Enemies in Heaven Part 3

How important is it to God that His people be reconciled? If you take every verse in Scripture that tells you how to be saved, add every verse that tells you that you cannot lose your salvation, add every verse that tells you that you need to be baptized by immersion, and then add every verse that tells you that you need to read the Bible, all of this combined is shorter than the story of how Joseph got reconciled to his brothers.

Enemies in Heaven Part 2

Folks, I am amazed at how many people have written into different forums to say that Christians who live ungodly lives will arrive in Heaven equal to Christians who live Godly lives.

In Matthew 5:15-26, Jesus warns "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."

I have met fighting Christians who believe that God has authorized them to disobey the many commands to love one another, because it was so important that they harm another Christian. Jesus warns them to make peace with their adversary BEFORE the judge settles it. Christians who like to fight the saints could be very surprised when they learn their enemies' side of the story.

Our Enemies in Heaven

What happens when born-again Christians become enemies, and then they meet in Heaven? We are usually taught that they will become reconciled, but we are not taught how. Since God never changes, we can look at a Biblical story of how the Lord reconciled his hostile people, and it's not a pretty story.

A word of advice: it's better to obey God's commands to get reconciled NOW than it is to wait until God does it in Heaven.

Why Most Missionaries Fail Part 25

My college sent me as a missionary to Canton, Massachusetts, where I worked very hard and was blessed by God. But I didn't learn anything. That's because my college picked a church that believed and practiced exactly what my college believed and practiced. But in real life, Christian missionaries find themselves in situations they have not been trained for.

Different dress standards and music standards are only the beginning of the problems that occur when a missionary is on the field. Christians from different backgrounds have different attitudes and outlooks, and a missionary has to know how to deal with them. Unfortunately, colleges do not train their students to deal with different outlooks.

Separated Christians find themselves working with unsaved people in various ministries. People who donate large amounts of money have far too much authority in many ministries. Family members are often favored, leaders are often stressed-out, and some of the workers have no business at all being there.

A good, solid Bible college won't have those problems. Unfortunately, good solid Bible colleges can't give their students practical experience in dealing with them.

Why Most Missionaries Fail Part 24

We had a teacher in our Christian school whose father was a big shot in the church. She was able to rebel against our Godly principal and get away with it. She was in charge of children's church but it was a disaster, and she never volunteered to help. One day, she announced that God had called her to the mission field. She did not go soul-winning and would not obey authority, but she started raising financial support.

So the church started helping her fake her resume. We were ordered to attend a seminar she conducted on how to teach. Several of us, including me, were angered at being forced to waste our time listening to her. With help from the church, she assembled a phoney resume that was good enough to get her to the mission field. For over a quarter of a century, I have been receiving her newsletter, and she hasn't won a single soul to Christ yet.

I've learned since then that other missionaries did a lot better on their resumes than people who knew them would believe, and it is one more reason why most missionaries fail.

Why Most Missionaries Fail Part 23

Back when I was teaching Christian school, the pastor asked me to teach the adult Sunday School class, the most prestigious class in the church. God blessed, the class grew, and the pastor's son-in-law decided that he should have the class. He openly stated that he wanted people to think of him as a leader of adults; he wanted the status. He and the pastor agreed to replace me without telling the class in advance.

Okay, I played some dirty church politics. I told a few people, the class revolted, and I got to keep the class. It is unusual for the Christian with little ability to win in a situation like that, but I did. And the class continued to do well.

In those few instances I know of when a person with a little ability keeps the ministry God has given him, despite the efforts of someone who THINKS he has more ability, the ministry continues to succeed.

Why Most Missinaries Fail Part 22

Newly graduated from Bible college, I was approached by my new pastor. He explained that their children's church was running about 175 kids, mostly from their successful bus ministry, and would I agree to be in charge?

Over the next several months, several of us visited heavily on the bus routes, and the children's church grew to 300. Then I was suddenly called into the pastor's office, where his enraged wife demanded that she be put in charge. A hateful, untruthful woman, she was the stereotype bad pastor's wife, seizing all the pastoral authority for herself that she could. Galatians 5:18-21 makes clear that people like this have never been born again, but I didn't know that at the time. Although she was doing nothing at all to help the bus ministry or the children's church, she demanded that she replace me.

Three years later, she had the children's church down to 10 kids, and the bus ministry had folded. Other Christian school teachers told me of similar experiences, and they all had one thing in common: whenever a person who THINKS he has a lot of ability steals a ministry from a person without a lot of ability, that ministry declines.