In the past, God raised up outstanding preachers, missionaries and heroes of faith in this world. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhard Bonnke and Billy Graham.
Evangelists and Bible teachers are still important, but God's purpose is to equip completely unknown and seemingly ordinary people to establish His kingdom in the end times. God wants to work miracles through you and me.
History books tell us about great generals who won important battles, but who actually fought? The foot soldiers. Without foot soldiers, pilots, technicians or sailors, famous leaders are powerless.
A young Christian began to pray every morning at 6 o'clock in church. Gradually, other Christians came to pray with him. The Holy Spirit began to bless the entire congregation in a wonderful way.
A pastor had a desire to evangelise in his town. He wanted to preach on the radio, but he had little money. Someone in his congregation realised that the pastor needed a computer, and he gave the pastor his first computer. Now this preacher has a weekly radio program.
I was working in the garden recently. I hurt my back. In the middle of the night, I lay awake in bed. I prayed that Jesus would heal my back. I received an impulse from the Holy Spirit. I had to get up and anoint my own back with olive oil in the kitchen. I lay in bed for a few minutes and then obeyed. When I got up in the morning, my back was much better.
An Indian Christian woman had a friend who was Hindu. She invited her friend to attend her church service. The pastor gave the Hindu woman a New Testament and she read a little every evening. One evening, Jesus himself came into her bedroom and spoke to her. Then she was no longer Hindu.
A friendly invitation. A small gift. A wonderful visit from Jesus.
Jesus wants to use your small acts of obedience to save people.
What can you do today or this week? Move forward step by step.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9 NIV
Monday, July 14, 2025
Small Steps Great Blessings
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Friendly Mission Outreach
Jesus sent out 70 disciples to evangelise from village to village and from house to house.
He gave them a method of evangelism in the form of clear instructions.
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.
Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ Lk 10:5, 8-9 NIV
Probably you are not an elder and certainly you are not a Jew in New Testament times. So how can we apply the general principles behind this method of evangelism in our culture today?
In his excellent book on Prayer Evangelism, Ed Silvoso summarises the instructions of Jesus in four brief points.
- Speak peace to them.
- Fellowship with them.
- Take care of their needs.
- Proclaim the good news.
Speak peace. Have fellowship.
Approach neighbours and workmates with an open, friendly attitude. Don’t be religious or preachy.
Paul said he tried to be all things to all men, to meet and accept people as they are.
Tony Campolo is an American preacher who wanted to reach out to teenage prostitutes. He invited a group of them to his room, paid for their time and entertained them with milkshakes and kind conversation, loving them as a father.
Take care of their needs.
If a homeless beggar asks for money, I sometimes buy them some food, and if possible, have a friendly conversation.
My wife had a lot of contact with Muslim immigrants through her work. She often made friends with them and when they told her about their needs, she prayed for them. Sometimes she would see wonderful answers to prayer.
Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.
My wife and I make friends with our neighbours. Often they have serious health problems and we pray for them. In situations like this, I often share my testimony of answered prayers for healing.
I am 76. When I talk to people of my generation, I tell them we are approaching the end of our lives. I tell them I believe in Jesus and I am not afraid of dying, because I will go to heaven with Jesus.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Loving Words are Powerful
We are all called and destined to serve Jesus. A servant is one who serves. God is love. Anyone who receives God's love and passes it on with practical love is a follower of Jesus and a servant of God.
Practical help without respect and compassion is not love. There is a poisonous compassion without respect and genuine love by looking down on miserable people. Jesus never treated his fellow human beings like this.
No ordained ministry position enables you to serve Jesus and your fellow human beings. Only the love of God can enable you to help people and please God.
Anyone who follows Jesus with love and wants to help people must cultivate loving thoughts in their soul and always speak encouraging words. Words can kill or give life.
Between 1982 and 2000 there was a great revival in Argentina. Christians organised a Jesus march in a large city.
Homosexual activists also came to protest against the Christians.
The leaders of the Jesus March prayed for wisdom from God. Then something amazing happened. The Christians approached the homosexuals and asked for forgiveness for the cruel treatment of homosexuals by many Christians.
The homosexuals felt the true love of God and some converted to Jesus.
I know Christian women in Germany who visited brothels to help prostitutes. Their motivation was compassion and kindness. One prostitute went to the cinema with one of the Christian women. In the middle of a very secular film, the prostitute shouted out loud.
‘Now I believe in Jesus.’
She had heard the kind words of the Christian women that came from the heart and she felt the love of God.
So should we throw away the Bible? By no means, but we must learn to apply the Bible as the words of a loving and merciful God.
If you understand the Bible as a strict law book, you must ask the Holy Spirit to read the Bible with new eyes.
We find truth in the Bible. Greed, sexual debauchery, lies and hatred are forbidden, but in the Bible we see how Jesus loved the thieves and prostitutes and wanted to help them with deep compassion.
A woman had her baby aborted. Then she received a letter from a religious Christian woman. She read that she would end up in hell because of the murder of her baby. This letter did not come from God's heart.
A missionary, preaching with God's love, told the women that they would see their deceased babies again in God's heaven if they believed in Jesus. That was the truth, but not the truth that kills, but the truth that leads to life.
The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Pr 18:21 NLT
The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Lk 6:45 NRSV
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps 139:23–24 NIV
Sunday, May 23, 2021
God's Way Out for Traumatised Victims
In the decades after the war, there were Jews who could not bear to hear the German language.
Some people were so traumatised as children that they never want to marry. Some become homosexuals; others live in de-facto relationships. Others run away as teenagers and become homeless.
There are also many Christians who are so manipulated and disrespected in churches that they often feel threatened in church services.
God has given us homeland, family, marriage and church, but when these gifts of God are corrupted by lust for power, there are countless victims who find life unbearable.
My wife and I were in a wonderful church for about ten years. Many loved God with a good heart. Many reached out to people on the streets.
Everyone was welcome: homeless, witches, prostitutes, it didn't matter.
Some New Age people came to seek God, others came to practice witchcraft against us, but the Christians prayed with power and authority so that the devil could not gain the upper hand.
Such a situation can become chaotic. There are some communities where the leaders are harsh rulers, perhaps out of greed for power, or perhaps out of fear of chaos.
Our pastor often said it was easer for him to control people than to lead free people, but he was determined to respect everybody's freedom.
Paul also believed in freedom. He was extremely critical of preachers who wanted to rule harshly. He told the Christians in Corinth not to submit to such leadership.
You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20 NLT
Paul not only criticised the arrogant preachers for their cruelty, but also submissive Christians, for their obedience.
Cruel abuse of authority wreaks havoc. Many women and men want nothing more to do with God or the church because of severe Christian parents, teachers or preachers.
A good preacher told how she was out on the streets proselytising among prostitutes. Quite a few young women on the street came from devout Christian families.
How can we win the traumatised victims for Jesus?
Our role model is Jesus. He preached very hard against the sins of the arrogant religious leaders, but he was gentle and kind with the despised sinners.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ Luke 7:34 NIV84
Are you yourself badly hurt, rejected and traumatised? Do you need to submit again to escape God's judgement? Many wrestle with such terrifying thoughts.
God's ways for you are quite different. He wants to welcome you kindly and help you with gentleness.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
THE POWER OF PEACE
James 3:17 (ESV) But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
The peace of God is a lovely thing. It is full of kindness and understanding. God enables us to be tolerant and reasonable with most unreasonable people.
Jesus taught us to maintain our dignity when provoked and insulted but not to respond to arrogant aggression in the same aggressive spirit.
Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT) “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.
Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
The peace of God is holy.
When you live and move in the peace of God, you are like Jesus Himself, who was and is gentle and kind but never at the expense of holiness and truth.
There are Christians who campaign against abortion who have no peace in their hearts. They threaten abortionists with violence and right angry letters to women, accusing them of murdering their unborn babies and condemning them to hell fire.
There are other believers who minister the peace and holiness of Jesus.
An evangelist addresses women by telling them their aborted babies are in heaven and then tells them how to repent and be reconciled to God and reunited to their own children who have gone to heaven before them.
The peace of God is not weak but strong like the water of a great river, the River of God that flows from heaven and cascades down upon the thirsty earth.
Isaiah 44:3 (NKJV) For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;
Revelation 22:1 (NLT) Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)
This River is a manifestation of the Spirit of God Himself who is the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of peace.
Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ...
John 7:37-39 (NKJV) On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
OUT OF YOUR BELLY WILL FLOW RIVERS ...