Archive for September, 2009
Spiritual Raisins?
Posted by: | CommentsFrom time to time I will be posting original writings of guests from around the world. In this second guest post, Bob Royce, a missionary / church planter in Ontario shares a story that contrasts African and Western discipleship. For the past six years, Bob and his family have been missionaries in the Toronto area–one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Their heart is for awakening and revival at McMaster University and beyond. They have also been involved internationally in SE Asia, Pakistan, Kenya and other places as well. Thanks Bob!
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Our family has enjoyed being involved in Kingdom work both in the States, around the world in places like Russia, SE Asia, Pakistan and Kenya, and have lived for the past 6 years in one of the most cosmopoitan cities in the world…Toronto. People from all over the world are here.
Our heart is for awakening and revival beginning with university students and then spreading out from there. At one of our home meetings this summer, we enjoyed getting to know a girl from Zimbabwe who just finished her first year in university.
She shared part of her story with us that night and that she was a follower of Christ when she arrived here. I asked her, “So would you say you have grown spiritually or shriveled some since you arrived here?” She admitted/confessed that her walk with the Lord had suffered. She said back home that they use to have all night prayers, and fasting was a regular part of their walk. Since coming to North America, it has been hard for her to grow because not many Christians are hungry and everything here is easy….
I had a sinking feeling that was going to be her answer. Friends, our brothers and sisters from around the world are anchored in a Kingdom reality that we know very little about. What if we discovered that we also need to be on the receiving end of missionary work…not just sending folks out? Something to prayerfully ponder….
Repent
Posted by: | CommentsFrom time to time I will be posting original writings of guests from around the world. In this first guest post, Bob Royce, a missionary / church planter in Ontario shares about the necessity and urgency of repentance. For the past six years, Bob and his family have been missionaries in the Toronto area–one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Their heart is for awakening and revival at McMaster University and beyond. They have also been involved internationally in SE Asia, Pakistan, Kenya and other places as well. Thanks Bob!
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Striving as the body of Jesus Christ in North America to be more Kingdom minded and missionally involved locally and globally, we need to get back to the basics…starting with repentance.
The command of repentance is the first message that Jesus started declaring when His time came to go public with His ministry[Matt 4, Mark 1]. While God has done some amazing things through the brief history of the church in NA [missions, media, literature distribution, eucation, etc.], my sense is we flatter ourselves a little too much and we are not as strong as we think we are. Though there are small flames of awakening and revival burning in a few places, for the most part we need to repent of the following just as a starting place:
1. Tolerating sin and disobedience
2. A self-centered, consumeristic gospel and lifestyle
3. A lack of spiritual power, anointing, vitality, and Kingdom appetite
4. Trying to market and advance the Kingdom with mere humanism and sociology
5. We really don’t know the Lord, like He wants to be known
Part of repenting will involve recalibrating ourselves around Jesus and His Kingdom. Here is a challenge:
1. Do a search on Biblegateway.com or your favorite search enginge and look up every reference for “kingdom” in the NT.
2. Prayefully digest what is revealed, and adjust accordingly, both personally and corporately.
There is a bit of urgency stirring in the Kingdom these days and there is excitement mixed with a sobering warning. If we respond to the Spirit’s call to repent, we will be more alive and burning brighter for His glory than ever. If we harden our hearts though, judgment is waiting…Hebrews 3:7-19.
So friends, let’s humbly move forward one step and repent by God’s merciful grace.
