Psalm 23

John 3.16

You Can Make an Eternal Difference!

Made this video last week… the week before Easter…

What Will Bring Revival? It’s Really Quite Simple…

Now that I’ve been a Christian for 29 years as well as a pastor for 21 years, I have seen a lot of trends in American Christianity over the past few decades. One of the more disappointing trends has been the amount of hype surrounding certain books, movies, conferences, movements, Bible studies, and, even, “revivals.” I cannot recall how many times a of these various mediums were going to possibly usher in a revival which would transform our nation.

Let me mention a few examples. From each of these examples, God has certainly done a whole lot. People have been saved. Lives have been changed. I do not want to minimize that fact. Praise the Lord for how He used these tools to reach people!

In each of these cases I can recall Christian people enthusiastically suggesting, or hoping, that this particular “thing” would be the catalyst for national revival or spiritual awakening.

(1) 1990… A Bible Study… “Experiencing God” featured the teaching of Henry Blackaby, and consisted of a VHS video series matched with a workbook. The premise of the study is to find out where God is at work and to join Him there. Excellent counsel! But national revival from the study itself? Twenty-five years and counting… not yet.

Back Home: Death in a Coal Mine

I was saddened this week to read about a young man getting killed in an accident at a coal mine in my home county back in southern Illinois. It brought back memories for me. When most people think about coal mines, they usually think about West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. I’ve learned that many people don’t realize that southern Illinois has one of the richest coal mining veins in the United States.

I can remember as a young boy going to spend the night at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Grandpa coming home from finishing the 2nd shift. He’d wake me up so I could join him for a midnight snack in the kitchen: Pringles and a bottle of cold Mountain Dew.

My Grandpa is in the middle. Grandpa would shower before our “midnight snack” in the kitchen.

I also remember in grade school getting news of a classmate’s Dad being killed in the mine. One of my Dad’s best buddies had his face crushed in mine accident. Several surgeries were required to reconstruct his face. One of my best friends spent several weeks in a hospital recuperating after nearly dying in a coal mining accident.

Christians, Tipping, and Leaving Tracts

Seven of our church members went to the Jacksonville Landing this evening to share the Good News of Christ. Michael talked to a server who was on a break, offering him a Gospel tract. He said he already had several of them…because Christians left as tips. Michael sought clarification, asking, “People leave them as tips or with tips?” The answer? Both.

I said to Michael, “Kind of makes you want to say to someone like that, ‘On behalf of all the lame Christians out there who aren’t representing Christ very well, I want to apologize.'”

Please, don’t ever leave a Gospel tract without a generous tip. Leaving Gospel tracts in the place of money for tips is scandalous, an embarrassment to the Christian community...even if the service is sub-par or bad. Think about this, God demonstrated His love toward us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…the just for the unjust, the godly for the ungodly. Even if a server is rude and not helpful, to bless them with a generous tip is acting very God-like, displaying love toward someone who has not earned it or in any way made you feel like being generous. That’s grace.

From Daytona to Toronto to Indonesia

Powerful story about a freshman in college who overcame his fears and shared the Gospel on the beach in Daytona:

I was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.

If it had been one year earlier I would have been at Daytona Beach to join in the partying. As it was, God had intervened mercifully in my life before going to college, and I was there for a beach evangelism project. Christians sure know how to almost have fun.

A bunch of us had driven down from Philadelphia in an old van. The first night I ended up staying alone in an isolated motel room surrounded by drunk bikers partying outside my door. One night a homeless man who seemed to be high on drugs approached our group while we were out walking and said, “I know who you are!  You’re here to tell us about Jesus!”

Read the rest HERE.

Faithful Witness: Don’t Give Up, God is at Work!

Faithful Gospel preaching in this era of spiritual apathy requires faith and patience. Two stories from the past will encourage the faithful witness.

First, a story from the ministry of John Flavel (1628-1691). Robert Murray M’Cheyne reports of how a 15 year old American immigrant named Luke Short heard Flavel preach a message on 1 Corinthians 16.22: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maranatha!” Short was not a Christian at the time, nor was he for the next 85 years. But at the age of 100, he reflected on the memory of that sermon and was converted! Of course, Flavel was already in glory with the Savior at that point.

The second story is not of a pastor but a layman who loved Jesus and proclaimed him faithfully through personal witnessing on a street in Sydney, Australia:

Lebron’s Big Decision

Here’s a different angle on the Lebron story…my angle.

Legitimate Way to Increase Church Attendance?

Like many churches, we had an attendance boost yesterday. But Bay Area Fellowship of Corpus Christi, Texas, drew more than 3 times it’s average Sunday attendance yesterday with more than 23,000 in attendance on multiple campuses. The secret?  They gave away new cars, new appliances, and many other door prizes:

The multimillion dollar giveaway attracted nationwide attention, not all of it positive. The church was criticized for promoting consumerism and bribing people to come to church for prizes. Besides the eye-popping large prizes, the church gave away 15,000 prize packs with coupons for free goods and services such as a chiropractic exam, Hooks baseball tickets, a week’s membership to Gold’s Gym and a night’s stay for dogs at the Pooch Pad.

Cornelius used humor to deal with the backlash.

‘People used to get on us for asking for money. Now, they’re getting onto us for giving money away,” Cornelius said to laughter from the crowd. “I don’t know what to do.'”

What’s your thoughts on this?  Is this a legitimate way to increase the flock?  Does this methodology, in your opinion, match up with the way Jesus Christ ministered to the masses during His three year public ministry during His incarnation? At what point does a “whatever it takes” mentatlity toward reaching souls cross the line into compromising the message via the method?

By the way, we gave away books at Harvest Jacksonville yesterday. Each household received a free copy of John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die. Additional copies were available for $0.50 per book.