Motivating Millennials for Mission

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‘These men who have upset the world have come here also.’ — Acts 17:6
 
How do we motivate the millennial generation to take up the challenge of world evangelization? Many define the millennial generation as those born between 1980 and 2000. In the United States, roughly 75 million millennials were born between 1980 and 1997, which is the largest living generation in American history. By 2020 millennials will make up 50% of the U.S. workforce and by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be millennials. So it does not take a rocket scientist to see the clear implications for the future of world missions. The millennial generation must ‘step up.’
 
I suggest that older people like me should find a few millennials and disciple them. Offer to spend time with them and give them a vision for the world. Challenge them with something bigger than themselves, which, of course, is what Jesus and his apostles did in equipping people for ministry. Paul told younger Timothy that he was poured out as a drink offering, which means there was nothing left. Model it for them. Let them see you burn with holy zeal for the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take them with you to evangelize.
 
To go further, motivating millennials to missions begins, as always, in the local church where the preacher is to preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5). To preach Christ crucified entails a vision for a big God, an awareness that every unbeliever is addicted to big sin, that God has provided a big Christ, and that the result of Christ’s death and resurrection is a big atonement for big sin.
 
The prevailing talk in the church today is our ‘brokenness’ or our ‘woundedness’. Have you noticed how rarely we hear preaching on sin, the eternal consequences of sin, and the need to repent of sin? The origin today of being broken or wounded is largely from the field of psychotherapy and not the Scriptures. I have known plenty of people who were sexually abused or came from fatherless homes, whom some would call broken due to their circumstances. They, however, are not necessarily broken in the Biblical sense, for they can still be prideful, rebellious, recalcitrant, and unwilling to repent of their sin, feeling justified to wallow in defeat and misery, rather than believing God can and will give them a growing victory over their sinful propensities. A Biblically broken person, however, according to Scripture, is one who has come to see that he has sinned against God, and God alone (Psalm 51:4). Brokenness has nothing to do with one’s emotional trauma from life’s hardships. David said, ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise,’ (Psalm 51:17). God looks to, shows favor to the humble and contrite of spirit, those who tremble at  his word (Isaiah 66:2).
 
Millennials need to hear preaching which stresses the utter sinfulness of sin before a holy God, who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. They need a clear, precise, and memorable declaration of Christ’s propitiating death (God poured out his wrath on his Son), his expiating death (God washed away the guilt and filth of our sin by Christ’s death at Calvary), his redeeming blood (which pays the ransom price to bring us back to God), and his reconciling death (God’s enmity toward us and ours toward him has been removed).
 
Millennials are often wandering in the wilderness of social justice, political correctness, critical theory, intersectionality, and identity politics, which are a distraction from the gospel. Have you noticed how the word missions has been replaced by missional? Historically, we have spoken of world missions or doing missions, which has always had the idea of leading with evangelism and church planting, followed by establishing Christian schools, hospitals, and other mercy ministry needs. Today, however, the buzzword is missional, which seems to connote reweaving the culture, making the world a better place, and human flourishing (a word, by the way, right out of the play book of the Frankfurt School). Being missional rarely, if ever, leads with intentional direct evangelistic work.
 
Millennials also need a challenge. They need a greater awareness of what God is doing around the world and how they might fit into that great work. One of the best ways to gain this awareness is to be exposed to the work of the gospel in developing nations of the world. Find a few millennials you can disciple and challenge them to go on an extended mission trip with some really hard core guys like PEF evangelist Ben Cohen who goes several times a year to Sudan. Or contact Bob McNabb of Launch Global who is preparing teams to target unreached people groups in the world. Or, challenge a student just graduating from college or who has not yet settled into a career to spend one year in a great missionary internship with Frontline Fellowship in Cape Town, South Africa. The training by Dr. Peter Hammond and the overland trips to various countries in Africa will stretch a person physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Urge those with whom you are working to read daily from Operation World by Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, and pray for the nations and peoples who need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
And millennials need to develop Biblical convictions on the use of their time, money, and talent. Have you ever noticed how little we hear preachers and church leaders speak of worldliness? We so seldom speak of it because we are so worldly. We are like fish in water which do not notice the water because that is all they have ever known. And parents often are no help in this regard either, reminding their children that they need to get a job which pays lots of money and can purchase the things the world offers. It seems that many parents are embarrassed if their children even entertain the notion of ‘throwing their lives away’ on the mission field. Forget the American Dream. As the great missionary C. T. Studd said, ‘Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, within a yard of hell.’
 
Finally, challenge millennials to hard things. You know all about ‘helicopter parents’ who have coddled their children, who fight their fights for them, who lavish them with stuff which further softens them, leaving them generally unprepared to face the hardships which are sure to come, sooner or later. Urge them to get out of their comfort zones, to come with me to Africa in January to learn how to evangelize and work really hard for a couple of weeks in an unfamiliar and challenging culture. Even if they remain in a secular job in the United States, they will be far better off for putting themselves in a self-denying, faith building context.
 
– Al Baker

 

No Compromise, Pt 2

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If you’re going to be a true Christian, it will be a lonely life. It’s a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower.

Is the world crucified to you or does it fascinate you?

The world has lost the power to blush over its vice and the church has lost her power to weep over it.

The early church was married to poverty, prisons, and persecution; today the church is married to pleasure, prosperity, personality, and popularity.

The only people who want to change the gospel are those who are unchanged by the gospel.

How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don’t have the strength to turn off your TV or computer?

– Leonard Ravenhill

No Compromise, Pt 1

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Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I hope and pray to God that I will have the courage to stand up for the real Jesus of the New Testament.
 
We must not select a few favorite Bible passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.
 
An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.
 
I claim the holy right to disappoint men in order to avoid disappointing God.
 
If God gives you a few more years, remember that those are not yours. Your time must honor God, your home must honor God, your activity must honor God, and everything you do must honor God.
 
To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.
 
The dangerous thing about going outside of God’s will to get what you want is that you will have to stay outside of his will to keep it.
 
Refuse to be average spiritually; let your heart soar as high as it will go.
 
– A. W. Tozer

Salvation is not a Group Project

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I remember group projects in high school and college. They normally did not go well. Either a brainiac, an egomaniac, or a sluggard usually messed things up. Too many people contributing to one common project caused things to just not be as good as if one person is doing a project.

The reality is, most people think that becoming a Christian is a joint project–they contribute all they can and Jesus finishes the job. They have to contribute something since Jesus died for their salvation. They must do their part and Jesus then does His part. Yes, His part may be bigger and more, but still, I’ve got to contribute at least something to make it sufficient.

But let’s be fully clear about what salvation is not.

— Salvation is not a group project

— Salvation is not a joint effort

— Salvation is not a 50/50 deal

— Salvation is not 2 colleagues both contributing something

— Salvation is not a team effort

— Salvation is not a partnership

— Salvation is not a shared labor

— Salvation is not like a doubles team in tennis

— Salvation is not me trying hard to get better and Jesus helping me improve

Salvation is all of grace with no self-contribution that to some degree, helps, adds to, secures, or improves our acceptability with God.

The only thing that merits anything is Christ’s worth and righteousness, and not anything about us. We indeed must come to Him, but that faith is not meritorious, but rather is simply the means of receiving forgiveness and acceptance. Our faith doesn’t earn anything; it is just how we come empty-handed to receive freely from Christ.

There is absolutely nothing whatsoever we can contribute to help Christ save us. All we give is our sin and our sinful hearts. We only receive, we don’t contribute.

I wonder when people will finally get it. Salvation is all of the Lord or it is not anything. This adds new meaning to Jesus’ words: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

– Mack Tomlinson

More of the Holy Spirit

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[Octavius Winslow, in this encouragement about receiving more of the Holy Spirit, is not saying that believers lack having the Holy Spirit. What he is saying is that we can experience Him more increasingly as we seek and ask. Notice throughout his choice of words about this? “deeper, more, more sensibly applied, more deeply impressed, more rejoicing, so little, measure, receive, influence, pour down, confirm, anointing, give, strengthen, assure, larger degrees, God’s countenance,” etc? He is speaking of deeper working, deeper experiences, and knowing the power of the Spirit in an ongoing and increased way. – M.T.]
 
 
What the Church of God needs corporately, we also equally need as individual Christians—a deeper baptism of the Holy Spirit. Why is it that you are not more settled in the truth and your feet more firm upon the Rock? Why are you not more rejoicing in Christ Jesus, the pardoning blood more sensibly applied to the conscience, the seal of adoption more deeply impressed upon your heart, and “Abba, Father” more frequently on your lips?
 
Why are you, perhaps, so yielding in temptation, so irresolute in purpose, so feeble in action, so vacillating in pursuit, and so faint in the day of adversity? Why is the glory of Jesus so dimly seen, His preciousness so little felt, and His love so imperfectly experienced? Why is there so little close transaction between God and your soul?So little searching of heart, confession of sin, and dealing with the atoning blood?
 
Why does the conscience so much lack tenderness, and the heart brokenness, and the spirit contrition? And why is the throne of grace so seldom resorted to, and prayer itself felt so much a duty and so little a privilege, and, when engaged in, is so faintly characterized with the humble brokenness of a penitent sinner, the confidence of an adopted child, and the rich anointing of a royal priest?
 
Let the small measure in which you have received the Holy Spirit’s influence supply the answer. “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”—have you received Him as a Witness, as a Sealer, as a Teacher, as an Indweller, as a Comforter, as the Spirit of adoption? Have you not forgotten that your Lord was alive, and upon the throne exalted, to give you the Holy Spirit, and that more readily than a father is ready to give good gifts to his child? That he is prepared now to throw back the windows of heaven, and pour down upon you such a blessing as shall confirm your faith, resolve your doubts, annihilate your fears, arm you for the fight, strengthen you for the trial, give you an unclouded view of your acceptance in the Beloved, and assure you that your “name is written among the living in Jerusalem?”
 
Then as you value the light of God’s countenance, as you desire to grow in a knowledge of Christ, as you long to be more steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, oh, seek to enjoy in a larger degree the presence, the love, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Christ has gone up on high to give to you this invaluable blessing and says for your encouragement, “Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
 
– Octavius Winslow
 
 
 
 
 

What You Need to Know about Suffering

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You never just suffer the thing that you’re suffering, but you always also suffer the way that you’re suffering that thing.
Let me explain what I mean by that phrase, through the experience of my sickness.

In 2014, I went to see a doctor with what felt like minor symptoms. Before I knew what was happening, they admitted me to the hospital for what became an excruciatingly painful ten-day stay.

The abbreviated story is that I was in acute kidney failure, and had I waited another seven to ten days to go to the hospital, you probably wouldn’t be receiving my weekly email devotional.

Four years and six surgeries later, my symptoms are as manageable as possible, but I have been left a physically damaged man.
I learned and was reminded of many things through my suffering. Perhaps one of the most significant principles is this: Our suffering is more powerfully shaped by what’s in our heart than by what’s in our body or the world around us.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. My suffering was real, the dysfunction in my body was real, the pain I went through was horribly real, the damage to my kidneys is real, and the weakness that is now my normal life will continue to be real.

But the way that I experienced all those harsh realities was shaped by the thoughts, desires, dreams, expectations, cravings, fears, and assumptions of my heart.

Yes, I went into my sickness with my theology in the right place, and I did believe that I lived in a groaning world crying out for redemption, but it was battling with something else inside me.

There was this expectation that I would always be as I had been; that is, that I would always be strong and healthy. There was little room in my life, family, and ministry plans for weakness within or trouble without.

So when I realized I was very ill and that weakness and fatigue would be with me for the rest of my life, the blow was not just physical, but emotional and spiritual as well. Honestly, I didn’t suffer just physical pain, but also the even more profound pain of the death of my delusion of invincibility and the pride of productivity.

The same is true for you. Your responses to the situations in your life, whether physical, relational, or circumstantial, are always more determined by what is inside your heart than by the things you are facing.

You never come to your suffering empty-handed. You always drag a bag full of experiences, expectations, assumptions, perspectives, desires, intentions, and decisions into your suffering. What you think about yourself, life, God, and others will profoundly affect the way you interact with and respond to the difficulty that comes your way.

This is why the writer of Proverbs says: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
What are you carrying around in your soul that has the potential to complicate your suffering? What are you preaching to yourself that could allow you to forget the truths of the gospel?

Never forget: No matter what painful thing you’re enduring, as God’s child, it’s impossible for you to endure it all by yourself.
The One who created this world and rules it with wisdom, righteousness, and love is in you, with you, and for you, and nothing has the power to separate you from his love.

– Paul David Tripp

Choosing a Church by Conrad Murrell

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This is a privilege (or problem) that Christians of the first century did not have. In fact, there were no Christian “churches,” only heathen ones, since the word translated church, the Greek kuriakon, was an adjective describing a heathen temple. It is regrettable that our Bible translators did not preserve for us the more meaningful “fellowship” or “communion,” or “called” from the Greek ecclesia that is used to designate the body of Christian believers in the Bible.

In the first century, denominational divisions, doctrinal errors, apostasy splits and schisms had not yet taken their toll on the Christian community. When a person believed, he became a part of the only fellowship in the city or area where he lived.

In this country and in others where religion has not been uniformly mandated by the state, and where the gospel has been preached for scores of years, churches of all shades and sorts have sprung up. Not only is there a wide selection of denominations, and more recently, undenominated independent groups, but a considerable variety within one denomination.

This is more of a curse than a blessing, since we are now compelled to choose, not the best of something that is mostly all good, but the lesser of the evil out of what is practically all bad. That is the general case. There are, to be sure, some excellent churches; but every town or city or area in the U.S.A. does not have one. When a person lives in such a place, he must decide if he is going to subject himself and his family to one of the corrupt fountains of lies, or if he will take the responsibility of evangelizing in view of a true church being established. I am more immediately concerned in this paper, however, with those who do not have to make a choice like the one above. These live where, not only is the usual array of sick churches infecting all they contact with their own particular brand of religious disease, but a sound spiritual godly church exists. The question to be addressed is this: Can there be a valid reason to choose the unspiritual church, where there is a mixture of truth and error, and where flesh dominates the spirit, rather than the spiritual fellowship, where flesh is mortified and God is exalted by the Spirit?

I have too long delayed addressing the problem in a definitive dogmatic way, preferring rather to say, “You do what the Lord leads you,” or “Whatever you have liberty to do,” or “Whatever you think best,” feeling I had no right to tell anyone what church they should embrace.

There are certain biblical considerations, however, under which a free choice must be guided, and I do not think I can any longer escape my responsibility to call attention to them.

1 The church of God is declared to be the pillar and ground of truth [I Tim. 3:15].

Therefore a church that does not believe and teach the Holy Scriptures, the whole counsel of God, is not worthy of consideration. (And what one will not teach, he does not believe.) It must not dilute, avoid, diminish, or distort those difficult and humanly distasteful portions of God s word which are so essential to our salvation. It is not enough that it preaches faithfully certain truths, and simply avoids, without attacking, other biblical teachings. A false prophet is marked, not only by the error he teaches, but by the truth he avoids. This usually makes him appear more of a nice fellow, a wolf in sheep s clothing. How can a church profess to be the pillar and ground of truth when it teaches only man s responsibility and avoids divine sovereignty? Or when it teaches only the glories and power of Christ, carefully avoiding any reference to the moral demands of God upon man?

2 The church of the living God is a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:22).

A people that is not spiritually alive cannot be a habitation of God. It is altogether possible for one to be orthodox in doctrine, correct in creed, meticulous in the fine points of hair-splitting theology, and be altogether empty of spiritual vitality. True Christianity is warm, vibrant, alive in personal communion with God through the Holy Spirit. It is careful and responsive to the needs of all its members. They are demonstrably loving and affectionate, unafraid of emotional demonstration. It lives, acts, prays, wages warfare by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

3 Nothing can be considered the church of Jesus Christ that has not Him as its Head (Eph. 5:23).

Most all churches make this claim for themselves; but even a casual investigation will often prove Him to be only a figurehead. Ask a few reasonable questions: Who really governs it? Who or what is consulted when decisions are to be made? From whence comes its polity and rules of practice, the scriptures, or tradition? To whom do its members look for approval and guidance in their actions? Whom does it strive to please?

A church that has a pope, an imposter professing himself to be the vicar of Christ, is not the Lord s church: it is the pope s church. A non-Catholic one which has a pastor making claims to be God s living word to the membership is not the Lord s church: it is the preacher s. (It is usually actually called his church). Nor can a church be Christian which fears to make any move that is not sanctioned by a denomination s practice, policy or tradition. Call it voluntary cooperation if you wish; the fact remains, that church s life is not ordered by Christ. It is dictated by the denomination, if not by legal coercion, then by popular pressure. Nor can a church ordered by a deacon board or by congregational vote be headed by Christ. If we are to commit ourselves to a body of believers in the way the Bible says members must, then we must be certain that church, to the best of its ability, is headed by Christ alone.

4 Members of a Christian church stand perfectly holy, accepted in the Beloved before God wholly on the basis of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:4-6), Titus 3:4-5).

It is His death that satisfies God s justice on our behalf, His blood that covers our sins, and His person that presents us perfect in God s presence. Churches which add something to Christ, despise, cheapen and make His perfect work seem inadequate. Whether it be baptisms, sacraments, tongues, penances, external righteousness, catechisms, confessions, or whatever . . . they are all denials of Christ s sacrifice as a full and complete satisfaction to God for His elect for all time and eternity. We who begin in the Spirit must not hope to finish in the flesh. Let us not defile the white garment of Christ with the filthy garments of our own works for any religious affiliation. We must not subject ourselves to a fellowship that hopes in other than Christ Jesus alone.

5 The true people of God are a people who are not only counted holy for Christ s sake, but a people who are holy in their daily walk. They are a separated, peculiar, different people, markedly distinctive from the world and false religion (II Cor. 6:14-7:1).

They do not turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. Freedom in Christ to them means freedom from the penalty and power of sin, not freedom to sin. They hold in great awe God s holy law, and like the Psalmist, consider it a delight, “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”

If a little leaven leaveneth a whole lump, how much more will a leavened lump leaven what is added to it. Or how much more must we expect to get polluted if we get in a barrel of apples already rotting with the worldliness of loose lawless living? Especially must we flee from churches where the leadership is allied with lodges, clubs, fraternities and societies. The Bible is explicit on that point: Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers. They may protest that these organizations do much human good and that they speak often of God, that they use the Bible for their morals and dogma. This we do not deny. Atheists also quote scriptures when it serves their liking and purpose. Some lodges are, no doubt, religious, and its members required to believe in a “supreme being,” but that is far from Christianity. Be assured that there are no Christian fraternities or societies outside the Christian church. The true believer in Christ neither needs nor desires any. The Lord established one fellowship, the church which He purchased in His blood. He intended His people s community needs be met in it and none other.

6. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is obedient to His commands, especially those which direct us to evangelize and make disciples.

The immediate consequences of true spiritual worship and communion in Christ is a bold and aggressive witness to the unbelieving world. A church without a mission is a locomotive without a track. It is consuming energy and going nowhere. It is cursed soil drinking in nourishment and rain, bringing no fruit. It is a barren tree destined to wither and die. Avoid those super elite groups, those myopic moles who have no vision, the lazy, self-centered gluttons who produce no more than they can consume. Be sure your church has a concerted outreach with the gospel in which you can share.

Some of you may now be thinking that there are special reasons, extenuating circumstances, special exceptions, which make it advisable for you to choose the less spiritual church. It has, perhaps, a more attractive program of activities for your children. More of your friends or relatives attend there. It is the old established church in the community, and it would be a scandalous break with tradition to leave it. You feel like you can reach more people, have a wider ministry for yourself in a church that has more people, even though it is short on truth and holiness and long on worldliness and unbelief. I beg of you to carefully consider the following and see if the above advantages will outweigh the following damages.

A. In spite of what you may have heard, the first consideration in a church is your own spiritual needs – not your ministry.

If you are not built up in the faith, you will have no worth-while ministry, only a false and self-destructive one. We have too much of that kind already. Consider then, what this polluted fountain will do to your own spiritual life and that of your family. Is it worth defiling your home with the world, the flesh and the devil? And that under the pretense of Christianity? If a man is a fool to gain the whole world at the cost of his soul, are you making any better bargain here? Please do not be so naive as to think it will not so affect you. It will most certainly do so. You cannot take fire to your bosom and not be burned, or touch the filthy without becoming defiled yourself. Is it worth it? The cost may be higher than you think. Wrong spiritual values, false teachings, moral corruptions fomenting broken homes, rebellious children and shipwrecked lives, all flow like a torrent from these worldly churches.

B. Your choice of the worldly church over the admittedly more spiritual one scandalizes the church more true to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You bring a reproach upon the bride of Christ and persecute her for righteousness sake, for you testify to the community by your choice that the worse is the better, and the better to be rejected.

How illogical and unreasonable it is for you to say, “Yes, I admit that church A is made up of holy God-fearing people who hate evil, love righteousness, teach truth, sacrificially give of themselves to glorify God and publish His word. However, in my circumstances, I think it is better for me to participate in church B, which is inferior spiritually, but has other valuable advantages.” What sort of signal are you giving to the world? It is either that carnal considerations are worth more than spiritual ones, that you do not really believe that church A is the more spiritual one, or that you are no true Christian yourself.

C. When you give yourself, time, energy and money to the carnal church, you are, in that measure, aiding an enemy of the Cross and helping build it up.

Surely you do not think your contributions go only into what spiritual values the church sponsors and not into its Christ-denying activities. No, you support the whole thing, that which is devilish as well as that which is divine.

The more you build up the hybrid, the greater image you give it in the community, and the more souls it will attract, entrap, deceive and corrupt. You help promote a false concept of the Christian church and Christianity in general. The greater it waxes, the darker the community becomes, for darkness has insinuated itself as light. When the light of men becomes darkness, the false passed off for the real, how great is that darkness!

D. At the same time you are building up the world’s church, you are weakening the Lord’s church. To the extent it is deprived of the fellowship and support you ought to be giving it, you are starving it of its rightful gifts for the true gospel ministry.

How must the Lord Jesus view this betrayal of the sheep, this shunning of the cross of reproach, this preference of the earthly over the heavenly? Is it enough for us to admire, and laud those who bear the heavy load of sacrificial labors and endure the shame of worldly and religious ostracization while we take the easier route of cheap worldly approved Christendom that requires no more of us than the flesh can deliver without hurting itself? Let Isaac Watt s hymn ask us the question afresh:

Am I a soldier of the cross, A follower of the Lamb?

And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on to God?

When we choose the fleshy over the spiritual, we rob the true church of our fellowship, deprive ourselves of its benefits, and encourage others to leave it for the “going thing.” Thus we weaken ourselves, the church and Christian witness in general.

But, one will now object that he has a greater audience in the bigger, more worldly church. He has a bigger “ministry” there. He is there to shine light in darkness.

Please hear me carefully on this point, for it is the one that seems most reasonable and noble, and the excuse that is most often invoked for embracing the compromising church. Dear Christian friend, when the Lord spoke of light shining in darkness, He spoke of the church shining in the world, not the Christian shining in a worldly church. If that “church” is darkness, then Ephesians 5:11 certainly applies: “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” We who join them reprove the light and approve the darkness. The church of Christ is light shining in the darkness of this world. We should be a part of the light, not the darkness. The world, not the church, is the mission field; and we evangelize by being different, not part of it.

If we really believe that we effectively evangelize what we join, then let us select the most wicked, worldly ungodly groups in the country, and shed our light in that darkness. At least we would not be giving them our endorsement as a true Christian church by so doing. I suspect we do not really believe that: that we join the worse church because we like it better. It allows our flesh more comfort, and its darkness shields us from the brilliance of God s truth and life in the cross of Christ.

It may be noted that Paul preached in religious darkness when he began in a city s synagogue. He did not join it, and his preaching was of extremely short duration. No sooner did that darkness perceive that the light of the gospel was making their religion worthless than he was thrown out. Today s unbelieving half-apostate church will love the gospel no better. If we apply its truth to the particular lie that they embrace, we will no longer be allowed to minister under its auspices. You cannot make a stand for Christ, truth, and holy living and remain an accepted part of it. You cannot do otherwise and walk in communion with Christ.

The true Christian church has never been, is not now, nor ever will be any more than a small, rejected, despised sect. Therefore, “It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! (Luke 17:1)” Let us joyfully, willingly bear His reproach, not join those who reproach Him.

– Conrad Murrell

Christians, true to the gospel given us by our crucified and risen Lord, were forced to go underground in 300 A.D. when Constantine became emperor of Rome and married the church to the world. They survived until the Protestant Reformation as the hated and bitterly persecuted “heretics.” Their hopes that the Reformers would restore primitive church life and order were quickly disappointed, and Protestants killed and persecuted more Christians than Roman Catholics did.

Those of us, therefore, who wish to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in sound and full Bible truth cannot find our spiritual ancestry in either Roman Catholic or Protestant churches. Nor can it be found in any of the widely proliferated rootless Charismatic sects and cults that about today. Their history is less than a century old, the most modern of all deviations from Christianity.

There is, however, a people, a remnant as there always has been. They will never have an admired name in this world, will always be given the lowest place among religions. They are still the ecclesiastical outcasts, the “heretics.” But it is among these that we who love the rejected Saviour and worship the reigning King Jesus, will find our true spiritual roots.

Pray for the Spirit in Nature’s Path Today

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1. Of most importance, pray this morning that God would touch the hurricane hitting the east coast. Twenty million people are in its path. You already know this and you know how to pray. It always moves me to faith when I remember that Jesus Himself is the one that starts and allows any storm and He is controlling its every movement. He still rules the wind and the waves, and he also hears the cries of his elect. 
    Should we not pray for mercy to be extended and for him to show his power in changing the storm? We do not know his secret decree, but we know his heart, his mercy, and his promises. Please do pray this morning for this. Pray for the power of the Spirit upon the hurricane and its force and path.
    I think many of you and your churches would want to do something afterward if possible. There is already talk of some relief trips, so if you or your church begins to think of this, please do pray that God would raise up all that is needed. 
 
Pray for the Spirit in the work of the Gospel this weekend
 
2. I am scheduled this Sunday morning to begin preaching at First Baptist Church, Olney Texas, 2 hours west of here. It is the largest and probably the most historic church in this town of a few thousand people. Chad Edgington is a dear brother who serves as the pastor there. This church has been preparing with some seriousness, and now have excitement and expectation about the three days of meetings Sunday morning and evening, and then Monday and Tuesday.
    Please pray. Please pray for the power of the Spirit to come on the preaching. All we will be doing in the services will be to sing the songs of truth and preach the Word. That’s all. But that is sufficient. I have longed to see God break in and move in power, and have not seen it happen in years since I saw it happen in Romania about 10 years ago.
   I have driven through another small town near Olney in recent months which reminded me of God’s descending power. Bryson Texas, approximately 1 1/2 hours northwest of Fort Worth, where I preached in 1976 for a full weekend. It was there on a Sunday morning that the Holy Spirit came down suddenly and every young person in the church was either converted or was greatly affected by a movement of the Spirit. It shook the entire church. I had no idea it would happen, and I had no idea what to do during that day when it was occuring. The pastor did not know what to do either, so we sat back and watched God at work. 
    I have never forgotten it, and every time I drive through there, I drive right by that Bryson church building. God is able to do it again. Please pray that he would do it in Olney starting Sunday.
 
Luke 11:13!
– Mack 

Every Enemy Defeated

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Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24)
 
How far does the reign of Christ extend?
The next verse, 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The word all tells us the extent. 
So does the word every in verse 24: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”
There is no disease, no addiction, no demon, no bad habit, no fault, no vice, no weakness, no temper, no moodiness, no pride, no self-pity, no strife, no jealousy, no perversion, no greed, no laziness that Christ will not overcome as the enemy of his honor. 
And the encouragement in that promise is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone.
Jesus Christ is now, in this age, putting all his enemies under his feet. Every rule and every authority and every power will be conquered. 
So, remember that the extent of Christ’s reign reaches to the smallest and biggest enemy of his glory in your life, and in this universe. It will be defeated.
– John Piper
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Heavenly Wisdom

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What a man is on his knees before God in secret, that will he be before men: that much and no more.
-Fred Mitchell

We must deliberately seek to meet with God absolutely alone, and to secure such aloneness with God we are bidden to ‘enter into the closet.’ God absolutely insists on this ‘closet’ communion with Himself. One reason, no doubt, that He demands it is to test our sincerity. There is no test for the soul like solitude. Do you shrink from solitude? Perhaps the cause for your neglect of the ‘closet’ is a guilty conscience? You are afraid to enter into the solitude. You know that however cheerful you appear to be you are not really happy. You surround yourself with company lest, being alone, truth should invade your delusion.
– Gordon Cove

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.
– A. W. Tozer

I should like to allude to a point in the character of Mr. Hudson Taylor which impressed me personally, and which I think had something to do with the blessing that God granted to his efforts on behalf of China. First his prayerfulness; he was of necessity a busy man, but he always regarded prayer itself as in reality the most needful and important part of the work.
– D. E. Hoste

Out of a very intimate acquaintance with D. L. Moody, I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties. He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that prayer could do anything that God could do.
– R. A. Torrey.

All great soul-winners have been men of much and mighty prayer, and all great revivals have been preceded and carried out by persevering, prevailing knee-work in the closet.
– Samuel Logan Brengle