QUALITY OR QUANTITY???
We hear some pastors justify their lack of evangelism by boasting that they are more concerned with quality than quantity. This may sound pious and accurate, but in the real world, no one believes it; not even those who say it.
I have five children. Let's suppose they all get lost in the nearby mountains. We gather a search party, spread out and begin our search. About four hours into the hunt, someone yells, "I found one over here!" My wife and I run to see who it was found. We discover it is our "quality" child. I spread the word that we can now call off the search. We found the best of the five.
Of course, some will scoff at this illustration, but the argument is the same. God does care about numbers, and He cares about those who are weak and inferior. The parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son make that abundantly clear.
Let us first worry about the quantity of lost people we can win to Christ and then labor to make them quality Christians. There is no conflict between the two. It does not have to be one or the other.
A devotional thought by Pastor Ken Blue
Labels: Devotional, Evangelism, Exhortation
posted by Jim @ 9:34 PM
5 Comments:
Dear Sir.
this has NOTHING to do with your present post [ im still reflecting on your other works..[ dude, ya GOOTA cit it down a bit}. whew!. anyway. this relates to a conversation about " english" being the word of god to spread the word etc. a.k.a King James version etc.
well.
heres something for you to ponder.
a favour of your reply is requested..
thanks..
European English:
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English" .
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
JHIMMM!!!!!!!! IZZZZZZZ DIS DEVHINE INTERVHENTION???????? IZ DISD GHOING TO REVERT TO DER ENIN KLIENEN GUTTENBURG?? .
now onto a more SERIOUS note..
you say..
“God does care about numbers,”
HUH?? WHO SAID SO?
IS THERE DOCUMENTATION OF THAT ? OR IS THIS YET ANOTHER SWEEPING GENERALIZATION THAT IS SUPPOSEDLY TO BE REGARDED AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH BECAUSE SOMEONE WHO SMELLS LIKE A CHURCH OR A PULPIT SAID SO????
and he cares about those who are weak and inferior.
SORRY DUDE
THATS SEPARATIST. . GOD CARES ABOUT EVERYONE. THE STRONG CAN BECOME WEAK, THE WEAK CAN GAIN POWER, THE INFERIOR CAN GAIN HUMILITY WHICH IS CLOSER TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WHICH IS ALL A PART OF GOD. which negates all other forms of consciousness because god IS WITHOUT DUALITY, THAT'S A QUALITY OF MAN [duality] WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOD
BUT I FIGURED YOU KNEW THAT , ..
NOW IF THIS IS A DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT I WOULD THINK YOU MIGHT CONSIDER THE PASTOR HAS HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS. . AND TO QUOTE A RATHER DRY BUT ACCURATE PHILOSOPHER FROM THE LAND OF THE YELLOW PEOPLE { CHINA}. [ lao tzu] once said [as EUROPE as still eating like pigs and never took a bath . ]
A MAN WHO HAS HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS MOST LIKELY DOESN’T HAVE BOTH FEET ON THE GROUND!!!. FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS ON TO THE "SELF ABSORBED" PASTOR:)[ only if you WANT to ]. me thinks you WONT.
. oh well . such is the rhapsody of life's progress.... and THIS post ISNT going to change the order of the universe is it?????
Sattvicwarrior,
Concerning that first comment, I'm glad to see that I have got you thinking about it!!!!! If Jesus tarries in His return for His bride, the world will still have His perfect Word in whatsoever manner He chooses to give it to us. But I do enjoy your illustration!!! :)
Concerning the second comment, the author's intent was to rebuke those professing "men of God" who only look to bringing quality into their congregations, forsaking the vast quantity of mankind in the world who is in need of spiritual health. God is no respector of persons, and He sent His Son unto this world so that ALL may come unto Him. God is concerned about numbers... He knows the number of hairs on each head... He feeds the numbers of birds on earth, and even knows when one falls to the ground. Jesus came upon the earth to seek and to save the lost...
Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
"Any" and "All" denotes NUMBERS... God is concerned about NUMBERS.
A true Bible Believer is not a sepratist at all; he willingly shares the Gospel with all mankind. He doesn't worry about just those under his own roof or within his church; he has a constant focus about the needs of others, whether they live next door to him, down the street, within the community, within the city, the state, the nation, the world.... or even those brought together via the Internet, such as this blog of mine...
I do not personally know Pastor Blue... I believe he is on the west coast with you...
To prevent one from having their heads in the clouds above, I recommend they get their heads in the Word of God; it will solve a multitude of problems!!!
King James is not the only bible. I think this is a truth Jim you just will not ever get, I have worked on this issue for over 10 years and have seen the greek and the truth is the King James is a good bible but the bible is also good in the new king james and the Nasb., That is the facts not my thinking. Look to the whole body of Jesus.
Anonymous,
Thanks for taking the time to post a comment. There are good men on both sides of this position. I'm glad you have spent over ten years studying this out to put your mind at ease. During the same time frame, I have simply placed my faith in learning more of the truths found in His Word.
I take more of a common sense approach. It seems to me it would be a little more acqward carrying three Bibles to church each service vs. just one trying to follow the preacher's choice of bibles during his preaching. It seems to me if God spoke His word and used man to record it, He would not need three different ways to say the same thing. It seems to me that man is behind the updating of God's word, not God himself; why do we need hundreds of English bibles sitting on the shelves in Christian bookstores, yet a group of Christians living today that are more ignorant of His Word??? If the KJB and the NKJV and the NASB are identical, why do they not have all things in common; some are missing verses, or parts of verses, while in other places a definite "meaning or message" change is given with a change of the words used in the verse. This fact alone tells me that they are not the same, so either we don't have the complete Word of God in any Bible today and God is a liar in saying we would, or then one of the three that you mentioned is clearly the Word of God for English speaking individuals living today. Maybe my common sense needs a little scholarship to move towards your position.....
You can keep your three bibles and serve the Lord; I respect your liberty to do so and can still call you brother if you have a clear salvation testimony in trusting the Lord. As I mentioned before, there are good men on both sides of the aisle.
I'm sorry you felt the need to need to hide your identity with your comment, but you are welcome back at any time.... That fellow Anonymous always has many things to say in the blogger world. :)
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