2 Letters from 2 Churches

A letter to our team Revivalist Ryan and his wife Mal:

Dear Ryan and Mal,

“I cannot express in words how our family has completely turned around. The Lord is great, and all the Glory be to him. I know that you guys are doing his work, and I pray that you will continue to touch other lives with his word. I only pray that one day my faith will be as focused on him, as you are. I bought all the Cd's from the Thirst Revival and have already started to listen to them. The funny thing is, I put it in my van cd player yesterday, after I listened to it, I went to eject it, and it would not come out. My husband said to me "Maybe that means you need to listen to it again." I laughed and said, “You know honey your right." So, I will probably never get it out, and you know what? I don't want to! I can listen to it always and never lose it. I visited your blog and will continue to pray for the safety of your team as you travel. Our family has been blessed in so many ways. God is great. Yesterday, a woman that we know called my husband out of the blue. She told him that she was at a Women's Conference and God laid it on her heart to pray for him, our family, and our business. That he would not be tempted to over charge customers and that God would keep him strong and deliver him from temptations. She also tried to contact me to pray with her over the phone. When my husband came home he told me what happened. At first, I was thinking to myself why she would say a thing like that. Does she think we steal from our customers? Does she know my husband’s heart? Has this been something he is dealing subconsciously with, that he has not shared with me? Is he conflicted about his work? So many questions I had running through my mind. However, at the end of all those questions of Why. I kept getting the same answer. It's God at work! So I just wanted to share this with you guys. We will continue to live a cross-centered life and raise our children to do the same. Thanks so much for all the reading material, and Cd's. Also, thank you Mal for showing me the portrait of a submissive and loving wife. We love you brothers and sisters in Christ. May Peace with you always and may God protect you in your travels.”

A letter from a young mom in a recent church:

“I just wanted to say again how blessed I was this past week with Life Action coming to Tabernacle. The experience transformed my family. I thought I would be praying for months or longer on the softening of my husband's heart, but man God did a work through Ryan on him. He said he swore Ryan pointed at him when he was talking about bitterness. We all pray together every night and the younger boys wanted bibles so we got them each one today and even a toddler bible for Grace (she's 2). We are still growing and learning from the things you guys taught through. Every time we go back and discuss we see a new point. And I am just so thankful God brought your team to us. I am and will be forever thankful for you! You have no idea how awesome it is for me to have a sister in Christ. And it gave me strength and hope to reach out to other women in my church. And I am so happy to have women to pray with. I keep reading things online and buying new books, and feel like I can't learn enough. We also continue to pray this doesn't die out. I want this to be the fire that got started that can't burn out!

Your ministry, your family, your team, all mean so much to us!

Thank you!!! And bless you on your journey and we continue to pray for the
Churches in your path. May they be as blessed by God's word as we were!”

How to Share the Gospel with Children

One of the church's greatest privileges and responsibilities is ministering to children. Whether the context is children's church, Sunday school, AWANA, VBS, or something else-and whether it's evangelism or discipleship-our greatest priority is teaching the gospel. Responding to Christ's work in repentance and faith is how children begin and mature in the Christian life.
Sharing the gospel with children, however, is not simply presenting a flannel graph lesson and asking for a show of hands. In fact, statistics indicate that most children raised in the church abandon the faith after high school. This raises a question: Did these kids really understand and respond to the gospel, or were they merely inoculated against genuine Christianity?
Three Concerns
I have three concerns about how we share the gospel with children:
1. That we not replace the true gospel with false or distorted versions
2. That we not confuse the gospel with a child's response
3. That we not equate a true, inward, spiritual response with an outward physical or emotional response
True or False?
In Galatians 1, Paul sternly warned of those who distorted Christ's gospel, saying: "If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:9). We cannot and must not modify, amend, or distort the saving message of the cross. But there are many false or distorted versions that masquerade as the truth.
We also must not confuse the gospel with a call to moral obedience. This means that it is insufficient to teach children to live by the Sermon on the Mount, practice the Golden Rule, obey the Ten Commandments, or simply love God and others.
Of course, we want children to obey Scripture, but if this is all we say, we are giving the law, not the gospel. As Tim Keller has pointed out, "The gospel is good news, not good advice."
Even worse is a message that focuses on self-esteem, self-help, or health, wealth, and prosperity. You don't have to be a TV evangelist with big hair and a luxuriant set to fall into this. If we just present Jesus as affirming our selves or solving our difficulties, without talking of sin, judgment, and the cross, then we're portraying Jesus as a spiritual genie, not a saving Lord.
Neither should we think we've shared the gospel when we have said, "If you ask Jesus into your heart [accept or receive Jesus], you will go to heaven when you die." While it's true that those who receive and believe are God's children (John 1:12), it is false that "asking Jesus into your heart" brings salvation. For one thing, that statement includes nothing about:
· Christ's death, burial, and resurrection
· Jesus' identity as Messiah, Lord, and God manifested in the flesh
· Sin, the nature of salvation, and the need for repentance
So the problem with equating "asking Jesus into your heart" with the gospel is that it shifts the focus away from Jesus Christ's atoning work onto the child's subjective work or experience.
What is the gospel, then? Paul defines it in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." Very simply, the gospel is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Responding to the Gospel
My other two concerns are that we not confuse the gospel with a response and that we not equate a true, inward, spiritual response with an outward physical or emotional response.
A true response involves both repentance and faith (Acts 20:21). Repentance is turning from sin, self-righteousness (Phil. 3:1-10), and idolatry (1 Thess. 1:10) to serve the true and living God. Faith is trusting in the crucified and risen Christ to save us.
When sharing the gospel with children, we need to emphasize faith and repentance. But we must always remember that these are responses to the gospel; they are not the gospel itself. Ask for a response, but only after making the message clear.
But don't confuse repentance and faith with a response to an invitation, such as:
· Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven.
· Pray the sinner's prayer.
· You need to be baptized.
· Make a decision about Jesus today!
These methods have, no doubt, resulted in genuine conversions, but there are dangers. It's easy to raise your hand or say a prayer without truly turning from sin and trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord. On the other hand, it is possible to have repentance and faith without any physical or noticeable demonstration at that time.
Making It Practical
We all share a passion to make sure our children understand the gospel and turn to Christ in genuine salvation. Following are some points of emphasis to keep in mind as you guide young people to understand spiritual truth:
· Talk a lot about who Jesus is (God-Man, Savior, Lord, King) and what He has done (died for our sins on the cross, rose from the dead).
· Make it clear that all people need their sins forgiven and will be judged for their sins if they are not saved.
· Urge children to turn from their sins and trust in what Jesus has done.
· Invite children to talk to you further about their relationship with God.
· Motivate parents to pursue further discussions with their children.
· Think long-term about how you can continually disciple children, vs. how many "decisions" you can record.
· Pray for the children, and expect God in His grace to use the gospel to bring them to true, saving faith in Christ.

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Ennis Texas

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Ennis Texas after a great week in Duncan OK. Here are just a couple of the testimonies from this past week (all testimonies used with permission):

“God has used the Thirst Conference at FBC Duncan to return Joy to our family. Literally, my daughter Joy had been gripped with bitterness over many things that had happened in her past. God is faithful and He graciously brought her to a place of repentance, and gave her the grace to openly share her journey with the Thirst team. Tonight I held my daughters hand in worship and felt once again a joy in spirit and brightness in her spirit that had been gone far too long. Thank you God for proving Yourself faithful.”

“I am 27 years old and my dad is actually on staff here at FBC Duncan. I was saved at 8, married at 20, was divorced at 23, and had a baby. I began using drugs at 24 and had been until a month ago. I remarried, had another child, and went to rehab and jail. I tried to fill a God sized hole with a man-sized “thing”, my husband filed for a divorce. I’ve come back to Christ to meet the need He put there instead of trying to fill it with drugs and people. If God can come to me and change my heart, I know He can do that for anyone. God has got my attention. Praise God.”

We are looking forward to what this upcoming week has in store for all of us.

Feb 2, 2009 A Spiritual Birthday

February 2, 2009 will be a day that we will never forget. Our daughter Elizabeth (Dolly) had been reading some stories with Jennifer during school that morning about some heroes of the faith. As a result she began to ask if a person who thought they were saved before, went to church all the time, prayed, tried to obey, but didn’t really feel it in their heart could still need to be saved? Shortly after, she came to the home “office” and wanted to receive Jesus as her Savior. We talked for some time and she walked through the gospel message for Jennifer and me and indicated that it was time for her to repent and confess her sins, receive by faith the gift of Jesus and salvation, and begin to live a life that reflected the fact that the Holy Spirit lived inside her. We talked, she prayed (like we had never heard her pray before), we cried, and then celebrated the fact that she committed Jesus to be Lord and Savior of her life. These past 4 days we have had a daughter that has had an entirely different attitude towards living her life. What a privilege that God would allow us to be part of this.