A Reason a Day #11

You must be a soul winner because soul winning helps you to avoid a false balance.

A false balance is abomination to the Lord... (Proverbs 11:1)

I see an imbalance in the work of the Lord. A false balance is a terrible thing. The Bible calls an imbalance an abomination. Too much emphasis is placed on the already established church, to the neglect of a lost and dying world.

It is like ten people trying to lift up a heavy log. Nine of them are at one end of the log and only one person is at the other end. This is an imbalance.

Some statistics tell us that there are over one thousand groups (tribes and races) of people, who have never heard the Gospel even once. It is also said that 94% of ministers are preaching to 9% of the world's population.

What does this mean? It means that 6% of all ministers are struggling with the remaining 91% of the world's harvest! It is no wonder that religions like Islam are gaining grounds in large sections of the world.

How many anointed Charismatic pastors would opt to go to remote parts of a country? After visiting the north of Ghana, I realized that many people live in abject poverty. I realized how difficult it must have been for any missionary, Ghanaian or others, to live there!

Today, people are no longer willing to make great sacrifices for the expansion of the Gospel.

Dear friend, we need to remember that people laid down their lives for the establishment of the Church. I appreciate the Swiss, the German and Scottish missionaries who came to Ghana many years ago and established the Church. Many of them died of malaria. They would send back messages saying that all the missionaries sent were dead. The churches in Europe would respond by sending more missionaries.

Many missionaries died and others, such as Rev. F.A.  Ramseyer (1868-1869), were captured and taken to Kumasi by Ashanti invaders.

Many of these missionaries such as Johannes Christaller achieved remarkable milestone, such as Twi translation of the Bible, Twi Grammar, a collection of 3,600 Twi proverbs and Twi translations of Christian doctrinal works.

Johannes Zimmerman, founded the Basel Mission Schools at Osu and Abokobi (1854). He also made notable translations into the Ga language.

Remember, you must be a soul winner because soul winning helps you to avoid a false balance.

All of this means that, European men of God laid down their lives in Ghana for the establishment of the Church. They did it at a time when there were no airplanes, electricity, running water, cars, televisions and telephones. Even now, with many of these comforts readily available, people are not prepared to go on similar sacrificial missionary journeys.

These apostles came, knowing that their predecessors had died or had been captured and killed. You may curse the White man for the slave trade; however, there were some genuine apostles who brought the Gospel to us on Africa. They learnt our language! They translated the Bible for us! They lived and died amongst a strange people! All this for the love of Christ!

Where is the sacrificial love for the Gospel and for our Lord? I have a feeling that Heaven will reveal a host of unknown heroes. The people we hail today as great men of God may not be the ones to receive the laurels on "prize-giving day" in Heaven!

If we in our own country are not prepared to lay down our lives for this Gospel, the Church is not going to expand! It is time for us to send people out to remote towns and villages where Christ is not known. It is time for us to return to the days of true missionaries. It is time for pastors to decide whether they are called, or whether they are just looking for another job avenue.

I often wonder what people mean when they say they are called to the ministry. Many people take full-time ministry as an alternative source of employment. I am NOT in full-time ministry because I have no other job. I see it as a calling. I see it as something I have to do.

I can confidently say with Paul, 'Woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.' If I wanted to be rich, I would not be a minister.

It is time to get back to the primary call of the Church. It is time for us to make soul winning our main task.

Let us analyse the number of harvest fields and the number of workers we have. There is a great imbalance between the harvest fields and the labourers. It is time for us to look at maps and find out where the sinners are and go to them. It is time for the forgotten ones to hear. It is time for the poor ones to hear. It is time for the neglected ones to receive some light. It is time for people to graduate from the university and say, "I want to give the rest of my days to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to win the lost at any cost!"

#BringafteryourownKind