After the combine service on 21st Mar 2010, the youths had a time of quiet meditation and reflection as a cell at 5 different prayer stations situated in the church’s  main hall. Each cell spent 10-minute at each station. As prayer is one of the main focus of our church’ for the year,  the purpose of having 5 stations (as talking point)  is for youth cells to gather together to commune with God and to experience intimacy with the Lord in the midst of soft music and appropriate passages to meditate on. What did the 50 youths do? As a picture speaks volume  … here’s  some of the photos of that day  …

talkgpoint 1

talkgpoint 2

Salt & Light station:  challenging the youths  to be  salty Christians!

talkgpoint 3

talkgpoint 5

talkgpoint 6

Cross station: Jesus paid the price. Thank you Jesus, I’m free! Praise the Lord!

talkgpoint 7talkgpoint 8

Empty Tomb station: Quiet reflection on the fact that we serve a Risen Saviour! Hallelujah!

talkgpoint9talkgpoint 10

Jesus, the Life-giving Water station: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

talkgpoint 11  talkgpoint 13     aactalkgpoint17

Prayer Wall station: Written expressions of petitions, thanksgivings and praise to Jehovah.

talkgpoint 15talkgpoint 16

Cell members sharing their experiences at the end of  praying at the 5 stations.  Most feedback: Felt close to God;  Good time of  intimate commuion with God; Do have more of these experiential occasions.

posted by Ps Mary Tham

 

Filed under: General | Print this post |

The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Worship

by John Piper

worshipMissions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97:1). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Psalm 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!”, who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.

If the pursuit of God’s glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man’s good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!

Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Psalm 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claims upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.

Albert Einstein’s Indictment

worship1For example, Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein’s skepticism over the church with words that should waken us to the shallowness of our experience with God in worship.

“The design of the universe…is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preacher said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had every imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he’d run across did not have proper respect…for the author of the universe.”

The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn’t come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical “how to’s” and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality–the God of overwhelming greatness.

It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like , we neglect the one thing needful, and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful. A.W. Tozer warned us about this: “We commonly represent God as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. … Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God.”

Scientists know that light travels at the speed of 5.87 trillion miles in a year. They also know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is about 100,000 light-years in diameter–about five hundred eighty seven thousand trillion miles. It is one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes. In our galaxy there are about 100 billion stars. The sun is one of them, a modest star burning at about 6,000 degrees Centigrade on the surface, and traveling in an orbit at 155 miles per second, which means it will take about 200 million years to complete a revolution around the galaxy.

Scientists know these things and are awed by them. And they say, “If there is a personal God, as the Christians say, who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect and reverence and wonder and dread that would have to come through when we talk about him and when we worship him.”

We who believe the Bible know this even better than the scientists because we have heard something even more amazing:

“To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these (stars)? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:25-26)

Every one of the billions of stars in the universe is there by God’s specific appointment. He knows their number. And, most astonishing of all, he knows them by name. They do his bidding as his personal agents. When we feel the weight of this grandeur in the heavens, we have only touched the hem of his garment. “Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways! And how small a whisper do we hear of him” (Job 26-14). That is why we cry ‘Be exalted, O God, Above the heavens!’ (Psalm 57:5). God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with. Everything depends utterly on his will. All other realities compare to him like a raindrop compares to the ocean, or like an anthill compares to Mt. Everest. To ignore him or belittle him is unintelligible and suicidal folly. How shall one ever be the emissary of this great God who has not trembled before him with joyful wonder?

The Second Greatest Activity in the World

worshipThe most crucial issue in missions is the centrality of God in the life of the church. Where people are not stunned by the greatness of God, how can they be sent with the ringing message, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods!” (Psalm 96:4)? Missions is not first and ultimate: God is. And these are not just words. This truth is the lifeblood of missionary inspiration and endurance. William Carey, the father of modern missions, who set sail for India from England in 1793, expressed the connection:

“When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph.”

Carey and thousands like him have been moved by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.

God’s Passion for God Is the Foundation for Ours

worship3One of the things God uses to make this truth take hold of a person and a church is the stunning realization that it is also true for God himself. Missions is not God’s ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person’s heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head. And everything looks different–including the missionary enterprise.

The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in his own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God’s glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all his heart and soul and strength and mind he delights in the glory of his manifold perfections. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God’s heart.

This truth, more than any other I know, seals the conviction that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God’s passion for God fuels missions. Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God’s goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the Biblical record of God’s relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” (Psalm 117:1). If it is God’s goal it must be our goal.

The Chief End of God Is to Glorify God and Enjoy Himself For Ever

handsupAll my years of preaching and teaching on the supremacy of God in the heart of God have proved that this truth hits most people like a truck laden with unknown fruit. If they survive the impact, they discover that it is the most luscious fruit on the planet. I have unpacked this truth with lengthy arguments in other places. So here I will just give a brief overview of the Biblical basis. What I am claiming is that the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.” Question: “What is the chief end of God?” Answer: “The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself for ever.”

Another way to say it is simply, God is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is to value and enjoy what is not truly valuable or rewarding. This is why people are called unrighteous in Romans 1:18. They suppress the truth of God’s value and exchange God for created things. So they belittle God and discredit his worth. Righteousness is the opposite. It means recognizing true value for what it is and esteeming it and enjoying it in proportion to its true worth. The unrighteous in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 perish because they refuse to love the truth. The righteous, then, are those who welcome a love for the truth. Righteousness is recognizing and welcoming and loving and upholding what is truly valuable. God is righteous. This means that he recognizes, welcomes, loves and upholds with infinite jealousy and energy what is infinitely valuable, namely, the worth of God. God’s righteousness passion and delight is to display and uphold his infinitely valuable glory. This is not a vague theological conjecture. It flows inevitably from dozens of Biblical texts that show God in the relentless pursuit of praise and honor from creation to consummation.

Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly than Isaiah 48:9-11 where God says,

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

I have found that for many people these words come like six hammer blows to a man-centered way of looking at the world:

For my name’s sake! For the sake of my praise! For my own sake! For my own sake! How should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another!

What this text hammers home to us is the centrality of God in his own affections. The most passionate heart for the glorification of God is God’s heart. God’s ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name.

“For the Sake of His Name among All the Nations

worship4Paul makes crystal clear in Romans 1:5 that his mission and calling are for the name of Christ among all the nations: “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations.”

The apostle John described the motive of early Christian missionaries in the same way. He wrote to tell one of his churches that they should send out Christian brothers in a manner “worthy of God.” And the reason he gives is that “they have gone out for the sake of his name, taking nothing from the Gentiles.” ( 3 John 6-7).

John Stott comments on these two texts (Romans 1:5; 3 John 7): “They knew that God had superexalted Jesus, enthroning him at his right hand and bestowing upon him the highest rank, in order that every tongue should confess his lordship. They longed that Jesus should receive the honor due his name.” This longing is not a dream but a certainty. at the bottom of all our hope, when everything else has given way, we stand on this great reality: the everlasting, all- sufficient God is infinitely, unwaveringly, and eternally committed to the glory of his great and holy name. For the sake of his fame among the nations he will act. His name will not be profaned forever. The mission of the church will be victorious. He will vindicate his people and his cause in all the earth.

The absence of Brainerd’s passion for God is the great cause of missionary weakness in the churches. This was Andrew Murray’s judgement a hundred years ago:

“As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is–lack of heart. The enthusiasm of the kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King.”

The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzz words and cultural trends, then the people might begin to feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans.

The Call of God

God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be able to rise to the magnificence of the missionary cause who does not feel the magnificence of Christ. There will be no big world vision without a big God. There will be no passion to draw others into our worship where there is no passion for worship.

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of his name among the nations. Therefore let us bring our affections into line with his, and, for the sake of his name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts, and join his global purpose. If we do this, God’s omnipotent commitment to his name will be over us like a banner, and we will not lose, in spite of many tribulations (Acts 9:16; Romans 8:35-39). Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. The Great Commission is first to delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 37:4) . And then to declare, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Psalm 67:4). In this way God will be glorified from beginning to end and worship will empower the missionary enterprise till the coming of the Lord.

Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgements have been revealed. Revelation 15:3-4

This article is a compilation of excerpts from the first chapter of John Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad. Reprinted by permission of Baker Books. You may order the entire book from William Carey Library at the discount price of $8.50 ($7.13 when ordering 3 or more). Call 1-800-MISSION when using your credit card. Item BBH124-0

Filed under: General | Print this post |

When I was reading through Ben’s testimony, it really encouraged my heart. Hope his testimony would encourage the youths and young adults in their pursuit for God too!

Ben's Testimony

Filed under: Testimonies, Young Adults | Print this post |

By Floyd McClung

What is Apostolic Passion?

earthThe term “passion” is used to describe everything from romance to hunger pangs. I don’t know what it means to you, but for me passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for.  In fact, that’s the root meaning of the word. It comes from the Latin paserre, to suffer.  It is what you hunger for so intensely that you will sacrifice anything to have it.  The word “apostle” means a sent one, a messenger.  ”Apostolic Passion,” therefore, is a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations. It has to do with being committed to the point of death to spreading His glory. It’s the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of the whole earth being covered with the Glory of the Lord.

I know when apostolic passion has died in my heart. It happens when I don’t spend my quiet time dreaming of the time when Jesus will be worshiped in languages that aren’t yet heard in heaven.  I know it’s missing from my life when I sing about heaven, but live as if earth is my home.  Apostolic passion is dead in my heart when I dream more about sports, toys, places to

go and people to see, than I do about the nations worshiping Jesus.

I have lost it, too, when I make decisions based on the danger involved, not the glory God will get.  Those who have apostolic passion are planning to go, but willing to stay.  You know you have it when you are deeply disappointed that God has not called you to leave your home and get out among those who have never heard His name.  If you will not suffer and sacrifice for something, you are not passionate about it. If you say you will do anything for Jesus, but you don’t suffer for Him then you aren’t really passionate about Him and His purposes on earth.

If you don’t have it, how do you go about getting this thing called apostolic passion? Is it like ordering pizza at the door in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed? Is there an 800 number to call? Or better yet, just send us your special gift of $15 or more, and we’ll rush you some passion, express delivery, overnight mail. If you’re like me, you need help figuring out how to grow this thing called passion. I am motivated by reading how the apostle Paul got it. He chose it.

Paul says in Romans 15 that it is his ambition his passion, if you will to make Christ known. It began for him with a revelation of Jesus that he nurtured all his adult life.  Paul not only encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, he kept on meeting Jesus every day.  This revelation of Jesus, and his study of God’s purposes, gave birth to Paul’s apostolic passion.

Knowing Jesus and making Him known consumed the rest of Paul’s life.  He “gloried in Christ Jesus in his service to God” (Rom 15:17).  By comparison, everything else was dung, garbage, stinking refuse. Paul’s ambition was born from his understanding that God longed for His Son to be glorified in the nations. It was focused so that the “Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

Human enthusiasm cannot sustain apostolic passion. When God invests His own passion in you the desire to see His name glorified among all people you must build and develop what God has given you. Four things will help:

1.  Apostolic Abandonment

hands-worshipingToo many people want the fruit of Paul’s ministry without paying the price that Paul paid. He died. He died to everything. He died daily.  He was crucified with Christ. This strong-willed, opinionated man knew that he must die to self.  He knew that in his flesh, he couldn’t generate the revelation of Jesus; he couldn’t sustain the heart of Christ. So he died.  He abandoned his life. He abandoned himself.

We live in a world of competing passions.  If we do not die to self and fill our lives with the consuming passion of the worship of God in the nations, we will end up with other passions. It’s possible to deceive ourselves into thinking we have Biblical passions when, in reality, all we have done is to baptize the values of our culture and give them Christian names.  We will have chosen apostolic passion only when our hearts are filled with God’s desire for His Son to be worshiped in the nations.

May I encourage you, dear friend, to give up your life?  I challenge you to pray this prayer: “Lord, be ruthless with me in revealing my selfish ambition and my lack of willingness to die to myself.”  I guarantee that He will answer your prayer and quickly.

2.  Apostolic Focus

stayfocused2The greatest enemy of the ambition to see Jesus worshiped in the nations is lack of focus. You can run around expending energy on all sorts of good ministries, and not get one step closer to the nations.  I don’t have anything against all the projects and ministries out there God’s people do them, and I don’t question their obedience to God.  But the Church has an apostolic calling, an apostolic mission.  God has called us to the nations.  We must focus, or we won’t obey.

Focus on what?  I believe God wants a people for Himself.  Activity without a desire that God have a people for Himself is just activity not missions.  You can have evangelism without missions.  Short-term ministries are great, as long as they focus on raising up workers to plant churches.  You might say, “I’m not called to plant churches.”  Yes, you are!  It’s always the will of

God to have a people who worship His Son in the nations. You’ll never have to worry about making God mad if you try to plant a church. It seems crazy to me that people are under the delusion they need a special calling to save souls, to disciple them, and to get them together to love Jesus.  Whatever ministry you are with, you must understand one thing: church planting is not for us, it’s for God. We do it so God will have a people to worship Him!

3.  Apostolic Praying

PrayingHandsA young man in Bible school offered to help David Wilkerson years ago when he was ministering on the streets of New York City.  Wilkerson asked him how much time he spent in prayer.  The young student estimated about 20 minutes a day.  Wilkerson told him, “Go back, young man. Go back for a month and pray two hours a day, every day for 30 days.  When you’ve done that, come back.  Come back, and I might consider turning you loose on the streets where there is murder, rape, violence and danger.  If I sent you out now on 20 minutes a day, I’d be sending a soldier into battle without any weapons, and you would get killed.”

You can get into heaven, my friend, without a lot of prayer.  You can have a one-minute quiet time every day and God will still love you.  But you won’t hear a “well done, good and faithful servant” on one-minute conversations with God.  And you certainly can’t make it on that kind of prayer life in the hard places where Jesus is not known or worshiped.  Here’s a challenge for you: Read everything Paul says about prayer, then ask yourself, “Am I willing to pray like that?” Paul said that he prayed “night and day with tears without ceasing with thankfulness in the Spirit constantly boldly for godly sorrow against the evil one.”

4.  Apostolic Decision-Making

CROSSROAD 2If you live without a vision of the glory of God filling the whole earth, you are in danger of serving your own dreams of greatness, as you wait to do “the next thing” God tells you. There are too many over-fed, under-motivated Christians hiding behind the excuse that God has not spoken to them.  They are waiting to hear voices or see dreams all the while living to make money, to provide for their future, to dress well and have fun.

The Apostle Paul was guided by his passions. Acts 20 and 21 tell of his determination to go to Jerusalem despite his own personal anticipation of suffering, the warnings of true prophets, and the intense disapproval of his friends.  Why would Paul go against his own intuition let alone the urgings of prophets and weeping entreaties of close friends?  He had a revelation of greater priority, of greater motivation: the glory of God.

Apostolic decision-making starts with a passion for God’s glory in the nations, then asks: “Where shall I serve you?” Most people do the opposite. They ask the where-and-when questions without a revelation of His glory in the nations.  Is it any wonder they never hear God say “go!” They have not cultivated a passion for the passions of God.  All kinds of lesser desires can be holding them captive.  They might never realize it.

Present your gifts, vocations and talents to the Lord.  Press into God.  Stay there until you long to go out in His name.  Remain there and nurture the longing to see the earth bathed with His praise.  Only then will you be able to trust your heart if you hear God say, “stay.”  Only those who long to broadcast His glory to the nations have the right to stay.

If you have apostolic passion, you are one of the most dangerous people on the planet.  The world no longer rules your heart.  You are no longer seduced by getting and gaining but devoted to spreading and proclaiming the glory of God in the nations. You live as a pilgrim, unattached to the cares of this world.  You are not afraid of loss.  You even dare to believe you may be given the privilege of dying to spread His fame on the earth.  The Father’s passions have become your passions.  You find your satisfaction and significance in Him. You believe He is with you always, to the end of life itself. You are sold out to God, and you live for the Lamb. Satan fears you, and the angels applaud you.

Your greatest dream is that His name will be praised in languages never before heard in heaven. Your reward is the look of pure delight you anticipate seeing in His eyes when you lay at His feet and the just reward of His suffering: the worship of the redeemed.

You have apostolic passion!

Filed under: Articles, General | Print this post |

MARCH is a special month set aside for prayer for the Uighurs.  Right now there is a special prayer initiative going on (March 1-21) to raise up 500 hours of prayer for the Uighurs.  This initiative leads up to March 21st with the Annual Day of Prayer for the Uighurs on March 21st!  Please go to: www.pray4them.com for more information or to sign up for a prayer slot.

There is a big difference in the atmosphere in Urumqi (the capital of Xinjiang province in China) since the horrific events of last July.  The streets are empty, thousands of Uighurs have left Urumqi to return to their villages and there is much fear. And yet…this could be the perfect environment for God to move!  The political situation for the more than 10 Million Uighurs in China is very similar to the political situation that Jesus was born into 2000 years ago.  And yet, He came into the midst of that tumultuous situation with peace and hope and salvation.  He is the same today and wants to come to the Uighurs with the same promise of peace, hope and salvation!  Please pray for God to move amongst the Uighur people in a special way, drawing many to Christ!  Praise God for recent reports of Uighurs in the villages coming to Christ!   Continue to pray as well for Alimjan who has been given a 15 year prison sentence for his faith.&n! bsp; Pray for God to do a miracle and for this court decision to be overturned.  Pray for Alimjan and his wife and children to be strengthened and encouraged during this very difficult time.

Thank you for standing in the gap for the Uighurs!

Filed under: Prayer Concerns | Print this post |

prayer 2Prayer plays a key role in the Christian’s life. It is through prayer that we speak to God. As we present our requests to God we are admitting that we are too weak to do things by ourselves, and that we can only depend on God for everything.

We have seen in the past 3 sessions that evangelism is very close to God’s heart. He desires that all people to be saved, as 1 Tim 2:4 will tell us that “(God) who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”And who does He choose to use to share this wonderful gospel by which all man can be saved? Us, the unreliable human beings. Rom 10:14-15a tells us, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

Evangelism is definitely something we must depend on God for since it is Jesus who gave us the responsibility. And there are 2 things specific to evangelism that we should be praying for:
1. Pray that God sends people out
2. Pray for opportunities and that the speaker might be clear
Pray that God sends people out
“When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.’ ”(Matt 9:36-37)
Jesus saw that there was a need for people to be saved. His instruction regarding this need to the disciples was to pray prayer 1that God would send people to reach out to them. This instruction is very applicable to us today. There still are lots of people who are yet to know who Jesus is, and many of our friends, schoolmates and colleagues still do not know Jesus. We should pray that God would send people to reach out to them.
Pray for opportunities and that the speaker might be clear
“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison– that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” (Col 4:3-4)
This passage shows us that we should also pray for opportunities to share and that those who share would present the good news clearly. Right opportunities could be the time like when your friends are considering a religion or pondering about life. We’re told to pray that for such opportunities for our friends to be open to the good news. And once they are open, someone must tell them properly what Christianity is all about clearly.
I remember the first time I was doing street evangelism. The person I chose to share the gospel to happen to speak only in Chinese, and I was struggling to find the right words. Sometimes other things can get in the way of sharing the good news, like nervousness, forgetting certain details, our poor explanation skills, etc… It’s natural for people to make mistakes here and there; hence we should pray that those who share the gospel to do so in as clear a manner as possible. Like you can pray that those sharing won’t be nervous, that they’ll understand the good news sufficiently well, and that the presentation would be understandable.
Conclusion
But as to whether these non-Christians will believe in Jesus, that is not our role. Changing hearts is God’s job. We just make the environment conducive for the change through making friends and living wisely to those outside.
And as we pray for evangelism, we are changing our perspective to become more like God’s. As we pray, we would go out and share, we would be the ones seeking opportunities, and we would be the ones seeking to be clear in sharing the good news.

Filed under: Articles | Print this post |

Alpha from WorldRevivalPrayerFellowship on Vimeo.

Filed under: Announcements | Print this post |