Jim Wilson's Blog, page 2

How to Be a Strong Christian, Part 1: Walking in the Light

“This is the message we have heard fromHim and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all” (1John 1:5).

Even in a well-lit room, there are shadows.Outside it is brighter, but there is darkness out there, too. AsI look out the window from my desk, I see an apple tree with six inches of snowon each branch. That tree is “white as snow,” but even it is in darknessbecause the sky is overcast. David prayed in Psalm 51:7, “Cleanse me withhyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” God is light, and in Himthere is no darkness at all.

“But if we walk in thelight, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and theblood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Theword purifies means “keeps oncleansing.” It is a continuous washing. Walking in the light means that as soonas you sin, you are aware of it, you confess it, and it gets cleansed. Theresult? We have fellowship with one another. Walking in the light does not meannever sinning, but it does mean that obedience is your normal state of being.

“We proclaim to you what we have seenand heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship iswith the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). When we arewalking in the light, we also have fellowship with God.

The forgiveness you received from Christat your salvation has set you free from sin and guilt. Now your goal is to stayfree. That means staying cleansed from sin; and in order to confess and getthat cleansing, you need to know when you have sinned. You are most likely to noticeyour sin when you are in the light.

“In the year that KingUzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and thetrain of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with sixwings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered theirfeet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy,holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ Atthe sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple wasfilled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘Iam ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of uncleanlips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’  Thenone of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had takenwith tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouthand said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and yoursin atoned for” (Isa. 6:1-7).

In the presence of complete light,Isaiah saw his sinfulness, confessed, and was cleansed immediately.

How do you walk in the light? First, confess every sin to God as soon as you areaware of it. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful andjust and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). God forgives the sins we confess to Him, and He forgives them rightaway. This cleanses us whiter than snow and gets us back into the light.

Often, we sin for a while, get clean,sin for a while, get clean, sin for a while… That is the method of the averageChristian. That is not walking in the light! Walking in the light continuallycleanses. When we make a habit of keeping short accounts with God, it becomesmore natural to be obedient. When we disobey, we are brought up short rightaway, and the sin gets cleansed right away.

The Scripture says, “Lighthas come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light becausetheir deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates thelight, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will beexposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into thelight, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done inthe sight of God” (John 3:19-21). When you walk in the light, you are asking to be reproved. Some children doeverything to hide what they have done wrong. Others do everything to getcaught. They want to be corrected. God wants us to be the kind of people who want to get caught.

The trouble is that when you are in sin,you won’t want to come to the light. The solution? Program yourself ahead oftime for what you will do when you get into sin.

Suppose I am in flight training, andthere’s a red handle in the cockpit marked EjectButton. I don’t practice pulling the red handle. But I program my head sothat if the wrong lights go on or there’s smoke in the cockpit, I don’t need tostop and debate with myself about what to do. I pull the red handle! I amtrained to eject in certain situations.

When things are going well, programyourself to say, “Turn to the light; turn to the light; turn to the light.”When something goes wrong, that training will tell you to turn back to God.

(To be continued October 29...)

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Earthen Vessels

By Bessie Wilson

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels,” Paul tells us in2 Corinthians 4:7. Looking at the passage before this, we see he has likenedthe light of the gospel coming into the heart to the light of creation. “For itis the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ who has shone in ourhearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face ofChrist.” 

It is light with a purpose. The face of Christ is illuminedto us, not in visions necessarily, but in our coming to recognize that theChrist of the Gospels is indeed the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour. This thenis our treasure, the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as He comes to make Hishome in our hearts. 

Paul says “earthen vessels,” and this represents our bodies,or more specifically our whole lives. When I was in Japan, I was amazed at thetalent of the Japanese with their flower arrangements or ikebana as itis called. What I noticed was that the perfection of the flowers was notobscured by a garish, highly-painted vase. Generally, the pottery wasnondescript in color and low in comparison to the arrangement. Paul furthersays “that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us,” which givesthe purpose of the earthen vessel. The question comes to each of us then, “Ismy life showing or obscuring my treasure?”

In recent years among evangelicals (influenced by thesecular world), there has been a rising desire for maturity in ourselves and inour relationships with others. Christians are being helped in conferences,through books and by counselors to accept themselves and others. In women’scircles “fulfillment” is sought and taught, and this is necessary. To criticizethis would be wrong, for long-standing abuses are being corrected. But myquestion is a warning: Is there not a danger of over-preoccupation with thevessel? Is God going to be glorified by my “actualizing my potential” or by myhumbly, gratefully displaying my treasure? Whether we seek positiveimprovements in our personalities, or elimination of bad habits in ourselves,let our motives be that Christ will be seen increasingly in our lives.

This post coordinates with yesterday's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Church Discipline

“The punishment inflicted on him by the majority issufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so thathe will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, toreaffirm your love for him” (2 Corinthians 2:6-8).

This may be the man spoken of in 1 Corinthians 5. If not, heis still a man who has been under church discipline. This discipline hasworked, and the man is repentant. What is the instruction to the church?

·      Forgive him.

·      Comfort him.

·      Reaffirm your love for him.

Why? So that he will not be “overwhelmed with excessivesorrow.”

We do not see much church discipline today. When we do, wedo not see the restoration of the repentant man as described above. Not to dothis is sin on the church’s part. The church is made up of individualChristians who do the forgiving, comforting, and loving.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

When Loyalty Is Wrong

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord JesusChrist, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be nodivisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought…. WhatI mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’;another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Wereyou baptized into the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10, 12-13).

This appeal is followed by information on the divisions in thechurch. These divisions were not on theology or ecclesiology. The quarrelssimply were about loyalties to teachers. To our knowledge, the teachers wereeven in fellowship with each other.

These loyalties were sins and were to be repented of andforsaken. They were the cause of the divisions, the disunity, in the church.Today, they are still one of the major causes of divisions. However, today loyaltyis a good word; it is considered a virtue. When it comes to following teachers,however, loyalty is not a virtue. It is a sin—and it is hard to confesssomething as sin when we think it is a virtue. Nevertheless, confession of thissin must happen.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Saturation Love

Dear Friends,

That’s good news about your toddler learning to run. Giveher lots of love. It’s impossible to love a child too much. It is possible tolet her do whatever she wishes, but it is not possible to give too much love.The more love, the more response there will be to instruction.

In His Love,

Jim Wilson

Want to know how to give lots of love to your children? ReadSaturation Love by Jim Wilson here.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Dealing with Divisive People

You may have experienced or witnessed Christians orpseudo-Christians who have divided the body of Christ. The Bible speaks to usabout them in several places.

“They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scofferswho will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the men who divide you,who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (Jude 18-19).

“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a secondtime. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a manis warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11).

“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who causedivisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching youhave learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our LordChrist, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive theminds of naive people” (Romans 16:17-18).

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord JesusChrist, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be nodivisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought”(1 Corinthians 1:10).

“In the first place, I hear that when you come together as achurch, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. Nodoubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’sapproval” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19).

We are to be separate from those who divide. How do werecognize them? There will be other indications.

They will secretly slip into the church (Jude 4).

After they are in, they will say that grace is freedom tosin (Jude 4).

They will deny Jesus Christ the Sovereign Lord (Jude 4).

They will gossip.

They will slander.

They will do all of this so well that many of the believerswill believe them and enter into their sins.

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

It Is Possible to Not Sin

A few years ago, I was talking with a young Christian woman.We were talking on the subject of sin and confession, and I mentioned thatChristians do not have to sin. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

She brought to my attention that 1 John says that everyonesins. Yes, it does. It also says, “Do not sin.” God commands us to not sin—inother words, He has made it possible to not sin, because God does notcommand us to do impossible things. God will also forgive us if we sin andconfess, but He has made it possible for us to obey His command: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin”(1 John 2:1).

How is this possible? It is very simple. Avoid temptation.Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Positively obey God (by keepingHis positive commands, e.g. to rejoice always, in everything give thanks,etc.). Keep your sins confessed up-to-date so that when the tempter comes, youdo not have unconfessed sin in your life (which can set you up for sinningagain easily).

If we are indeed born of the Spirit, that is how we obey—weobey God by the Spirit of God.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Only Way to Heaven

Dear Jim Wilson, in order to live in peace and harmony, itis essential for all religions to respect one another and seek common groundwhile reserving differences. Unfortunately, some religions claim that onlytheir beliefs are true and others are false. As a result, there are endless andunnecessary disputes and wars. As I have been taught, there is only one God inthis world, who has representatives in the diverse religions: Jesus inChristianity, Muhammad in Islam, Buddha in Buddhism… Their mission is the same:to help people improve themselves. If everyone accepted this point of view,these diverse religions would be tolerant towards one another, and the wholeworld would be really blessed. 

I always enjoy your preaching, and I often find surprisingsimilarities between Christianity and Buddhism in it. For example, similar towhat the Bible says (everyone is a sinner), Buddhism teaches that everyone wasborn selfish and nobody is perfect. Therefore, everyone must look after his ownconduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character, findpleasure in helping others, and so on. Both Buddha and Jesus teach theirfollowers to forgive others for wrong-doing, to be kind and passionate, and toget rid of all bitterness. I believe in what you have been preaching. However,no way can I accept Jesus as the only God and believe that only Christians cango to the heaven. As you know, Chinese people are great people, and China has apopulation of 1.4 billion, including at least 50 million Christians. If yourpreaching were true, more than one billion Chinese, no matter good or bad, wouldgo to hell. Do you think this is fair? If it were fair, I would be happy to goto the hell with the one billion non-Christian Chinese. Let’s keep our differentbeliefs since we are happy with our own choices. The world is wonderful becauseof its diversity.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your gracious letter. You asked, “Do you thinkthis is fair?” Perhaps your question was a rhetorical one. However, I willanswer it this way. The question assumes that “fairness” is the ideal ofgoodness. If you asked the question this way, “Do you think this is just?” Iwould answer “Yes!” God is just! God is not “fair.” Fairness is where everyoneis treated the same. Justice is where everyone is treated by the samestandard, God’s holiness and His absolute standard of right and wrong.

There is another difficulty which I may have caused in mypreaching by not making the teaching of the Bible clear.

The primary reason people go to Hell is not that theydo not believe in Jesus.

The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the gloryof God” (Romans 3:23).

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no onewho understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11).

We are both in agreement on this truth. The Bible also says,“The wages of sin is death.” This is the reason that people go to hell—sin.Jesus is the solution, not the cause.

Your solution is, “Therefore, everyone must look after hisown conduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character,find pleasure in helping others, and so on.” If this is the solution, how manypeople in this world are practicing your solution? Certainly, I tried for thefirst 20 years of my life, but I failed badly.

Here are a series of questions I have asked many individualpeople over my years in ministry.

“By your own standard of right and wrong, wherever you gotyour standard, were you more ‘right’ at the age of four or the age of eight?”

“Were you more ‘right’ at the age of eight or twelve? Wereyou more ‘right’ at the age of twelve or sixteen? Were you more ‘right’ at theage of sixteen or twenty?”

With very few exceptions, the answer to each question wasthe younger age. Each person was decaying in his moral actions the older hegot.

Then I would say something like this: “You have been goingdownhill since you were four. What makes you think you will be more righteousat the age of twenty-four? You may not be going downhill as fast, but you arestill going downhill.”

When I would get a positive answer for the older age, Iwould ask for an explanation why he was more moral at twenty than at sixteen.He would tell me that he had received forgiveness and a new life through Christat the age of eighteen.

The difference in the basic moral standards in the differentreligions and societies in the world is not great. The same God made everyone,and He created in everyone the knowledge of good and evil.

However, there is a difference in the way peoples see thepurpose of the moral law. Most religions say that obeying the moral law is partof the means of going to Heaven.

The other part of salvation is by obeying the distinctivesof their particular religion—a pilgrimage to Mecca, a bath in the Ganges atBenares, etc. If salvation depended only on obeying the moral law, no one wouldgo to Heaven.

In the New Testament, obedience to the moral law is not themeans to salvation. It is the result of already being saved byforgiveness, because Jesus died on the cross to the take the punishment for mysins.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has beenmade known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness fromGod comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is nodifference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and arejustified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. Hedid this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left thesins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice atthe present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who havefaith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass wascondemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness wasjustification that brings life for all men. For just as through thedisobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through theobedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added sothat the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased allthe more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign throughrighteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans5:18-21).

“But now that you have been set free from sin and havebecome slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result iseternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternallife in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23).

Salvation is a free gift for 100% of the world’s population.It is not earned, because it cannot be earned. Even if I never sinned again,that would not take care of all my previous sins.

Forgiveness is the only way. 

“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ willsuffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgivenessof sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke24:46-47).

“I will rescue you from your own people and from theGentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them fromdarkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receiveforgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts26:17-18).

Respectfully,

Jim Wilson

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Pursuit: How to Win the Whole War

“In the aftermath of the murderous assassination of CharlieKirk…there are a number of things that still need to be said.

“This is a sea change moment. People had already noticed avibe shift recoil that was starting to develop, resulting in lesser things likeBrexit or the reelection of Donald Trump. But all of that was chump changecompared to what is quite possibly going to be happening now. We have before usthe prospect of making the vibe shift permanent. I believe that history willshow that Tyler Robinson, if he is convicted of firing the shot that killedCharlie Kirk, will also be revealed as the man who put a bullet in the neck ofprogressive leftism.

“But only if . . .

“One of the most important principles of war is pursuit.General Meade was the capable Union general at Gettysburg, whose leadershipthere secured a victory over the Confederate forces. But because he failed topursue, the war went on for two more years. He won the battle when he couldhave won the war…”  – Doug Wilson

"And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and thethree hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them." – Judges8:4

"Only pursuit of the beaten enemy gives the fruits ofvictory." – Carl von Clausewitz, Principles of War

"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house,they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is theChrist." – Acts 5:42

In his biography of Field Marshall Viscount Allenby ofMegiddo and Felixstowe, General Sir Archibald Wavell gives a very clear pictureof the problems of pursuit:

“To the uninitiated, pursuit seems the easiest possible formof war. To chase a flying, presum­ably demoralized enemy must be a simple mat­ter,promising much gain at the expense of some exertion and hardship, but littledanger. Yet the successful or sustained pursuits of history have been few, theescapes from a lost battle many. The reasons are partly material, but mainlymor­al. A force retreating falls back on its depots and reinforcements; unlessit is overrun, it is growing stronger all the time, and there are many expe­dientsbesides fighting by which it can gain time: bridges or roads may be blown up,defiles blocked, supplies destroyed. The pursuer soon outruns his normalresources. He may possibly be able to feed himself at the expense of hisenemies or of the countryside; he is not likely to replenish his am­munitionand warlike equipment in the same way.

“But the chief obstacle he has to overcome is psychological.The pursued has a greater incentive to haste than the pursuer, and, unless heis de­moralized, a stronger urge to fight. It is only nat­ural that the soldierwho has risked his life and spent his toil in winning a battle should desire relaxationin safety as his meed of victory, and that the general and staff should feel areaction from the strain. So that while coolness in disaster is the supremeproof of a Commander’s courage, energy in pursuit is the surest test of hisstrength of will. Few have carried out pursuits with such relentlessdetermination as Allenby in 1917 and 1918.”

The spiritual war is not much different. If the prin­ciplesof war were applied by a body of believers in any given locality, I believethere would be a great spiritual victory. The battle would be won and therewould be many spiritual conversions to Jesus Christ. However, once abreakthrough for Christ is achieved, we tend to relax, as though the fight wereover.

Consider Gideon’s rout of the Midianites. In Judges 7, wefind that for the battle three hundred men were all that were needed to makethe break­through. But once the battle was won and the Midianites were fleeing,Gideon called for the men he had previously sent home; three of the four tribesjoined in the pursuit. He also called out the tribe of Ephraim to cut off thefleeing Midianites by seizing the fords of the Jordan.

“And Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and thethree hundred men who were with him, faint yet pursuing” (Judg. 8:4). The factthat 120,000 of the enemy were already slain, that Gideon had won the battle,and that he and his men were tired and hungry did not stop his pursuit. By thistime, only fifteen thousand of the enemy remained:

“And Gideon went up by the caravan route east of Nobah andJogbehah, and attacked the army; for the army was off its guard. And Zebah andZalmunna fled; and he pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah andZalmunna, and he threw all of the army into a panic. Then Gideon . . . returnedfrom the battle” (vv. 11–13).

In physical warfare, the fruits of victory are con­served bypursuing the beaten enemy. The victors cannot relax or just follow up theprisoners of war. The pursuit will bring many prisoners in a short time, but ifit is delayed, another major battle will ensue, because the defeated enemy willhave time to regroup its forces.

In spiritual warfare we must think beyond the converts madein the immediate battle. We must pursue the many non-Christians who are“fleeing” in conviction of sin, but who as yet have not sur­rendered to JesusChrist. In other words, we as Christians ought to consider the principle of pur­suitto be as important as follow-up of the new Christians after a spiritualbreakthrough. The vic­tory has prepared many people almost to receive JesusChrist.

It is very important to take care of prisoners of war, butit takes a minimum of men to tend dis­armed prisoners. In spiritual warfare theprisoners are the converts to Jesus Christ. They are not only disarmed, theyare now on our side. It should take fewer people to follow through on the newconverts than are needed to pursue the great numbers who have been defeated but who have not yet surren­dered toJesus Christ. Sometimes after a major spir­itual victory, follow-up is not evenattempted. Still worse is the failure to press the pursuit of those who arerunning away from Jesus Christ.

The most effective way to pursue the beaten en­emy inphysical war is to hit him from his unpro­tected flanks. If a direct pursuit iscarried out, the victors run into the deadly sting of the rear guard and intomany roadblocks and blown bridges, and so the retreating enemy gets away. Toavoid these, the victors should travel a parallel path, outrun, and interceptthe retreating enemy. To continue direct pursuit after the battle is won is tolose the retreat­ing enemy. In order to effect an interception in the pursuit,mobility is needed. If immediate pursuit is undertaken, as many more captivesas were taken in the battle can be secured.

Prior to the Megiddo battle in September 1918, Allenbypromised his cavalry thirty thousand pris­oners of war. His staff thought hewas presumptu­ous. In reality he ended with fifty thousand prison­ers, havingreduced the Turkish Seventh and Eighth armies to a few columns.

Let us consider how to carry out spiritual pursuit. First,we must be convinced that many people are ready to receive Christ and willreceive Him if they are cut off and confronted with their sin and the Savior.When a man begins to run away, he is ready to be captured. This does not meanthat he will not put up a last desperate struggle or will not continue to run.Thus it is important to cut off his retreat.

To outrun fleeing, convicted sinners, God-directed mobilityis required. As in Gideon’s case, it might take a small, well-disciplined,courageous group to make a breakthrough in the spiritual con­flict for souls.Once the breakthrough has been made and many have received Christ, many otherswill be convicted of sin, righteousness, and judg­ment, and will begin to flee.Then we will need more than our hard core of trained men. We will need, likeGideon, all of the Christians who were not prepared for the battle but who arenecessary in the pursuit. If we depend only on the core of Christians who seekto follow hard after Christ, we will win many battles, but there will be no com­pleterout. There will be successful evangelistic campaigns, but no awakening. Ifpursuit is prac­ticed, every successful evangelistic campaign is a possibleprelude to a general awakening.

If we study spiritual awakenings from Pentecost to the WelshRevival of 1901 and the Korean revival of 1905, we notice the battle and thebreakthrough centered around one man or a small group of men. This was only thestart. After that, many Christians witnessed and testified of saving grace, andmore people were converted. Christians got right with the Lord and entered thechase. The whole church was in the awakening. Evan Roberts was not responsiblefor the seventy thousand new Christians in Wales; he was only the leader. God’srevivals may start with God-picked people, but they continue only if everyChristian, weak or strong, joins in the pursuit.

It is the responsibility of the leader not only to make thebreakthrough in the battle with his picked men, but also to call in all of thereserves for the rout. Our greatest mobility is in the quantity of Christianswho can testify of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. At that time, everyChristian should testify to everyone he or she meets.

Another means of mobility in pursuit is literaturedistribution—booklets, tracts, books, and Scripture portions—all of them on thejudgment and love of God. The literature may be offered without charge anddistributed at meetings, through personal con­tact, by direct mail, through theinternet, or via pod­casts and other new media.

A third factor essential to effective pursuit is the mannerand content of our appeal. In preaching Christ to the people just prior to thebreakthrough, it is possible to be somewhat removed from one’s audience. But inpursuit, we must be clearly iden­tified with the people. Let there becompassion and understanding in our approach.

Furthermore, an ultimatum should be used in our message,citing the judgment of God on the un­repentant. This is the only effectivemeans that will cause a fleeing man to surrender to Christ. Judgment is thereality he cannot escape if he persists in flee­ing from Christ, and therefore,it has great force in causing a fugitive to stop in his flight. Yet our warn­ingshould be given in love and joy.

The church in Thessalonica witnessed to their countrymen inthe true sense of pursuit. True, they were not established Christians likethose of Ephesus. They did not have two years of Bible school with Paul as theteacher. They had heard the gospel only three Sabbath days. Nevertheless, Paulwrites to them a few weeks later, “For from you sounded out the word of theLord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toGod-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing” (1 Thess.1:8).

Will we follow their example? We must if we are to win!

This post in an excerpt from Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism by Jim Wilson.

Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, Allenby, A Study in Greatness (New York:Oxford University Press, 1941), 217–218.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

I Am God, and There Is No Other

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

You would think this should not be a difficult piece of adviceto follow. The voice of God thundered from Sinai in the second command.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form ofanything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Youshall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am ajealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third andfourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousandgenerations of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6).

Within the month, the people of Israel were busily building anidol, a golden calf. It did not last long.

Rachel, Jacob’s wife stole her father’s household gods. All ofthe sons of Jacob had idols.

“So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him,‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves andchange your clothes….’ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and therings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem” (Genesis35:2, 4).

King David’s wife, Michal, had an idol.

“Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering itwith a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head” (1 Samuel 19:13).

Jeroboam built two golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan.

In this age of tolerance, we have accepted foreign idols aslegitimate, alternative forms of worship. To speak against the idolatry ofBuddhism, Hinduism, Taoism is considered bigotry, intolerance, and hatred ofother people.

“Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from thenations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to godsthat cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it—let them take counseltogether. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past?Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God anda Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of theearth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:20-22).

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships