Evangelism
The church: Divinely inspired and human in its life
I like those two words. Vagaries refers to unpredictability, vicissitudes refers to change. These two words are descriptive of the nature of organizations, even those who ostensibly have divine origins. The church is God’s creation, but local congregations are a product of human beings attempting to partner with God to faithfully express this glorious spiritual reality called the church. The body of Christ is spread thorough out the world, existing in a single room gathering of a dozen or so all the way to the world’s largest church, in Korea with 700,000 plus members. (more…)
In Acts 13 a remarkable thing occurs – we get an inside look at how the early Christians launched ‘new ministry.’ (1)Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (2)While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (3)Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
In all my experience as a pastor I’ve only been involved with anything resembling this on a few occassions. I’ve been in tons of planning meetings, and idea sessions and various and sundry attempts at launching various ‘ministry’ things, but very few occassions of what took place here in Acts 13. One of the most powerful experiences of this occurred on my first or second trip to Brazil. In a meeting very similiar to the one described here in Acts 13 – a group of leaders did virtually the same thing in setting apart Rick Widner form ministry in Brazil.
A little over a month ago I had a similiar experience here at LOG. After taking time away to pray and seek the Lord it began to dawn on me that we needed to do a similar thing (as in Acts 13) here at Lamb. You may recall seeing an email which Kevin Houk sent out around that time for the purpose of gathering those who were interested in seeing what the Holy Spirit was up to in the area of domestic missions, i.e. what’s the Lord doing right here in our back yard in terms of reaching people for Christ. (more…)
Pray to the Lord of the harvest
Jesus spoke these words to the disciples regarding reaching people: (36) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (37) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; (38) therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
How should we apply a scripture like this to our own times? Is the harvest plentiful? It doesn’t seem that way, but perhaps if Jesus were speaking directly to us He might have added, “if you know where to look.” I have some ideas about this, but I am going to begin with what I think might be the most obvious place to look – our children. (more…)
I was blessed so much by Nigerian missionaries Benard and his wife Rawn sharing with us this past Sunday morning(4.8.07) for our service. They are simple, straightforward servants of Jesus who love the gospel and have dedicated their lives to preaching the good news. They have risked their comfort, safety and even their lives to go to the villages of Nigera to teach people about Jesus. They are actual heroes of the faith, and we are honored to have them in our midst. I would encourage anyone who is able to consider assisting them (although they were very low key in their request for help, they actually do have significant needs).
One of the things that really touched me was the straightforward, unadorned manner in which Benard spoke of extraordinary wonders he had witnessed in his ministry. I don’t know if every one caught all the things Benard said during his sharing (he did have a pretty strong accent), but he made some pretty amazing claims. One in particular that I had never heard anyone visiting Lamb of God make – that being that he had witnessed a person being raised from the dead. I’ve heard that claim made before, but I’ve never actually met anyone who claimed to have seen it as an eyewitness. I don’t know about you, but that pretty much tops my list of things that are amazing to the point of being almost beyond belief. (more…)
(Art by Cameron Grey)
In John 3 Jesus utters some of the most well known words found any where in the Bible. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus made it plain that entrance into the Kingdom required something profound in terms of the interior life of a human being. If one is to relate to God, and his world (which includes the earth, but is much larger than the earth alone) then they will need a newness within, what scripture calls a new heart. This is not simply a new idea, or a new system of thought, or a new attitude. Jesus was speaking of a level of newness that means transformation at the deepest level of our motivations, our will, our emotions, and our thoughts. He was speaking of something to which the O.T. prophets pointed with great hope: Ezekial 36: (25)I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. (26) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. However, I wonder – Do we really believe it is true and that we must relate to one another on the basis of this “new identity?” (more…)
Sunday (3.25.07) I will be preaching on the first few verses from Colossians Chapter 2.I have spent time thinking, praying and studying these few verses and I am so touched by what I find. First, the simplicity of what God is after. No matter how many times I come back to it, the beauty of love still, after many years grips me. Here in this passage Paul speaks of his struggle to impart to the Colossians a subtle, but plain truth: A great deal of our experience of Jesus is imparted to us through the quality of community we have as a local body of Christians. (more…)
I would like to encourage you who read this blod to download and listen to the following.
N.T. Wright’s message called: Simply Christian. Some are saying that the book from which these lectures comes also called “Simply Christian” will become a classic in the same way that C.S. Lewis’ work “Mere Christianity” has become a classic. You may learn more about Bishop N.T. Wright by visiting: N.T. Wright (more…)
When Paul spoke of “becoming all things to all people” what does it mean for us? I know that Paul had in view Jewish people, and the cultural understanding which they brought to the table when thinking about things like God, salvation, life and death. I know that he also had in view the Pagan world and likewise their understanding of God. (more…)
In Mark chapter 9 the disciples and Jesus have an encounter with a young person who is terribly afflicted by a demonic presence. The father of that boy described his agonizing situation like this: “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.” The father adds to it his further disappointment that when they brought the boy to Jesus’ disciples they were unable to help him. (more…)
I am convinced that God is about to bring a new day of evangelism to Lamb of God, and to many of the churches we have been walking with in the Cry for Awakening. I have noticed within myself, and in our prayer meetings a new urgency and growing desire to see the Gospel be proclaimed. The prayers of the people are increasingly reflecting earnest petition for God to break the shackles of the fear of man from all of us. We have had a number of new converts to Christianity in the past few months (New believers not necessarily intergrated into the congregation, but I suspect will be soon). I am convinced in my heart that this is only the beginning. (more…)
