The Gospel of the Kingdom » Mission

Blow that rusty trumpet!

admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:27:08 +0000

Life that is aimless is both restless and forceless. How many a trumpet hangs on the walls of society, useless, voiceless and rusty! It has no luster and gives forth no music, and is losing the power to emit sound. What an hour of redemption, when some brave warrior lays hands on the long unused instrument, puts it to his lips and blows a bugle blast!
Young men—you whose life hangs idle, aimless, mute, while the right is battling with the wrong, would to God that some hero-spirit might set you quivering and resounding with the clarion-peal of a holy purpose to serve God and man! No work is so wearisome as doing nothing, and no self-sacrifice is so costly as self-indulgence. Could you wear the “magic skin” which makes sure the gratification of every selfish whim, it would shrink with every new carnal pleasure and so at last crush out all true life.
A.T. Pierson

Driftology 103

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:52:55 +0000

We talked a bit in Driftology 102 about the difference between drifting and falling overboard. While falling overboard seems more serious—and it is in the sense that if the person is not rescued promptly the current will take him downstream in a hurry, if not drown him—the drifter is not in much better shape. He is all the while drifting along with the current, but feels good about himself because he is at least “still in the boat”.

How do we tell if we are drifting?

I like the analogy given by a preacher once of a bunch of boats on a bay. As long as the boats keep looking at each and monitoring their position by each other, no one will give heed to the fact that every last one of them is being carried along with an unseen undercurrent. They are still the same distance from each other as 12 hours ago… Never mind that they all have drifted 2 and a half miles along the coast.

So it is with Christians who have lost their inertia and “have settled on their lees”. They look around at each other in the congregation and breathe a sigh of relief: “Whew! We are still all united!”

Or, “Whew! We are still as far away from the liberal Baptists as we ever were! We must still be going in the right direction.”

The only problem is that the liberal Baptists have drifted further into carnality, and folks are comparing the difference between them and the liberal Baptists, not them and Christ.

The ships on a bay can only determine if they are drifting if they watch the shoreline (not counting modern GPS systems ) . You can only determine if you are drifting if you compare yourself to Christ and His teachings, not by comparing yourself with the liberal Baptists, or with the Conservative Amish.

And you cannot tell if you are drifting by your feelings. You may feel you are closer to Christ, but unless you compare your life to His life you may well fool yourself. And, for the record, His life is outlined in the written Word of God. Compare yourself with it, at face value; just like you look in a mirror that is only inches from your face. Put Jesus’ teaching right smack in front of your daily activities.

He went about living selflessly. He sold his goods and gave them to the poor. He did not waste his time in entertainments; He did not waste His money on vain adornments; He spent all His excess energies—every energy not needed for necessary bodily maintenance—in preaching the gospel of the kingdom; all His excess energies. ALL of them. ALL of them. ALL…

Been drifting?

Brother Steve Mast in Bucaramanga, Colombia

admin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:04:27 +0000

Brother Steve is making a trip by land from Cartagena, Colombia to northern Argentina, by land. Along the way he will be stopping to visit some folks who have contacted me from my Spanish website El Cristianismo Primitivo. It is an unusual opportunity, as not too many folks travel the spine of the Andes by vehicle. Actually, his route will be mostly along the coast, where roads are not quite so snaky. But along the way he will be visiting folks in various places, taking the gospel of the kingdom with him as he goes.

Pray!

Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Esteban Mast, Omar Dario Sanchez