Gentlemen:
My son Ransom, who is of this younger generation (17 years old) says to me every other day or so, the thing that makes the difference in the lives of kids his age, the younger generation, is their opinion of God. If they have a high opinion of God, if God is great to them, if they love God and the things of God it makes all the difference in the world. They are willing to turn from the world. They are willing to give their lives to God, to risk it all for their great God. (Here’s what he wrote in a recent blog entry http://thefieldistheworld.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/savouring-the-things-of-god/ and http://thefieldistheworld.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/moses-drew-nearwhere-god-was/
If that is true, and I believe it is, then we need to make a lot more of God as we preach in the churches. We need to preach and teach to the younger generation and to all that they must love God supremely. We must exalt Him and His mission as the GREATEST thing in the world. The world has no qualms about trying to outshine, out talk and out sell in order to get the attention of people today and to get young people to think that they are wasting their lives if they give up good career opportunities to go into the Lord’s work. Parents have bought the lie too. They cringe at the thought that their kids might choose something as menial as ministry. We need to put a mission before them that is humanly impossible for them to reach without the help of God. Show them that it is something big, something great to do with our lives. We need to challenge them to risk it all for the cause of the Gospel. We need to revive the old biblical heros and the Gospel heros of years gone by as well as headlining some of our modern day Gospel heros.
Some of my heros:
Here are a couple of blogs from some of the young men from the younger generation that inspire me. These are young men, (24-25) who are risking it all to serve a great God. These are the heros that our churches need. These are the examples that our young people need to know about. http://gospelinchina.wordpress.com/ http://projectnorthafrica.blogspot.com/
http://northwestbc.wordpress.com/ http://reachingall.wordpress.com/ and there are more too!
Many places we go all we see is apathy, a cold lethargy when it comes to any motivation for evangelism and mission. Somehow we have to ignite a passion, FIRST for God and then the passion for His work will follow. Passion is not something that can be TAUGHT. It can only be CAUGHT. How INFECTIOUS are we in our passion for the things of God? If we don’t have it, they can’t catch it from us. All those biblical heros got their passion when they met up with God. They were introduced, whether at a burning bush, or a crude altar to a holy God and then they walked and communed with God. It changed their lives. They left all and followed Him. They became examples, others caught what they had. The devil has been busy innoculating us so we can’t catch and spread a holy passion for the thing that is His Heart. We better bump up against God again and get re-infected and start infecting others so we can try and turn this thing around while it is still day.
Reaching the World from Jupiter (Florida)
Ron Maggard
www.baptistevangelism.org
February 24, 2008 at 6:22 am |
[...] challenges us to make much of God! I loved it. Thank you Dr. Maggard. You are a blessing. Will you click here and go read his post! February 23, 2008 | In General [...]
February 24, 2008 at 4:47 pm |
Amen! Excellent post Bro. Maggard. May we all develop infectious passions for the things God.