When asking people to church or church functions, chill out about it. Don’t get too intense. Use the Bambi approach, not the Rambo approach.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
All posts by SandyM
My Purpose
“My purpose in life is to go to heaven and take as many people as possible with me.”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Aug 97 Magazine, J.John, D.L. Moody
Lost Child
Imagine my wife and I go to Sherward forest for a day’s picnic. At the end of the day, we are packing up and realise we only have one of our sons with us. We’ve lost the other two. “Oh no! What shall we do? Let’s go and look for them.”
We go back into the forest and hunt all over the forest. We find one of them and say, “Oh well, at least we have found one. Let’s go! We lost two, we got one back. You lose 100%, you get 50% back – that’s the way life is. Win some lose some.”
NO! What would we do? We would go back into the forest and we’d search for our lost son until we found our son, alive or dead. We wouldn’t stop.
That’s the heart that the church needs to have as part of this whole thing of being outward looking, to have a heart for the lost. I am not saying that every minute of every hour of every day, we are out seeking the lost, but if that’s the heart of the church, then its troops are going to be active at different times and different places doing this.
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
People Watch
John Wesley was asked, “Why are people drawn to you?” and he replied, “When you set yourself on fire, people will come and watch you burn.”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Being Outward Looking
Sometimes we have the impression that being outward looking means that you put the sign of the fish on your car. All unbelievers who see the fish on the car think we belong to an angling society.
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Commands Obeyed
If there is one commandment that christians have kept, one commandment of Christ that christians have really followed, it is Jesus’ admonition to three disciples, “See that you tell no-one!”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Arctic Rivers
Many christians today are like artic rivers; they are frozen at the mouth. And many christians today have a ‘Private and confidential’ lable over their faith.
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
God Insists
C.S. Lewis said: “God will insist in saving people by means of which I do not aprove.”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Beggars Together
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
Starfish On The Beach
The story was told about two men walking down a Mexican beach, talking with one another. They could see a man in the distance throwing something into the ocean. As they got closer, they saw that he was bending over, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean. The closer they got they noticed that he was one of the natives.
There were starfish on the beach which were left by the outgoing tide. The native was throwing them out where they could swim away. One of the two men asked, “What are you doing?” The man replied, “I am throwing the starfish back out to sea. If they don’t get back into the deeper water, they will die.” The other man replied, “I understand that part, but look at this beach. It is covered with starfish. There must be thousands stranded out here. How do you feel that this will make a difference?”
The native bent over, picked up another starfish, hurled him out to sea, and with a smile on his face said, “Made a difference to that one!”
There are thousands who need the Lord and need the care of Christians. Each one of us can “make a difference” to someone.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Comfortable In The Pigpen
In our quest to reach people for Christ, we must caution ourselves to never compromise the gospel’s standards in order to accommodate those people who are not interested in repentance. Billy Graham’s sentiments on this concern are most appropriate: “We are dangerously near to saying to the prodigal son, ‘It is not necessary to return to your father and home; we can make you comfortable in the pigpen.'”
Quoted from the Sermon Fodder Email List
What Does The Church Exist For?
“The Church is the only institution that exists for those who are not yet its members.”
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-1944
Evangelize or fossilize
The law of any church is, and always will be, evangelize or fossilize.
Master’s Card
There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s Master card. I’m sure you’ve all received their applications in the mail.
However, I’m here to advertise a different card. You see, my life is a product for others to see. I’m a card carrying representative for The Master’s Card. That’s right, The MASTER’S CARD.
**Let me tell you about it.**
There are no finance charges, no payments due. My bill has already been covered…it’s a prepaid deal. I couldn’t afford the price, so Jesus stepped in and paid it for me.
My name is written on the card for all to see. It is accessible twenty-four hours a day from anywhere in the world. The MASTER’S CARD has so many benefits it’s hard to list them all. Let me share some of them with you… you might want to apply for a personal card yourself.
Just for starters there is:
**UNLIMITED GRACE.
That’s right, there is no preset limit to the amount of grace you receive from the MASTER’S CARD. Have you been looking for love in all the wrong places? Then, look no farther than The MASTER’S CARD. It offers the greatest rate on love that has ever been offered.
The MASTER’S CARD gives you access to many “members only” benefits. Want real joy despite the difficulties of life? Apply for the MASTER’S CARD. Want a lasting peace? Apply for the MASTER’S CARD. Looking for something you can always rely on in a jam? The MASTER’S CARD is perfect for you.
Another great thing about The MASTER’S CARD is that it never expires and will never be canceled. Once you’re a member, you’re a member for life… eternal life, that is. Membership has its privileges, you know.
So why not apply today? It’s only a prayer away…..
Catherine Majorfor Quoted from Cybersaltlists.org email list
Better To Do Something Than Nothing
One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody’s reply was “I agree with you.I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?”
The lady replied, “I don’t do it.”
Moody retorted “I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it”
Quoted from Pulpit Pieces Weekly email list
Father’s In Faith
If a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow. If the mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a 17 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow.
But if the father is first, there is a 93 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow, according to figures from Focus on the Family. Yet out of the 94 million men in the U.S., 68 million don’t attend any church, although 85 percent of those say they did grow up with some sort of church background.
Statistics from Focus on the Family Publishing, “Promise Keepers at Work.”
See http://www.baptistpress.com/bpnews.asp?ID=15630
Too Long To Wait
A troop of Boy Scouts was being used as “guinea pigs” in a test of emergency systems. A mock earthquake was staged, and the Scouts impersonated wounded persons who were to be picked up and cared for by the emergency units.
One Scout was supposed to lie on the ground and await his rescuers, but the first-aid people got behind schedule, and the Scout lay “wounded” for several hours.
When the first-aid squad arrived where the casualty was supposed to be, they found nothing but a brief note:
“Have bled to death and gone home.”
Only in games and tests can we delay helping the lost.
Quoted from www.cybersalt.org email list
Spurgeon’s Heart
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
Charles Spurgeon – Quoted from the Sermon Fodder email list
You don’t even know your way to the post office
The Rev. Billy Graham tells of at time early in his career when he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon.
Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy told him, Rev. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to Heaven.”
“I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said.
“You don’t even know your way to the post office.”
Quoted from funny(at)net153.com email list
Honk If You Love Jesus
The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, am I glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed!
I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is… and I didn’t notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn’t honked, I’d never have noticed!
I found that LOTS of people love Jesus! Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, “For the love of GOD! GO! GO! …Jesus Christ, GO!” What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus!
Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!
There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a “sunny beach”… I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. then I asked my teenage son in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I’ve never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My son burst out laughing…why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.