"If we have known Jesus Christ for years, and have not been able to introduce an anxious soul to Him, there has been something wrong somewhere. If we were full of grace, we should be ready for any call that came to us......No man can tell what he can do until he moves forward. If we do this in the name of God, instead of there being a few scores or hundreds converted, there will be thousands flocking into the Kingdom of God.
Remember that we honour God when we ask for great things. It is a humiliating thing to think that we are satisfied with very small things."
D.L. Moody [Daily Gems selected by his daughter - October 23.]
Troubled in soul
Scanning through this old book yesterday I found myself highly challenged by the above quote. I have not known 'results' from personal evangelism & can only think of one time when I perhaps was used to point an anxious soul to Christ.
I had been bored at a social & decided to slip out quietly while friends enjoyed themselves, and so set off on a walk around the town it was in. I was approached by a drunk who asked if I had been at the Christmas social. This man became sober as we talked & we prayed together, after about an hour he left with the words "my mum", (a Christian, he had told me) "is going to get the best Christmas present she could want."
We did not share addresses or numbers so I've often wondered what came of this guy.
But that's it, in the years I've been following Jesus that is the highlight of pointing anxious souls to Christ... Pitiful!
Don't get me wrong, I know that many countless souls are being changed as a result of the literature I'm, by God's grace, involved in printing & distributing with Every Home Crusade. But I've greatly struggled in one-to-one or street evangelism, not that I haven't done it, but that I have not seen fruit.
'Anxious'
Tim kindly pointed out a word in D.L Moody's statement above that challenged me even further; the word 'anxious'!
In one sense this was encouraging, in that in the efforts I have made in the past toward seeking lost souls were general & the above example I've given was the only occasion I remember meeting someone who was seriously anxious over their souls. At first that brought a bit of peace to my troubled thoughts, but with more thought came more trouble.
'Why aren't people 'anxious' over their souls?'
I began thinking about why people aren't anxious over their souls & really the only answer that came was back on my own head:
I am not altogether anxious for their souls, and if I, being a Christian, am not anxious for a lost soul then how can that lost soul know its state & become anxious? I am not praying for the lost, certainly not praying as I ought to with a sense of the weight of urgent need that they are in as they face the holy wrath of almighty God. I am not eagerly, zealously & fervently seeking after anxious souls.
What now?
I know that these are areas that I must repent in, pray through & actively seek to change in. I also know that there's no quick fix scheme, it will be hard work & will only come by the grace of God. But with literature around me here in EHC that is written by or about many guys like Moody, Spurgeon, Luther etc it is clear that God is calling His people to radical pursuit of the Kingdom & of the lost, to bring them into the Kingdom of God.
We are told in James 5 that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, & it didn't rain for 3 years & 6 months. He then prayed again that it would rain, and it did. What if we, with our nature, having the Spirit of God were to fervently pray for the lost?
If change doesn't come in my life, in these & many other areas; it's my fault!
I had been bored at a social & decided to slip out quietly while friends enjoyed themselves, and so set off on a walk around the town it was in. I was approached by a drunk who asked if I had been at the Christmas social. This man became sober as we talked & we prayed together, after about an hour he left with the words "my mum", (a Christian, he had told me) "is going to get the best Christmas present she could want."
We did not share addresses or numbers so I've often wondered what came of this guy.
But that's it, in the years I've been following Jesus that is the highlight of pointing anxious souls to Christ... Pitiful!
Don't get me wrong, I know that many countless souls are being changed as a result of the literature I'm, by God's grace, involved in printing & distributing with Every Home Crusade. But I've greatly struggled in one-to-one or street evangelism, not that I haven't done it, but that I have not seen fruit.
'Anxious'
Tim kindly pointed out a word in D.L Moody's statement above that challenged me even further; the word 'anxious'!
In one sense this was encouraging, in that in the efforts I have made in the past toward seeking lost souls were general & the above example I've given was the only occasion I remember meeting someone who was seriously anxious over their souls. At first that brought a bit of peace to my troubled thoughts, but with more thought came more trouble.
'Why aren't people 'anxious' over their souls?'
I began thinking about why people aren't anxious over their souls & really the only answer that came was back on my own head:
What now?
I know that these are areas that I must repent in, pray through & actively seek to change in. I also know that there's no quick fix scheme, it will be hard work & will only come by the grace of God. But with literature around me here in EHC that is written by or about many guys like Moody, Spurgeon, Luther etc it is clear that God is calling His people to radical pursuit of the Kingdom & of the lost, to bring them into the Kingdom of God.
We are told in James 5 that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, & it didn't rain for 3 years & 6 months. He then prayed again that it would rain, and it did. What if we, with our nature, having the Spirit of God were to fervently pray for the lost?
If change doesn't come in my life, in these & many other areas; it's my fault!
