Early Monday morning I was awaken by someone ringing my door bell. Now I
don't have a normal ding, dong, doorbell, it is a ringing doorbell, it rings
until you take your finger off the button. Rrrriiiiinnnnnnggggggg! Rrrriiiiinnnnnnggggggg!
Rrrriiiiinnnnnnggggggg! Rrrriiiiinnnnnnggggggg! Rrrriiiiinnnnnnggggggg!
"All right, all ready! I'm coming! Cool your jets! Chill dude!" I
thought to myself as I struggled to find some clothes and slowly make my way
down the stairs to the front door.
Peering through the little window in the door I recognized him immediately.
It was Ben Lost from church. As I opened the front door, Ben opened the screen
door and quickly pushed his way past me. "Jerry, I know its early but I
need to talk to you, the Lord has called me to be an evangelist!
I barely knew Ben, in fact the only time I had seen him, he made a little
speech in front of the whole congregation at the prompting of Bill Larson, the
men's ministry pastor. In that situation Ben, looked terrified, yes even lost.
In his talk Ben was asking the men of the congregation to join him at the
yearly men's retreat.
"Well, well, it it happened at at the men's retreat. During the closing
service I went forward to pray and I heard the voice of the Lord call me to be
an evangelist. I know it was the Lord! I know it was! I don't want to be an
evangelist! I don't want to be an evangelist! Jerry, for some reason your name
came tino my mind, I've been running from the Lord these last few months. I
read the Book of Jonah, I don't want to be swallowed by a great fish. Jerry,
can you give me any insights on what I should do? Huh, Jerry please!
"Well," I replied, "It's OK for Jonah and the whale, but not
Ben and the whale, is that right?
"Well not exactly, Jerry, it is a big fish, not a whale, or a shark.
The Bible says it was a fish and so it must be. In Old Testament times the Lord
was not going to use an unclean sea creature, to change the direction of a
Jewish prophet. If the Lord did, Jonah would have been too absorbed in the
uncleanliness of the creature, he would have been of no use preaching
repentance to Nineveh.
"Your right Ben, I never thought of it that way. What a great insight,
perhaps that is why God called you to be an evangelist. So if all this is true
and at 6:30 Monday morning, I'm in no shape to argue with you. Ben, are you on
your way to get passage on a ship to Tarshish, in the belly of the fish, or are
you on your approach to Nineveh?
"Well I've read this Jonah book probably a hundred times since the
men's retreat and a certain passage seems to keep bothering me." Ben's
Bible fell open to the Book of Jonah and he began to read:
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from
the fish's belly. And he said:
"I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction
And he answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Then I said, 'I have been cast out of your sight;
Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord." (Jonah 2:1-9)
"Well if that is what you keep coming back to Ben, I would say you must
be on your way to Nineveh or where ever, so what is your problem?
"I've done a lot of study these last couple of months Jerry, and I have
really come to believe that the church today really doesn't believe the last
line of verse nine?
"You mean, 'Salvation is of the Lord?'
"Exactly, Jerry I don't know where you are coming from, so if I start a
little to close to home, forgive me. From what I have observed most Protestants
today are really not all that different from Roman Catholics, but for some
reason they all seem to hate the Catholics, or the Orthodox in Russia.
"Ben, could you explain further?
"Well, everyone seems to believe that salvation is by grace, but
everyone then adds little caveats of their own denomination's teaching, or
something they themselves think must be added to grace for us to become part of
the true church. For example, Pentecostals believe that you must have a second
gift of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in order to be a Spirit Filled
Christian. They decry anyone who does not speak in tongues, as a second class
Christian. Then there are the Fundamentalists, they believe in the Bible, but
they have this rigid interpretation of everything and there is no room for a
diversity of opinion or even any joy, they are bound by all their shalt nots.
Finally, not to be outdone, there are those who consider themselves
Reformationists. They have elevated their creeds and doctrines to the level of
scripture, even if they say, they aren't. They try to make converts to
Reformation Theology rather than Jesus Christ. How can I be an evangelist and
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, when as I see it no one anymore believes the
gospel, without adding some stuff to it?
"Ben, I think you are saying that the church is a type of Nineveh and
you are a type of Jonah!
"Huh? Well perhaps, but what if they all do, repent. By God, they could
change not only the church, but the whole world. The whole world won to Jesus
Christ, no one would fry in hell.
"Well, Ben you are forgetting one little thing, the last line you
brought up, 'Salvation is of the Lord.' For some reason that only God
understands, not all will respond to salvation's message. Only those whom God
called before the foundation of the world will be born again, the rest remain
non repentant and die in their sins. The job of the church is to proclaim that
gospel message that in Jesus Christ, through repentance your sins have been
remitted. In Jesus Christ, within His church, His body is a covenant community
of believers in time and throughout time. To express the thoughts of Augustine,
there is a city of man and a city of God. Your job is to preach, or proclaim
the good news, it is God who sovereignly saves through that proclaimation.
"But Jerry, I have trouble seeing where the city of God ends, and the
city of man begins. If I'm supposed to be an evangelist - everyone will reject
me. My preaching could break up families that think, or hope and pray, that
they have it all together. I don't want to do that, I want people to love me. I
do my best to love them, that is why, after all, I let Bill talk me into giving
that talk in front of all those people, pitching the men's retreat.
"Well Ben, for what it's worth, you did wake me out of a sound sleep
just a few minutes ago. To be true to your calling as an evangelist, as Paul
told Timothy, you must preach the Word, the true gospel of Christ. He came as
fully God, fully man, he was crucified for our sins, fulfilling a true
propitiatory sacrifice, and he rose from death on the third day, just as Jonah
was in the belly of the fish, to give you and me the hope of living in an
eternal community of God's chosen people, from every tribe and nation. In
conjunction with that proclamation, it is your responsibility to love everyone
you come in contact with, with your best effort of being Christ's friend, who
loved you first. If you are true to that calling, no matter if you feel that
your circumstances are as bad, or even worse than Jonah's, God will pull you
through it all for 'Salvation is of the Lord.'
"So I am to love all those jerky Christian brothers and sisters, I must
be Ben Lost. I must show tough love. How about to the Pentecostals, I preach
the gospel in tension with an understanding of balancing emotion with sound
rational judgement. To the Reformationists I preach that they need not only the
mental aspect of the gospel, but in inward understanding, an emotional witness
that they truly are one of God's children. And finally, to the fundamentalist I
preach that Christ truly set you free from the bondage of sin and death. To
them I love them in the joy of the Lord.
"Sounds like a good plan to me Ben, I'll pray for you, to let God open
doors for your ministry. But remember, American Evangelicalism is really based
on revivalism. One of the problems with revivalism is that it focuses heavily
upon an inward conversion experience and as a consequence has a tendency to
elevate the role of the individual above and beyond his place in the local
church, as well as the historical church universal. With that individual
emphasis, a lot of it brought as a natural course of the Reformation, the true
understanding of a catholic community has been lost. We are pretty good at
getting people to believe they need to belong, but then through discipline or
in many more pronounced ways, we do not show the loving commitment that must
flow from the community, to the individual personality. With that in mind, try
to focus your work towards the growth of the local church body, across man's
lines of demarcation as much as possible. George Whitfield, a Calvinist
contemporary friend of the Wesleys, started us down this revivalist line. Focus
your meetings, conferences, or any other events you have the opportunity to
participate in, into that local community of believers.
One other thing Ben, what we have here in Jonah is a very short period of
the prophet's life. We know very little else about the rest of his life. I said
that to say, just because you believe that you are to do evangelistic work, the
Lord may provide you many educational experiences before you ever have the
opportunity to do what you would call evangelism. Those, even though you can
not see it may also be areas of effective ministry. If you continue to follow
the Lord in obedience, there may be some times far more difficult to you than
what Jonah experienced, but rest assured that the Lord will work all those
things out and will give you a ministry far greater than you can now
anticipate.
"Jerry, I was just thinking, there is another whole bunch of people
that call themselves Evangelical Christians. Most call them seeker sensitive
churches, isn't the kind of gospel message you are advising me to preach going
to turn them off. Isn't the gospel supposed to be offensive to sinful man?
"Yes it is? If God gives you that opportunity to preach there just do
it , remembering 'Salvation is of the Lord.' And remember also: But the Lord said, 'You have pity on the plant for
which you have not labored,nor made it grow, which came up in the night and
perished in the night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which
are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern
between their right hand and their left - and much livestock.' (Jonah 4: 10,11)
As I mentioned last week prudence seems to be the better route than
presumption regarding the move to the Palouse. I did complete an executive
summary of an offering circular and uploaded it to the website. If you know of
someone who might be interested in purchasing shares in Justin-Grace Inc.,
which is dedicated to provide financing for Ben and others to preach the gospel
and to love on people, regardless of their religious affiliation. The document
can be viewed at http://www.gooodnewsreport.net/funding/exesum/. The date on
the original document was St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. There were some
changes in the business opportunity which should greatly improve the long-term
potential of the company that took place over the weekend. Those potential
changes should be incorporated into an updated version so check back for an
update once these directions become more clear.
The long term key for the company however, relates to the actual people who
make it work. I am much more optimistic now, than I was last week. Like for
some reason, I do not feel that the Lord is capable of controlling my life and the
events surrounding it. Please continue to pray for financial provisions and for
personnel. As hard as it is for me to understand, the longer I'm at this, the
more I realize that my anxiety increases with my lack of rest. In fact, I would
say there is a very high correlation and as a consequence, to see through the
eyes of faith also diminishes as I tire. Acceptance of that need to understand
and to give ourselves the gift of God's rest is something we all need to pray
for, not only in ourselves but also in each other. Therefore, I will pray for
you as I pray for myself. You do the same.
Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness; pierce the
clouds of nature's night; come, thou source of joy and gladness, breathe thy
life, and spread thy light.
From the height which knows no measure, as a gracious shower descend, bringing
down the richest treasure we can wish or God can send.
Author of the new creation, come with unction
and with power. Make our hearts thy habitation; with thy grace our spirits
shower.
Hear, oh, hear our supplication, blessed Spirit, God of peace! Rest upon this
congregation, with the fullness of thy grace.
Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676)
Ep1982;515