The Street Evangelist

This is a true story about a street evangelist, and as Romanos my very good Eastern Orthodox friend comments: 'it has all the the hallmarks of authenticity'.I agree with the writer Gary Tresidder,that though this evangelist's name may not be known to men,in heaven he,and those like him, will be well known. May it inspire the readers of this post to be faithful in the ministrythe Lord has given them,however unknown and unrecognised it may be(2 Cor.6.9).

In the beginning days of July 1970, there was a man who lived in Houston, Texas. Though of slight build and shorter than average height, he had been given a tremendous ministry. The Lord had chosen him to be a “street preacher” and he had accepted the calling. But there was to be more involved in this occupation than standing on a corner and handing out tracts. The Lord wanted him to minister to the lost souls that lived and died in the area known as the Houston Underground. This district was located near the center of Houston within viewing distance of the M&M factory.

An area that can be described as the Playground of the Devil would suffice to express the environment where this man was to minister. The remnants of the Hippie counter-culture had drifted here from all points of the compass. Other drifters of more nefarious pasts also were attracted to the area. They brought with themselves their own ingredients. They brought the drugs – barbiturates, amphetamines, the hallucinogenic and heroin. They also brought their gods – Krishna, Santeria (Voodoo), and Astrology. They also carried with them the seeds of their own destruction – violence.

Armed with only his faith that the Lord would protect him and a Bible, he entered into this arena of Hell. Only a believer who is secure in his belief would walk these mean streets at nights carrying an old worn leather covered Bible with thumb-eared edges. His suit was worn and shiny in spots. He wore a white shirt and an out-of-date narrow tie. But shining through this frail frame was a presence that was more than him. The denizens of this dark world never bothered him. They did their best to avoid him – the one they called “The Preacher Man.”

Into this scene of chaos appeared another individual. He was a drifter from many places. In his aimless trek he had seen the climates of the North, East and West. Having allegiance to none and respect for no one, he came seeking what he could take. He was one of the Hippies who had fled the violence that had overtaken the movement in larger cities. His appearance was tall and scraggly like a scarecrow. His clothes looked typical for those in the place he found himself. He wore a pair of jeans with a garrison belt, sandals, and a shirt that had probably hadn’t seen soap and water since it was first purchased. His hair was long and unkempt. His eyes blazed with the fire created from drugs and lack of sleep. This young man was “strung-out” from a series of LSD trips and amphetamine highs. In his present condition it was not even necessary for him to consume any more of those drugs. He could be walking down the street, and just thinking about idle thoughts and in the next moment his daydreaming would turn into the drug induced hallucinations into which he was fond of retreating. This was the condition of the youth the night these two individuals crossed paths.

On the night they met, the street evangelist prepared his path before him. He asked the Lord to set before him those who He wanted to be saved from Destruction. His ministry to the Lost wasn’t to be like a sideshow barker. He wasn’t to stand on a corner and yell about the End of the World. He also wasn’t supposed to walk through the throngs that were on the streets and give the gospel tracts that many want to do and call “witnessing the Gospel”. He was only to approach those that the Lord wanted for His Purpose and to do as the Lord directed. After he received his assurance from the Lord, he set out to perform the Lord’s assignment. At the same time the wild-eyed drifter was headed in the same direction, but with a different purpose in mind. He was going to the Underground to look for what he could beg or scrounge to support his need for drugs and the blissful state of nothingness they brought.

The young man wandered from place to place on the heavily populated streets of Houston’s Underground district. He avoided the strip joints and other honky-tonks because he didn’t have any money to even pay the cover charge. Besides, they weren’t the people with whom he associated anyway. He preferred the company of like creatures as himself – the hippies and drug abusers. After visiting several of the shops that catered to his type of clientele, he came across a leather shop that made items for tourists and the rich. He walked into the small shop and looked around at the merchandise. Finally he saw a bundle of leather strips and pieces that the shop owner had left over from several of his projects. The young man knew he could fashion some of the pieces into items that he could sell.

“How much you want for that bundle of stuff?” the young man asked.

“Two bucks”, responded the clerk.

“OK”, replied the drifter as he fished two worn-out dollar bills out of his pocket.

As the man was handing the clerk the two dollars, the clerk leaned over the counter and looked out the storefront window. “Oh, no. Here comes that damn street preacher again. I wish he would just get out of here and leave us alone.” The clerk looked up at the drifter and said, “You better make sure he doesn’t get a hold of you.”

The young man ambled to the front door of the shop and started out the door. As he came to the steps that led down from the shop onto the sidewalk, he stopped. It was as if a bolt of lightening had run from his head to the bottom of his feet. He felt as if fear had shaken everything inside him. He had trouble even feeling the fingers of his hand. Everything felt dislocated. The only thought that was coherent is his mind was to look up from the steps below his feet. As he did, he saw the eyes of a skinny little man across the street. Those eyes were looking directly into his eyes. Also seeing the old worn book that the man had pressed to his chest, he knew with certainty that this was the “Preacher Man” he had just been warned about. Inside his mind he also knew with all certainty that this man was purposing to talk to him.

“Damn, I’ve got to get out of here.” This was the next thought that raced through the drifter’s mind. Fear consumed the man as he tried to hurry down the steps. He knew that this was one of the most important things he would ever have to do – flee. All at once a group of partygoers passed in front the stairway, blocking his action. After they passed, he looked to see if his way was clear. But there was one more obstruction in front of him. There standing squarely in front of him stood his enemy – the man with the Bible.

The street evangelist looked up at the tall unkempt man in front of him. He saw the wild and dangerous eyes that now were touched with fear. He knew that without any doubt that this was the man that the Lord had sent him to see.

The street preacher spoke to the man who was trying to bolt like a rabbit in a cage. He said, “ You’re running from God.” Though spoken softly, it was if a hammer had struck the drifter. The young man staggered. Even though he didn’t understand what the little evangelist meant, he knew that it was true. The man looked back up at the drifter and said, “May I talk to you about your need for the Lord?”

Looking down at the street evangelist, the young man thought that this was the craziest little man he had ever met – and maybe the most dangerous he would ever run across. He felt that if he listened to this man, something in his life would change forever. He couldn’t come back to the life he enjoyed. “No.” he responded.

Undaunted in his faith and assured in the conviction that this was the man he was to tell about the Gospel, the little street preacher spoke again. “Then, may I pray for you?” He asked.

Hoping that this would get the weird little man away from him, the drifter responded, “Sure go ahead.”

“Lord”, started the little man, “I lift up this man before Your Throne. He doesn’t know who you are. But I know that he is one that You have chosen for Your Kingdom. I ask that You make his life so miserable that he will come running to You. I pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.” The short simple prayer asking God to direct the paths of this drifter from the pathway to Hell to the Feet of the Lord was like an arrow striking the heart. The drifter was stone cold sober; he couldn’t feel the effects of any of the drugs that were coursing through his veins. The drifter shook his head as if he was trying to remove a headache. He looked down again – the little man was gone. He started running…

Thirty years have come and gone since that singular event – the crossing of paths between a skinny little street preacher and the Hippie drifter. The intercession of that skinny little street evangelist, insignificant in man’s eyes but great in the Lord’s eyes, came to fruition. His name may never mentioned to the annals of Man’s times, but you may be assured that his name is recorded in the Lord’s book of faithful servants.

As for the drifter and what happened to him. Eventually, he found the peace that comes with knowing the Lord, though it took another year and a half. But that’s another story…

Gary Tresidder
http://www.tresidder.net/

THE DEVIL READS DERRIDA

This is an interesting article by James Smith of Calvin College on the question 'why should Christians have any interest in "vain philosophy"? Let me know your thoughts.

Philosophers regularly have to make apologies for their profession. Very rare is the parent who erupts in joy when a daughter or son comes home at Thanksgiving announcing that he or she is going to major in philosophy. This inevitably sounds like preparation for any number of careers that involve various permutations of the question, "Would you like fries with that?" So how could philosophy have any practical relevance? And in particular, why would Christians have any interest in "vain philosophy" which the Apostle Paul warns us against in Colossians 2:8?


The answer to that question is embedded in The Devil Wears Prada, the book recently transformed into a (pretty decent!) film. In a key scene, Miranda (played so devilishly by Meryl Streep) is presiding over her entourage, trying to select just the right belt to accessorize the cover ensemble for next month's magazine. They are passionately deliberating between two belts, which, to the untrained eye, look almost identical. Her fashion-averse assistant Andy (played by Anne Hathaway) stumbles into the gathering. Growing impatient, and with a flippant disdain for fashion, she refers to the rack of designs merely as "stuff." Miranda, in that calm, satanic stare that Streep nailed so well, pauses and quietly says:

"'Stuff'? Oh, OK. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet, and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St. Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs, so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when, in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room ... from a pile of 'stuff.'"

In this fabulous soliloquy, Miranda articulates what we'll call the "trickle-down" theory of culture. Many spheres of cultural production—such as haute couture in the arcane parlors of Paris and Milan—seem to be merely the abstractions of the bourgeoisie—flights of fancy for the well heeled who have the leisure for such play and silliness. But what does that have to do with us, down here, on the ground, schlepping to work on Monday mornings or going to worship on Sunday mornings? It has more to do with you than you might expect, because what holds true for fashion holds true for philosophy.

The same trickle-down principle (although nothing new) is the idea that current philosophical currents—which might seem arcane, abstract and strange to those of us just trying to scrape together bus fare—have an impact on the shape of cultural practices. This is perhaps crystallized in discussions about "postmodernism." Phenomena often described as "postmodern" have a genealogy, and they track back to key shifts in philosophical thinking over the past half-century.

For instance, if we take the "emerging church" as something of a postmodern phenomenon, you will find that one of the key parts of that conversation involves questions of interpretation, authority and meaning. Is there just one "right" interpretation? Can we know the author's intention when reading Scripture? Can some "authority" sanction the "one, true" interpretation of the Bible? Or are there multiple "true" interpretations? And could it be that everything is interpretation? If that's the case, what does that mean for the uniqueness of the Gospel?
These are tough questions. But these didn't just drop from the sky. In fact, they dominated 20th-century European philosophy, particularly in the work of Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. And so it seems to me that if we're going to wrestle with tough questions, we also need to wrestle with the philosophical sources that put the questions on our plate.

Just as what shows up at T.J. Maxx has more to do with French fashion than we might think, so too what's discussed by the likes of Derrida and Foucault might be affecting our milieu more than we realize. If we are going to engage culture, and make culture, we will find it helpful not just to wait for things to trickle down, but to go looking for them at the source.

If diving into Derrida or Foucault straight up seems daunting at first, organize a reading group around introductory books, such as mine, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (Baker Academic), or Crystal Downing's How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith (IVP Academic). Or check out these documentaries and discuss them with friends: Derrida (2002) and Zizek! (2005). And listen in on the conversations at www.churchandpomo.org.

James K.A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. His most recent book is Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (Baker Academic). For more on his work, visit www.jameskasmith.com.

John Stott Last address PartC

Firstly, Christlikeness and the mystery of suffering. Suffering is a huge subject in itself and there are many ways in which Christians try to understand it. One way stands out: that suffering is part of God’s process of making us like Christ. Whether we suffer from a disappointment, a frustration or some other painful tragedy, we need to try to see this in the light of Romans 8:28-29. According to Romans 8:28, God is always working for the good of his people, and according to Romans 8:29, this good purpose is to make us like Christ.
Secondly, Christlikeness and the challenge of evangelism. Why is it, you must have asked, as I have, that in many situations our evangelistic efforts are often fraught with failure? Several reasons may be given and I do not want to over-simplify but one main reason is that we don’t look like the Christ we are proclaiming. John Poulton, who has written about this in a perceptive little book entitled A today sort of evangelism, wrote this:
‘The most effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying. They are their message. Christians need to look like what they are talking about. It is people who communicate primarily, not words or ideas. Authenticity gets across. deep down in side people, what communicates now is basically personal authenticity.’
That is Christlikeness. Let me give you another example. There was a Hindu professor in India who once identified one of his students as a Christian and said to him: ‘If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.’ I think India would be at their feet today if we Christians lived like Christ. From the Islamic world, the Reverend Iskandar Jadeed, a former Arab Muslim, has said ‘If all Christians were Christians – that is, Christlike – there would be no more Islam today.’
That brings me to my third point – Christlikeness and the indwelling of the Spirit. I have spoken much tonight about Christlikeness but is it attainable? In our own strength it is clearly not attainable but God has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to change us from within. William Temple, Archbishop in the 1940s, used to illustrate this point from Shakespeare:
‘It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it – I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it – I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like this. And if the Spirit could come into me, then I could live a life like His.’
So I conclude, as a brief summary of what we have tried to say to one another: God’s purpose is to make us like Christ. God’s way to make us like Christ is to fill us with his Spirit. In other words, it is a Trinitarian conclusion, concerning the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

John Stott Last address Part B

I want to move on to illustrate this truth with a number of New Testament examples. First, I think it is important for us to make a general statement, as the apostle John does in 1 John 2:6: ‘he who says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way as he walked.’ In other words, if we claim to be a Christian, we must be Christlike. Here is the first New Testament example: we are to be like Christ in his Incarnation.
Some of you may immediately recoil in horror from such an idea. Surely, you will say to me, the Incarnation was an altogether unique event and cannot possibly be imitated in any way? My answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, it was unique, in the sense that the Son of God took our humanity to himself in Jesus of Nazareth, once and for all and forever, never to be repeated. That is true. But there is another sense in which the Incarnation was not unique: the amazing grace of God in the Incarnation of Christ is to be followed by all of us. The Incarnation, in that sense, was not unique but universal. We are all called to follow the example of His great humility in coming down from heaven to earth. So Paul could write in Philippians 2:5-8: ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God some thing to be grasped for his own selfish enjoyment, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.’ We are to be like Christ in his Incarnation in the amazing self-humbling which lies behind the Incarnation.
Secondly, we are to be like Christ in His service. We move on now from his Incarnation to His life of service; from His birth to His life, from the beginning to the end. Let me invite you to come with me to the upper room where Jesus spent his last evening with His disciples, recorded in John’s gospel chapter 13: ‘He took off his outer garments, he tied a towel round him, he poured water into a basin and washed his disciples’ feet. When he had finished, he resumed his place and said, “If then I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example’ – notice the word – ‘ that you should do as I have done to you.’
Some Christians take Jesus’ command literally and have a foot-washing ceremony in their Lord’s Supper once a month or on Maundy Thursday – and they may be right to do it. But I think most of us transpose Jesus’ command culturally: that is just as Jesus performed what in His culture was the work of a slave, so we in our cultures must regard no task too menial or degrading to undertake for each other.
Thirdly, we are to be like Christ in His love. I think particularly now of Ephesians 5:2 – ‘walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.’ Notice that the text is in two parts. The first part is walk in love, an injunction that all our behaviour should be characterised by love, but the second part of the verse says that He gave Himself for us, which is not a continuous thing but an aorist, a past tense, a clear reference to the cross. Paul is urging us to be like Christ in his death, to love with self-giving Calvary love. Notice what is developing: Paul is urging us to be like the Christ of the Incarnation, to be like the Christ of the foot washing and to be like the Christ of the cross. These three events of the life of Christ indicate clearly what Christlikeness means in practice.
Fourthly, we are to be like Christ in His patient endurance. In this next example we consider not the teaching of Paul but of Peter. Every chapter of the first letter of Peter contains an allusion to our suffering like Christ, for the background to the letter is the beginnings of persecution. In chapter 2 of 1 Peter in particular, Peter urges Christian slaves, if punished unjustly, to bear it and not to repay evil for evil. For, Peter goes on, you and we have been called to this because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example – there is that word again – so that we may follow in His steps. This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increasesin many cultures in the world today.
My fifth and last example from the New Testament is that we are to be like Christ in His mission. Having looked at the teaching of Paul and Peter, we come now to the teaching of Jesus recorded by John. In John 20:21, in prayer, Jesus said ‘As you, Father, have sent me into the world, so I send them into the world’ – that is us. And in his commissioning in John 17 he says ‘As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.’ These words are immensely significant. This is not just the Johannine version of the Great Commission but it also an instruction that their mission in the world was to resemble Christ’s mission. In what respect? The key words in these texts are ’sent into the world’. As Christ had entered our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds. It was eloquently explained by Archbishop Michael Ramsey some years ago: ‘We state and commend the faith only in so far as we go out and put ourselves with loving sympathy inside the doubts of the doubters, the questions of the questioners and the loneliness of those who have lost the way.’
This entering into other people’s worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational evangelism. All authentic mission is incarnational mission. We are to be like Christ in his mission. These are the five main ways in which we are to be Christlike: in His Incarnation, in His service, in His love, in His endurance and in His mission.

John Stott's last address at Keswick Convention July 17th 2007 Part A

John Stott was certainly one of the finest Christian leaders of the twentieth century. Though he had an upper class English background ( his father was a Harley Street surgeon), thousands of men and woman all over the world from less favourable backgrounds would be proud to call him their friend and mentor.Check out his audio sermons by clicking 'John Stott's sermons' on my favourite links. AK

I remember very vividly, some years ago, that the question which perplexed me as a younger Christian (and some of my friends as well) was this: what is God’s purpose for His people? Granted that we have been converted, granted that we have been saved and received new life in Jesus Christ, what comes next? Of course, we knew the famous statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: that man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever: we knew that, and we believed it. We also toyed with some briefer statements, like one of only five words – love God, love your neighbour. But somehow neither of these, nor some others that we could mention, seemed wholly satisfactory. So I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth and it is – God wants His people to become like Christ. Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.

So if that is true, I am proposing the following: first to lay down the biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness: secondly, to give some New Testament examples of this; thirdly, to draw some practical conclusions. And it all relates to becoming like Christ.

So first is the biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness. This basis is not a single text: the basis is more substantial than can be encapsulated in a single text. The basis consists rather of three texts which we would do well to hold together in our Christian thinking and living: Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 John 3:2. Lets look at these three briefly.

Romans 8:29 reads that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: that is, to become like Jesus. We all know that when Adam fell he lost much – though not all – of the divine image in which he had been created. But God has restored it in Christ. Conformity to the image of God means to become like Jesus: Christlikeness is the eternal predestinating purpose of God.

My second text is 2 Corinthians 3:18: ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’ So it is by the indwelling Spirit Himself that we are being changed from glory to glory – it is a magnificent vision.

In this second stage of becoming like Christ, you will notice that the perspective has changed from the past to the present, from God’s eternal predestination to His present transformation of us by the Holy Spirit. It has changed from God’s eternal purpose to make us like Christ, to His historical work by His Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus.

That brings me to my third text: 1 John 3:2. ‘Beloved, we are God’s children now and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he appears, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ We don’t know in any detail what we shall be in the last day, but we do know that we will be like Christ. There is really no need for us to know any more than this. We are content with the glorious truth that we will be with Christ, like Christ, for ever.

Here are three perspectives – past, present and future. All of them are pointing in the same direction: there is God’s eternal purpose, we have been predestined; there is God’s historical purpose, we are being changed, transformed by the Holy Spirit; and there is God’s final or eschatalogical purpose, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All three, the eternal, the historical and the eschatalogical, combine towards the same end of Christlikeness. This, I suggest, is the purpose of God for the people of God. That is the biblical basis for becoming like Christ: it is the purpose of God for the people of God.

SEVEN PEOPLE LYING AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD BY GEORGE VERWER

I have been preaching a lot recently on the story of the Good Samaritan. I believe it's a fitting message because there are so many people lying at the side of the road today; there are so many who are suffering and need Jesus - both for salvation and for those practical, life-sustaining needs we all have. At the same time, it has been my great joy to see, within OM, a huge shift in recent years towards the marrying of Gospel proclamation with social action.I have put together a list of "seven people lying at the side of the road." These Seven People (which I also list on the back of my business card) are:
1. Children at risk
AIDS orphans; children on the street; children in slums and garbage dumps; child victims of sex trafficking and domestic abuse; child soldiers: there are so many children in extreme need. If we don't help them, who will?
2. Abused women
I urge you to read "True Grit" by Debbie Meroff, the untold story of the suffering women face around the world and how powerfully God is using women to advance His Kingdom today. Please email me for your free copy today (georgeverwer.om.org). I would also be willing to send you extra copies to give to friends.
3. The extreme poor
In the West we come across pan-handlers and others who need our help, and we need to continue to help these people with love and wisdom. But I am talking here of whole families who are living on less than a a dollar a day, people who are victims of rampant government corruption and famine. I am speaking of the 200 million Dalits of India who for 3,000 years have suffered severe discrimination and abject poverty; of the millions living in slums, the Tsunami victims of Southeast Asia, the earthquake victims of Pakistan, those starving and suffering under the oppressive regime of North Korea. There are so many in extreme poverty who need our help.
4. The HIV/AIDS patient

40 million have been infected and 20 million have died. Millions of children have been orphaned and whole societies are burgeoning under the weight of so many dying so young. Rather than standing by and judging, let us respond in love and action through in-person help, finance, support of AIDS ministries, prayer and being aware of AIDS in our own communities, churches and families. (Many have HIV and don't know it.)
Let us also take advantage of this opportunity to share the gospel. We have found that, because death is so imminent, AIDS patience are very open to the Gospel.
I want to strongly recommend four books: "AIDS and You" by Patrick Dixon, "AIDS is Real and it's in our Church" by Jean Garland and Dr. Mike Blyth; "The Skeptics Guide to AIDS" by Dale Hanson Bourke; and "I'm not at Risk, Am I?" by Joy and Ray Thomas. Contact me if we can send you any of these titles.
5. People with impure water
Water is becoming increasingly scarce. 20% of the world has no access to clean water. Many must walk miles to get clean water, and so often the ones who do it are children whose bodies are not designed for such back-breaking work. Big cities are running out of water and are shipping it in at great cost, while in other parts of the world the disfunctional water systems are breeding grounds for disease. May each of us be part of the effort to see more people getting clean water, as we seek to preserve what precious water we have stewardship over ourselves.
6. The unborn
Some estimates put the number of children who have been aborted at 500 million. The numbers are staggering, and in many ways I would rather ignore them. But I know that I cannot. I confess, when my close friend Dr. Francis Schaeffer decided to put so much effort into the pro-life movement towards the end of his life, I thought he had gone a little extreme. I no longer feel this way, and repent of my own inaction. In some countries there are more abortions than births, and the laws in some nations allow abortion until the day before birth. How can this be?
With so much abortion taking place, let us not consider it a lost cause and give up. No, many battles have been won, and every battle is a victory; every saved life a real person. I believe that there are thousands alive today who otherwise would not have been without pro-life action. Are not these saved lives worth the effort? Yes, they are!
So let us be people of vision, action and especially grace - grace for the mothers, for those in the pro-choice camp, and for fellow Christians who disagree. Recommended reading: Why Pro Life? by Randy Alcorn.
7. The environment
It is a shame that so many evangelical Christians not only have little concern for the environment, but are sometimes known as anti-environmental. How can this be when our Creator God has asked us to care for his creation? Not only is our pollution of the earth totally unacceptable, but this is an issue that our young people care about; and if we don't connect with them on valid issues such as preservation of the environment, how can we expect them to listen to us at all?
Will you be a Good Samaritan?
George Verwer, December 2006

A CUP OF COLD WATER

Gordon Campbell a former student in my evangelism class at the Belfast Bible College has just returned from Burkina Faso after helping out with a well drilling project . Gordon wrote me: 'the temperatures were very high, reaching on one day up to 67 Celsius/centigrade. Incredible but true! The work was hard in such extreme conditions but God still used us to find 4 good wells, 3 in local villages were the Christian influence is limited and 1 in a Christian girls school. All the dust, dirt, heat, dehydration means nothing when the water comes up from the ground - truly its a blessing to see it happen.'

This is surely one of the marks of authentic mission. It is truly an amazing blessing to the people there, being almost the equivalent to Jesus feeding the five thousand. In fact it is probably greater in that it will last for many years to come whereas the bread and fish was just one meal!Jesus said: 'greater works will I do because I go to the Father'.What a great opportunity those who follow Christ in that area now have to share the good news of Christ's love. For these 'buckets'(see picture) of cold water: May he and his fellow servants of God in no wise lose their reward.

' If any man thirst, let him com on to me and drink'.

Authentic Mission will be Incarnational

The Son of God did not stay in the safe immunity of his heaven, remote from human sin and tragedy. He actually entered our world. He emptied himself of his glory and humbled himself to serve. He took our nature, lived our life, endured our temptations, experienced our sorrows, felt our hurts, bore our sins and died our death. He penetrated deeply into our humanness. He never stayed aloof from the people he might have been expected to avoid. He made friends with the dropouts of society. He even touched untouchables. He could not have become more one with us than he did. It was the total identification of love. John Stott

Examples of Incarnational Mission
1. Moravian Christians selling themselves into slavery in order to reach the African slaves with the gospel.

2.Hudson Taylor the founder of the China Inland Mission grew his hair long, dyed it black and dressed like the Chinese in order to identify with the Chinese.

Paul writes: 19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. ….21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law…, so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.1 Cor. 9.19-22

If our mission is to be Incarnational it also means getting inside the heads of those we seek to reach. To reach Mormons or Muslims or the Youth of today we must try to understand what they are thinking – what their fears are ,what their felt needs are, what their problems are, their heart pain and even the history of their group or cult if it’s the J.W’s or Mormons. We must built bridges in order to connect with them. If we have problems relating to our own children we must be the ones the bridge the gap, not them.I remember meeting an evangelist with an eyebrow ring, I judged him in my heart thinking 'who does he think he is: a Christian shouldn't have one of those.' It was me that needed changed. He was from a very privileged background but he was trying to reach the youth of Norwich as Director of Youth For Christ.I had much to learn from him.

Dare I say to reach modern youth we may have to listen to their C.D’s and read their magazines and find out what makes them tick? To reach Post-moderns we must also read their books, listen to their music and feel their angst. WE HAVE MUCH TO LEARN FROM THEM!

Has the Post-modern Church a message for the world? If it hasn't we might as well give up our lives now. 'As the Father sent me' said Jesus ' so I send you'.