People Need the Lord

We have all heard the song People Need the Lord.  We sing it and it moves us, but does it move us to do something.  That something in particular is God’s call for our lives.  There is no greater reward than knowing that our calling/ministry is a God thing.  Sometimes we have to revisit our call and remember our surrender to follow Jesus.  We recall how lost in sin we were and the joy that comes from knowing that our sins are washed away.  Commit to memory that day and the burden you had for those around you will rekindle the passion to see lost people saved. 

“Capture the Passion” for lost people.  The world is doing as expected.  What about God’s people?  Today many churches are turning inward.  An article from Theodore O. Wedel, “Evangelism- the Mission of the Church to Those Outside Her Life,” The Ecumenical Review, October 1953, p. 24, explains some of our present day dilemma:

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life saving station.  The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat but a few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.  Many lives were saved by this wonderful little life saving station, so it became famous.  So some of those who had been saved, and various others from the surrounding areas wanted to become associated with this station, and give of their time and their money and their effort for the support of its work.  New boats were bought, new life saving crews were trained, and the little life saving station grew. 

Some of the members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped.  They felt a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those who were saved from the sea.  So they replaced the emergency cots and beds with better furniture in the enlarged building.  Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it, and they beautifully furnished it exquisitely because they used it as something of a club.  Few members were now interested in going to sea on life saving missions so they hired life boat crews to do the work.  The life saving motif still prevailed in the life saving club's decorations and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club held it's initiations, but professionalism had taken over and displaced the original purpose of lifesaving.

Now about this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half drowned people.  They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some of them had yellow skin and the beautiful new club was considerably messed up - so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of ship wrecks could be cleaned up before they came inside.  At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership.  You see most of the members wanted to stop the clubs life saving activity as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club.  Some members insisted upon life saving as their primary purpose and they pointed out that they were still called the life saving station.  But they were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, and dirty and wet, they could begin their own life saving station down the coast a little ways, which they did.  And as the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old one.  It evolved into a club, and yet another life saving station was founded.  Well history continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore which are very professional in nature.  Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

People need the Lord.  Opportunities from God proliferate.  Churches stand at the portal of a great opportunity to share Christ.  Be yielded and ready for opportunities.

Spring Break

Since it is Spring Break, many will be headed to exotic destinations.  A majority of High school and college students will head to the beach.  The beach is attractive, but I do not care for it.  I do meet friends each year at Gulf Shores, Alabama for Christmas.  On one occasion, I observed “Snow Birds” enjoying the beach and I was inspired to write the following poem.

FLEEING THE TEMPTER

A seagull chases a killdee* up and down, round and round.

As long as the killdee flees, the seagull cannot catch it.

So, in its illusiveness they race just inches above the crashing and roaring waves.

Children play in the sand, some tiptoe to the edge of the sea’s invitation to dive into its threshold.  In innocence, they laugh as incoming waves chase them away from the sea.

Guardians along the shore keep watch over the naïve younglings.

Seagulls stand guard and await the seas invitation to dine upon its continual supply of refuse, trash, and skeletons of creatures fallen in the sea. 

The temptation is too great for them and they feast. 

Unnoticed, people walk by the seagulls that focus on the sea’s roar calling to dine.

Some walk along the waters edge slowly seduced by the hypnotic voice of the deep.

Quickly escaping the tempter’s snare, they flee the cold chill of the rushing waves.

Briskly they saunter along the shore with no destination in mind.

Leaving their footprints upon the sands of time, troubled waves wash them quickly away.  Slowly they fade way leaving no evidence that have resisted the seas continual seduction.

The older generation sits and reflects upon the repeated temptation of the sea as it vacillates.

It reminds them of life’s continual restlessness that will continue long after they are gone. 

They reminisce of childhood sand castles that vanished long ago with the shifting sand. 

They think of romantic yesterdays as they watch two lovers embrace as the waves crash to shore.  They think of past passions as the sun is seduced and slowly enters into the sea. 

In the seduction, the sun loses its brilliant glow and blushes as it kisses the sea.

Only moments before, the sun’s flame had made the sky crystal clear, pure, and virgin blue.

It sparkled like a diamond in the cold winter air penetrating the air with a warm embrace. 

The sand that glistened as a bride dressed in white meeting her groom, now besmirched.

Suddenly, the seagull stops his pursuit of flirting killdee.

Temptation to dine overcomes the seagull as it dives into the sea for its prey.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7b KJV).

*Killdee is a small bird that runs along the beach.