When Toni and I were newly married (1965) we bought our first car for $115. It was a 1959 Ford with about 70,000 miles on it. I waxed it every day! The $115 is not a typo. That was the actual price. We thought we STOLE it from the original owner. He could have easily gotten $135 for it. This afternoon I filled Toni’s car with gas. It will only run on premium. It cost $60.25. In 1970 Alvin Toffler wrote a bestselling book called “Future Shock. Toffler’s definition of the term is, “a personal perception of too much change in too short a period.” We’re News junkies. We probably watch too much of it. I find myself on cognitive overload. Too much data is coming at me at any given time. Too much is changing. I find it hard to adjust.
In 1950 Bob Pierce founded World Vision.
It’s a Christian philanthropic organization that received and distributed $2.7 billion last year. It started when Pierce began sending five dollars a month to China for the support of an orphan girl there. So while we’re awash in international tensions, unprecedented financial uncertainty, and deep political turmoil on our own soil we Believers are going to have to focus on the Main thing. The apostle Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,” (1CO 15:3) I understand that the distractions around us can be crippling to our principal purpose as church planters. We cannot let that happen. God is calling out a people for Himself in our country who will light a fire that will be seen across the world. Is He calling you to be more than a casual observer on the sidelines? I surely pray so! My friends – find your place at this critical time and pour yourself into fruitful service.
Oswald Smith was a great missionary/evangelist in Canada in the early part of the 20th century.
2,000 people walked or came by horseback to his church through frigid temperatures and deep snow. He was a prolific author who once said, “The light that shines farthest shines brightest nearest home.” Church planting in the US and world mission are never incompatible. Both are commanded.
