The Task -- All Nations

The following post is from Baptist Press.

WORLDVIEW: 6.5 billion people: Each one needs to hear
Mar 9, 2006
By Erich Bridges
Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--It came and went quietly, but the human race just passed a significant milestone: On Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the world’s population reached 6.5 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It happened less than seven years after the number of people worldwide reached 6 billion. That total, in turn, was reached only 12 years after the 5-billion mark was surpassed. The new count of 6.5 billion is more than twice the size of the population in 1960 -- and four times the number of humans alive at the beginning of the 20th century. Global population is not speeding toward the huge, unsustainable masses some demographic doomsayers have long predicted. But it continues to grow. The 7-billion mark will be reached in 2012, according to forecasters. More than 9 billion people will walk the earth by 2050, they estimate, before the global total begins to level off.A few trends and specifics: -- On average, 4.4 babies are born each second.-- Most population growth continues in the nations of the global South and East. “Virtually all of world population growth now takes place in developing countries,” reports Carl Haub, senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau. “Europe now has more deaths than births each year.... The few developed countries that still have more births than deaths -- such as the United States –- owe much of their growth to immigration from developing countries.”-- The poorest countries continue to have the highest birthrates. Women average five or more children in countries where per capita annual income is $1,000. In contrast, mothers bear an average of two or fewer children in nations where per capita income tops $12,000.These numbers have many social and political implications. In the spiritual realm, however, the most urgent message for Great Commission-minded Christians is this: Our evangelization task is unfinished. Mission researchers tell us that, at most, one in every 10 people on earth is a born-again follower of Christ.The regions of greatest population growth -- and, often, greatest physical poverty -– also tend to be the regions with the greatest concentrations of spiritual lostness. Case study: West Africa, a major focus of Southern Baptist missions this year. Malaria, AIDS and other diseases are widespread there. Life expectancy is under 50 years. Malnutrition is high; literacy is low. Half of West Africans live on less than a dollar a day. More than 350 of West Africa’s 1,612 people groups have no access to the Gospel. Half of the region’s entire population of 287 million is unreached (less than 2 percent evangelical). The Wolof people of Senegal and Gambia, for example, number nearly 4.7 million -- with fewer than 100 evangelical believers. The 30.3 million Hausa people, the region’s largest unreached group, are less than 1 percent Christian. International Mission Board missionaries currently work among only 52 West African people groups. South Asia is home to 1.45 billion people. That includes the more than 1 billion people of India, a nation that will overtake China as the world’s most populous if growth trends continue. In all of South Asia, evangelical Christian believers comprise less than 2 percent of the population. In recent years Southern Baptists and other Great Commission groups have made enormous progress in engaging (assigning missionaries, plans and resources to reach) all the world’s unreached megapeoples –- those with more than 1 million members. Now they are focusing on engaging the hundreds of untouched groups with populations between 100,000 and 1 million. “But ‘engaged’ doesn’t mean ‘evangelized,’” stresses International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin. “Our goal is for every person to hear the Gospel. How can they respond unless they have heard?”The church has many God-given ministries, but giving the lost the opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus remains our top priority. According to Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, the way to accomplish it is very specific: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (peoples), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I commanded you....”“We have had a tendency to dilute the Great Commission to mean whatever we do in missions, evangelism and ministry,” Rankin observes. “(But) in the Greek language, ‘make disciples’ is one word; it is an imperative verb and the object is ‘all peoples.’ “God’s heart and mission is that all peoples know Him. Our mission can be no less.”In a lost and chaotic world of 6.5 billion, we need the clarity of God’s mission more than ever.--30--Erich Bridges is senior writer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

1 Samuel 13: The Anatomy of Sin

What follows is a rough outline sketch of the message I presented Sunday evening, February 19. I am indebted to the good (but not great) commentary, 1, 2 Samuel (NIV Application Commentary) by Bill Arnold. I know some guys who love this series, and some even say they take it straight to the pulpit. I just don't think it is that good -- frankly I don't think any commentary should be a substitute for a pastor preparing his own messages for his own flock each Lord's day. However, I consult commentaries because I don't know it all, and neither do the guys writing the commentaries, but together we are in a conversation about the text, sharpening the point toward truth in exegesis (what the text says) and hermeneutics (what the text means), and then in homiletics (what we preach about the text). In this case, the commentary helped me develop the outline of the passage.


1 Samuel 13: The Anatomy of Sin

I don't know many Christians who would wake up in the morning and say, "I really hope I sin today." But I don't know many who lie down at night and say, "Thankfully, I didn't sin today." We don't want to sin (I trust), but we often do. How does this happen? Let's learn from Saul's errors here and try to recongize these patterns in our own lives as well.

I. Fixation on the moment at hand (vv5-8)
* Failure to remember lessons and testimonies from the past.
* Failure to consider consequences for the future (see vv 13-14)

II. Execution of Partial Obedience (vv 8-9)
* The timing of the matter is only part of the equation.
* Acceptance of the boundaries of one's position, responsibilities, and authority is another.
* Saul may be kind, but he is not the Supreme Authority. God is. And Saul is answerable to God and His prophet/priest. Saul's attitude demonstrates a pride that refuses to accept his limited authority and the authority of another over him.

III. Rejection of responsibility (vv 10-12)
* The blame game (just like Adam and Eve)
* Making sin small. Anytime we do this, we are in great danger. To minimize sin is to minimize the cross, which is blasphemous at best, completely and absolutely anti-Christ at worst. We should recognize and accept the magnitude of our sins so that we can fully experience the magnitude of God's grace. John Wesley said, "There is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against. In general, what to us seems a small offense, to him who knows the heart may appear a heinous crime."

There are many parallels between this story and the story of the Fall in Genesis 3. We see the same patterns there and in our own sins as well. Saul was right where God wanted him to be -- he was anointed, Spirit-filled, empowered by God for the task at hand. But all it takes is a moment of ceasing to trust and obey for a downfall to occur -- in Saul's life, in my life, in your life.

Psalm 67: Let the Nations Be Glad

What follows is my Sunday Morning message from 3/5/06. We commissioned some of our church members for a long term missionary assignment. They are traveling to a secure area, so I have replaced their names with *** and the name of the country to which they are traveling with @@@.

Psalm 67

Let the Nations Be Glad!

Today is a great day in the life of Immanuel Baptist Church. Today we commission two of our own, *** as they respond in obedience to the call of God to be missionaries in @@@. This is not just something that *** are doing. This is something Immanuel is doing. If we take seriously the covenant relationship that church membership is supposed to be, then we realize that we are all members of one body. It is as if Immanuel Baptist Church is reaching out to touch ***, and *** are the fingertips, and we who provide for them financially, who pray for them, who encourage them and commission them here today are the hand, the arm, and the rest of the body that they remain inseparably connected with as they go. So, it is important for us today to join together for the purpose of commissioning them, and consecrating ourselves to support them with our prayers, our encouragement, and in any other way that God may lead us. I want to challenge us for a few moments from Psalm 67.

& Psalms 67:1 (NASB) ¹ God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah .

This is the way we like to pray. We like to stretch our hands out toward heaven and ask God to do something for us. And there is nothing wrong with that. The psalmist does it here. We can insert our name, or the name of our loved ones, right into the text where it says “us.” I can pray, “Lord, be gracious to me and bless me, and let your face shine on me.” I can pray, “Lord, be gracious to Donia and bless her, and shine your face on her.” We can insert “America” in that blank, or even the name of our church. Let’s try that. Let’s just read the first verse aloud together and substitute “Immanuel” for “us.”

God, be gracious to Immanuel, and bless Immanuel, and cause His face to shine upon Immanuel.”

Now, the Psalmist says Selah. This is a word that is employed periodically in the psalms as if to say, “Pause and reflect for a moment.” If we think about it for a moment, we might wonder, “Why should God answer this prayer? Why should He show us more grace, and bless us even more than He already has? We already have an infinitely unpayable debt of gratitude toward Him. Isn’t it selfish of us to ask for more? Why should He answer this prayer? The Psalmist tells us in the next verse.

& Psalms 67:2 (NASB) ² That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.

The most important word here is that. God shows us grace and blesses us, and shines on us so that through us, He might bless the world. That is what He promised Abraham in Genesis 12.

& Gen 12:2-3 (NASB): ² And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; ³ And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

God had promised to do all this for Abraham so that through Abraham, all the families, that is not the Jews only but all nations would be blessed. This is how God has worked throughout human history, and it is the basis of the Great Commission. If you have been blessed by God, it is not so that you can sit around pondering how good it feels to be blessed. He blessed you so that blessing might flow through you to someone else. And throughout the Scriptures, what becomes apparent is that God has a heart to bless all nations.

So many of us grow up in church and Sunday School, and yet still miss this point. God did not pick Israel and bless Israel because he loved them only, or because they were his pets or his favorites. And God’s blessing was not limited to Israel in the Old Testament. Walt Kaiser explains in his book Mission in the Old Testament, “Instead, God’s mode of dealing with Israel was to communicate to them a message that they in turn were responsible for disseminating to all the peoples of the earth.”[1]

When the Bible speaks of nations as it does here in Psalm 67, the reference is not to geopolitical states, lines on a map like we think of when we say the word. We use the word nation to refer to the United States, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China, etc. The biblical word nation refers to people groups – that is, groups of people bound together by ethnic and cultural similarities. The precise definition of the term “people group” was formulated at the Lausanne Conference in 1982:

A significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc. or combinations of these. … It is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.

Now, the numbers vary, but the figures our mission board uses tell us that there are approximately 12,000 of these people groups in the world today. Let me illustrate with an example we can all relate to: We think of Nigeria as one nation on a map in West Africa. And think about the wonderful Nigerian Christians in our church family. But do you know that these individuals represent three different people groups in Nigeria? And these are only three people groups of more than 450 who live in Nigeria. We may think of China as one nation, but speaking in biblical terms, China is home to nearly 500 people groups. And though these people may live side by side, they are separated by a great gulf of cultural differences that make reaching them for Christ very difficult. Many times they are divided from one another by cultural prejudices and long histories of bitter rivalry. But, God loves each one of these people groups, and desires to bring them together as one people under the banner of Jesus Christ. This is the picture that we see in Revelation 5:9, where John records what he saw and heard in heaven as a song went up before the Lord:

"Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

So, if you have a problem on earth accepting people of another culture, then you will be miserable in heaven, because we will all be one there. And the Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a foretaste of that – coming together as one to worship our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ.

God loves all people from every nation. God made them all in His image, the Bible says, “from one blood.” Christ died to redeem them all. And God desires that every nation learn of Him. He longs for them to be saved. He desires praise from all people of the earth, His praise being lifted in every language under heaven. And when we understand this, it changes the way we pray. No longer is the focus on us, and the blessings we want. The focus is on God. “God, be gracious to us, and bless us, and let your face shine on us, so that Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.”

Look at the next verses (vv3-4) of Psalm 67:

& ³ Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. ⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!”

The focus is now on God receiving the worship He deserves from all the peoples of the earth. Worship is the fuel and goal of missions. Missions begins as God’s people worship Him and draw close to Him, understanding His heart for all nations. And that kind of worship fuels missions. But worship is also the goal of missions. Missions exists because worship does not. Obedience to the Great Commission will only motivate us in a laborious sense. Love for the lost will motivate us only temporarily. But when our consuming passion becomes the desire to see God’s glory displayed and magnified in all the earth, nothing will stop us advancing His cause to the ends of the earth.

How would our lives be different, how would our church be different, if our consuming passion was to add worshipers to the Kingdom of God? If our primary desire when we got out of bed every morning was, “O God, through my life today, bring someone new to worship You!” And if that desire was universal in scope – God use my life to bring You a new worshiper today from some other part of the world – “Let all the peoples praise You O God!”

So there is a top line – God blesses us. And there is a bottom line – see verse 7:

God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him. This is not necessarily the terror or dread of the Lord, but rather the whole faith and trust of people placed in God. Now surely, there is much to dread if we refuse to surrender to Him. But there is a fear of God that is a joyous relief, when we transfer all of our trust over to Him and allow our lives to be consumed by His glory. That is our goal. That is why we want God to bless us – so that through us, someone else might come to know Him.

God has blessed us. And because He has blessed us so richly and so abundantly, we have an obligation on this bottom line. We owe our testimony to the rest of the world. We must be willing to use our lives to bring glory to God by bringing the peoples of the world to Jesus. There are multitudes in America who need to hear the gospel. Someone will say to me, “Why should we be that concerned about Africa and Asia when there are people who are lost here?” And my answer to that is this: Please tell me about the last five people you shared Christ with and what you are doing on a regular basis to reach the lost here? If you cannot answer that question, then please do not criticize someone else who is willing to go across the ocean, when you will not go across the street for Christ.

But it is legitimate to ask that question. What about the multitudes of lost in America. We must be concerned about them. Thank God that the American church has been so abundantly blessed that we are able to present a testimony to them, if we only will. We can easily share our testimony on a given day with dozens of people. On my shelves alone I have over 30 different English translations of the Bible. There are more churches in every American town than you can count. There are Christian bookstores and publishing companies, and TV channels and radio stations and internet sites, books, tracts, tapes, videos, software, ad infinitum available to reach every person in America with the gospel. We have Christian music available to suit every preference from bluegrass to heavy metal and opera to gangster rap. But America is a unique place in the world. We need to understand that God has blessed the Church in America in such a tremendous way so that the ends of the earth may fear Him.

The burden of my heart is the issue of access to the gospel. While we have this abundant Christian presence and witness in America, most of the world spirals toward hell with no testimony of the truth of God. Of the worlds nearly 7 Billion people, approximately 600 million are what we would call “Born-Again believers in Christ.” Nearly 1.4 Billion are “cultural Christians,” meaning that they have been influenced by Christianity and may claim to be Christians, but they are not personally committed to Christ as Lord and Savior. 2.6 Billion people are unsaved in areas where they can hear and learn the gospel. But another 25% of the global population, 1.6 BILLION people are lost in areas of the world where they have NO ACCESS to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in what we call the 10/40 Window. That is where most of these folks are who have no access. It begins in West Africa, and stretches to the Far East. This region is dominated by Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Tribal Religions that militantly oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let me illustrate the bleak picture of the state of the gospel in the 10/40 Window with an example from China. What if you knew that every year, the entire population of New York City would die and perish eternally in hell? Well, in fact, that is the case in China. Every year in China, 7.5 million people die without Christ. In China today there are 1.2 Billion people who have never heard the gospel. And that number is growing. Every year, more people are born in China than the entire population of Texas. Of the nearly 500 people groups in China, less than 70 of them have a population of evangelical Christians numbering more than 2%.

One of the major problems in China today is governmental opposition. While there are legal churches which the government monitors closely, the gospel is spreading most effectively through the underground house church movement. Approximately 90% of China’s Christians are involved in this movement. And the Communist government is actively working to stamp out these churches in China. Just four days ago, March 1, 2006, in Huaibei City in Anhui Province, China’s Public Security Bureau stormed a house-church Bible school. They arrested 36 Christians and seized 10,000 copies of Christian literature. One who escaped called a hotline for assistance, but was told by a government official that this raid was a cooperative crackdown on illegal religious activities, orchestrated by China’s provincial leaders. While the Chinese government has continued to convince American and UN leaders that they are working to protect human rights, the evidence suggests that religious freedom is deteriorating. Christians continue to be arrested, beaten, and put to death in China for the cause of Christ.

*** are going to serve as missionaries in @@@. I assure you it is a difficult place to labor for the gospel. Everything we have described about China could be said just as well about @@@. You say, “But it is not safe.” My friends, the events of September 11, 2001 should have taught us that there are no safe places. But the safest place to be is where God calls you. And this is where God has called them. He has not promised them safety. He has not promised them success. But He has promised them that if they will go, He will use them for His glory in @@@. You need to know that they will need your prayers like never before over the next two and a half months. And I am calling you today to faithfulness in that task. I am also calling you to discretion in how you share what they are doing with others. The work they will be doing is very sensitive and strategic for the cause of Christ, and we need to be mindful that our loose lips and lack of discretion in email and other correspondence may compromise their safety and their ministry. I trust you will be wise about that.

This dear couple has volunteered to go! Some of you have responded to God’s call to give, and others of you will want to give more toward their expenses of this mission opportunity. Many of you will be the mighty prayer warriors who will fight for them on your knees. But today every one of us has a biblical obligation to surround them with support as we commission them and commit them into the Lord’s hands. Through our prayers, our giving, and our encouragement, we are partners with ***. And while they are gone, we must pray for them in every gathering, and daily in our private prayer time. Right now I want to ask them to come and share with us briefly what they can about their opportunity and anything else God has laid on their hearts, and then we shall gather around them to pray for them.

---

[1] Walter C. Kaiser, Mission in the Old Testament, 32.

Instructions for Commenting on Blogs (for the especially dense)

Hello readers in the blogosphere. I received the following request from a certain U.S. Marine who was trying to post some inane comments on my blog: "I tried to get on your blog again. It won't let me get to the place where I can write. I click on the "comments" button at the bottom. Is that right? What is the right way for me to get to the page where I can view entries, and add my own? Walk me through it step by step since I obviously can't figure it out on my own."

In response to his request, I sent the following directive. You must bear in mind that the Marine in question is a dear friend, and we exchange sarcastic jabs on a daily basis in email. Here is the "step by step" directive I sent him:

Accessing and Commenting on Internet Weblogs, often referred to as "Blogs"

1. At the back side or your computer (the side with vents and fans and various recepticles), locate an object that looks similar to a tail. This is the electric plug. Insert it carefully into an active 110 power outlet. If it is hard to insert, do not force, but turn the plug upside down and try again.

2. Locate the button or switch which turns the computer on ("turn on" here is used in its literal sense, not in some euphamistic way). Engage that button or switch.

3. Follow all prompts and sign-on screens until you are able to see what is called "the desktop." This is a figurative term. It does not refer to the top of your desk, but the "lauchpad" for your programs. Usually there will be a picture in the background and little pictures (called icons) which represent the various programs you may use.

4. Ensure that your computer is hooked up to the internet. If you are uncertain how to determine this, you may want to contact IT. (That is short for Information Technology, not a reference to Cousin IT from Addams Family).

5. Once you are certain that you are connected to the Internet, open your internet "Browser." (There was once a singer in Sha-Na-Na called Bowzer, but this is a Browser, notice the lowercase "r" in the word's second position). Some popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, et al. (that is a Latin abbreviation for "and others").

6. Once your browser is open, locate the "address bar." This is not a "bar" like where people drink alcoholic beverages, but it is a line across the page (usually at the top) where you can type in the address of the internet page you are tyring to access. Once you locate that bar, place your "cursor" (not a person who uses foul language [though these are often found in bars as well], but a blinking vertical line that indicates where you will type) in that bar. You do this by moving your mouse to the address bar, and clicking the left mouse button (if you are right handed, this is the button beneath your index finger on the mouse. If you are left handed it will be beneath your "middle finger"-- the one you use when expressing your frustration with others). WARNING: It is assumed that the user is aware that the "mouse" is not a real animal, living or dead, but is a figurative name given to the small, palm-sized device that is used for moving the "arrow" around on the screen. If using a laptop, blackberry, PDA or Web-enabled mobile phone (or other electronic device), you may have to read the instructions for that device to learn how to move the cursor around.

7. Once you have placed the cursor in the address bar, begin to type the internet address. Your browser may already contain the beginning characters: http://

If those characters are not present, type them in this order: http://

Then type the address of the site you are looking for: www.marines.com; www.nickjr.com; or www.aljazeera.net

If you desire to view and comment on internet weblogs, commonly called "blogs", access a blog like the one found at http://russreaves.blogspot.com.

After entering the "address" of the internet site, press enter or click "go".

8. Once the site "loads" (STAND DOWN AND DO NOT BE ALARMED: it is not loading a weapon, it is loading information onto the screen of your computer), "browse" the information on that page.

If you desire to comment on a blog after reading it, scroll (either by moving your mouse or using your arrow down key on the keyboard) down to the end of the article on which you wish to comment. Click the word "comments" with the left button on the mouse.

The next page that you see will have a large white square on the right hand side of the screen labeled, "leave your comment." Type your comment in that square, identify yourself (it is a violation of national security and the renewed patriot act to select "Anonymous"), and type in the characters in the "security image." This is to ensure that no al-Qaeda operatives are invading American cyberspace. WARNING: these characters are intentionally obscured. Your eyes might be funny or you may be drunk, but even if that were not true, these letters and numbers would still look funny. However, you should type the letters on your keyboard that most closely resemble the obscured characters on the screen. If necessary, decoder rings may be found in select boxes of Cracker Jacks. Odds of winning are 1 in 5,000. No purchase necessary.

After entering all the above information click the bright blue box labeled, "Publish Your Comment."

Then you are finished wth commenting on the blog.

If any of these instructions do not work, please contact IT. Again this is not Cousin IT, but the Information Technology department.

Bookblog: The Gospel Blimp and Other Modern Parables

Looking for a lightweight read to rest my mind over recent days, I picked up The Gospel Blimp and Other Modern Parables by Joseph Bayly. Being one not given to idle thinking, I also thought that this might help me to creatively think God's thoughts after Him as I endeavor to teach seven students at Winston-Salem Bible College in the subject of evangelism. Now, having completed the book I confess to having laughed and cried (sometimes without even turning a page), and having misjudged this book by its whimsical cover -- it is no lightweight read. I had heard about The Gospel Blimp at times before, but I was unfamiliar with its author, the late Joseph Bayly. I was not one of the "thousands of people" who "for over twenty years ... looked forward to his monthly column in Eternity magazine" (back cover). Although I have used some of the fine material published by the David C. Cook company, I did not know that Joseph Bayly had been president of that company before he died.

A little less than half of the book is devoted to its title story, "The Gospel Blimp." This story is humorous, painful, convicting and compelling as it chronicles the adventures of a group of well-intentioned but misguided believers who desire to reach their neighbors for Christ. Rather than being personal witnesses to them, they devise the plan for The Gospel Blimp, a flying billboard which spells out the gospel, announced the saving message through loudspeakers, and blankets the city with tracts dropped from the blimp's lofty heights. And thus begins the misadventures of the IGBI -- International Gospel Blimps, Inc. Without giving too much of the story away, let me just say that their capers strike closely to the nerve of evangelicalism's big business parachurch ministries. And it is not without the scandals that often accompany these ventures. In the end, there is fragmentation at the leadership level, which ends up being the best thing that can happen in the reaching of the lost in that city. This story is an encouragement to us to not look for bigger and better ways to do it, but to just be faithful to the simple personal sharing of the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ with our friends, our neighbors, and the strangers brought into our lives by the providence of God.

Not all of the "modern parables" are of equal quality, though I would have missed a blessing by putting the book down after the saga of the blimp. The story of Gooley is one of the most creative and refreshing stories I have read in a long time. Gooley is a young man who learned to fly. Not in an airplane, not with some apparatus -- the guy actually learned to just fly. It soon becomes apparent that this is Bayly's parallel to being saved. But rather than teaching fellow students at his secular university the secrets of his flight, Gooley transferred to an "All Flyers School," where the student body had become bored with flying and some had even begun to doubt the authority of Aerodynamic Theory -- the primary text for flying and flyers. It is a great story for Christians to read to keep the fire of their zeal for Christ burning hot.

Picking up on similar themes of "The Gospel Blimp" are the shorter stories of "A Small Happening At Andover" and "Black Gold". "Mayday" is humorous, and "Rehoboam's Gold Shields" is a heartbreaker for Christians who know people who have drifted away and shipwrecked their faith. "How Silently, How Silently" is a convicting look at how we have croweded Christ out of Christmas. I reflected on this story as I drove to Myrtle Beach this past weekend. Somewhere north of Bennetsville, SC on Highway 38, there is a little family cemetery on the right hand side of the road across from what appears to be an abandoned church. Even at 50 miles per hour or so, I was able to make out the name -- one name on every tombstone in that little burial ground: CHRISTMAS. When I saw that, I reflected on "How Silently, How Silently," and said, "Oh Lord, forgive us. We have killed Christmas, and buried it here in a shallow grave in South Carolina. Please resurrect it in the hearts of your people so that we will treasure Christ more than any of these trappings that we often substitute for Him at what should be a very special time of year for Your people." I will try to post the photo of that cemetery I took on the return trip at a later time.

The most painful story of the collection for me was "The Saving Message." Every preacher needs to read this story. Pressed in the strait between knowing the message that he must preach, and knowing the fallout that will result when he does, the preacher of this story wrestles with the recent news in his town and what his responsibility is before God to address it. The conclusion is shocking, alarming, and convicting, because ALL OF US, even the best of us, have been guilty of the same sin as this preacher in the story at some point.

The final chapter of the book is a very good look at the art of the parable. Bayly does not romanticize parables as some are wont to do. Though I do not think that we need to abandon exposition in exchange for story-telling in our day (that apathetic spiritual anorexia that plagues our churches is the consequence of a century of this), I do think that we could enhance our exposition with some very pointed parables told in the style of Jesus and prophets like Nathan.

On the whole, I would recommend The Gospel Blimp to believers who can tolerate a little bit of self-depricating humor and imaginative storytelling. But beware, these are not lightweight tales. They cut like a knife if we read them with ears to hear the message that underlies the engaging characters and their exploits.