Week of June 28, 2009

  • Pastor Duane Cross
  • Jun 29, 2009

MAKE ME A CRISIS

I would like to share with you an article by Gary Poole (author of Tough Questions) on Evangelism.

            I’ve always been passionate about reaching out to the spiritually unconvinced. Even as a child, I somehow realized that lost people really matter. And I eventually discovered that nothing quite compares with the joy of cheering on seekers as they take steps in their spiritual journey toward Jesus.

As a kid, I loved sitting on the floor with my dad and watching the Billy Graham telecasts. Billy always preached with such simplicity and authority, imploring people to get reconciled with God. On occasion, he also spoke of the incredible responsibility and privilege we as Christians have to reach out with the gospel.

I distinctly recall one illustration Billy Graham gave about Jim Elliot, a missionary to the Waodani Indians in the jungles of South America. Graham’s words rang with passion: “Jim Elliot, martyred at twenty-three, wrote this prayer at the age of twenty-one:

 ‘Lord, make me a crisis man. Let me not be a milepost on a single road, but make me a fork that people must turn one way or another in facing Christ in me.’ A crisis man – isn’t that a tremendous thought – that when people greet you, they are facing with making a decision one way or the other concerning Christ in you? Jim Elliot was such a man!” Lord, make me a crisis man. When I heard those words, I knew I wanted to be such a man, a caring and compassionate fork in the road for Jesus Christ.

 Since that time, I’ve devoted myself tocultivating genuine friendships and initiating authentic conversations with people in an attempt to convey the compelling message of the gospel. I’ve tried to present the truths of the Bible with boldness, clarity and urgency, while at the same time, offering unconditional acceptance. Who is my motivation? Jesus.

 The ultimate friend of sinners, Jesus’ priority was reaching out to others. He saw people from a spiritual perspective, as lost and downcast and distressed. His heart broke for them. Jesus ate with the “sinners,” the very people the religious leaders considered outcasts: society rejects. And Jesus loved them.

Do we view lost people the same way? Do we see them as sheep without a shepherd who really matter to God? Do our hearts break with compassion when the spiritually unconvinced cross our paths?

The kind of attitude toward seekers changes everything. It transforms our whole perspective about how we interact with them, how we treat them, and how much we value their friendship.

It would serve us well to regularly ask God to recalibrate our hearts and minds so we’re aligned with His priorities. We might even pray, “Lord give me a renewed passion for the lost. Give me new eyes to see them as You do. Give me a heart that breaks when I encounter people who are far from you. Lord, make me a crisis man. Let me not be a milepost on a single road, but make me a fork that people must turn one way or another in facing Christ in me.”

May we be a people who care deeply about the lost – “crisis people” – to the glory of God.

Pastor Duane

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