Make a difference

Small minds talk about people; average minds talk about events; great minds talk about ideas.

 A male relative on my father's side was described in this way: whatever he did, he managed to do it like he was fighting a fire.  For a Depression-era blue collar or agricultural worker, that was high praise indeed.  No matter what job you gave him, he attacked it with zeal and passion; he was solely focused on the job as if it were the most important thing in the world to him at that time.

I was reminded of that story as I scanned the radio dial last week, trying to find something worth listening to as I drove around town running my errands.  The all-sports station was airing a gossip piece about some professional ball-player's relationships with a semi-famous actress.  Small minds talk about people.  My favorite all-news station was talking about a plane crash at an air show in Nevada where the pilot and two spectators were killed.  (The death toll has now been raised to nine, as six of the wounded who were hospitalized in serious condition passed away).  Now, this was a more important story, but it was the hundredth time that day I had heard this story--it was like it was a slow news day, and this reporter just read the AP teletype as if he was reading the current weather report.  I heard no sadness for the families mourning their loved ones; I heard no suggestions of how such accidents could be avoided in the future; there was not even an analysis of the cost (in human lives) of air shows nation-wide each year.  Average minds talk about events.  

Next I tuned in to a Christian talk station, but they were doing a music segment.  Now, there is nothing wrong with listening to music, especially Christian music.  It is entertaining, and sometimes uplifting; but most of the time music on the car radio is background to conversations you have with your passenger, or secondary to the thoughts you entertain in your head: "I have to remember to pick up milk before I get home.  Home Depot has a sale on faucet covers.  Did I remember to cover my gas grill?  Oh, look, the gas gauge is on empty--I'd better go fill up."  And on and on it goes.  Mundane things, details of life that won't matter an hour from now, much less next year, or a decade from now, or after I am gone.

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.  "Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless."  What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?  Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.  The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.  The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.  All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.  To the place the streams come from, there they return again.  All things are wearisome, more than one can say.  The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.  What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  (Ecclesiastes 1.2-9)

We live in an age of information overload, where news of a Kardashian wedding (why is this family famous? what have they done? no, wait--I don't even want to know) gets the same attention as the war in Afghanistan.  No one ever hears of the work of the Lord, unless a missionary dies in a plane crash, or a priest gets indicted for sexual misconduct.

And it always seems like when we turn off the television and get back to building relationships with people, the first thing people talk about is what was on television last night.  People are more tuned in to pop culture than to the work of the ministry.  And when you try to encourage people in their Christian walk, they complain that their Bible study is dry--always reading about "So-and-so begat so-and-so", or "This tribe of Israel had six thousand men, and that tribe had eight thousand."

Life is hard.

We cannot be discouraged.

In order to get to the discussion of ideas, we have to disregard the gossip and direct conversations past events and toward ideas.  We have to remember that God is a creative God, and that His best idea was to have fellowship with us.  We must remember that God is a problem-solving God, and that when our biggest problem was separation from Him, He sent His Son to bridge that gap.  Sharing that message with people is the most important job we can have at any point in our lives.

We may praise those whose work ethic reminds us of fire-fighters.  But in the end, the whole world will be consumed with fire.  We have to be about saving people.  Not just people that will die without our help, but people that will die and go to hell unless we tell them about Jesus.  That is what gives our lives meaning.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole purpose of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12.13-14)

Solomon concluded that life is meaningless without God, therefore our whole purpose is to keep His commands.  Jesus said the greatest commandment is this: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  How do you show your love for God? By giving Him your heart, and doing everything you do for His glory.  How do you show your love for your neighbors? By showing them God's love.   How did God show His love for us?  "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5.8)

When we take that idea of God's sacrificial love for us-- when we dissect it and discuss it and take it to heart-- we are motivated to do something about it.  So don't spend your days chasing your tail, watching the sun come up and then go down. Don't spend your years talking about the weather or chasing the wind.  Make a difference in somebody's life today.  Tell them about Jesus.

Share, so the World will know

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.  (Philemon 6)

The Apostle Paul certainly did carry out the Great Commission in everything that he did.  We all need to be reminded of what Jesus told us just before he ascended into heaven:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  (Matthew 28.18-20)

Jesus has authority over all things: all time, all people, all nations, all spirits--everything.  This is good news, because Jesus humbled Himself and became one of us; he submitted to death on the cross, as a sacrifice for our sins; and He was raised from the dead by God, who has given Him authority over sin and death.  Think about that.  If God had given this authority to Satan, the fallen angel, we would all be overcome by the demons of darkness.  If God had given this authority to the archangel Michael (whom Daniel called the Protector of Israel, and whom John in Revelation said led the heavenly armies against the dragon and his angel), then only Jews would be saved, and the rest of us would have been defeated by the hosts of heaven.  But God gave His Son Jesus authority over all things, and that is good news that needs to be shared.  Jesus told this to His disciples:

Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16.15-16)

 But in the Great Commission, Jesus went beyond evangelism; He commanded discipleship.  He did not say go make Christians out of all nations.  The Crusaders tried this in the Middle Ages, and they failed.  We cannot just lead people to Christ and then leave them hanging.  We must teach them how Jesus told us to live.  He said we must make disciples of all nations.  What does "disciple" mean?  Well, it has its root in the word "discipline"; and certainly, disciples of Christ must be careful to avoid sin.  But when Jesus chose twelve men to be with Him during his ministry on earth, He did not beat them with a stick.  He taught them, both in words and by example.  He spoke to them, and lived with them, and laughed with them and cried with them.  They watched Him, and listened to Him, and learned from Him.  Now that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, we must teach others how He lived.

Paul did this in his missionary journeys.  Acts chapter 14 talks about Paul preaching the good news in Lystra, and doing good work there.  But some Jewish leaders came down from Antioch and said evil things about Paul and Barnabas.  The Jewish leaders ran them out of town in Lystra. 

The next day he (Paul) and Barnabas left for Derbe.  They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.  Then they returned to Lystra...strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. (Acts 14.20-22)

Notice that Paul did not preach and then leave.  He made disciples, and when he left them for another town, he came back and encouraged them in their faith.  He did this all through his ministry.  But God knows that one man cannot reach the entire world for Christ.  That is why He commanded us to make disciples and not just converts.

Let me tell you what I mean.  If I invent a new widget, I might try to get all of my friends and acquaintances to buy the item.  I might buy advertisements to ask people to buy my widget.  And if I am successful, I might sell a few hundred.  I might hire salesmen to go and sell the widget for me.  If they are all as successful as I am, I might sell a few thousand.  But if I can teach all of my customers how to use the widget and how to sell it to their friends, and if those customers sell the widgets to their friends and teach them how to sell it to their friends, and so on, then very soon we will all have sold millions of widgets.  It's like a multi-level marketing scheme: if I can convince you to involve two or three others, and those three others convince three apiece, now there are twelve customers, and I have only spoken to three of them.  If the marketers down the line all get three, and their customers get three more, and those people each get three more, it won't take very long to get into the millions.

My dad, a retired pastor, tells the story of inviting an evangelist to his church for a revival (a series of nightly worship services designed to win souls, and encourage church members to continue in soul-winning after the evangelist leaves).  The evangelist divided the people at the service one night into two groups.  Those on the left side of the aisle, and those on the right.  He started on the left side, going down into the crowd and taking people up to the front of the church with him, one by one.  Soon he had a small group, maybe a dozen people or so.  Then he went to the right side of the aisle, and took two people by the hand and led them to the front.  He instructed those two people to go get two more, and then those four were instructed to bring two each to the front.  After each wave, there were eight, then sixteen, then 32 people up front.  His point was that he could go out and share the gospel with one person at a time, and could win to Christ a few people.  But if he shared the gospel with just two, and instructed them how to win two more, and those people were instructed how to win still more, then the number of souls saved would increase exponentially.

My aim here is to motivate you to discipleship.  Spend some quality time with someone who knows Scripture, and who can teach you who Jesus is and what He is all about.  Then go find someone that you can teach, and show them what Jesus has told you.  And after a time, let that person go so he or she can teach someone else, and then find another person you can disciple.  There are helpful books everywhere; my dad has written some, and soon there will be a website where you can buy his discipleship manual.  But don't wait.  People are dying every day without Christ.  You cannot reach them all.  But you can widen your circle of influence by teaching others how to share their faith, and how to walk in His word.

I heard a Bible Translator once, who said that Jesus will not come back until the whole world has heard of Him in their own language.  We cannot stand by and wait for a multi-lingual preacher to tell them.  We must tell the good news to our friends, some of whom may speak another language; and that person may share the gospel in his language, and one may hear who speaks a still different language.  In this way we can hasten the Second Coming of Christ.

ABCs of Salvation

We’re saved, we’re freed for evermore!
(Gretel: Your eyes are shut, pray who are you?
You’re sleeping, yet you’re singing too.)
O touch us we pray that we may all awake!
We thank you both!
The spell is broke and we are free,
We’ll sing and we’ll dance and we’ll shout for glee!
Come children all and form a ring
Join hands together while we sing!
Then sing and spring, then dance and sing
That through the wood our song of praise may sound
And echo repeat it all around!
The angels whispered in dreams to us in silent night
What this happy happy day has brought to light.
Ye angels who have watched o’er our steps
And led them right,
You we praise and thank for all our joy and wondrous Delight.
We’ll thank you all our life!
(From a children's opera by Engelbert Humperdinck based on the story of Hansel and Gretel)

In the scene above, from the re-telling of the story from Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel has just pushed the wicked witch into the oven and shut the door.  Scores of gingerbread cookies come to life, representing other children that the witch had kidnapped.  They all gather around Hansel and Gretel and sing the song, "We Are Saved."

In Christian circles, we talk a lot about being saved.  Salvation is an important doctrine, but I think very often we gloss over the term.  Some in the World mock Christians because they don't understand the term "saved."  Saved from what?  They don't understand the danger they are in spiritually--they believe the story of Jesus and his Redemption of all mankind belongs on the shelf with Grimm's Fairy Tales. 

The term "saved" implies that there was a danger that we have avoided.  Exactly what are we saved from?

Saved from Sin
Just like in the fairy tale above, where the children were in danger of being cooked for the witch's dinner, we are in danger of being consumed by sin.  Satan, the father of lies, lures us into complacency--a sense that we will be all right without God.  The more we see sin, the more accustomed we grow to it.  The more comfortable we are with it, the more we indulge in it.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3.3)

Saved from Hell
Many people today think of God as loving and forgiving.  Followers of the social gospel believe that Jesus came to help the poor, and feed the hungry, and heal the sick.  They forget that He also came to save people from their sins.  God is a God of love; but He is also a God of judgment.  One day He will judge us all, separating the sheep from the goats.  Jesus came to give a hope and a future, a way to avoid sin and hell.  In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell. (Matthew 5.29-30)

Saved by Grace
Once people realize they are in danger of hell fire, they try to clean up their act.  They try to avoid sin, and live a godly life.  But once sin blackens our soul, we cannot bleach it out; we cannot cover it up.  The stain is always there.  We would be willing to give our right arm for a second chance.  Thankfully, God has provided that for us.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3.4-5)

So once we realize that we are separated from God by sin (Romans 6.23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"), and that we are all sinners, every one of us (Romans 3.23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"), we come to the point where we know that we need a Savior.  Jesus is our Savior. Once we acknowledge that fact, and believe in Him, and call on His name, we will be saved.  It is as easy as ABC.

The story is told of a poor man who played the lottery religiously.  He hoped and prayed that he would win. One day he saw the good news that the ticket he held had all of the correct numbers.  He had won!  He danced for joy, because now all his prayers had been answered.  He put the lottery ticket in a safe place, and went out and quit his job.  He didn't need to earn any more money, he had won the lottery.  He bought a new car and new furniture on his credit card--he didn't have to worry about paying, because he had won the lottery.  But when the bills came due, he had no money to pay, because he had missed on crucial step--he had failed to cash in the ticket.  So his new car and new furniture were taken away.  He lost his house, because he had not kept up the payments.  He was hungry and destitute, even though he had won the lottery.

Many of us are just like that man.  We know that Jesus came to save us.  We believe His word of salvation.  But we do not receive it--we don't act on that knowledge and belief, so we miss out on the very thing we know is available to us.

This is the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10.9-10)

Acknowledge the truth.  Believe the word.  Call on His name.  Don't miss out.  Everlasting life can be yours.  Faith in Him will save you.  Grace is abundant and free.  Heaven or hell, the choice is yours.  I can't save myself.  Jesus is the only way. (You get the idea).