|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
I reiterate that knowing the fact that, we too were once blinded by the devil in treading
his path consciously or unconsciously, should make us especially
sensitive/sympathetic/empathetic to our Nominal Christian friends or foes even when
they politely , sympathetically (since in their eyes, we are THE MISGUIDED ONES
suffering, instead of having a great time here in this world) ask us to shed our madness
of walking in the ‘straight & narrow path’, especially when there is an alternate,
broad & easy one of ‘moderation’ to walk in. Which Child of God has not had the experience
of standing up to this question? A case of devil following the policy ‘attack is the best
form of defence’…
Even though at this point also, it would be foolhardy* of us to declare that we have
completed the job of sizing up our Enemy/Fish in toto, however I think it is time for
attack/fishing.
*For all we in our finite minds would know, devil would still have several cards up his sleeve.
|
| |
Anyway, before we go any further it would be worthwhile to ‘Chew the cud’ just once more
& arrive at the cardinal points basing on which we would with God’s help array our
battle/fishing plans
- Sovereign God in His infinite wisdom has allowed the ‘evil one to plant
tares amongst the Choice seed’ & this is an undeniable fact of life.
- Our enemy is formidable & we are outnumbered but God is in our side
- Our Great Captain is looking unto us to fight the ‘Good fight’
(2 Timothy 4:7) & win
for Him those souls, are who are as near as the pews in our Churches or for that
matter may be even living in the same house as us. This follows that…
- Our Church itself & sometimes our own family , is a mission field or a pond for us to
fish in.
-
Though eradicating Nominalism would be impossible, we have to go ahead
encouraged by the fact ‘conversion of even one soul is a cause for celebration
in Heaven’ (Luke 15 : 7)
|
| |
III. NOMINALISM – WHAT CAN WE CHRISTIANS DO NOW ?
Never do the words of Jesus ‘ Without me, you can do nothing’
(John 15: 5) ring more true than when His servants plan to embark on a special mission for Him. So as we have already done let us once again prayerfully commit all our objectives/plans into His hands.
Likening this entire exercise to fishing (only that here the
hooked fish, instead of going into the oven, would have its name
registered in the ‘Book of life’, so getting hooked would be for
its own benefit) for our better comprehension, I am enlisting my
thoughts under the following subjects.
Firstly the
|
| |
- Place of Fishing :
Let us firstly define the scope/expanse of our work. Knowing God’s character of always honoring missions
with ‘ripple effect’ (Note: As per Jesus words in
Acts 1:8, Jerusalem an ideally located place for His
disciples was also the first chosen place for them to start their work in...a case of fishing in familiar
waters), I am of the opinion that it would be better, if we first concentrate on tackling‘Nominalism’ in the
Churches we worship. By initially focussing on our own places of worship we would forthwith have a
‘Operation minimize Nominalism’ going in full-swing in our Local churches, in no time. You would observe
that by doing so, we have met the basic, fundamental principle of fishing of ‘going where the fish are’,
as we straight-away find ourselves amidst shoals of them ...in familiar waters, to top it all!
- Methods of reaching out to the Nominal Christians:
Having defined the place of starting our work, let us now broadly freeze the methods of reaching out to the
Nominal Christians. Mind you, as we are into the business of ‘Fishing for men’,let us be very choosy
on selecting our fishing methods/baits
|
| |
- Pulpit preaching:
Having been saved by a message heard from the Pulpit
delivered by a Retired Engineer of PWD Dept namely
Mr.Rajarathnam, 23 years ago in St. Georges Church, Abids, I would never
undermine the efficacy of Pulpit ministry. By the way, so much for,
the theory ‘the Pulpit belongs to the ordained only...’
(I say this with full respects to the fellow ordained Bros/Sisters’
amidst us)
For one thing, Pulpit ministry directed as it is at the whole Church, at once meets the other
Fishing need/principle ‘of spreading the net wide’. Remember Peter
addressing thousands of Jews on the day of Pentecost(Acts 2). He ended up
‘hooking’ nearly 3000 fish.
Those of us who are not into ‘pulpit preaching’ at present but are holding some decision-making
post in our Church can definitely facilitate the process of our Churches listening to Life
changing sermons, by inviting ‘Preachers on Fire for God’* to their Churches for Pulpit preaching.
As regards those who are already into Pulpit ministry, in their own Churches or elsewhere, I have
only 3 things’ to share (after having been in nearly 17 years of Pulpit Ministry myself) aimed at
achieving our goal of minimizing Nominalism...through Pulpit Ministry
a) ‘Live in close communion with God’(I am stating the obvious here) without letting
anything come in between you & Him since any sermon, however well-packaged or communicated,
even emanating from a ‘famous preacher’ would fall flat on its face unless it is interlaced by
God’s power, which would be the case, only when the Preacher is ‘living in close communion with
Him’.
b) Remember that there are more nominal Christians in the pews than the real
ones. But often, at the beginning of my Ministry on conducting a post-mortem of
the sermons, I would discover that I had spoken as though the pews were filled
with ‘Born again Christians’ only . For instance speaking on the ‘Power of God’(David versus Goliath story), I ended once saying ‘Friends, there is no need to
fear when problems come, as our God is Powerful’ when I should have added
'And those of you, who have never experienced His Power, would you also like to
have His Great Power within your reach by entering into a living relationship with
Him?’
There had been only exhortation of the saved ones but no baiting of the
unsaved lot!
c) Emphasize on the unsaved ones taking the life changing decision, then & there.
For even the next hour for some, may be too late...
|
| |
| |
Back
Cont......
|
|
|
|
|
