August 23, 2018
On Monday, I got a phone call from someone asking me if I was planning to vote for the local member of the Quebec National Assembly in the upcoming election. I thanked him for phoning and told him that I would take his words into consideration. After hanging up, I thought about the fact that the election campaign hadn’t officially started (it begins today) and that he was not shy to ask for my vote. As believers in Christ, why do we often hesitate to share the Good News of salvation with others? This morning I began to read “The Challenge of Missions” by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, the founding pastor of The Peoples Church in Toronto. The church began in 1928, just before the Depression years brought great hardship to many.
In the foreword to the book, Rev. Jack McAlister, founder of World Literature Crusade, writes: “Dr. Smith has gone to seventy countries ‘on Royal service.’ He has heard ‘The Challenge of Missions.’ He knows there is only One who can pour balm into those broken hearts. Hence he is a man with a single purpose. First, last and always he is dedicated to meeting the spiritual need of the world by bringing multitudes in direct personal contact with Christ.” How about us? Do we want to tell everyone that there is a loving God who sent His only Son to save us from our sins?
One of my favourite books is “Disciples are Made – Not Born” by Walter A. Henrichsen. When he wrote this book in 1974, the author was the personnel director for The Navigators. Howard G. Hendricks, esteemed professor of Christian Education at Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote in the foreword: “’Make disciples’ is the mandate of the Master (Matt. 28:19-20). We may ignore it, but we cannot evade it. Our risen Christ left this legacy – the magna charta of the church. He provided both the model and the method … He demonstrated that you have not done anything until you have changed the lives of men.”
In a chapter entitled “Multiplying Your Efforts,” Henrichsen writes about the cost involved in multiplication: “Every parent knows that reproduction is costly. The more children you have, the more it costs to raise them. There are more interpersonal relationships to cope with in the family unit. There are more decisions to be made, greater chance for disease to strike a member of the family, There is a greater chance for heartache or disappointment in one form or another. Certainly more children take more time.” Perhaps you have experienced disappointment or discouragement with regard to a family member? God’s Word instructs us to seek the Lord and His wisdom in every area of our life.
Steve