“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Matthew 4:1

A holy character does not avert temptation—Jesus was tempted.
When Satan tempts us, his sparks fall upon tinder; but in Christ’s case, it was like striking sparks on water; yet the enemy continued his evil work.
Now, if the devil goes on striking when there is no result, how much more will he do it when he knows what inflammable stuff our hearts are made of. Though you become greatly sanctified by the Holy Ghost, expect that the great dog of hell will bark at you still.

In the haunts of men we expect to be tempted, but even seclusion will not guard us from the same trial. Jesus Christ was led away from human society into the wilderness, and was tempted of the devil. Solitude has its charms and its benefits, and may be useful in checking the lust of the eye and the pride of life; but the devil will follow us into the most lovely retreats. Do not suppose that it is only the worldly-minded who have dreadful thoughts and blasphemous temptations, for even spiritual-minded persons endure the same; and in the holiest position we may suffer the darkest temptation. The utmost consecration of spirit will not insure you against Satanic temptation.

Christ was consecrated through and through. It was his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him: and yet he was tempted! Your hearts may glow with a seraphic flame of love to Jesus, and yet the devil will try to bring you down to Laodicean lukewarmness. If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in war time, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch-deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey.

The Lord keep us watchful in all seasons, and give us a final escape from the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear.
CHS

“He first finds his own brother Simon.” John 1.41

This case is an excellent pattern of all cases where spiritual life is vigorous. As soon as a man has found Christ, he begins to find others. I will not believe that you have tasted of the honey of the gospel if you can eat it all yourself. True grace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. Andrew first found his own brother Simon, and then others. Relationship has a very strong demand upon our first individual efforts. Andrew, you did well to begin with Simon. I doubt whether there are not some Christians giving away tracts at other people’s houses who would do well to give away a tract at their own—whether there are not some engaged in works of usefulness abroad who are neglecting their special sphere of usefulness at home.

You may or may not be called to evangelize the people in any particular locality, but certainly you are called to see after your own servants, your own kinsfolk and acquaintance. Let your religion begin at home. Many tradesmen export their best commodities—the Christian should not. He should have all his conversation everywhere of the best savour; but let him have a care to put forth the sweetest fruit of spiritual life and testimony in his own family.

When Andrew went to find his brother, he little imagined how eminent Simon would become. Simon Peter was worth ten Andrews so far as we can gather from sacred history, and yet Andrew was instrumental in bringing him to Jesus. You may be very deficient in talent yourself, and yet you may be the means of drawing to Christ one who shall become eminent in grace and service. Ah! dear friend, you little know the possibilities which are in you. You may but speak a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian church in years to come. Andrew has only two talents, but he finds Peter. Go you and do likewise.
CHS

“Father, I have sinned.”Luke 15:18

It is quite certain that those whom Christ has washed in his precious blood need not make a confession of sin, as culprits or criminals, before God the Judge, for Christ has forever taken away all their sins in a legal sense, so that they no longer stand where they can be condemned, but are once for all accepted in the Beloved; but having become children, and offending as children, ought they not every day to go before their heavenly Father and confess their sin, and acknowledge their iniquity in that character?

Nature teaches that it is the duty of erring children to make a confession to their earthly father, and the grace of God in the heart teaches us that we, as Christians, owe the same duty to our heavenly Father. We daily offend, and ought not to rest without daily pardon. For, supposing that my trespasses against my Father are not at once taken to him to be washed away by the cleansing power of the Lord Jesus, what will be the consequence? If I have not sought forgiveness and been washed from these offences against my Father, I shall feel at a distance from him; I shall doubt his love to me; I shall tremble at him; I shall be afraid to pray to him: I shall grow like the prodigal, who, although still a child, was yet far off from his father. But if, with a child’s sorrow at offending so gracious and loving a Parent, I go to him and tell him all, and rest not till I realize that I am forgiven, then I shall feel a holy love to my Father, and shall go through my Christian career, not only as saved, but as one enjoying present peace in God through Jesus Christ my Lord.

There is a wide distinction between confessing sin as a culprit, and confessing sin as a child. The Father’s bosom is the place for penitent confessions. We have been cleansed once for all, but our feet still need to be washed from the defilement of our daily walk as children of God.

CHS

The Lord was there."—Ezekiel 35:10.

EDOM'S princes saw the whole country left desolate, and counted upon its easy conquest; but there was one great difficulty in their way—quite unknown to them—"The Lord was there"; and in His presence lay the special security of the chosen land. Whatever may be the machinations and devices of the enemies of God's people, there is still the same effectual barrier to thwart their design.

The saints are God's heritage, and He is in the midst of them, and will protect His own. What comfort this assurance yields us in our troubles and spiritual conflicts! We are constantly opposed, and yet perpetually preserved! How often Satan shoots his arrows against our faith, but our faith defies the power of hell's fiery darts; they are not only turned aside, but they are quenched upon its shield, for "the Lord is there." Our good works are the subjects of Satan's attacks. A saint never yet had a virtue or a grace which was not the target for hellish bullets: whether it was hope bright and sparkling, or love warm and fervent, or patience all-enduring, or zeal flaming like coals of fire, the old enemy of everything that is good has tried to destroy it. The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives in us is this, "the Lord is there."

If the Lord be with us through life, we need not fear for our dying confidence; for when we come to die, we shall find that "the Lord is there"; where the billows are most tempestuous, and the water is most chill, we shall feel the bottom, and know that it is good: our feet shall stand upon the Rock of Ages when time is passing away. Beloved, from the first of a Christian's life to the last, the only reason why he does not perish is because "the Lord is there." When the God of everlasting love shall change and leave His elect to perish, then may the Church of God be destroyed; but not till then, because it is written, JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, "The Lord is there."

CHS

I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content."—Philippians 4:11.

THESE words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. "Ill weeds grow apace." Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated.

If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener's care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us. Paul says, "I have learned . . . to be content;" as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave—a poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome.

We might well be willing to endure Paul's infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain unto his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented with learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a diligent pupil in the College of Content.

CHS

To Him be glory both now and forever."—2 Peter 3:18.

HEAVEN will be full of the ceaseless praises of Jesus.
Eternity! Your unnumbered years shall speed their everlasting course, but forever and for ever, "to Him be glory." Is He not a "Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek"? "To Him be glory." Is He not king for ever?—King of kings and Lord of lords, the everlasting Father? "To Him be glory for ever."
Never shall His praises cease. That which was bought with blood deserves to last while immortality endures. The glory of the cross must never be eclipsed; the lustre of the grave and of the resurrection must never be dimmed.
O Jesus! you shall be praised for ever. Long as immortal spirits live—long as the Father's throne endures—for ever, for ever, unto You shall be glory.

Believer, you are anticipating the time when you shall join the saints above in ascribing all glory to Jesus; but are you glorifying Him now? The apostle's words are, "To Him be glory both now and for ever." Will you not this day make it your prayer? "Lord, help me to glorify You;
I am poor, help me to glorify Thee by contentment;
I am sick, help me to give Thee honour by patience;
I have talents, help me to extol Thee by spending them for You;
I have time, Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve you;
I have a heart to feel, Lord, let that heart feel no love but Thine, and glow with no flame but affection for Thee;
I have a head to think, Lord, help me to think of Thee and for Thee;
Thou hast put me in this world for something, Lord, show me what that is, and help me to work out my life-purpose: I cannot do much, but as the widow put in her two mites, which were all her living, so, Lord, I cast my time and eternity too into Your treasury; I am all Yours; take me, and enable me to glorify You now, in all that I say, in all that I do, and with all that I have."

CHS

Band of Brothers

I've been greatly impressed with the special DVD set 'The Band of Brothers' which I bought recently -not just as regards the quality of the product which was excellent but in the relationships and courage portrayed by these young soldiers from the United States Army who fought in the World War 2.
Many were only in their late teens or early twenties at the time yet they grew up quickly as they faced death and injury on a daily basis.The series portrays the war time efforts of 'Easy Company' as they sought to, and suceeded in liberating the occupied land in Europe.

The term 'Band of Brothers' was originally taken from Shakespeare's play Henry V and from the scene before the Battle of Agincourt, when Henry, surrounded and outnumbered by the French, rallies his troops together.It is in this call, in what is known as the St. Crispin's Day Speech that the King declares to his men:

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother'

Picture also Christ the King encouraging his foot soldiers like Paul and his other early disciples who were also facing daily pressures, trials and troubles as they sought at that time to liberate Europe from spiritual captivity.
Paul himself declared to the Corinithins the pressure that he and his fellow workers were under when on mission for their King..

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.

13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.2. Cor. 4

Philippians

“Go west, young man, go west.”
–Horace Greeley

Philippians 1:2-6

From "Portrait of a Christian"
Not only in the words you say,
Not only in your deeds confessed.
But in the most unconscious way
Is Christ expressed.
Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh no, I felt His presence when
You laughed just now.
For me ‘twas not the truth you taught,
To you so clear, to me so dim.
But when you came to me,
You brought a sense of Him.
And from your eyes He beckons me,
From your lips His love is shed,
'Til I lose sight of you and see
The Christ instead.
–Beatrice Clelland

Philippians 1:14-30

“When I go down to the grave I can say I’ve finished my day’s work, but I cannot say I finished my life. My life’s work will begin the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes with the twilight to open with the dawn.”
–Victor Hugo

Philippians 2:1-6

Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:
Ye call Me Master and obey Me not.
Ye call Me Light and see Me not.
Ye call Me Way and walk Me not.
Ye call Me Life and desire Me not.
Ye call Me Wise and follow Me not.
Ye call Me Fair and love Me not.
Ye call Me Rich and ask Me not.
Ye call Me Eternal and seek Me not.
Ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not.
Ye call Me Noble and serve Me not.
Ye call Me Mighty and honor me not.
Ye call Me Just and fear Me not.
If I condemn you, blame Me not.
–Inscription in the cathedral in Lubeck

Phillipians 2:8-11

Consider Him
When the storm is raging high,
When the tempest rends the sky,
When my eyes with tears are dim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When my plans are in the dust,
When my dearest hopes are crushed,
When is passed each foolish whim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When with dearest friends I part,
When deep sorrow fills my heart,
When pain racks each weary limb,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
When I track my weary way,
When fresh trials come each day,
When my faith and hope are dim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
Clouds or sunshine, dark or bright,
Evening shades or morning light,
When my cup flows o’er the brim,
Then, my soul, consider HIM.
–Author unknown

Philippians 2:12-26

“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
–John Calvin

Philippians 3:7-14

“When I was converted, I lost my religion.”
–Dr. W.I. Carroll

Philippians 3:15-20

“To be anxious for souls, and yet not impatient; to be patient, and yet not indifferent; to bear the infirmities of the weak without fostering them; to testify against sin and unfaithfulness and a low standard of spiritual life, and yet to keep the stream of love full and free and open. To have the mind of a faithful, loving shepherd, a hopeful physician, a tender nurse, a skillful teacher requires the continual renewal of the Lord’s grace.”
–Missionary in Guatemala

I’ll stay where You put me, I will, dear Lord,
Though I wanted so badly to go.
I was eager to march with the rank and file,
Yes, I wanted to lead them, you know.
I planned to keep step to the music loud,
To cheer when the banner’s unfurled,
To stand in the midst of the fight, straight and proud,
But I’ll stay where you put me.
I’ll stay where you put me, I’ll work, dear Lord,
Though the field be narrow and small
And the ground be fallow and the stones are thick
And there seems to be no life at all.
The field is Thine own, only give me the seed.
I’ll sow it with never a fear.
I’ll till the dry soil while I wait for the rain
And rejoice when the green blades appear.
I’ll work where You put me.
I’ll stay where You put me, I will, dear Lord.
I’ll face the day’s burden and heat,
Always trusting Thee fully. When even has come,
I’ll lay heavy sheaves at Thy feet.
And then when my earth work is ended and done,
In bright eternity’s glow,
Life’s record all closed, I surely shall find
It was better to stay than to go.
I’ll stay where you put me.
–Mrs. Charles Cowman

“For our city home is in heaven.”
–Mrs. Montgomery

“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
–John Calvin

Philippians 3:20—4:3

“All the way to heaven is heaven.”
–Dr. Herbert Bieber

Philippians 4:4-6

“Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.”
–Fenelon

“I carry this in the back of my Bible, everywhere I go, and every now and then I get it out and read it. This was written by Fenelon, a great saint and mystic of the Middle Ages.”
–Dr. J. Vernon McGee

The Deer' Cry-The Prayer of St Patrick

Apologetic Sound Bites: ‘Why do you want to force your opinion on me?’ Tim Chester

Continuing the Apologetic Sound Bites series, here are some pointers suggesting how to answer the question ’Why do you want to force your opinion on me?’
1. Avoid trading personal opinions by pointing people to something Jesus said or did. Confront people with Jesus so it becomes their opinion verses Jesus.
2. Suppose I spot a serious fault with your car that will soon cause a life-threatening accident and so I warn you of it. It would be madness to say, ‘Don’t force your opinion on me.’ Suppose I knew of a wonderful free gift available for all who ask. It would be madness to say, ‘Don’t force your opinion on me.’
3. ‘You may make it sound like a noble struggle for freedom. But the truth is you simply want the right to be selfish.’
4. When you say, ‘Let me decide for myself,’ you are saying, in effect, ‘I know better than God. I make a better god than God.’
5. “One of the most frequent statements I heard was that ‘Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.’ I always responded to the speakers by asking, ‘Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behaviour?’ They would invariably say, ‘Yes, our course.’ Then I would ask, ‘Doesn’t that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is “there” that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or things?’ Almost always, the response to that question was a silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one.”1
6. Christian missionaries are often accused of destroying indigenous cultures. Sometimes this has been true, but more often Christianity has adapted to, and reinforced, local culture. God himself came not in a transcultural form, but as a first century Jewish man. Unlike Islam, Christianity has always translated its message into local languages and practices. This has often created a new sense of cultural identity. ‘Now God speaks to us in our own language,’ said one tribal leader. The Bible celebrates cultural diversity and looks forward to a future when people from ‘every tongue, tribe, people and nation’ worship Jesus together and bring their glory into his kingdom (Revelation 7:9, 21:24-26).
1 Cited in Tim Keller, The Reason for God, Dutton, 2008, 47.

Apologetic Sound Bites: ‘How can you claim there’s only one true religion?’ Tim Chester

.‘How can you claim there’s only one true religion?’ You may be asked this question as you’re at the photocopier at work or at the bar buying a round. Here’s the second part in the apologetics series that will give you some ideas of how to respond when you only have five minutes.

1. People often liken religions to blind men encountering an elephant. The first blind man feels the stomach of the elephant and concludes it is a wall. The second feels the trunk and concludes it is a snake. The rest conclude it is a spear, tree, fan and rope, depending upon where they touch. The story purports to prove that all religions reflect the truth, but none grasps the whole truth. If people tell this story, ask them: ‘How do you know it’s an elephant?’ In other words, the story assumes the teller is as enlightened, objective observer.

2. People may say: ‘If you were born in Iran, you’d be a Muslim not a Christian.’ But the same goes for the pluralist. ‘If you’d been born in Iran, you wouldn’t be a pluralist.’ In other words, your belief that all religions are equal (or misguided) is as culturally and social conditioned as my belief in Jesus (more so since going to church is now a minority activity in our society).

3. Jesus claimed he was the only way to God (John 14:6). If all religious roads lead to God then Jesus was a liar and Christianity is false. In which case, not all religions lead to God.

4. People sometimes ask if you fully investigated all religions before deciding to follow Christ. Two responses: (1) You don’t need comprehensive knowledge before you can be confident something is true. You don’t read every newspaper and interview multiple eye-witnesses before believing a sports result. (2) I didn’t decide Christianity was the best religion; Jesus laid claim to my life.

5. Ask people to define religion. Jesus is not another religious figure, but the end or opposite of all religion. Religion is about an upwards movement of humanity towards God. Jesus represents of downward movement of God towards humanity.

6. Because Jesus is God’s initiative towards humanity, the message of Jesus is a message of grace. It is not dependant on human achievement, but upon God’s gracious and completed work. So Jesus alone gives assurance of salvation.

This material is adapted from a Porterbrook Learning module.

TAKING THE LEAD-George Verwer

What a huge need there is for people to serve as leaders. If you want evidence of the shortage of potential leaders, look at the painful process by which the United Nations struggled to find a new Secretary General or the process by which the USA and other countries select the handful of people who are fit and willing to stand for the highest political offices. There is a need for Christians to take up leadership too, not as an honour or a prize but as a way of serving the Body of Christ with the gifts and ministries given them. Many will become leaders, especially in their local church, who never expected it.

We need more of an emphasis in the church on the training of leaders, old and young. I am often reminded that those leaders of the church in Thessalonica with whom Paul corresponded were just a few weeks old in the faith. Training can start young. I am committed to the task of training people for leadership right where they happen to be while at the same time presenting them with the truth of a world vision. What a power house the church would be if we could find an amalgamation of the kind of biblical teaching that creates dynamic spiritual leaders in home countries with the kind of vision which we read about in Acts 1:8. This would lead the church into a greater forward thrust into world missions. There is a need for leaders who will "mobilise the people of God for adventurous and imaginative mission". (Paul Beasley-Murray in "A Call to Excellence") May God give them to us.

BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

Much of what I have to say in this chapter concerns the tough reality of being a leader in the church and mission work today, but I won't finish without reminding you of the glorious resources available to leaders in Christ. Over the years as director of Operation Mobilisation I have spent much time in the training of leaders. Sometimes when speaking at a leaders' conference I will deal with the special spiritual and character qualities needed by leaders in God's work. These are important and I will write about them later in the chapter. Sometimes I even get down to the details of how to make decisions as a leader and how to organise yourself. This too is important. Most often, however, I find myself speaking to leaders about the need for them to work on the basics of the Christian life - their own walk with God and spiritual development. Nothing is more important for leaders than this. It follows that in their relationships with others, leaders must do everything possible to edify, build up and help people come more and more into conformity with Jesus Christ; giving full consideration to the different circumstances in which people work in the organisations and movements that have been raised up by God to work together in the task of world evangelism.

Most of all what I want to emphasise when speaking to leaders is, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) because it is the Spirit who is the director of all Christian work. Oswald J Sanders in his book "Spiritual Leadership" calls his chapter on the Holy Spirit "The Indispensable Requirement". He says that there may be many desirable qualities for spiritual leaders but only one is indispensable - that they should be Spirit-filled. I am convinced that there needs to be a greater consciousness of the Holy Spirit and His work in believers. Each one must be taught that it is a privilege to know daily the fullness of the Holy Spirit as He exalts the Lord Jesus and is sovereign director of our lives and our affairs. This fullness is not only to do with the emotions and the inner spiritual life. It is also to do with the quiet reality of how we live our lives from day to day (see Galatians 5:22-25) and with the making of plans and the development of strategy in our Christian work. I am especially concerned to say to leaders that we must depend more on the Holy Spirit for directing us as we move forward in mission work. It is so clear from the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit directs missions work.

"But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(Acts1:8)

"While they were worshipping the Lord and
fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I
have called them.'" (Acts 13:2)

The book of Acts also makes it clear that those who lead missions work need to be filled with the Spirit. J Oswald Sanders says,

"It stands clear in the book of Acts that the
leaders who significantly influenced the
Christian movement were men who were
filled with the Holy Spirit. It is recorded of
Him who commanded his disciples to tarry
in Jerusalem until they were endued with
power from on high that He was Himself
"anointed...with the Holy Spirit and with power"
(10:38). The privileged one hundred twenty in
the upper room were all filled with the Spirit
(2:4). Peter was filled with the Spirit when he
addressed the Sanhedrin (4:8). Stephen, filled
with the Spirit, was able to bear irresistible
witness to Christ and to die as a radiant martyr
(6:3,5; 7:55). It was in the Spirit's fullness that
Paul commenced and exercised his unique
ministry (9:17; 13:9). His missionary
companion Barnabas was filled with the
Spirit (11:24). He would be strangely blind
who did not discern in that fact the
fundamental criterion and equipment for
spiritual leadership."

Some people regret the passing of the fervour often associated with an early experience of the fullness of the Holy Spirit but as H A Hodges says in his book "Unseen Warfare" this loss of fervour may be a sign of getting beyond the early stages and of "growing up". If you are going to be a Christian leader you have to grow up. You have to settle into a steady routine of having the Spirit guide you in the daily pursuit of your work and your plans just as we have seen in the book of Acts. This should be a constant daily filling but not a restless search for new "experiences". Many people feel that they need a fresh touch in their life and they go from conference to conference seeking something new. Of course I am not excluding the possibility of crisis experiences with God but there needs to be a "continuing programme for spiritual growth" to quote the subtitle of Ralph Shallis's book "From Now On". When God saved you and put the Holy Spirit into your life He put the ball into your court. He may be waiting for you to hit it back. To use another analogy, it may be that God is urging you, as Nehemiah urged the people of Israel, to "rise and build" (Nehemiah 2:18).

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4

We may understand this to refer to justification. "They shall walk in white"; that is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith; they shall understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly-fallen snow.

Again, it refers to joy and gladness: for white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always bright; they shall understand what Solomon meant when he said "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be always white, for God hath accepted thy works." He who is accepted of God shall wear white garments of joy and gladness, while he walks in sweet communion with the Lord Jesus. Whence so many doubts, so much misery, and mourning? It is because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error, and hence they lose the joy of their salvation, and the comfortable fellowship of the Lord Jesus, they do not here below walk in white.

The promise also refers to walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not defiled their garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder, where the white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached. The "undefiled in the way" shall have all this-not of merit, nor of works, but of grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for he has made them "worthy." In his sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters.
CHS

Base things of the world has God chosen."—1 Corinthians 1:28.

WALK the streets by moonlight, if you dare, and you will see sinners then.
Watch when the night is dark, and the wind is howling, and the picklock is grating in the door, and you will see sinners then.
Go to yon jail, and walk through the wards, and mark the men with heavy over-hanging brows, men whom you would not like to meet at night, and there are sinners there.
Go to the Reformatories, and note those who have betrayed a rampant juvenile depravity, and you will see sinners there.
Go across the seas to the place where a man will gnaw a bone upon which is reeking human flesh, and there is a sinner there.

Go where you will, you need not ransack earth to find sinners, for they are common enough; you may find them in every lane and street of every city, and town, and village, and hamlet.

It is for such that Jesus died. If you will select me the grossest specimen of humanity, if he be but born of woman, I will have hope of him yet, because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save sinners. Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. Pebbles of the brook grace turns into jewels for the crown-royal. Worthless dross He transforms into pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the worst of mankind to be the reward of the Saviour's passion. Effectual grace calls forth many of the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy, and therefore let none despair.

Reader, by that love looking out of Jesus' tearful eyes, by that love streaming from those bleeding wounds, by that faithful love, that strong love, that pure, disinterested, and abiding love; by the heart of the Saviour's compassion, we conjure you turn not away as though it were nothing to you; but believe on Him and you shall be saved.

Trust your soul with Him and He will bring you to His Father's right hand in glory everlasting.
CHM

Our Response To God's Goodness-What Can I do For You?

You have given everything to me
What can I do for You?
You have given me eyes to see
What can I do for You?

Pulled me out of bondage and You made me renewed inside
Filled up a hunger that had always been denied
Opened up a door no man can shut and You opened it up so wide
And You’ve chosen me to be among the few
What can I do for You?

You have laid down Your life for me
What can I do for You?
You have explained every mystery
What can I do for You?

Soon as a man is born, you know the sparks begin to fly
He gets wise in his own eyes and he’s made to believe a lie
Who would deliver him from the death he’s bound to die?
Well, You’ve done it all and there’s no more anyone can pretend to do
What can I do for You?

You have given all there is to give
What can I do for You?
You have given me life to live
How can I live for You?

I know all about poison, I know all about fiery darts
I don’t care how rough the road is, show me where it starts
Whatever pleases You, tell it to my heart
Well, I don’t deserve it but I sure did make it through
What can I do for You?

Copyright © 1980 by Special Rider Music

PRAYING AS JESUS PRAYED Graham Cray

Each of the four gospels tells us that Jesus prayed, but it is John’s gospel which reveals, most fully, how he prayed. This reaches a climax in the great prayer recorded in John 17.

‘After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father” (v1)
Jesus looks up and says ‘Abba’, the unique word expressing his intimate and reverent relationship with God. This is also the heart of all Christian prayer. By grace we share Jesus’ relationship with the Father. It is also the heart of mission, as we long for women and men across our nations to come to the Father through him and learn to say the same.

But this is also the classic passage linking mission and unity. “I ask … that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ (v20-21) The inseparable connection between mission and unity is expressed in prayer. How then should those committed to mission in unity pray? How can our prayer be shaped by his prayer?

This prayer has seven petitions – two for Jesus himself, three for his disciples, and two for those who will become disciples through them.

The first petition is ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.’ (v1)

Can we pray to be glorified? Only if we understand that, for him, to be glorified means to be empowered to go to the cross. In John’s gospel Jesus’ glorification is his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension all rolled into one. He prays this prayer on the eve of his crucifixion. His only motive is the Father’s glory; ‘that the Son may glorify you’. The only authentic motive for us to ask for God’s glory, is so that we may glorify him. ‘Let you glory fall’ is a prayer that we may give ourselves up in his service. ‘Glorify me’ has nothing to do with my glory, but God’s.

Note also that ‘glory’ is demonstrated in the way the Father and the Son continually honour, or give glory to, one another. Jesus’ only concern is the Father and the Father’s will. All the Father’s delight is in Jesus and he has given all authority to his Son. Lesslie Newbigin wrote that ‘The glory of God is a reciprocal relationship: it is something forever freely given . Reciprocal honour and respect is the mark of good church, and inter church, relationships too.

1. So we pray that we, also, will glorify the Father

The second petition is, ‘Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.’ (v5)

In effect he prays, ‘Father, I can come home now. I have finished the work you gave me to do.’ (v4)

It is his desire to reproduce in us the same faithfulness and perseverance, which sees the work he has given us through to the end. This is wonderfully demonstrated in the ministry of St, Paul. In his last will and testament (sometimes known as 2Timothy) he says ‘As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.’ (2Tim. 4:6-8)

But Jesus has no wish to come home ‘alone. Later in the prayer he says ‘Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.’ (v24) As missioners and evangelists, that has to be our prayer also,, not to come home to the Father alone.

2. We pray for the grace and strength to finish the work.

Then Jesus prays for the disciples.
‘Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.’ (v11)

My colleague in York, Canon David Watson, wrote ‘The true basis for all fellowship is when two or more persons kneel at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, trusting wholly in his mercy and love.’ Unity is a gift of God through the cross, but it needs divine protection. The unity of believers is a prime target for spiritual assault. And when Christians fall out the Devil had had a victory. The preservation of unity is a priority for prayer. And unity isn’t simply the absence of discord. Jesus prays to the Father that we will be one as he and the Father are one. We have been given a costly gift, bought for us on the cross: the possibility of a life of mutual trust, mutual honour, and mutual sacrifice, in the service of Christ We need to guard it, and, like the divine hospitality of the Father and the Son, keep it wide open for others to join.

3. We pray for divine protection of our unity

The fourth petition is: ‘I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.’ (v15-16)

The prayer is that the Church is to be in the world but protected, not out of the world as a way of protecting ourselves. We are to be n the world, but outclassing the world. I sometimes think that many Christians believe the Bible says ‘He who is in the world is greater than he who is in you,’ rather than the other way round! Many Christians are fearful that the world will rub off on us, when we are meant to rub off on it! I must have read 1Corinthians dozens of times, before some verse in chapter five struck home. Paul says ‘I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons, not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one.’ (1Cor. 5:9-11) In other words we are to withdraw from Christians who live a double standard, but we are to associate with those whose way of life grieves or angers God, to offer then a better way! Just like the one called ‘a friend of sinners’ who said. ‘“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

4. We pray for the grace to permeate society with lives of Christian integrity

The fifth petition is ‘Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth’ (v17-19)

Jesus prays, set them apart to serve your truth, equip them to live your truth, wherever I send them. We are a sent people. As the impact of Christendom fades, so the days of ‘come to us’ mission are largely over. The majority of the population of these nations no longer responds to the invitation. A third have never been connected to church. It is an alien culture to them. Another third used to have a connection and have chosen to break it; or at least to stop coming.
We need to go to them, not as a raiding party bringing them back, but to stay; and to plant culturally appropriate churches which engage God’s holy truth with their lives as they are now. In my work we call these new congregations and fellowships ‘fresh expressions of church’.

We are a sent people, an apostolic people, hearing the call to go.

5. We pray for the grace to live, share and embody God’s truth, wherever he sends us.

Then Jesus prays for those who will come to faith through the witness of his disciples.
Do we ever pray for those whom we do not yet know, but whom we will lead to Christ, or who will be led to Christ by those we lead to Christ. I realized I had never done so!

The sixth petition is “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ (v20-21)

Jesus knows that the good news will be fruitful in his disciples’ ministries. He prays that their witness will create communities of love which draw even more people to faith, and which validate the claims Christians make, by the lives Christians live. We are to do the same. Our prayer is not just for a chain of witness where each leads others to faith. It is for communities of faith whose way of life demonstrates the love of God and the truth of the gospel

We are seeing the emergence of a new relationship between mission and unity. While it is always right to work towards unity so that our mission may have integrity, the more significant insight is that we deepen unity through sharing in mission together. Act together and so grow together.

6. We pray for the planting of churches which demonstrate the love of God

The final petition is ‘Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.’ (v24)

He longs for us, and all who believe in him, to be with him. Jesus longs for our company!
That is why he is about to go to the cross. He thinks we’re worth it His next prayer will be in Gethsemane.

7. We pray that we will share his love of lost men and women, so much, that we will sacrifice ourselves to have them in his presence with us.

We pray that we will glorify the Father
We pray for the grace and strength to finish the work.
We pray for divine protection of our unity
We pray for the grace to permeate society with lives of Christian integrity
We pray for the grace to live, share and embody God’s truth wherever he sends us
We pray for the planting of churches which demonstrate the love of God
We pray that we will share his love of lost men and women so much, that we will sacrifice ourselves to have them in his presence with us.

May the prayer of Jesus shape our prayer, and our lives in his service. Amen

The Lay Ministry Dynamic by Tim Keller

The growth of a big passive ‘middle’ happens to all churches as they grow larger. This growth in passivity weakens what I will call the “lay ministry dynamic.” That dynamic happens when a significant percentage of Christians engage in lay ministry “behaviors” because they are trained and coached—informally and personally—by the pastors and staff of the church. These lay ministry behaviors result in many new people, including many people without faith, being brought by Christian friends into the services and life of the church community.

I believe that it is in the collegiate model, in which congregations are led by lead pastors and their pastoral teams, that Redeemer has an opportunity to renew and strengthen that lay ministry dynamic. The highest priority is to again draw a significant percentage of church members into active ministry of the gospel with their relationships in the city. At the heart of the RENEW Campaign, we said that we were sending our lay people out into their neighborhoods to serve and reach their friends for Christ. We are reorganizing Redeemer into a network of neighborhood-based, generative congregations. Outreach and evangelism is on the front burner in this model, as is lay-driven ministry and evangelism. Redeemer began more as a “go and share” church, but evolved into more of a “come and see” church—come and hear the music, come see the masses of people, come listen to the teaching, come profit from the programs. Now we are going back from “come and see” to “go and share.”

Here are some examples of the kind of ‘lay ministry’ we want our people to be doing:

•Catherine prays for her friend Megan for months. Megan responds well to two short books on Christian subjects that Catherine has given her. Finally she invites and takes Megan to an evangelistic event in which Christian truth is presented. On the way home she fields Megan’s questions.
•Jack and Jill help their two sons, age 5 and 7, to do Scripture memory and learn a simple catechism. They field questions and help the boys understand what the texts mean.
•Fred has been going to a small group for months. At one point he realizes that he assesses the value of the group strictly on what he gets out of it. Instead, he begins to go each week by preparing well (studying the passage) and praying for the group. When he comes, he looks for every opportunity to help the Bible study leader by making good contributions, and for ways to speak the truth in love so that others are encouraged and helped to grow.
•Jim and Cynthia are both artists and are part of city wide Christian artists’ fellowship that is based in their local church. The fellowship is usually a discussion of the relationship of faith to art that assumes a Christian belief, but the artists have four events a year that will be either a gallery showing or a book event in which some very respectable artist gets a chance to talk about how his or her faith relates to their art to a general audience. Jim and Cynthia are very diligent in bringing non-Christian artists or art-appreciators to these events.
Notice that not all of these examples are directly evangelistic. Some are instances of the encouragement and building up of new believers, some are ways of spurring Christians on to greater growth in Christ, and others are cases of helping believers address particular problems in their lives. Nevertheless, each example is every-member-gospel ministry. That is, each example is a) organic—it is ministry that happens spontaneously, outside the organized programs of the church (even when making use of formal programs). b) Relational—it is ministry using informal, personal relationships. c) Word deploying—it is ministry of prayerfully bringing the Bible and gospel into connection with people’s lives. d) Active, not passive. Each person in these examples assumes personal responsibility for being a producer rather than only a consumer of ministry. For example, even though Fred continues to come to the small group as he always has, his mindset changed and he transformed from being a passive consumer of ministry to an active producer of ministry. Yes, direct evangelistic ministry is only one piece of this, but it will grow as every member Word ministry grows.

Lay Ministry Behaviors

Above is a set of brief case studies. Here is a more distilled set of what we will call “lay ministry behaviors.” This is not the same as ‘lay leadership’ in which your leaders have a job or responsibility in the church. It’s possible to have a duty as a volunteer but not contribute to every-member-gospel ministry. That consists of behaviors like the following. Notice that seven out of ten do not require as much knowledge as courage and compassion. Your lay people will carry them out if they feel empowered to do so through pastoral contact.

1.Let others know of your Christian faith and activities in natural ways (e.g. talking casually about church attendance and events).
2.Ask questions about other people’s beliefs and experiences with faith and church and simply listen appreciatively and sympathetically.
3.Describe briefly and naturally how you process some difficult personal problem—some misfortune or some mistreatment—by using your faith to help you get strength or grant forgiveness.
4.Offer to pray regularly for a friend, neighbor, or colleague who is facing a challenging situation.
5.Share your spiritual ‘narrative’—your testimony of Christian experience.
6.Offer books or recordings about Christian issues and discuss them.
7.Initiate a discussion about a friends’ biggest problem or objection to Christianity.
8.Invite friends to venues where they meet believers but don’t listen to gospel communication.
9.Offer and then read a part of the Bible together—preferably one of the gospels—to discuss the character of Jesus.
10.Invite friends to venues where they hear the gospel communicated. (#8 may be more intense/demanding for the Christian than #9, but for many non-believers, #8 is less intense/demanding than #9—going to some Christian event.)
11.Share the basics of the Christian faith with your friend, lay out how to become a Christian, and invite them to make a commitment.
When 15-30% of a congregation’s lay people are engaged in this kind of ‘lay ministry,’ this organic, relational, lay gospel ministry, it creates a powerful dynamism that infuses the whole church. Encouraging and supporting lay ministry of this nature is crucial for us as we launch the four Redeemers.

World Evangelism -- Is It Possible? by George Verwer

Never in the history of the church have there been so many special programmes and campaigns, literally around the entire world. The highest goals and aims in the history of the church are being set by many different denominations and agencies. Many of these organizations are now linked through the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement. The overall goals is that everyone in the world receives the gospel and that the church be planted in every Peoples’ Group. The Missions Mobilization Network of the AD 2000 concerned with the mobilization of new missionaries has set as a goal the mobilization of 200,000 new missionaries in the next few years. In God’s providence, I am the Chairman of this Track. Part of me cries out, ‘Lord, how did I get into this?’
It does seem that across the world there is a great desire to work together more, as hard as that may seem in the pluralistic societies in which we live. It is encouraging to see major, mega denominations in many lands setting powerful goals and aims in the area of church growth and evangelism. Testimonies from Korea, Ghana are especially encouraging.
The main focus of the AD 2000 is the 10/40 Window where about 90% of the unreached peoples area is located. When some have complained to me regarding t he 1040 Window, I have told them to go and build their own window. Of course the whole world is our field.
I have sensed a renewal in my own life and vision through the AD2000 Movement. I have a negative and cynical streak that constantly needs attention. Waves of discouragement seem to daily come on me and I am trying to learn how to spiritually ‘surfboard’ on them. To me, the task, especially the Muslim World, seems like a triple Mt Everest. Some of the goals and aims of some groups seem not only unrealistic, but ridiculous, and in some cases not in line with what the Bible teaches. At the same time, I’m convinced that the positives in all this far outweigh the negatives and I want to lock hands and hearts with all who build upon the Word of God and love the Lord Jesus. One thing for sure is the fact that the goals and visions of this Movement and other movements will never become a reality without the massive mobilization and education of millions of believers and of the church.
Let us be honest and admit that at present only a tiny percentage of believers are really taking ownership of the Great Commission. In most places there is more talk than walk and some it leads to a cloud of deception and unreality. Many times people are willing to talk (and even pray) about missions, but when young people volunteer, they are unwilling or unable (so they say), to come up with the money to send them out - we are seeing that in certain new mission-sending countries right now. People often get defensive at this point and give wonderful stories of workers being sent out by the church, but in fact it’s the exception rather than the rule. A major grassroots missions movement is on the way… but it’s not here yet!!
Education is not the whole answer, but it is a vital part of the answer. Believers everywhere need to be taught the basics of evangelism and world missions. They need to know what the Bible says. They need to know something of what has been done and then they need to know what needs to be done and how vital their part is in it all.
Before we can blanket the world with the Gospel, we must blanket the church and God’s people with the biblical vision and reality of what this is all about. This must not be just the English-speaking world, but the whole world!
Those who already have this vision must unite and make every effort to bring a greater part of the body of Christ into action. There are prayer movements, but this must increase ten-fold and strengthened so that it will lead to real commitments, perseverance and obedience on the part of millions of believers.
We need to see the financial breakthrough for at least 100 million vision-building missionary books, leaflets, tapes and videos in at least 30 languages flood out across the world. Since pastors are so key, and often the bottleneck in world missions, we need to make sure that every Christian pastor in the world gets at least some of this material. This will not be done by one organization in some centrally controlled way. As much as possible, those involved should be linked together in some kind of network. For me, AD2000 is the ideal network, but whether people are linked into that or not they can be part of this great vision and mobilization. History is on our side as it has proven a thousand times over that powerful Christian literature and communication has been part of the backbone of the entire world-wide church growth and missionary movement.
When this communication is received and read I believe it will result in vision and obedience. That has been proven again and again. There are thousands of testimonies as to how God has used such communication to change individual lives and churches. Think of how God has used such books as Operation World. Think of how God has used the writings and communication of Ralph Winter, Billy Graham, OJ Smith, Elizabeth Elliot and a host of others. All we need to do is multiply all that has been done by 100 and make sure it gets into all the other major languages as well, not just English. It’s so simple in some ways that every believer can get involved. Write to your favorite mission group and get a good supply of their books, literature and tapes and start to read and distribute it. Can you imagine if simultaneously around the world God’s people would do this? Backed with love, action and prayer I believe it would be a major factor in enabling us to reach the goals and aims that are burning on so many hearts in these days. There are hundreds of publishing houses willing to help. There are hundreds of Bible schools and similar training centers who are ready to train the workers raised up by prayer and communication. Of course, much of the action will be in local fellowships across the world. There are thousands of agencies, missions and groups that would provide much of the structure and pastoral care that is needed for major missions thrusts. Not so many of these are in the 10/40 Window, but many are starting to aim in that direction and materials we distribute can be used of God to move the attention of people more in the direction of the unreached people groups.
Let us pray for the release of finance needed for this huge foundation laying, mobilization and educational effort. Finance seems to be the great obstacle as books and tapes cost money. The real obstacle is a lack of love, faith and biblical commitment. We can’t separate what I’m saying here from personal reformation, reality and revival. It is a mistake to think that the next big move is God’s. His big moves have already taken place – the Cross; the empty tomb; and Pentecost. Now it is our turn!! We need to repent and turn from all that is hindering us from doing God’s will in our day.

The Evangelist: Like Father,like son.'IF'

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Evangelist's Care for his Spiritual Children

Praying and preaching go hand in hand. I do not just mean
by this that .our sermons must be begotten and nurtured by
prayer, or that we must pray for ourselves before we mount
the pUlpit steps, but that we must pray for those to whom we
preach. It cannot have escaped us how the Lord.] esus would
spend the day preaching and teaching, and then go out into
the hills alone to pray for those to whom He had ministered;
nor with what regularity Paul assured his friends whom he
instructed in his Epistles that he also prayed for them, yes, all
of them, and that without ceasing. This is the balanced ministry,
to 'devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the
word',l
.And only love will make us thus diligent, for prayer is hard
work and secret work. Because it is an exacting ministry, we
shall make time for it only if we love people enough not to'
deny them its benefit. Because it is secret and therefore unrewarded
by men, we shall undertake it only if we long for
their spiritual welfare more than for their thanks. Paul could
write: 'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is, that they might be saved." This is the meaning' of
prayer. It is an expression of the heart's desire. Intercession
is impossible without love. Let Richard Baxter put it succinctly
for us: 'Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching:
he preacheth not heartily to his people, that will not pray
for them."
We do not have this love for people by nature; we can ·receive
it only by grace. By nature we are selfish, lazy, and
hungry for the praise of men. There is only one way to learn
to love, and that is, to yearn for people, in Paul's phrase, 'with
the affection of Christ Jesus'.' If His unsearchable, unquenchable
love for people could fill us, we could love them with
His love. And such love, utterly un-self-regarding, preoccupied
only with the positive good of others even at a cost to ourselves,
will make us· care for our people, as a father cares for
his children. Such love will make us understanding and gentle,
simple and earnest, consistent in our example and conscientious
in our prayers.
THE PREACHER'S PORTRAIT
J.Stott

The Importance of Prayer in Evangelism By John Godson

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6).

Prayer is communion with God. It is going into God’s presence to be with him. Prayer is bringing God and his resources into our earthly realities. Prayer is drawing upon divine resources to influence human reality. Prayer is breathing the breath of heaven. It is the master key to everything we have been called to do. Without it, our activities are empty, human and lack the breath of heaven. Our works will be temporal and will never last.

In evangelism, the need is even more acute. Evangelism is snatching souls from the grips of Satan and bringing them into God’s kingdom. This means conflict between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Without deep, fervent and intense prayer, the results of our efforts will be meager and beggarly. Why should we pray? Why is prayer so important in the work of evangelism? Here are eight reasons.

1. The knowledge of God. The most important reason we need to pray is not just to evangelize; rather, it is to get to know God. Those who spend time with God know him better. Those who know their God shall be strong. Those who abide in God’s presence are those who bear fruit. Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.”

2. Release of laborers. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” True laborers are released into the harvest through our prayers.

3. Evil forces opposing the harvest are bound. Evangelism is frontier spiritual warfare. It involves physically going into enemy territory and releasing prisoners. Satan is not just going to sit down and watch us do that. He is going to do everything in his power to stop us. That was why Jesus said in Mark 3:27, “No one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” Jesus has given us power such that whatever we bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Mathew 18:18). He also said in Luke 10:19, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

4. Release of God’s presence and power for evangelism. Prayer, one of the greatest tools God has given us, is also the one that is the most neglected. Prayer releases God’s presence in our lives and empowers us as we reach out to others. A very modern illustration would be the mobile phone. If we use it continuously without charging it, there will come a time when the battery will die. No matter how expensive and how modern it is, it is useless unless you recharge it. Similarly, if we do not get charged, we are useless as a force in expanding God’s kingdom. A praying Christian is filled with God’s presence, power, boldness and unction. It is the anointing that breaks the yoke, not our eloquence and logic.

5. Prayer prepares us to receive answers. When we pray, we are brought to a spiritual level where we can receive answers to our prayers. A mass conversion of souls to a dead and worldly church is worse than if they had never heard the gospel. God touches and changes our hearts as we passionately pray for the harvest. We are prepared to love them and make sacrifices. Our coldness and indifference are turned into passion and enthusiasm for the lost. This creates a warm and loving spiritual atmosphere where these spiritual children can grow and flourish.

6. The fruits are lasting. Souls won through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit are different from souls won out of human ingenuity, logic and wisdom. Such souls have come into a place of being born again spiritually. Jesus said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” We can use all the human and material resources we want and get results, but these results will be temporal and have no lasting spiritual impact. Prayer changes this reality.

7. We can also evangelize by praying for people. Do you know what will happen when we begin to really pray for our friends, neighbors and family? Do you know how they will feel when we ask them what we can pray for them about? Do you know what a testimony it will be when they receive answers to our prayers? Prayer is not just an indirect tool in evangelism, we can also evangelize by praying.

8. The example of Jesus. Jesus prayed and preached the gospel. It was his habit to wake up a great while before it was day to go to a solitary place to pray. He sometimes spent all night in prayer. He often separated himself to be alone with God. Jesus is our example. If Jesus, being the Son of God, needed to spend so much time in prayer, how much more do we need to spend time with God?

It is not enough to talk, write and read about prayer. We need to pray. The men and women God used in the annals of history had different qualities and came from different backgrounds; however, they had one thing in common: they prayed. We are living in a generation that has all the material resources needed to evangelize the world. So why have we not completed the task? Why has twenty-seven percent of the world never heard the gospel? Because we do not pray. Much evangelistic effort and money is wasted in the name of missions. We cannot accomplish what God has committed into our hands unless we make a full use of the resources (including prayer!) that he has put to our disposal.

Let us make prayer a conspicuous part of our lives. Let us cry out to God for help. Let us humble ourselves and declare our spiritual bankruptcy. Let us seek him with all our hearts. God will hearken. He will send revival. May God teach us what an infinite resource he has placed at our disposal. May he give us the faith and tenacity to take hold of him for our generation.

E.M. Bounds once said, “We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel....What the church needs today is…men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men."

Let God work through us in prayer.

John Abraham Godson is a member of the Polish parliament. He came to Poland in 1993 as a missionary with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He served as deputy chair of the Intercession Working Group of The Lausanne Movement between 2005 and 2010. He is married with four children. They make their home in Lodz, Central Poland

How Does Christian Hedonism Relate to Evangelism? John Piper

One of the basic premises of Christian Hedonism is that the joy which is our Christian duty to pursue does not reach its climax in a private communion with God. Rather, it reaches its fullest extent only when it is compounded by the joy of seeing others share in it with us. And these are not two different joys as if the good of man were somehow in competition with the glory of God. The sharing of a joy is that same joy in consummation.


Evangelism is a word used to describe the different ways God uses us, along with His Word and Spirit, to transform unbelievers into people whose great delight in life is to know and trust in him. Therefore, under God, our goal in evangelism is to be his instruments in creating new people who delight in God through Jesus Christ and who thus bring us great joy. There is no escape: if we, by God's grace, are successful in evangelism we will be happier. Our joy in God will be increased. Does this imply that we are only out to get notches on our fishing pole that we can boast about without really caring for the other person's good? No! It is that person's infinite and eternal welfare that makes us happy. The only boasting we care for is in the glorious grace of God. He is at work in us and in the new convert to make us gradually into the kind of people who love God more and who, therefore, will inevitably make each other glad.

Do we not admire people who have the virtues we value most? And is not admiration a tremendous pleasure? (Witness how people love to cheer and talk about their heroes.) Can you not then feel a desire kindling in your heart for God to use you to create out of unbelievers people who have the virtue you value the most—a joyful trust in God? It is a tragic thing to let so many people go on without admiring God. We could be enjoying their worship of God instead of lamenting the dishonor they do to him.

So evangelism is not necessarily aimed at people we like; it is aimed to create people we like—people we admire for their love of God. Evangelism is done in the hope of creating new people whom it will be a pleasure to be with because they admire most the one we admire most. There is every reason for a Christian Hedonist to bear witness to his faith and thus be like the Apostle John in his first letter, who said, “we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:4).


© Desiring God

Sowing to the flesh

To 'sow to the flesh' is to pander to it, to cosset, cuddle and
stroke it, instead of crucifying it. The seeds we sow are
largely thoughts and deeds. Every time we allow our mind to
harbour a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure
fantasy, or wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh.
Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we
know we cannot resist, every time we lie in bed when we ought to
be up and praying, every time we read pornographic literature,
every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, we are
sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. Some Christians sow to the
flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap holiness.John Stott

Generational Conflict in Ministry:D. A. Carson research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

'Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.Bob Dylan.

About five years after the Berlin wall came down and the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe had mostly fallen or been transmuted into something rather different, I had the privilege of speaking at a conference for pastors in one of those formerly eastern-bloc countries. The numbers were not large. Most interesting was the way this group of men reflected a natural breakdown. They were clearly divided into two groups. The older group—say, over forty or forty-five—had served their small congregations under the former communist government. Few of them had been allowed to pursue any tertiary education, let alone formal theological training. Most of them had served in considerable poverty, learning to trust God for the food they and their families needed to survive. Some had been incarcerated for the sake of the gospel; all had been harassed. The men in the younger group—say, under forty or so—without exception were university graduates. Several had pursued formal theological education; two or three were beginning their doctorates. They were interested in ideas and in the rapidly evolving cultural developments taking place in their country now that their media were a good deal freer. Quite a number were engaged in university evangelism and wanted to talk about postmodern epistemology.

The older group viewed the younger men as untested, ignorant of the lessons learned by suffering, far too cerebral, dizzyingly scattered and ill-focused, cocky, impatient, even arrogant. The younger group viewed the older men as, at best, out of date: they had slipped past their “sell by” date as much as had the communist regimes. They were ill-trained, defined too narrowly by yesterday’s conflicts, unable to evangelize the new generation, vainly clutching to power, consumed rather more by tradition than by truth. And in very large measure, both sides were right.

More recently I spoke at a denominational meeting of ministers in a Western country. Again there was a generational breakdown, cast somewhat differently. The older men had, during the decades of their ministry, combated the old-fashioned liberalism that had threatened their denomination in their youth. Many of them had been converted out of rough backgrounds and subsequently built strong fences around their churches to keep out alcohol and sleaze of every sort. Most of their congregations were aging along with their ministers; only a handful of them were growing. They loved older hymns and patterns of worship. The younger men dressed in jeans, loved corporate worship where the music was at least 95 decibels, were interested in evangelism, and loved to talk to the ecclesiastically disaffected—homosexuals, self-proclaimed atheists, mystically orientated “spiritual” artists. Some were starting Bible studies, fledgling churches, in pubs. This group thought the older men were out of date, too defensive, unable to communicate with people under twenty-five without sounding stuffy and even condescending, much too linear and boring in their thinking, and largely unable to communicate in the digital world (except by emails, already largely dismissed as belonging to the age of dinosaurs), mere traditionalists. The older group thought the younger men were brash, disrespectful, far too enamored with what’s “in” and far too ignorant of a well-integrated theology, frenetic but not deep, energetic but not wise, and more than a little cocky.And in very large measure, both sides were right.

Doubtless there have always been generational conflicts of one sort or another. Arguably, however, in some ways they are becoming worse. There are at least two reasons for this. First, the rate of cultural change has sped up, making it far more difficult for older people to empathize with a world so very different from the one in which they grew up three or four decades earlier, while making it far more difficult for younger people to empathize with a world in which people used typewriters and wired telephones and had never heard of Facebook or Twitter. Second, and far more important, the social dynamics of most Western cultures have been changing dramatically for decades. The Sixties tore huge breaches into the fabric that had united young and old, assigning more and more authority to the young. The cult of youth and health that characterized the Eighties and Nineties, complete with hair transplants and liposuction, along with gated communities for the middle-class elderly and social welfare that meant families did not really have to care for, or even interact much with, the older generation, built a world in which integration across generational lines could be happily avoided. Even the new digital tools that facilitate interaction tend to enable people to link up with very similar people—very much unlike the way the church is supposed to be, bringing together very different redeemed people who have but one thing in common, Jesus Christ and his gospel. 1 Ideally, how should both sides act so as to honor Christ and advance the gospel?

1. Listen to criticism in a non-defensive way. This needs to be done on both sides of the divide. It is easy to label criticism as hostile or non-empathetic and write it off. Nevertheless the path of wisdom is to try to discern what validity the criticism may have and learn from it. It may be that some older pastors do not know very well how to communicate with a younger generation. How, then, could they strengthen their ministry in these domains? It may be that some younger pastors are brash and intemperate in speech, finding it easy to build a following out of the gift of the gab. How then might reflection on 1 Cor 2 modify their speech? Even well-intentioned criticism hurts enough that we are sometimes seduced into a defensive posture because we have forgotten that the wounds inflicted by a friend are faithful and helpful, but wisdom also listens carefully and respectfully even to disrespectful speech in order to learn lessons not otherwise picked up.

2. Be prepared to ask the question, “What are we doing in our church, especially in our public meetings, that is not mandated by Scripture and that may, however unwittingly, be functioning as a barrier to getting the gospel out?” That question is of course merely another way of probing the extent to which tradition has trumped Scripture. There is no value in changing a tradition merely for the sake of changing a tradition. The two tests buried in my question must be rigorously observed: (a) Is the tradition itself mandated by Scripture, or, in all fairness, is its connection with Scripture highly dubious? (b) Is the tradition helpful only to the traditionalists, while getting in the way of outreach?

Even when the question is asked, the answers are rarely easy or clear-cut. The answers may bear on, say, what we wear, styles of music, the order of service, what we do with our massive pulpit. In each case, the bearing of Scripture and tradition can lead to conflicting inferences. Obviously there is no specific biblical mandate for a large pulpit in the middle of the front, preferably elevated to ensure the minister is six feet above contradiction. Knowledge of historic disputes reminds us of the way this arrangement has functioned in the past: the Reformation taught us that not the “altar” 2 was to be central but the Word of God—so the large pulpits were installed in the center. In today’s climate, however, the very same furniture may signal something else to casual visitors—not the centrality of the Word, but the lecture hall, or talking down to others. How can one rightly emphasize the authority of the Word of God without, on the one hand, erecting unnecessary barriers, and without, on the other hand, turning the front of the building into a “stage” associated with entertainment and performance arts? Fine pastors may disagree on the prudential outworking of such reflections in their specific contexts. Unless the questions are addressed with ruthless rigor, however, unbending lines will be drawn and positions staked out that serve only to foster division, not thought.

3. Always focus most attention on the most important things, what Paul calls the matters of first importance—and that means the gospel, with all its rich intertwinings, its focus on Christ and his death and resurrection, its setting people right with God and its power to transform. So when we take a dislike of another’s ministry primarily because he belongs to that other generation, must we not first of all ask whether the man in question heralds the gospel? If so, the most precious kinship already exists and should be nurtured. This is not to say that every other consideration can be ignored. Some ministers are pretty poor at addressing homosexuals in a faithful and winsome way, at speaking the truth in love, at coping with the rising relativism without sounding angry all the time, at avoiding the unpretty habit of nurturing a smart mouth. But Paul in Phil 1 understands that whatever the shortcomings and confused motives of some ministers, if they preach Christ faithfully, he will cheer them on, and be grateful.

4. Work hard at developing and fostering good relations with those from the other generation. This means meeting with them, even if, initially at least, you don’t like them. It means listening patiently, explaining a different point of view with gentleness. It means that the new generation of ministers should be publicly thanking God for the older ministers, praying for them with respect and gratitude; it means that the older generations of ministers should be publicly thanking God for the new generation, seeking to encourage them while publicly praying for them. It means that ideally, disputes should be negotiated in person, winsomely, not by blogposts that are ill-tempered and capable of doing nothing more than ensuring deeper divisions by cheering on one’s supporters. It means shared meals, shared prayer meetings, shared discussions. It means younger men will seek out older men for their wisdom in a plethora of pastorally challenging situations; it means older men will be trying to find out what these younger men are doing effectively and well, and how they see the world and understand their culture in the light of Scripture. It means that younger men will listen carefully in order better to understand the past; it means that older men will listen carefully in order better to understand the present. It means humility of mind and heart, and a passion for the glory of God and the good of others.

1.^ On the changing social dynamics, it is worth reading Matthew Shaffer, "Ages Apart: How modernity has separated the generations, and why we should care," National Review 68/11 (June 20, 2011): 35–37.
2.^"Altar"? What new covenant warrant is there for such terminology?


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Authentic Mission will involve bearing the Cross and Suffering for Christ's sake.

George Verwer the founder of Operation Mobilization writes:
'We seem to have a strange idea of Christian service. We will buy books, travel miles to hear a speaker on blessings, pay large sums to hear a group singing the latest Christian songs- but we forget we are soldiers.’

Suffering has always been part and parcel of Christian mission. The founder of Christianity died on a cross, virtually all the apostles were put to death, and the Christians in the early church until the conversion of the Emperor Constantine were often thrown to the lions or burned at the stake for the amusement of the onlookers.

Throughout Church history it has been the same when the Church tries to reach out in an enemy environment. Jesus had warned his followers that it would be so:
‘They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict’.
I think of the hymn :
'Must I be carried to the skies on a flowery bed of ease
when others sought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas'?

The mission of Christ was certainly no ‘flowery bed of ease’. It was foretold by Isaiah that Christ would be a suffering servant ‘a man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief’ He was denied and betrayed by his friends before being beaten , tortured and then finally suffering and dying on the cross . Before his death Jesus told his disciples:


“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. (John 12 .23.)

Today in many parts of the world Christians are going through terrible persecution. China, India, Sudan and Vietnam to name a few. The Marechale ( see picture below) the eldest daughter of General Booth of the Salvation Army wrote from her prison cell in the 1880’s:



'Jesus was crucified .. Ever since that day, men have tried to find an easier way, but the easier ways fail. If you are to win thousands who are without Christ, you must be ready to be crucified: your plans , your ideas , your likes and your inclinations. Things have changed , you say you have liberty now. Is there? Go and live Christ’s life, speak as he spoke, teach what he taught, denounce sin whenever you find it, and see if the enemy will not turn on you with all the fury of hell… Christ wasn’t crucified in a drawing room. He was no easy chair business… Do you shrink from being bated, misrepresented and spoken evil of ? it is time you were crucified..'
At one stage in my work among among teenagers things were starting to get messy. Though we found it a testing time it was still small beer compared to those suffering in other countries. I had my tyres slashed and some of the other leaders wanted to leave. It was then that certain scriptures (like the ones below) came alive to us. I certainly hadn't needed them for quite a while.

‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance’ (James 1.2.)

'But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.'2 Cor4.7

These became food and drink for the leaders. It was then I realised that God was perhaps doing more in us than he was doing with the youth. The enemy hates what we do and will oppose it.
If things go well all the time, if we never face any opposition perhaps we are not doing the Kingdom of darkness any damage. Will we give up when things get hard? Will we take it as a sign that God isn’t in it. Paul warns the younger Timothy who was prone to timidity in 2 Timothy 4:2‘Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction’.2.Tim. 4.2

We shouldn’t be surprised when Satan tries to prevent us reaching out to the lost. He will try to cripple us with fear. He will try and make us take the easier option so we don’t have face the flack or the jibs or the gossip.
Let us take Paul encouragement to Timothy as our own.
2 Timothy 2:3‘Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.’

Authentic mission will both originate and be sustained by prayer

One has only to read the gospels to see how much Jesus the Son of God prayed. After his baptism he was driven into the wilderness where he prayed and fasted. He spent whole nights in prayer and taught his disciples both how to and what to pray.

The Church before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when 3000 were converted was at prayer.( Acts 1.14)

Acts 2.42 They devoted themselves to prayer.

Acts 3.1 They were on there way to prayer when they healed the cripple. This resulted in a massive evangelistic meeting which saw many come to faith.

Acts 4.23-31 After Peter and John’s release from prison they prayed for boldness to preach along with signs and wonders.

Acts 10.31 Cornelius prayers became instrumental for the gospel coming to the Gentiles.

Acts 26.29 Paul speaks of his prayers for those at his trial that they will come to the Lord.

Rom. 1.10 Paul prays that he will have at last an open door to come to them in order to minister.

Eph. 6.19 Paul asks for prayer that he will fearlessly preach the gospel.

Consider also Jesus’ prayers for his disciples and Paul’s prayers for the young Churches.

There is often a link between prayer and the Holy Spirit. If we don’t pray we are unlikely to be filled with the Holy Spirit, yet even in our weakness it is the Holy Spirit that helps us to pray. As we practise the presence of God and in each moment give our hearts to him asking him to help and guide us He will put prayers on our heart and make prayer a delight.

One of the most memorable 'revival' stories is told of a retired Presbyterian
minister in America who was known as 'Father' Nash and a contemporary of
the famous evangelist Charles Finney. Nash had a problem with his
sight which caused him to spend long pours away from the sunlight. However he was able to use this as a spur to seek other methods of serving God. It was through disability this he learned how to pray-really pray. He would groan, sigh, plead and cry to the Lord that Holy Spirit would
come down in order to save souls. He would like Paul travail in prayer for the lost.

When Finney was on a preaching tour he would send Nash ahead to the city that he was to preach at.So Nash would book himself into a hotel or boarding house three or four weeks before Finney was scheduled to preach there. He would also gather a few like minded people in the city to pray with him-often they would not even eat but instead continually pray down God's Spirit upon the city or town. Nash would rarely attend the actual meetings but continue to pray for revival.

It has been said that by the time Finney arrived in the town to preach, revival had sometimes already broken out!

Daniel 'Father' Nash

Authentic Mission will be practised in a spirit of humility and servanthood

In the Lausanne Covenant under the title ‘Wanted: Humble messengers of the gospel’ the following points were made in its analysis of missionary humility.

First, there is the humility to acknowledge the problem which culture presents, and not to avoid or over-simplify it.

Secondly, there is the humility to take the trouble to understand and appreciate the culture of those to whom we go.

Thirdly, there is the humility to begin our communication where people actually are and not where we would like them to be.

Fourthly, there is the humility to recognize that even the most gifted, dedicated and experienced missionary can seldom communicate the gospel in another language or culture as effectively as a trained local Christian.

Fifthly, there is the humility to trust in the Holy Spirit of God, who is always the chief communicator, who alone opens the eyes of the blind and brings people to new birth. "Without his witness, ours is futile”

Authentic Mission must neither be swashbuckling nor triumphalist. During the great missionary enterprises of the 19th Century this was not always the case. Mindsets of 'West is Best' and grand goals of building up empires for their church were often found among them. This often reflected the Colonialism of Britain and other European nations at the time.

Sadly this spirit is still seen today in evangelists and preachers who come across in an arrogant or proud manner. In their fervour to build up their own organization or church they frequently leave those who listen to them feeling both spiritually and financially exploited.Others make promises of health, wealth and power but when the problems arise or the promises are not fulfilled they are not there to help them.


The offer that if you come to Christ 'all your problems will be solved' or the use of psychological techniques on people in order to induce them to become Christians, or at least join their brand of Christianity, are all unworthy of the true Christian Mission. Likewise preachers drawing other Christians away from their own churches with the enticement that they will become part of God's elite, or where God is moving, likewise bring dishonour to Christ.

Yet even in modernity there were many examples of authentic missionarys. Men such as William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Sadu Sundar Singh to name a few among thousands were truly humble servants of God. They never exploited: They more often than not gave up their lives. They truly loved the people, living among them ( see blog on incarnational mission) in a spirit of humility seeking to bring them the word of Christ in the context of the culture. This was often at great cost to themselves and their families. Many of those who went into all the world to bring the good news never returned, often dying within the first year.

Jesus came as a servant and to give up his life for many: authentic mission requires that we do the same.

In the gospels Jesus was more often hardest on the religious leaders than he was on the ordinary man and woman.People do not have to listen to us and we need to have the attitude that they are doing us the favour by listening to us, not the other way round.Humility and servanthood and love should be the marks of those who want to share the life of God.

The famous missionary E. Stanley Jones founded what he called Round Table Conferences which became known to the world through his book 'Christ at the Round Table'. His attitude towards evangelism was similar to that of Ikon.

He wrote:'The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and in the end that Christ was not there. They lost Him through the very spirit and methods by which they sought to serve Him. Many more modern and more refined crusaders end in that same barrenness of victory. Mere proselytisation partakes of these methods and shares the same barrenness of results.'

The approach by Stanley Jones towards those of other Faiths ( be they Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist) where they each shared their experiences of the divine, was much deeper than mere 'Dialogue', that of discussing propositional truths. It was being honest and vulnerable together. It was also at these Round Tables that many came to experience, then follow the risen Christ.

As regards strangers or visiters who come to our meetings or gatherings we should go out of our way to make them feel welcome. They should be seen as our quests. It is a sad fact that many churches and fellowships be they evangelical, charismatic or postmodern show a lack of hospitality and friendship towards outsiders.

People will not care how much you know until they know how much you care.I'm sure all of us have gone into a place where we were made to feel invisible or even a nuisance. It's not a nice feeling.We should therefore see it as a crime when we do it to others.Postmodern people care less about whether a religion is true or not, but what they do want to know is whether it works. Remember how St Francis who kissed the hand of the leper: Are we not even prepared to walk a few feet to talk to a stranger who is alone, or looks a little uncool,or strange. Many miss out on lasting friendships by not making a little effort and being friendly to the friendless person. 'Whatever you do on to the least' says the Master 'you do it on to me'.

This is especially important for postmodern people who are looking for something real, something authentic. Anyone can put on a show of religion or spirituality. We can have the talk but not the walk but at the end of the day it's all sham and we have only fooled ourselves.


It should be noted that when I speak of Christianity or someone being a Christian I am not talking about someone who has joined a Cult (A group that practices religious ritual), or merely believed a Creed ( be it the Westminster Confession of Faith, The Nicene Creed or even the Bible), or even one who follows a Code of Conduct ( be it the Golden Rule, Sermon on the Mount etc.see John Stott Christian Basics). Rather, it is someone who who has come to know and serve the living Christ.

That means walking with Christ as our friend, trusting him as Saviour and following Christ as Lord. It is his life within us that we must nurture. It is listening attentively to His voice and seeking to do His bidding.

If you don't know him yet as your personal friend, Lord and saviour you can do so. He still speaks to men and woman today as he did 2000 years ago when he said : ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me'.

He stands at the outside of each heart and life. He will not force his way in by kicking in or breaking down the door. The handle is in fact on the inside of the door. The decision is with us. Will we open the door?