Missing In Action

The phrase Missing in Action (MIA) is commonly associated with the military status of a particular personnel. It may mean a military personnel who is in AWOL (absence without official leave) when the country badly needs him. It could also mean a military personnel who, in the course of a battle, suddenly disappeared with the reason not yet clear between being killed or captured by the enemy. In the Christian community nowadays, there’s also an MIA that’s occurring that significantly accounts as to why less and less Christians are involving themselves in the ministry of evangelism.

SACRIFICE. Yes, sacrifice among many who call themselves “Christians” has been Missing in Action. You hear fewer and fewer Christians who are going to the regions beyond just to share the gospel to the “unreached”. In churches right now, very few young people are stepping forward to go to formal Bible school training in preparation for a life-long service to our Master. Furthermore, there are so few of our brethren who are willing to give-up some of their time for some tracts distribution session in their community. And for those who are financially blessed Christians, so few of them are willing to give to small but effective evangelism-focused ministries just because these ministries aren’t that capable of bringing the news of their donations to as many people as possible. Why are these things happening? Simply because less and less people are willing to make a sacrifice.

This is such a sad scenario when you consider how much others who came before us have sacrificed just so the gospel could reach us. People have forgotten how Christ’s disciples gave-up their lives for the cause of the gospel. The lessons of the sacrifices of saints included in the book “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” have been degraded to the level of literary past-time. Even the examples given by modern-time martyrs like Richard Wurmbrand, Nate Saint and his companions, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and many more do not anymore receive the same attention and response from Christians who hear their stories as before. I feel grief when I think that if this amnesia to the sacrifices of the people mentioned continues no one will remember them in the next 20 to 30 years, even if it was us who directly benefited from their lives.

So why are Christians today less and less willing to make some sacrifices for the gospel’s sake? Let me offer some answers from my own personal observation.

The first culprit is the increasing materialistic motivation of people, Christians included. A lot of us have forgotten the admonition from the Scriptures for us “to store-up riches in Heaven…”. Instead of doing this, we spend most of our time trying our best to build the most admirable house in the block, purchase the sleekest car among our peers, have the most extravagant summertime vacation, earn enough to buy the most expensive designer clothes, etc. When I see this happening among Christians I know personally, I could only wish that they read what the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes say about these things…”Vanity. Everything under the sun is vanity! (v. 1:2)” And what did Solomon say should be our life’s focus at the end of the book after exposing the vanity of these things? “…Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (v. 12:13).”

It’s sad that even some church leaders have forgotten that our whole duty is to obey God and not to amass as much material wealth as possible. I personally know several pastors who have even migrated to more progressive countries and take up secular jobs, totally turning their backs to their “calling”, in order for them to give their families what they perceive as “a better life”. To relieve themselves of some of the guilt, they would spare some of their free time during weekends to hold an hour of Bible study with some people they already know and whom they need not look for anymore. That’s good, but is that really God’s will in their lives? No wonder why we see fewer pastors’ children who are going to full-time ministry in their adult years. I can only imagine the positive influence Christians can inject into this sinful world if only all of us will sacrifice our material ambitions just so we can obey God’s call to serve Him with all our heart, soul and mind.

Secondly and closely related to the first culprit is the preoccupation of most churches with what has come to be popularly called as the “Prosperity Message”. This kind of message tells Christians that God wants them to be successful in their chosen fields in all of it’s aspects including the financial aspect, that’s why it is important that you do your best in whatever you are busy with so that God’s Will is realized in your life. So what’s wrong with this message? I’m telling you right now… A LOT! Any message that does not admonish Christians to copy the kind of life that Jesus lived is an erroneous message. Jesus came to this world to do two things: (1) to save us from the consequences of our sins and, (2) to set an example on how life should be lived. If preachers are not able to deliver the second message clearly, then they are not fully doing their jobs.

I once heard an interview done by Larry King to a very popular pastor of a mega-church in the state of Texas. When asked by King if it is really God’s will that we live a comfortable life, the pastor without any hesitance so proudly answered in the affirmative. Declarations like this are so dangerous for it further fuels a person’s materialistic drive resulting to a lesser willingness to do some sacrifices for God. I agree with what Pastor Paul Washer said when he was interviewed by Kirk Cameron and Todd Friel in one of the shows of TBN. He said, “As far as I know, God only promised two things for Christians… eternal life in heaven and sufferings in this world.” Jesus once said to his disciples, “In this world you shall have tribulations…(John 16:33)”, and He expects this kind of response to these tribulations… “…when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad… (Matt 5:11-12)”. I remember Todd Friel once said in The Way of the Master Radio, “Is it God’s Will that we live a comfortable life? No. His Will is that we be the light and salt of this world!” Very well said, Todd!

Sometimes pastors will say this, “Be obedient to what God calls you to do and He will reward you tremendously for it.” So what’s wrong with this message? Yes, nothing. The problem lies at what was not said. Preachers should also explain that when God promises blessings, it is not always material blessings. Furthermore, most of the blessings God promises to give us will be given not here in this life but in Heaven someday. This is the reason why Solomon explained that God has placed the understanding of eternity in man’s heart (Eccl. 3:11,14). I often make Christians think with this question, “If indeed God rewards Christians’ obedience with material prosperity, and throughout the New Testament time (including our time), there is no one who could equal the kind of obedience that Paul and Jesus’ disciples exhibited, then why can’t you read in any of the New Testament accounts of them that they received abundant material blessings?” The answer is obvious. God’s promised blessings vary and most of their rewards they received in Heaven. God’s blessings could be peace of mind, satisfaction with even the fewest of wealth, the virtue of longsuffering, etc. In fact, the lowest kind of blessing that God can bestow on you is material blessing. Making people believe that obedience to God results to material blessings is again so dangerous. If in their obedience the material blessings do not come, they will be turned-off from serving the Lord, and worse, make them backslide.

Lastly, the main reason why Christians of today are not ready to give their lives to God as a living sacrifice is because they do not fully appreciate the sacrifices that Jesus did for them. I believe that if only Christians would fully fathom what it caused Jesus to give us eternal salvation, more of us will lose ourselves for the gospel’s sake. The Scriptures said that although He is God, He made himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant and the likeness of man, and then humbled himself even to death in the cross (Philippians 2:6-8). And why is there less appreciation to Jesus’ sacrifice? Blame it on the modern gospel message that declares that God will give us love, joy, peace, fulfillment and lasting happiness if we will just “accept” Jesus into our hearts, and very little emphasis on the sins that we’ve committed against God that left Him with no other choice but to send His only begotten Son into the world to pay for the sins that we should be the one paying for.

The modern gospel message made us focus more on what we can get from a relationship with Jesus when the focus should be surrendering our lives to Him as a show of our high gratitude for what He did for us at the cross 2000 years ago. If Christians around the world who are preaching to the lost would only straighten up their message to conform to what Paul and the disciples preached, and that is “repentance towards God and faith on Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21)” because of what we did to make God die for us, then more of the converts of their ministries will surrender themselves to missions abroad and to the cause of evangelizing their communities.

So many unsaved around us, but so few sacrifices on our part to bring them to a personal relationship with God. May all of us be consumed with the thought of how much God showed His love to us so that we will be moved to likewise show our love to Him by giving the whole of us and not just a part of us, through personal sacrifices we will render. This way, more people will experience the love God has been offering everyone in this world. We have been forgiven and now expect eternal life in Heaven through the sacrifice Jesus. Isn’t it just proper that we also make our own sacrifices for God? Let us not waste the sacrifices made by people before by not setting an example of sacrificial living to people who will come after us. As one song said, “And may all who come behind us find us faithful.”

Testimonials

A few months back we featured two testimonies of two Star Youth Ministries member. Here’s another one. Please read and be challenged to share the gospel.

CHRISTIAN GUNITA

When I was a young Christian I always asked myself, “How can I win souls for Jesus Christ?” and “Am I an effective Christian?”. I admitted that I don’t know how to start telling the gospel to other people. I always think of what other people will say. I’m afraid that other people will laugh at me. Those questions and problems were answered when I became a member of Star Youth Ministries and learned the principle of “Way of the Master”. By the grace of God, He used me to be an instrument to tell the gospel to my friends, fellow students and strangers. Because of this ministry and by His grace, I can now talk to people through one on one and even to a large group of people. I’ve done those things for God’s glory. Praise God!

I would like to share one of my unforgettable experiences in sharing the gospel. Last July 2007, as a part of our requirements in one of our major subjects, we organized an orientation seminar in the college I am attending. We had more than 80 I.T. freshmen participants. I asked my professor if I can use 5 minutes after the seminar to talk about Christ to our participants and she gave me the “go” signal. The devil tried some things to discourage me to not continue with my plan to share the gospel to my fellow students. But God reminded me of the message of a video clip we use in our WOTM seminars entitled “LETTER FROM HELL”. I learned that it is better to tell the truth than to hide it. I didn’t mind what my classmates and schoolmates would say. All I wanted to do is to share the gospel because I know it is His Will that I do so. After I shared it, some of the freshmen students said that through my short talk they understood that they are sinners who so badly need Jesus Christ to save them from sure punishment. Some of them teased me by calling me “Brother Christian” but I just didn’t mind them. Praise God for this wonderful experience. To God be all the glory!

As young disciples of Jesus, we must be willing to follow His example. It’s never easy to sacrifice your plans, career, time or friends to serve Christ. But when we do it for the praise and glory of God, we’ll quickly discover that the thrill of winning now in man’s eyes isn’t worth it compared with the glory of winning later the approval of God when our lives here on earth has ends.

Here’s the challenge to all of us --- Will we be willing to set aside our desires/plans for the sake of following Jesus Christ?

Victory in Doing God’s Will: The Gospel Buzz 2007 Experience

There’s nothing more fulfilling in this life than experiencing the kind of victory that comes with following God’s Will. That’s exactly what we experienced during our recently concluded Gospel Buzz 2007 (Oct. 24-26). The “Buzz”, as you all know, is a trip we have yearly where we (a bunch of young Christians whose passion is to share the gospel to the lost) go to a far away Philippine province to share the gospel. On our way to our destination, our bus would make stopovers along the way where there are crowds gathered like in parks and marketplaces. This year, we went to the province of Batangas.

For every victory there has to always be a battle that takes place. The battle that we went through before Gospel Buzz 2007 became a success was really a hard and tiring one and it all started months before the actual trip. But before Satan became aggressively offensive in his moves to thwart a successful mission trip, the early preparations for this evangelism program seem to suggest something like “a walk in the park” experience.

First, we really wanted that all of the participants be riding in one bus so that we could fellowship as a whole group. The previous year, when I inquired about how much the rent will be for a small bus, I became speechless whenever bus operators gave me the figure. We just couldn’t afford it that’s why we ended up renting two vans for our transportation. But because one of the participants for this year (Lester Cabais) is a tourism student in college who has connections with tour operators, he was able to negotiate a fee that we could afford. We were able to even save a few thousand pesos compared to if we rented two vans again for three days. The bus was so comfortable that we were able to rest our tired bodies in between stops. Secondly, the place that we will be staying in Calaca, Batangas was given to us free of charge. The father of one of the Star Youth Ministries members is working for the former governor of the province. The family of the governor owns a beach front property that they originally intended to transform into a resort but plans never pushed through. The property had nipa cottages that we could use as our bedrooms during the 3-day stay. The cottages were small and had hard beds, not really the type that would give you rest after a long and hard day under the sun. The room that I stayed in even had a small rat running around. We just reminded ourselves that we were not there for vacation. We were there to share the life-saving gospel to unsaved people. It was free and that is to our advantage. Things were going smoothly for us until challenges started coming in.

I believe that not all of the hurdles that started lining up came from the devil. Three weeks after the conclusion of Gospel Buzz 2007, I can now pinpoint which came from the devil and which came from God. Before, I thought that the financial problem we encountered was caused by the devil. Now I realize that God must have allowed things related to the financial needs of the trip to happen so that He could test us on how much we are really committed to push through with the program. I started very early in encouraging Christians to give their support to this trip. We promoted the Gospel Buzz 2007 with either me speaking about the trip in gatherings or through our website. I believe it was the month of June when we placed a promotional page on our website about the trip. In the page, we placed an email that Christians can use to arrange for their support to this program. Almost everyday from the day that promotional page was set-up I would open that email account to see if there was anyone who is planning to give a financial support to this trip. Almost every time I opened it I get disappointed. No one was really responding. One day, I was surprised to see a message in that account. I was so excited to read it. But when I started reading the email, I readily recognized that it was spam mail. It was supposed to be from a sickly and elderly lady from the Ivory Coast who was offering to give the $3,500,000 that her late husband had deposited in a certain bank to the ministry here in the Philippines. I’ve received several of these emails in the past that’s why I never really took this one seriously. I believe I ended up answering the email with a gospel presentation. I never received any reply from that person after that.

We were really praying hard that God would provide for this evangelism trip. Almost everyday, we would mention it in our daily prayer time in our ministry headquarters. I spent hours praying on my knees every evening, pleading to God that He would look at the needs of the Gospel Buzz but nothing was happening. The devil used this situation to discourage and bring me down several times. Then God made me realize one thing. I know that God wants to provide for the trip and I believe that He was talking to several Christians to give to this program. But the question is, “Are these Christians ready to heed God’s call to them?” That’s when I said, “If these Christians are hardening their hearts to God’s call, well, then on our part, we won’t.” I decided to push through with the trip with or without support coming in for this evangelism program. I decided to use the money we had set aside for programs we have lined-up for November and December. We’ll just trust that God would provide for our future events. I believe that we’ve made God happy with our decision. There were a few who likewise gave to this program and I strongly believe that they made God so happy as well. And so, we had this first challenge won.

The second challenge came a week before the trip. Understand this. Joining the trip were young and tireless people. There’s actually nothing that could stop this young people with anything that they would want to do… except sickness. One of the girls joining us, Andrea Amor (AA for short), started feeling weak exactly one week before we left. Because things weren’t getting any better with AA’s condition, her sister decided to bring her to the hospital. AA’s flu won’t stop and she begun to show rashes in her whole body. The doctors later diagnosed her as having dengue, an illness caused by mosquito bites. This illness has caused so many deaths in our country in the last 4 to 5 years. AA was really upset with her condition because she really wanted to join our trip. When I learned that she had dengue, I sent her a message telling her that maybe God wants her to be our intercessor during the trip that’s why she should not burden herself anymore with the thought that she won’t be able to join us. AA did not know that that was so hard for me to accept because I was really counting on her to be the leader of the other girls joining us.

When everybody thought that AA’s condition was the biggest blow that the devil could give to our plan to share the gospel to a far away province, the night before our trip, Lester who was even with me during that afternoon, experienced excruciating pain in his stomach and head. It was so painful that his mom was getting ready to bring her to the hospital. When I heard about what’s happening with Lester, I recognized right away that this was Satan’s last ditch effort to discourage us and to lessen the people joining us or even stop the trip. I didn’t want to tell Lester that what’s happening to him was of the devil’s doing and that to decide not to join us anymore will make the devil victorious. I wanted him to realize this himself. I then sent a text message to all of the participants to pray for Lester and to rebuke the devourer from all his cunning attempts to stop our trip. At that one moment, although we were in our own homes, we were together in prayer. That night, God reminded me of His promises. I remembered that “Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world…,” and the promise at the end of the Great Commission, “…and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world.” And then God made me realize that the devil only waged an all-out war a week before the trip, not realizing that the battle had been won already 2000 years back when Jesus conquered death and brought salvation to each and every person who will truly repent of his sins and put his total trust on Jesus. I vowed that at the end of the 3-day trip, the devil will be left red-faced because of the shame of his cruel defeat which God will accomplish for us.

The next morning, the day of the trip, guess who I saw? Lester. He told me that he realized what I wanted him to realize that’s why he fought against her mom’s plan to bring him to the hospital because he knew that had he been confined that night in some medical facility, the doctors would have not allowed him to join us. Lester was not about to miss this trip because he actually gave up a chance to be in the powdery shores of Boracay Island just to be with us in this trip to share the gospel. But that morning, all of the pain he experienced was all gone as if nothing happened. While we were also talking about the spiritual struggle we all went through the night before, we were so surprised to learn that the verses and realizations that God gave me He also gave at the very same time to the other SYM members. We were speechless in amazement when that was brought to our attention.

And by the way, AA was also able to join us. Her commitment to come was honored by God. She was confined to a hospital Wednesday and was released Sunday evening. The day before the trip (Tuesday), she really lobbied to her family that she be allowed to join the trip. Her persistence paid off. Her parents told her that if her doctor that day would give her permission then they won’t stop her from joining the trip. Miraculously, her doctor gave her the “thumbs up” sign. And just like Lester, in the three days we were together preaching the gospel, AA was moving as if she never had a life and death situation days before.

There were other challenges that we gracefully went through successfully with God’s intervention. The unending morning rain of the first day would have hindered significantly our goal to witness to as many people as we can. But no, that was not the case. We anticipated that this could happen weeks before the trip. And so, I instructed everyone that it is a “must” that everyone brings his/her own umbrella for the trip. Weeks after the trip, I still enjoy seeing pictures of us witnessing one-to-one and even preaching in the open-air with umbrellas sheltering us from the rain.

Then there was the problem of the very small road to the place we stayed at. It was so small that people in the community had to go inside their homes so that our bus could pass. With that problem, it would be impossible for us to push through with our plan for the second day to have our bus bring us to several towns to preach the gospel as it would be a big hassle to the people of the community to do what they did when we arrived every time our bus goes out of the place. But God is powerful to turn any problem into a great opportunity. Instead of us going from town to town, God showed us that the community where we were had so many people thirsting for the life-saving gospel. And so, the next day, we saturated the whole barrio with the gospel. AA and the girls gathered the children of the community and did a crusade to them. While they were doing that, the guys were roaming around doing one-to-one witnessing to who ever they could start a conversation with and I was preaching open-air to the poor squatters of the place. We ended by distributing tracts to people, knocking at doors and entering compounds to share the gospel. We were surprised that even though the time was a time that people should be out somewhere working, most of the people where in their homes. Every where we looked there were people. Probably, most of them earn their living from their homes. At the end of the day, there’s a big chance that about 90% of the people of that community either heard the gospel preached to them or got a copy of the gospel message through a tract.

The evening of the second day, even though we still had one more day of sharing the gospel, we were all in tears as we’ve realized why the devil was working double time to hinder that trip. He knew that it will be a very successful mission trip with God’s help that’s why he really wanted to stop it. A lot of the participants testified that that was the first time they’ve really experienced a spiritual battle. It was scary but it was so satisfying after you’ve experienced how God can bring you out of it victoriously. All we really needed to do to end up victorious was to make the commitment to continue on no matter what the circumstance may be, including going to battle against the devil head on. We were humbled with the thought that God had used us to fulfill something great. We’re just a bunch of “nobodies” who were just willing to do His Will. And as what a pastor friend told me while we were there, there’s a great celebration that took place in heaven for the victory God has allowed us to achieve there. We can’t wait any longer for Gospel Buzz 2008! To God be the glory!

Check out the Gospel Buzz 2007 pictures here:

• Gospel Buzz 1
• Gospel Buzz 2
• Gospel Buzz 3
• Gospel Buzz 4
• Gospel Buzz 5
• Gospel Buzz 6
• Gospel Buzz 7
• Delegates

Substituting Music For Preaching

Here’s one fact --- If you want vibrancy in any ministry, employ the help of young people. Before any adult throws his/her protest on me, let me tell everyone that I am not saying that adults can’t have the same effect in ministries like young people do. I have been a witness to the significant contributions of adults in church ministries in the past. Praise the Lord for the adults in our churches! I am saying this fact with the youth’s almost limitless availability in mind. Young people are less tied-up with life-concerns than adults are. And so, if you want to right away mobilize Christians to action, there are always a lot of young people who will be available to enlist in your program, you can always count on that.

I can certainly testify to this. When I was contemplating about two years ago to start an evangelism ministry, my question was, "Who should I tap to help me with this?" Because of my work as an assistant principal in a private school in our province, I’ve known and developed relationships with a lot of young Christian students (past and present) in our school. It only took me one snack date with them to convince them to join me in a ministry with a primary focus on evangelism. And so, the Star Youth Ministries (SYM) was born. Soon enough, we were going to places preaching the gospel, WOTM style, and training others to do so as well. My hopes were high that I can challenge more Christian young people to be more involved in sharing the gospel as we went on. But my experience of easily convincing the core members of SYM to join me in fishing for souls proved to be one of a kind as the ministry of evangelism, I realized, has a competitor ---the music ministry.

A lot of Christians, young and old, have been drawn to music as their primary service to the Lord, leaving very few people available in the ministry of sharing the gospel to unbelievers. I have nothing against the music ministry in churches. I have been a music director of a church for more than 5 years before SYM was conceived. Before that, I was a member of a professional Christian choral group that was quite popular as it regularly holds Christian concerts in major venues not only here in the Philippines, but in other countries as well. Once, I even won first prize in a song writing competition. Music definitely flows in my veins. May God bless the music ministries in churches. What disappoints me about music in churches is that it has been used as a substitute to the direct preaching of the gospel in reaching souls for Christ. I even heard and know of churches that have great music ministries but no evangelism program whatsoever has been set up. Christian groups would stage concerts with really great music (but with very little evangelism elements) to entice unbelievers to join their church. And if people do join their church, they would right away give them the title of a “Christian”. What happens next is that these people would continue going to church and, maybe, join a particular ministry like, say,… the music ministry, and believe that they’ve been converted when in truth, no godly sorrow that worked repentance to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10) really happened. You then see these people living a completely different life when outside the four walls of their church, delivering a rotten testimony to other unbelievers in behalf of the true children of God.

Do we really think that music can truly deliver the complete gospel message and bring people on their knees to repentance and faith on Jesus Christ? I once asked a pastor while in an event he had a hand in organizing that hoped to hook people to Christ with worship music as bate if he had ever heard a Christian give a testimony that says that he got saved because of a Christian song he had listened to. He admitted that he had never heard such a thing. Then I told him that it's because it’s always the preaching of sin, righteousness, judgment and then God’s show of love that will bring people to repent and to put their total faith on Jesus Christ. He agreed with me. No argument whatsoever. And then out of nowhere, he told me that around only 40% of the people that go to his church (a church which likewise places a heavy emphasis on music) he can truly consider as true converts. He must have had a realization of what I was talking about. It’s so sad that this is happening in our present time. There are churches that I know that would even stage what they claim as an “evangelistic concert” but will never have any preaching in any part of their program. They will argue that the songs themselves can serve as the message.

Here’s something to think about --- Can you recall Jesus organizing a choral concert with his disciples as the singers in any of his crusades in place of his preaching? I can assure you this --- You won’t find any. In fact, the Bible mentions only one instance where Jesus took part in some singing, and this was after the Last Supper before they went to Mt. Olives (Matt. 26:30 / Mark 14:26). Jesus spent a big amount of time during His ministry preaching to crowds of people about the need to repent of their sins. He was 90% of the time in the open-air, enduring the heat of the sun during His evangelistic ministry, not singing, but preaching.

So why has music replaced direct preaching as a way of winning souls for Christ in the recent years? I can provide some answers from my personal observation. The first reason is because everyone enjoys music, but the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18). It’s so easy to bring someone to listen to some singing. The same though cannot be said of preaching. But if we focus on making an unbeliever enjoy our church music rather than him realizing the need to repent and to put his trust on Jesus because of how much he has offended God, he will be in church for the wrong reason --- to be entertained. I have talked to several young people who claim to be Christians in the Star Youth Students' Center who are not sure why they are in church. What they are sure though is that they enjoy very much the music that plays in their churches. Then if you ask them how one can become a Christian, they would give you so many ways but the one that would always stands out is that if you always worship God in songs.

Another reason I can give you is that a lot of Christians today are sissies when it comes to one-to-one witnessing. There are even some who will freeze in fear just by the thought of them giving out gospel tracts. But making music in front of people? They could easily handle that. Piece of cake! A walk in the park. They believe that anything that involves dealing the sinfulness of people would put them in a lot of potential rejection and humiliation, and they don't want that to happen. They are so concern about their public reputation. With music, there is less chance of rejection and humiliation. Instead, you can even expect people applauding you after a great rendition of a worship song. And here they are boasting that they are glorifying God every time they sing when in fact, it’s themselves they are lifting up. Let us all remember that in serving the Lord, we should lose ourselves even to the point that people already feel that we’ve lost our minds so that only God will be glorified (2 Cor. 5:13).

Thirdly, some Christians believe that there are people whom God calls to the ministry of evangelism, and some are not. There are those who would say that their calling is to be involved in giving, or in intercessory prayer, or in discipleship, or in music, etc. There are even some who would make a big deal about them serving as ushers during Sunday worship services, thereby excluding them already in serving God in other ministries. I believe that yes, God has called each of us to be involved in specific ministries as evidenced by our differences in terms of the talents He has given us. There are some to whom He gave heavenly voices and there are some that He is content listening to singing to Him silently. But this is the truth. We also have a common calling and that is to share His life-saving gospel. The Great Commission that instructs us to “Go” was given to each and every person that has received His forgiveness. The admonition of Paul in 2 Timothy 4:5 for us "to do the work of an evangelist" is directed to every Christian. I once commented that if you don’t hear this “Call” then probably you are not a true convert yourself. Sometimes I also feel that this reason of us having different callings is just being used as an excuse to not share the Gospel to others.

Finally, I have observed that Christians who have focused on worship, particularly in the area of music, believe that they are already pleasing God in their lives. If you will read the first chapter of the book of Isaiah you will find out that this is totally not true. In the passage, God showed that some things we do for Him like fellowshipping, prayer, offerings, and, yes, worship, can become unpleasant to Him. The reason? Because most of us still do not live a holy life and our hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15-16). What does He mean about people having blood in their hands? Probably there were those among the Israelites then that have really committed murder. But another reason why a lot of us have blood in our hands is because we have not shared the Gospel to the Lost. Ezekiel 3:18 explains that if we do not warn the workers of iniquity of the danger awaiting them (Hell), they will surely die of their sins but God will someday require their blood in our hands. We see hear that God’s will is that we balance everything that we do for Him. He is also telling us that what we do inside the confines of our churches must be reflected in what we do outside. A lot of Christians would sing worship songs that have lyrics that say "I will give my life to You", or, "You are my everything" but won’t even try to overcome their fear in just giving out tracts to people. What would you make of people who so bravely say these lines in worship songs but couldn’t deliver when called to witness to unbelievers? What else but "Hypocrites!"

The Church has suffered a lot in the last century because of the mistake of embracing a modern gospel message that is more person-centered than God-centered. It is high time that we do things again in the manner that Jesus prescribed that it be done --- us laboriously explaining to them the real issue so that they may be convinced ("…Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" Luke 14:23). 2 Tim. 4:2 tells us to do it "with all longsuffering and doctrine." We must bring back the mirror of the Law in our message so that we can really show people their sins and convict them of the need to repent and to put their 100% trust on Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation. I admit that any message that will show people’s sins will not be easily accepted. The reality is that with this message, people may start hating us. But we must realize that this is the way that works. This is the way that truly delivers the results.

Let us not substitute music for the direct preaching of the Word for doing so may make us miss the target by a mile. Let us sing to the Lord to worship Him and to remind ourselves of His goodness to us. Sing songs to encourage and challenge other Christians to go on living for God. Only those who have already been forgiven by God deserve to sing. Let us therefore share the gospel to others so that soon, they will also have all the right in the world to sing their hearts out to the Lord!

Testimonials

For this month’s article, I decided to step aside and let some people do the writing for me. I asked two of the original members of Star Youth Ministries to share their testimonials on their soul-winning experiences. I believe that you will be encouraged with what they have to share in terms of their involvement in the Great Commission. Do enjoy reading them!

ANDREA AMOR FRANCO

Since I became a part of the Star Youth Ministries, I’ve yet to have an extraordinary experience when it comes to witnessing. But despite this, I consider each and every witnessing experience to have a great impact in my spiritual life.

Talking to strangers has not always been “appealing” to me. I grew up believing that talking to them might put me in harm. Not until I became a part of Star Youth Ministries. I found myself not only talking to strangers but searching for them as well. Yes, searching for lost souls and sharing the good news to them. I have never been a gutsy person when it comes to initiating conversations, never been a risky person as well. I believe that there is always a risk when it comes to witnessing but then God has proven His faithfulness because witnessing has not yet placed me in any trouble or harm. Instead, it has led me into deeper love for people and passion to share His word to those around me who always seem to be happy living their lives, but the truth is, deep down their hearts, they are screaming and crying for help.

Sharing God’s word is not easy but it can be fun. I am not saying this because I have gone to different places (such as Baguio, Pangasinan, Batangas) because of our witnessing sessions. The brothers and sisters in Christ whom we worked with have helped made it fun. But it is those strangers in parks and marketplaces whom we converse with in 3 to 5 minutes, sharing to them God’s life-saving Gospel (of course, the way Jesus did) that makes witnessing such a fun thing. I won’t trade the feeling for anything in the world. Talking to these people has also made me realize many things about my own life. But the ultimate realization is that everything I have done to serve the Lord was not really about my strength or courage but it has always been about God’s power working in me, and continually working in me, because knowing the very timid and fearful “me”, I know that it is impossible to do these things.

But then, I’ve realized that I really do not have to go to far places to win souls. I am a young person. I go to malls, I go to movie houses, and I study in a university. I am not a student who happens to be a Christian but I am a Christian who just happens to be a student. I admit that it is a lot harder to approach those people whom I am with everyday. There are a lot of excuses I could give not to preach God’s Word, but there is one great reason why I should not be afraid of telling the good news that would outweigh those excuses. It is the truth that God died for me. And so I started sharing the Word to some of my classmates without minding if they would laugh at me seeing those two pieces of curve illusions in my hands. It is a great blessing for me that I have a number of classmates who are already believers of Christ. We just had our first small group gathering and we talked about our plans on how to win the souls of our other classmates, and that is what I am really praying for right now.

I was asked to do an article to tell my witnessing experiences. I may have shared things here which you may think are out of context. Pardon me. I’m just so excited to finally be able to tell the world that I am a young Christian “at work”. This is the life I have chosen and if I have to spend my youth in serving my Creator, I would always gladly do so. One day when I’m old and I look back at how I had spent my youth, I know that what I chose to do right now for the Lord is something that I will never, ever regret doing.


ARVIN CUNANAN

Evangelism is the closest thing to the heart of God. The reason why I got saved is because there’s someone who boldly shared the Gospel of salvation to me. As a Christian or a follower of Christ, it is also my duty to lift up the name of Jesus and to share the gift of God, Salvation.

I remember one of my experiences in sharing the good news to a group of students. The students were also members of a fraternity. While having their past time, standing in the compound of a Catholic church, I decided to approach them and talk about their sins, their destiny and about Jesus. While sharing the Gospel to them using the principle of the Way of the Master, testing them on how they’ve kept the 10 Commandments, one of the students beside me started playing his balisong (a type of knife here in the Philippines that’s quite dangerous). I got scared and thought that at any moment, this guy could stab me. But God’s protection is with me. He promised that He’ll never leave me, nor forsake me. He said that for people who yield to the Great Commission, He will be with us even to the ends of the earth and that’s the reason why my fear of what might happen subsided. But if He does allow that I be physically harmed, this is what I’ll declare to everyone --- “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Despite being just a typical young man in our church, I was assigned in the ministry of evangelism at the same time the youth leader in our church chapter. Our church pastor gave me the responsibility to make evangelism activities and strategies. Knowing the principle of The Way of the Master has been a great blessing for me. I conducted seminars and trainings in our church to teach the most effective and biblical way of evangelizing. Injecting the principle in our church is not that easy. We’ve had some of our ministry heads rejecting the idea of having a street evangelism program. They believe that the best way to bring people to church is by pouring on them Christian songs upon Christian songs until they’ve realized that it’s high time for them to embrace Christianity. Going out of the church to look for souls to witness to, is for them, already outdated. They believe that it is more effective to have an evangelistic concert, showing their talents and abilities to sing, dance and play instruments than to share directly their faith. For me, they are just making themselves the stars of the concert night, not Jesus Christ.

Many of the Christian churches today are loaded down with so many church activities while the real work of the church which is to win souls for Jesus is totally neglected. Sometimes, they substitute prayer for the Great Commission. They always pray for their love ones to be saved but they don’t do their part in bringing them to Christ. They give so many reasons why they are not involved in soul-winning, but in reality, they are not reasons, they are all alibis.

Andrea and Arvin will be joining several young Christians for this year’s missions trip which we call the Gospel Buzz (October 24-26). They will be spending three whole days sharing the Gospel (the way Jesus did) from Bulacan to Batangas and back to Bulacan. We need your support to this evangelism program. To find out how you can send your donation to the Gospel Buzz, just click the blinking bus at our homepage.

Is it worth it?

A few days ago, I logged-on to my Friendster account to see what’s new (believe me, I have one). One person in my network happened to be my classmate during my good old college days. I then went on to see who the people were in her network and I was surprised to see a lot of our former classmates as her “friends” in her account. One by one, I viewed their profiles and pictures. After each profile, I grew sadder and sadder. Why? I realized how successful most of my classmates have become. Some of them are now working abroad, some have reached executive levels in the companies they are working at, and some even now have their own business to manage. They went on to fulfill their dreams while I,… I was living a life so far from what I dreamed of during my college days. The realization that I performed far better than them in school made what I was already feeling more excruciating. Don’t get me wrong. I am not putting any doubt on their ability to be successful. I knew even then that they really have what it takes to someday be achievers. I am so proud of them! What strikes me hard is the thought that I could have also been like them.

Probably, one reason I felt that way while browsing their Friendster accounts is the fact that growing up, people around me had voiced their future expectations of me. I remember, during my high school days, the principal of our school introduced me to the president of the institution as “one of the pillars of our school”. Later, when I graduated from that school, another official told me, “We expect that you will become the most successful in your batch.” In college, high expectations like this continued. A classmate of mine, while we were rehearsing for our graduation rites echoed what others before have already voiced, “I expect you to become the most popular from our class because of what you will be achieving in the future.” A few years later, I feel that they’ve achieved more than me. Yes, I am currently in a managing position in the private school that I work at. Yes, twice I appeared in national television as guest psychologist for two popular TV programs here in the Philippines. Yes, I am currently leading the operations of Living Waters Asia. But in that moment, I felt that I fell way short to people’s expectations of me. For a brief time, I was telling myself, “I could have achieved more if I did not concern myself with the task of sharing the Gospel.”

I forgot four reasons why I am where I am right now.

I forgot that God owns me. The fact that His ownership of me naturally should put me in His Will totally skipped my mind. A car-owner can bring his car to wherever he wishes to bring it. The owner of a house can choose to paint his house purple if he wishes to. A cook can just give the food he cooked to whoever he wishes to give it. The same goes with God’s ownership of me. Because He owns me, He can just do whatever He wants to do with me. But the truth is, He does not operate that way. He allows us to exercise our free will in deciding if we will do what He wants us to do. This brings me to the second thing I forgot.

I forgot that it was me who chose to follow Him. I had all the options laid in front of me. I could’ve chosen to work in the secular world if I wanted to. I could’ve chosen to work for money and not for souls. But I chose to follow Him; therefore, I must not go on living with regrets. I must stand by my choice no matter what it brings me. Had I chosen to fulfill my dreams of material wealth and worldly fame, he would’ve allowed me. But it was I who chose to hold His hand while He led me to where He wanted me to be. As a mature individual, I have to fulfill my commitment.

I also forgot that the things of this world are just temporary. When Jesus said, “…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break nor steal (Matt. 6:20),” He was not really making a command. He was, instead, laying down the reality of the permanency of what we choose to call “our wealth”. I wanted a kind of wealth that would last throughout eternity and not something that won’t even last my lifetime. This is the reason why I have made myself busy in winning souls for Christ and training others to do the same. Material wealth can be lost in a minute. Many people have lost their fortitudes of wealth in an unexpected fire or calamity. Numerous investors have lost their life-savings in a quick crash in the stock market. Rich people have experienced being robbed by other people. And still, there are also those who, although their wealth are not lost nor robbed by others, lose the joy and contentment that their wealth once gave them. What we do in service to the Lord yields for us treasures that will never ever be lost. This is the reason why we should not fill our hearts with envy for temporal things that people around us so proudly parade.

Lastly, I forgot that He already did a lot for me. First, He gave me life. In my mother’s womb He took the time to form me. He gave my body parts that will enable me to function in a world of complexity. He gave me a mind to help me think my way out of any problem. He nourished me physically and made me the most advanced among His creations. He made me His ultimate work of art!

Secondly, He gave me a chance to live the rest of eternity in a place that He, Himself lives at which I very much do not deserve. He gave me this, despite the rotten and sinful me. I failed Him a lot of times. I filled His heart with sorrow because of the sins I’ve committed against Him. But His love for me over-shadowed the pains I caused Him. He even decided to take more pain just so I could have the chance to someday live with Him in His Kingdom. He died on the cross for me. He did not deserve what He experienced there. I deserve all the punishment. I should be the one in Hell. But He said, “Step aside. Let me do it for you.” And what did He ask for in return? Nothing. Just a simple but genuine “sorry” and faith on His ability to save me, made me a recipient of the greatest gift of all--- His forgiveness. Because of the sacrifice involved for the fourth reason, you can remove the first three and I still have a big reason why I should be doing what I am doing right now.

I’m so ashamed of my short memory. I allowed myself to be caught up with the lure of the worldly things that I don’t have that I totally forgot that what I have is more than what are in the world. Probably the reason why I forgot was because my former classmates seem to be enjoying life more than me. In my service to our Lord I’ve experienced unenviable things. I remember one time, after preaching unannounced in front of about a hundred people in a plaza in Bacolod City, around 10 to 15 people started to surround me shouting curses against me. Then a bald woman suddenly stormed in the middle of the crowd and spat in front of me then told me that I came from Satan. Another time, a person rudely cut me while I was preaching open-air. Then, there’s this one evening when the devil, himself attacked me physically to the point that I couldn’t breathe anymore. And you can add to that the daily struggles against sin, the ridicule of people for my commitment to the cause of the Gospel, the lost income due to the fact that I now only work part-time in the school that I help manage and, the constant problem of keeping Living Waters Asia afloat financially.

Serving the Lord is not a “walk in the park” or “a bed of roses” as most preachers preaching a modern Gospel message would tell you. The reality is if you follow Him, you have to get yourself ready to go through a lot of uncomfortable situations. The disciples never got a smooth sailing life when they decided to give their lives to Jesus. In fact, they encountered a lot of storms in their journeys. They were put in prison several times and were reviled and persecuted for the message they preached. All of them, except one (John) died a martyr’s death. If they experienced these things, why in the world should I expect that my service to Him will be positively different? Jesus said, “In this world you shall have tribulations…(John 16:33)” Furthermore, it is expected of us “to be partakers of His sufferings (1 Pet. 4:13).” In serving the Lord, expect your whole world to be turned upside-down.

One day though, all of these hardships will end. The pain, the embarrassments, the struggles, the scars will all be things of the past. Our tears, my tears will all be wiped away. The things I never received in this world, I will finally have and even more. And the applause I never got from people here I will never desire anymore because I will hear the God of this universe tell me this, “Welcome, my good and faithful servant!” That commendation from the One who loves me so much will make all the hard service I rendered Him worth it all.

"Let us then be true and faithful

Trusting, serving everyday.ust one glimpse of Him in gloryill the toils of life repay.
When we all get to Heaven,
what a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
we'll sing and shout the victory!"

This hymn sums it all up perfectly.

EXPLOITS

When a Christian becomes obedient to the call of selfless service to the Lord, you should be ready to be surprised with the things that you are able to do. Daniel 11:32 said, “…they that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” Knowing God means you know what pleases Him and you are on-the-go in doing His will. And as promised, He will strengthen you to do things for Him that you’ve not imagined you will be able to do in your whole life.

When the Star Youth Ministries (the evangelism arm of Living Waters Asia) celebrated its 1st anniversary last April 16, 2007, the theme was “Gearing towards greater exploits for God”. That’s exactly what SYM members are doing right now. All of these are due to the Holy Spirit’s empowering.

One thing that we are always amazed with is the fact that although none of us came out from any Bible seminary, we are able to conduct Way of the Master seminars in churches all around the Philippines. In every seminar we conduct there are pastors who have been in this vocation for a very long time, who listen intently to what we present. To make things more exciting, they would show their agreement with everything we say. We’ve had pastors tell us that the WOTM seminars we’ve conducted made them realize how much they’ve totally neglected a big part of the Gospel message, and that is man is sinful and that is why he really needs to repent of all his sinful ways. There were several pastors who’ve even asked us to assist them in their churches' evangelism programs. These, despite us not having any formal Bible school training.

SYM members have seen me several times doing open-air preaching. I remember that there were already several instances where I challenged them to also try it. I would tell them that the adrenaline rush they would experience during open-air preaching sessions is totally different from what they get when doing one-on-one. I even added that the satisfaction they will have will be very difficult to contain. But they would always tell me, “Sir, I still have to pray for more empowering from God to do that.” In the past months, I have seen them during our street evangelism sessions where I only require them to do one-on-ones, witnessing to open-air preaching size crowds. When I pointed this out to them, they have realized that they indeed could do it. Next thing you know, they’re now preaching in the open-air. Paul, a member of the second batch of SYM members, once took the microphone in an open-air band concert during the half-time break and preached with all gusto. There’s a chance that more than a hundred people heard his message as the sound system for the concert was really loud. Later, Paul told me that, being a youth political personality in their place, he was invited to lead the prayer for the start of the opening of a barrio basketball tournament. He said that he plans to preach first before making the prayer.

Another SYM member, Lester, one of the original members of the group, did something tantamount to going against the enemy head-on. He preached inside a store that sells graven images with the owner around. Later, he told me that the owner does not believe in the existence of Hell. It made us realize that he is not in that business to help people evade Hell by encouraging them to be more prayerful to the different saints he sells. Everything is purely for profit.

In the last 4 or 5 months, I have been preaching inside the compound of the biggest Catholic church in our place, and in almost all of the times I preach there, I made it a point to touch man’s offense of the 2nd Commandment (Thou shall not make for yourselves any graven images). I’ve experienced being cut by one of the officials of that religious order because I was preaching to young people they were about to bring to a Catholic retreat. The guy did not realize that by the time he squeezed himself in the crowd to cut my talk, I was really already done. All along, I thought that I’ve done already the “ultimate thing” when it comes to evangelism with this. Not until one very special Thursday.

While I was witnessing to some students inside the Catholic church compound during our weekly E-blitz (short for evangelism blitz), the SYM members with me started to disappear. When all of us got back to our office, I asked where they were. They told me that while they, with the leadership of Arvin (another of the original SYM members), were looking for people to witness to, they suddenly got the urge to go directly inside the church where a lot of people where praying, and there, distribute tracts. I was shocked that they were able to do that. They, themselves, couldn’t believe what they’ve just done. All they know was that a force pushed them inside to do what has to be done. Humbled with the courage that these young people have just shown, I told them, “Next week, you will do that again and I will join you.” That’s exactly what we did the following week with teenage girls we just recently have won for Christ joining us.

These unimaginable exploits have only made us recognize the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. On our own, we know that there’s no way we could do those things. We always remind ourselves that what we are and what we have accomplished are all due to God’s power released in our lives. Yes, we get afraid still a lot of times. But when we are reminded of the promise enveloped in the Great Commission, “…and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world…” courage starts to spring out.

It’s a pity that a lot of Christians have not experienced doing exploits for God. As a result, they haven’t experienced the ultimate adrenaline rush that dwarfs even the rush you get from a roller coaster ride or a parachute glide in the skies. If they only know what they are missing. All it takes is an obedient heart and a willingness to have our lives be the workplace of the Holy Spirit.

Wanted: Surrendered Christians

When it comes to religious freedom, history has probably not seen a time as free as ours where faith-beliefs can just be discussed anytime and anywhere. Yes, there are still nations like Muslim countries where Christianity is banned, but we still can’t make a sweeping declaration that the Gospel has no way of penetrating the most ardent anti-Christianity social system. The internet has enabled us to bring the Good News to places which before, were virtually impossible to reach. But despite all the freedom that we have which we can use in heeding the call of The Great Commission, it seems that fewer and fewer Christians are really willing to involve themselves in evangelism. As to why this is the case, I submit three probable answers that were based on my personal observation of Christians around me.

First and foremost is the Gospel message that most in this generation have heard. I can’t see how a plain “Jesus loves you” message, without emphasis on the background of why Jesus demonstrated His love toward us (so that sinners like us can avoid our deserved punishment in Hell), can result to someone who cries at the thought of others plunging to Hell. Without a deep understanding of man’s sinfulness, a person will not look at the indulgence of others in sin as their ticket to eternal damnation. Add to that the fact that man is by nature, selfish, including most Christians, which makes him say, “Well, I found the way to get to heaven. I hope others will somehow find it also even with no assistance from me”. With these two ingredients together (little understanding of the nature of sin and man’s selfishness), what you will end up with is someone who has little or no concern at all for lost souls.

The second culprit is freedom itself. Here, we have a case where the blessings of liberty have been abused to the marrow. Christians of today are so busy with many things which result to either, a lack of time for evangelism involvement, or, them tainting their testimonies, which disqualifies them to preach the life-changing Gospel. The limit-less opportunities to amass wealth in our generation have taken so much of man’s time and energy. The reality is, most of us have placed our focus on materialism. Some Christians who are focused on gaining material wealth, in an effort to relieve themselves of some of the guilt for not witnessing to others, would give a small fraction of their wealth to ministries and mission programs and then declare, “This is God’s will for my life… to financially support ministries.” They fail to recognize that soul-winning is the duty of each and every Christian, regardless of whether you significantly support ministries financially or not.

Last of all, the reason why we have lesser Christians involved in evangelism is because very few Christian parents encourage their children to give their lives for this kind of work. Why? It’s either because, probably, they are not involved in soul-winning themselves, or, because they want their children to focus themselves in striving to have a more economically comfortable life in the future. They would tell their children to get involved in a few church ministries that will not be in conflict with their studies or their basketball games. “If your grades go down or if your basketball game average decreases, then that’s it with your church involvement”. How sad it is that instead of pushing children to get involved in ministries, parents tell their children that they don’t want them to be pastors or Christian workers in the future because they don’t want them to suffer the lack of money in Christian ministries. This results to children getting turned-off when it comes to service to the Lord. They do not realize that they are already telling their children that fame, wealth and power should be given more importance than those that have eternal value, like souls won for Christ.

Money or without money, fame or without fame, power or without power, all of us who have experienced the saving grace of God must involve ourselves in The Great Commission.

A few days ago, on our way home from a WOTM seminar we conducted, I started asking the Star Youth Ministries members about whether they think God is calling them to full-time Christian ministry in the future. I told them that because we are clearly in the end times, I believe that if God will raise up Christian soldiers for evangelism, He will choose those who have already had their feet wet when it comes to Christian work. Being members of Star Youth Ministries for more than a year now doing street evangelism and seminars that challenge the Body of Christ to be more involved in soul-winning, I strongly believe that God would want them to enlist in His army. Some of them tried to reason their way out of the call but to no avail simply because they can’t deny it. The call was so loud. All along the discussion of this topic, the male SYM members were the ones involved. The only female in the group at that time, Andrea Amor Franco (we call her AA for short), sat silently on her seat, listening to every bit of our discussion. When we did a stopover to have a quick dinner, AA walked with me to the restaurant and told me, “Sir, I really want to go to the mountains after I graduate from college and reach the children there for Christ.” What she told me made me so proud of her. Here was a young and beautiful girl with so much promise ahead of her should she decide to work in the secular world, telling me of her desire to surrender her life for the purpose of someday reaching children for Christ in one of the rural mountains of the Philippines. How I wish more of the people who call themselves “Christians” in our time will be as surrendered to Christ as AA.

The Effects of Showing Someone His Sinfulness

2 Corinthians 7:10 says that Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation. Here’s the question --- How many of you who have used a modern Gospel message that says that “Jesus will give you love, joy peace, fulfillment and lasting happiness” have seen genuine Godly sorrow from people you have witnessed to as you forcibly led them to say the sinner’s prayer?

I just can’t see how a “happy” message like that can induce such a needed type of sorrow that leads a person to truly repent of all his sins. Unless one sees how he has offended the One that gave him life, a person will not see the need to change. Here in the Philippines, we often hear of news of movie stars that supposedly have been born-again. Any true Christian who has a burning desire for the lost to be saved would be filled with joy with such news. Later though, they start questioning if the movie star really had a true conversion simply because the things that he was doing before are the same things he is still doing after he supposedly became a “Christian”.

True repentance that results to one being saved produces a distinct change in how a person lives his/her life. Sad to say, a lot of so-called “Christians” inside our churches today do not reflect the change we expect of a true convert. But ask them where they will spend eternity when they die, they are so confident that they’re going to heaven simply because they once said a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives. As if one such prayer can seal the deal! Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19 never said such a prayer. He just declared to Jesus his repentance by saying how he will show his decision to turn away from his sins and then Jesus said, “Today, salvation has come into this home.” Paul said in Acts 20:21 that his message was “repentance towards God and faith on Jesus Christ”. The message is still the same. We are sinners and therefore, the need to repent is essential before we can come to Jesus for the salvation that only He can give. It all starts with a realization of our sinfulness, and the Ten Commandments is a perfect tool towards achieving this.

I’ve shared this same message several times to my 5-year old son. And in almost all of these times, I’ve used the Law to convict him of his sinfulness. And each time, I never really saw change in him probably due to the fact that his young mind could not yet really fathom how his childish disobedience can offend God. But a few weeks back, after an incident where he decided to disrespect me and his mom just because of some cartoons he was watching in the television, the breakthrough I was hoping for came. I scolded him for that first and then told him that God is not pleased with children disrespecting their parents. I then asked my son if he thinks he had disrespected us, his parents, during that hour, resulting to him offending God (5th Commandment). He said “yes”. I then asked him, “If you’ve disobeyed God today, where do you think God should send you when you die, which is something that could happen anytime, even today?” It took him time to answer. I could see the struggle he was experiencing. When he was able to say “hell”, tears fell from his eyes. I then told him that I love him so much that’s why I do not want him to go to hell. I followed by saying that God does not want him to go to hell either that’s why He sacrificed himself at Calvary for him. I then told him that all he needed to do is to be truly sorry for all the times he was disobedient, first to God, and second, to us, and then ask Jesus to help him so that he will not go to hell. He then prayed on his own, without me telling him what to say. He was really in tears while he was doing all of these. The big difference between my past use of the Law in witnessing to my son with this incident was the time lapsed from the instance that my son offended one of God’s Commandments and the actual witnessing encounter. His disobedience of God was still fresh in his mind in this instance, whereas in the other times I witnessed to him, I talked about sins like lying and disrespect of parents in general.

From then on, I saw a distinct change in my son. One time, during one very hot afternoon, I asked him to take a bath because he was all sweaty and smelly already from all the play he did outside. I sensed that he wanted to continue playing. And then I said, “Son. Remember that in obeying daddy, you obey God, and that makes Him happy.” He then stood up, and I heard him ask our helper to remove his clothes because he will take a bath. There are still times that my son would show some disobedience. But every time we remind him about the need to make God happy, it was easier for him to try to obey.

A true convert who has repented realizes that its all about making God happy. He knows that although most of the time, obeying God will not be the most comfortable thing to do, he still obeys God because he knows that in the process, he would make his Creator very happy