The Enthusiasm of Missions

This is part four of a four part article. Please click here to read part one, two, or three.

I have written about:

Godliness

Integrity

Vision

But leave out the Enthusiastic Evangelism, and not much will happen in missions.

Many years ago, I heard Evangelist Bill Compton say, “It is just as important for the Gospel to go out, as it is for Christ to die on the cross.” Someone else said, “Christ alone can save the world, but Christ will not save the world alone.” Missionary statesman, Mel Rudder, said, “Anything short of world evangelism is treason.”

All these statements are true, because “good news” is not really “good news” unless someone hears it. And how will someone hear it if we do not tell it? It would be hard to live the Bible and believe the Gospel of Christ for oneself and not have a heart that beats for world evangelism.

It has been my privilege to share the Gospel of Christ with people all over the world. Whether people are on the other side of the world or across the street, we need to share the story of Christ with them. This is not a time for Christians to hesitate or procrastinate about getting out the Gospel. There is a divine must written over the cross. The night is coming. The day is almost spent. The harvest is great, and the fields are white unto harvest. Christ may come at any moment.

Everyone needs the Gospel. God wants everyone to hear, and He has chosen to use us (sinners saved by grace) to take them His message. Thank the Lord that as we go, He goes with us.

Sophie Brugman, a German girl living in New York, wanted to be a foreign missionary and prayed for a door to open.

One day a voice seemed to ask her, “Who lives on the floor above?”

“A family of Swedes,” she answered.

“And who lives in the rear?”

“Some Italians.”

“And who lives a block away?”

“Chinese.” Then she said to herself, “And I have never said a word to these people about the blessed Jesus. No wonder I am not sent to the heathen thousands of miles away when I do not care enough for those at home even to speak to them of Jesus.”

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify yourFather, who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

The famous missionary Hudson Taylor told of a Chinese pastor who always instructed new converts to witness for Christ as soon as possible. Meeting a young person who had recently accepted the Lord, he inquired, “Brother, how long have you been a Christian?” The man answered that he had been saved for about three months.

“And how many have you won to the Savior?”

“Oh, I’m only a learner,” he responded. Shaking his head in disapproval, the pastor said, “Young man, the Lord doesn’t expect you to be a full-fledged preacher, but He does want you to be a faithful witness. Tell me, when does a candle begin to shine—when it’s already half burned up?”

“No, as soon as it’s lit,” came the reply.

“That’s right, so don’t put your candle under a bushel. Let it shine out to others right away!” Taking the lesson to heart, the Chinese believer immediately began telling the lost what the Lord had done for him. Taylor reported that within six months several friends and neighbors of that young man had become Christians through his efforts.

When we truly believe that men are lost without Christ and on their way to hell, and that Christ is the only Saviour, how can we not be involved in soulwinning? How can we not surrender to go where God wants us to go and to do what He wants us to do?

When the first Baptist church was built in America in 1638, there were only 500 million (half a billion) people in the world, today there are 6.7 billion and the number grows every day. Two thirds of the people in the world do not have missionaries to give them the Gospel of Christ. Many American Christians never speak to their neighbors, friends, coworkers, nor even to their loved ones about the Saviour of the world. Many churches have no soulwinning program.

In my youth, I read a great book by Dr. John R. Rice called Soul Winner’s Fire. It inspired me to have a love for souls. I do not wish to lose this. Missions and evangelism go together.