that is why Satan puts
all his efforts into getting the
Christian busy, busy, busy, but not
producing.

	Men, where is your man?  Women,
where is your woman? Where is the one
whom you led to Christ and who is now
going on with Him?

	There is a story in 1 Kings,
chapter 20 about a man who gave a
prisoner to a servant and instructed the
servant to guard the prisoner well.  But
as the servant was busy here and there
the prisoner made his escape.

     The curse of today is that we are
too busy.  I am not talking about being
busy earning money to buy food.  I am
talking about being busy doing Christian
things.  We have spiritual activity with
little productivity.  And productivity
comes as a result of what we call
"follow-up."

        MAJORING IN REPRODUCING

	Five years ago, Billy Graham came
to me and said, "Daws, we  <33>  would
like you to help with our follow-up.
I've been studying the great evangelists
and the great revivals and I fail to see
that there was much of a follow-up
program.  We need it.  We are having an
average of 6,000 people come forward to
decide for Christ in a month's campaign.
I feel that with the work you have done
you could come in and help us."

     I said, "Billy, I can't follow up
6,000 people.  My work has always been
with individuals and small groups."

     "Look, Daws," he answered,
"everywhere I go I meet Navigators. I
met them in school in Wheaton.  They are
in my school right now. (He was
president of Northwestern Schools at
that time.)  There must be something to
this."

     "I just don't have time." I said.

     He tackled me again.  The third
time he pled with me and said, "Daws, I
am not able to sleep nights for thinking
of what happens to the converts after a
crusade is over."

     At that time I was on my way to
Formosa and I said, "While I am there I
will pray about it, Billy."  On the
sands of a Formosan beach I paced up and
down two or three hours a day praying,
"Lord, how can I do this?  I am not even
getting the work done You have given me
to do.  How can I take six months of the
year to give to Billy?"  But God laid
the burden upon my heart.

     Why should Billy have asked me to
do it?  I had said to him that day
before I left for Formosa, "Billy, you
will have to get somebody else."

     He took me by the shoulders and
said, "Who else?  Who is majoring in
this?"  I had been majoring in it.

	What will it take to jar us out of
our complacency and send us home to
pray, "God, give me a girl or man whom I
can win to Christ, or let me take one
who is already won, an infant in Christ,
and try to train that one so that he or
she will reproduce!"

	How thrilled we are to see the
masses fill up the seats! But where is
your man?  I would rather have one
"Isaac" alive than a hundred dead, or
sterile, or immature.  <34>

         BEGINNING OF FOLLOW-UP

	One day years ago, I was driving
along in my little Model T Ford and saw
a young man walking down the street.  I
stopped and picked him up.  As he got
into the car, he swore and said, "It's
sure tough to get a ride."  I never hear
a man take my Savior's name in vain but
what my heart aches.  I reached into my
pocket for a tract and said, "Lad, read
this."

     He looked up at me and said,
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

     I looked at him closely.  He looked
like someone I should know. We figured
out that we had met the year before on
the same road.  He was on his way to a
golf course to caddy when I picked him
up.  He had gotten into my car and had
started out the same way with the name
"Jesus Christ."  I had taken exception
to his use of that name and had opened
up the New Testament and shown him the
way of salvation. He had accepted Jesus
Christ as his Savior.  In parting I had
given him Philippians 1:6, "Being
confident of this very thing, that He
which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ."  "God bless you, son.  Read
this," I said, and sped on my merry way.

     A year later, there was no more
evidence of the new birth and the new
creature in this boy than if he had
never heard of Jesus Christ.

	I had a great passion to win souls
and that was my great passion. But after
I met this boy the second time on the
way to the golf course, I began to go
back and find some of my "converts."  I
want to tell you, I was sick at heart.
It seemed that Philippians 1:6 was not
working.

	An Armenian boy came into my office
one day and told me about all the souls
he had won.  He said that they were all
Armenians and had the list to prove it.
<35>

     I said, "Well, what is this one
doing?"

     He said, "That one isn't doing so
good.  He is backslidden."

     "What about this one?" We went all
down the list and there was not one
living a victorious life.

     I said, "Give me your Bible."  I
turned to Philippians and put a
cardboard right under the 6th verse,
took a razor blade out of my pocket and
started to come down on the page.  He
grabbed my hand and asked, "What are you
going to do?"

     "I'm going to cut this verse out,"
I said, "It isn't working."

	Do you know what was wrong?  I had
been taking the 6th verse away from its
context, verses 3 through 7.  Paul was
not just saying, "All right, the Lord
has started something, He will finish
it."  But you know, that is what some
people tell me when they win a soul.
They say, "Well, I just committed him to
God."

	Suppose I meet someone who has a
large family and say to him, "Who is
taking care of your children?"

	"My family?  Oh, I left them with
the Lord."

     Right away I would say to that one,
"I have a verse for you: 'But if any
provide not for his own, and specially
for those of his own house, he...is
worse than an infidel'(1 Timothy 5:8)."


	Paul said to the elders of the
church at Ephesus, "Take heed...to all
the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers..." (Acts
20:28).  You cannot make God the
overseer.  He makes you the overseer.

     We began work on follow-up.  This
emphasis on finding and helping some of
the converts went on for a couple or
three years before the Navigator work
started.  By that time our work included
fewer converts but more time spent with
the converts. Soon I could say as Paul
said to the Philippians, "I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you, Always in
every prayer of mine for you all making
request with joy, For your fellowship in
the Gospel from the first day  <36>
until now" (Philippians 1:3-5).  He
followed up his converts with daily
prayer and fellowship.  Then he could
say, "Being confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
In keeping with this the 7th verse
reads: "Even as it is meet (or proper)
for me to think this of you all, because
I have you in my heart..."

	Until this time I had forgotten to
follow up the people God had reached
through me.  But from then on I began to
spend time helping them.  That is why
sometime later when that first sailor
came to me, I saw the value of spending
three months with him.  I saw an Isaac
in him.  Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had
the twelve, and all the rest of the
nation came through them.

     IT TAKES TIME TO DO GOD'S WORK

	You can lead a soul to Christ in
from 20 minutes to a couple of hours.
But it takes from 20 weeks to a couple
of years to get him on the road to
maturity, victorious over the sins and
the recurring problems that come along.
He must learn how to make right
decisions. He must be warned of the
various "isms" that are likely to reach
out with their octopus arms and pull him
in and sidetrack him.

     But when you get yourself a man,
you have doubled your ministry -- in
fact, you have more than doubled your
ministry.  Do you know why?  When you
teach your man, he sees how it is done
and he imitates you.

	If I were the minister of a church
and had deacons or elders to pass the
plate and choir members to sing, I would
say, "Thank God for your help.  We need
you.  Praise the Lord for these extra
things that you do,"  but I would keep
pressing home the big job -- "Be
fruitful and multiply."  All these other
things are incidental to the supreme
task of winning a man or woman to Jesus
Christ and then helping him or her to go
on.  <37>

     Where is your man?  Where is your
woman?  Do you have one?  You can ask
God for one.  Search your hearts.  Ask
the Lord, "Am I spiritually sterile?  If
I am, why am I?"

	Don't let your lack of knowledge
stand in the way of winning the lost. It
used to be the plan of The Navigators in
the early days that whenever the sailors
were with us for supper each fellow was
asked at the end of the meal to quote a
verse.

     I would say it this way, "Quote a
verse you have learned in the last 48
hours if you have one.  Otherwise, just
give us a verse." One evening as we
quoted verses around the table, my
little three-year-old daughter's turn
came.  There was a new sailor next to
her who did not think about her quoting
Scripture, so without giving her an
opportunity, he began.  She looked up at
him as much as to say, "I am a human
being," then she quoted John 3:16 in her
own way. "For God so loved the world,
dat He gave His only forgotten Son, dat
WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."  She
put the emphasis on the "whosoever"
because when she was first taught the
verse she could not pronounce that word.
Days later that sailor came over and
said to me, "You know, I was going to
quote that verse of Scripture.  It was
the only one I knew.  But I didn't
really know it, not until little Ruthie
quoted it.  When she said 'whosoever,' I
thought, 'that means me.'  Back on ship
I accepted the Lord."  Today that young
man is a missionary in South America.

     Until several years after we were
married, my wife's father did not know
the Lord.  Here again God used children
to reach a hungry heart.  When Ruthie
was three and Bruce was five, they went
to visit Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandpa
tried to get them to repeat nursery
rhymes.  He said, "Mary had a little
lamb" and "Little Boy Blue," but the
children just looked at him and asked,
"Who is Little Boy Blue?" He thought
they did not know very much.  <38>

     Their mother said, "They know some
things.  Quote Romans 3:23, Bruce." This
Bruce did.  Then he asked, "Shall I
quote another one, Grandpa?"

     "Sure," said Grandpa.

     Bruce began to quote verses of
Scripture, some 15 in all, and Ruth
quoted some in between.  This delighted
Grandpa.  He took them over to the
neighbors and to the aunts and uncles,
showing them how well these children
knew the Scriptures.  In the meantime
the Word of God was doing its work.  It
was not long before the Holy Spirit,
through the voices of babes, planted the
seed in his heart.  "Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained
strength..." (Psalm 8:2).

	Soulwinners are not soulwinners
because of what they know, but because
of the Person they know, how well they
know Him and how much they long for
others to know Him.

	"Oh, but I am afraid," someone
says.  Remember, "The fear of man
bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his
trust in the Lord shall be safe"
(Proverbs 29:25).  Nothing under heaven
except sin, immaturity and lack of
communion will put you in a position
where you cannot reproduce. Furthermore,
there is not anything under heaven that
can keep a newly born again one from
going on with the Lord if he has a
spiritual parent to take care of him and
give him the spiritual food God has
provided for his normal growth.

	Effects obey their causes by
irresistible laws.  When you sow the
seed of God's Word you will get results.
Not every heart will receive the Word,
but some will, and the new birth will
take place. When a soul is born, give it
the care that Paul gave new believers.
Paul believed in follow-up work.  He was
a busy evangelist, but he took time for
follow-up.  The New Testament is largely
made up of the letters of Paul which
were follow-up letters to the converts.

	James believed in it.  "But be ye
doers of the Word, and not hearers
only," he said in James 1:22.  Peter
believed in  <39> it, for he said, "As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the Word, that ye may grow thereby"
(1 Peter 2:2).  John believed in it, "I
have no greater joy than to hear that my
children walk in truth" (3 John 4). All
the writings of Peter, Paul, James and
most of the writings of John are food
for the new Christian.

	The Gospel spread to the known
world during the first century without
radio, television or the printing press,
because these produced ones were were
reproducing.  But today we have a lot of
pew-sitters -- people who think that if
they are faithful in church attendance,
put good-sized gifts into the offering
plate and get people to come, they have
done their part.

	Where is your man?  Where is your
woman?  Where is your boy? Where is your
girl?  Every one of us, no matter what
age we are, should get busy memorizing
Scripture.  In one Sunday school class a
woman 72 years of age and another who
was 78 finished The Navigators Topical
Memory System.  They then had something
to give.

	Load your heart with this precious
Seed.  You will find that God will
direct you to those whom you can lead to
Christ. There are many hearts ready for
the Gospel now.

<End of "Born to Reproduce" by Dawson
Trotman>

DAWS:The Story of DAWSON TROTMAN,
Founder of The Navigators, by Betty Lee
Skinner is published by Zondervan
Publishing House.

*The Navigators New Topical Memory
System and other Bible study and
discipleship materials are available
   from
NAVPRESS, a ministry of The Navigators
Post Office Box 6000
Colorado Springs, Colorado  80934

[Etext editor's note:

     I have never (yet) been formally
associated with The Navigators, although
I have profited greatly from reading and
using their materials, especially Daws'
copyrighted glove-across-the-face
challenge in "The Need of The Hour". I
appreciate and have tried to emulate
their emphasis on personally walking
with God and feeding on His Word, and
their very-personal approach to personal
evangelism and discipleship.
     I did not seek "authorization" from
The Navigators for this etext, since in
my best understanding of current
copyright law, the booklet serving as
the primary source is clearly in the
public domain, and the more-recent
edition from which I adopted some
emendations (some of which looked like
minor factual corrections) was also
undated.
     Preparing this etext has freshly
convicted me of my need for regular
SCHEDULED devotions and my desire to
"find a man" to work with.
     I learned very recently
(1997-Oct-12) of a new ministry of The
Navigators inviting college graduates to
spend one or two years in ministry on
college campuses while participating in
ongoing training themselves. I gathered
that this program is not targeted for
people who have already decided to be
lifetime vocational missionaries or
Christian workers, but rather for
committed Christians who are willing to
"turbo-charge" the rest of their lives
with a period devoted to "full-time"
ministry and discipleship.
     Please receive this information
from me on a "gossip" basis: I do NOT
"speak for" these folks. Please contact
them directly for more information:
   EDGE Corps, (785) 838-4747;
   Edgecorps@aol.com
   P.O.Box 507, Lawrence, KS 66044 USA.

--Clyde
Atlanta, 1997-Oct-14

Clyde C. PRICE, Jr., M.Div.  404.262.0712   76616.3452@CompuServe.com
"s"mail: 3145 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 125-169, Atlanta, GA 30305 USA
Founder and President: The Christian Digital Library Foundation, Inc.
_CDLF_files_available_at_:   http://www.atl.mindspring.com/~iom

----<file_id.diz>----

BORN TO REPRODUCE, Dawson Trotman.
includes "Converted Through Prayer and
Scripture Memorization". Etext based on
"navbooklets-no 6". CDLF p.d. etext.

