What Is Success In Evangelism?

In an age when true evangelism is considered passe or unsophisticated by its cultured despisers, may we believers never adopt such corrupt thinking.  In a retrograde culture where right is considered wrong, and God is said to be irrelevant, may we believers shine as lights in this present darkness.

     "What is success in evangelism?  Is it when the person you witness to comes to Christ?  Certainly that's what we want to happen.  But if this is success, are we failures whenever we share the gospel and people refuse to believe?  Was Jesus an "evangelistic failure" when people like the rich young ruler turned away from Him and His message?  Obviously not.  Then neither are we when we present Christ and His message and they turn away in unbelief.  We need to learn that sharing the gospel is successful evangelism.  We ought to have an obsession for souls, and tearfully plead with God to see more people converted, but conversions are the fruit that God alone can give. 
     In this regard we are like the postal service.  Success is measured by the careful an accurate delivery of the message, not by the response of the recipient.  Whenever we share the gospel (which includes the summons to repent and believe), we have succeeded.  In the truest sense, all biblical evangelism is successful evangelism, regardless of the results."

-from "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald S. Whitney, p.103.

How could Jesus be the Answer?

How could Jesus be the Answer?

After all, life is complicated. People are intertwined and connected in very sophisticated ways, and many problems that used to resolve on their own now simply multiply and grow bigger... How can Jesus be the answer? Is this merely an assertion by Christians?

Time marches on for us, and our lives are pretty short in the scheme of things. This human experience is easily understood historically by looking at politics, economics, or demographics. For many people, this is enough, and they feel “reality” is understood. But I believe we all know that there is more to life than these artificial categories of numbers and events. Just as there is a spiritual dimension to our everyday life, so there is (by necessity) as spiritual dimension to human history. It is easy to try to confine spiritual things to the realm of religion, and satisfy another “facts and figures” category. However, there are certain spiritual things that just won't fit. One of these is the phenomenon of God's revelation to us in the Bible.

Far from being an abstract muse from ancient forests, or a religious justification for previous wars, or the product of isolated groups of self-promoting clergy, the Bible emerges above human experience as something truly authored and inspired from somewhere else.

The amazing shock is how God has revealed Himself in and through history. The Bible makes it clear that God has been working all along, and remains working today to bring about the consequences of faith and doubt among us. Another amazing fact is that God spoke through people like us to bring us His message; people in circumstances often far worse than ours.

And to what does the Bible direct us? It directs us to faith in one individual, one person, the divine Son of God Jesus Christ. Christ is anticipated first and in later writings celebrated as the crux of human history. His preeminence is inescapable in the pages of God's revelation.

To deny this reality is to dive off the deep end of skepticism, and in spite of all probability to remain there. Detractors will always find excuses and temporarily convincing lines of reason. And yet the Bible exists as it is, and it says what it does, with no apology needed. God's Word points us far above the circumstances of our current despair, to salvation from God, freely available by grace through faith. If we would only read and believe.

Whatever you may be facing, ultimately Jesus is the answer.

Happy b/c of Jesus

Pastor James

Weaknesses

Weaknesses

O spirit of God,

Help my infirmities;
When I am pressed down with a load of sorrow,
perplexed and knowing not what to do,
slandered and persecuted,
made to feel the weight of the cross,
 help me, I pray thee.
If thou seest in me
any wrong thing encouraged,
any evil desire cherished,
any delight that is not thy delight,
any habit that grieves thee,
any nest of sin in my heart,
 then grant me the kiss of they forgiveness,
and teach my feet to walk the way of 
thy commandments. 
Deliver me from carking care,
 and make me a happy, holy person;
Help me to walk the separated life with
 firm and brave step,
and to wrestle successfully against weakness;
Teach me to laud, adore and magnify thee,
with the music of heaven,
And make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude 
to thee.
I do not crouch at they feet as a slave before a tyrant,
 but exult before thee as a son with a father.
Give me power to live as thy child in all my actions,
and to exercise sonship by conquering self.
Preserve me from the intoxication that comes
 of prosperity;
Sober me within I am glad with a joy that comes not from thee.
Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom,
 not asking whether the road be rough or smooth.
I request only to see the face of him I love,
 to be content with bread to eat,
 with rainment to put on,
 if I can be brought to thy house in peace.


The Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions, p.188

Samson's Challenge

In Judges 15:12 we witness one of the most disgusting circumstances in scripture.  Here the 3000 men of Judah render a predetermined verdict which they had no right to make.  It was a verdict that was a direct frontal assault on the glory of God.

They assumed that at this point in their struggle against God's enemies, the Philistine barbarians, that the issues of peace, safety, and security had centered on one person, Samson.  If Samson can finally be dealt with, then peace can be restored, the status quo can live on.

But no where in the equation is God's will considered.  When we think of the unconditional acts of provision that God has made on behalf of these 3000 men of Judah and all the children of Israel, we wonder why they wouldn't be on God's side.  After all, Samson is on God's side.  (Apparently many modern commentators/pastors don't agree, but assume Samson had "emotional problems." What do you think?)

Indeed, God was placing Samson as a judge over the people of Israel, and yet they believe they are the judges of Samson.  They evaluate his behavior, not the other way around.  They judge Samson's behavior as wrong, when in fact (even a casual reader should observe) the Philistines are wrong.  In dramatic fashion, the 3000 men of Judah bind their hero Samson and hand him over to their enemies and God's enemies, even to the point of doing the Philistine barbarian's dirty work for them.  This is disgusting by any measure.

Which side would you choose if you were there?  Again we ask, why in the world aren't these men on Samson's side?  Because they are directly disobedient to God.  They have the appearance of religion but deny it's power.  In spite of being the children of Israel, they are terrified of God's power, but they are willing to bow under the power of God's enemies.  Which would you choose?

When people want what they think is a nice enough life, and are afraid of stirring anything up, yet they believe that God's will would stir things up, which course of action do you think people will choose?

In my observation, this is why people very, very often equate their own lifestyle with the will of God.  They imagine that their particular lifestyle is the life of Christ.

Then, Christianity becomes the same as their own theological presuppositions and lifestyle. When the Bible calls their self-sufficiency into question they reject the message and kill the messenger.

See that Samson's sacrifice prefigures the sacrifice of Christ in some small way, where sinners handed over the Lamb of God so that even their sins could be taken away.  Status quo self-sufficiency that discounts the promises of God is nothing short of disobedience.  Unbelief is sin-  so don't be like the 3000 men of Judah.  Avoid Israel's mistakes.
 

Just Another Dirty Forehead

 Drive By Ash Wednesday Blessing

Be sure not to value symbolism over substance.  Ashes on the forehead without repentance in the heart is just a dirty forehead.  "I gave up chocolate for Lent." What, exactly, does that get you?  I see much popular sentiment as an extension of New Year's Resolutions: often a nice idea, with somewhat less nice follow up or commitment. 

Repentance is a turning away from sin, disobedience, or rebellion and a turning back to God.  It is an act of turning around and going in the opposite direction.  In Luke 5:32 Jesus says, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  What does He mean here?  Who are the righteous?  Why can't they repent?

The righteous in this context are those who choose symbolism over substance.  They prefer to look righteous on the outside.  They have the Law without the Spirit.

The basic fact about people is that we are sinners! 

Repentance is a "godly sorrow" for sin, specifically and generally, and personally.  This leads to a profound "substantive" reality.  This leads to a fundamental change in a person's relationship to God. 

In the preaching of the New Testament Gospel, we hear John the Baptist say in Matthew 3:2, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  But in v.8 he also says, "Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." Don't imagine that there is some other way to become righteous in God's sight, John says, by ethnicity or by culture.  Rather, one has to repent and then prove it. 

You see, the good news of salvation and repentance are inextricably linked.  Jesus preached the same way as John, as in Matthew 4:17 he says, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."  In Jesus' message we realize that repentance and faith are "two sides of the same coin."  Repentance is turning away from sin, faith is turning towards God. 

So this is it: repentance + faith = conversion = salvation. 

If you go to receive the ashes tomorrow (drive-by or otherwise!), be sure to carry the desire for true repentance with you.  That way you can have both the substance and the symbolism, and you'll end up with more than just a dirty forehead!

Recollecting Challenger

Recollecting the Challenger Tragedy

The Challenger tragedy is yet another marker in our lives that says, “Trust God.”

I served (!) my freshman year in college at the newly-minted Liberty University, home of Jerry Falwell. (Apparently I was determined in those days to go into debt for little return on the investment.) Early in the Spring semester I enjoyed sitting at the huge tables just inside the big double doors of the library (often studying for my upcoming multiple-choice tests).  I liked being able to spread out my accounting workbook and other papers. (To this day I like a large, empty horizontal surface, but I never see any.) Out in the common area of the DeMoss building there were clusters of TVs and plenty of seating.  

Suddenly someone burst into the double doors saying something about an “explosion.” The library was noisier than usual as conversations began. For some reason I was already standing up, and many of us made our way into the common area to the TVs. There I saw a replay of what had happened moments before.

All us young folk were pretty much in shock, and I remember feeling slightly sick. I also recall how I continued to think, “They might be OK.” I hoped, in some vague way, that the Challenger Astronauts, along with Christa McAuliffe, survived in a capsule or something. Surely they didn't just die. I carried this idea for hours, listening for surprising news of their rescue and condition.

A air of dread settled over us that morning, and it continued back into the top hall of Dorm 26. Anyone who had a TV in their room had it on (this may have been only the Resident Assistants) and a crowd gathered around them. As I remember it the man on the screen was Dan Rather. 

Through exposure to this event, many young people at LU learned a little more about the life we were living.  It was somewhat less than the Christian Utopian ideal we were fed there. We saw in living color that here is ultimately little control in the drive for progress fueled by risk.

There are moments that can't be gotten back. But today we ask for “do-overs.”

There are decisions that seem small that result in grave consequences. But we are often too lazy to decide at all. (If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.)  

I am reminded of this by one of the most important aspects of the Challenger tragedy; the leadership tragedy that caused the explosion.  Never forget that at least two engineers literally warned the leaders of the Shuttle Program that Challenger would blow up because it was too cold to launch and very important O rings would not be closed enough to make a critical seal.  But ultimately their expert warning wasn't heeded.  See and hear the story here:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/28/464744781/30-years-after-disaster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself

What are warnings to which we turn a deaf ear?  Who is speaking the truth in love, trying to prevent the catastrophe? 

And all of us, “unless we repent, shall all likewise perish.”

As many have noted through the decades, we can honor their sacrifice by listening.