Burden4Souls

It was with shock to see that the South African unit of Salvation Army is attending a sex exposition where porn, nudity and pre-marital sex are promoted. But don’t worry because Salvation Army is going there to promote “Christian understanding of sexuality”.

The Joburg Expo 2013 which is running between the 26^th and 28^th September 2013 is described as “the world’s largest event of its kind focusing on a broad spectrum of adult related topics and spectacular stage performances by local and international adult entertainers”. It features such “artists” as pole fitness actors, and they showcase and celebrate “award-winning adult film starts”. It is sponsored by amongst others Durex, a condom manufacturer, and California Exotic Novelty, a “Quality Adult Toys” manufacturer. This expo would also feature a competition for “Miss Nude 2013”.

Salvation Army says “If Jesus Christ was on earth today, he would be standing beside us at Sexpo”.  They continue by stating their intention: “We’re not going there to condemn anyone. We aren’t going to lecture people…We are going there to be available”. Apparently they are also hoping to raise awareness against sex slavery and human trafficking.

William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army, took the Gospel to the places where the mainstream church was not prepared to go. He took the Gospel to the most despised people of England at the time – people that mainstream church was not prepared to have in their membership. He said “Go straight for souls, and go for the worst”. Even Jesus Himself was eating with “sinners” – those people that the religious elite of the time didn’t want anything to associate with. When Jesus was questioned on why He associates with these “sinners”, He simply said “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”. This may look like Salvation Army SA is merely doing what their founder William Booth and Jesus did, by associating with prostitutes, strippers, porn film actors, pimps and all sorts of people that mainstream society frown upon. But we note huge difference between Jesus, Booth and the Salvation Army SA.

William Booth preached repentance and faith in Jesus Christ to all people. He didn’t excuse the behaviour of people, or suggest that sin should be condoned. He emphasised that sin should be repented from, and people did repent and walked in righteousness. The first message Jesus preached was that of repentance – repentance from sin. Then how is it that Salvation Army SA says they are not there to condemn or lecture? Jesus said those who don’t believe in Him are “condemned already”, so Christians have a duty to tell people that. The wages of sin is death (hell), as such how could any organisation claiming to be Christian not warn sinners that they face hell for their actions?

Sexpo is as pornographic as it gets, but then I guess people claiming to be Christian see nothing wrong with pornography anymore. They think it’s not sinful as long as you don’t act on it. Jesus warned against lust (se Matthew 5:28) and he equalled it to adultery/rape, and we know that the bible is clear that all “adulterers” will have their part in the lake of fire. You would think Salvation Army would preach that message, the same one that William Booth preached in the streets of England. How is Salvation Army SA even campaigning against sex slavery and human trafficking when they are not there to “lecture anyone”? Do they even understand that pimps are the biggest culprits of these acts?

It’s sad to see the work of William Booth be disgraced like this.

“do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord” (2 Timothy 1:8).

The reason why people don’t share their faith is because they are afraid of the shame that comes with it. As I witnessed in the train I was shamed once in front of many people and the train still had more than 10 minutes to go. I wanted to jump off the train so I can run away from the shame, then I remembered that Jesus was shamed a…s well in the presence of all of Jerusalem. I wanted to save this man from hell and instead he shamed me. My ego was bruised for a moment. But I’m glad I was shamed out of love for him and God. I wanted to tell this man of eternal life, yet he considered himself not worthy of it. He is the one who should be ashamed and he will be.

Let us be shamed for the love of brothers and sisters. Let us be considered idiots so we can save some from hell. Let us share in the suffering of Christ, so we can also share in his glory.

Every Christian is capable of doing the work of a missionary, and they should. God will never allow you to live in a place where mission work is unnecessary. We have misguided view that a missionary is a person who has to leave his home and go to a far place so he can evangelise those far-away heathens. But haven’t you realised that there are also heathens where you live who have never heard the Gospel, and deserve to hear it? When we read about Missionaries we get very impressed, but we fail to realise that they are going house-to-house evangelising and doing open-air preaching, just as we can do. The difference between them and us is that they have committed their lives to that place and those people until the work of God is done. We have a commitment problem! We are willing to do open-air preaching anywhere, but we don’t care if the work is done or not, just as long as we dispersed our responsibility to preach. Missionaries care if the heathens are saved or not, because they live amongst them. We preach and go back to our homes as though nothing has happened, that’s why we see no fruit in our labours, and we don’t care either way.

Commit yourself to a place. Commit yourself to a people. Commit yourself to preach to them until God shows them grace. Commit yourself to preaching to each and every one of them. Commit your prayers to them. Commit your life to ensuring their safety from hell. Die amongst them if need be. But by all means, don’t find your life uncommitted to a heathen.

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (Philemon 6).

A Christian who doesn’t share his faith is a baby Christian, if we can call him a Christian at all. He doesn’t know the good things that we have in Christ. He may read about the power of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin but he doesn’t know personally what that means. He might master the word of God but he has never seen the word of God at work. He may read about Christ’s sufferings but he has no idea what that is. He might have Paul as his favourite biblical figure but he has never walked in the shoes of Paul. He thinks he is pleasing to God because he has a Christian badge on him, yet he doesn’t know that God is pleased by a life sacrificed to Him.

Until you step out in faith and share that same faith, then you will forever remain a baby Christian, who thinks the boldest thing you can do is wear a Christian t-shirt, attend church or write a Christian status on your wall/timeline.

 There are two categories of jobs acceptable for a Christian: 1) a secular job. i.e doctor, lawyer, clerk, garden boy, maid, etc
2) full-time church-planting job.

People who have a theology degree/diploma and sit in their offices monday to friday reading books and chatting on facebook and only have two sermons on sunday to preach should not think that they fall in the second category. That is called idling, and Paul warns against it in the book of Thessalonians and Galatians. If you don’t have a secular job, then you better make sure that you preach at every chance that you get, and you should make sure that you create preaching chances almost every day, otherwise you are idling. We need to stop taking offerings that belong to the poor and give them to lazy people just because they are called Pastors/Reverend while people who plant churches are starving. If you have a secular job then you better work as though working for the Lord, otherwise you are idling.

Ask yourself one question: Do I have a secular job? If no, then go out and preach!

When has “go, stand, preach” (Acts 5:20), “go into all the world” (Mark 16:15), “stand in the courtyard and speak” (Jeremiah 26:2), “enter the house” (Matthew 10:11-15), turned into “log in and update your status”?

If “updating you status” counted as preaching the Gospel then all Mission groups should recall all their missionaries and give them iPads so they can update their statutes and win souls. If “updating you status” counted as preaching the Gospel then your unbelieving friends are preaching more than you do. Aren’t they posting bible verses in their walls/timelines?

Go out and preach the Gospel, and stop hiding behind “facebook ministry”.

Only lately have I realised that every Christian is called to plant churches. We should stop declaring ourselves evangelists who only preach but never disciples anyone. (I hate discipling by the way). Evangelising is Step 1, Step 2 is discipling, Step 3 is planting a church, Step 4 is equipping those in the church to start from Step 1 by themselves, including you.