The Difference Maker’s Conference is this weekend

March 12 & 13
Cornerstone Baptist Church
Lawson, MO

For more information: DMC 2010

I don’t believe that face to face proclamation of the Gospel should ever be abandoned. Declaring the Gospel to thousands or one on one is the model of obedience to the Great Commission. Most often that is done in person, face to face, but living in the 21st century provides us with additional tools to reach people. Those people may be your neighbors or your close friends. But by God’s grace, with internet access and some basic skills, you can make contact with people across the country and all over the world. It’s scary and exciting all rolled into one.

When I was trying to decide how to share the Gospel on the internet, I found the Internet Evangelism Day website helpful. It offers ideas on how to get started; either as an individual or as a group ministry. Although I don’t agree with some of the content of the Gospel presentations, the site does provide good information regarding the operation of blogs, church websites, social media, podcasts, etc.

Internet Evangelism Day is an annual focus day for churches. This year, it is scheduled for Sunday April 25. It’s an opportunity for any church to explore with its members the opportunities for sharing the good news online. Perhaps surprisingly, you do not need to be technical to share your faith online. You can even volunteer to be an email mentor to inquirers with several large online outreach ministries.

Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton.

More information: http://www.InternetEvangelismDay.com

The God of Scripture can only be known by those to whom He makes Himself known.

Nor is God known by the intellect. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), and therefore can only be known spiritually. But fallen man is not spiritual, he is carnal. He is dead to all that is spiritual. Unless he is born again supernaturally brought from death unto life, miraculously translated out of darkness into light, he cannot even see the things of God (John 3:3), still less apprehend them (1 Cor. 2:14). The Holy Spirit has to shine in our hearts (not intellects) in order to give us “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). And even that spiritual knowledge is but fragmentary. The regenerated soul has to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus (2 Pet. 3.18).

The principal prayer and aim of Christians should be that we “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).

A.W. Pink
The Attributes of God

Here God speaks to Ezekiel and declares Ezekiel’s responsibility to speak God’s warning to the Israelites.

18 “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
19 “Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.
20 “Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.
21 “However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”  Ezekiel 3:18-21 NASB-

This is sobering when we apply this principle to ourselves. If you are a believer, you have the saving knowledge of the Gospel message. Within that biblical message there is a warning.  A person must be born again otherwise he will not see the kingdom of God (John 3:3) and there is a day of judgment coming (Revelation 20:11-15). But if you do not declare that message to those that are perishing, you bear a level responsibility for their fate. Matthew Henry says regarding this passage: “And, if it contract so heinous a guilt as it does to be accessory to the murder of a dying body, what is it to be accessory to the ruin of an immortal soul?”

We must proclaim the Gospel;  all of it including the warnings.  Because without the warnings, the Good News is not good.  It’s just news. It becomes another gospel and is not the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be found faithful to our King, relying on the grace of God, to proclaim the entire Gospel which is the power for salvation.

From my inbox today…


Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NASB-

Brothers and Sisters, you have been given a ministry of reconciliation…that is you are to be an ambassador for Christ imploring the lost souls Christ has sovereignly put in your life to be reconciled to God. You and I are to be proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and urging…pleading lost sinners to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage you, in the strength of Christ by faith, to tell people about Jesus. Pray for God to open doors for you to share the Gospel. Do it out of love for Christ. Do it out of love for lost souls.

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

The Love of God – Todd Agnew
From the album Need

This is one of my favorite Scripture passages. It declares the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the forgiveness of God, and obedience of the forgiven. It is the Gospel displayed in the Old Testament.

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6:1-8 NASB-

Our Sunday School class started this week with comments about the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. One of the mothers said her son asked, “Is God mad at them?” She wasn’t sure how to answer him. I did my best to present her with an answer. I briefly explained the fall of mankind in Adam, the fall of creation, the entrance of death into the world, our inherited sin nature, and God’s hatred of sin. I said it wasn’t only those in Haiti that were sinners, we were too. I know it wasn’t a completely developed answer but I hoped it gave her some basics. Today, though, I read an article (linked below) by Jim Elliff that I believe is very helpful. If we have questions ourselves or maybe want to spark a conversation, use it as a tool. Through it the Lord may grant new understanding or even new life.

If God is Good, Why Do So Many Bad Things Happen?

Proverbs 27:5-6, 9-10, 17 NASB
5  Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed.
6  Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
9  Oil and perfume make the heart glad, So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.
10  Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.
17  Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.

Friendship with someone is usually birthed out of shared interests and results in many happy times spent together. But these verses from Proverbs 27 speak of deep friendship. It is the kind of friendship that, because of real concern and love, hard things are said. Things like “wounds of a friend” and “iron sharpens iron” indicate pain and friction. We likely can identify with those feelings. But the challenge is to look beyond those feelings and be willing to be the kind of friend that can give and receive sharpening through the love of Christ. Let Ephesians 4:25-32 be our model for friendship.

Ephesians 4:25-32  NASB
25  Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
26  BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27  and do not give the devil an opportunity.
28  He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
29  Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
30  Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.