PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Lost Passion-Lost Persuasion”.  By:  Ron Woodrum

  One of the great agnostics of all time was Bertrand Russell. He was a very outspoken enemy of Christ and the Church. He wrote many books refuting the arguments for Christianity. Yet, in one of his books he spoke very pointedly to the key to our ministry and mission. His wife, Patricia Spence Russell was dying of a terminal illness. In his book, Why I Am Not A Christian, he wrote about his experience. Concerning watching his wife die, he wrote: “She seemed cut off from everything with walls of agony, and the sense of solitude of each human soul overwhelmed me! Every since my marriage my emotional life had been calm and superficial. I had forgotten all the deeper issues and had been content with flippant cleverness. Suddenly the ground seemed to give in beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is undurable-nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of that sort of love religious teachers have preached! Whatever does not spring from this motive is harmless or at best useless; It is love that penetrates this loneliness in each person-we must speak to that!”

We live in a world that has no answers. They are looking for answers anywhere and everywhere and I finding none! The Church has the answer in Christ. But just trying to convince them of answers intellectually, without love and passion, the kind that Jesus shared with all He encountered, we will never get close enough to hear what we have to say. T.S. Eliot, in his Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, spoke about all men’s fear of eternity, and desire for answers. He wrote: “I have seen my moment of greatness flicker! And I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat and snicker! And I was afraid!” Mankind facing mortality and facing an uncertain future, behind the facade and false courage, is desperately open to loving passionate answers! This is a great opportunity for the Church to speak up and not stutter. What is the state of the Church? A.W. Tozer tried to warn the Church to stay ready. He wrote, in his book Rot, Rut, or Revival, in the chapter entitled “Causes of a Dozing Church?”- ‘What is the present condition of the Church? The bulk of Christians are asleep! Not unconverted! But asleep. God’s alarm is going off…yet we are sleeping through the alarm!” Another prophet to the Church, Southern Baptist Preacher, Vance Havner said, “If ever God’s people needed to be aroused and shocked, alarmed and awakened to their privilege and solemn duty-it is today! The Holy Spirit was given not to be a sedative, but a stimulant! We live in a time where people get excited about the trivial and shrug their shoulders at things affecting eternity!” C.H. Spurgeon says, “I am sure I do not have to unroll a page of history and ask you to glance down it except for a second; you will see the Church has fallen asleep, and has become…destitute of zeal having no ardent Passion! Every Christian is either a witness or an imposter. If you have never had sleepless hours; If you have never had weeping eyes. If you have never swelled as if your heart would burst-You need not anticipate that you will ever be called zealous. You do not know that the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with grief, and ever beat with holy heavy ardor! The heart must be vehement with desire-panting continually for God’s glory in saving the lost!” Tozer again speaks to our contentment with no passion. He writes “Too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right, but without being willing to endure the inconvenience of being right!” This contentment with our current status, without a passionate burden for winning the lost, we can convince ourselves that we are pleasing to our Lord. But George MacDonald reminds us-“In whatever we do without God we must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably!”

We have lost our burden for the lost. We no longer pray for their salvation. No longer look for opportunity to share Christ with them. We no longer spend restless nights without sleep burdened over the fact that they are facing eternity without salvation and Christ! They are not outwardly bothered about it-and the tragic thing is neither are we! Look at the people that changed history for Christ! Men like John Knox who prayed “give me souls or give me death!” “Scotland or I die!” By Charles Wesley who said, “The world is my parish”-and walked and rode horseback well into his eighties sharing the gospel the length and breadth of England, over 250,000 miles! Millions of converts! A visitor was taken into the Church pastored by Robert Murray McCheyene. He was shown the Pastor’s study-his Bible on the desk; the pages stained with tears for those he would preach to. C.H. Spurgeon who said, “If the lost go to hell do not let them go without being warned and prayed for. Let them climb over our bodies with our arms around their knees begging them to turn to Christ!”

Mary Booth, wrote a poem that expressed her heart.

“Oh for a heart that is burdened!

Infused with a passion to pray;

Oh for a stirring within me

Oh for this power every day

Or for a heart like my Savior;

Who being in agony prayed

Such caring for others, Lord give me,

On my heart let burdens be laid!

My Father I long for this passion

To pour myself out for the lost;

To lay down my life to save others,

To pray whatever the cost.

Lord teach me your secret

I’m hungry this lesson to learn!

Thy passionate passion for others,

For this blessed Jesus I yearn!”

  Herbert Lockyer tells us that passion which brings tears of burden for the lost will touch lives, like Bertrand Russell told us! He wrote: “Tears win victories. A cold unfeeling dry-eyed Church has no influence on the souls of men!” William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army was asked after his retirement, why they were not winning the lost any longer! He wrote back two words! “Try tears!” Leon Kilbreath, Mr. Sunday School for Southern Baptists used to chastise us for not being involved and passionate about winning the lost. He used to say, “If we shared our Lord’s passion, why are our eyes so dry, our feet so frozen, our lips so silent!” In 1904 William Booth was invited to Buckingham Palace to be honored by King Edward VII. The King said, “You have done a great work General Booth. England recognizes you!” He was asked to sign the Kings book. William Booth wrote, “Your Majesty some men’s ambition is art; some men’s ambition is fame; some men’s ambition is gold; some men’s ambition is power. My ambition is the souls of men!” That used to be the passion and ambition of the Church. Passion for the Lost? Or Lost Passion? You know the tragic answer. That might explain our impotency!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: ” That Incredible Christian or That Incredible Shrinking Christian”.  By:  Ron Woodrum

  Back in 1964 A.W. Tozer wrote a book called That Incredible Christian. In his book he enumerated the characteristics of a true Christian that often made him an enigma to the rest of the world, and yet that enigma was an unexplainable difference that often had a magnetic draw of curiosity that caused non-Christians to investigate the genuineness of our faith, and often would lead them to choose that fascinating relationship with God, through Christ for themselves. Listen to a brief description that Tozer shares-“The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, (to his old self), yet he is more alive than ever…and he fully expects to live forever! He walks on earth, but is seated in heaven! He is like the Nighthawk, which is so graceful in flight in the air, but is so awkward and ugly on the ground…to be a victorious son of heaven he must not follow the pattern of earth. To be safe-he must put himself in jeopardy! He loses his life-to save it. When he tries to preserve it, he is in danger of losing it! He goes down-to go up! If he refuses to go down, he is already down! He is strong when he is weakest…and weakest when he sees himself strong. He has the most when he has given the most away! He is most sinless when he is most conscious of his sin! Most sinful when he feels he has little or no sin! He is wisest when he knows that he knows little! Knows least when he thinks he knows much! Sometimes he does the most, by doing nothing! -Goes furthest when he is standing still! He fears God-yet is not afraid of Him. When he is in God’s presence, he feels overwhelmed and undone! Yet there is no other place he desires to be more! He loves supremely One he has never seen! He fully expects to go and see Him one day soon, but is in no hurry to get there! In this world he is a confirmed pessimist, but expecting Christ soon, he is a restful optimist! THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN!” That kind of incredible Christian lived with a conviction that God had brought something into their lives through Christ that was an enigma to the world, but something they desperately needed to share. That led them to pray for their non-Christian friends; be there for them in the difficult days of their lives; and always ready to share the Gospel with them and encourage them to give their lives to Christ. Always it seemed that the Incredible Christian had a burden to see their friends and loved ones share in this Incredible Christian life!

But those days seem like a mirage in the cold hard reality of this New Millennium! I am not sure why but most Christians do not even seem to be familiar with all the Incredibility they have in Christ Jesus. Losing the wonder of it all has evaporated the ever-present desire to share that incredible faith with those who have never met or known our Lord. It seems that many Christians are not even sure how incredible the Christian life is-why would it be something you would want to convince others to embrace it! IT SEEMS THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN HAS BECOME THAT INCREDIBLE SHRINKING CHRISTIAN! Eight years before Tozer wrote his book, That Incredible Christian, another author, a science fiction author, Richard Matheson, wrote a novel called The Incredible Shrinking Man. It was made into a movie in 1957. In the book/movie Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray. This radioactivity causes him to shrink 1/7 of an inch per day. As he shrinks, he is detrimentally affected in his success on his job; with his family; and in all of his relationships! As he shrinks to 7 inches he engages in battles with sparrows and spiders who would normally run away from him. This fiction was fantastically entertaining for an earlier generation. Truth be known-it speaks to our generation-to the Christians in our generation. For the last several decades Christians have been shrinking in stature. It used to be that we had a strong influence on our culture and in our community. But as we have grown less and less in being Incredible Christians-we have become as Martin Lloyd Jones has said-“irrelevant”. Instead of the world looking to the Church and the Christian for direction, they have chosen to ignore us. The tragedy of it all is we have become comfortable with that! We seldom take a stand on the issues of our day. We seldom hold up the Cross and the Christ as the only answer to the problems that confront our society today. We have embraced the philosophy “I’m Ok-Your Ok!” and from a Biblical point of view-“That is Not Ok!” Instead of being “That Incredible Christian” we have become “That Incredible Shrinking Christian!” That is the tragedy for the Gospel in this new millennium!

There was another Carey. His name was William Carey. He and some fellow Baptist pastors in England began to pray for the lost, in their country, and in the world as a whole. They began to discuss the destiny of those who had not received Christ. They prayed that God would bring the good news of the gospel to them. They became the answer to their own prayers. Carey came to the conviction “Expect Great Things from God-Attempt Great Things for God!” That lead to the birth of modern missions. William Carey gave his life to taking the good news of the Gospel to Burma. He embraced all the challenges of learning the languages and customs-of loving the unlovable…Of patiently giving all his possessions, energy and life in winning them to Christ. He even engaged his 8-year-old son Felix in the work. Felix excelled in learning the language and translating the Bible into the language of the Burmese people. Felix was a co-laborer with his father William in a “Great work for God”. When he was 21 Felix married. He and his wife had a son. The hardships of the missionary life took the life of his wife and son. In his weariness he grew discouraged. Felix not only was gifted in language translation but had medical abilities as well. The King of Burma offered Felix a position as Ambassador to the governor-general in Calcutta. The weary Felix accepted, resigning his mission activities in 1814, Felix lived in affluence as a Burmese Government official now. His father William was crushed. He wrote to fellow Christians back in England-“pray for Felix-he is shriveled from a missionary to an ambassador!” Felix’s wealth and position in the world led him to overspending and alcoholism. He had to resign in disgrace. He disappeared into the province of Assam, wandering and homeless for three years! The good news is he recovered. He returned to being a missionary. He finished well and had an impact for the gospel. Perhaps we need to write a letter to ourselves. “Pray for the 21st century Christian. He has shriveled from being a witness to a wanderer! From that Incredible Christian to that Incredible Shrinking Christian!” Unless we draw near unto our Lord; Unless we get our credible stature back in the eyes of the world-our Gospel will fall on deaf ears in these last days! Today’s message is about Understanding the Gospel in a Nutshell and striving together in applying the essentials needed for Impacting the World with the Gospel of Christ…and stop the shrinking!