The Evangelist as a Sower.

In the New Testament both Jesus and Paul use the metaphor of the sower
for the evangelist or proclaimer of the good news. From Jesus’ parable
of the sower (or ‘of the soils’) the evangelist should learn to be
develop three of the attributes found in the sower. The first
attribute we notice in the sower is that he is generous in his
sowing. He had plenty of seed and spread it widely, causing it to land
on different types of soils. We too should be generous in our
sharing of the message of grace-as Jesus encouraged us :‘freely you
have received so freely give! We should not be stingy with this
message nor seek to keep to ourselves, our family, friends or
countrymen but rather share it with all, even to those whom we
consider don't deserve it-for of course we don't deserve it! Of course
this doesn’t mean that we should ‘throw our pearls before swine’
as the Master told us, but we should still be generous and seek to
spread it where we have an opportunity to do so.
As Charles Wesley declared:

Come sinners to the gospel feast
Let every one be Jesu’s guest.
There need not one be left behind
For God has bidden all mankind.

The second attribute I see in the sower is that he is man who has faith.
He believes that the seed has power to take root, grow and
reproduce-it is what seeds do! We too should should have faith when we
sow the seed of God’s word. As Paul declared regarding the gospel: I
am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes. We should not lose heart or become
weary in well doing –keep sowing, keep praying and God will give the
growth and if it lands on good soil it could produce a crop, 'some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.'

The third attribute I see in the sower is that he is patient as he
waits for the seed to grow. He does not panic despite the weather be
it rain, hail, snow or scorching sun! The evangelist likewise should take
encouragement to wait patiently when he shares the gospel. This is
also seen when God speaks in the book of Isaiah :

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

The seed will take time to develop in the ground then after its time
has been fulfilled the fruit will be seen for all to see.

Paul also emphasises that it is not the sower that gives the growth,
but God. It is not the sower that can boast or receive any glory, but
God. Our calling is not to give the growth, rather our calling is to sow generously, in faith and patiently that in due time God would give growth to the seed sown in his name.
AK


Send me,' he cries, his sin-purged lips with altar fires aglow:
'I'll bear the living message of free forgiving love;
O let me win the wand'rers to the path that leads above.'
`Spite all the ties of nature, he leaves his friends and home,
A lonely witness o'er the world, despised and poor, to roam.
Nought takes he for his service, but freely in His name
Who sent him and supplies his need, the Gospel would proclaim.
Within his yearning bosom, love to the Savior reigns:
In all the labors of his life no other power constrains.
Deep are his tender feelings, sweet is his pleading tone,
As he described the glories of yon Man on Heaven's throne.
His heart the heavy burden of sinful souls must bear;
He wrestles for them at God's throne through hours of midnight prayer.
Eternity before him more real than Time appears:
Oh, wonder not he pleadeth with the eloquence of tears!
Anointed by God's Spirit, trained at the Master's feet,
Commissioned and sent forth by Him, all furnished and complete.
No human art or wisdom his talent could assist:
A heavenly-moulded, God-sent man is the evangelist.
He is the weeping sower who shall with singing come,
Bringing his gathered sheaves from earth to Heaven's harvest home.
And when with joy he lays them down at the Master's feet,
His own 'Well done! thou faithful one,' will make his bliss
complete.—William Blane

Billy Bray:The Uneducated Soul-winner

(Billy Bray's Chapel:One of three which he built with his own hands)

I have had the little book:'The King's Son' for many years but have only ever got as far as the first chapter. The reason why I read no further was not the fault of the book, as what I had read of it was excellent, but rather, other things or books had distracted me and prevented me from finishing it.I'm now working my way through it! He certainly was a character and one that many men in particular will find a source of hope for their own lives-if God converted and used Billy Bray in such a manner as he did, there is certainly hope for any of us. He was an uneducated tin miner from Cornwall. He was also a drunk and a fighter yet God used him to bring many into the Kingdom through his ministry. He was also a Methodist and if he was around today people would think he was a Pentecostal because of his constant praising of God! One thing for sure was that though he had been far from God in his life, when God began to work in him he became bright and shining light. He could never keep quiet about his Lord who he knew as his intimate companion. Shortly after his conversion he would often pray with his fellow miners before they went into the mine shaft. Billy not only prayed for their safety but also that if one of them were to die that day, that it would be him and not one of them, because he knew God and would go to meet him. This of course broke the miners's heart so when they had finished, his fellow miners would have streams of tears running down their faces! AK

Billy Bray was was once a drunken and lascivious miner, but grace made him an intensely earnest and decided follower of the Lord Jesus. His conversion was very marked, and was attended with those violent struggles of conscience which frequently attend that great change in strong-minded and passionate natures.
His actual obtaining of peace brought the tears into our eyes as we read it, and made us remember a lad who, more than twenty years ago, found the Lord in a somewhat similar style; it also reminded us of George Fox the Quaker, and John Bunyan the Baptist, when undergoing the sacred change. Children of God are born very much alike; their divergences usually arise as a matter of after years. In their regeneration, as in their prayers, they appear as one. Bray was assailed by the fierce temptation that he would never find mercy; but with the promise, "Seek, and ye shall find," he quenched this fiery dart of the wicked one, and in due time he learned, by blessed experience, that the promise was true. Beautifully simple and touching are his own words:—"I said to the Lord, 'Thou hast said, They that ask shall receive, they that seek shall find, and to them that knock the door shall be opened, and I have faith to believe it.' In an instant the Lord made me so happy that I cannot express what I felt. I shouted for joy. I praised God with my whole heart for what he had done for a poor sinner like me: for I could say, the Lord hath pardoned all my sins. I think this was in November, 1823, but what day of the month I do not know. I remember this, that everything looked new to me; the people, the fields, the cattle, the trees. I was like a man in a new world. I spent the greater part of my time in praising the Lord. I could say with David, 'The Lord hath brought me up out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings, and hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto my God.' I was a new man altogether. I told all I met what the Lord had done for my soul. I have heard some say that they have hard work to get away from their companions, but I had hard work to find them soon enough to tell them what the Lord had done for me. Some said I was mad; and others that they should get me back again next pay-day. But, praise the Lord, it is now more than forty years ago, and they have not got me yet. They said I was a mad-man, but they meant I was a glad man, and, glory be to God! I hare been glad ever since."
No sooner was Billy saved than he began at once looking after others. He prayed for his work-mates, and saw several brought to Jesus in answer to his prayer. His was a simple faith; he believed in the reality of prayer, and meant to be heard, and expected to be answered whenever he supplicated for the souls of his comrades. He was a live man, not a dummy. In his own simple style he did all that he did with rigor, physical vigor being more than sufficiently conspicuous in his shouting and leaping for joy. "He tells us, soon after his conversion, 'I was very happy in my work, and could leap and dance for joy underground as well as on the surface.'
"Bray began publicly to exhort men to repent, and turn to God, about a year after his conversion. Towards the end of 1824 his name was put on the Local Preachers' Plan, and his labors were much blessed in the conversion of souls. He did not commonly select a text, as is the general habit of preachers, but he usually began his addresses by reciting a verse of a hymn, a little of his own experience, or some telling anecdote. But he had the happy art of pleasing and profiting all classes, the rich as much as the poor; and all characters, the worldly as much as the pious, flocked to' hear him. He retained his popularity until the last. Perhaps no preacher in Cornwall ever acquired more extensive or more lasting renown, and the announcement of his name as a speaker at a missionary meeting, or on any special occasion, was a sufficient attraction, whoever else might or might not be present. Sometimes his illustrations and appeals made a powerful impression. I remember once hearing him speak with great effect to a large congregation, principally miners. In that neighborhood there were two mines, one very prosperous, and the other quite the reverse, for the work was hard and the wages low. In his sermon he represented himself as working at that mine all the week, but on the' pay-day' going to the prosperous one for his wages. Had he not been at work at the other mine? the manager inquired. He had, but he liked the wages at the good mine the best. He pleaded very earnestly, but in vain, and was dismissed with the remark, from which there was no appeal, that he must come there to work if he came there for his wages. And then he turned upon the congregation, and the effect was almost irresistible, that they must serve Christ here if they would share his glory hereafter, but if they would serve the devil now, to him they must go for their wages byand- by. A very homely illustration certainly, but one which convinced the understanding and subdued the hearts of his hearers.
"There was excitement in some of his meetings, more than sufficient to shock the prejudices of highly-sensitive or refined persons. Some even who had the fullest confidence and warmest affection for Billy could not enjoy some of the outward manifestations they occasionally witnessed to the extent that he himself did. Billy could not tolerate 'deadness,' as he expressively called it, either in a professing Christian or in a meeting. He had a,leeper sympathy with persons singing, or shouting, or leaping for joy, than he had with



'The speechless awe that dares not move,
And all the silent heaven of love.'"

Methodism is the mother church of Cornwall, and Bray was a genuine though uncultivated child of her heart. As John Wesley always associated the grace of God with the penny a week, so Bray's religion was not all shouting; it had an eminently practical turn in many directions. Billy was quite a mighty chapel builder; he began by getting a piece of freehold from his mother, which he cleared with his own hands, and then proceeded to dig out the foundations of a chapel which was to be called Bethel. Under great discouragement's, both from friends and foes, mostly, however, from the first, he actually built the place, working at it himself, and at the same time begging stone, begging timber, and begging money to pay the workmen. His little all he gave, and moved all around, who had anything to spare, to give likewise. On-lookers thought Billy to be silly, and called him so; but, as he well remarked, "Wise men could not have preached in the chapel if silly Billy had not built it." Almost as soon as one building was finished, he was moved to commence another. It was much needed, and many talked about it, but nobody had the heart to begin it but Billy Bray. He begged the land, borrowed a horse and cart of the giver; and then after doing his own hard day's work underground in the pit, and providing for five small children, he and his son worked at raising stone and building the walls; frequently working twenty hours of the twenty-four. He had a hard struggle over this second chapel; but his own account is best. "When our chapel was up about to the door-head, the devil said to me, 'They are all gone and left you and the chapel, and I would go and leave the place too.' Then I said, 'Devil, doesn't thee know me better than that; by the help of the Lord I will have the chapel up, or lose my skin on the down.' So the devil said no more to me on that subject. Sometimes I had blisters on my hands, and they have been very sore. But I felt I did not mind that, for if the chapel should stand one hundred years, and if one soul were converted in it every year, that would be a hundred souls, and that would pay me well if I got to heaven, for they that 'turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' So I thought I should be rich enough when I got there. The chapel was finished after a time; and the opening day came. We had preaching, but the preacher was a wise man, and a dead man. I believe there was not much good done that day, for it was a very dead time with the preacher and people; for he had a great deal of grammar, and but little of Father. 'It is not by might, nor power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord' Weir it was by wisdom or might, I should have but a small part, for my might is little and my wisdom less. Thanks be to God, the work is his, and he can work by whomsoever he pleases. The second Sunday after the chapel was opened I was 'planned' there. I said to the people, 'You know I did not work here about this chapel in order to fill my pocket, but for the good of the neighbors, and the good of souls; and souls I must have, and souls I will have.' The Lord blessed us in a wonderful manner. Two women cried to the Lord for mercy; and when I saw that I said, 'Now the chapel is paid for already.' The good Lord went on to work there; and the society soon went up from fifteen members to thirty. You see how good the Lord is to me; I spoke for one soul a year, and he gave me fifteen souls the first year. Bless and praise his holy name, for he is good, and his mercy endureth for ever, for one soul is worth a thousand worlds. Our little chapel had three windows, one on one side, and two on the other; the old devil, who does not like chapels, put his servants, by way of reproach, to call our chapel Three-Eyes. But, blessed be God, since then the chapel has become too small for the place; and it has been enlarged; now there are six windows instead of three; and they may call the chapel Six-Eyes if they will. For, glory be to God, many that have been converted there are now in heaven; and, when we get there, we will praise him with all our might; and he shall never hear the last of it."
No sooner was this second house finished, than he began a third and larger one, and in this enterprise his talent for collecting, as well as his zeal in giving and working, were well displayed. He had high—and as we believe proper—ideas of his mission, in gathering in the subscriptions of the Lord's stewards. "A friend who was with Billy on a begging expedition, suggested, as they were coming near a gentleman's house, and Billy was evidently making for the front door, that it would be better if they went to the back door. 'No,' said Billy, 'I am the son of a King, and I shall go frontways.'" "At one time, at a missionary meeting, he seemed quite vexed because there was something said in the report about money received for 'rags and bones.' when he rose to address the meeting he said: 'I don't think it is right supporting the Lord's cause with old rags and bones. The Lord deserves the best, and ought to have the best.'" Well done, Billy! This is right good, and sound divinity.
Billy knew how to fight the devil and his agents with their own weapons. Returning late from a revival meeting, on a dark night in a lonely road, "certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," tried to frighten him by making all sorts of unearthly sounds; but he went singing on his way. At last one of them said, in the most terrible tones, "But I'm the devil up here in the hedge, Billy Bray." "Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord!" said Billy, "I did not know thee 'wust' so far away as that." To use Billy's own expression, "What could the devil do with such as he?"
"One of the most blessed results of his deep piety was his unfeigned humility, and his continual sense of dependence upon God. The Lord's servants without the Lord's presence are weak like other men, like Samson, when he lost his locks. Here is one experience of Billy's: 'When I was in the St. Neot's Circuit, I was on the plan; and I remember that one Sunday I was planned at Redgate, and there was a chapel full of people, and the Lord gave me great power and liberty in speaking; but all at once the Lord took away his Spirit from me, so that I could not speak a word: and this might have been the best sermon that some of them ever heard. What! you say, and you looking like a fool and not able to speak? Yes, for it was not long before I said, I am glad I am stopped, and that for three reasons. And the first is, To humble my soul, and make me feel more dependent on my Lord, to think more fully of the Lord and less of myself. The next reason is, To convince you that are ungodly, for you say we can speak what we have a mind to, without the Lord as well as with him; but you cannot say so now, for you hear how I was speaking, but when the Lord took away his Spirit I could not say another word; without my Lord I could do nothing. And the third reason is, That some of you young men who are standing here may be called to stand in the pulpit some day as I am, and the Lord may take his Spirit from you as he has from me, and then you might say, it is no good for me to try to preach or exhort, for I was stopped the last time I tried to preach, and I shall preach no more. But now you can say, I saw poor old Billy Bray stopped once like me, and he did not mind it, and told the people that he was glad his Lord had stopped him: Billy Bray's Lord is my Lord, and I am glad he stopped me too, for if I can benefit the people and glorify God, that is what I want. I then spoke a great while, and told the people what the Lord gave me to say.'"
Preaching in such a spirit Bray was sure to have a blessing, and a blessing he had. Many orators and doctors in divinity look very small by the side of Billy Bray, if we estimate ministries by their results in soul-winning, and they will look smaller still when the souls saved by poor humble speakers shall shine forth like stars, and their own rhetorical fame and boasted learning shall be as darkness.
We say no more, but refer the reader to the memoir of Billy Bray, written by Mr. F.W. Bourne, and published at the Bible Christian Book Room, 57, Fairbank Street, East Road.

Moving Video of an Iraqi Christian Pastor which challenges our Christian way of life in the West.

Ghassan from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

The video above of the brave Iraqi Pastor from Baghdad again reminds us of how easy we have it as Christians in both the UK and the USA.This story should not only inspire us to help them in whatever way can, but also to use the freedom we have to spread the Good News in our own country, in a winsome manner- and while we have yet time! Especially, but not exclusively,those called or gifted in evangelism should be praying and looking continally for open doors to go through in order to spread the Word.God has called us to be a blessing to the world,not for us to grow rich 'spiritually' and financially while we take our ease in Zion (i.e. in our holy huddle).But as the great preacher John Wesley declared in his day so I encourage each of us :“You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most…It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.”

'Gangs more like Family than Church' says Ex-Gang Member.

“A while back a former gang member came to our church. He was heavily tattooed and rough around the edges, but he was curious to see what church was like. He had a relationship with Jesus and seemed to get fairly involved with the church. After a few months, I found out the guy was no longer coming to the church. When asked why he didn’t come anymore, he gave the following explanation: ‘I had the wrong idea of what church was going to be like. When I joined the church, I thought it was going to be like joining a gang. You see, in the gangs we weren’t just nice to each other once a week – we were family.’ That killed me because I knew that what he expected is what the church is intended to be. It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty, and family than the local church body.” Francis Chan

It is embarrassing to read the above quotation by Mr Chan-and he probably goes to a lively ,progressive hip, happy clappy church! How do 'lesser' churches among us fare.Is your church like a family? I'm not meaning is it like a family for some of the long term members who have been able to form themselves into a clique which might be defined as a small close-knit group of people who do not readily allow others to join them.What I am talking about is: Can it be family for all the strange ones who come to our meetings who love, or want to love Jesus but who may be different,punkish, working class,radical,enthusiastic,outgoing, addicts,tattooed or loud-or all of the above! My guess is that in most cases it's not family for them! Which makes me say three words: Shame on us! Remember that the now famous evangelist Nicky Cruz was once a ragamuffin, and it was for those such as him that Christ came and died!

Do you agree or do you think I am too harsh?

How much should Christians love the lost?

In thinking about this question we must also consider the two great commandments- to love the Lord our God with all our hearts,with all our souls, with all our strength and with all our mind; and to love our neighbour as ourselves.If we truly love God the second will come as a natural consequent of the first. It should also be understood that we as human beings do not have a natural love for God and the love we do have for our fellow human is usually based on selfishness -that is, what we can get out of it.However when the light of the gospel and God's love dawns on us we begin to change.John tells us that we love because He first loved us and Paul declares that 'the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us'.Paul also tells us that it is a fruit of the Spirit and that without this love,that though we give up all we have for God,it counts for nothing!

So what about the Christian and his relationship with lost humanity-what should his attitude be? Scripture is very clear throughout its pages. From Moses who prayed that God would take his life in order to spare the people of Israel to Paul who stated that he would wish that he himself were cursed in order that his fellow countrymen would be saved, it shows us that we must be prepared to put our lives on the line for the lost.Jesus was of course the perfect example when he laid down his life for us on the cross and took the punishment for our sin in order that we might go free.

I am tempted to say it is only the spiritually mature who will have this attitude-perhaps this is true, but it does not necessarily have to do with the length of years a person has been a Christian. A young Christian fully grasping the love of God in his own life might easily be prepared to lay down his life for God and the lost, whereas sadly it is often the older Christian, whose love has become lukewarm, who would rarely dare countenance such a thought.

The preacher Charles Spurgeon expresses the essence of my thoughts more eloquently that I in the follow paragraph, and my prayer is that it would stir our hearts in prayer and action for our unsaved friends and family as well as the myriads of people that we meet throughout our lives.AK

"Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to perishing sinners and his blessed Master, will be an all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman, who cares not for the scorch or the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."

Christ's Charge to Harvest Hands

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

"Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
"Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.

"When you enter a town or village, don't insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.

"When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. If they don't welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. You can be sure that on Judgment Day they'll be mighty sorry—but it's no concern of yours now.

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

"When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.

"A student doesn't get a better desk than her teacher. A laborer doesn't make more money than his boss. Be content—pleased, even—when you, my students, my harvest hands, get the same treatment I get. If they call me, the Master, 'Dungface,' what can the workers expect?

"Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now.

"Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.

Matthew 7:1-12. A Christian’s relationships: Our attitude to ‘dogs’ and ‘Pigs’ John Stott

I believe this article is important for the church and in particular for those who are involved in any sort of evangelism.When a church or individual is involved in sharing the gospel they can very often run out of steam and give up before they have gone very far:in other words, they give up too easily.If God has opened up a door of service for us we must go through the door and serve there until the work is done or calls He us somewhere else.Think of Paul, he could easily have given up when things got difficult.Christ also tells us,when referring to one of the churches in Revelation that he stands at the door and knocks waiting -for someone to open, but we don't know if they ever did!That was Christ and the Church who should have known better-he is even more patient with those outside the church(consider how he dealt with us before we believed) and we must also show the same patience.To quote this passage as an excuse to give up on certain people when we experience a little problem is clearly wrong as Stott's commentary makes clear!Do not be weary of well doing.AK

So then the ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’ with whom we are forbidden to share the gospel pearl are not just unbelievers. They must rather be those who have had ample opportunity to hear and receive the good news, but have decisively - even defiantly - rejected it. ‘It ought to be understood’, Calvin wisely continued, ‘that *dogs* and *swine* are names given not to every kind of debauched men, or to those who are destitute of the fear of God and of true godliness, but to those, who by clear evidences, have manifested a hardened contempt of God, so that their disease appears to be incurable’. Chrysostom uses a similar expression, for he identifies the ‘dogs’ as people ‘living in incurable ungodliness’, and in our day Professor Jeremias has defined then as ‘those who have wholly abandoned themselves to vicious courses’.
The fact is that to persist beyond a certain point in offering the gospel to such people is to invite its rejection with contempt and even blasphemy. Jesus applied the same principle to the ministry of the twelve when he gave them his charge before sending them out on their first mission. He warned them that in every town and house they entered, although some people would be receptive or ‘worthy’, others would be unreceptive or ‘unworthy’. ‘If anyone will not receive you or listen to your words’, he went on, ‘shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town’ (Mt.10:14 = Lk.10:10, 11).
The apostle Paul also followed this principle in his mission work. On his first expedition he and Barnabas said to the Jews who ‘contradicted’ their preaching in Pisidian Antioch: ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.’ And when the Jews incited the city leaders to drive them out, ‘they shook off the dust from their feet against them’ and went on to Iconium. (Acts 13:44-51). Much the same happened in Corinth on the second missionary journey. When the Jews opposed and reviled him, Paul ‘shook out his garments’ and said to them: ‘Your blood be upon your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles’ (Acts 18:5,6). For the third time Paul reacted in the same way when in Rome the Jewish leaders rejected the gospel. ‘Let it known to you then’, he said, ‘that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen. (Acts. 28:17-28).
Our Christian witness and evangelical preaching are not to be entirely indiscriminate, therefore. If people have had plenty of opportunity to hear the truth but do not respond to it, if they stubbornly turn their backs on Christ, if (in other words) they cast themselves in the role of ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’, we are not to go on and on with them, for then we cheapen God’s gospel by letting them trample it under foot. Can anything be more depraved than to mistake God’s precious pearl for a thing of no worth and actually to tread it into the mud? At the same time to give people up is a very serious step to take. I can think of only one or two occasions in my experience when I have felt it was right. This teaching of Jesus is for exceptional situations only; our normal Christian duty is to be patient and persevere with others, as God has patiently persevered with us.

Maelrubha: 642-722 AD

I'm thinking of Irish saints today with St Patrick's day being yesterday. This article is about Maelrubha a little known missionary and saint, but nevertheless one of my favourite heroes.I first heard about him from an old Scottish Presbyterian minister from Aberdeen called William Still who used to come over to Bangor Co.Down each year in the 1970's to preach to a group of young people.At his Swansong he said he was repaying part of the debt SCotland owed to Maelrubha.William Still was a humble man and a great preacher whose works can still be purchased and are highly recommended. Maelrubha, like Patrick and Columba before him was a fearless man and having left his native Ireland was to give his life to the preaching of the gospel in the wild and rugged highlands of Scotland. May God raise up many more men like him and bring revival and reformation to to these islands again!AK

What Colmcille and Moluag accomplished in Ancient Scotland in the sixth century, Maelrubha rivalled in the seventh with a final great flowering of the Celtic Church before the Vikings. Mealrubha was of princely Niall lineage on this father's side, and through his mother was of Comgall's race of Irish Picts. He went to the monastery Comgall had founded for his education to the priesthood. His mission at Applecross, like Moluag's was an offshoot of Bangor.

The saint's Applecross brethren ranged widely over both Pictland and Scottish Dalriada, and Maelrubha's name is recorded in place names scattered over the length and breadth of Scotland. He won great fresh extensions of the Celtic territory, all of the rugged , almost inaccessible western seaboard between Loch Carron and Loch Broom, the south and west parts of the Isle of Skye and eastern Ross. Twenty-one known parishes were dedicated to Maelrubha under such forms of his name as Maree, Mulruby, Mary, Murry, Summuruff, Summereve. For fifty years he tramped the high roads and the low roads with such a reputation for sanctity and miracles he was regarded as the patron Saint throughout all of that territory. To the north of Applecross in the long narrow scenic Loch Maree is Maelrubha's little island, Inis Maree, "the favoured isle of the saint." On it besides his oratory and a cemetery was his holy well, a spring "of power unspeakable" in cases of insanity. It was famous until very recent times for the cures obtained there. He is still invoked for mental illness in Scotland.

Scottish legend makes Maelrubha a martyr at the hands of the Norse pirates and the parish church at Urquhart is said to occupy the site of the chapel first built to mark the spot where he died. A mound outside Applecross, Cloadh Maree, is pointed out as his grave. Within a radius of six miles of this the area was accorded all rights and privileges of sanctuary.

Irish abbots continued at Applecross for a while. In 737 Failbhe, "Comharb of Maelrubha," perished with twenty-two of his religious at sea.

The annals of Ulster enter the death of 'MacOigi of Aporcrossan" in 801. Memory of Maelrubha seems to have survived a long time. In the time of clan warfare, when one of the MacDonald partisans in the feud with the MacKinsies in the seventeenth century was told it was a sacrilege to kill a MacKinsie within Maelrubha's sanctuary, MacDonald replied it was no sin to kill a MacKinsie wherever they might be found.

The Prodigal Daughter

This is a great short story by Philip Yancey: like Jesus' 'prodigal son' it not only speaks of those who have physically left home and wasted their lives, but in a sense it is what we have ALL done spiritually.As in the parable of Jesus the ending portrays God's great love for the returning child.AK

“A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old-fashioned, tend to over-react to her nose ring, the music she listens to, and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. ‘I hate you!’ she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.

She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail the gangs, the drugs, and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.

Her second day there she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, arranges a place for her to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better than she’s ever felt before. She was right all along, she decides: her parents were keeping her from all the fun.

The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car –she calls him ‘Boss’– teaches her a few things that men like. Since she’s underage, men pay a premium for her. She lives in a penthouse, and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.

She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline “Have you seen this child?” But by now she has blond hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.

After a year the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. “These days, we can’t mess around,” he growls, and before she knows it she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, but they don’t pay much, and all the money goes to support her habit. When winter blows in she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores. “Sleeping” is the wrong word – a teenage girl at night in downtown Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens.

One night as she lies awake listening for footsteps, all of a sudden everything about her life looks different. She no longer feels like a woman of the world. She feels like a little girl, lost in a cold and frightening city. She begins to whimper. Her pockets are empty and she’s hungry. She needs a fix. She pulls her legs tight underneath her and shivers under the newspapers she’s piled atop her coat. Something jolts a synapse of memory and a single image fills her mind: of May in Traverse City, when a million cherry trees bloom at once, with her golden retriever dashing through the rows and rows of blossomy trees in chase of a tennis ball.

God, why did I leave, she says to herself, and pain stabs at her heart. My dog back home eats better than I do now. She’s sobbing, and she knows in a flash that more than anything else in the world she wants to go home.

Three straight phone calls, three straight connections with the answering machine. She hangs up without leaving a message the first two times, but the third time she says, “Dad, Mom, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, well, I guess I’ll just stay on the bus until it hits Canada.”

It takes about seven hours for a bus to make all the stops between Detroit and Traverse City, and during that time she realizes the flaws in her plan. What if her parents are out of town and miss the message? Shouldn’t she have waited another day or so until she could talk to them? And even if they are home, they probably wrote her off as dead long ago. She should have given them some time to overcome the shock.

Her thoughts bounce back and forth between those worries and the speech she is preparing for her father. “Dad, I’m sorry. I know I was wrong. It’s not your fault; it’s all mine. Dad, can you forgive me?” She says the words over and over, her throat tightening even as she rehearses them. She hasn’t apologized to anyone in years.

The bus has been driving with lights on since Bay City. Tiny snowflakes hit the pavement rubbed worn by thousands of tires, and the asphalt steams. She’s forgotten how dark it gets at night out here. A deer darts across the road and the bus swerves. Every so often, a billboard. A sign posting the mileage to Traverse City Oh, God.

When the bus finally rolls into the station, its air brakes hissing in protest, the driver announces in a crackly voice over the microphone, “Fifteen minutes, folks. That’s all we have here.” Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She checks herself in a compact mirror, smooths her hair, and licks the lipstick off her teeth. She looks at the tobacco stains on her fingertips, and wonders if her parents will notice. If they’re there.

She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. Not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There, in the concrete-walls-and-plastic-chairs bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads “Welcome home!”

Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes like hot mercury and begins the memorized speech, “Dad, I’m sorry. I know…”

He interrupts her. ‘Hush child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. You’ll be late for the party. A banquet’s waiting for you at home.’”

Non-Christian religions-Is there any hope for those who are in them? John Stott

Non-Christian religions
What, then, about those ignorant of the gospel? Are we to
say that they are ignorant of God altogether, including
those who adhere to non-Christian religions? No. *We
recognize that all men have some knowledge of God.* This
universal (though partial) knowledge is due to his self-
revelation, what theologians call either *his general
revelation* because it is made to all men, or his 'natural'
revelation because it is made *in nature*, both externally
in the universe and internally in the human conscience.
Such knowledge of God is not saving knowledge, however.
*We deny that this can save*, partly because it is a
revelation of God's power, deity and holiness but not of
his love for sinners or of his plan of salvation, and
partly because men do not live up to the knowledge they
have.

What do you think?

When 'The Man' comes around :Johnny Cash

This is an awesome song and video. It speaks of God's judgement when 'the man comes around'. I take 'the man' referred to here as being the same that both Daniel in the O.T. and Jesus in the gospels refers to as the 'Son Of Man':

But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

The 'Son of Man',the Judge, is of course 'the Christ' or 'Messiah' himself who will come one day, sooner or later, to judge the world in righteousness. We should therefore be wise to heed the words of the ancient prophet who warns:'prepare to meet your God'.

The Cause-Driven Church-What does a healthy church look like? by Erwin Raphael McManus

The early church existed with a dynamic tension: it was both expanding and consolidating - growing and unifying. The Bible tells us that first century believers “shared everything in common” and that “the church was being added to day by day.” We want our church to live in this same tension.

This tension is illustrated by two biblical images - the body of Christ and the army of God. The body of Christ is centered on community; the army of God is centered on cause.

Healthy community flows out of a unified cause - not the other way around. Jesus called his disciples and said, “Follow me. I’ll make you fishers of men.” This was not an offer of community. “Follow me and I will give you something worthy of giving your life to” is a statement of cause. But the neat thing is, when they came to the cause, they found community like they never knew could exist. That’s the power of the church.

One danger of the American church is that we often try to offer people community without cause. Without cause, you’re just another civic organization. You don’t have life transformation.

Jesus said, “I have come to the world to seek and to save that which is lost.” The cause of Christ is accomplished by expanding the kingdom of God.

Communicating the gospel in a postmodern context can make us feel forced to compete with the entertainment industry. You might be able to compete if you have millions of dollars and that level of expertise. Most of us don’t. We have only one advantage that neither Hollywood nor MTV has. We have the presence and power of the living God!

Why in the world would we eliminate God’s power from our core strategy and actually move to a deficit rather than to an advantage

Apostles To The People By Hugh T. Kerr

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960)

"The message of these expansive evangelists was simple and direct. Christian faith, they all agreed, whatever its personal rewards in terms of religious assurance, also promised education, health, and social progress to all sorts of deprived and oppressed peoples. In our less romantic age, we may smile at this simplistic creed, sugar-coated with token benefits, thinly hiding a political and economic policy of western imperialism…. But it would be futile to impugn the motives of these apostles to the people. Their record of astonishing achievements is available for all to examine."

AN epic chapter in modern Christian history is waiting to be assembled from the biographies of a dozen extraordinary pioneers of fifty to seventy-five years ago. From the turn of the century, 1900, to about 1925 and a little later, a steady succession of unusual emissaries provided spectacular Christian witness to untold numbers of people in many parts of the world.

E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973)


We are not talking about that enormous cloud of witnesses, men and women, young and old, of every country and denomination, who girdled the globe about the same time as representatives of the great foreign missionary movement sponsored by so many churches. Their names, and their faithfulness and endurance, are written in the book of life. That, too, is a chapter that needs re-writing for our day.

We are thinking, rather, of a special group of about a dozen who were distinguished not only for their mass evangelism but more especially for what might be called their benevolent philanthropy. Here is a partial roll-call:

James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (1875-1927)
General Evangeline Booth (1865-1939)
G. Sherwood Eddy (1871-1963)
Sir Wilfred Grenfell (1865-1940)
Sam Higginbottom (1874-1958)
Sheldon Jackson (1834-1909)
E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973)
Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960)
Frank Laubach (1884-1970)
John R. Mott (1865-1955)
Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1933)
Robert E. Speer (1867-1947).

I

The message of these expansive evangelists was simple and direct. Christian faith, they all agreed, whatever its personal rewards in terms of religious assurance, also promised education, health, and social progress to all sorts of deprived and oppressed peoples. In our less romantic age, we may smile at this simplistic creed, sugar-coated with token benefits, thinly hiding a political and economic policy of western imperialism. Well, that may be part of the story, and the debunking of the foreign missionary enterprise has gone on apace in recent years. But it would be futile to impugn the motives of these apostles to the people. Their record of astonishing achievements is available for all to examine.

Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1933)


Though active just the day-before-yesterday, these extraordinary humanitarians are almost forgotten in our day. Often self-appointed and fiercely independent, these ambassadors to the poor, the oppressed, and the derelicts of society were untiring in their life-long witness that Christian faith uplifts, enlightens, heals, and empowers all who accept the message of Good News. Well-known in their own times, they should not be forgotten in our time, for they still stand as models of excellence especially in an age such as ours that belittles selfless service, mass evangelism, and ambitious programs of social betterment for marginal people.

What distinguishes this particular group from other mass evangelists of yesterday or today was their social and humanitarian conviction that Christian faith could make a real difference for multitudes of people in their quality of life. So they organized schools and colleges, they taught the illiterate to read and write, they provided health and medical facilities, they fed the undernourished, they combatted epidemic disease, they introduced new farming and agricultural techniques, they gave outcasts a caring community, and-most of all-they held out hope to the hopeless.

In many instances they were the only ones devising such programs. No one else was doing it, not government, not university education, not the free-thinkers or agnostics, not the humanists or artists, not the scientists or political theorists. The humanitarian movement of 1900-1925 was inspired by specific Christian principles, naive and guileless perhaps, but conceived and carried out on a grand scale.

Today our mass evangelists, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Rev. Ike, Sun Myung Moon, are mostly interested in preaching their brand of the faith, soliciting decisions and contributions from the churched and the unchurched. They are primarily concerned with personal religious experience, not social or humanitarian programs for the poor and the indigent of society. Some are interested in education and faith healing, and all would doubtless say they offered their hearers a chance for a better life.

Frank Laubach (1884-1970)
But the evangelists of the first quarter of the twentieth century, the ones we're talking about, seemed to reverse the expected sequence. They didn't usually ask people to accept Jesus Christ so they could receive promised educational or medical dividends. They appeared to be genuinely interested in helping people who needed help. It is true they also preached the gospel, made converts, and based their social programs squarely on their Christian faith. But unlike Billy Graham, for example, who says he is so busy winning souls for Christ that he has no time or inclination for social witness, these earlier mass missionaries were humanitarians first and evangelists second. Or, they probably would have preferred to say, their understanding of evangelism included social witness whether anyone was converted or not.

Hugh T. Kerr is Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Editor of THEOLOGY TODAY'

For the rest of this thoughtful and perhaps controversial( especially in regard to his critism of Billy Graham) essay go to http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1978/v35-1-article4.htm

John Wesley's Spiritual Journey

Wesley's Conversion
John Wesley was almost in despair. He did not have the faith to continue to preach. When death stared him in the face, he was fearful and found little comfort in his religion. To Peter Böhler, a Moravian friend, he confessed his growing misery and decision to give up the ministry. Böhler counseled otherwise. "Preach faith till you have it," he advised. "And then because you have it, you will preach faith." A wise Catholic once made a similar statement: "Act as if you have faith and it will be granted to you."

John acted on the advice. He led a prisoner to Christ by preaching faith in Christ alone for forgiveness of sins. The prisoner was immediately converted. John was astonished. He had been struggling for years. Here was a man transformed instantly. John made a study of the New Testament and found to his astonishment that the longest recorded delay in salvation was three days--while the apostle Paul waited for his eyes to open.

The Moravians assured him their personal experiences had also been instantaneous. John found himself crying out, "Lord, help my unbelief!" However, he felt dull within and little motivated even to pray for his own salvation. On this day, May 24th, 1738 he opened his Bible at about five in the morning and came across these words, "There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye should partakers of the divine nature." He read similar words in other places.

That evening he reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 p.m.

"while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

It took him some time to learn how to live the life of faith, for he was not always possessed of joy and thought he had fallen from salvation. It took time for him to see that it is not Christ and good works, but Christ alone who saves, resulting in good works.

As time went on, John Wesley was mightily used of the Lord to reform England. His Methodists became a national force. John rode thousands of miles (as many as 20,000 a year) preaching as only a man filled with the Holy Spirit can preach, telling the gospel to all who would listen. He acted "as though he were out of breath in pursuit of souls." Wherever he preached, lives changed and manners and morals altered for the better. It is often conjectured that his preaching helped spare England the kind of revolution that occurred in France.

The Call to Evangelize :John Stott

John Stott is both a theologian and an evangelist. I only started reading his books about fifteen years ago but since that time I have made it my aim to collect all that he has written. Today being in his eighties, he is now retired from ministry and suffers from ill health. Like St Paul of old, his background could easily have given him a great sense of superiority : he comes from an upper middle class family( his father Sir Arnold Stott was a Harley Street doctor), he has a top Cambridge degree and for the last 40 years has exercised a world famous ministry(it was Dr Stott who penned much of the Lausanne Covenant). Yet despite this he is one of the most humble people I have had the pleasure of meeting.He also never married, becoming, in the words of Jesus, 'a Eunuch for the kingdom', devoting his time to spreading the gospel through teaching and evangelism.His passion for Christ and the lost have been a great inspiration to many thousands of people including myself and I would therefore thoroughly recommend all his writings to you. Here I have included a few of his thoughts on evangelism which I hope you will be helpful.AK

'No-one can ...'

It is grievously mistaken to suggest that the purpose of
evangelism is to cajole sinners into doing what they can
perfectly well do if only they put their minds to it and
pull themselves together. This the Bible emphatically
denies.

Consider these two statements: 'No one can say
"Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit' (1 Cor. 12:3).
'No one can come to me unless the Father ... draws him'
(Jn. 6:44). We need to hear much more in the church of
this 'no-one can', this natural inability of men to believe
in Christ or to come to Christ. Only the Spirit can reveal
Christ to men; only the Father can draw men to Christ. And
without this double work of the Father and the Spirit no-
one can reach the Son.

It is quite true that Jesus also
said 'you are not willing to come to me that you may have
life' (Jn. 5:40, lit.), and that the human mind finds it
impossible neatly to resolve the tension between this
'cannot' and this 'will not'. But both are true, and man's
refusal to come does not cancel out his inability without
grace to do so.

The chief evangelist

Now who is to be the messenger?
The first and fundamental answer to this question is 'God
himself'. The gospel is God's gospel. He conceived it.
He gave it its content. He publishes it. The fact that he
has committed to us both 'the ministry of reconciliation'
and 'the message of reconciliation' (1 Cor. 5:18-19) does
not alter this. He acted 'through Christ' to achieve the
reconciliation and now acts 'through us' to announce it.
But he still remains himself both reconciler and preacher.
He has used other and more exalted agencies through whom
to publish salvation before partially delegating the work
to the church. Apart from Old Testament prophets, the
first herald of the gospel was an angel, and the first
announcement of it was accompanied by a display of the
glory of the Lord and greeted by the worship of the
heavenly host.
Next, God sent his Son, who was himself both the
messenger and the message. For God sent a 'word ... to
Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ' (Acts
10:36). So Jesus not only 'made peace' between God and
man, Jew and Gentile, but also 'preached peace' (Eph. 2:14-
17). He went about Palestine announcing the good news of
the kingdom.
Next, God sent his Spirit to bear witness to Christ. So
the Father himself witnesses to the Son through the Spirit.
And only now does he give the church a privileged share in
the testimony: 'and you also will bear witness' (Jn.
15:27, lit.)
It is essential to remember these humbling truths. The
chief evangelist is God the Father, and he proclaimed the
evangel through his angel, his Son and his Spirit before he
entrusted any part of the task to men. This was the order.
The church comes at the bottom of the list. And the
church's witness will always be subordinate to the
Spirit's.

--From "Our Guilty Silence"

The consent of the mind

Evangelistic preaching has too often consisted of a
prolonged appeal for decision when the congregation have
been given no substance upon which the decision is to be
made. But the gospel is not fundamentally an invitation to
men to do anything. It is a declaration of what God has
done in Christ on the cross for their salvation. The
invitation cannot properly be given before the declaration
has been made. Men must grasp the truth before they are
asked to respond to it. It is true that man's intellect is
finite and fallen, but he must never be asked to murder it.
If he comes to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, it
must be with the full consent of his mind. Much of the
leakage of converts after evangelistic campaigns is due to
the evangelist's disregard of this. If it be said that we
cannot consider man's mind in our evangelistic preaching
because it is darkened, I can only reply that the apostles
were of a different opinion.

--From "The Preacher's Portrait"

Paul the persuader

Paul's presentation of the gospel was serious, well
reasoned and persuasive. Because he believed the gospel to
be true, he was not afraid to engage the minds of his
hearers. He did not simply proclaim his message in a 'take
it or leave it' fashion; instead, he marshalled arguments
to support and demonstrate his case. He was seeking to
convince in order to convert, and in fact, as Luke makes
plain, many were 'persuaded'. Luke indicates, moreover,
that this was Paul's method even in Corinth. What he
renounced in Corinth (see 1 Cor. 1 - 2) was the wisdom of
the world, not the wisdom of God, and the rhetoric of
Greeks, not the use of arguments. Arguments of course are
no substitute for the work of the Holy Spirit. But then
trust in the Holy Spirit is no substitute for arguments
either. We must never set them over against each other as
alternatives. No, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth,
and he brings people to faith in Jesus not in spite of the
evidence, but because of the evidence, when he opens their
minds to attend to it.

--From "The Message of Acts"


John Stott preaching in his mid eighties.

'A Portrait of An Authentic Evangelist as an old(er) man':Micky Walker an American street evangelist living in Dublin

When I go down to Dublin I always like to visit the statue of James Joyce(who was made famous by his novel: 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'),on North Earl Street, off O'Connell street(near the giant spire).It is here I usually see my friend Micky Walker preaching the good news aided by his use of a Sketch Board. Micky has been doing this for many years and many of those who have come to faith in Dublin through his simple message have also learnt the art of 'Sketch board evangelism', and are now part of his ministry of helpers here in Dublin or elsewhere.As regards 'sketch boarding'as an art he describes it as: 'far from good but good from far!'

It is interesting that every time I go down there, there is usually a new 'preacher' on the block and sometimes they are nearly as old as him. This is surely the way that both Jesus and Paul did it,investing their lives in others in order that they in turn could pass on both the message of the gospel and the life of Christ to others.As D.L. Moody once wrote: “I’d rather get ten men to do the job than to do the job of ten men.” Through producing disciples by this method the work is thus multiplied and hopefully no one gets burnt out!

Micky also follows in a long line of evangelists such as George Verwer and Walter Burrell who have led many to Christ who have also become evangelists. Though this interview took place some ten years ago Micky can still be seen at the same street (as witnessed yesterday), preaching that ever ancient but ever new message of God's remedy for a lost humanity! Micky like the authentic prophets of old is not embarrassed to use words such as sin,death and hell-yet he does it with grace, compassion and a winsomeness that draws many 'sin sick souls' to the Master for healing.He is not what some would call a 'hell fire preacher' yet it could always be said of him that he preaches the gospel truth.So if you are down in Dublin, do pay him a visit, and say hello from me.

ANDY PLAYS MOZART IN SHAWSHANK

This my favorite clip from the classic film 'Shawshank Redemption'. Andy discovers a record of Mozart and playing it causes his spirit to soar out of the confines of the prison he's in. He also can not keep it to himself, but must share this sublime music with the other prisoners,and in doing so, sets them free for a few short moments. This is of course in direct defiance of the powers that be, who try to stop him, and so continue to oppress the prisoners, keeping them in a state of hopelessness. The authorities of course are not truly free themselves, nor do they appreciate the sublime quality of the music.

This reminded me of how Peter and John, having been so captivated by God's Spirit, were prepared to risk punishment, even death, for sharing with others the hope that they had in Christ - saying to the authorities who forbade them: 'Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.' So it was with Andy in prison, who felt the price of this freedom was worth the punishment he was to receive for both listening to it, as well as sharing it with the others- for the authorities could not ultimately take it away from him.

Quotes from the film

Red: I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

Andy: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget. Forget that there are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. That there's a - there's a - there's something inside that's yours, that they can't touch.


Andy: That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you.

Who was John Sung?

In answer to this question, John Sung was the greatest evangelist in China, some say the world, in the twentieth century. As a teenager I read several books by and about the great chinese Christian leaders among them were Wang Ming Dao, Watchman Nee, David Yang and John Sung.One book that springs to mind at the time was 'Three of China's mighty men' by Leslie Lyall which gave a short biography of the first three mentioned, but I never did read his biography of John Sung :'Flame for God in the Far East'. As you will see from this recent talk which I pasted below, John Sung was a tremendously passionate as well as interesting character.He was to die at the relatively young age of 42.I hope you will enjoy reading article and that it will encourage you to find out more about these great Christians who can still inspire us today.Many of them died in prison for their faith, and it was through their sacrifice that has resulted in such a large and vibrant church in China today. It also has modern day relevance in that the liberalism faced by the evangelical church a hundred years ago is now ago very much on the agenda seen in the current debates with some streams of the 'emerging church' over the virgin birth, the divinity of Christ,authority of Scripture,Christ being the only way etc. Be encouraged.AK
THE REAL CONVERSION OF DR. JOHN SUNG by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr.

A sermon preached at the Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles
Saturday Evening, June 6, 2009

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

June 4, 2009 marked the twentieth anniversary of the “Tiananmen Square Massacre.” For six weeks in 1989, thousands of Chinese, mostly students, peacefully demonstrated against the Communist government, calling for more freedom of thought. Then, in the early hours of June 4, the government’s army opened fire on thousands of unarmed demonstrators, killing unnumbered thousands and leaving thousands more injured. Hong Yujian watched the violence unfolding in Beijing on television as an exchange student at the University of Pennsylvania. He said that the Tiananmen Square Massacre made him question his hope in science and democracy and led to him becoming a Christian.

He says the massacre at Tiananmen helped him and others see their own sin and need for Christ: “I think God used it to pave the way and prepare the heart of the Chinese people” (World Magazine, June 6, 2009, p. 38).

World Magazine says,

The growth rate of Christianity in China has exploded over the past 20 years. Experts cite rapid urbanization and a growing number of influential thinkers embracing Christ. OMF International (formerly China Inland Mission) estimates there are some 70 million Christians in China. The group says Protestant Christians in China numbered less than 1 million in 1949 [when the Communist government took over] (ibid.).

Dr. C. L. Cagan, a statistician, estimates that there are now about 700 conversions to Christianity every hour, 24 hours a day, in China.

The history of Christianity in China ought to be extremely interesting to Christians everywhere. The modern missionary movement in China can be said to have begun with Robert Morrison (1782-1834). Morrison was sent to China by the London Missionary Society in 1807. Aided by his colleague, William Milne, he translated the entire Bible into Chinese by 1821. During his 27 years in China only a few Chinese were baptized – yet all of them remained faithful Christians. Morrison’s Chinese translation of the Bible, and printing of gospel literature, became the foundation of evangelical Christianity in China.

In 1853 an English medical doctor, James Hudson Taylor, sailed for China. In 1860 he founded the China Inland Mission, now known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. Taylor’s associates eventually spread throughout the whole interior of China. Hudson Taylor died in Changsha in 1905.

In 1901 John Sung was born. He became known as the greatest evangelist in the history of China. Thousands of those who were converted under his preaching remained faithful to Christ after the Communists took over in 1949. In the last 60 years the number of Christians in China has exploded in the greatest revival of Christianity in modern history. Tonight I am going to tell you the remarkable story of Dr. John Sung. I will begin by giving an outline of his life from Dr. Elgin S. Moyer.

John Sung (1901-1944), nationally famous Chinese evangelist; born in Hinghwa, Fukien, China; son of a Methodist pastor. Confessed Christ about age nine [?]. Brilliant student; studied at Wesleyan University, Ohio State University, and Union Theological Seminary. Received Ph.D. in chemistry. Returned to China to preach the Gospel rather than teach science. Spent fifteen years in evangelistic preaching throughout China and surrounding countries with unique power and influence (Elgin S. Moyer, Ph.D., Who Was Who in Church History, Moody Press, 1968 edition, p. 394).

Now that is just a brief sketch of John Sung’s life. Going back in more detail, I do not believe he was converted at the age of nine. I do not believe he was converted until February, 1927.

John Sung himself believed that he was not converted until he went through a spiritual crisis in America many years later. When he was nine years old a revival occurred in Hinghwa. Within a month there were about 3,000 professions. On Good Friday morning he heard a sermon on “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.” The preacher contrasted the sleeping Disciples with the fearlessness of Jesus. Many people wept with grief at the end of the sermon. Among the mourners was John Sung, the nine-year-old son of the Methodist preacher. It seems to me that John Sung “dedicated” his life to Christ but was not truly converted at this time. Like my former pastor, Dr. Timothy Lin (whose father was also a preacher), John Sung began to preach and help his father by the age of thirteen. But, also like Dr. Lin, he had not yet experienced real conversion. He was a diligent student and finished high school at the top of his class. During this time he became known as the “little pastor.” But in spite of all his zeal and activity his heart was not completely satisfied. The work he was doing in ministry he described as “spectacular as the blue of a kingfisher’s feather, abundant as summer foliage, but without a single plucking of fresh fruit to offer to the Lord Jesus” (Leslie T. Lyall, A Biography of John Sung, China Inland Mission, 1965 edition, p. 15).

In 1919, Sung, now 18 years old, decided to go to America, and was accepted at Ohio Wesleyan University with free tuition. He began a pre-medical and pre-theological curriculum, but dropped the pre-theological courses and decided to specialize in mathematics and chemistry. He went to church regularly and organized evangelistic bands among the students. But during his final term he began to neglect Bible study and prayer, and cheated on one of his examination papers. He graduated in 1923 cum laude, as one of four students at the head of a class of three hundred. He was awarded the gold medal and the cash prize for physics and chemistry, was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity, an exclusive society of the foremost scholars, and was given a gold key, a badge of great distinction in scholarship.

He was now offered scholarships from many universities, including Harvard. He accepted a scholarship for a Master of Science degree at Ohio State University. He finished this degree in only nine months! He was offered a scholarship to study medicine at Harvard. He was given another offer to study at a seminary. He felt he should study theology, but the fame that had come to him blunted his desire to become a minister. Instead he entered a doctoral program in chemistry at Ohio State University. He completed his Ph.D. in just twenty-one months! Thus he became the first Chinese to earn a Ph.D. He was described in the newspaper as “Ohio’s most famous student.” “But deep in his heart there was no peace. A growing spiritual unrest showed itself in periods of deep depression” (Lyall, ibid., p. 22).

During this time he came under the influence of liberal theology, and their teaching of the “social gospel.” Liberal theology teaches that Jesus is a noble example, but not the Saviour. It seems to me that John Sung thought of Jesus as a “noble example” when he was nine years old, and for that reason he had a false conversion back then. But God was still calling him. One evening as he sat alone he seemed to hear the voice of God say to him, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” FOR THE REST OF THE MESSAGE SEE THE FIRST COMMENT.

Another man who made a difference-George Verwer

If you have twenty minutes to spare, watch this. It is a video of George Verwer speaking the day after he received his honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Biola University.After the introduction you will hear George speak with great passion to the young graduates.I personally have been blessed by both his books and friendship over the years- he has never ceased to inspire me.But more than that,through the missionary organization he founded (O.M.), many thousands have been trained as evangelists with thousands more coming to know Christ through them.He was truly one man who made a massive difference.Catch his passion.

One man who made a difference-Oskar Schindler

This film clip is taken from the ending of the superb movie Schindler's list.The Allied forces have arrived in German occupied Czechoslovakia and Schindler must leave the factory, or be arrested, which he had used as a front to save his Jewish 'workers'. will be arrested. In this very emotional clip he is saying good bye to the Jews he had saved from the concentration camps,and death.He had saved about eleven hundred of them, but still he feels he could have done more.

Schindler was only one man. He was also a playboy who had become very wealthy due to the war, but by this stage, after almost a miraculous change, he had spent all his money on bribes protecting the Jews from the Nazis death camps.For this he was became a hero to the Jews for what he did. Those who were saved by him or who were part of later generations of those he had saved are known as Schindler's Jews.( See a short biography of Schindler as the first comment).

We too have only one life and each of us have the opportunity now to use it for good, today and for the rest of our lives. Let us pray each day for ourselves and others that we will be used by him:'Let your Kingdom come in us, let your will be done on earth in us as it is in heaven'.Christ said to his disciples:"My food,is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." We have only one life to do this, may we be his servants in the harvest field he has assigned for us.