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T h e
K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
June 1932
self was a message to the world of its coming destruction. And Jesus said, “ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” He not only brought a message, but Jesus was the message. In John 17:8, He says, “ I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me”—the message, and, in verse 18, “ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world”—the mis sion. God has called us into part nership with Himself to carry out His mission and to bear His mes sage. 3 re you now a pray-er? Are you now a soul-winner ? Are
AND HIS
essage
B y L. L. LEGTERS
you now obedient to God? You say, I will be on the field.” No, neither a railroad journey nor an ocean voyage will change one’s life. Are you now what God wants you to be ? Remember, “what you are to be, today you are becoming.” Would you be willing, if you were some one else, to pay your salary on a mission field ? Would you be willing to pay to propagate your kind of Christian life and ex perience? Are you now the kind o f person God could use anywhere? In order to work with God in prayer or in giving His message, man must be right with God and with men. God can never effectively use an unclean go-between. The secret of the intermediary is seen in Luke 11:5 to 8, where the man on his journey comes to the man who has nothing, who in turn goes to the man who has everything. The middle man must be right with all men, so that any one, at any time, can come to him. He in turn must be right with God, so that at a moment’s notice he can go to Him for those in need. The missionary is the go-between between God and the lost and between the lost and God. He must be clean. He cannot be right with God and wrong with man. I f he would carry God’s message, he must be ready to hurry with the message, to any one at any moment. Are you right with God and with every person on this earth ? I f not, then you need, first, to be cleansed. God has but one way for cleansing. Praying will not do it. Mourn ing will not do it. “ I f we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Say about your sins what God says about them; then He will forgive and cleanse you, and you will be made ready for your mission. A Call for Prayer for Revival At a recent meeting of a group of prominent laymen and ministers in Philadelphia, it was decided that it was due time that there should be a country-wide call for prayer for revival. The supreme need of the hour is a spiritual awakening like the revival under the Wesleys in the Eighteenth Century, which saved England from the hor rors o f the French Revolution. In the present crisis hour, Christians everywhere are urged to forsake their sins, to return to the simple Bible faith, to pray earnestly for re vival within the church, and to bend every effort to form prayer groups for regular and united intercession. Such groups will be greatly aided by communication with the Great Commission Prayer League, 808 N. La Salle Blvd., Chicago.
[During the week o f the Annual Missionary Rally, March 27 to April 3, 1932, Mr. Legters addressed the complete student body o f the Bible Institute at the 9:30 hour. This article is a summary o f one o f those searching addresses.—E ditor .] H missionary is one who is sent with a message, be that missionary man or woman. He is not to find a mes sage nor to make a message, but simply to deliver the message given by the One who sends. To you who hope to go as missionaries, either to home or foreign fields, I would like to present a few questions: Why should we spend time here this week in giving you a greater knowledge o f the needs of the field ? Do you not already know enough about the need? Will a greater knowledge o f world need help either you or the lost? Would a greater knowledge of the need make you more effective? Would it kindle your heart in a greater way? Tell me, why should we take any time in telling you the need ? A knowledge of the need has increased as fast as has the need itself. When I was in college, China had 400 mil lion, today it has 450 million inhabitants. India had 300 million; today it has 330 million. We are getting behind. We are losing ground. The lost are being born more rap idly than they are being evangelized. What is the trouble? Does it lie in the man, or his message? You will say the message is more important than the man; the trouble lies in this—the message has been changed. For example, see how modernism has crept into our foreign fields in our day. Let me ask you another question: What is fundamental, praying or doing; namely, giving the message? Most of you will say, “ Praying.” Then, can you pray? I mean truly pray. It is impossible for one to pray for another above his own experience. For instance, who can pray that another person be filled with the Holy Spirit, if he has no experience of being filled himself? It cannot be done. Prayer depends on the man who prays. The message we bear is a spiritual message, and no living man can give this message above his own knowledge of its spiritual power. So the messenger becomes his own message, just as in the days o f old. In the Old Testament days, the man himself was the message. The things he did, the woman he married, the place in which he slept—all he did was a message to Israel. Isaiah walked barefoot for three years as a sign. Jere miah bought a girdle, wore it, buried it, recovered it—all as a sigm One prophet shaved his head, divided his hair, weighed it—all as a sign. Another bought land, another married a wife and raised children so that it could be said, “ Thus shall Ezekiel be unto you a sign.” Methuselah him-
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