What Can I Do? - Part 1

by Dale Harcombe | More from this Blogger

25 Jun 2008 09:40 PM

So you and I may have never felt God's call to go overseas. That doesn't mean we can sit back and do nothing. Over the next couple of days I'm going to suggest ways you can help the spread of the gospel in other lands.

First and most important, pray for those who are involved in this strategic work. Nothing of lasting value will be accomplished in the world without prayer. Which means firstly we need to know of the specific needs of mission organizations. So you might want to sign up for a newsletter from one for the organizations like Wycliffe, Bible Society, CMS, etc.

One that came to my attention recently concerned the situation in Kazakhstan. At present there are plans to pass a law which would curtail the publishing and distribution of Bibles and other religious material. Religious material will only be allowed to be distributed if the person in Kazakhstan initiated the contact with missionaries.

How are they going to do that if they have not heard the gospel message? It's like those verses which say 'How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14.

So the first step needs to be getting the message out to those who need to hear it. To this end we need to be praying for the Lord to send workers willing to go into the harvest, Luke 10:2. Workers who will respond as the seventy disciples did and as Isaiah did, 'Here am I send me,' Isaiah 6:8.

When we hear about governments who seek to pass laws such as Kazakhstan is planning, we need to be concentrated in praying that God will act and overrule in this situation. As well as passing the law stopping bibles and religious material being handed out, Christians will be restricted as they try and find places to worship or to preach the gospel as they may be stopped from owning or renting public property.

Although initially this law may have been intended to counteract cults or terrorist groups, these proposed law changes will severely impact the spread of the Christian message. Obviously a law such as this would have severe impact on the spread of God's work.

So please pray that God will overrule in this situation. Otherwise many lives could be lost for all eternity. This is a strategic work that needs our concentrated prayer. To show you how important a ministry it is, in 2007 Christians from the Bible League distributed 353,040 Bibles or New Testaments in several countries of Asia.

We are so blessed in the USA and Australia to have the Bible freely available and be able to meet to read and study it. Will you do you part to ensure people in other countries have that same opportunity by praying that this work in Central Asia continues so that the Bible can continue to transform the lives of these people?

Bible verses from The new American Standard Version

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Learn more about Dale Harcombe

Dale has a passion for books and writing. She writes in various forms, from articles to poetry to fiction for children and adults.

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PDeverit (283) 28 Jun 2008 11:56 AM

One of the themes to a Christain social service / charity organization where I live is "Teaching by example". I agree with this theme as it was how Jesus of Nazareth taught. Not well recieved by the spiritual "fat cats" of his time who considered themselves "in the know", or by the general populace, his example of meek, quiet, gentle (sometimes invisible) service and love outlasted all of the campaigns that were mounted against it. Truth has a way of doing that. When the practice sometimes became perverted by the prominent corrupt (as it is bound to do in the hands of fallible humans), there were the quiet, meek- among them monks and nuns in monasteries- who continued in the spirit of the law. Charity never faileth

Dale Harcombe (10373) 28 Jun 2008 02:59 PM

Much of the Christian life is shown effectively by example. It speaks louder than words do. And we can only know what God requires of us if we are reading His Word.