Missions Abroad


September 30, 2009 @ 11:50 AM EST | Category: Fishin' Thoughts

I wonder why so many Christians are so zealous to do missionary work abroad in some foreign land when they've never been missionaries at home. That doesn't make too much sense to me.

I would think that you would be burdened with the lost immediately around you, who I might add are easier to reach, before you would some foreign group you've never met.

My advice would be that if you don't proclaim the gospel where you are, don't even think of packing up and going to where you've never been. The former should be a huge qualification for the latter.

But then again, most modern missionary work is just "Peace Corp" work done with a Christian veneer anyway.

A Cross, A Question And A Fool


September 18, 2009 @ 3:20 PM EST | Category: Just Bloggin'

"Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise." 1 Corinthians 3:18

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute." 1 Corinthians 4:10

"Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24

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I want to challenge you with something.

Where I come from everyone knows everyone. The county that I live in is a fairly large county, but that doesn't stop you from running into familiar faces all the time. This is a blessing and a challenge. What do I mean by that?

Most people would say that they are terrified to speak to total strangers about the Gospel because they are, well, strangers. They say that they would rather take the time to build a relationship over time with someone and then speak to them. I have found this, by experience, not to be the case and it's not because I am "good" at speaking to strangers.

Talking with people I've known for a while terrifies me. Why? Because there is more to lose, in a sense. There is a greater sense of fear there. I look at this fear like a tree. The more you let it grow, the harder it is to chop it down. If it is a seedling then you can just snatch it right out of the ground with your bare hands. This fear, however, is irrational and not from God. (2 Timothy 1:7)

I have pinpointed the root of my fear. It is idolatry. Covetous idolatry of self to be exact. I value myself more than Christ. I, in whatever sense, am ashamed of the Gospel in those situations. I really hate that about myself. It frustrates me and makes me cry out to God for deliverance in this.

Have you struggled with the fear of identifying with Christ in public; in front of people you know? Do you possibly live in close quarters in a community that knows you by name like me? Do you wonder if you will ever get over this?

Here is what I propose. Let's put to death this covetous idolatry that resides in us. (Colossians 3:5)

"How?" you say.

Well, I believe that the only way to put to death the flesh is to kill it with the Spirit. Here is at least one simple way (that doesn't involve some eloquent explanation of a passage of Scripture to try and convince you to get out there and share the Gospel; otherwise you'd have done it already, right? I'm sure you've read Mark 16:15 before.)

Here's the video-

Here is how to make it-

Here is my challenge.

The next time there is some event in your hometown or nearby take the cross and simply stand there in plain sight with it and wait. Throw out the nets of the Gospel and see what Christ does. Here is one example of this in scripture.

"1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him." Luke 5:1-11

I pray that God inspire you to let down your nets and when the catch comes in, sovereignly directed by the Lord, signal us and we will run over and help you drag in the nets!

I am making a cross like the one above and I am determined to kill this covetous idolatry of fleshly self that still resides. I don't mind being a fool for Christ. I pray that you take great strides in your walk with Christ to kill the flesh and at the same time advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Send me a picture of your cross if you decide to make one.

He That Winneth Souls Is Wise
By Charles Spurgeon

September 17, 2009 @ 4:45 PM EST | Category: Just Bloggin'

"He that winneth souls is wise.” —Proverbs 11:30      

"He does not say that he who talks about winning souls is wise, since to lay down rules for others is a very simple thing, but to carry them out one’s self is far more difficult."

C.H. Spurgeon

Are You Acting Like A Pharisee?
Straining A Gnat And Swallowing A Camel

September 2, 2009 @ 2:00 PM EST | Category: Just Bloggin'

"You may know the truth of the doctrine, but you do not know the doctrine in truth if it makes you gaze on the wrath to come without emotions of pity for immortal souls." Charles Spurgeon

I’ve had people often tell me, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I have often pondered that and I have come to the conclusion that anyone who says that has a contradiction of belief and practice. What they are truly saying is, “I know what is right, but I want to follow what my own heart says, so that justifies my actions and somehow by telling you to do what is right that also helps me justify my actions.” What a contradiction! For they preach but do not practice. Jesus said in Matthew 23:1-3, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.”

I also know men who are so very careful and precise in their theology as to walk as it were on eggshells with every word of their doctrine to make sure they are in line with God’s word. I am one of them. I know men who debate singular meanings of one word for hours, even using the original languages and definitions, in an attempt to get a right understanding of truly what God’s word is saying. I am one of them. I know men who exhort that the Gospel is the only means by which men can be saved and they would affirm in their heart that it is every Christians duty to preach the Gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15). I am one of them.

Here is what I don’t understand.

If you, as a Christian, care so much about right doctrine as to spend hours pouring over God’s word, over every “jot and tittle” as to make a surety of your belief as to exactly what the Gospel is in its content and you neglect intentionally and regularly going out of your way to share the Gospel with strangers, how then are you any different from a Pharisee in this aspect? I think you are straining at a gnat and swallowing the camel of disobedience. This, to me, seems to typify James 1:22-25, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” You are claiming to have seen the depravity of not only your soul but of every soul of man and yet walk away and at once forget what you and all of humanity are. This is self deception.

Jesus said in Matthew 23:23-24, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

I have often said that right doctrine produces right obedience. How then, might I ask, can we truly believe that men are wicked, depraved, dead in sin and living in rebellion against God and we not look at God in an almost frantic passion, wide-eyed, and say, “What now God? These men will surely perish, for they have made themselves your enemies! Spare them. Oh, God spare them! Spare them as you have spared us!” and then He turn to us and says, “Go tell them about the deliverance the may receive from my Son! That same deliverance you received by my grace alone. I will spare them.” Yet, we sit on our wide and proud theological backsides with our extra thick bifocals as to strain at every sentence to “make sure we are true to God’s word” while men and women are going to Hell. I just don’t get it. Please, someone explain to me why! Why? Why, but for any other reason as what Jesus gave, “…you have neglected weightier matters…These you ought have done, without neglecting the others.”

Make no mistake about it; you will live what you truly believe, always; nothing more and nothing less. Charles Spurgeon once said, “Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that!” A wise man once said, “If you do not care enough to do something about it, trust me, you do not care. You may say you care, but you do not care.”

If you neglect to tell men of the deliverance they have in Jesus Christ, yet you sit and study God’s word intensely, then stop. You, by neglecting the one, have made void the other. What good are instructions if they are not followed. But, dear believer, this is not only an instruction, but a command and a true sign of knowing the mission, purpose and heartbeat of your Savior. Are you saying that your head is resting upon the breast of Jesus, that you have an intimacy with Christ, like that disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:22), yet you cannot hear His heartbeat? Perish that thought.

Here is a sad fact. I went for 22 years as a God-hater and no one ever shared the Gospel with me.

Oh! that God would give the apathetic people sitting in the pew every Sunday, naming the name of Christ, a heart that beats with the blood of the Gospel!