Finding Gems

This morning I continued in my Bible reading in 2 Chronicles. The narrative is not all that exciting, stories of this king and that one, engaging in wars with various defeats and victories. As my former pastor G. Mark Denyes once said from the pulpit, in regard to reading in the Old Testament, “Saints, it’s really boring!”

Then I came upon a real gem, 2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

Wow! That’s good stuff!

Many of us were greatly disappointed when the “Republican red tsunami” turned into a “red trickle.”

Nevertheless a victory was won, Republicans gaining control of the house. The first order of business will likely be the repealing of 87,000 IRS agents whose purpose was undoubtedly to harass hard working Americans already deeply afflicted by Joe Biden’s inflation (two thirds of Americans are behind on their car payments).

So we rejoice. It’s a start to recovery, is it not?

There is a lot of meat in this verse in 2 Chronicles. God is strong on behalf of those who are loyal to Him.

Recently, I was talking to a friend in Nashville. “Were you surprised when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, ” he asked?

“No,” I said. “When God’s people pray and never quit until the answer comes . . . well, guess what? The answer comes. Fifty years of prayer! After communism fell in Russia, an article came out in a Christian magazine stating that Christians had been praying for the fall of communism for fifty years. Then it came back. What happened? Could it be that Christians quit praying?

We must never quit praying. We must always be about our Father’s business and that means we must always pray according to His desires, which may not necessarily be our desires. This is what it means to “be loyal to Him.”

One of Satan’s most effective tactics is distraction, to pull us aside in many ways, to get our focus off of our mission. “Keep your eye on the prize,” the apostle Paul writes.

What is the prize? Keeping our thoughts, actions and focus on Christ alone. That is what we must do each and every day.

Keeping our eye on the prize means understanding why we are here on earth . . . to win the lost. Forty-two percent of the world has yet to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus!

Only three precent of present-day missionaries have been sent to the 42 percent. We still have a lot of work to do. That is why it is so important to stay focused.

It seems very spiritual to be looking for the return of Jesus Christ, but so many are obsessed with it, continually arguing and parsing end-time prophecy. If they were as excited about winning the lost to Jesus as they are about arguing end-time prophesy, the world would be a better place.

I am convinced that this is one of the major ways Satan gets us off-course. If we have the mind of Christ we would be far more excited about winning the lost than about our obsession with end-time prophesy.

In Bible college we were taught, “Live as though He is coming back today, but plan as though He is not coming back for 100 years.” It is good advice. To be balanced in our Christian life it would do us well to practice this principle.

The church is not doing a very good job of winning the lost. The church of America has been losing ground for over 50 years. Eighty out of 100 churches are either decreasing in numbers or staying the same. Twenty of 100 are growing, but 19 of those are simply taking people from other churches (Ed Stetzer, Comeback Churches). Only one in 100 is getting its increase from winning unbelievers to Jesus. This has to change. The bottom line is that we are not doing a good job of winning the lost. As a church we must find ways to take the gospel outside the church walls and into the world where the unchurched live and breathe.

The art of “witnessing,” that is sharing the gospel with unbelievers has all but disappeared. When I was in Bible college in St. Paul, Minnesota, often students would go to the airport to “witness.” We must recapture the art of leading someone to Christ at the airport or some other public place.

Planting churches is another way we reverse the negative growth pattern of the church. Substance Church in Minneapolis plants a church somewhere in the world every week. “The number of Protestant megachurches (attendance above 2000) mushroomed form 16 in 1960 to 1210 in 1995. This sounds like great news until you consider the population of the country. It has quadrupled since 1900, while the number of churches has grown by a mere 50 percent. In other words, the population grew eight times as fast as churches could multiply. We are losing the war by not keeping up with production (Ralph Moore, How To Multiply Your Church).”

Lorraine and I would like to get back to producing outreach events. The unchurched will rarely pass through the door of a traditional church, but in our events, we drew a lot of unchurched, sometimes half of the crowd was unchurched. This is a great way to bring them under the influence of the gospel, when churches don’t. In order to do this we need to increase our financial base substantially. The world seems to have “gobs” of money, the church, not so much.

The first of the year is fast approaching, the time when many of you consider a new year’s resolution. I encourage you to increase your prayer time and your personal witness. The more time you spend in prayer, the more you are filled with God’s heart. What is God’s heart? I believe it is expressed in 1 Timothy 2: 1-4:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

If we are going to turn this nation around, it will take all available Christians. Will you take the challenge? We pray you will.

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

By Lorraine

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions of seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land, if clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 NIV

The Collins Dictionary says that this literally means “to do something good or take a risk, usually without expecting very much in return. You should make time to offer assistance to others. It is a case of casting your bread upon waters – who knows how the favor will be repaid.”

George and I ask that you consider giving a contribution to our ministry this month. Contributions to our ministry is down by half from last year. We understand that our economy is not good and that we all are making adjustments to our spending. However, I am a firm believer that we are to be living sacrifices, as Paul says in Romans 12: 1-2. Any income I earn I give more than 10 percent to God.

What I give God has not changed and it should not change for any of us.

Thank you for your support.

We recently set up at a craft show in Blackduck, Minnesota. We gave out several of our books and we got a few more people signed up for our newsletter. If we set up at a craft show it is for advertisement purposes only. We spent nine hours plus between craft show set up, the show time and taking down. I lose any profit I would have made off my items at that point.

And we are excited that we finished recording our music CD.

In His Service,

George and Lorraine Halama

All Contributions are Tax deductible

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine