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T The Lost
You may have heard the saying: "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." The idea is that there's always a market for quality goods. When Jesus Christ lived, died, was resurrected, and created an institution called the church to carry his message of salvation to the world, he was giving us a "better mousetrap." And if we're treating this institution called the church in the manner that God intends there will be hungering souls, searchers, seekers, who will beat a path to our door.
It's naive to assume that everyone out there is ready to come in here... but it's just as naive to assume that there aren't some folks out there who want nothing more than to be a part of God's people, worshiping and serving in God's house of prayer. Will you make this place available to them?
Topics/Tags: The Lost
If you watched the news last night [September 1996], you know that there was quite a mess with traffic at the [Kentucky] State Fair yesterday. The nice weather, the concerts, and the early start for Jefferson County schools this year all meant that there were swarms of people wanting to get into the Fairgrounds; all the traffic created a huge bottleneck at the gates. Cashiers and fairgrounds officials couldn't get the gates opened up fast enough, it seemed, to keep up with the flow of people coming in.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, God wants to bless his churches with a similar problem if ever we decide to really, really, throw our doors open wide for all who wish to partake of the bread of life to come in?
Topics/Tags: The Lost; Evangelism
China has a surplus of three shirts for each of its adult male population, part of an enormous over-production of consumer goods, the Liberation Daily reported Monday. The country has stocks of 1.5 billion men's shirts and its factories continue to turn out more than one million a day. Seventy percent of the output of 3,000 cosmetics factories sits in warehouses. China has 10 million watches and 20 million bicycles in storage and has imported an excess number of production lines for washing machines, color TVs and refrigerators.
China is indeed a country that has become rich in material things. Yet, because of its resistance to missionary efforts, the nation continues to live in spiritual poverty.
Even more tragically, there are millions who HAVE heard the gospel, yet still cling to a faith in all things material instead of to a faith in Christ.
Source: NEWSpot, 12/2/96
Topics/Tags: Materialism; The Lost
In the winter of 1978, a three-year-old child was left in the car while his father went into a Birmingham, Alabama hospital to get his wife and new baby. The car with the sleeping child was stolen. The city was searched. A disabled Vietnam veteran heard about the crisis and joined the search. While searching his area of the city, he noticed a slight movement by a swing stacked with old newspapers. As he approached that trash-heap, a child cried out, "Daddy, Daddy?" The man responded, "Son, I'm not your daddy, but I'm here to take you to your daddy."
God has called us to find the men and women who are lost in the debris of this world, and take them to their Father.
Source: "Proclaim," 1989 #4, p. 8.
Topics/Tags: Witness; The Lost; God, fatherhood of
The St. Bernard dogs in the Alps who seek out travelers lost in a storm take their mission very seriously. One of these dogs returned late one afternoon, wearied from fighting his way through the drifts. He went to his kennel, lay down in a corner, and acted thoroughly despondent, despite the efforts of his master to encourage him. Was he sick? Well, no, not in body, but in heart. He had failed to find anyone to help and had come back ashamed and distraught.
It is such sorrow of the heart, resulting in outburst of tears on behalf of others who are lost, that should characterize the Christian.
Source: Illustrations of Bible Truths, AMG International, 1995, p. 42.
Topics/Tags: Compassion; Sorrow; The Lost
Some people have a great "sense of direction"—but most of us need at least some assistance finding unfamiliar addresses or navigating through strange territory. According to Norman Relkin, associate professor of clinical neurology at Cornell Medical Center, the need to "stop and ask for directions" is solely a human phenomenon—animals don't have to do it. The reason? The hippocampus, the part of the brain which is partially responsible for spatial ability, is relatively small in humans, whereas in other animals the hippocampus accounts for a substantial percentage of total brain volume.
…yet another reminder that, left to our own devices, we human beings are indeed "lost." "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside…" (Romans 3:10-11).
Source: Home Life, February 1999, p. 10.
An elderly gentleman was out walking with his young grandson. "How far are we from Home?" he asked the grandson. The boy answered, "Grandpa, I don't know." The grandfather asked, "Well, where are you?" Again the boy answered, "I don't know." Then the grandfather said good-naturedly, "Sounds to me as if you are lost."
The young boy looked up at his grandfather and said, "Nope, I can't be lost. I'm with you." Ultimately, that is the answer to our lostness, too. We can't be lost if He is with us.
Source: unknown
Topics/Tags: Jesus, the christ, savior; The Lost; Salvation; Fellowship, with god
Nelson Price, pastor of the Roswell Street Baptist Church in Cobb county, Georgia, wanted to place his church's television ministry into the most unchurched counties in America. He contacted the Research Department of his denomination and asked them to give him a list of the most unchurched counties in American.
To his utter astonishment, one of those counties was Cobb County, Georgia, the county his church was located in!
It is a mistake to believe that the lost are "out there." In most cases, they are right here!
Source: Dr. Edwin L. Cliburn
Topics/Tags: The Lost; Evangelism; Great commission; Missions
Have you prayed for your missionaries lately? Here's some unusual advice from Southern Baptist missionaries to remote inner China: don't.
Instead, they urge, "Pray for our people [that is, the Chinese people]! They are lost, trapped in deceit, headed for eternal darkness."
Instead of praying "safe" prayers of "blessing" for our missionaries, let us be willing to truly intercede on behalf of the lost. That prayer battleground is much tougher--but the rewards are greater, too.
Source: Your Church on Mission With God, 5/1999.
Topics/Tags: Prayer; The Lost; Intercession; Missions
The Church faces a generation which is trying to drink its way to prosperity, war its way to peace, spend its way to wealth, and enjoy its way to heaven.
-- Anonymous
Source: "12,000 Religious Quotations," Frank S. Mead, ed.
Topics/Tags: Church; Unbelievers; The Lost
Browse By Topic T The Lost