*** WHAT ARE WE MISSING ? ***

by Gary Forney, Director and Missionary, Points North Baptist Mission

From a World Missions perspective, we live in very exciting times. We have more technology and equipment available to us, with which to reach the world, than any preceding generation. As American Christians we are more affluent now than ever in our history so that we can better financially afford to send the Gospel. Our numbers have increased so that there are more of us from which God can call missionaries. And more of us have the availability of a good education.

The blessings do not end with the material either. We are witnessing a resurgence of local church based missions not seen on this globe since the Apostolic Church. More and more pastors, churches, and missionaries, are realizing that mission boards do not send missionaries, but that local churches, send missionaries. This is a great and significant development. One has to believe that the Lord wants to bless this kind of missionary outreach.

It has been said that the greatest missionary movement of the church age is past. This usually refers to the era when missionaries of renown lived and ministered. This was the time when good numbers of missionaries left their homeland to carry the Gospel to the heathen on foreign soil. Many lived short lives due to the ravages of sickness and disease. Some lived only a matter of months. Western Africa became known as the white man's grave yard. Still they went forth. Men like Robert Moffett, David Livingstone, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Luther Rice, John Birch,Hudson Taylor, Jonathan Goforth, David Brainerd. The names of most of those who answered the call to the regions beyond have not been recorded in the history of missions. They are known only in heaven now. Their passing from this life to the next was unobserved by the world. Often they died in lonely, remote places. I like to think that they expected nothing more.

I have long marveled at these, who, with limited finances, limited equipment, limited technology, and some with limited education, stepped forth and gave themselves in such an obedient manner. They were limited in so many ways and yet they accomplished so much. The question that begs to be asked is, "What did they possess that we do not?" They did possess something that is largely missing today and it is summed up in one word. The word is PASSION. They possessed it in great abundance. It is woefully lacking in us. A definition of passion would be: "Intense,driving emotion,an overmastering conviction,a strong desire for or devotion to some activity or concept".

It was passion that drove the missionary of old to step forward and yield to the call of God. It was passion that caused him to spend the necessary time in training. It was passion that forced him to bid farewell to loved ones and homeland. With passion he boarded the sailing ship. And with passion he disembarked to a strange country, where people held strange customs and spoke a language he could not speak and could not understand. Passion! Intense, driving emotion! Driving one beyond his comfort zone, beyond that which is easy. Passion! An overmastering emotion! This is belief that overpowers fear, love of self, and love of ease. Passion! A desire for God that is stronger than anything this world, the flesh, or the Devil can offer. Devotion to the concept that, "Life is short and eternity is long. Therefore, I will serve Him who died for me."

Passion. The word is found only three times in all of scripture. Once in it's singular form, twice in it's plural form. But evidence of it's existence abounds in every book. No one would deny that the Apostles possessed passion, especially after Christ's ascension. The record of the book of Acts reveals passion in the lives of the believers of that day. Martyrs, both in ancient and modern times certainly have exhibited passion. Passion!

Let us not be lukewarm about serving Christ! Let us serve with passion! We must reject the notion that there cannot be a great missionary outreach in these last days. If we have passion and will utilize the advantages afforded us by modern times, we can reach the world yet. If we have passion, the greatest missionary movement lies yet ahead!

Yes, these are exciting times. Opportunities for serving Christ abound on every hand. The prospects for the future are as bright as the promises of God. May God kindle in us a passion for serving. May the Holy Spirit fan that flame into a consuming fire.
[ News North is the newsletter of Points North Baptist Mission - www.pnbm.org ]

TCCN Editor's Note: If that doesn't light your fire to do more for missions, your wood is all wet!

Bro Forney is a veteran missionary and a friend of this editor for nearly thirty years. He is a man of God that can help your church. He is available for missions conferences and to present PNBM to your church or Christian College.

** Contact Info:

PNBM
PO Box 977
New Philadelphia, OH 44663-0977
Phone: 330-339-1035
Email: gef.pnbm@juno.com

*** Quotes ***

"Mrs. Bush, do you not know that abortion kills a living human being?

"… (A)t the same time that Laura Bush is advocating the continuation of legalized abortion, she says she wants the number of abortions to decrease. This makes no sense. If there is nothing wrong with abortion, if one can advocate its legal continuation, why worry about the number? What difference does it make how many abortions occur? If it is a procedure worthy of legal protection, why should we be concerned about how many of these legal procedures take place?

"It's hard to imagine that someone as educated and intelligent as Laura Bush is doesn't comprehend the personhood of the unborn child. Or, if she does understand it, how can she turn her back to the silent screams of the most innocent and precious of all human life - our unborn children? How can she advocate a law that facilitates the barbaric torture and death of so many of these little ones? Mrs. Bush, America (and God) awaits your answer." - Chuck Baldwin

*** Conservatives Go to Bat over Bricks ***

The city of Newburyport, Mass., faces a federal lawsuit for removing commemorative bricks from a public walkway because of the messages printed on them: "Jesus Loves You" and "For All the Unborn Children."

The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group, is representing two city residents who paid for the bricks as part of a fundraiser to improve the local park. Newburyport Mayor Lisa Mead is also named in the lawsuit, which was filed this week in federal court in Boston.

In their lawsuit, Thomas Savastano and Marie Cupo argued that the city placed no restrictions on the subject matter that could be inscribed on the bricks. More than 200 bricks were sold during last year's fundraising campaign, but Savastano's and Cupo's were the only two that were singled out for complaint.

Cupo said she inscribed "For All the Unborn Children" on the brick in memory of her baby, who died before birth. She said the city offered her a refund but she didn't care about that.

"I wanted my brick to be reinstated. I wanted to have that brick there for personal reasons...I thought it was an infringement on my rights that they removed it, and they removed it without even speaking to me about it first."

Cupo said she is a victim of somebody else's intolerance - somebody who misunderstood her sorrow over a miscarriage as a political statement. "My political views had nothing at all to do with the purchase of this brick," she said. "It was a sad thing to see someone take something so good and turn it completely into something that's tarnished. It really disturbs our family," Cupo said.

Savastano is quoted as saying he had "no intended agenda." He told a Boston newspaper, "My intention was just to express God's love for people."

ACLJ attorney Ben Bull released a statement saying, "This is a case involving a local government censoring a message because the message is religious in nature. The actions of the city were not only wrong but unconstitutional. We are asking the court to declare this censorship unconstitutional and a violation of our client's rights of free speech and free exercise of religion."

According to the lawsuit, Newburyport Mayor Lisa Mead ordered the bricks removed from the park's walkway last September, just days after a the city held a ceremony celebrating the success of the fundraising campaign. The suit contends the Mayor said the messages on the bricks were "religious" and needed to be removed from the sidewalk because some persons in the community were "offended" by them.

ACLJ, basing its case on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, is demanding both a preliminary and permanent injunction against the city and Mayor Mead to force them to cease their "discriminatory actions."

Mayor Mead told the Boston Globe that after talking with a lawyer, she concluded that "It's public property and it's not a place for religious or political speech."
[ CNS ]

*** Church humor ***

A little girl became restless as the preacher's sermon dragged on and on. Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, "Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?"

A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if You can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am!"

Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50."

The second boy says, "That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100."

The third boy says, "I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon. And it takes eight people to collect all the money!"

Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked.

An elderly woman died last month. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote, "They wouldn't take me out while I was alive, I don't want them to take me out when I'm dead.

A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?" He said, "Call for backup."

A Sunday school teacher asked the children just before she dismissed them to go to church, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"

Annie replied, "Because people are sleeping."

A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied: "They couldn't get a baby-sitter."

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."

At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, Johnny what is the matter? Little Johnny responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife."

[ Sent in by Pastor Charles Rice ]

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