We’ve received the wonderful report that 301,790 people returned completed decision cards at our most recent campaign in Freetown, Sierra Leone indicating that they have made a decision to follow Jesus. These individuals have now been entered into our follow up system and local churches will be overflowing with new converts.
Thank you for standing with us to make this campaign possible. We are now trusting the Lord for the finance for our next campaign in Uganda. Please continue to pray with us that every need would be met.
Here’s my definition of evangelism:
Evangelism is the communication of the Good News, in the power of the Holy Spirit, with the intention of producing repentance from dead works and faith in Jesus, resulting in an enduring faithfulness to Christ and His Body.
Do you have a better one or an improvement to this one?
Last night I did one of my favorite things to do when i am at home: Fire up the grill and cook some perfect steaks. I am a steak lover. In fact, I’ve never met a steak that I didn’t like. Now if you know anything about beef, you realize that the different cuts of meat come from different places on the cow’s anatomy. The “Beef Round” comes from the hind legs and the rump. The “Beef Chuck” comes from the shoulder. But there is one cut of meat that is head and shoulders above the rest. It is a rare cut that is expensive and hard to come by. When you get a piece it is usually not very big, but when you eat it, its heaven on earth. It’s the filet mignon.
Our spiritual lives also have a certain anatomy that we need to understand. (I think this is especially applicable to ministers.) Our activities could be sorted into many categories. There are the carnal things, soulish things, spiritual things and so on. We have church meetings, prayer meetings, sermon study, Bible study, worship services, counseling, meetings and a litany of other things that are spiritual on varying levels. But out of every part of the anatomy of a minister’s life, there is one part that is the best; it is that one-on-one time with the Father, when there is no one else. It is that time when you are spending time with the Lord just to be with Him. You are not looking for sermon material or ministering to someone else…there is no other agenda and no ulterior motive. It is just a man with his creator; naked and open before him.
My wife and I are both devouring what we agree is one of the very best books we have ever read. It is the new autobiography of Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke; Living A Life of Fire. I consider myself an avid reader and have quite a number of biographies and autobiographies in my library, but they are usually my least favorite books, being full of statistics, dates and data that could only be interesting to the author.
This book is very different. It is 628 pages crammed full of some of the most fascinating and thrilling stories you will ever read…and they are all absolutely true! It reads like a sequel to the book of ACTS and every minister will draw courage and inspiration from its pages…especially evangelists.
You have to watch this incredible video! Doctor Chauncey Crandall is a good friend of ours and an anointed man of God who was also one of the speakers at Fire Storm in Dallas (if you weren’t there…you missed out). He is a nationally known and much sought-after cardiologist and heart surgeon. Not only is he a man of science, but also a man of faith. He is known to pray for his patients and lead them to the Lord in the hospital, and he has experienced mighty miracles through prayer…including RESURRECTIONS! This video is a report on channel 7 news about one of his patients that was raised from the dead after having no pulse for almost an hour!
One well-known charismatic minister who identifies himself as an “evangelist” published this quote recently in one of his books. “We can preach the Gospel all day long, but that won’t win souls. That won’t win the hearts of the people. We can talk, try to theorize, theologize, reason, argue, debate, and spend time trying to prove that Jesus lived, but that won’t win a heart. How often do we see the religious mindset that believes that the more Scripture quoting, the more yelling, the more hell fire and brimstone preaching, the greater the chance to win someone over for the Kingdom? Likewise, how often do we see people sitting or standing there listening in stone-cold silence or indifference?”
This comment is typical of an attitude I have been seeing more and more in Christian circles recently. There seems to be this contempt for the preaching of the Gospel accompanied by the idea that it simply not enough. Preachers seem loathed to preach the simple message of salvation as though it were beneath their academic level; an insult to their profound intellect. I have seen how some crusade preachers never touch the core elements of the Gospel choosing rather to address social issues and give tips on better living. I have not heard the Gospel coming from the vast majority of the most fashionable preachers on television or the popular preaching circuit. I have heard recently how some have declared that the “Gospel” is really not the message of the cross while another told me recently that he wasn’t even sure how to preach the Gospel.
One is compelled to stand in awe of the Darwinian evolutionists’ total abstinence of rationale so simple that even a child can readily understand. It truly takes a university to make someone stupid enough to believe Darwin.
Last week evangelist Bonnke and I were interviewed on DayStar leading up to the FireStorm event in Dallas. You can watch the full interview…
In Genesis 18 we read the infamous story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I am fascinated by the account of Abraham and God bartering over the city’s demise.
“Suppose there are in the city fifty righteous,” Abraham asks, “will you destroy the place and not spare it for the sake of the fifty righteous in it?”
The Lord replies, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty righteous, I will not destroy it.”
Elijah is my favorite Old Testament character. He a bold and fiery prophet who impacted an entire nation in one of its most challenging times. He raised the dead and never died himself. He called down fire from heaven and went up to heaven in a chariot of fire. He is one of two Old Testament figures that appears in the New Testament (at the Transfiguration). He is also prophetically connected with both the first and second coming of the Messiah.
In Matthew 17:10-12 we read that the disciples came to Jesus with a question about his Messiah-ship. They said:
“10…why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist”
