Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Thoughts from a Friend

A friend of mine, Trent Cornwell, was talking with me today and I thought I would share some of the things we discussed. I pray they will challenge you as they did me.

Ignorant worship is worship prompted by the idea that God needs something from us. This is a huge mistake. When Jesus says in Luke 9:23 “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” There were men scared of denying themselves, others did not want to take up the cross, but the common denominator among these deserters is that they did not know the “ME” in “follow after me”.

God is self sufficient. Your view of who He is will be reflected in your challenge to the people during you missions presentation.

A.W. Tozer was the editor of Missionary Alliance which stirred 1,000’s of people to give their lives for the cause of missions service. Here are some of his words concerning our missionary presentations and the self sufficiency of God.

“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. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service from no higher motive then to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and his limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today.”

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