To
Say or To Show
In seeking to be filled with
God’s purposes
and a clear vision of His will for the world, I set aside
a time after Charity
Missions Conference 2007 to seek the Lord. My heart had been
especially gripped with a message Bro. Ross Ulrich preached
on the souls of men who are perishing without Christ . As
I prayed
and fasted for a few days, the Lord heard the cry of my heart
and opened to my spiritual perception just a glimpse of the
realities of eternity.
This poem was an outflow of my
heart as I agonized before the Lord for the souls of perishing
millions all over this
world.
Father, as I sought Your face
and prayed,
As for a moment at Your side I stayed,
You opened to my eyes eternal visions-
The souls of men, Your kingdom, hell, and heaven. And as I stood, I saw the great abyss
And countless souls, not knowing of their Christ,
As on they throng into eternity,
A Christ-less, hopeless, endless agony. My mind feels stretched beyond capacity.
It breaks my heart to see my past delinquency,
To see and own the debt of love I owe
And all the Kingdom cause of Christ to know. I studied world statistics for one hour.
I looked at how You said You’ll show Your power
In this decrepit world of sin and shame
That once was made to glorify Your Name. As I surveyed the dread reality
Of all the ways throughout man’s history
That we have failed your aweful majesty,
Your cause o’erwhelmed me almost hopelessly. We
shouldn’t
be surprised that men today
Have turned their hearts away from God, away
To follow humanistic reasonings
Because, they say, “Your faith no answer brings.” How can we say we have the answer full
To all the miseries of sin so cruel,
When all our lives so few the souls we lead
To find the all-inclusive answer for their need? As I consider all Your will to do,
I know that I must have a purpose true;
To live for one and only cause always,
A life that magnifies and shows Your ways. I
realize that though I’ve loved You much
For all You’ve done and will still do and such,
I must have clearer visions of your will
That all my life Your purposes may fill. My heart is sad to see my limitations.
Sometimes I wonder why in God’s creation
He made us with so many human passions
That hinder us from fullest consecration. And then He limits to us mortal beings
The work of all His glorious will revealing
To all those dying throngs who never heard
And those who hear but never saw His Word. Lord make my life a living sacrifice
As poured out wine and bread that will suffice
To feed the longing, empty, crying hearts.
Send forth Your Spirit; wisdom now impart! The one and only purpose I pursue
Is for my life to be consumed with You!
That every step and all the ways in which I walk
May of Your Kingdom and Your holy Person talk. And now my prayer and longing heart implores
That as I finish here and walk out through the doors.
I must not leave this hungry heart behind!
Lord, bring each day Your purposes to mind! Lord,
let that moment’s heartrending passion,
Eternal visions, Your Kingdom calling fashion
All of my life so that each day I’ll see
The mandate clear, the purpose full, the message free. I cannot bear to think of compromise;
I won’t let up until I reach the skies,
Do all that can be done with human life
Although the way be rough, the trials rife. You made me, Lord, in Your own likeness pure,
And now I’m trusting that You will restore
The fire, the passion, vision clear and sure,
That all my life be bent to praise You more!
Stamped deeply on my heart as I left that season alone with
God were a few profound, soul-searching questions. How can
it be that:
We say we believe that after this life,
every human who has lived on this earth will spend endless
eternity in one
of two places. Heaven, we believe, is a place of unending
rest and unfathomable joy, being in the immediate presence
of our
Creator and Father. Hell, we believe, is a place of unending
pain and torment with eternal, infinite separation from the
presence of God.
We say we believe that Christ is the only way to be accepted by God and forever dwell with Him in eternal
bliss. Aside
from this knowledge and faith in Christ, no other way exists
to
be reconciled with God. All mankind who lived without Christ
will forever waste away in the horrors of hell.
We say we believe that we have come to
know Christ and that He has revealed Himself to us and has
saved our souls.
We believe
that this, the answer of our acceptance and salvation
before God, is the answer for every human’s need.
How can it be that we say we believe this
combination of facts, yet we continue to live as if we had
no personal
obligation to them? The combination of these three
tenets of belief
creates
an equation that can result in no other answer except:
We must live our whole lives for the salvation
of lost souls and the eternal exaltation and glory of God
who
created humanity
for that purpose. Otherwise, our lives will bear
witness against us that we did not actually believe these
basic
principles of God’s revelation of Himself and His glorious plan
for mankind.
Although the current situation of the needs
of the world and the millions who still do not know of Christ
portrays
a desperate
representation of the slothfulness of the church
as a whole, let us turn our gaze now to look on
the
marvels
of our
God. Let me warn you to not keep your focus for
too long
only
on the bare, heart-rending facts of the immensity
of the task
and our inadequacy to realize its everlasting implications.
Stay there only long enough to allow its indelible
impression on your heart so that you can never
rid your life of
its results. But now, let’s turn, and look
up to our Infinite, Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient
Creator.
Although God has chosen to work through humans
for the salvation of the rest of humanity, God
Almighty
is not
making appeals
for your help. He does not have an unpaid debt
to mankind that can only be paid with your assistance.
God swore
by Himself
(Heb. 6:13), when He covenanted with Abraham
to bless “all
families of the earth” through his descendants (Gen.
12:3). God promised through Isaiah that “the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea” (Isa. 11:9).
God will accomplish His purposes, and He will
use men to reconcile the world unto Himself.
In fact,
He has
committed
unto us the
word of reconciliation (II Cor. 5:19)! However,
He is not dependent on me! His work will go
on without
me if
I fail
to answer His
call. His glorious Name WILL be exalted in
the earth, and I will be the one forever forfeiting
the wonderful
privilege
of being a co-worker with God. The salvation
of the souls of
men in this age waits on men and women like
us who not only say they believe the principles
of the Bible
but
who show
they believe.
-Matthew Kauffman
Messages referenced:
1. #3797: The Sin of
Doing Almost Nothing—Ross Ulrich
2. #3626:
God’s Unchanging Perfections—Denny Kenaston (Tape 7 of Set 147, The Divine Attributes of God)
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