ON BECOMING MULTIPLIERS
Suggested Reading: Acts 5-6
(click scripture link to read online)
Saint Stephen's Gate on the north east side of the Old City walls of Jerusalem.
Key Verse: Acts 5:41, 6:7
So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name…Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
“Believers were increasingly added” (5:14). “You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine” (5:28). “The number of disciples was multiplying” (6:1). “The disciples multiplied greatly” (6:7). Here is a theme repeated over and over. This is the way God intends His Church to grow. We should ask ourselves the question, “Are we seeing growth in our Churches?” Here we find the growth came because new believers were added. There are many local churches, but only one Church. Transferring believers from one congregation to another does not constitute growth for the whole Church. The gate pictured above is the traditional site where Stephen was stoned to death. We can expect strong opposition when large numbers are being converted to Christ. We may want to take our spiritual temperature if we are content to remain as a handful of believers who just bless each other in a local church. We may be almost dead and not know it.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, please grant me the great privilege of bringing new people to You today. May I never be content with just maintaining the numbers of believers as it is presently. Show me in a heart-wrenching way that people are lost eternally without You. Give me a passion to win souls to Yourself and to eternal life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
As a teen, I read “Passion for Souls,” a book by Oswald J. Smith. I was never content after that to lavish the blessings of Christ on myself, forgetting about lost people. I felt that I was a most selfish person if I would keep the Good News of Jesus and eternal life to myself. Sharing Christ became an absolute essential. If that was not happening in my personal contacts and eventually in the churches I pastored, I became desperate in my prayers, arising earlier and earlier in the mornings to pray. I knew that I could not do this on my own, and that the power of God came upon me directly in proportion to the way I prayed in my private times with God. If you should ever read the biographical sketch of David Mainse on the internet, please read between the lines and know that everything of eternal value that may be there has been born and has thrived out of a “passion for souls.”
Yours to help us become believers like those in today’s reading,
David
“… the poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty, it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also a poverty of spirituality”.
– Mother Teresa
I quote Mother Teresa because I think she is quite right. There is a poverty of sorts in the west. Christianity has become by an large a spectator sport, we have taken our eyes and passion off of our first love and have become self-absorbed. This is nothing new really, we read about it in Revelations. However, we may need to, as David said “…take our spiritual temperature if we are content to remain as a handful of believers who just bless each other in a local church. We may be almost dead and not know it.”
There you go David, a first! You’ve been quoted in the same blog right along with Mother Teresa!
David, your private prayer time and early morning discipline are certainly reflected in your passion to share the good news about a relationship with Christ and eternal life. Your spirituality eclipses your physical challenges and sets an example by which we too can find life and meaning in Christ, to share with others.
We gravitate to the church because of our deep love for and passion to worship Jesus. As David Mainse has expressed, It has to go deeper than that. It is not what we get out of going to church that will make it, and, subsequently ourselves, grow. We have to see ourselves as the disciples did–“rejoicing that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Then, the numbers in churches and faith in Jesus will rise.
Heavenly Father, I pray that we all find that true passion for Prayer, Worship & Souls
In Jesus name….A Men
I wish as christians that we can all have the same courage, drive, trust, faith and yearning to follow the disciples and Jesus footsteps until the end. Blessings, prayers and love to you David. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Good morning David
I would like take a moment of my time to thank you ever so much
for your blog each morning . I look forward to each & every one of your
daily readings ,& the prayer time ,I do very much believe in prayer,
With your 100 word message I admire your constant desire to get the word of ,Trust ,Faith ,Love out there for the Lord .
Blessings to you & Norma Jean in your faithfull service in Christ .
Wishing you & Norma Jean & your family a Merry Christmas !