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Preach the Gospel to yourself every day.

 — Jerry Bridges

     As I consider Jerry’s statement as mentioned above, I first of all must ask myself this question.  What is there about the Gospel that I need to be reminded of every day?  It is obvious that my need is not partial. It is total. I need what will cleanse the guilt and paralysis of the past, provide power for the present and hope for the future.  I am completely dependent upon the workings of His Grace in the Gospel to deal with the sins of the past, the sin nature that results in sins, and the law that condemns me the sinner.

In the Gospel I see that Christ “appeared so that he might take away our sins.” (I John 3:5)  As Jerry once stated, Christ has “exhausted the wrath of God.”  My sins are buried in the deepest sea, removed as far as the east is from the west, and in the Old Testament picture, carried by the scapegoat into the wilderness, never to be remembered again.

In the Gospel Christ has dealt with my sin nature.  He has removed the source of sin, sin’s factory, in his death on the cross.  “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” (Romans 6:6)

In the Gospel I am removed from the curse of the law and its condemnation.  In Romans 7:2 we read “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ.“  And in Romans 10:4 it says “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

In the Gospel the past is gone.  II Corinthians 5:17 states “the old has gone.”  We have been set free, redeemed from our past by the “Last Adam,” Christ, who has taken all of the first creation down into His death, erasing forever its power to condemn, to control and to paralyze.

The power of the Gospel does not end with freedom from the past, it expands into freedom for the future.  It does not just save us from, it save us for.  When Christ was resurrected as the  “Second Man,” a new creation, a new power, a new dynamic was placed at our disposal.  It meets the need of the present and the future.  This power, this virtue, this “Second Man” is now given to us as our life.  He Himself enters into us to be our Righteousness, our Holiness, our Redemption, our Resurrection, our Living Bread, and our Living Water that supplies infinitely above and beyond every need we may experience throughout our day.  He is the One who gives us His thoughts, His words, His deeds to express throughout the day.  It is in His Righteousness that the demands of each day are met.  It is in His Holiness that I am kept moment by moment.  His resurrected life is now my life and He expresses it through me by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel we are removed from the necessity of defeat and are given the power necessary for victory in our daily life.  The conditions of victory are those summarized by G. Campbell Morgan as follows.

1. Complete surrender to Christ.
2. Patient and persistent training under the control of Christ in order to carry on the conflict.
3. Determined conflict.

“Submission to Christ means that there must be no choice made anywhere or anywhen save after consultation with Him, that all knowledge must be submitted to the mastery of His mind, that emotion, whether it expresses itself as hate or love must be purified in the hot fire of His infinite love.  Patient and persistent training under the control of Christ is the readjustment of all relationships because He is consulted in the choice.  All this means that there must be determined conflict, the perpetual battle of surrender, the refusal to act apart from Christ.”

This Gospel delivers us from “the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:13 and delivers us to Him.  “That you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” (Romans 7:2)  This Gospel is Christ Himself, living in us, that we might say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:21. “For to me, to live is Christ.”

May Christ so manifest His life in you so that He Himself is seen in and through your life as you preach this Gospel to yourself daily.

In Christ,
Richard Spann

 

 

Freely accept them and seek their good.

Lorne Sanny

     The above words were used by Lorne to summarize in a practical way the teaching found in I John 3:18.  “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  Very often we are left with a fuzzy concept of what it means not to just talk about loving others, but to demonstrate love with actions and in truth.  I have discovered that the statements “freely accept them,” and “seek their good” get us started on the right path in our relationship with others.

It was a day similar to all the others in my medical practice.  I had left one hospital and arrived at the second one that morning.  As I entered the doctor’s lounge I saw a group of about twenty physicians, residents and medical students gathered around a television set, all watching in silence.  As I walked toward the group watching a tall building burn, a plane veered toward a second building and struck it near the top in a fiery crash of smoke and fire.  We all watched the scene in horror that morning as we were all introduced to what has been come to be known as 9/11.  One young man separated himself from the others and came to me.  He was the resident assigned to me for September and October of that year, a Muslim.  For the next seven weeks we met, discussed the patients in depth and he watched as I would pray for the patients and at times would talk to them about Christ.  We developed a friendship which led to lunches together, tennis games, and dinners with our wives.  This relationship developed into a request on his part that I write a letter to the State Department on his behalf for the purpose of allowing him to stay in the United States after he completed his residency training.  Although unable to stay in our country we heard from a mutual friend that they were desirous of looking into the Gospel with Beverly and me, but were reluctant to do so because of fear of the Muslim community here in Wichita.  It is our hope that these seeds of interest have been nurtured by the Lord since that time.  The Lord, in His Grace, had allowed us an opportunity to freely accept them and to seek their good.

As I consider Lorne’s words further, I am reminded of a man who befriended and mentored a teenager who came from a family without hope or resources.  This relationship continued throughout his schooling and many hours were spent encouraging, modeling and providing resources for his physical and spiritual development.  Upon graduation from high school, after he reached an employable age, he was given a job in my friend’s company.  Despite being given every advantage, he not only proved to be an inadequate employee but he also brought groundless legal actions against his mentor’s company.  Despite the rejection of the young man who was cared for, loved, and supported, the employer continued to deal with him gently, eventually leading to his repentance and acceptance of Christ as his Lord and Savior.  For many years, he demonstrated that he had accepted him and sought his good.

If you had enemies who persistently sought to find fault and to discredit and slander you to others and in your presence, what would they find in your life to point out to others?  Jesus‘ enemies found two things in his life.  They are mentioned in a sermon given by G. Campbell Morgan entitled “The Gospel According to Jesus‘ Enemies.”  Earlier in his ministry they derisively pointed out that he was “a friend of sinners.”  As He hung on the cross, they gathered around Him as related in Mark 15:31.  “In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves.  ‘He saved others,‘ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself!’” What they did not understand was that in order to save us, He could not save Himself.

How then, do we understand these two things that characterized the Gospel according to Jesus‘ enemies?  “He is a friend of sinners,” (freely accept them) and “He saved others…..but he can’t save himself.” (seek their good)  The life of our Lord was continually committed to freely accepting others and seeking their good.  May His Spirit so manifest the life of Christ in us so that His acceptance of others and His seeking their good is made evident in and through our lives.

In Christ, Richard Spann

Live your life based on God’s promises to you,

not your promises to God.

Mike Treneer

     A number of those involved in our Kansas ministry were at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs, CO where we heard Mike make this statement.  He illustrated the necessity for this in his own life and called our attention to the importance of living our life based on His promises to us.  All of us are able to remember a time in our lives when our spiritual walk seemed to be dependent on fulfilling our promises to Him.  It may have been the promise that we would cease from a certain activity only to find ourselves repeating that activity in a few weeks.  Perhaps it was a recurring attitude of resentment, jealousy, or an impure thought life about which we made promises to God that we would overcome.  On the other hand, our promises to Him may have been that we would finally become consistent in our devotional life.  Whatever the promises were, our experience eventually would be failure which led to guilt and the accusations of our enemy the devil.  His voice, though not audible, would impress us with the thought that we had tried the Christian life and failed.  Not only were we not able to do it, but the possibility of anyone living that life seemed so remote that we may have been tempted to deny its reality.

In the Old Testament, it is recorded in a number of instances that the people of Israel made promises to God, promises that they could not keep.  One of these is recorded in Exodus 19:8.  “The people all responded together, ‘We will do everything the LORD has said.’”  Their history after this statement revealed many centuries of broken promises.  Under the old covenant everything came from man and man was not able to keep his promises.  In the new covenant, or as Ray Stedman related, the “new arrangement for living,” everything comes from God.  This new covenant is the basis for His promises to us, promises that we may live by.  Let me choose three of these for the purposes of illustration.

Galatians 5:16  “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  God’s promise is that His Spirit is given to lead us moment by moment.  We are not told to stop gratifying the desires of the sinful nature in order to live by the Spirit.  That is the old covenant.  The new covenant, based on His promise to us, is that in living by His Spirit, we are freed from the sinful nature.

II Corinthians 3:18  “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect (contemplate) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  His promise to us is that he is transforming us into the likeness of Christ.  This is not our promise to Him, but His to us.  The Holy Spirit leads us (Galatians 5:16) to contemplate-to behold-to spend time with Christ resulting in His likeness becoming more and more evident in our lives.  As we make our lives available to Him He makes His life available to us.

I Corinthians 1:30  “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”  This is the most amazing promise of all.  Being led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) to contemplate Christ (II Corinthians 3:18) we are led to the understanding that Christ Himself is our righteousness, He himself is our holiness, and He is our redemption.  We have nothing apart from Him.  God does not give us righteousness.  He gives us Christ, who is our righteousness.  He does not give us holiness.  He gives us Christ who is our holiness.  God does not give us redemption.  He gives us Christ who is our redemption.  He who lives in us as our very life (Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:3-4) daily expresses Himself through our lives as righteousness, holiness and redemption.

What, then, should our response be to these promises?  How do we live life based on His promises to us?  Paul answers these questions in II Corinthians 7:1.  “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”  Paul describes two steps in our response to these promises.  The first is to purify ourselves, which is confession.  I John 1:9 states “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  The second is to perfect holiness, which is always by faith.  Romans 1:17 relates, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:  ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”  It is by faith that we claim these promises and live by them.

What are the promises that the Lord has given you to live by?  I would encourage you to write them down, memorize them and daily affirm His promises to you that you may live on the basis of His promises to you, not your promises to Him.

In Christ,

Richard Spann

How to Keep the Elephants off your Air Hose

Howard Hendricks

     The alarm clock has awakened you early in the morning.  After getting dressed and starting the coffeemaker, getting ready for your quiet time with the Lord, you remember a meeting that was scheduled early that morning.  Without having time to really talk much with the family you are out of the door and your day is well underway.  Your schedule is a little tighter than you realized and the calls you were going to make to others in the morning never get done.  Lunch is hurried and as you start your afternoon tasks you seem more behind than usual.  You would like to find time to read your Bible, or pray during the day, but other demands crowd in until you find yourself more pressured as the day goes on.  You have a feeling that you are running on fumes spiritually, having really accomplished very little of significance during the day.  You fall asleep frustrated by yet another day that was out of your control with little hope that tomorrow will be any different.  This is the type of day which Howard Hendricks described as “having elephants on your air hose.”  These elephants are often caused by incorrect priorities, insufficient prayer, and inadequate planning.

Unless our priorities are correct, we have no hope of having a day that is pleasing to the Lord and satisfying to ourselves.  Matthew 6:33 declares His priority for us daily.    “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Unless we firmly establish and set apart our best time each day to meet with the Lord, and to seek His direction as to what activities will promote His Kingdom each day, our days are not under His control and are subsequently out of control.   A friend of mine whose life was out of control with too many activities had seen his own time with the Lord disappear to only a few minutes daily.  After our discussion and prayer about his schedule, both he and his wife soon started their day together, spending one hour with the Lord before any other commitment.  He related this decision had affected every other part of his day at work and at home, enabling other aspects of his day to fall into place.  By “seeking first His kingdom,” he had experienced the Lord’s grace in seeing that “all these things will be given to you as well.”

Insufficient prayer is often another reason that we experience elephants on our air hose.  Our Lord says the following to us in Luke 18:1.  “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” (KJV)  G. Campbell Morgan describes in this way the meaning of “men ought always to pray.”

“So that in prayer there is included, first, always first, the thought of worship and adoration, that content of the heart with the perfection and acceptability and goodness of the will of God which bows the soul in worship.  That is the first attitude of prayer.  To pray is forevermore to set the life in its inspiration and in all its endeavor toward that ultimate good of the glory of God.  The supreme attitude of the life becomes that of submission, and the supreme effort of the life is that of co–operation with God toward the ultimate upon which His heart is set.  It is to have a new vision of God and of the ways of God, to be overwhelmingly convinced of the perfection of God, of the perfection of all He does, of the certainty of His ultimate victory, and then to respond to the profound and tremendous conviction by petition, by praise, and by endeavor; and to “pray without ceasing.”

To the measure that our days are characterized by these attitudes of mind and heart we are always in prayer.  The alternative to “always to pray” is summarized as “to faint.”  G. Campbell Morgan describes fainting as follows.  “Quite simply, to be paralyzed, to be weak, to be worthless, to feel the force dying and the vigor passing, to be beaten, to be broken down and helpless.”  Howard Hendricks would characterize this as having “elephants on our air hose!”  If we would keep them off, we must be in the prayerful attitude of mind and heart as described by G. Campbell Morgan throughout our day.

The third reason we experience elephants on our air hose is inadequate planning.  Our culture places a high value on being productive, always being busy, sought after, being in demand and often resulting in a life with more commitments than we can handle.  Interruptions to our day are often met with frustration and anxiety.  Our Lord’s life, however, was characterized by interruptions.  Many of the miracles and conversations recorded were interruptions to His day.  He never was in a hurry.  He knew that His day was under the control of His Father and He could meet each need that was presented to Him.  Terry Taylor mentioned years ago that we should ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our schedule.  In order to do this, and to be available for the “interruptions” the Lord would bring each day, I established a margin years ago in the morning and also in the afternoon.  This was unscheduled time consisting of thirty minutes each morning and one hour every afternoon.  This removed hurry and anxiety about my schedule and provided me opportunity to spend time with those whom the Lord brought during that time.  Not everyone has the choice to schedule their day in such a fashion, but the principle is the same for all of us.  Learning to build in some free time, or margin if you will, gives us time for the important rather than just the urgent.  As we consider our plans, the scripture advises us to “Make plans by seeking advice.” Proverbs 20:18.  Others may have ideas that have helped them in similar situations in which we find ourselves.

Have the elephants been on your air hose lately?  If so, the truths of Matthew 6:33 and Luke 18:1 will be of help as you consider their application to your life.  As we follow the Lord’s direction from these scriptures, He will also give wisdom into obtaining the margin we need each day, so that by His Grace, our lives will be satisfying to us and bring glory to Him.

In Christ, Richard Spann

If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done.

Ecclesiastes 11:4

A. Cast your bread upon the waters for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.	Be Diligent (Faithful) In Ministry
B.If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie.	We are unable To Control The Work of God
C. If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done. (LB)	Diligence In the Face of Uncertainty
B. As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God the maker of all things.	We are Unable To Understand The Work of God
A. Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.	Be Diligent (Faithful) In Ministry

(Ecclesiastes 11:1-6)

In his book “The Idea of Biblical Poetry:  Parallelism and Its History,” James L. Kugel relates that Hebrew parallelism was widely used in ancient Hebrew literature.  Ken Bailey has studied these widely not only in Hebrew texts, but also in his book “Paul through Mediterranean Eyes,” which is a cultural study of I Corinthians.  In this book, as well as his studies in Isaiah and the parables of our Lord, he refers to parallelism as a method of teaching commonly used in the scriptures.  In this passage in Ecclesiastes, there is an example of “inverted parallelism,” or “chiasm,” which has also been labeled “ring composition.”   In this method of literary composition the climax is in the center, furnishing what we would call “the bottom line,” or the “take home message.”  The surrounding verses “A” and “B” are used to “ring” and deepen the instruction offered at the center of the parallelism.  In this passage the outer ring (A) instructs us to be diligent (faithful) in ministry.  The inner ring relates that there are conditions with which we are familiar but over which we have no control or understanding.  The center, then, focuses on the message that we cannot let lack of control or knowledge of what is happening around us to alter our determination to fulfill the tasks given to us by the Lord.  We must not become sidetracked by conditions that we think are unfavorable to our task.   The NIV translation likens these to wind, interfering with planting; and rain clouds, interfering with our reaping.  The Living Bible captures the thought more clearly than other translations and simply states “If you wait for perfect conditions you will never get anything done.”

I doubt that we ever experience perfect conditions for any type of ministry.  Not only are they less than perfect; at times they seem to be barely adequate.  I recall leading a Bible Study for Physicians at a local hospital in the early 1970’s.  One man who joined the study was a Surgeon who showed an avid interest in pursuing discipleship.  Due to his schedule, the only time available was for thirty to forty five minutes prior to the weekly study at seven in the morning.  We would meet at six fifteen just prior to our group study and explore some Scriptures together followed by a brief time in prayer.  The hour was early and our time was crammed in before another study, but we met despite the limited conditions.  As I think back over the last forty years, it is with gratitude to the Lord for the time we spent together.  I have known of many people who have been discipled through his life since that time.

A patient of mine had, at long last, after giving him several opportunities to look at the Scriptures together, agreed to meet to read the Gospel of John together.  Finding a place to meet, however, proved to be a problem.  He didn’t want to meet at his office nor at mine.  He did not want a public place such as a restaurant and it had to be a private indoor setting where he could bring his lunch.  After some searching, I finally suggested the waiting room of a small inner city medical clinic that I had helped start some years  before.  The staff at the clinic were agreeable to our use of the facility over the noon hour and so we began our study as the morning patients left, had lunch, and finished as the afternoon patients arrived.  There was many an interruption during the two years we met.  I still remember, however, the time when the Grace of God became evident in his life as we were looking at the fourteenth chapter of John.  The conditions under which we read the Bible together were no deterrent to the Holy Spirit’s work in his life!

I also recall an incident several years ago in which we were trying to help an inner city church establish a medical ministry in its neighborhood.  Due to lack of funding, the van we used; supplied with medical equipment, the exam facilities, lab and pharmacy were not available for several months over the summer.  Rather than halt a ministry that had just started, we decided to keep it going for the summer and use the church kitchen as the Doctor’s office and exam room.  I discovered that you can diagnose and treat most things with the use of a flashlight, a stethoscope and a kitchen table!  We not only kept the clinic in operation; it is today one of the most frequently attended in our city.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 exhorts us not to wait for perfect conditions.  If we do, we will never get anything done.  Is the location of your ministry unfavorable?  Start anyway.  Is the time you have to give to the ministry not as much as you like?  Give the time you have anyway.  Do you lack resources that would enable you to be more effective in ministry?  Do what you can without those resources.  Do you not feel up to the tasks you are called to do because you are tired or don’t feel well?  Lorne Sanny once remarked that most things accomplished in this world are done by those who are tired and don’t feel entirely well!

As followers of Christ, our task is to be continually vigilant in the work Christ has called us to do.  Let us, then, not wait for perfect conditions to be involved in His work, for if we wait for perfect conditions we will never get anything done.

In Christ, Richard Spann

PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE

Essential

Necessary

Good

Delegate

Eliminate

 —  Lorne Sanny

     I was challenged by Mike Treneer eight years ago to begin tabulating “goads and nails” from Navigators who had influenced our Kansas Ministry.  The above comments by Lorne were the first to come to my mind.  Of all his comments those of us in Kansas have been privileged to hear, the above words chosen to help in the priorities of life have influenced my life most deeply.  Over the years I have seen how these five words have impacted the lives of many.  Our lives become quickly filled with activities, events, hobbies, and work to the extent that we hardly have time to evaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it.  Evaluation of these words as they apply to our lives helps develop investment in the eternal rather than the temporary, moving our focus from the urgent to the important, enabling us to have margin in our lives for the Lord and for people.

As we consider what these words mean to us we first have to reflect on the word “essential.”  How do we determine what is “essential?”  I have heard this described as “things that last for eternity,” or to answer the question “Will it make a difference in one hundred years?”  Another way to approach our consideration is to view our lives forty years from now and think about what we would wish we would have done.  As an Intensive  Care Physician at the bedside of many a dying patient I have never heard anyone say that they wished they had spent more time at the office!  Perhaps the clearest way to obtain direction is to look at the life of our Lord and determine what was essential to Him in His life here on earth.   As we do this we discover that His priorities were clearly time with the Father and with people.

A number of things in life are necessary.  Working at our profession or job is necessary.  How much work, though, is really needed?  Is it possible to limit to some extent the necessary to make room for the essential?  Maintenance of our home and other property is necessary.  How much property, though, is necessary?  Someone once remarked that everything you have also has you.  It has your time to clean, repair, paint, and otherwise maintain its existence.  Physical fitness is, for example, necessary but how much time needs to be devoted to this pursuit?

There are many good things to do in life.  The list is endless.  It contains a great variety of local and national societies and organizations, hobbies, travel, and even church activities.  Few of these are necessary, however, and rarely are they essential.  The “good” in our lives is often the enemy of the “essential.”  Last year a young man showed me a list of ten things that he was trying to accomplish each day.  If he were to have done them all, it would have taken twenty hours to complete!   I asked him to identify the essential, and then the necessary.  There were seven things left on the list which were all good.  In the hour that was left of each day, I recommended that he should choose which of these seven he would like to do.  They were all good but squeezing out the essential in his life.  It is by labeling many things we do as “good” that we are able to understand that they are not “essential.”

I have discovered that I do not need to be responsible for everything.  Is someone else able to do what I do in a specific area of my work or other responsibilities?  If so, then I need to consider relinquishing that function to them.  Years ago I knew a medical colleague who was unable to delegate certain aspects of his practice.  He would write out directions and draw maps for his patients who needed to go to the hospital for their appointment.  In addition to taking over the office receptionist job, he also did activities that a nurse was hired to do!  After trying unsuccessfully to meet the demands of an office practice, he left town for another position, unable to delegate to others.

Now we come to the word “eliminate.”  I suspect if most of us were honest, a significant amount of our time is spent here.  Dare I begin with the entertainment industry?  Much of it is a waste of time at best, and demoralizing and degrading at its worst.  Leroy Eims once remarked that our movie selection should be governed by comparing the description of the feature with Philippians 4:8.  Is it true?  Is it honest?  Is it just?  Is it pure?  Is it lovely?  Is it of good report?  Is there virtue?  Is it worthy of praise?  If so, then we should think on (go see or spend time with) these things.  Such a practice would help eliminate some areas that might need to be eliminated!

One of the most significant failures in the lives of followers of Christ is that of having no margin for the essential.  Whether it is simply having the time to read the Bible thoroughly, to pray steadfastly, to develop relationships with non-believers or to help others in their discipleship, the essential is crowded out by the necessary, the good, and that which we should either delegate or eliminate.  We would do well to take Lorne’s advice to heart and examine our weekly agenda, labeling items as he suggested, and then asking the Lord to lead us to redirect our days into the “essential.”

In Christ, Richard Spann

 

Redeem the Time

     One of the problems that may occur among followers of Christ is our failure to use time wisely.  Lack of certainty in what should be done may be replaced by doing many things.  Work, hobbies, family activities and even church programs all compete for our time.  Sometimes these are done with a pace in which our lives are in such a tight spiral that we honk at our own tail-lights.  In Tyranny of the Urgent, Charles Hummel relates that “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”  We need to learn what the scriptures are referring to when they tell us that we should redeem the time.

Webster’s dictionary has varying definitions for the word redeem.  Here are a few:    “to regain possession of,” “to rescue or deliver,” “to buy off or take up,” and “to fulfill.” The word redeem is taken from Ephesians 5:16 which states “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (KJV)  The thought is the same as given in Psalm 90:12.  “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (KJV)  Ephesians 5:16 furthermore is bracketed by verse 15 which states “Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise,” and verse 17 relating the following, “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”  It is apparent, then, that the first step in “redeeming our time,” is to understand what the Lord’s will is for us in regard to the use of our time.

We see an example of seeking the will of God in Mark 1:35-38.  “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they explained:  ‘Everyone is looking for you!‘  Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages-so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.‘ “  In this passage Jesus clearly was able to determine where He was to go, what He was to do when He got there, and why He was going.  He was able to redeem the time given Him by the Father by seeking the will of His Father.

It is impossible to redeem the time given to us without coming before the Lord to seek His direction for each day.  As someone once said “God is not looking for people whose plans He can bless.  He is looking for people who will fit into His plans.”  John MacArthur in his book “Slave” relates that a slave does not bring his agenda to their master but is simply available for his master’s plans.  So our lives must be presented to our Lord as we seek Him daily.

What then, we may ask, was the mission that the Father gave the Son as He redeemed His time here on earth?  It is plainly stated in Luke 19:10.  “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”(KJV)  His mission was people.  He ate with them, traveled with them, fed them, taught them, healed them and gave His life for them.  He redeemed the time by the redemption which He has feely given to all who accept Him as their Savior and Lord.

If we are to redeem the days given to us, we, likewise, must give our lives to people.  The Lord has given us this promise in Isaiah 43:4.  “Since you are precious and honored in my sight and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.”  Sadly, there is much in our lives that competes for this priority.  Our possessions clamor for attention, requiring cleaning, repair, and eventually replacement.  We are involved in projects at home, at work, and in our neighborhoods which do not focus on people.  Our programs, designed to help others, do not often give us access to others individually in a way that is beneficial to them.  Everyone we meet is an eternal soul, which will spend eternity either with or without Christ.  As Jim Morris was fond of saying “There are only two kinds of people in this world-those who need to know Christ and those who need to know Him better.”  We redeem our lives by giving them not to our possessions, projects or programs but to people.  In order for God to give people in exchange for our lives (Isaiah 43:4), we must first give our lives to God.  As we make our lives available to Him, He will give us the people in whom He desires that we invest our lives.  In this manner, we will have redeemed our lives in such a way that we will be able to say to Him “we have redeemed the time, we have finished the work that You gave us to do.”

In Christ, Richard Spann

Evangelism is a process, the new birth is an event.

Jim Petersen

     My first exposure to evangelism was in 1964 when I was a medical student in Kansas City, Kansas.  Bill Bright and his team from Campus Crusade for Christ arrived in Kansas City for a week long instruction in evangelism culminating in an opportunity to go door to door presenting the Gospel.  It was thorough training and many were encouraged in the area of evangelism.  The emphasis was on initiating conversations and sharing the Gospel with the hope of eliciting a favorable response.  I carried that same mind set about evangelism into my medical practice and initiated the proclamation approach with others.  Following the instruction I had received from this exposure, I was able to see a significant number of people come to faith in Christ.  For those who declined the message, however, I had no other course of action.  My involvement with them was primarily proclamation.  I had not invested a significant amount of time in many of their lives.  I did not realize at that time that evangelism is a process, and that the new birth is an event.

My wife and I felt led to begin home Bible studies for the neighborhood in which we were living in 1972.  We continued this periodically over the next eight years, utilizing various materials.  My growing realization of the importance of the witness of the individual life and the body of Christ in addition to the witness of the word, was further clarified by reading Jim Petersen’s book “Evangelism as a Lifestyle,” introduced in 1980.  It was in that book that I first heard the statement which is the topic of this discussion.  “Evangelism is a process, the new birth is an event.”

Understanding this concept enables one to focus on the process rather than the event.  It frees us up to build relationships and trust the Holy Spirit’s timing for the event.  We are enabled to relax as we explore the scriptures with them, because the ball is in the Holy Spirit’s court, so to speak.  He will use our lives, our prayers and the time we spend with them in the word, and will bring them to new birth. (Usually when we are not even in the delivery room!)  These births are natural, they mature, and are based on the Holy Spirit’s revelation of truth to the individual, rather than on our explanation of the truth.

In addition to proclamation, Jim Petersen used two other phrases in his book “Living Proof.”  These are “affirmation,” which deals with personal relationships, and the term “team effort.”  Team effort in the process of evangelism recognizes that our gifts are different and all are needed to bring others to faith.  We began to form small teams with a few couples who had a desire to be involved in evangelism, some with gifts of hospitality, some with gifts of service and others with the ability to quickly form friendships.  These teams met for prayer for six weeks prior to sending a dinner invitation to those invited.  We related that the purpose of the dinner was to meet others who may have an interest in reading the Bible together for the next eight weeks.  They knew the agenda in advance and also knew the names of others who had been invited to the dinner.  All of the individuals invited were friends of one of the couples. We found that more than sixty percent of those invited wanted to come and start reading the Bible together.  It was our opportunity over a number of years to do this with multiple teams of individuals.  We determined to focus on the process of evangelism and not the new birth; continuing to explore and explain the scriptures with them weekly, spending time with them during the week, and praying regularly for them.  The majority of those nonbelievers with whom we invested our time and the word became followers of Christ within the next few years.   We felt no pressure to produce new birth.  We could trust the Holy Spirit to do that.  Our job was simply to be involved in the process of evangelism.

Knowing that evangelism is a process is also a marvelous comfort in dealing with people one by one.  I have over the years had opportunity to meet individually with those who have had multiple objections to the Gospel, some who denied the authority of the scriptures, and others who didn’t even want to hear the name of Christ.  In each case as our personal relationship developed and they agreed to look at the scriptures together, nearly all of them came to faith.  I cannot determine the date of the new birth, but I am determined to pursue the process of evangelism with others.  We can trust the Holy Spirit to use our lives, the body of Christ and His word to bring about His work in His time.  May the Lord grant you His peace and His patience as you are involved in this process for Him in His Kingdom.

In Christ, Richard Spann

Our goal is Transformation, not Conformation

     Following High School, I left for basic training in the Air Force at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas.  One of my responsibilities as a basic airman was that of being a barracks guard of our building which housed about eighty men.  Once morning inspection was over, I had little to do until later in the day when the other airmen would return from their activities.  In order to keep me busy (and aggravate me!) our sergeant would tear up all the beds and require me to remake the beds in the building.  These were all cots which were to be made with such precision and tucked in so tightly that a quarter would literally bounce if dropped on the bed.  I learned how to do this speedily and soon was able to finish all eighty beds in several hours time.  If we were to fast forward six months from that time, I would be found in a dormitory in Seattle, WA, attending my first year in college.  My side of the room was such a disaster that you would have had trouble finding the bed!  It was rarely made, with clothes of various sorts all piled on it and, in fact, the whole room was a mess, necessitating a correctional visit from the Dean of Men at the college.  Did I know how to make a bed?  Most assuredly!  Did I see the importance of making one’s bed?  Assuredly not!  Outside pressure had “conformed” my behavior, but there was no inner “transformation.”

Moving from the secular to the spiritual it is also common to see those who are conforming to spiritual activities and pursuits who have no real transformation.  I recently heard of a young man who claimed to be an avid reader of the Bible.  He related that he was trying to apply what he read.  At age eighteen, however, he decided to stop reading and see if his life was any different without the exposure to the Bible.  Not seeing any difference, he concluded that there was no value in his reading further and he abandoned any future interest in spiritual truth.  There was outward conformity to a helpful spiritual discipline but without inward transformation.  I also recall an elder of our church who years ago agreed to attend Memorize the Word at the insistence of others and completed the course of all seventy-two verses with daily review of his verses.   A few weeks later I asked him about his continued review and his reply was “zero.”  He said that he had agreed to take the course, but it was over and he had no intention of looking at those verses again!  He had “conformed” to the expectations and requests of others; but there was no inward transformation.

Conformation comes from outward pressure and circumstances.  Transformation comes from within.  Conformation focuses on doing, transformation on being.  Conformation has in mind only the conduct; whereas transformation sees character as necessary to the continuation of the conduct.  Conformation looks only to the fruit, transformation sees also the root which is required for continued fruit.

How does this transformation occur?  We are told in II Corinthians 3:18 that we are to have “unveiled faces.”  This means to rid our lives of all pride and pretense.  Having done this, we are to “behold” (KJV) or to “contemplate,” or “reflect” the Lord’s glory.  As with “unveiled face,” I make my life available to the Scriptures, to other individuals who reflect the Lord’s glory or to the body of Christ (Church) in their reflection of the Lord’s glory, I will be transformed by the Holy Spirit.  And what is the result of this transformation?  We are told in II Corinthians 3:18 that it is “being transformed into His likeness.”  Romans 12:2 also speaks to us about transformation and relates that it comes from a “renewing of your mind.”  This renewal comes from the Lord as He states in I Corinthians 2:16,  “But we have the mind of Christ.”  The degree to which we are transformed is the degree to which Christ is made evident in our lives.  Although incomplete this side of Glory, we have the Holy Spirit’s promise that it will be done “with ever increasing glory”  (II Corinthians 3:18) and enable us “to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

In Christ, Richard Spann