"Do Chick tracts work?" At one time or another, every tract passer has asked this question, maybe only to himself. Fortunately, the internet has given us a simple feedback tool.

When you key "Chick tracts" into Google, you get back some 45,000 hits, with the Chick Publications web site at the top. In browsing some of the other sites, some interesting comments by the scoffers were uncovered. One wrote: "I don`t know why I have to read these. The stupidity of them annoys me to no end, but I can`t help reading them. I can`t stop. Chick tracts are like heroin."

Keying: "Chick tracts" + "I can`t stop" into the Google search field narrowed the hits to a few dozen with more revealing comments:

"I`m again obsessively reading Chick Tracts online." And: "For some reason (glutton for punishment?) I can`t get enough of this.... There`s something really insulting here but I can`t stop reading. Despite the intensity of his vitriol in some of his pieces, Chick Tracts feel mostly harmless. His anger seems humorous because after all, it`s just this little comic book that over-earnest weirdos leave on park benches for us sinners to find."

Further searching turns up many other such comments, some nice and not so nice. This illustrates the truth in Paul`s comment in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:" 

However, the encouraging factor here is that they seem almost compelled to read them. When we leave a tract on a "park bench," we can be assured that it is not in vain. The tracts do, indeed, get read.

What the reader does with the message is between him and his Creator. We have done our job. We have obeyed the great commission.

The Bible does not say that we will win everyone. But those who reject the gospel will one day stand before Jesus as their judge and their scoffing will be turned into horror as they are sentenced to the lake of fire. They will be without excuse because of the message of that "little comic book" that they scorned.

So," let us not be "weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." (Galatians 6:9)