Category: evangelism

Bring Them In

As a child, I always looked forward to missionaries visiting our little country church. They brought glimpses of the world to our doorstep and stories of the marvelous things God was doing around the globe, often in remote places.

When our pastor introduced a missionary on Sunday morning, I could hardly wait for the Sunday evening service. The missionary would be back with slides from their field; a tropical jungle, an intriguing Alaskan village, or an urban locale and the faces of the people who lived there. There would be stories; about people receiving medical care, children getting an education, or churches being planted and lives being transformed by God as the missionary became the hands that served and the feet that brought Good News. And there would be a table in the foyer; with unusual musical instruments, traditional clothing or works of art to help us understand the unique ways of each culture.

Then we’d sing the songs we always sang when the missionaries came: Send the Light, Bringing in the Sheeves, and We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations. It instilled in me an early understanding that we are blessed to be a blessing to others (Genesis 12:1-3) and we have a God-given assignment to “go into all the world and preach the preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15).

There was a time I thought God would open the door for me to be a full-time missionary, but He took my life a different direction. Still, my desire to see God’s Word reach the remotest parts of the world lives on. My respect and admiration for those who give up life’s conveniences and comforts to serve in strange, new places is unending. I pray God will protect and strengthen His people wherever they may be working as His ambassadors to a lost world. And I pray their work, whatever it is, will be fruitful.

Out in the desert hear their cry, Out on the mountains wild and high;

Hark! ‘tis the Master speaks to thee, “Go find my sheep where-e’er they be.”

Bring them in, bring them in, Bring them in from the fields of sin;

Bring them in, bring them in, Bring the wand’ring ones to Jesus.

  • Bring Them In, Alexcenah Thomas

I Love to Tell the Story

Photo copyright: www.godponderings.com

Do you have a favorite story – one you tell over and over again?

I have one. In fact, I just told it earlier today.

My husband and I come from quite different backgrounds. He’s a city kid. I’m a country kid. His extended family would fit in a large living room. My extended family would need a convention center. He grew up in a home that didn’t prioritize church. I grew up in a home that seldom missed a Sunday.

My husband’s family gathered for a reunion a few years ago. As folks were telling of days gone by, someone told the story of family members who had run liquor during the prohibition. When they finished, I put my hand on my husband’s shoulder and said in a serious tone, “My people were praying for your people.”

We laughed then, and have laughed many times since, over that moment (seriously though, it’s probably true). Maybe your favorite story is funny, like mine. Maybe it’s a cute story about something your child or pet did, an exciting story about something adventurous you did, or an amazing story about something miraculous God has done. We’re eager to relay our stories because of the impact they had on our lives.

Our stories also give others a glimpse of who we are at the core. It can be unnerving to let people see what’s inside us.

I think that’s why I’m sometimes reluctant to tell the story that changed my life. What will people think of me if they know what’s most important to me? It’s THE story. I wanted – needed – to hear it. So, what makes me think other people don’t?

It’s the one about Jesus, and how He died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin, so I could stand in God’s presence purified and righteous.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

It’s the story about how God adopted me and called me His own, even though I’ve never done anything to deserve it.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  (Romans 8:15)

And how one day, when I die or Christ returns (whichever comes first), I’ll go and live with Him forever in a place that He’s preparing for me.

In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.  (John 14:2-3)

I hope this is your story, too. And I hope you have more courage to tell it than I sometimes do. It’s a story that can bring hope to people in despair, peace to people wracked by all sorts of conflict, and joy to those who’ve known too much sorrow. It’s a timeless story with the power to transform lives.

I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love; I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true, it satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.

(I Love to Tell the Story by A. Catherine Hankey)