A word from God’s Word: “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others], and so we never give up” (2 Corinthians 4:1, TLB).
July 2010
The Power to Change the World
Dear People Power for Jesus Partner,
It is true that many people working together, with God's help, can change the world. Throughout history God has always used a dedicated minority to start great works of God.
For over 40 years ACTS has been committed to the "Great Commission" of Christ who charged his followers "to go into all the world and preach [communicate] the gospel to everyone, everywhere." That commission is as valid today as it was when Jesus issued it 2,000 years ago.
Today, sadly however, "we the Church" don't seem to be having much of an impact on today's culture (at least here in the U.S.A.). Regarding the "spiritual condition" of the up-and-coming-generation, the June 2010 issue of The Legal Alert quotes from a report in USA Today giving the following statistics from a recent poll of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds:
65% of those polled rarely or never pray with others; 40% almost never pray by themselves either; 65% rarely or never attend worship services; 67% don't read the
Bible or other "sacred texts"; and 50% say Jesus is not the "only way to Heaven."
[Even among] the 50% who said Jesus is the only path to Heaven: 68% did not mention faith, religion, or spirituality when asked what was "really important in life"; 50% do not attend church at least weekly (7 in 10 people age 18-30
who went to church regularly in high school quit by age 23 and 34% of those polled had not returned by age 30); 36% rarely or never read the Bible; 40% say it is their responsibility to tell others about Jesus; and [only] 15% appear from the poll to be "deeply committed" in study, prayer, worship, and action.
These are tomorrow's leaders—the people who will be running the country in the not-too-distant future.
Without a great spiritual awakening, these upcoming leaders are not likely to stem the ever accelerating moral decline, and the ever increasing departure from the Judeo-Christian foundation on which the U.S.A. was founded. We urgently need a revival of the Spirit with a vigorous spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ—the only hope of our sin-sick world.
Let us each pray that God will use us to be available for Him to use to help usher in a great spiritual awakeing.
As another has said:
Either we evangelize or we will fossilize!
I passionately believe that it is the responsibility of every Christian church to communicate the gospel to every family in its area of responsibility, as well as to help share the gospel "in all the world to everyone, everywhere." If we the church—the people of God—don't do this, who will?
The advertising world, the Hollywood world, the political world, the electronic media world (the Internet, E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, I-phones, etc.. etc.), and the pornographic world never let up communicating their message to the world! Think of the millions of dollars these groups spend on "marketing" their product! They never give up … ever! But how much does today's church spend on communicating the gospel to every family in our local areas of responsibility?
The Apostle Paul said, "It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others], and so we never give up" (2 Cor. 4:1, TLB). Today, it is imperative that we Christians never give up either. Without the Savior our neighbors are lost—forever!
With today's communication tools it is incredibly simple for every sincere Christian to be involved in outreach ... working together as People Power for Jesus Partners we have the potential of sharing the gospel with many thousands of people every day. See below for helps on how to do this.
As a result of ACTS outreach via E-mail and the Internet, every day of the year we are seeing decisions for Christ. Please keep in mind, too, that Joy and myself are the only staff we have in our ACTS U.S. office—which shows the incredible potential that several thousand People Power for Jesus Partners working together can achieve with God's help. We now have 2,424 People Power for Jesus Partners who have joined this ministry opportunity.
Encouraging Report: To date this year ACTS has received 1688 salvation and re-commitment to Christ decision/responses from 92 countries. Daily Encounter currently has 338,000 worldwide subscribers who receive a message from God's Word every weekday of the year. This year we will be sending out 87+ million Daily Encounters. With Weekend Encounter, Prayer Encounter, and People Power for Jesus Partners ACTS now has over 350,000 e-mail subscribers.
God's people today have the greatest means of communication ever to spread the gospel worldwide.
Again, see below for helps to be an effective People Power for Jesus Partner.
Thank you again for standing with us as, together, we are having a vital part in what God is doing in the world today by reaching people worldwide with the saving gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Wishing you God's richest blessing,
Dick Innes
ACTS International
www.actsweb.org
www.actsweb.org/people_power
P.S. I am always encouraged by God’s word that says, "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will" (Ecclesiastes 4:6, TLB).
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