Showing posts with label Verwer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verwer. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 June 2009
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.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
'GOD'S SHIP' : LOGOS HOPE IN BELFAST
Yesterday morning I made my way down to the Belfast docks to have breakfast on the O.M. (Operation Mobilization)missionary ship Logos Hope.To be honest, as I was driving up towards the docks and saw the ship, my breath was taken away. Then on greeting the OM-er at the gangway I got so emotional that I was nearly in tears as I gave him a hug ;so this was the great ship that I had heard so much about for so long: the ship that God gave George Verwer and his friends to bring Christ to the world!
The Logos Hope is funded by Christians throughout the world and at the moment the crew consists of Christians from 45 nationalities. The morning I spent there was a great blessing as I talked to the missionaries, listening to their stories about how God has used them to change the lives of those who are without hope, and also of course, buying a few books on their great bookshop(it is in fact is the largest floating bookshop in the world!)
If you are in Belfast this week,or hear that the Logos is in a Port near you in the future, please take the opportunity to pay them a visit and learn how they seek to bring hope to a world in pain and need.Below I have listed their three main purposes which was taken directly from their website.AK
THEIR PURPOSE-BRINGING KNOWLEDGE,HELP & HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
1.BRINGING KNOWLEDGE
Logos Hope visits port cities throughout the world, supplying vital literature resources, encouraging inter-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, promoting greater global awareness, providing practical aid and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity.Aid and relief work, is an expression of God's love and concern for needy people. In terms of Logos Hope’s future destinations, this will include providing medical aid, construction projects, major donations of literature, as well as spontaneous gifts of food and clothing.
2.BRINGING HELP
Aid and relief work, is an expression of God's love and concern for needy people. In terms of Logos Hope’s future destinations, this will include providing medical aid, construction projects, major donations of literature, as well as spontaneous gifts of food and clothing.
Ship’s personnel will also be donating textbooks and reference volumes to schools, libraries, colleges and universities, distributing medical or food supplies, renovating clinics and orphanages, and assisting in the construction of schools and church buildings.
3.BRINGING HOPE
The Logos Hope community lives and works together on board as a practical outworking of their service for God. In today’s troubled world this example of harmony and unity among international diversity, is a powerful witness.
Each crew member has a personal, living faith in God, stemming from a restored relationship with Him, bringing hope, meaning and focus to his or her life. The ship community desires to share this message of hope in a restored relationship with God in the ports visited. This is done with greatest respect for and sensitivity towards the culture of the community hosting the ship.
Monday, 23 March 2009
'A Wretch Like Me' by George Verwer
George Verwer is probably one of the most well known missionaries around today, he is also one of the most honest.This message must have cost him a lot to bring, but it resulted in many young people, who were going through similar temptations, finding some help!George doesn't pull any punches about his own failures and encourages those who have also failed to find forgiveness and grace in Christ.
Having said that about George, I think I remember another well known missionary who once cried out that he was a 'wretched man' and later referred to himself as 'the chief of sinners'.Then man speaks about the grace of Christ and how much greater it was than sin :'where sin abounds,grace abounds all the more'-And the missionary? Of course it was St.Paul! AK
Sin is serious and incessant, but you don't have to live in defeat.
Once when I told my story at a missions conference, a woman informed me I had a demon.
Another time I told my story, and shortly afterward one of our mission ships sank. Someone wrote to me that was the judgment of God on me. (Actually, we had hoped to replace the ship; no one was hurt when it sank, and we thought of it as a blessing from God.) But I've come to expect that kind of response.
Most people don't want to hear Christian leaders admit their sins or say they still, on occasion, sin. And almost no one wants to hear a leader say he's come to terms with his sinful nature. But I have. And I say so publicly.
I wouldn't call my temptation by pornography an addiction. My exposure to it has been infrequent. I don't look at it online. I won't pay for it. And I haven't had regular access to the magazines since I was a teenager.
A neighbor prayed for me for two years, she said, and at a Billy Graham crusade at age 16, I had a powerful conversion experience. After that, I knew that the pornography had to go, and so I burned my few magazines. If it were not for my conversion, pornography could have become a terrible addiction. Still, through most of my adulthood, I was subject to awful temptations and sometimes fell.
Over the years, I can honestly say, I haven't gone looking for pornography. It comes to me. And it takes me by surprise. One time while riding to a strategic meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, I found a magazine left in the lavatory. That happened again when I was aboard an ocean liner en route to Scandinavia.
A defining moment for me occurred more than 30 years ago as I was walking in the woods outside London. From a distance I saw something hanging in the branches of a tree. It was a pornographic magazine, shot through with bullet holes. Someone had hung it there for target practice. Suddenly, I was the target.
I wish I could say I destroyed that magazine and got the victory, but the truth is, in the woods that day, that magazine made a fool out of me.
I was in the woods for quite a while after my lustful episode before I could crawl my way back to the cross and ask for forgiveness. Most of the time since then, I have been able to withstand Satan's temptations. I wish I could say that was true every time, but I'd be lying.
And, in the woods, I found a new approach to my own sinfulness: when I sin, I ask forgiveness. Time after time.
What's victory really look like?
What is victorious living for the sinner? The absence of sin? The defeat of Satan at every temptation? Going undefeated for a whole season? If that's the measure, then I fail. And, I suspect, we all fail, and we will continue to fail without relief.
In my own life, giving myself the benefit of the doubt, I estimate I successfully resist temptation maybe 95 percent of the time. But with the number of temptations we face, that's still a lot of failure!
Over the course of my 45 years as a Christian, I have failed, and not only in the area of lust. There are far worse sins than sexual failure with a magazine. In my own life, irritability and anger are greater issues. For others, it's arrogance, or condemnation, or legalism.
Victorious living, given our sinful nature, is not the absence of sin, but knowing what to do when we sin. 1 John 2:1 says, "sin not." It is John's desire that his followers will not sin. But notice the verse continues, "but if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ the righteous One."
When I sin, I am ready, quickly, to confess. And when I confess, I undercut Satan's power. Satan is the deceiver, the adversary who wants me to believe lies (either "I really haven't done anything wrong" or "I've sinned so horribly that I'm disqualified to serve the Lord").
By honest confession, my strength to battle the next temptation is bolstered by the knowledge that the Evil One has nothing with which to condemn me. Christ is my defender before the Father, and Christ says I am forgiven. Satan has nothing to say.
Since the moment of my salvation, I have never doubted God's word about his love for me. It is vital that we realize God loves us and accepts us—even when we fail. That has been life-sustaining for me. Even when rejected by people for my sins, or for telling about my sins, I have always felt God's love. I have an open invitation to return to him as soon as I am ready to admit that sin, once again, has gotten the better of me.
God's love is not a license to sin. Grace without discipline can lead to disgrace. While God can forgive my disgraces, for the Christian leader, too many disgraces and my credibility and people's ability to trust me as a leader is gone. Paul said, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize" (1 Cor. 9:27). If I had not dealt with my habit quickly and kept it in a small arena of my life, my sin would have grown to the point that I would be disqualified. It is only through the power of Christ that I am able to bring myself under subjection.
I have made myself accountable to my wife in the area of lust, and she has been an enormous source of affirmation for me. She prays for me. She listens to me. I report my occasional struggle to her and she does not condemn me. I remember telling her, now as an older man, that a quick glimpse at pornography had caused quite a stir in me physically.
"Well," she said, "at least it proves you've got something left." I can be honest with my wife, and she with me.
A sinner mentoring sinners
I have tried to be affirming for those who seek from me an accountability relationship. As creatures bent to sinning, we cannot master our sins alone. We need others who accept our sinfulness, but who will keep us from surrendering to it.
My special "mentoring" ministry began with my own public confession. I was invited to speak to the Urbana missions conference in 1967. My message was not about missions. It was about sexual sin.
That was the first time I gave my testimony in a large setting. Some were upset that I spoke so bluntly, but I told those young people that they, like me, needed to repent of sexual immorality. Some 4,000 stood up at the invitation, many weeping with repentance.
FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE READ THE FIRST COMMENT
Having said that about George, I think I remember another well known missionary who once cried out that he was a 'wretched man' and later referred to himself as 'the chief of sinners'.Then man speaks about the grace of Christ and how much greater it was than sin :'where sin abounds,grace abounds all the more'-And the missionary? Of course it was St.Paul! AK
Sin is serious and incessant, but you don't have to live in defeat.
Once when I told my story at a missions conference, a woman informed me I had a demon.
Another time I told my story, and shortly afterward one of our mission ships sank. Someone wrote to me that was the judgment of God on me. (Actually, we had hoped to replace the ship; no one was hurt when it sank, and we thought of it as a blessing from God.) But I've come to expect that kind of response.
Most people don't want to hear Christian leaders admit their sins or say they still, on occasion, sin. And almost no one wants to hear a leader say he's come to terms with his sinful nature. But I have. And I say so publicly.
I wouldn't call my temptation by pornography an addiction. My exposure to it has been infrequent. I don't look at it online. I won't pay for it. And I haven't had regular access to the magazines since I was a teenager.
A neighbor prayed for me for two years, she said, and at a Billy Graham crusade at age 16, I had a powerful conversion experience. After that, I knew that the pornography had to go, and so I burned my few magazines. If it were not for my conversion, pornography could have become a terrible addiction. Still, through most of my adulthood, I was subject to awful temptations and sometimes fell.
Over the years, I can honestly say, I haven't gone looking for pornography. It comes to me. And it takes me by surprise. One time while riding to a strategic meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, I found a magazine left in the lavatory. That happened again when I was aboard an ocean liner en route to Scandinavia.
A defining moment for me occurred more than 30 years ago as I was walking in the woods outside London. From a distance I saw something hanging in the branches of a tree. It was a pornographic magazine, shot through with bullet holes. Someone had hung it there for target practice. Suddenly, I was the target.
I wish I could say I destroyed that magazine and got the victory, but the truth is, in the woods that day, that magazine made a fool out of me.
I was in the woods for quite a while after my lustful episode before I could crawl my way back to the cross and ask for forgiveness. Most of the time since then, I have been able to withstand Satan's temptations. I wish I could say that was true every time, but I'd be lying.
And, in the woods, I found a new approach to my own sinfulness: when I sin, I ask forgiveness. Time after time.
What's victory really look like?
What is victorious living for the sinner? The absence of sin? The defeat of Satan at every temptation? Going undefeated for a whole season? If that's the measure, then I fail. And, I suspect, we all fail, and we will continue to fail without relief.
In my own life, giving myself the benefit of the doubt, I estimate I successfully resist temptation maybe 95 percent of the time. But with the number of temptations we face, that's still a lot of failure!
Over the course of my 45 years as a Christian, I have failed, and not only in the area of lust. There are far worse sins than sexual failure with a magazine. In my own life, irritability and anger are greater issues. For others, it's arrogance, or condemnation, or legalism.
Victorious living, given our sinful nature, is not the absence of sin, but knowing what to do when we sin. 1 John 2:1 says, "sin not." It is John's desire that his followers will not sin. But notice the verse continues, "but if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ the righteous One."
When I sin, I am ready, quickly, to confess. And when I confess, I undercut Satan's power. Satan is the deceiver, the adversary who wants me to believe lies (either "I really haven't done anything wrong" or "I've sinned so horribly that I'm disqualified to serve the Lord").
By honest confession, my strength to battle the next temptation is bolstered by the knowledge that the Evil One has nothing with which to condemn me. Christ is my defender before the Father, and Christ says I am forgiven. Satan has nothing to say.
Since the moment of my salvation, I have never doubted God's word about his love for me. It is vital that we realize God loves us and accepts us—even when we fail. That has been life-sustaining for me. Even when rejected by people for my sins, or for telling about my sins, I have always felt God's love. I have an open invitation to return to him as soon as I am ready to admit that sin, once again, has gotten the better of me.
God's love is not a license to sin. Grace without discipline can lead to disgrace. While God can forgive my disgraces, for the Christian leader, too many disgraces and my credibility and people's ability to trust me as a leader is gone. Paul said, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize" (1 Cor. 9:27). If I had not dealt with my habit quickly and kept it in a small arena of my life, my sin would have grown to the point that I would be disqualified. It is only through the power of Christ that I am able to bring myself under subjection.
I have made myself accountable to my wife in the area of lust, and she has been an enormous source of affirmation for me. She prays for me. She listens to me. I report my occasional struggle to her and she does not condemn me. I remember telling her, now as an older man, that a quick glimpse at pornography had caused quite a stir in me physically.
"Well," she said, "at least it proves you've got something left." I can be honest with my wife, and she with me.
A sinner mentoring sinners
I have tried to be affirming for those who seek from me an accountability relationship. As creatures bent to sinning, we cannot master our sins alone. We need others who accept our sinfulness, but who will keep us from surrendering to it.
My special "mentoring" ministry began with my own public confession. I was invited to speak to the Urbana missions conference in 1967. My message was not about missions. It was about sexual sin.
That was the first time I gave my testimony in a large setting. Some were upset that I spoke so bluntly, but I told those young people that they, like me, needed to repent of sexual immorality. Some 4,000 stood up at the invitation, many weeping with repentance.
FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE READ THE FIRST COMMENT
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Embracing The Pain-A personal letter from George Verwer
Continuing on the theme of suffering and trial, I decided to 'post' a letter from George Verwer which I only discovered on his website tonight. George also encourages people to send it to their friends.Certainly Christians and non-Christians are hurting and have often been hurt by friends or family and even those from their Church. Sometimes the pain goes very deep, especially if they have been 'wounded in the house of their friends'.Christ himself was not exempt from this. He was not only betrayed by Judas but also saw his closest friends run away durin the time of his greatest need.
It is a sad fact that Christians will sometimes take their hurt and resentment to the grave. Though it is hard to do, the Master tells us we must forgive those who have sinned against us.If we do forgive, we can then by his grace, be released from the bondage of resentment and bitterness that had held us in its grip.It is also a truly Christlike thing to do.
May God through His Spirit encourage us to look inside our hearts and let the Him come and minister to us.AK
I have a great burden on my heart and want to share it with as many as possible.
I am burdened for people who are really hurting in a major way. We all have hurts but there are so many who are hurting much more than others.
Often, when we want to help or minister to such people it is not possible because their hurts have created a barrier or wall and people can't get through it. Some Christians have been hurt so much by other Christians, that they will not go to church or fellowship with other believers. For them, it is all too painful.
There are many great books and passages of Scriptures that can help such people but they might not know about them or be hesitant to read them. I am reading such a book right now, Life of the Beloved by Henri JM Nouwen and it has ministered to me in a powerful way. He speaks of finding the courage to embrace our own brokenness and to make our most feared enemy into a friend, even claiming it as an intimate companion.
Shortly after reading this, I had a very painful experience with a friend who was deeply criticising one of my closest friends. It could have really upset me and ruined our time together, but instead, I embraced it as allowed by God and part of what life is all about. Great joy and peace flooded my heart and I was free. I know it doesn't always work that way and that others have hurts 100 times greater than mine, yet they are not too big for God.
How can we who are forgiven of our sins and delivered from hell, not truly forgive with all our being those who have sinned against us? We know that all sin and we teach and preach about it - so why are we surprised when people sin against us?
We all fail. We all sin. Can we not see our own sins that are so often part of the hurt and pain that we are now living with? Oh, how easy for the self-life to blame others and fail to see our part in the situation. In some cases people are blaming God and that becomes even more complex. Whole books like, Disappointed With God by Philip Yancey have been written to help deal with this.
My brothers and sisters, there is great hope for all of us. God has used us and He has a great plan for our lives in our pilgrimage to become more like Christ, which should always be our great goal!
Let us embrace the pain and hurt and allow it to make us better people for His glory.
Amen
It is a sad fact that Christians will sometimes take their hurt and resentment to the grave. Though it is hard to do, the Master tells us we must forgive those who have sinned against us.If we do forgive, we can then by his grace, be released from the bondage of resentment and bitterness that had held us in its grip.It is also a truly Christlike thing to do.
May God through His Spirit encourage us to look inside our hearts and let the Him come and minister to us.AK
I have a great burden on my heart and want to share it with as many as possible.
I am burdened for people who are really hurting in a major way. We all have hurts but there are so many who are hurting much more than others.
Often, when we want to help or minister to such people it is not possible because their hurts have created a barrier or wall and people can't get through it. Some Christians have been hurt so much by other Christians, that they will not go to church or fellowship with other believers. For them, it is all too painful.
There are many great books and passages of Scriptures that can help such people but they might not know about them or be hesitant to read them. I am reading such a book right now, Life of the Beloved by Henri JM Nouwen and it has ministered to me in a powerful way. He speaks of finding the courage to embrace our own brokenness and to make our most feared enemy into a friend, even claiming it as an intimate companion.
Shortly after reading this, I had a very painful experience with a friend who was deeply criticising one of my closest friends. It could have really upset me and ruined our time together, but instead, I embraced it as allowed by God and part of what life is all about. Great joy and peace flooded my heart and I was free. I know it doesn't always work that way and that others have hurts 100 times greater than mine, yet they are not too big for God.
How can we who are forgiven of our sins and delivered from hell, not truly forgive with all our being those who have sinned against us? We know that all sin and we teach and preach about it - so why are we surprised when people sin against us?
We all fail. We all sin. Can we not see our own sins that are so often part of the hurt and pain that we are now living with? Oh, how easy for the self-life to blame others and fail to see our part in the situation. In some cases people are blaming God and that becomes even more complex. Whole books like, Disappointed With God by Philip Yancey have been written to help deal with this.
My brothers and sisters, there is great hope for all of us. God has used us and He has a great plan for our lives in our pilgrimage to become more like Christ, which should always be our great goal!
Let us embrace the pain and hurt and allow it to make us better people for His glory.
Amen
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
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 gre
at 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
Friday, 19 January 2007
Those involved in authentic mission will sooner or later experience at least a little of the pain and suffering of Calvary
George Verwer the founder of Operation Mobilization writes:'We seem to have a strange idea of Christian service. We will buy books, travel miles to hear a speaker on blessings, pay large sums to hear a group singing the latest Christian songs- but we forget we are soldiers.’
Suffering has always been part and parcel of Christian mission. The founder of Christianity died on a cross, virtually all the apostles were put to death, and the Christians in the early church until the conversion of the Emperor Constantine were often thrown to the lions or burned at the stake for the amusement of the onlookers.
Throughout Church history it has been the same when the Church tries to reach out in an enemy environment. Jesus had warned his followers that it would be so:
‘They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict’.
I think of the hymn :
'Must I be carried to the skies on a flowery bed of ease
when others sought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas'?
The mission of Christ was certainly no ‘flowery bed of ease’. It was foretold by Isaiah that Christ would be a suffering servant ‘a man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief’ He was denied and betrayed by his friends before being beaten , tortured and then finally suffering and dying on the cross . Before his death Jesus told his disciples:
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. (John 12 .23.)
Today in many parts of the world Christians are going through terrible persecution. China, India, Sudan and Vietnam to name a few. The Marechale ( see picture below) the eldest daughter of General Booth of the Salvation Army wrote from her prison cell in the 1880’s:
'Jesus was crucified .. Ever since that day, men have tried to find an easier way, but the easier ways fail. If you are to win thousands who are without Christ, you must be ready to be crucified: your plans , your ideas , your likes and your inclinations. Things have changed , you say you have liberty now. Is there? Go and live Christ’s life, speak as he spoke, teach what he taught, denounce sin whenever you find it, and see if the enemy will not turn on you with all the fury of hell… Christ wasn’t crucified in a drawing room. He was no easy chair business… Do you shrink from being bated, misrepresented and spoken evil of ? it is time you were crucified..'At one stage in my work among among teenagers things were starting to get messy. Though we found it a testing time it was still small beer compared to those suffering in other countries. I had my tyres slashed and some of the other leaders wanted to leave. It was then that certain scriptures (like the ones below) came alive to us. I certainly hadn't needed them for quite a while.
‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance’ (James 1.2.)
'But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.'2 Cor4.7
These became food and drink for the leaders. It was then I realised that God was perhaps doing more in us than he was doing with the youth. The enemy hates what we do and will oppose it.
If things go well all the time, if we never face any opposition perhaps we are not doing the Kingdom of darkness any damage. Will we give up when things get hard? Will we take it as a sign that God isn’t in it. Paul warns the younger Timothy who was prone to timidity in 2 Timothy 4:2‘Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction’.2.Tim. 4.2
We shouldn’t be surprised when Satan tries to prevent us reaching out to the lost. He will try to cripple us with fear. He will try and make us take the easier option so we don’t have face the flack or the jibs or the gossip.
Let us take Paul encouragement to Timothy as our own.
2 Timothy 2:3‘Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.’
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