Well, it’s “the most wonderful time of year” again! That familiar phrase from the well-known Christmas song is at once both an exciting statement as well as a confusing sentence. Simply put, our world is a realm which is chronically drunk with frequent incremental celebrations throughout the year, most of which are void of any substantial purpose for our lives. And chief among those celebrations is the “Christmas” time of year.
The time of year of Christ’s birth can be deduced from both the Bible and secular history as NOT being during the month of December, let alone being specifically on December 25th! In fact, most conservative NT scholars say the time of Christ’s birth was probably springtime or an early fall event. The reason for the late December dating was no doubt a Romanesque touch which added yet another celebration to its calendar! I am sure that their thinking went like something like this, “Why not add another celebration to our pantheon of parties which celebrates the virgin birth of Jesus (which was really a virgin conception, not a birth)!? So, in considering the pagan origin of December 25th, is there still Scriptural warrant for celebrating the birth of the Son of God – especially at this time of year? The answer is a resounding yes!
There are two key texts: Matthew 2:9-11(esv) reads, after listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh; and Luke 2:18-20 (esv), And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The shepherds were mere men. We are mere men, women and children. They praised God and worshipped at the news that the Savior of the world had arrived into His very own sin-soaked world (Colossians 1:16). Now that’s news to celebrate!!
Pastor Jerry Marcellino
Audubon Drive Bible Church
www.audubonchurch.org
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Is There Really More to be Done?
One of the biggest concerns for mission leaders is that we start to think the job is finished. We need to celebrate when many come to Christ. The angels in heaven rejoice when just one sinner comes to repentance. But we must inform ourselves about the realities, and guard against the feeling that there is no more work to do:
The truth is, 4.4 billion people on our planet do not know Jesus.
The truth is, currently, at least 1.87 billion people live in areas with no gospel presence at all (World A).
The truth is, in spite of major growth efforts, the percentage of people who call themselves Christian around the world has stayed essentially the same since the beginning of the 1900s (about 34%). We haven’t grown percentage-wise for the past 100 years. [Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 40; Market, “Global Christianity.”]
The truth is that 6500 people groups still do not have a Christian witness at all.
The truth is…we are not there yet. [Page 64]
Source: Sylvia Foth, Daddy Are We There Yet? (A global check-in on the world of mission and kids), Kidzana Ministries, Mukilteo, 2009
The truth is, 4.4 billion people on our planet do not know Jesus.
The truth is, currently, at least 1.87 billion people live in areas with no gospel presence at all (World A).
The truth is, in spite of major growth efforts, the percentage of people who call themselves Christian around the world has stayed essentially the same since the beginning of the 1900s (about 34%). We haven’t grown percentage-wise for the past 100 years. [Barrett and Johnson, World Christian Trends, 40; Market, “Global Christianity.”]
The truth is that 6500 people groups still do not have a Christian witness at all.
The truth is…we are not there yet. [Page 64]
Source: Sylvia Foth, Daddy Are We There Yet? (A global check-in on the world of mission and kids), Kidzana Ministries, Mukilteo, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Church Is Growing
To being with, over 2.2 billion people now call themselves Christian, more than any other religious group in the world. Since the days of the disciples, the growth has never stopped. Christianity adds more than 28 million people to the church worldwide each year.
A significant part of what’s happening today in the Christian world is happening China. In China, it is estimated that over 100 million people are Christians. They are already fourth on the list of countries with the most Christians in the world. It doesn’t make the evening news, but every day, at least 10,000 new believers are added to the church. [Johnson, “World Christian Trends 2005.”]
In Afghanistan, before 2002, researchers counted about 75 believers. Just two years later, in mid-2004, there were over 8000, with believers in every single one of the 34 provinces. One year later, the Christian population had tripled!
In Kenya, so many churches have been planted that I heard one Kenyan pastor say, “If you stand on any street corner in Nairobi and throw a stone, you will hit a church.” The buildings are everywhere! [Pages 57, 58]
Source: Sylvia Foth, Daddy Are We There Yet? (A global check-in on the world of mission and kids), Kidzana Ministries, Mukilteo, 2009
A significant part of what’s happening today in the Christian world is happening China. In China, it is estimated that over 100 million people are Christians. They are already fourth on the list of countries with the most Christians in the world. It doesn’t make the evening news, but every day, at least 10,000 new believers are added to the church. [Johnson, “World Christian Trends 2005.”]
In Afghanistan, before 2002, researchers counted about 75 believers. Just two years later, in mid-2004, there were over 8000, with believers in every single one of the 34 provinces. One year later, the Christian population had tripled!
In Kenya, so many churches have been planted that I heard one Kenyan pastor say, “If you stand on any street corner in Nairobi and throw a stone, you will hit a church.” The buildings are everywhere! [Pages 57, 58]
Source: Sylvia Foth, Daddy Are We There Yet? (A global check-in on the world of mission and kids), Kidzana Ministries, Mukilteo, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Manners -- the kindness of Christ in action
As you teach manners, use the sections of the body;
Head
– think:
- “What should I do in this situation?”
- “What can I do to help others?”
Eyes
– look at people when they talk to you;
- look at people when you talk to them;
- look around to see what needs to be done
Ears
– listen when people talk to you;
- learn to listen to the needs of others.
Mouth
– speak kindly: say “Hello”, “Thank you,” “Please,” “How may I help you?”“Excuse me.” “I’m sorry, forgive me (if situation deems such).”
– The Scriptures says in Ephesians 4:29 (nasb), Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
– Smile at others.
– When eating, pass food to others!
- Don’t interrupt others.
– Defend others when they are picked on or made fun of.
– By the way, if you are shy and do not speak to others, you come across as selfish, with the emphasis on yourself.
Hands
– Open the door for others.
– Shake hands firmly and warmly.
– Help people with their coats.
– Take older people by the arm to help them across the street or upstairs. (Make sure they want to go up the stairs or across the streets.)
Feet
– Don’t sit when you should stand.
– Men, immediately stand up to give women and others your seat.
– Men, always try to sit on the outside so you can easily get up.
Body
– Show respect for others by the way you dress, especially at special occasions like weddings, funerals, recitals, church, (and when you take your wife out for a special occasion).
–“Modesty” – Fathers and Mothers teach your girls modesty!
Head
– think:
- “What should I do in this situation?”
- “What can I do to help others?”
Eyes
– look at people when they talk to you;
- look at people when you talk to them;
- look around to see what needs to be done
Ears
– listen when people talk to you;
- learn to listen to the needs of others.
Mouth
– speak kindly: say “Hello”, “Thank you,” “Please,” “How may I help you?”“Excuse me.” “I’m sorry, forgive me (if situation deems such).”
– The Scriptures says in Ephesians 4:29 (nasb), Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
– Smile at others.
– When eating, pass food to others!
- Don’t interrupt others.
– Defend others when they are picked on or made fun of.
– By the way, if you are shy and do not speak to others, you come across as selfish, with the emphasis on yourself.
Hands
– Open the door for others.
– Shake hands firmly and warmly.
– Help people with their coats.
– Take older people by the arm to help them across the street or upstairs. (Make sure they want to go up the stairs or across the streets.)
Feet
– Don’t sit when you should stand.
– Men, immediately stand up to give women and others your seat.
– Men, always try to sit on the outside so you can easily get up.
Body
– Show respect for others by the way you dress, especially at special occasions like weddings, funerals, recitals, church, (and when you take your wife out for a special occasion).
–“Modesty” – Fathers and Mothers teach your girls modesty!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Serve as God Wills!
"William [Carey] worked hard at his cobbling, making sure he was giving his best service to his customers. When this was finished for the day he made time to study languages, science, history; to lecture when invited, and weekly to preach. It was a busy life but a contented one. In a letter to his father written at this time he said: 'I am not my own, nor would I choose for myself. Let God employ me where He thinks fit.'" (William Carey by Kellsye Finnie, OM Literature)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Sanctifying Shepherd
By John MacArthur
[from The Master’s Mantle, Summer 2009, Vol. 16:2, page 1, 3]
There is a growing but false legend that churches are designed for non-believers--a "contextualization movement," according to David Wells, founded on sola cultura, not sola scriptura. As a result, true Christianity hides its face, resulting in the death of sanctification. Seeking only numbers and affirmation, he adds, this new evangelicalism uses the culture to attract, with no interest in the deadly poison that lies below the surface of it.
Contextualization is nothing but an overexpo¬sure to the world, the flesh, and the devil, leading to a rise in antinomianism. History shows that antinomianism follows hard on the heels of a recovery of the doctrines of grace. Because the doctrines of grace can be pressed hard in the direction that everything is settled and secured, it leads easily to blatant and out-rageous antinomianism.
Contextualization of the gospel today has infected the church with the spirit of the age. It has opened the church's doors wide for worldliness, shallowness, and in some cases a crass party atmosphere. The world now sets the agenda for the church-it has done it musically, and is now doing it in terms of the message. A survey by James Davidson Hunter, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, found that young evangelicals have become significantly more tolerant of activi¬ties once viewed as worldly or immoral, including smoking, using marijuana, attend¬ing R-rated movies, and premarital sex.
In No Place for Truth, David Wells writes, "The stream of historic orthodoxy that once watered the evangelical soul is now dammed up by a worldliness that many fail to recognize as worldliness because of the cultural inno¬cence with which it presents itself It may be that Christian faith, which has made many alliances with modern culture in the past few decades, is also living in a fool's paradise, com¬forting itself about all the things God is doing, while it is losing its character, if not its soul."
Clearly the NT church is focused on godliness and the edification of the saints so that they might reflect the image of Christ. That was Paul's foundational principle of ministry. In 2 Corinthians 11:29, he asks, "Who is led into sin without my intense concern?" In Galatians 4: 19 he adds, "I am in labor pains until Christ is fully formed in you." The sanctification of God's people involves agonizing, excruciating pain, in a world without anesthesia. It's not about how clever you can be to reach the cul¬ture by looking like the culture, because then you've just opened the sewer and let it seep in.
Today, everything seems directed away from this. We want to get as close to the world as possible. But we don't need culture to define the life of the church. When Paul says he became all things to all people, he simply means he would make any personal sacrifice to reach a person. Holiness of the church is Paul's objective, and must be ours. To fulfill this mandate, the shepherd must recognize seven things:
The power of the flesh. Do you understand the power of the flesh, how easily temptation is excited? Your people need to be protected from their own flesh, from inciting the flesh by painting word pictures of sex organs. The battle has to be won on the inside (Rom 7; James 1). I never want to be a person who is used to solicit any kind of evil in the mind of anyone. Because "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt 18:6). That's the first instruction given to the church-protection from temptation. The church should be a haven, not a place peo¬ple are tempted.
The power of the world. Whatever you borrow from the world has the potential to corrupt. Friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4; 1 John 2). The last thing you want to do is kick the church doors open and bring the world in-rubbing out the line between the world and the church. I want to build a wall so when you come to church your experience is disconnected from the world.
The power of Satan. "The devil prowls around like a roar¬ing lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8; 2 Cor 2:11; John 17:15). Shepherds not only feed and water sheep; they also protect them. You never want to be the instrument by which the devil gains access to your flock. The sanctifying shepherd recognizes that his people have a high level of susceptibility to corruption through the world, the flesh, and the devil, to which they're overexposed con¬stantly. The battle is fierce in their hearts-at work, at school, watching television, etc. The shepherd must be their protector.
The power of the Scripture. A sanctifying shepherd recog¬nizes the power of the Scriptures to sanctify. "Sanctify them by Thy truth: Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17; c[ Ps 119:11; Tit 3:5). We are pruned and purged by the Word, and that is why the shepherd is committed to the exposition of Scripture and thereby unleashing its sanctifying power.
The power of the Holy Spirit. "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). Being filled with the Spirit basically means to let the Word dwell richly within you (cp. Eph 5:18 with Col 3:16). As shepherds, we want our people to come under the sanctifying power of the Scripture and the sanctifying power of the Spirit. They go together.
The power of confrontation. There is power in confronta¬tion (Matt 18:15-17). How can you do that in a church where the members aren't Christians? That's impossible by definition. How can you do that in a church where you just want everybody to feel good about being there?
The power of example. Your people know what's in your heart by what you say. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt 12:34). You can tell what a man thinks by his speech. Furthermore, when you stand in your pulpit, your people are getting the most sanitized version of you. The real you is not that sanitized! There's a reality about our fallenness that we don't need to display. But when you see someone who is openly flagrant, coarse, and profane (and that's the most sanitized version of him?), the conclu¬sion is obvious.
Christ-likeness is the goal of ministry in the church (Eph 4:13). Martin Luther, noting that the power of your min¬istry is inseparable from your character, called antinomian teaching the "crassest error, designed to grind me underfoot and throw the gospel into confusion. Such teaching," he contended, "kicks the bottom out of the barrel of God's sav¬ing work." We need to be sure that we understand that we have been called to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet 5:2), which means to travail in pain, until they come to Christ¬likeness.
My prayer for you is that you would be sanctifying shepherds.
[from The Master’s Mantle, Summer 2009, Vol. 16:2, page 1, 3]
[from The Master’s Mantle, Summer 2009, Vol. 16:2, page 1, 3]
There is a growing but false legend that churches are designed for non-believers--a "contextualization movement," according to David Wells, founded on sola cultura, not sola scriptura. As a result, true Christianity hides its face, resulting in the death of sanctification. Seeking only numbers and affirmation, he adds, this new evangelicalism uses the culture to attract, with no interest in the deadly poison that lies below the surface of it.
Contextualization is nothing but an overexpo¬sure to the world, the flesh, and the devil, leading to a rise in antinomianism. History shows that antinomianism follows hard on the heels of a recovery of the doctrines of grace. Because the doctrines of grace can be pressed hard in the direction that everything is settled and secured, it leads easily to blatant and out-rageous antinomianism.
Contextualization of the gospel today has infected the church with the spirit of the age. It has opened the church's doors wide for worldliness, shallowness, and in some cases a crass party atmosphere. The world now sets the agenda for the church-it has done it musically, and is now doing it in terms of the message. A survey by James Davidson Hunter, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, found that young evangelicals have become significantly more tolerant of activi¬ties once viewed as worldly or immoral, including smoking, using marijuana, attend¬ing R-rated movies, and premarital sex.
In No Place for Truth, David Wells writes, "The stream of historic orthodoxy that once watered the evangelical soul is now dammed up by a worldliness that many fail to recognize as worldliness because of the cultural inno¬cence with which it presents itself It may be that Christian faith, which has made many alliances with modern culture in the past few decades, is also living in a fool's paradise, com¬forting itself about all the things God is doing, while it is losing its character, if not its soul."
Clearly the NT church is focused on godliness and the edification of the saints so that they might reflect the image of Christ. That was Paul's foundational principle of ministry. In 2 Corinthians 11:29, he asks, "Who is led into sin without my intense concern?" In Galatians 4: 19 he adds, "I am in labor pains until Christ is fully formed in you." The sanctification of God's people involves agonizing, excruciating pain, in a world without anesthesia. It's not about how clever you can be to reach the cul¬ture by looking like the culture, because then you've just opened the sewer and let it seep in.
Today, everything seems directed away from this. We want to get as close to the world as possible. But we don't need culture to define the life of the church. When Paul says he became all things to all people, he simply means he would make any personal sacrifice to reach a person. Holiness of the church is Paul's objective, and must be ours. To fulfill this mandate, the shepherd must recognize seven things:
The power of the flesh. Do you understand the power of the flesh, how easily temptation is excited? Your people need to be protected from their own flesh, from inciting the flesh by painting word pictures of sex organs. The battle has to be won on the inside (Rom 7; James 1). I never want to be a person who is used to solicit any kind of evil in the mind of anyone. Because "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt 18:6). That's the first instruction given to the church-protection from temptation. The church should be a haven, not a place peo¬ple are tempted.
The power of the world. Whatever you borrow from the world has the potential to corrupt. Friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4; 1 John 2). The last thing you want to do is kick the church doors open and bring the world in-rubbing out the line between the world and the church. I want to build a wall so when you come to church your experience is disconnected from the world.
The power of Satan. "The devil prowls around like a roar¬ing lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8; 2 Cor 2:11; John 17:15). Shepherds not only feed and water sheep; they also protect them. You never want to be the instrument by which the devil gains access to your flock. The sanctifying shepherd recognizes that his people have a high level of susceptibility to corruption through the world, the flesh, and the devil, to which they're overexposed con¬stantly. The battle is fierce in their hearts-at work, at school, watching television, etc. The shepherd must be their protector.
The power of the Scripture. A sanctifying shepherd recog¬nizes the power of the Scriptures to sanctify. "Sanctify them by Thy truth: Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17; c[ Ps 119:11; Tit 3:5). We are pruned and purged by the Word, and that is why the shepherd is committed to the exposition of Scripture and thereby unleashing its sanctifying power.
The power of the Holy Spirit. "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). Being filled with the Spirit basically means to let the Word dwell richly within you (cp. Eph 5:18 with Col 3:16). As shepherds, we want our people to come under the sanctifying power of the Scripture and the sanctifying power of the Spirit. They go together.
The power of confrontation. There is power in confronta¬tion (Matt 18:15-17). How can you do that in a church where the members aren't Christians? That's impossible by definition. How can you do that in a church where you just want everybody to feel good about being there?
The power of example. Your people know what's in your heart by what you say. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt 12:34). You can tell what a man thinks by his speech. Furthermore, when you stand in your pulpit, your people are getting the most sanitized version of you. The real you is not that sanitized! There's a reality about our fallenness that we don't need to display. But when you see someone who is openly flagrant, coarse, and profane (and that's the most sanitized version of him?), the conclu¬sion is obvious.
Christ-likeness is the goal of ministry in the church (Eph 4:13). Martin Luther, noting that the power of your min¬istry is inseparable from your character, called antinomian teaching the "crassest error, designed to grind me underfoot and throw the gospel into confusion. Such teaching," he contended, "kicks the bottom out of the barrel of God's sav¬ing work." We need to be sure that we understand that we have been called to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet 5:2), which means to travail in pain, until they come to Christ¬likeness.
My prayer for you is that you would be sanctifying shepherds.
[from The Master’s Mantle, Summer 2009, Vol. 16:2, page 1, 3]
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Deeds, Creeds, and Mission
by Daren Beck
And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits… And they went out, and preached that men should repent (Mark 6:7 & 12, KJV).
These last months, my colleague BJ Lopez and I have been teaching through the Gospel of Mark. I have always enjoyed this particular book because it is hard-hitting, concise and action-packed! In Mark 6, we find Jesus sending out the 12 disciples on a short-term mission trip. Their mandate was clear, their methods were detailed by Christ, and they were deployed for the task (Mark 6:7-13). Among other things, I was struck by the harmony with which Jesus combined the emphasis of proclaimed truth and accompanying works. Today there is much talk about “creeds and deeds” in mission. By creeds we mean a body of truth which can be Biblically defined and is historically accepted by the Church, and deeds as those things we do that point people to the Gospel of Christ.
The disciples followed Jesus’ example of proclamational preaching – a message that demanded repentance and faith in Christ. Their mission also included the authority and power to authenticate their message and to identify their authority with the One (Christ) who had sent them. Neither the creed nor the deed was lost in the mission.
Down through history the Church has many times emphasized either creeds or deeds in attempting to accomplish mission (taking the Gospel to the world) while neglecting one or the other. It seems to have divided some groups to be known as those who only emphasize doctrine (creeds), while others are driven by an insatiable desire to show Christ through good works (deeds) in hopes of demonstrating the Gospel to a spiritually dying world. Needless to say there is a balance to be found lest we become either modern-day Pharisees or neo-gnostic moralists! But I fear that many of us are dangerously close to losing the heart of the Gospel which is rooted in the foundational truths which comprise our stated beliefs (creeds): consider the following:
The Bible is God’s redemptive story (Romans 3:1-23).
Man’s depravity and spiritual deadness demand that the Holy Spirit do the work of regeneration in a completely supernatural way (Ephesians 2:1).
Apart from this work of the Holy Spirit the Gospel is foolishness to those who are already perishing in their sin (I Corinthians 1:17-18).
The only source of light for the world is Jesus (John 1:5), even as He shines through His redeemed people (Matthew 5:16); He is the true light who is the source of salvation (II Corinthians 2:5-6).
People come to salvation through the preaching and teaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:15-17).
None of the presuppositions mentioned above are dependent in any way on my deeds or works. I certainly affirm that the byproduct of spiritual fruits will be activities (work or deeds) that honor Christ (James 2:14-26). The truths declared in Scripture become my creed forming an unyielding foundation for everything I do, including mission.
Our ministry here in Cambodia is built on the timeless truths of Scripture and we are unapologetic in proclaiming our firm belief that the Good News is to be declared and proclaimed. Should we be about deeds? Absolutely! As Christ shines in our hearts and the Holy Spirit empowers us, we share the privilege of demonstrating Christ to a dying world – for His praise in their salvation and for His glory in the preservation of His holiness in their judgment (II Corinthians 2:16).
Pray that we of ACTION would be faithful in our Christ-commissioned mission. Pray that our message would reflect the truths contained in Scripture and that our actions would come out of the overflow of our hearts and be used by God for His glory.
And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits… And they went out, and preached that men should repent (Mark 6:7 & 12, KJV).
These last months, my colleague BJ Lopez and I have been teaching through the Gospel of Mark. I have always enjoyed this particular book because it is hard-hitting, concise and action-packed! In Mark 6, we find Jesus sending out the 12 disciples on a short-term mission trip. Their mandate was clear, their methods were detailed by Christ, and they were deployed for the task (Mark 6:7-13). Among other things, I was struck by the harmony with which Jesus combined the emphasis of proclaimed truth and accompanying works. Today there is much talk about “creeds and deeds” in mission. By creeds we mean a body of truth which can be Biblically defined and is historically accepted by the Church, and deeds as those things we do that point people to the Gospel of Christ.
The disciples followed Jesus’ example of proclamational preaching – a message that demanded repentance and faith in Christ. Their mission also included the authority and power to authenticate their message and to identify their authority with the One (Christ) who had sent them. Neither the creed nor the deed was lost in the mission.
Down through history the Church has many times emphasized either creeds or deeds in attempting to accomplish mission (taking the Gospel to the world) while neglecting one or the other. It seems to have divided some groups to be known as those who only emphasize doctrine (creeds), while others are driven by an insatiable desire to show Christ through good works (deeds) in hopes of demonstrating the Gospel to a spiritually dying world. Needless to say there is a balance to be found lest we become either modern-day Pharisees or neo-gnostic moralists! But I fear that many of us are dangerously close to losing the heart of the Gospel which is rooted in the foundational truths which comprise our stated beliefs (creeds): consider the following:
The Bible is God’s redemptive story (Romans 3:1-23).
Man’s depravity and spiritual deadness demand that the Holy Spirit do the work of regeneration in a completely supernatural way (Ephesians 2:1).
Apart from this work of the Holy Spirit the Gospel is foolishness to those who are already perishing in their sin (I Corinthians 1:17-18).
The only source of light for the world is Jesus (John 1:5), even as He shines through His redeemed people (Matthew 5:16); He is the true light who is the source of salvation (II Corinthians 2:5-6).
People come to salvation through the preaching and teaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:15-17).
None of the presuppositions mentioned above are dependent in any way on my deeds or works. I certainly affirm that the byproduct of spiritual fruits will be activities (work or deeds) that honor Christ (James 2:14-26). The truths declared in Scripture become my creed forming an unyielding foundation for everything I do, including mission.
Our ministry here in Cambodia is built on the timeless truths of Scripture and we are unapologetic in proclaiming our firm belief that the Good News is to be declared and proclaimed. Should we be about deeds? Absolutely! As Christ shines in our hearts and the Holy Spirit empowers us, we share the privilege of demonstrating Christ to a dying world – for His praise in their salvation and for His glory in the preservation of His holiness in their judgment (II Corinthians 2:16).
Pray that we of ACTION would be faithful in our Christ-commissioned mission. Pray that our message would reflect the truths contained in Scripture and that our actions would come out of the overflow of our hearts and be used by God for His glory.
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