 The Pastor's page
Pastor, God has put us believers into a magnificent story, a true narrative, close to his own heart. You know the story well. But 40% of the world's population belong to people groups who resist the gospel, out of loyalty to their dead ancestors, or their living relatives.
This after 2000 years of brilliant and heroic efforts by missionaries.
I'm convinced God is waiting for us to pray together!
Am I wrong about this? Let me be honest. From what I have observed during 73 years as a believer, over 25 of which I have been involved in mission... most pastors are just not convinced about the Unreached Peoples needing salvation!! Why do I say this? Because over 90% of church attenders are unaware of the unreached billions! Think about this:
God works through people. He even waits until we pray before he puts his plans into operation. To change the face of the earth, God waits for a significant number of people to pray. He has equipped you with a band of his lovers, ready to pray with passion for what is on his heart! They are waiting for their leader to teach them about the Unreached Peoples. There's enough material on this website. You could do a series!!
People need the Lord. And then they need a way to win the lost. Prayer is not enough but nothing much happens without it. God is not only powerful, but determined! Jesus saw what was wrong. From the beginning of his ministry he saw what religious men had done with the court of the Gentiles in the temple. This was the place for the then Unreached Peoples to come and pray! He went into that court with a whip and he did not plead with the vendors. He drove them out with their cattle and their coins. This was radical action. Jesus handled radical situations with radical action. In dealing with the Pharisees, he did not try to win their favor. He pounced upon their hypocrisy and condemned it with precise and convincing words. Radical action! In the end, Jesus embraced a violent, brutal death, the most ugly and painful even the cruel Romans could come up with, because he passionately loved all mankind and wanted to win them for his Father. A radical Savior took radical action. He wanted us for himself. He chose to leave no room for doubt: sin is evil, but God loves sinners. He replaced our sinful hearts with transformed hearts (2Cor.5:17). Radical! In view of all this, what will be our attitude toward the billions of souls still trapped in sin, and in ignorance of their awesome destiny? Would radical action be appropriate? We must decide: 1. We could choose to leave them to their own traditional path. 2. We might be satisfied with giving sacrificially to the noble missionary effort, participating in their excellent work vicariously. 3. Or we can choose to pour out our souls for the salvation of the Unreached Peoples in passionate prayer for their salvation. I believe prayer can be brief but it must be from our hearts. The senior pastor leading his congregation on Sunday mornings for the 2.4 billion whose culture keeps them from the gospel! That would be radical! We must continue to engage in the second choice above, or begin to participate if we have been holding off. I'm convinced we must also choose the third option. This is where we, the Church, are missing it! We love you, pastor. You are pouring out your heart to draw us closer to Jesus. You want us to enjoy our abundant life. Thank God for your success! You are the key influence in what goes into our minds and hearts. However, unless you are exceptional, you are not focused on the Unreached Peoples. Jesus’ last words were all about these UPs, but the average faithful church attender has seldom heard them mentioned. As a pastor, you are doing only what God tells you to do. You will only do what I suggest if you see it as coming from the Holy Spirit. I am glad for that. You will act only if you are convinced about the answer to these questions: • Are the lost really lost? • Does God desire that none perish? • Does he often withhold his plans until we pray them into being, as his partners? • Has he made me responsible for the 2.4 billion who belong to Unreached People groups? • Is the situation worth two minutes of my congregation’s time on Sundays? Pastor, I will do the research for you. If you will send me an email I will send you my weekly emails giving you bullet-points you can use to motivate and lead your people in prayer on Sunday mornings. You and they will be praying for the Unreached People featured by Global Prayer Digest for that Sunday. So, you will be praying along with 70,000 other believers. Your email address will never be given away or sold for any reason, ever! I believe when a significant number of us are praying, God will do mighty things to bring about what is on his heart to do through us his people, bringing the lost into his kingdom, for his glory and for their everlasting joy! Jesus gave his Church power to bind the enemy who holds 2.4 billion individuals in bondage to meaningless religious practices. God tells us, five of us will chase a hundred, and one hundred of us will chase ten thousand! [Leviticus 26:7,8] Please tell me you want my weekly bullet-points, either using the form on the "Contact me" page, or don@prayforup.com |
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