"Because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3:16). So warns "the faithful and true witness," our Lord Jesus Christ. This Lover of our souls exhorts us to spare us from the shame of those who, because iniquity abounds, lose their first love and their hearts grow cold, selfish and indifferent to the things of their Lord. Such ones are distasteful and useless to Him. He solemnly entreats us: "He that hath an ear, let him hear." Will we take heed? Or will we continue in ease and carelessness and be in the number who are unprepared for the day of accounting? It draws steadily nearer. It may be closer than we imagine. It is time to take our Lord’s words seriously!
Wesley Duewel’s article on having a passion for Christ and for souls stirs us to greater intensity if we are willing to be stirred. Might our hearts be kindled by the flame of God’s Word and by more prayer fellowship with Him who is aglow with love for mankind. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," said our Savior in the hours before He struggled up Calvary’s hill and died on the cross to save us (John 15:13).
People all around us are traveling the broad road that leads to destruction! (Mt. 7:13). Without fervent love of Christ and souls in our hearts, we will not take much notice of this "innumerable company" as the poet expresses it. We scarcely can grasp it. Speaking of these multitudes one writes:
"Lost souls! Can you get a faint idea of the measureless depths of meaning in these two small words? What oceans of tears! What overwhelming bursts of wailing and gnashing of teeth! What eternities of despair! Irredeemably lost! No chance for a light to shine out on their devil-begirt, furnace-heated, pall-enshrouded, downward, outward, hellward pathway! Lost to happiness and holiness! Lost to God and the redeemed! Lost to Heaven and hope! Lost and no hope of ever being found! Not one dim, distant hope of ever being anything but more hopelessly, ruinously, despairingly lost during all the eternities to come! From woe to more woe, misery to worse misery…Lost amid the outer darkness! Lost in the smoke of torment! Lost in the lake of fire and brimstone! Lost amid the howling myriads of tormenting devils and the shrieks of the damned. Lost! Lost! Lost!"
I confess that preparing an issue on soul winning puts me under conviction for my shortcoming in being a fervent witness for Christ. I seek God’s forgiveness and I resolve afresh to be more faithful. And yet, when reading on page 5 what Aletta Jacobsz has written about conviction, I ask myself, "What do I know of conviction in this matter? Have I taken this sin seriously enough?" The Jacobsz article is one to save for restudy and meditation. Be done with living in recurring, "chronic" failure!
Aletta Jacobsz was a young Christian teacher in South Africa who had a passion to know and please the Lord. When her earnest efforts to do better fell short of what she longed for, she sought the Lord into the late night hours with brokenhearted tears. Holding nothing back, she humbly confessed her sins to mission colleagues. God met His broken, contrite daughter and gave her such remarkable power and love that one said of her: "I have read of the rapturous love of certain great souls for their Lord, but in Miss Jacobsz for the first time I met such a person." God used her to bring many into personal revival. Her article comes from personal experience. It is worth studying and applying to our hearts.
We can take fresh hope from what Andrew Murray teaches on page 5 about prayerlessness: we fail to rely upon the Lord; instead we attempt to fulfill our resolves in our own meager strength. We fail to sense the divine help our loving Lord wants to give. Neither prayer nor soul winning is something the flesh can accomplish. What we need is enduement from above. Our Lord has promised that He will supply the power through the Holy Spirit: Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Faithfulness and effectiveness are by the Holy Spirit. How earnestly, then, must we seek to be always filled with the Holy Spirit and obedient to His leadings. This is the way to fruitfulness and to the fruit that shall endure.
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