5.7 BILLION

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature…” Mark 16:15 NKJV

Before we get into this article, I want you to close your eyes and think about all the faces you saw today – the people in shops and stores, on the street, in their homes and cars, moving about their daily lives.

Let me take you into a Starbucks coffeeshop! Here is the scene: there are the baristas, mostly young women, but one slight young man with pink hair whom I think wants to be a girl; the two girls in a corner, nose to nose in conversation; the Muslim guy with his scarfed wife and two adorable children; the old white guys glued to computer screens, and the beggar/hustler outside the door on a smartphone. Do you see them?

If today were the end of days, if ‘the postseason began today,’ like the sportscasters like to say, statistics tell us that eight to nine out of every ten people you saw today would go to Hell – eternal punishment, eternal damnation, lost forever. Let that sink in for a minute…

Let me show you the numbers!

Studies tell us that from Adam and Eve until about 1920, the world population grew to be about one billion. In ninety-nine years, the world population has grown from one billion living souls to about seven billion. Of that seven billion, about two billion claims to be Christian. Of that two billion, about six hundred million speak in tongues, so we know that they are born again.

Of the remaining 1.4 billion so-called Christians, if you say that half of those are truly born again – we are encountering many pastors in Uganda, one of the most conservative Christian countries in the world, who are not born again – I would say that you are very optimistic!

If you take half of the 1.4 billion so called Christians – .7 billion – and add them to the six hundred million who speak in tongues and definitely are born again, you come to 1.3 billion born again ones…

Many so-called Christians think that if they are a ‘good person’ according to their arbitrary standards, that they are going to go to Heaven. This is self-deception at its finest! I remember one scene from THE CROWN where Billy Graham is preaching to the Queen and her husband, and he says, “A Christian is someone with Christ in them…” (I’m like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about!!’). On the screen, Queen Elizabeth is glowing, eating up every word, while her husband, Prince Philip, is squirming and looking from side to side. Well done!

1.3 out of seven billion is 18.6% – less than two out of every ten, and that’s with the very generous assumption that half of the ‘unfilled’ Christians are really born-again ones. Do you perceive what I am trying to communicate? After twenty years of the prayer movement, and forty or more years of ‘mega-churches’ – by the way, how many small churches close for every megachurch that opens? Are we really superstar evangelists, or are we just good ‘sheep-shifters?’ – this is our situation.

And this situation is unacceptable!

For God so loved the world…John 3:16 NKJV

If we say that we are truly ‘pro-life,’ then we have to value EVERY life – the high and mighty, the low and dirty, the green haired goofies, the confused perverse ones, the foreigners, the strangers, and the ‘regular joes and janes’. If we love our neighbors, we have to take the time and help them make the most critical decision anyone can ever make.

If we believe the gospel, then we must preach the gospel, not just with our examples, but with our words. When we fail to even think about sharing the gospel, we are either distracted (blinded?), ignorant (asleep?) or showing contempt for our neighbors, or something far worse – showing contempt for the gospel.

Go into all the world…

We all are in some ways hesitant to share the truth with others, mainly because the truth is unbending, and must be submitted to, and the gospel offends the pride of men. We are all walking buckets of problems, but we have one major advantage, we have Christ in us, and He makes all the difference!

Check out Adam Wittenberg’s very practical principles of evangelism on our website at lightbearers-ministries.com or Hamilton Filmalter’s materials at activeintheharvest.com. Good stuff!

“The key to revival is the restoration of family.” Denny Cline

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matt 18:20 NKJV

If you are really concerned about reaching your neighbors, your friends and family, and even total strangers, and bringing them to Jesus, the simplest, most effective thing you can do is start a house church. House churches make the family of God come alive!

Consider what Rick Joyner wrote just this week about house churches…

      “… In 1989, Bob Weiner, John G. Elliott, and I were doing a radio program when The Lord downloaded on us that He was going to raise up half a million home group leaders in the U.S. that would be a net for the coming harvest. These would lead people to salvation and get them healed, delivered, and established on a strong biblical foundation. They would use the II Timothy 2:2 principle to raise up multitudes of laborers for the coming harvest. These would prepare for the coming harvest spiritually, like one might prepare for war in the natural. Just as we store up natural food, ammunition, and other resources, these would store up spiritual food—Bibles, Bible studies, books, and recorded messages to give to new believers.” Word for the Week, Morningstar Ministries

A note to our brick and mortar pastor friends – if you want to multiply your effectiveness, perhaps by one hundred times, commission and release all of your strong believers to start house churches. They can still come to your church on Sunday, but they also can start one hundred meetings all over the city during the week. Tell them to be creative and think about how to make it hard to go to Hell from your community. The key here is simple – don’t control them. DO YOU HEAR ME? Don’t make them preach your sermon notes or listen to your podcasts. Trust them, pray for them, and be there when they need a friend…and watch the Kingdom grow!

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Rom 14:12 NKJV

Dear one, this is a call to arms! 5.7 billion unsaved! I will not have to stand before my God some day and give an account of my life and have to explain why I sat home, checking social media and building my 401K, while 5.7 billion of my neighbors went to Hell. This is unacceptable!

As I preached on this subject this week at our Fire House Church Conference, at the end I asked every one there to seek the Lord, and ask concerning His will. And so, I turn to you, dear one. Can you close your eyes right now in worship, and ask Him, “What would You have me to do, Lord?”

We can help you. Call or text Carl and Gabi at +1 503-791-7091, or RM and I at +1 503-302-5381. Love you!

Remember dear one, we must be about our Father’s business…