as of 2000 June 08

Viewpoint Bible Study #71
Where Should WE Work?

Where Should We Work for Jesus?

  In THE BLENDVILLE BEACON (newsletter from Blendville Christian Church in Joplin MO) for 8/11/97 is a devotional thought by the preacher there that I suspect you may find of interest. KYLE GARDNER wrote to report that he had recently read of an evangelist in Colombia whose work is intriguing.
   It's reported by David Howard, president of International World Evangelism Fellowship, that the Colombian evangelist VICTOR LANDERO had planted many churches in remote areas of the nation of Colombia. In traveling there, David Howard visited village after village where he learned that a church had been set up by this native evangelist, and was active.
   "It seems that Victor had been a farmer/brothel owner/polygamist before he met Christ. Then things changed. First, his family came to faith, then his village, and then surrounding villages -- all by his personal witness. But it didn't stop there. He began traveling by foot, horseback, and dugout canoe, evangelizing and planting churches. For 15 years he did this. Thousands in villages of Columbia were won to Christ."
   Years later when David Howard, in another visit, ran across Victor Landero, he was eager to learn what Victor was then doing -- whether Victor was still evangelizing and winning converts to the Lord. Victor reported that he had learned of an Indian tribe, the Choco, who lived along the Panamanian border. He felt he should take the gospel to them. They had not heard of Christ.
   "So he moved himself there to live with the tribe. He cleared an area and began farming. He began to learn the language, and to seek to gain the people's trust. These were a nomadic and "backward" people. The spread of a knowledge of Christ among them had been very slow. In 15 years, he had yet to make his first convert."
   David asked Victor how, in the face of those very discouraging facts, he was able to keep on trying there to win converts for Christ. Victor suggested that any person needs two things to continue in the face of discouragement -- he must have a sense of God's calling, and he must be obedient to that call.
   Kyle asks, "How long can a Christian continue in service without the satisfaction that success brings?" And his answer is, "Not long, unless he/she is convinced that the work being done is in answer to a true call from God. Every Christian needs an assignment. Then, by the grace of God, the Christian needs to obey the assignment that was given until God rescinds it."
   It is one thing to receive a call from God. We must always have our ears and eyes open asking God to tell us what he wants us to do. After that comes the obeying.
   "Instead of asking yourself whether or not you believe, ask yourself whether you have this day DONE one thing because God said, Do it, or once abstained from doing one thing because God said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in God, if you do not do anything he tells you" -- (George McDonald).
James says it another way, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. DO what it says."
Kyle adds, "May God bless our hearing."
   I put a title above this devotional thought which asked, "Where Should We Work for God?"
   Did Victor do well to tell his neighbors about the good news Victor had heard? Was it well that he kept on going telling others about Jesus? Was it GOD who called Victor to go to a people who after 15 years had not yielded ONE convert? This at the cost of no longer reaching dozens and hundreds who were listening and responding among those whose culture was already familiar to Victor.
   Where should YOU work for God? Some feel called to go far away from home. Others feel no such call. Each must respond by doing what the voice of God leads him or her to do. It may have been that God wanted the reaching of Victor's neighbors to cease. Likely the devil had that desire. So a call may have come from God in order to witness to the nomadic and backward tribe. Or it may have been a diversionary tactic that was inspired instead by the devil. I suspect we will not know surely whose voice called Victor to go the Choco tribe. Whose voice has called you to where YOU are working for God?

Brief Bible Study #71 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here.   Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 72. For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.