What is a Christian?

On a number of occasions, over the years, I have preached on the question: "What is a Christian?"  I have come at the question from different angles, and provided a number of answers to it.  However, someone from my Facebook contacts placed the following on their page and, as well as sharing it on that particular social medium, I want to share it here.  I wish that I had read it a long time ago - and if I preach on that same subject in the future, I will undoubtedly make reference to this.  Indeed, I may well quote it in full!

I hope that many who read it 'get the message'! 

No unemployment; no redundancy!

"There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,
'Tis a task the Master just for you has planned.
Haste to do His bidding, yield Him service true;
There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do."

So wrote Elsie D.Yale, about a century ago - but her words remain true to day, as they have done in every generation.

This evening, in Wishaw Baptist Church, we were encouraged to share some experiences of blessing and/or encouragement from the year that has just ended.   In my own case, I was able to share the  way in which the Lord appears to be guiding my wife and me to a pastoral work in France.  As the situation unfolds, I will doubtless share more on the blog but, for the moment, I can say that it looks as if we will be involved in a 'non-stipendiary' (i.e. unpaid!) pastoral and preaching role within the ministry of Christians in Dordogne, and the associated Café Church in Bergerac.

The encouragement, of course, is that we are never too old to be used by the Lord - provided we are willing for Him to use us!  In the Kingdom of God, there is no unemployment, and no redundancy.  He doesn't even look as much at our ability as at our availability.

As we move on in this new year, may it be that all who claim to be His disciples will seek to know what is the work for Him that no-one but they can do.  I can only say that they will be blessed, and that He will be glorified - but what else is there to say?!

Preaching the Word, in season, and out of season.

It’s Sunday, as I type, and my wife and I are enjoying a wee break, in our caravan, near to the fair town of Ayr. Yesterday, we were up in the town and, as we awaited a ’bus to take us to ASDA, there was an elderly gentleman standing in the adjoining pedestrian area, with microphone and loudspeaker, faithfully proclaiming the Gospel. He had no visible support, in the sense of other members of a fellowship and, if we had not been awaiting that ’bus, I think that I would have gone over, relieved him of his microphone, and given him a wee break. To my own shame, I failed to do so. However, I thanked God for that gentleman’s faithful witness – and I had two specific thoughts.

I realised, again, the truth of Paul’s word that there is no-one who has an excuse for rejecting the Gospel message (Rom.1:18ff). Certainly, those who “passed by” (cf. Mark 15:29), yesterday, in Ayr, can never claim not to have heard the news that each one of us is a sinner, needful of the grace of God as He has shown it in the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. I remembered, sadly, the question put to the Hebrew disciples of Jesus: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Heb.2:3)

The other thought that struck me was that, so often, our idea of ‘evangelism’ in the western church, today, is to put on a special service, and expect the unsaved to throng in – leaving behind the other interests that lay claim to their time. Yet the command of the Lord Jesus was that we should be the ones who make the move: “… go, and make disciples of all the nations, …” (Matt.28:19), and see also Mark 4:14; Luke 10:3, 14:23 inter al. I also thought of a man like Wilson Assavi, an Iranian pastor currently in prison for his evangelistic work among Muslims. I thought of his wife, Medline, who has been informed that her husband is “awaiting his trial and execution”! That gentleman in Ayr may have been ignored by those who passed him by; the worst that would have happened in the U.K. – at least, at the present time! – is that he might have suffered some name-calling. That is also the worst that would have happened to me, if I had taken the opportunity to support him in his vocal ministry. Yet so many, in over fifty countries around the world, suffer in ways that I am barely able to imagine – but they witness, boldly and faithfully, to the saving power of Christ.

That gentleman’s voice will, one day, be silenced as his mortal body reaches the end of its journey. I have no way of knowing what measure of ‘success’ he will have enjoyed – although, doubtless, there will be some for whom he will have been an important stage on their journey to saving faith. However, I am quite certain of one thing – that man will one day stand before Jesus, and will hear those wonderful words: “Well done, My good and faithful servant. … Let’s celebrate together!” (Matt. 25:21,23, NLT).