Many centuries before this, just twelve men turned the world
upside down, and as a result of their faith, two thousand
years later their actions are still being spoken about, and millions of people
are reading of their history.
Twelve men gave up all that they
had, left their comfort zone, their friends and even their families, to bring
amazing news that would transform other lives and deliver a message of hope, that even today echoes in every nation on earth.
We sit and waste our lives and hours on the foolish, the mundane, the unimportant and stupid distractions that
steal away our time, and leave us just as empty of purpose and meaningful
existence as billions of others on this planet.
We are happy to spend fortunes on
leisure, comfort, status-symbols, gadgets and designer clothes, holidays,
massive televisions, and all the other wasteful attractions. All these have become
more important to us than supporting the work of evangelism, and even going
ourselves into all the world with the gospel of Jesus.
You think me wrong on this
matter?
Ask yourself, nay, get a sheet of
paper and a pen, and write down an account of how much money you spent on
personal gifts to yourself in the last year: on clothes, fashion-accessories,
vehicles, parties and restaurants, on hotels and holidays, on new furniture and
home improvements, and a multitude of other things that may not have been
vitally necessary, but you felt that you earned them and you deserved them.
Then take another sheet of paper,
and carefully write down all that you spent on promoting the gospel around the
world, for each pound, dollar or Rupee you devoted to printing gospel
literature or supporting an evangelistic outreach, or funding your own personal outreach project.
Now, having done all of that, repeat the two exercises; but this time, replace the money with 'time'. Time is as much a currency and commodity as anything else we might claim to possess. We spend it as we choose. We waste it as we wish. We can never get it back once spent.
Write down the time you spent on everything in your life, and then show the amount of time you gave to the highest commission, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Now go and explain all of that to
God.
The work of the gospel is the
most underfunded budget item of churches and church-goers income. If your church were
to call a day for evangelism, I can guarantee that only a few might come, whether
your church is but fifty strong, or boasts thousands.
Says it all.
If ever there was a time to ‘sell
all that you have’, and go preach the gospel, or fund the work of true
evangelism, it is now. Never before has the world needed evangelists and the
good news as much as it does now.
Seven billion-plus people on earth, and mostly unevangelized or have never heard the real uncompromised message of Jesus. Even here in the UK, the great majority of people under the age of 45 do not know, and have never heard, the real gospel and message of salvation. Fact.
Throwing money into some famous (or infamous) tele-evangelist’s bucket is not what God calls us to do. That is not the way the world will be reached. That is a trick of the devil to make sure that you never get off your backside and go where God calls you to go. They tell you that by sowing some 'seed money' into their 'world evangelism programme' you do not need to leave your chair, except to attend their conferences and donate a bit more of course!
God calls you to come into his
harvest.
Let the millionaire and billionaire
pastors, preachers, and heads of ‘ministries’ carry on with whatever it is they
do. However, you may be sure of this, that they will most certainly come to judgment one day, and they shall have to give
an account for every single penny they have taken and robbed from their punters
in the name of God.
Not one single penny will go
uncounted.
Their new suits and new shoes,
their fancy cars and limousines, their personal secret accounts, shall all be
brought into the open before the fearful throne of God. All of heaven and earth shall see and
behold the truth behind the curtains of trickery and greed.
But leave them be, and you go
into the world; you create an outreach ministry of your own; you support an
honest and faithful evangelist; or make a plan to change your life and just do
what Jesus said.
It is you that is called to go into the harvest. Where is the harvest field for you? Where does your heart draw you when you lose sight of all the junk of this world, and seek first the kingdom of God?
Where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be. Waste not another moment.
Many are called. Few are chosen.
Are you one of the chosen? So why not be 'The First of the Few' this year?
Then
live the life, fight the good fight, fulfil the commission, and live for the salvation of souls, and the return of Jesus Christ.
JGM 2022 Telling it like it is
