Sister Joy,
I personally just got some Gospels of John, but the Holy Spirit has not moved me to give them to anyone as of yet. This is for the same reason I do not wear T-shirts with messages on them, and other such apparel, with the hope of "making an impact in the Kingdom." A lot of this stuff for me has been a cop-out for not being obedient and walking in the Spirit; [i]me[/i] doing something [i]for[/i] God as opposed to letting God do something through me and in me (I don't even have to walk with God to do the former; think of Cain's offering, which was rejected). This is not to say that we cannot or shouldn't share literature with people who need to hear the Truth; but we cannot just throw Scriptures and arguments at people and hope that something sinks in. Witnessing is more than just words and methods, although words are used. The Apostle Paul talks in Corinthians 2:4-5 about "a demonstration of the Spirit and of power" as opposed to using "words of men's wisdom" to convert people. The Holy Spirit alone can bring people to Christ and convict people of sin, and righteousness, and judgment (Jn. 16:8-9). And God has chosen to do that through human vessels filled with the Spirit, whose every word and thought and action are fruit of the work of Christ in them. I recommend a sermon I listened to a long time ago, by A. W. Tozer, called [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=2319]The Kingdom of God Lies not in Words, But in Power[/url].
Robert Murray M'Cheyne wrote once, "The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness." I've come to appreaciate this quote more than ever. The great lack of effective, authentic witness to Christ in the church today usually lies in compromise with sin and with the world in our walk with God, which in turn affects everything. Witness is not something that you do, but something that you are. Literature can never make up for the lack of holiness; although the Lord can use all sorts of circumstances to bring people to Himself.
We really can't do God's will by trying harder or by being more thoughtful and organized. It's all by His grace: the situations we enter into, the people we meet, the Spirit preparing their hearts and convicting them with the truth, the words we are given, but all the more, it's by grace--daily, hourly grace--that we can ever succeed in doing God's will in such witnessing situations. My prayer is that you may be as a little child, looking up to the Father's face; that you may decrease, and He may increase. The rest will be His glory in the details.
In Christ,
Slavyan
[u]2 Corinthians 2:17[/u]
"For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ."
[EDIT: Another Scripture came to my mind, again from Paul: "clearly [i]you are an epistle of Christ[/i], ministered by us, [i]written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God[/i], not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Cor. 3:3). There is no literature more compelling than an epistle written by the Holy Spirit on someone's heart! Dear Joy, [i]you[/i] are that literature! How precious it is, and yet how hard to give away!]
