Topic : Evangelism, cf. witnessing, death of Christ

On January 21, 1930, the name of Harold Vidian became synonymous with heroism. On that day, England’s King George V was scheduled to give the opening address at the London Arms Conference. The king’s message was to be sent by radio all around the world.

Donald McCullough, in his book The Trivialization of God (NavPress, 1995), tells us that a few minutes before the king was to speak, a member of the CBS staff tripped over an electrical wire and broke it, cutting off the whole American audience. With no hesitation, chief control operator Harold Vidian grasped one end of the broken wire in his right hand and the other in his left, thus restoring the circuit. Electricity surged through his body. Ignoring the pain, Vidian held on until the king had finished his address.

I see in this a challenge for Christians. The message of the King of kings must go to the whole world. But only as we allow God’s power to pass through us can the Lord’s saving gospel be transmitted. Paul wrote, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14). If we are willing to serve as conduits, regardless of the cost to us, the good news will be proclaimed around the world.

Will you be a conduit for the King’s message? -VCG

Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov., 1997, page for November 21

The renowned 19th-century English preacher C. H. Spurgeon told this story about King Cyrus, the man who conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity: A visitor who was admiring Cyrus’ gardens said it gave him much pleasure. “Ah,” said Cyrus, “but you have not so much pleasure in this garden as I have, for I have planted every tree in it myself.”

Spurgeon then commented, “One reason some saints will have a greater fullness of heaven than others will be that they did more for heaven than others. By God’s grace they were enabled to bring more souls there.”

Those words should cause all of us who know the Lord to do some serious thinking. How many people will be in heaven because of us? Our desire should be that when we reach our eternal home, some will say to us, “I’m so thankful for you. It was your testimony, your life, your invitation to accept Christ that accounts for my being here today.” The apostle Paul anticipated the joy in heaven of seeing people who were there as a result of his ministry (1 Th. 2:19-20).

Yes, heaven’s joys will be the fullest for those who have helped lead others to Christ. So do all you can to bring to Jesus those who are lost in sin. That’s how you can lay up pleasures in heaven!

RWD, Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997, page for September 10

William Barclay gives us an excellent insight into the nature of the true church. He writes:

Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found, it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there, but one person cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers.

That precisely is what the church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all people and all nations can be reconciled to God. But before that can happen, they must know about Jesus Christ, and it is the task of the church to bring that about. Christ is the head; the church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon His errands, and a voice to speak His words.

Morning Glory, Sept.-Oct. 1997, p. 19

Even though we may have a hard time sharing our faith and, yes, some people have a gift for sharing, the Bible clearly indicates that evangelism is for everyone; in fact, it is considered to be a fruit of the Spirit! Most of us associate the fruit of the Spirit with Galatians 5:22-23, where Paul describes fruit as godly character. But Paul indicates that fruit also involves leading unbelievers to Christ (Romans 1:13, 1 Corinthians 16:15, Colossians 1:6).

Considering that Jesus called us to produce lasting fruit (John 15:16), that we glorify God by being fruitful (John 15:8; Colossians 1:10), and that God despises unfruitfulness (Matthew 21:10,43), Christians cannot relegate the activity of evangelism to a group of “specialists.” Everyone is challenged to be prepared in and out of season to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2) as well as to give an answer to everyone who asks us for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15).

The responsibility for evangelism, then, is for all believers who are instructed to bear fruit and are challenged to be prepared. It is not an issue of personality type, nor should it be an issue of personal comfort. It is an issue of obedience.

Jeffrey J. Schutz, “A World in Need: The Multiple Dimensions of Christian Relevance in Society,” Focal Point, summer 1997, p. 9

I was part of a church on the Gulf Coast when God sent a spirit of renewal in the midst of terrible personal tragedy. A fourteen-year-old boy named Eddie had been drowned in the nearby bayou during a torrential rain the week before.

Though we missed the main force of the hurricane that spawned the downpour, the waters of every bay and inlet were up and raging. Eddie and his brothers had constructed a raft of Styrofoam and were floating in the rushing waters of the bayou. As they approached the spillway, the raft broke up. Two of the boys made it out of water in spite of the steep concrete banks. But Eddie could not get out. He clung to a piece of Styrofoam from the raft, calling for help.

The other boys ran home to tell their dad, Leroy. Leroy jumped into his pickup truck and raced to the bayou. With Eddie floating just out of reach, Leroy ran back to the truck and got a rope. “I threw him the rope, but the rope was too short,” Eddie’s dad lamented. “And I saw my boy go over the spillway into the deep waters below. We found his body about three o’clock the next morning.”

When Leroy told me the heartrending story, I was seated across a desk from him at the funeral home. A chill went down my spine and tears came to my eyes as I visualized the boy screaming, “Help me, somebody help me! I can’t hold on much longer!” I could see not only Eddie, but the unbelieving multitudes of our city and the world clinging in desperation to some fragile thread of hope. I could see us as Christians throwing out ropes—ropes too short to reach our world in this day.

Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pp. 136-137

Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), p. 109

The question may arise: “How can I approach someone I know very well, such as a friend, family member, a fellow worker in the marketplace, or someone with whom I have previously shared?”

Some general relational principles need to be regarded:

1. Be genuine in your communication.

2. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

3. Convey a spirit of love, humility, and courtesy.

4. Avoid an attitude of condescension, judgment, and condemnation.

5. Ask for the person’s permission.

Some possible approaches that may be used:

1. Use the conversation guide FIRM [Family, Interests, Religion, Message]. Although you know the person well, you can still talk about family, interests, religion, and message. The conversation can be even more meaningful since you do already know one another. You may ask such questions as: “How are the children? Where do you plan to go on your vacation? How was your golf game Saturday?”

2. Use bridging statements and secure permission to discuss the person’s religious life and to share about Jesus. Some possibilities I have used are as follows:

• “You and I have talked about our relationship with Christ at other times. Have you thought much about it lately? May we talk about it again'
• “We know one another very well, but we’ve never discussed our relationship with God. May I ask you a question about that?” (Wait for a response.) “Have you come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way, or would you say that you are still in the process?”
• “I feel that I need to apologize to you. We’re friends (or family), but I’ve never shared with you something very important to me—my Savior, Jesus. May I tell what He has done in my life?” (Wait for permission, then share your personal salvation testimony.) Then ask, “Have you come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way, or would you say you are still in the process?”

I’ve been thinking and praying lately about something very important to me—your relationship with Jesus. May I ask you a question about that?”

Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pp. 67-68

Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact, the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.

Week after week, month after month, and year after year, these who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of fishermen.

Continually, they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. Further they said, 'the fishing industry exists by fishing as fire exists by burning.? They loved slogans such as "Fishing is the task of every fisherman.? They sponsored special meetings called "Fishermen's Campaigns? and 'the Month for Fishermen to Fish.? They sponsored costly nationwide and world-wide congresses to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and hear about all the ways of fishing such as the new fishing equipment, fish calls, and whether any new bait had been discovered.

These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings called "Fishing Headquarters.? The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn't do, however: They didn't fish.

In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. The board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish.

Large, elaborate, and expensive training centers were built whose original and primary purpose was to teach fishermen how to fish. Over the years courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psychological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish. Those who taught had doctorates in fishology, but the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing. Year after year, after tedious training, many were graduated and were given fishing licenses. They were sent to do full-time fishing, some to distant waters which were filled with fish.

Many who felt the call to be fishermen responded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. But like the fishermen back home, they never fished. Like the fishermen back home, they engaged in all kinds of other occupations. They built power plants to pump water for fish and tractors to plow new waterways. They made all kinds of equipment to travel here and there to look at fish hatcheries. Some also said that they wanted to be part of the fishing party, but they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Others felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neighbors and how loving and kind they were was enough.

After one stirring meeting on 'the Necessity for Fishing,? one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported that he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit his fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience to the other fishermen. He was also placed on the Fishermen's General Board as a person having considerable experience.

Now it's true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen's clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished. They wondered about those who felt it was of little use to attend the weekly meetings to talk about fishing. After all, were they not following the Master who said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"'

Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who don't catch fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if, year after year, he never catches a fish? Is one following if he isn't fishing'

Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), pp. 21-23

1A. Because of the command of Christ:

Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15 (cf. John 14:15).

2A. Because of the condition of all men:

Matthew 9:36-38; 13:49-50; II Thessalonians 1:7-10; I Peter 4:17-18; Jude 23; Revelation 20:15.

3A. Because of the consequences of the gospel:

Matthew 7:13; 14: 49-50; II Thessalonians 1:7-10; I Peter 4:17-18; Jude 23; Revelation 20:15.

4A. Because of the coming of Christ:

I Corinthians 15:58; II Corinthians 5:10-11; I Thessalonians 2:19-20.

5A. Because of the constraint of love:

II Corinthians 5:14 (cf. Paul's example in Romans 9:1-3; 10-1).

6A. Because of the character of the gospel: It is the only thing that works!

Acts 4:12; Romans 1:14-16

7A. Because of the commitment of the message to us:

I Corinthians 9:16-23; II Corinthians 5:18-20; I Thessalonians 2:4-8; I Timothy 1:11-16.

1B. Application:

1C. Isolation: avoiding all association and contact with unbelievers for fear of contamination.

2C. Compromise: adapting to secular culture to the point of sinful practices and questionable behavior.

3C. Separation: approaching unbelievers within their cultural framework, but maintaining moral purity (cf. II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; I Corinthians 5:9-11; 9:19-22).

The Biola Hour Guidelines, What We Believe, by David L. Hocking, (La Mirada, CA: Biola Univ., 1982), pp. 10-11

• Have you and I as Christians lost our nerve? Have we forgotten that the best way to transform society is God’s way'
• How often must we be reminded that the cross of Christ alone can change the human heart and reconcile people to God'
• God’s power is more clearly seen in the message of the cross than anywhere else.

Now, please don’t read this as my asking you to retreat from politics, community activism, and public forums. But you and I dare not think that we need only apply ourselves more vigorously to these methods in order to rescue mankind from the brink of disintegration. Only the cross, demonstrated in life and lip, can do what needs to be done.

Recently I preached a series, Taking the Cross Into the World, at the Moody Church. In these messages I share my heart, urging all of us to remember that we have in our possession “the power of God unto salvation.”

We both know that we have enough Christians in America who, if they took the cross seriously, could join with us in making a lasting impact in the lives of millions of people. If this is done with humility, I believe God would honor us.

Taking the Cross Into the World means more than just evangelizing; or I should say, it means evangelizing with integrity. I’m talking about you and me, living the gospel in all of our relationships!

It means modeling reconciliation between races; it involves helping the homeless, the widows, and single mothers. In short, it means being Christ to a cynical world that has written us off because of our hypocrisy and obvious self-interest.

If you and I were to live differently, along with our Christian brothers and sisters in this country, the world might take note. You know, we do, after all, have some historical examples of how nations have been transformed:

Britain in the 1700s

In the early 1700s Britain had sunk into gross cruelty and drunkenness. Since the treatment of children is always a rather accurate barometer of a nation’s morality, the story of Judith Dufour is an example of others that could be told. She took her child to a work house for clothing. She then strangled the child, threw the body in the ditch, sold the clothes for one shilling and four pence and immediately spent the money on gin, which she shared with a friend who helped in the murder.

Parliament, on numerous occasions, had to adjourn early because “the Honorable members were too drunk to continue the business of State.”

Children were routinely murdered and infants left to “perish in the streets.”

Then God raised up George Whitefield and John Wesley. God graciously sent a national revival that changed the entire climate of the country. Moral decency and kindness supplanted debauchery and cruelty. Britain, the historians tell us, was spared from what happened in France during its bloody “revolution.”

Now, please join me in thinking of our own country.

New England and the Great Awakening

New England was in a state of moral and spiritual decline. Church attendance had dropped off and the morals of the young had sunk to new lows. Worldly values infiltrated the church.

Under the preaching of Edwards and Whitefield, the Great Awakening came to America. An historian wrote that one could have left a bag of gold on the streets and it would not have been stolen! Sailors coming from Britain were known to have fallen on their knees in repentance before their ship docked; such was the power of God.

Now, I’m not saying to you that God will send a similar revival to America. He does not owe us such mercy … But maybe if we get our priorities straight, He might yet be gracious to this great nation. If we are desperate enough, and are willing to pay a great personal price, God might yet rescue many from the judgment to come.

You and I must be ready to make a radical commitment! It involves nothing less than living for the glory of God, even if our nest is disturbed! We must learn to distinguish between the American dream and the Christian mandate! Together, you and I must be fervently committed to sharing the gospel whenever God opens the door; on airplanes, with our neighbors, relatives, and anyone else God brings into our lives.

Our task is simple yet profound. It is to explain the cross to a generation steeped in designer religion; an age in which people have been duped to believe that they can “find their own way to God.”

You may have read what Bonhoefer said, “It is not before us, but before the cross that the world trembles.” I agree. Whether God sends a revival or not, we must be faithful in presenting “the old rugged cross.”

The world can out-spend us, out-entertain us, and out-politicize us, but let it never be said that they can out-love us!

Erwin Lutzer, The Moody Church Radio Ministries newsletter, Chicago, Illinois, March, 1997

The Living Bible translates 1 Corinthians 9:22, “… whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.” Randy Raysbrook of the Navigators in the Jan/Feb, 1994 issue of Discipleship Journal gives some pointers in finding that “common ground.”

• Be natural. Normal conversation is fluid and respectful, allows for humor and invites response.
• Be open and willing to admit your struggles and failures.
• Be respectful, look at people for what they are as well as what they can become.
• Be simple. Communication increases as simplicity does. Don’t let Christian jargon get in the way.
• Don’t forget what it was like to be a non-Christian.
• Look forward to hindsight. Unbelievers will understand some things only after looking back on them.

Lifeline (A Men’s Life Evangelism Newsletter), Fall, 1995

Research shows that people seem more receptive to the gospel message during times of significant change. In fact, it’s in times like these when people need friendships, someone who will go the extra mile, an invitation to church, or at least someone who will share the gospel. Gary McIntosh of Church Growth Network lists a few “windows of opportunity” to watch for:

• Following a move people are looking to build new relationships.
• Following a divorce many look for places of safety and healing.
• During a crisis event such as death, injury, or job lay-off people tend to consider the bigger questions of life.
• During a time of hurt from divorce, drugs or abuse, people, especially younger people respond well to support groups.
• During a period of physical renewal those concerned with physical fitness may respond well to sports oriented programs at a church.
• During transition to single parenting there is often openness to practical help and support.
• During the child-care years the continuing need for two-income families produces the opportunity to be involved in childcare.
• Following the birth of a child the physical and spiritual challenges of raising a child become more apparent.

Lifeline, Winter 1995

While serving with Operation Mobilization in India in 1967, I spent several months in a TB sanitarium with tuberculosis. After finally being admitted into the sanitarium, I tried to give tracts to the patients, doctors, and nurses, but no one would take them. You could tell that they weren’t really happy with me, a rich American (to them all Americans were rich), being in a government sanitarium. They didn’t know that serving with O.M., I was just as broke as they were!

I was quite discouraged with being sick, having everyone angry at me, not being able to witness because of the language barrier, and no one even bothering to take a tract or Gospel of John. The first few nights, I would wake around 2:00 a.m. coughing. One morning as I was going through my coughing spell, I noticed one of the older (and certainly sicker) patients across the aisle trying to get out of bed. He would sit up on the edge of the bed and try to stand, but because of weakness would fall back into bed. I really didn’t understand what was happening or what he was trying to do. He finally fell back into bed exhausted. I then heard him begin to cry softly.

The next morning I realized what the man was trying to do. He was simply trying to get up and walk to the bathroom! Because of his sickness and extreme weakness he was not able to do this, and being so ill he simply went to the toilet in the bed.

The next morning the stench in our ward was awful. Most of the other patients yelled insults at the man because of the smell. The nurses were extremely agitated and angry because they had to clean up the mess, and moved him roughly from side to side to take care of the problem. One of the nurses in her anger even slapped him. The man, terribly embarrassed, just curled up into a ball and wept.

The next night, also around 2:00 a.m., I again awoke coughing. I noticed the man across the aisle sit up to again try to make his way to the washroom. However, still being so weak, he fell back whimpering as the night before. I’m just like most of you. I don’t like bad smells. I didn’t want to become involved. I was sick myself but before I realized what had happened, not knowing why I did it, I got out of my bed and went over to the old man. He was still crying and did not hear me approach. As I reached down and touched his shoulder, his eyes opened with a fearful questioning look. I simply smiled, put my arm under his head and neck, and my other arm under his legs, and picked him up.

Even though I was sick and weak, I was certainly stronger than he was. He was extremely light because of his old age and advanced TB. I walked down the hall to the washroom, which was really just a smelly, filthy small room with a hole in the floor. I stood behind him with my arms under his arms, holding him so he could take care of himself. After he finished, I picked him up and carried him back to his bed. As I began to lay him down, with my head next to his, he kissed me on the cheek, smiled, and said something which I suppose was “thank you.”

It was amazing what happened the next morning. One of the other patients whom I didn’t know woke me around 4:00 with a steaming cup of delicious Indian tea. He then made motions with his hands (he knew no English) indicating he wanted a tract. As the sun came up, some of the other patients began to approach, motioning that they would also like one of the booklets I had tried to distribute before. Throughout the day people came to me, asking for the Gospel booklets. This included the nurses, the hospital interns, the doctors, until everybody in the hospital had a tract, booklet, or Gospel of John. Over the next few days, several indicated they trusted Christ as Savior as a result of reading the Good News!

What did it take to reach these people with the Good News of salvation in Christ? It certainly wasn’t health. It definitely wasn’t the ability to speak or to give an intellectually moving discourse. Health, and the ability to communicate sensitively to other cultures and peoples are all very important, but what did God use to open their hearts to the Gospel? I simply took an old man to the bathroom. Anyone could have done that! - Doug Nichols

WORLD, March 12, 1994, p. 26.

On three separate occasions, God told parents in Israel how to answer the serious questions of their sons and daughters (see Exodus 13:14, Deuteronomy 6:20, and Joshua 4:6,21). This would indicate that God wants us to take the time to answer our children when they ask us about spiritual matters. How we respond can either greatly help or terribly discourage them.

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy told of an aunt who hurt him deeply when she didn’t take time to answer some questions that were troubling him. She stirred his emotions by telling him of Jesus’ crucifixion, but when he cried out, “Auntie, why did they torture Him?” she said simply, “They were wicked.” “But wasn’t He God?” Tolstoy asked. Instead of explaining that Jesus was indeed God, that He had become a man so He could die for our sins, she said, “Be still—it is 9 o’clock!” When he persisted, she retorted, ““Be quiet, I say, I’m going to the dining room to have tea.” This left young Tolstoy greatly agitated. Commenting on this scene, Calvin Miller said, “Tolstoy found it incomprehensible that Christ had been brutalized and his aunt was not interested enough to stay a little past teatime and talk about it.”

Do we allow our own interests—a television program, a sporting event, a hobby—to keep us from taking time to listen, admonish, and instruct our children, or anyone who may ask us about God? If we pause long enough to explain His truth, He will use it to change lives. H.V.L.

Source unknown

Lord, teach me how to love and live
That I may cheer each heart,
And to my fellowman in need
Some blessing rich impart.
- Anon.

Source unknown

Do all the good you can,
in all the ways you can,
for all the people you can,
while you can.

Our Daily Bread, Monday, November 25.

Ninety-five percent of all Christians have never won a soul to Christ.
Eighty percent of all Christians do not consistently witness for Christ.
Less than two percent are involved in the ministry of evangelism.
Seventy-one percent do not give toward the financing of the great Commission.

One particular denomination did a survey on its leadership ministries. The results are as follows:

• 63% of the leadership in this denomination, including deacons and elders, have not led one stranger to Jesus in the last two years through the method of “Go Ye” evangelism.
• 49% of the leadership ministries spend zero time in an average week ministering outside of the church.
• 89% of the leadership ministries have zero time reserved on their list of weekly priorities for going out to evangelize.
• 99% of the leadership ministries believe that every Christian, including leadership, has been commanded to preach the gospel to a lost world.
• 97% believe that if the leadership had a greater conviction and involvement in evangelism, that it would be an example for the church to follow.
• 96% of the leadership believe their churches would have grown faster if they would have been more involved in evangelism.

Because of this, our results in evangelism have been mediocre, at best.

“Street Level Evangelism, Where is the Space for the Local Evangelist,” by Michael Parrott, Acts Evangelism, Spokane, WA, 1993, pp. 9-11.

Pollsters report that 72 percent of Americans don’t know their next-door neighbors.

Bill McKibben, in the Age of Missing Information, Signs of the Times, February, 1994

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn’t able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. But to his great dismay it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner’s home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become his prized possession and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. “Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?” he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector’s emotions were deeply stirred. “I have no right to keep that to myself,” he exclaimed. “It’s yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it.”

Our Daily Bread, February 4, 1994

In a yet-to-be-released poll, George Gallup, Jr., reported seven needs of the average American:

1. The need for shelter and food

2. The need to believe life is meaningful and has a purpose

3. The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships

4. The need to be appreciated and respected

5. The need to be listened to and be heard

6. The need to feel one is growing in faith

7. The need for practical help in developing a mature faith

National and International Religion Report, May 29, 1991

Hence we find in non-Christian religions a restless sense of the hostility of the powers of the universe; an undefined feeling of guilt, and all sorts of merit-making techniques designed to get rid of it; a dread of death, and a consuming anxiety to feel that one has conquered it; forms of worship aimed at once to placate, bribe, and control the gods, and to make them keep their distance, except when wanted; an alarming readiness to call moral evil good, and good evil, in the name of religion; an ambivalent attitude of mind which seems both to seek God and to seek to evade him in the same act.

Therefore in our evangelistic dialogue with people of non-Christian religions, our task must be to present the biblical revelation of God in Christ—not as supplementing them but as explaining their existence, exposing their errors, and judging their inadequacy.

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for July 31

1. Is this way of presenting Christ calculated to impress on people that the gospel is a word from God? Or is its tendency rather to distract attention from the author and authority of the message to the person and performance of the messenger'

2. Is this way of presenting Christ calculated to promote or impede the work of God in people’s minds? Is it going to make people think and think hard about God and about themselves in relation to God'

3. Is this way of presenting Christ calculated to convey to people the doctrine of the whole gospel? Or will it hurry people on to the demand for faith and repentance without having made it clear just what they need to repent of or what they ought to believe'

4. Is this way of presenting Christ calculated to convey to people the application of the whole gospel? Or is it likely to give an inadequate, distorted impression of what the gospel requires'

5. Is this way of presenting Christ calculated to convey gospel truth in a manner that is appropriately serious? Or is it so light, fun, and casual that hearers will have a hard time taking it seriously and will regard it as a pick-me-up for life’s misfits?

Your Father Loves You by James Packer, (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), page for July 30

Shortly after World War II the so-called gospel horse appeared on the scene, trained to answer theological questions. At youth rallies the horse was led on stage to be asked various questions, and would respond by stomping his hoof once for yes and twice for no. The climax occurred when the horse was asked, “How many persons are there in the Trinity?” and responded with three resounding stomps. Once, he took up so much time there was none left for the speaker! The preliminary overshadowed the main attraction.

Today in the Word, June 18, 1993

Moreover, we must not hesitate to emphasize that the New Testament evangelistic task was a task committed to the entire organized church. It was evangelism by every Christian as is clear in Acts 8:3 where we are told that a great persecution scattered the church. All except the apostles went through the regions of Judea and Samaria preaching the Word.

Sadly enough, the Arminians often seem to catch this emphasis better than we Calvinists. Too often we let the Arminian canvas the neighborhood and witness to our friends while we sit idly by. The best car in the world is useless if it is never started. The Arminians may drive a theological model T, but they drive nonetheless.

Leonard Coppes, quoted in “Credenda Agenda,” Volume 5, Number 2, p. 2, from Are Five Points Enough' Reformation Education Foundation, 1980, p. 162

I was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognized him.

Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to my presentation. When I invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.” The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, “Naw, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night.”

Billy and I have had several good chuckles over that incident. Unfortunately, it underlines how, in the minds of many people, evangelism is the task of the “Big Guns,” not the “little shots.”

Good News is for Sharing, Lieghton Ford, 1977, David C. Cook Publishing Co., p. 67

The Albanian Palace of Congresses, in the capital city of Tirana, was once a virtual shrine to atheistic communism. But late last year the featured attraction there was not communist ideology but the Jesus film, a Campus Crusade for Christ evangelistic project.

An estimated 2,000 people turned out for the first Albanian showing of the film in mid-December, including the country’s top government officials. More than 700 indicated decisions for Christ. “What once was a temple of communism is now being used as a temple of the holy God,” exclaimed the head of the government-controlled Albanian film industry.

Christianity Today, March 9, 1992, p. 62

Backward Christian soldiers, Fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus, Nearly out of sight.
Christ our rightful master, Stands against the foe;
Onward into battle, we seem afraid to go.

Like a might tortoise, Moves the church of God.
Brothers we are treading, Where we’ve often trod.
We are much divided, Many bodies we,
Having different doctrines, but not much charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the cross of Jesus Hidden does remain.
Gates of hell should never ‘gainst the Church prevail,
We have Christ’s own promise, but we think it might fail.

Sit here then ye people, Join our sleeping throng.
Blend with ours, your voices in a feeble song.
Blessings, ease and comfort Ask from Christ the King,
But with our modern thinking, We won’t do a thing.

Chorus:
Backward Christian soldiers, Fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus, Nearly out of sight.

Anonymous

I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.

Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I say that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step and it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry that I heard. Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simple agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could not call; though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were far too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees, with their backs turned towards the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them it disturbed them and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven’t finished your daisy chains yet. It would be really selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”

There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go and sometimes there were no sentries set for miles and miles of the edge.

Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and other relations called, and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile, but no one was sent to guard her gap and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.

Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called—but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way and with a cry, the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; the gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they sang a hymn.

Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was—the Cry of the Blood.

Then thundered a Voice, the Voice of the Lord. “And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brothers’ blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”

The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and the weird wild shriek of the devil-possessed just outside the gate. What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it'

God forgive us! God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!

The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported in September, 1985 a celebration of a New Orleans municipal pool.

The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season.

All souls are equally precious but not all are equally strategic.

Dr. Joe Aldrich

Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Before the two parted, his client said to him, “I’ve often wanted to ask you a question, but I’ve been afraid to do so.”

“What do you want to know?” asked the lawyer.

The man replied, “I’ve wondered why you’re not a Christian.”

The man hung his head, “I know enough about the Bible to realize that it says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of God; and you know my weakness!”

“You’re avoiding my questions,” continued the believer.

“Well, truthfully, I can’t recall anyone ever explaining how to become a Christian.”

Picking up a Bible, the client read some passages showing that all are under condemnation, but that Christ came to save the lost by dying on the cross for their sins. “By receiving Him as your Substitute and Redeemer,” he said, “you can be forgiven. If you’re willing to receive Jesus, let’s pray together.”

The lawyer agreed, and when it was his turn he exclaimed, “O Jesus, I am a slave to drink. One of your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God, forgive my sins and help me overcome the power of this terrible habit in my life.” Right there he was converted.

That lawyer was C. I. Scofield, who later edited the reference Bible that bears his name.

Source unknown

The following article is based on a sermon by missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West Africa with another mission agency. His story points out the price some people pay to sow the seed of the gospel in hard soil.

I was always perplexed by Psalm 126 until I went to the Sahel, that vast stretch of savanna more than four thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracks from dryness, and so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw it thousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West Africa as a fine grit. It gets inside your mouth. It gets inside your watch and stops it. The year’s food, of course, must all be grown in those four months. People grow sorghum or milo in small fields.

October and November .these are beautiful months. The granaries are full—the harvest has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour and then a mush with the consistency of yesterday’s Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep.

December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal. Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day. By February, the evening meal diminishes. The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don’t stay well on half a meal a day.

April is the month that haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the days are passed with only an evening cup of gruel. Then, inevitably, it happens. A six- or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with sudden excitement. “Daddy! Daddy! We’ve got grain!” he shouts.

“Son, you know we haven’t had grain for weeks.”

“Yes, we have!” the boy insists. “Out in the hut where we keep the goats—there’s a leather sack hanging up on the wall—I reached up and put my hand down in there—Daddy, there’s grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!”

The father stands motionless. “Son, we can’t do that,” he softly explains. “That’s next year’s seed grain. It’s the only thing between us and starvation. We’re waiting for the rains, and then we must use it.”

The rains finally arrive in May, and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his desperately weakened family, he goes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest. The seed is his; he owns it. He can do anything with it he wants.

The act of sowing it hurts so much that he cries. But as the African pastors say when they preach on Psalm 126, “Brother and sisters, this is God’s law of the harvest. Don’t expect to rejoice later on unless you have been willing to sow in tears.” And I want to ask you: How much would it cost you to sow in tears? I don’t mean just giving God something from your abundance, but finding a way to say, “I believe in the harvest, and therefore I will give what makes no sense. The world would call me unreasonable to do this—but I must sow regardless, in order that I may someday celebrate with songs of joy.”

Leadership, 1983

A model from the world of real estate becomes instructive at this point. A firm in Salem, Oregon, assigns 500 families to each agent. Agents are expected to contact each assigned family once per month for a year. The contact may be personal, a telephone call, or a letter. Research indicates that it takes at least six contacts for people to remember who the agent is and the firm represented. During this time of “building relationships,” agents are encouraged not to go in the house (good psychology, everyone else ins trying to get their foot in the door). Furthermore, they are encouraged not to ask for a listing during this “get acquainted” time. Obviously, there would be exceptions to these restrictions, but they do illustrate an understanding of what it takes to create a favorable climate for selling real estate. After the initial year of regular contacts, the agent continues to communicate with the assigned families on a scheduled, systematic basis. Research reveals that if this pattern is followed consistently for one-year-and-a-half, the agent will secure 80% of the listings.

What does the real estate firm know that we either do not know or overlook?

First, people do not like to be confronted by strangers seeking entrance into their homes. In fact, in many communities this is socially unacceptable. The sales person or any other unknown professional who arrives at the door is automaticaally confronted with a high sales resistance. If the door is opened, it is done with a determination not to be “taken in” by sales talk. The salesperson professionally represents the product, and consequently the sales pitch is discounted at least 50 percent. However, if a friend comes over and shares a glowing personal testimony concerning the value of the agent’s product, the reaction is apt to be markedly different. A satisfied customer makes the most effective salesperson.

Second, people are more inclined to do business with acquaintances than strangers.

Third, it takes time and effort to build a healthy decision-making climate.

Fourth, there is no substitute for time. Often it is necessary to “make haste slowly

Joe Aldrich, Friendship Evangelism, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

• If to be a Christian is worthwhile, then the most ordinary interest in those with whom we come in contact would prompt us to speak to them of Christ.
• If the New Testament be true—and we know that it is—who has given us the right to place the responsibility for soul-winning on other shoulders than our own'
• If they who reject Christ are in danger, is it not strange that we, who are so sympathetic when the difficulties are physical or temporal, should apparently be so devoid of interest as to allow our friends and neighbors and kindred to come into our lives and pass out again without a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of sounding a note of warning because of their peril'
• If today is the day of salvation, if tomorrow may never come and if life is equally uncertain, how can we eat, drink and be merry when those who live with us, work with us, walk with us and love us are unprepared for eternity because they are unprepared for time'
• If Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of men, who gave us the right to be satisfied with making fishing tackle or pointing the way to the fishing banks instead of going ourselves to cast out the net until it be filled'
• If Jesus himself went seeking the lost, if Paul the Apostle was in agony because his kinsmen, according to the flesh, knew not Christ, why should we not consider it worthwhile to go out after the lost until they are found'
• If I am to stand at the judgment seat of Christ to render an account for the deeds done in the Body, what shall I say to him if my children are missing, if my friends are not saved or if my employer or employee should miss the way because I have been faithless'
• If I wish to be approved at the last, then let me remember that no intellectual superiority, no eloquence in preaching, no absorption in business, no shrinking temperament or no spirit of timidity can take the place of or be an excuse for my not making an honest, sincere, prayerful effort to win others to Christ.

By J. Wilbur Chapman

Source unknown

D. L. Moody made an covenant with God that he would witness for Christ to at least one person each day. One night, about ten o’clock, he realized that he had not yet witnessed; so he went out in to the street and spoke to a man standing by a lamppost, asking him, “Are you a Christian?” The man flew into a violent rage and threatened to knock Moody into the gutter.

Later, that same man went to an elder in the church and complained that Moody was “doing more harm in Chicago than ten men were doing good.” The elder begged Moody to temper his zeal with knowledge. Three months later, Moody was awakened at the YMCA by a man knocking at the door. It was the man he had witnessed to. “I want to talk to you about my soul,” he said to Moody. He apologized for the way he had treated Moody and said that he had had no peace ever since that night on Lake Street when Moody witnessed to him. Moody led the man to Christ and he became a zealous worker in the Sunday school.

The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 205

One Sunday evening, William Booth was walking in London with his son, Bramwell, who was then 12 or 13 years old. The father surprised the son by taking him into a saloon! The place was crowded with men and women, many of them bearing on their faces the marks of vice and crime; some were drunk. The fumes of alcohol and tobacco were poisonous. “Willie,” Booth said to his son, “These are our people; these are the people I want you to live for and bring to Christ.”

Years later, Bramwell Booth wrote, “The impression never left me.”

The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 185

The secret to neutralizing fear is to embrace the threatened disaster and count it as not too high a price to pay for obedience to Christ. This attitude of faith may not totally eliminate the uneasiness and apprehension. It will, however, allow you to go ahead and act in obedience to Christ. The problem of fear is not the fear itself, but the fact that we allow it to immobilize us. Being afraid is no sin. Shrinking back fearfully from obedience is sin fear can stop you in your tracks as a Christian .but it doesn’t have to. You can trust God (and) move ahead in obedience because you understand fear and know how to deal with it.

Wayne McDill, Making Friends for Christ, p. 103

For God so loved the world, not just a few,
The wise and great, the noble and the true,
Or those of favored class or rank or hue.
God loved the world. Do you'

Source unknown

The report indicates a great deal of ambivalence among Americans with regard to their beliefs. For instance, while 62 percent of the respondents said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, 65 percent said the term “born again” does not apply to them; fewer than 50 percent strongly agreed that the Bible is the written word of God and is totally accurate in all it teaches.

The Barna Report: What Americans Believe, 1991, quoted in 9-16-91 Christianity Today

Evangelism is communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ with the immediate intent of converting the hearer to faith in Christ, and with the ultimate intent of instructing the convert in the Word of God so that he can become a mature believer.

Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 14

How then should evangelism be defined? The N. T. answer is very simple. According to the N. T., evangelism is just preaching the gospel, the evangel. Evangelizing, therefore is not simply a matter of teaching, and instructing, and imparting information to the mind. There is more to it than that. Evangelism includes the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught. It is communication with a view to conversion. It is a matter, not merely of informing, but also of inviting.

J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, pp. 41, 50

I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the marketplace
as well as on the steeple of the church.

I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles;
But on a cross between two thieves: on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write
His title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek.

And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died, and that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s men ought to be,
and what church people ought to be about.

Source unknown

Nineteenth century Scottish preacher Horatius Bonar asked 253 Christian friends at what ages they were converted. Here’s what he discovered:

Under 20 years of age 138 (54.5%)
Between 20 and 30 85 (33.6%)
Between 30 and 40 22 (8.7%)
Between 40 and 50 4 (1.6%)
Between 50 and 60 3 (1.2%)
Between 60 and 70 1 (.4%)
Over 70 0

Our Daily Bread

Gibbon concluded that Christianity in the first century flourished for 5 reasons: (1) their intolerant religious zeal, (2) doctrine of immortality of the soul, (3) miraculous power, (4) pure morals, (5) unity and discipline. Justin referred to many who have, “changed their violent and tyrannical disposition, being overcome either by the constancy which they have witnessed in the lives of their Christian neighbors, or by the extraordinary forbearance they have observed in their Christian fellow travelers when defrauded, and by the honesty of those believers with whom they have transacted business.”

Source unknown

On a February day in 1925, Floyd Collins climbed into Sand Cave in search of fortune. Suddenly, his lantern failed. Crawling through the darkness, Collin’s foot hit a seven-ton boulder. It fell on his leg, trapping him in the coffin-like narrowness of a dark, subterranean straitjacket. For days Collins was trapped 125 feet below ground in an ice-cold space 8 inches high and 12 feet long.

In the meantime, his plight became a national sensation. As the rescue attempt wore on, some 50,000 tourists bought hot dogs, balloons, and soft drinks from vendors at the cave in Kentucky. But in the end, Floyd Collins died alone in the icy darkness, crying out deliriously, “Get me out. Why don’t you take me out? Kiss me goodbye, I’m going.”

Today in the Word, September 20, 1990

Elton Trueblood, the Quaker scholar, once compared evangelism to fire. Evangelism occurs, he said, when Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that they in turn set other fires. It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as a fire that does not burn is a contradiction.

Christian Theology in Plain Language, p. 162

Sometimes telling a story has as much effect on the teller as it does the listeners.

Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, recalls: “My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher, and he related how his master used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke and was so swept away by his story that he himself began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that our he was cured of his lameness.”

When we tell the story of our Master, we too experience His power.

Timothy K. Jones

Source unknown

Jack had been president of a large corporation, and when he got cancer, they ruthlessly dumped him. He went through his insurance, used his life savings, and had practically nothing left. I visited him with one of my deacons, who said, “Jack, you speak so openly about the brief life you have left. I wonder if you’ve prepared for your life after death?”

Jack stood up, livid with rage. “You *** Christians. All you ever think about is what’s going to happen to me after I die. If your God is so great, why doesn’t He do something about the real problems of life?” He went on to tell us he was leaving his wife penniless and his daughter without money for college. The he ordered us out.

Later my deacon insisted we go back. We did.

“Jack, I know I offended you,” he said. “I humbly apologize. But I want you to know I’ve been working since then. Your first problem is where your family will live after you die. A realtor in our church has agreed to sell your house and give your wife his commission.

“I guarantee you that, if you’ll permit us, some other men and I will make the house payments until it’s sold.

“Then, I’ve contacted the owner of an apartment house down the street. He’s offered your wife a three-bedroom apartment plus free utilities and an $850-a-month salary in return for her collecting rents and supervising plumbing and electrical repairs. The income from your house should pay for your daughter’s college. I just want you to know your family will be cared for.”

Jack cried like a baby. He died shortly thereafter, so wrapped in pain he never accepted Christ. But he experienced God’s love even while rejecting Him. And his widow, touched by the caring Christians, responded to the gospel message.

Even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them.

Van Campbell

Reported by Ralph Neighbour, pastor of Houston’s West Memorial Baptist Church in “Death and the Caring Community,” by Larry Richards and Paul Johnson

The late Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopalian bishop, summed up the situation this way: “In the Great Commission the Lord has called us to be—like Peter—fishers of men. We’ve turned the commission around so that we have become merely keepers of the aquarium. Occasionally I take some fish out of your fishbowl and put them into mine, and you do the same with my bowl. But we’re all tending the same fish.”

Em Griffin, The Mindchangers, Tyndale House, 1976, p. 151

While D. L. Moody was attending a convention in Indianapolis on mass evangelism, he asked his song leader Ira Sankey to meet him at 6 o’clock one evening at a certain street corner. When Sankey arrived, Mr. Moody asked him to stand on a box and sing. Once a crowd had gathered, Moody spoke briefly and then invited the people to follow him to the nearby convention hall. Soon the auditorium was filled with spiritually hungry people, and the great evangelist preached the gospel to them.

Then the convention delegates began to arrive. Moody stopped preaching and said, “Now we must close, as the brethren of the convention wish to come and discuss the topic, ‘How to reach the masses.’”

Moody graphically illustrated the difference between talking about doing something and going out and doing it.

Source unknown

A member of W. E. Sangster’s (1900-1960) church in Scarborough, England (the Queen St. Church) was a barber and felt it his duty to witness to his customers, but he wasn’t always careful. One day he lathered a man for a shave, picked up the razor, and asked, “Sir, are you prepared to meet your God?” The poor fellow fled with the lather still on his face.

W. Wiersbe, Walking with Giants, p. 173

• When God Was Taken Captive, W. Aldrich, Multnomah, 1989, pp.118ff
• Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip, p. 221; Growing Strong, p. 98

The Order of the Mustard Seed founded by Count Zinzendorf had three guiding principles, namely:

1. Be kind to all people.

2. Seek their welfare.

3. Win them to Christ.

Source unknown

A survey done by sociologists Glock and Stark found that among evangelicals, over half of their close friends are likely to belong to the same congregation, whereas among liberal churchgoers, such as Presbyterians and Congregationalists, few or none of their close friends are likely to be members of their local church.

The Emerging Order, Rifkin and Howard, p. 115

We conducted a three-phase experiment at Rockford College, and used over 100 college graduates who were preparing for youth ministry.

In the first phase, we took a young volunteer from the room and blindfolded him. We simply told him that when he returned, he could do anything he wished. He remained outside the room while we instructed each audience member to think of a simple task for the volunteer to do. When the volunteer returned, they were to shout their individual instructions at him from where they sat. Prior to this, we privately instructed another person to shout a very specific task at the blindfolded volunteer as though it were a matter of life and death. This person was to attempt to persuade the blindfolded volunteer to climb the steps at the back of the auditorium and embrace an instructor who was standing at the door; he had to shout this vital message from where he sat in the audience. The volunteer was oblivious to all instructions and previous arrangements. The volunteer represented our young people, the audience represented the world of voices screaming for their attention, and the person with the vital message represented those of us who bring the message of the Gospel to youth. The blindfolded student was led back into the room. The lecture room exploded in a din of shouting. Each person tried to get the volunteer to follow his or her unique instructions. In the midst of the crowd, the voice of the person with the vital message was lost; no single message stood out. The blindfolded student stood paralyzed by confusion and indecision. He moved randomly and without purpose as he sought to discern a clear and unmistakable voice in the crowd.

The second phase: we told the audience about the person attempting to get the volunteer to accomplish the vital task. At this point we chose another person from the audience to add a new dimension. This person’s goal was to, at all costs, keep the volunteer from doing the vital task. While the rest of the audience was to remain in their seats, these two people were allowed to stand next to the volunteer and shout their opposing messages. They could get as close as they wished; however, they were not allowed to touch the volunteer. As the blindfolded volunteer was led back into the room, the shouting began again. This time, because the two messengers were standing so close, the volunteer could hear both messages; but because the messages were opposed to each other, he vacillated. He followed one for a bit, then was convinced by the other to go the opposite direction. In order for young people to hear our message we must get close to them. Even then, there are others with opposing messages who also are close enough to make their messages clear. Sometimes they are peers, relatives .The main lesson: only the close voices could be heard. Even though the volunteer took no decisive action, at least he heard the message.

The response to the third phase was startling. In this phase everything remained the same except the one with the vital message was allowed to touch the volunteer. He could not pull, push or in any way force the volunteer to do his bidding; but he could touch him, and in that way encourage him to follow. The blindfolded volunteer was led into the room. When he appeared, the silence erupted into an earsplitting roar. The two messengers stood close, shouting their opposing words. Then, the one with the vital message put his arm gently around the volunteer’s shoulder and leaned very close to speak directly into his ear. Almost without hesitation, the volunteer began to yield to his instruction. Occasionally he paused to listen as the opposition frantically tried to convince him to turn around. But then, by the gentle guidance of touch, the one with the vital message led him on. A moment of frightening realism occurred spontaneously as the one with the vital message drew close to the goal. All those in the audience, who up to this point had been shouting their own individual instruction, suddenly joined in unison to keep the volunteer from taking those final steps.

Goose bumps appeared all over my body as students began to chant together, “Don’t go!” “Don’t go!” “Don’t go!” So many times I’ve seen the forces that pull our youth in different directions join together to dissuade them from a serious commitment to Christ. The chant grew to a pulsing crescendo, “Don’t go!” “Don’t go!” But the guiding arm of the one with the vital message never left the volunteer’s shoulder. At the top of the stairs in the back of the lecture hall, the one with the vital message leaned one last time to whisper in the ear of the volunteer. There was a moment of hesitation, then the volunteer threw his arms around the instructor and the auditorium erupted in cheers and applause.

When the volunteer revealed how he felt as he went through each phase, it became apparent that if our message is to be heard, we cannot shout it from the cavernous confines of our church buildings. We must venture out and draw close to those with whom we wish to communicate. If we really seek a life-changing commitment from our young people, we also must reach out where they are and in love, gently touch them and lead them to that commitment. We asked the volunteer why he followed the one with the vital message, the one who touched him. After a few moments he said, “Because it felt like he was the only one who really cared.”

Ken Davis, How To Speak To Youth, pp. 19-23

The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, “I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” The manager replied,

“Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.”

So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a thirst for the Gospel.

November-December 1985, Preaching.

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive, and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept a constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they unselfishly went out day or night to save the lost. Because so many lives were saved by that station, it became famous.

Consequently, many people wanted to be associated with the station to give their time, talent, and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered. As the membership in the life-saving station grew, some of the members became unhappy that the building was so primitive and that the equipment was so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors pulled from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building.

Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly and when they did, it was apparent how they loved one another. They greeted each other, hugged each other, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives. But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions; so they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them.

About this time, a large ship was wrecked off of the coast, and the hired crews brought into the life-saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people. Some of them had black skin, and some had yellow skin. Some could speak English well, and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first-class cabin passengers of the ship, and some were the deck hands.

The beautiful meeting place became a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the exquisite furniture got scratched. So the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting there was rift in the membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities, for they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members. Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who would be shipwrecked, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. And do you know what? That is what they did.

As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, and for special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to the drowning people. The drowning people were no longer welcomed in that new life-saving station. So another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

Thomas Wedel, “Ecumenical Review,” October, 1953, paraphrased in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, pp. 99-101

Dr. Paul Brand was speaking to a medical college in India on “Let your light so shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify your Father.” In front of the lectern was a oil lamp, with its cotton wick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, and the smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity.

“Some of us here are like this wick,” he said. “We’re trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That’s what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit.

“Wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy “Spirit, is in constant supply.”

Philip Yancey

Source unknown

John G. Paton, a missionary to the South Sea Islands, often lived in danger as he worked among the hostile aborigines who had never heard the gospel. At one time three witch doctors, claiming to have the power to cause death, publicly declared their intentions to kill Paton with their sorcery before the next Sunday. To carry out their threat, they said they needed some food he had partially eaten. Paton asked for three plums. He took a bite out of each and then gave them to the men who were plotting his death.

On Sunday, the missionary entered the village with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. The people looked at each other in amazement, thinking it couldn’t possibly be Paton. Their “sacred men” admitted that they had tried by all their incantations to kill him. When asked why they had failed, they replied that the missionary was a sacred man like themselves, but that his God was stronger than theirs.

From then on Paton’s influence grew, and soon he had the joy of leading some of the villagers to the Lord.

Source unknown

Bible expositor Bonar Law once said that love to man is truly love “only when it is rooted and governed by love to God. Piety without philanthropy is unreal; philanthropy without piety is either immoral or impotent.”

That’s a sobering statement. There are lots of humanitarians who are doing good things, but if they are doing them without any relationship to God, the ultimate result is failure.

Ian M. Hay, SIM NOW, May-June, 1989, p. 2

1. Oswald Chambers: "The thing that makes a missionary is the sight of what Jesus did on the cross and to have heard Him say, "Go."'

2. Daniel T. Niles: Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food.'

3. Robert Wiler, a missionary volunteer connected with the Student Volunteer Movement, from a speech he gave at a conference in 1891: 'let us come to the churches having as our theme the highwayman's motto, "Your money or your life,? saying the needs are so great, the command so urgent, we have given our lives-will you not give your money"'

4. C. T. Studd wrote from Cambridge in 1883: "I had known about Jesus dying for me, but I had never understood that, if He had died for me, then I didn't belong to myself. Redemption means buying back, so that if I belong to Him, either I had to be a thief, and keep what wasn't mine, or else I had to give up everything to God. When I came to see that Jesus had died for me, it didn't seem hard to give up all for Him.? Studd also said, "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.'

5. March 19th, 1872, was David Livingstone's 59th birthday. In his diary we read these words: "My Jesus, my King, my Life, My All. I again dedicate my whole self to Thee.? A year later he was found dead on his knees by his bedside, a candle burning, his Bible open, himself in the presence of his King.

6. Student commitment made at a Frontiers Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1980: "By the grace of God and for His glory, I commit my entire life to obeying His commission of Matt. 28:18-20, wherever and however He leads me, giving priority to the peoples currently beyond the reach of the Gospel (Rom. 15:20-21). I will also endeavor to impart this vision to others.'

7. Words spoken by Rev. Festo Kivengere in a communications convention: "It is the Holy Spirit who puts jet engines on the word bombs of the Bible so they fly into the needy places in people's hearts and explode at the right time.'

8. A. T. Pierson: "There is enough jewelry, gold, and silver plate buried in Christian homes to build a fleet of 50,000 vessels, ballast them with Bibles, crowd them with missionaries, and supply every living soul with the gospel in a score of years. Only let God take possession and the gospel will wing its way like the beams of the morning.'

9. Robertson McQuilken in his book The Great Omission: "in a world in which nine out of every ten people is lost, three or four have never heard the way out, and one of every two cannot hear, the church sleeps on. How come? Could it be we think there must be some other way? Or perhaps we don't really care that much'

10. George Murray, director of the Bible Christian Union, tells us that for years he was "willing to go, but planning to stay.? Not until he became "willing to stay, but planning to go? did God move him to Italy.

11. Dr. A. B. Simpson: "Press on our heart the woe, and put in our feet the go.'

12. Dr. Bob Pierce: "When considering the needs of missions, don't fail to do something just because you can't do everything. "Others have done so much with so little, while we have done so little with so much.'

13. A South Sea Islander proudly displayed his Bible to a World War II G.I. "We-ve outgrown that sort of thing,? the soldier said. the native smiled back. "It's a good thing we haven't. If it wasn't for the Book, you'd have been a meal by now.'

14. Hudson Taylor: "I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up asking Him to do His work through me.'

15. Dr. Ralph Winter: "For the gospel to "go where it isn't,? someone has to go from where it is among his own people and go where he/she will no longer be "native.? Natives become foreigners when they become true missionaries. It is one thing to be concerned that the church grow where it is. It is something else to make sure the church goes where it isn't.'

16. Mr. Bernie May (U.S. Division Director of Wycliffe): 'the question is not, "Can I afford to take on the needs of the world when I'm so troubled by other things"? The question is, "Can I afford not to"?'

17. International Missionary Council, Jerusalem, 1928: "herein lies the Christian motive: it is simple. We cannot bear to think of men living without Him. We believe in a Christlike world. We know nothing better; we can be content with nothing less.'

18. William Booth once had an audience with King Edward VII of England. His Majesty highly commended the Salvationist for his unflagging zeal and wonderful work among the poor. How revealing was Booth's reply to the king's glowing words! He said, "Your Majesty, some men's passion is for art. Some men's passion is for fame. My passion is for souls.'

19. Theodore Williams of India said: "We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss.'

20. Andrew Murray said at World Missionary Conference in 1910, "We shall need three times more men, four times more money, and seven times more prayer.'

21. Dr. Samuel Zwemer, in a convention of the Student Volunteer Movement, hung a great map of Islam before the delegates, and with a sweep of his hand across all those darkened areas said: 'thou, O Christ, art all I want, and Thou, O Christ, art all they want. What Christ can do for any man, He can do for every man.'

22. Henry Martyn, at 23 years of age: "I feel that my heart is wholly for heaven, and the world mainly behind my back.? On his way to India: "I do not know that anything would be a heaven to me, but the service of Christ and the enjoyment of His presence. Oh how sweet is life when spent in His service.'

23. Betty Stam's covenant made as a high school student: 'lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt; send me where Thou wilt; work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.'

24. Nate Saint"in a Christmas meditation letter written just a short while before he and four other young men gave their lives in seeking to reach the Auca Indians in Ecuador, South America, December, 1955: "If God would grant us the vision, the word 'sacrifice? would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short; we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas, and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich. Lord God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy holy will and the joy of walking in it. Amen.?

Abe C. Van Der Puy, The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc., Copyright 1987

Experiencing a life-changing faith, having a close relationship with God and desiring to please God above all else are strong earmarks of belief for born-again Christians, according to a recent poll comparing America's religious attitudes.

In a nationwide survey, 1,210 adults were asked?(those responding yes)

Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent

Source: Barna Research Group, by Monica Seaberry and Mike Paquette, 1998 Religion News Service, quoted in Moody, July/August, 1998, p. 37

In one of his sermons, E. V. Hill tells of a time when he preached in Michigan with Dr. Jack Hyles, the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. Hyles' church averaged 20,000 in Sunday school back then. "[E. V.] asked, "Jack, let me in on why you're so caught up in soul winning. You're on the verge of fanatic. What's behind all that?"
He said, "One night, I was awakened by this piercing scream from my sister. I ran upstairs to her bedroom, and there she was sweating and in hysterics. I shook her, and I couldn't get her attention, so I had to slap her. I said, 'What's wrong? You had a dream?' She said, 'No, no dream.' I said, 'You had a nightmare?' She said, 'No it was real.' I said, 'What happened?' She said, 'Jack, I just got back from hell. After a few miles of the glitter and lights and all of that which deceives mankind, there was nothing but desolation. It was a bummed-out situation. It's nothing but desolation and hopelessness. You walk towards the gates of hell knowing that you will never again be free. I got to the gates of hell and the keeper said, "Hold it." I stood outside hell, and I saw people whose faces were twisted and tongues were thick, eyes bulging and hands split, dropping blood. I said, "Sir, please let some air in." And he said, "No air in hell." Then I said, "Kind sir, let them have a drink of water." And he said, "No water in hell." Then I said, "If that's true, let 'em die." And he said, "No death in hell." She said, "My God, how long will they suffer?" And he said, "Forever and ever! Hell has no exit and there is no death."
"She said, 'Just as I turned to leave, he said, "Go back and tell the story." And just as I turned I saw Daddy.'" And I said, "Yep, our Daddy is in hell, because he never got around to doing the most important thing. He schooled us, he fed us, but he never got around to saying yes to Jesus Christ." Jack concluded by saying, "I win souls every day so that nobody else's daddy has to go to hell." Citation: E. V. Hill, A Savior Worth Having (Chicago: Moody Press, 2002), 91-2.

May 26, 2002, Memorial day weekend, a barge pilot passed out and hit a bridge span of I-40 over the Arkansas river. This accident dropped a 600 foot span of the bridge 62 feet into the swift flowing river below. Eleven people (and a trailer full of show horses) died as their cars and 18-wheelers dove over the edge of the missing span, one piling on top of another. There were several fishermen on the river in a bass competition, who saw the bridge collapse. Realizing that the cars & trucks were still coming, one of the fishermen below the bridge reached into his boats' emergency kit for the emergency flare. Whipping the flare up into firing position, the fisherman let the missle fly: up, up, and over the edge of the last standing bridge span. That one flare providentially hit the windshield of the next 18-wheeler speeding down I-40 at 70 miles an hour. The shocked drive hit his brakes, and his front tires slid over the drop-off; putting his truck into reverse, he pulled his wheels back up onto the bridge, warning the other drivers. Another boat of fishermen saw a man under the damaged barge, who was holding on for dear life, and got a floatation device to him and puled him into their boat, effecting the rescue. One man's (the river pilot) error resulted in the death of many (eleven people died); one man's quick thinking and action (the fisherman) saved the lives of many. The continued action of other fishermen, saved the life of one who was savable, but sinking. You have an emergency flare (the Gospel) in your emergency kit; will you pull it out to save the lives of others? Seeing people sinking down, about to go under will you throw them a life saver (Jesus)? Or are you afraid someone will think you silly or stupid for firing a flare or throwing a life savior?

For verification, see CNN's web site as follows: http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/26/barge.bridge/ http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/27/barge.bridge/ http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/05/28/barton.cnna/