Vision News

How to do the ministry by Charles Spurgeon!

from a message by Charles Spurgeon!

You [as preachers] have nothing else to employ as the means of good, except the salvation of Jesus, and there is nothing else worth telling.

I heard of a congregation the other day that was so very small that hardly any one came to listen to the preacher. Instead of blaming himself, and preaching better, the minister said he thought he was not doing much good by sermons and prayer-meetings, and therefore he would found a club, and if the fellows came in, and played draughts, that might do them good. What a lot of that sort of thing is now being tried! We are going to convert souls on a new system,—are we? Are we also to have a substitute for bread?—and healthier drink than pure water? . . .

[T]o hope ever to bring sinners to holiness and heaven by any teaching but that which begins and ends in Jesus Christ is a sheer delusion. None other name is given among men whereby they can be saved. If you have to deal with highly learned and educated people, nothing is so good for them as preaching Jesus Christ; and if the people be ignorant and degraded, nothing is better for them than the preaching of Jesus.

A young man said to another the other day, “I am going down to preach at So-and-so, what sort of people are they there? What kind of doctrine will suit them?” Having heard of the question, I gave this advice,—”You preach Jesus Christ, and that will suit them, I am sure, if they are learned people it will suit them; if they are ignorant it will suit them—God blessing it.”

When the great Biblical critic, Bengel, was dying, he sent for a young theological student, to whom he said, “I am low in spirit; say something good to cheer me.” “My dear Sir,” said the student, “I am so insignificant a person, what can I say to a great man like yourself?” “But if you are a student of theology,” said Bengel, “you ought to have a good word to say to a dying man; pray say it without fear.” “Well, Sir,” said he, “What can I say to you, but that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin?” Bengel said, “Give me your hand, young man; that is the very word I wanted.”

A simple gospel text is the word which every man needs who is in fear of divine wrath, and he may be sitting next to you at this moment, or he is in the same house of business with you, and needs that you should tell him about Christ. Do that, and bless his soul. May you all understand the Scriptures in this way, and may God make you a great blessing to those around you.

September 29 2008 | General | 1 Comment »

3 Ways Singing Serves the Word

(Author: Tyler Kenney)

The following is taken from my notes on Bob Kauflin’s message.

1) Singing can help us remember words.

Ever notice how easy it is to recall the words of songs you haven’t heard for 20 years? We store literally hundreds, even thousands of songs in our memory vaults. Music has an unusual mnemonic power.

We remember patterns in music much better than patterns in words alone. Rhyme, meter and song are the most powerful mnemonic devices. They govern and restrict the way we say words and the time it takes to say them.

Implications

In the church we should use effective melodies, that is, melodies that people are able to remember and that they want to remember.

We should sing words God wants us to remember. Ask yourself, If the teaching of our church was limited to the songs we sing, what would our people know?

We should seek to memorize songs. Don’t be too dependent upon screens or hymnbooks.

2) Singing can help us engage the words emotionally.

Music is a language of emotion in every culture of every age. It is capable of effecting us in profound and subtle ways (like when Saul’s spirit was calmed by David’s harp).

Implications:

We need a broad emotional range in the songs we sing: reverence, awe, repentance, grief, joy, celebration, etc.

We don’t need to pit different styles or traditions against one another. They each serve to help us in different ways.

Know that there is a difference between being emotional moved and spiritually enlightened. Music has a voice but we’re not always sure what that voice is saying. It can make us feel peaceful, but it can’t tell us that the Lord is our shepherd or that Jesus endured God’s wrath in our place to bring us eternal peace with God.

Singing should be an emotional event. And they should be religious affections. God is worthy of our highest, purest, and strongest emotions. Singing helps express and unite them. Singing without emotion is an oxymoron.

3) Singing can help us use words to demonstrate and express our unity.

The first two points can be accomplished when we sing by ourselves, but this point needs other people.

People sing together in the strangest places: rock concerts, sporting events, birthdays, weddings, funerals. Singing together tends to bind us together. It enables us to spend extended periods of times expressing the same thoughts and passions.

Implications

We should sing songs that unite rather than divide the church. We can appreciate the diverse musical styles and genres, but we shouldn’t try and make church worship “something for everybody.” There should be a unifying musical center that focuses on the sound of the people themselves.

Musical creativity in the church has functional limits. Your iPod shouldn’t be the starting point for selecting songs to sing together. We want to pursue a creativity that is undistracting and not just innovative.

We must be clear that it is the gospel and not music that unites us. We shouldn’t connect with people at our churches because they have the same song selection on their iPods. We should love them because Christ has enabled us to love them.

Ask yourself, What are we doing to encourage our church in corporate singing? In the new heavens and earth we will sing gloriously and for a long time. Our thoughts and passions will be focused, and we will have the strength to give him the glory he deserves. What a glorious thing to anticipate that time! And part of our singing here on earth is anticipation of what is to come.

September 27 2008 | General | No Comments »

To my grown son

The following poem came from an unknown author on Miguel Murillo’s blog. I liked it so much that I am translating it. It will not rhyme or anything I am sure but I thought you might enjoy it! I have failed in this in many ways both with my parents and children.

My hands were busy all day
I didn’t have enough time to play
The little games that you ask me for
I didn’t have enough time for you

I washed your clothes, sewed and cooked
But when you bought me a coloring book
And asked me to please share your delight
I said a little later son.

At night I put you to bed all safe
I heard your prayers and turned off the light
Later on tiptoes I walked softly towards the door
I would have liked to stay just one more minute.

Life is short and the years pass so quickly
A small child grows so rapidly
He is not longer at your side
His precious secrets to share.

The coloring books are all put up
There are no more games to play
No more good night kisses, nor prayers to hear
All that is part of yesterday.

My hands, once so busy, now are quiet
The longs days are difficult to fill
I wish that I could go back and do
The little things that you asked me to do.

Mis manos estaban ocupadas en el día;
No tuve bastante tiempo para jugar
Los pequeños juegos que me pediste…
No tuve bastante tiempo para ti.

Lavaba tu ropa, cosía y cocinaba;
Pero cuando me traías un libro de dibujos
Y me pedías que por favor compartiera tu disfrute,
Yo decía: Un poco más tarde, hijo.

En la noche te metía en la cama todo asegurado,
Oía tus oraciones, apagaba la luz,
Luego de puntillas caminaba con suavidad hasta la puerta…
Me hubiera gustado permanecer un minuto más.

La vida es corta, los años pasan de prisa…
Un niño pequeño crece muy rápido.
Ya no está a tu lado,
Sus preciosos secretos a confiar.

Los libros de dibujos guardados;
Ya no hay juegos que jugar.
No más besos de buenas noches, ni oraciones que escuchar
Todo eso es parte del ayer.

Mis manos, ocupadas una vez, ahora están quietas.
Los días son largos y difíciles de llenar,
Yo quisiera poder regresar y hacer,
Las pequeñas cosas que me pediste que hiciera.

Autor desconocido.

September 27 2008 | General | 1 Comment »

Newest Church Members

God blessed on Thursday evening by giving us two new church members. Brett and Maggie Charap joined Vision on transfer of their letter from Open Door Bible Baptist Church in New York City. They are a super fine young couple that have a heart to do something for God.

I hope you will be sure to let them know how happy you are to have them as part of our fellowship.

An interesting thing is that before they ever arrived in Georgia their pastor called the church and talked with me. He was sorry to see them leave and told me that we were getting an extra special blessing to have Brett and Maggie serving God with us.

What a blessing that you would upon leaving find a good church and join and get to work. Congratulations Brett and Maggie and thank you Open Bible for the blessings you send our way.

September 26 2008 | General | 2 Comments »

Macedonia’s Annual Conference

We had the privilege last night of attending Macedonia World Baptist Mission‘s Annual Conference at Corinth Baptist Church in Loganville, Georgia.

Betty and I served with Macedonia for 20 years as missionaries to Peru. It was great to see many old friends. We love Macedonia and thank God for them. Most of our missionaries at Vision serve through this very fine mission board.

Dr. Wayne Cofield was the main speaker last night and so we were honored to go and hear him. He was our pastor for nearly 20 years as we served as missionaries.

Please pray for all of these ministries and people as they seek to honor God and reach the world with the gospel message.

September 25 2008 | General | No Comments »

Are you involved?

Here is a poster–picture that kind of tells the story of missions and church work. But as Trent says it would be better if it read we fight and we give.

Since you are not going to the mission field what are you doing to give extra. It ought to be that it costs us as much to stay as it does them to go.

You have a church staff and missionaries doing the work of God but they can never take your place so get in and got to serving. Take the gospel message to others and support those that do. If God gave you a job that makes more money then be a bigger giver.

Are you involved?

September 24 2008 | General | No Comments »

Quotes

Don’t be so busy adding up your troubles that you forget to count your blessings.

Don’t be irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted

From the Sonshine Bulletin

September 24 2008 | General | No Comments »

Jeremy Hall video

September 23 2008 | General | 2 Comments »

A counter

September 22 2008 | General | No Comments »

Is your love conditional?

The following is from the R U ministry blog from our church. It is a great article and I want to challenge you to read it and also to go and subscribe to the blog. God bless you Jonathan! You are a blessing!

Is your love conditional or based on a person’s race, looks or stature in life?

Sunday evening had us finishing a 4-night mission’s conference at Vision and what a mix of emotions it was. I can’t see how anyone could have sat through the messages brought by these men and not felt the tug of the Spirit on them in some way. Be that as it may, I thought I might share how it went close to home and touched me.

First let me say that like many folks living in the United States of America, I live a life that is comfortable, even with the recent economic challenges we’ve seen lately. Well comfort breeds complacency and with that said, it’s human nature that I like most folks; try to avoid placing myself in situations where I’m uncomfortable. As a for instance we were going to a Braves game and couldn’t park in one of the adjacent lots so we had to park on one of the back road side streets where the neighborhood was let’s say “less than safe” feeling with folks walking by that were obviously challenged with drug, alcohol or other addictions & challenges. Sure, anyone who knows my story knows that I learned early on how to raise what I call “situational awareness” but still, I felt uneasy about being around “those” type of people.

STOP! Think about what I just said. How often do you do that? How often have we all felt like turning away from that destitute person or addicted individual because they were not “like us” in some way? Well that couldn’t be further from the truth, especially in my case. Where was I before the Lord took me into his family? How can I possibly be placing myself on some pillar to look down on someone else but yet I (we) do that without even realizing it far too often.

Now I’m not saying we foolishly put ourselves in harms way but I am saying that we have a heart for people that are stricken with sin in their lives and realize they need Jesus just as much if not more than we did. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord gave us all the great commission – Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Unless my Bible has a misprint, I see that it says ALL nations, meaning ALL people, including those we’d normally walk the other way from when they shuffle past us on the street.

Let me share with you that I felt so convicted from hearing Chris Gartner preach that I had to do a head and heart check because I too suffer from not wanting to get out of my comfort zone. Oh sure I say, I’m not called to preach so those fellows doing missions work, putting themselves at peril in some cases on the foreign field, giving up the comforts of home – well, they were called by God to do those things and not me right? Wrong! I of all people should remember that I was nothing more than a pathetic sinner raised in a family of sinners on my way to a devil’s hell until the day when someone took a chance and befriended me. He explained why it was that I couldn’t totally “break the cycle” of sin in my family’s history by just abstaining. That my friend, only got me so far and often led to what the secular world therapists call slippages which did nothing more than heighten the guilt I carried. In order to truly gain freedom over sin I’d have to call the specialist – Jesus Christ, who without condition, willingly gave his life on a cross to pay my sin debt once and for all and who, if I do make mistakes won’t be there to condemn but to console me with the knowledge that my salvation is eternal. Forever.

Several years after I asked the Lord to be my savior I was on the phone with my older sister. She had recently gone through her latest round of clean up and was struggling with how best to stay sober and healthy. You see she was one of those rough looking people that often look kind of scary to us normal folk. A couple of decades earlier she had contracted AIDs from the use of needle sharing and was then trying to deal with the damage done in her life. It’s said that sometimes the hardest people to share the gospel with are those closest to you & those conversations we had were no different. At the time I could only throw out perhaps one or two things I had learned about Christ but pressed her to do her own spiritual inventory. To this day I have no idea who she spoke with but also have no doubt it was someone who took a chance, defied the fear of AIDs & the look she had and shared the gospel because I’m convinced now, years after, that she passedinto eternity knowing & being sure of her own salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thinking about all of this has me remembering how this week when Jake was preaching; he spoke about how Jesus was visiting with the Pharisee Simon and how He used the sinner women to teach us a valuable lesson (Luke 7:36-50). The lesson is that sin is sin and that there are no higher or lower levels of sin. To be dead in sin is still death regardless. Dead is dead right? I heard the Spirit speaking loud and clear to me that night and today through the Word: Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. (Luke 7:47)

Heaven help us all to be mindful of that truth so let’s not forget that we were all dead in the same sin that ranks right up there with the worst of it. Personally I could stand to show a WHOLE lot more love based on how much I was forgiven. We need to love ALL people and have a heart to see missions work done at home through outreaches like Reformers Unanimous just as much as those works in other countries where we’re spreading the Word.

God bless – Jonathan

September 22 2008 | General | 1 Comment »