Monday, April 16, 2012

The Day is Nigh

After what seemed like an eternity, the hour of my departure to Kenya is at hand. The time has flown to where we are nearing the Seminar and Open-Air meetings. The local organizing pastor John Juma has called me several times over the past few weeks. The pastors who will be attending the Seminars and supporting the Outreach are very excited and motivated.  This excitement also floods my heart and moves me with emotion that an opportunity is made for the Lord God Almighty to move as only He can, liberating the captives, breaking the chains asunder, releasing His Power to save millions across the nations of Africa.

Child of God, have you sat back and just allowed the Spirit of God to lay a burden for the lost on your heart? A burden for the millions and millions all over the world who have never heard this glorious message of Hope and Salvation through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, God's sacrificial Lamb, who gave His life on Calvary so that all who believe on Him shall not perish but have life everlasting? Millions slipping into eternity even as I type this blog entry. People who have longed for a Redeemer, a God that can save them from their peril, save them from a Christless eternity but never had a Bible in his own language? Never heard the Gospel message preached? Never heard the Gospel over the radio?. As they face death and the very thought of an eternity without God, Without Hope, without Grace, without the knowledge that they have been purchased at a price, saved and set free through Jesus Christ but have not met Him nor has the Truth shone in their hearts, fear grips their hearts? A Christless grave and an eternity without a second chance. How can they hear this message of the Greatest Love without a preacher, how can one preach if he is not sent? How can he answer the call to go if no-one calls or sends? Oh God, please call men and women to be witnesses for the Gospel of Christ, men and women who will not count their lives dear but willingly accept that this Gospel may require them to be Martyred, imprisoned, beaten, bruised, stoned to death, all for the Gospel? Reader, what is your answer? If the question that is posed to Bible students in Asia when they graduate from Bible College was posed to you, what would your reply be? They are asked: "When you leave this College as a minister or worker and you are to be beaten, stoned to death, jailed or martyred, what will you do? Will you willing go to serve Him who called you to His Gospel? You guessed right. They answer: "I will be obedient to the Master's Voice and answer the call. If it costs my life to see souls saved, I will willingly pay that price!" Will you? Will I?

When talking of the lost, I am not even talking about the millions of people living in the Westernised world where the Gospel message has no more impact on the souls of a Christ-denying generation. A generation who have seen the miracles, heard hundreds of sermons, who have been challenged with the Gospel so many times to accept Christ as their Saviour and not done so. The many so-called "Christians", who numbing their cold consciences by attending a church service every now and then but not walking in a relationship with the Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ. Imbibing in bouts of drunken frenzy, using the Name of the Saviour of the world as a curse and swear word, joking about Christ Jesus, God the Father, The Holy Spirit, The church, Christianity and the ministers of our day. I realise that the lives of these men and women to whom the Gospel message has been entrusted, lived in  a fashion that brought disrepute against the aforementioned, that it has become just that. A joke with no impact.
I would ask you to read the book written by David Wilkinson, author of "The Cross and the Switch-blade", about "Sipping Saints." A book written without pulling punches but addressing the sad dilemma of the Church of our hour. So many vices practised by the very men and women who are to an example of the Love and Life of Christ to the world, found gambling, whether at casino's or the Lottery, placing horse-racing bets, bound by pornography, having easy access via the Internet in the privacy of their homes, many Christians, ministers, elders, members all ogling hours on end of the lustful pictures, ensnaring themselves in the spider's web of lust. Spending hours on the Internet but just a few minutes to prepare sermons that do not touch on the needs of the millions of lost souls and we wonder why revival tarries. The Prayer closets are  empty and silent. No tears shed over the situation of the lost. Prayer meetings are Bitter meetings. Bitter because no-one has the spirit of prayer to quicken the meetings. No sir, I am speaking of the lost in the 10/20 window, There where the Hindu's, Tamil's and many Asians live where millions of demi-gods are served, where the Gospel is needed. What are we going to do? Sit back and sing "I am on my way to Heaven, singing, singing, always singing, I am on my way to Heaven" or will the Holy Ghost today warm your heart to repent of our "attitude of taking everything for granted" and not being involved in the misitry to reach the unreached?


Afrikaans-speaking Churches in South Africa advertise the Prayer Meeting as "Biduur", which when  translated means Prayer Hour but we sing for half hour, someone preaches between 20 - 30 minutes then we pray for 5 minutes and sing another chorus or two before closing the meeting. What has happened to the Early Church type All Night Prayer Meetings?  My God, we need to be quickened by the Spirit of God, that You can once more visit the Body of Christ with Anointing, Power and Revival.

Children have access to this smut and filth without parental guidance and intervention. Left to themselves with a "bribe" of money to allow the parents time-out, these children are pulled into the deep dark underworld of these vices. Drugs, orgies, drunkenness, revelling, lustful teenagers and younger are drawn further away from God, by being swallowed up in sin. Fathers and mothers who are not examples of God-fearing, praying and clean-living men and women of God. Without examples, what must the children follow. They are tired of seeing the hypocrite parents crying and praying in the services but living a double life outside the walls of the sanctuary.  
Youth meetings fail to attract the crowds because the churches do not have a message that is relevant to the needs of the young people. Drive past churches in your neighbourhood on a Sunday evening. Some churches have even closed the Sunday evening services because of the lack of interest by the flocks of those churches. Where is the anguish of the Prayers of Christ in Gethsemane? What of the Supreme Price of Golgotha? The agony of feeling alone on the cross of shame where Jesus the Son of God cried out: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabagtani! My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" His precious Life-Blood that stained the wooden cross, the earth around the cross, all shed for you and I also the billions-upon-billions who would come to God through this sacrifice, being reconciled through the death on the cross. Was it all in vain? Are we who have the Truth, that "...no man cometh to the Father but by Me" and '...that all who believe on Him shall have Life everlasting" not going to be moved to be a disciple of Christ, worthy of this Gospel? Are these just words that we learn to recite at Sunday School without any true meaning to you and I? The millions behind the Iron and Bamboo curtains, in Communistic and Muslim-governed countries hear these word and respond to them by accepting Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They know the reality and the cost associated with their decision. They are prepared to suffer for this wonderful Gospel that set them free.

Years ago, I remember an elderly couple visited our church in the city of Welkom in the Orange Free States Province in South Africa. The old man's suit was worn and faded but clean. His old wife did not have shiny clothes or jewellery on, her long greying hair tied back in a bun. The couple requested to render an item. The pastor almost refused but then looked past their outward appearance and afforded them the opportunity. When the time came, they stepped up the platform with reverence. I was seated on the platform next to the office bearers and pastor. As the old man took his old violin out of it's case and placed the bow on the strings, we felt the presence and anointing of God fill that platform They started singing a song I had never heard before. As they harmonized the words hit home. Tears were flowing down almost every person in the meeting's cheeks. I vaguely remember the words as they sang the 4 verses, as we never sang that song in any church I had visited in our denomination. I have taught many churches the chorus in many meetings I have held:

"It's dripping with Blood, yes, dripping with Blood,
This Holy Ghost Gospel is dripping with Blood
The blood of disciples, who died for the Truth
This Holy Ghost Gospel is dripping with Blood"

Throughout the centuries, all from John the Baptist as the first man to die for this Holy Ghost Truth right up to today where men and women still lay down their lives for this Truth, the blood cries from the earth to God, the price of Salvation is paid in Blood.

I have been invited to minister in Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan (98% Muslim and the 2% make up all the other religions), in Ghana, Cameroon and Liberia. These are but a few of the places to reach in 2012. Without your prayers to support me I cannot achieve what the Lord has planned for me. What I am to expect I do not know. This has not been revealed to me but I am willing to fulfil the call of God even at a price. It is no longer I who liveth but Christ who liveth in me. All I ask reader, brother, sister, if God lays or ministry on your heart to support us through prayers and financial offerings, please be obedient. In thus doing, you will have part in the Harvest of precious souls who come to know Christ through a minister who maybe was born again in one of the meetings, accepted the call of God, prepared themselves and led many souls to Christ. In whatever way you contributed to this ministry, part of that harvest is for your account in heaven. He went where we could not.

Would you be able to sing this old chorus?

"Please Lord use me, yes Lord don't refuse me
for surely there's a work that I can do
Even though I stumble, Lord teach me to be humble
and whate'er the cost I'll work for you"

God is calling in this dark hour for labourers in the Vineyard, in the fields of the world. Listen carefully. They resound down the ages - "Go ye into all the world..." "Go ye..."Go ye..."

The Heading of this post says "The Day Is Nigh" and it is true in many ways. The Day for Africa is nigh, the day for Africa to have God usher in a revival is nigh. The Day of the Return Of The Lord Jesus Christ Is Nigh. The Day For My Journey To Kenya Is Nigh. I have answered: "Here am I lord, send me..." Will you help me to go and be obedient to the Divine Call?

Blessings

No comments: