WANTED: Writers With A Missionary Burden

When I set before my keyboard it is never my intention to write out a masterful theological tome - but merely to share with my readers something that God has blessed me with in His Word. It is long been my experience that some of the greatest personal truths I have ever experienced have been those that I have found while memorizing and meditating on a passage of Scripture. Many scholars have gone on before me - many that were fluent in the original languages, knowledgeable of the ancient civilizations, and lettered from the many and varied institutes of higher learning they had attended. I thank God that I do not belong to that austere crowd. Yes, I've had a modicum of professional training in the ministry, as well as those obligatory classes in Greek, hermeneutics, and pastoral theology - but, I say again, the great blessings are not those to be gained in the classroom - but rather in the chamber.

We speak of the good old days while many long for their return. Here we are in the infancy of the 21st Century with all of its advances in technology, and where is all the time we were to have saved? I've read recently that the computer wordprocessor backspace key is so much more efficient than the old manual typewriter with its little white bottle of fix-it. Surely most of us can remember spending hours just typing one page, of layers of carbon paper - and mistakes that had to be corrected on each page - and the completed page with text (we call them fonts today) all askew on a line because we could never get them to line up just right. What once took days to prepare now can be accomplished in hours, and the appearance of our work only dependent upon whether we have sufficient ink in our jet printer. From days to hours, and in most cases - to minutes, yet where is the time. Back in the days of Whitfield, personal devotions and sermon preparation were accomplished upon the saddle - between towns - in the rain and in the snow. It might take days to arrive at one's destination, and even longer in the dead of winter. Yet here we have the faithful minister of God's Word - not only thinking on a message, meditating on the message, memorizing the message - but becoming the message. Indeed, those were hard days, and doubtful whether any of us 21st century men could measure up to one tenth of the men these were. These were men that had become walking Bibles, truly epistles known and read of all men - but limited to handfuls of hearers.

Today we have audiences potentially in the billions. As I type these words and post them on a message board, it is possible that as few as three may read them - and it is also possible that millions could view them. Much has been made over the last couple of years of a little known fellow in the Old Testament, a man by the name of Jabez. Nothing is known of him except that he prayed a mighty prayer in which he begged God to increase his borders. Whether that prayer was intended for himself or for any that would claim it - certainly there can be little argument that the internet is about as wide open a missionary field as anything to date - a world that can be reached for little more than a web connection and a working keyboard. God has indeed increased our borders. Thank God for this new century - and yet, we that preach and teach his Word today, are we not but cheap copies of those preachers of previous generations? Back in the 1800's the messenger was the message - the Word of God had so permeated the speaker that people literally feared the man of God - as though he were God in their presence - but he only ministered to the handfuls. Today, we may potentially minister to the millions - but the cares and concerns of this world, nay, the ease and comfort of this world - has robbed the man of God of his most precious and enduring possession - in fact, the very thing that makes him a man of God - his knowledge and mental acuity of the Word of God. Those old preachers of yestercenturies were buckets filled to overflowing with Scripture - and their audience was miniscule. Today we have the maximum audience - but a minimum of the Word - perhaps I speak only of myself - but it is unlikely that there are more than a handful of men today that could match, or even come close to the Whitfield's, Spurgeon's, Edwards of those days.

I would pray that prayer of Jabez and ask God to increase in me the ability to memorize - to meditate - and to become the Word of God as much as in me is.

I would ask God to increase the field so that the Word of God may be read by millions.

I would ask God to use not only my words, but the words of those faithful, dedicated men and women of God that have been blessed with an ability to write - to place their testimonies and their sound, biblical meditations on ... paper ... no, cyberspace.

Isn't it amusing that God hung this great world of ours on nothing, and now has given us the ability to write letter on air? We have replaced the vellum scrolls, the parchment, the onion-skin, with cyberspace.

We have arrived to what I believe, is truly the final frontier - the untapped mission field called cyberspace.

I believe I'd like to be a part of it - how about you, gentle reader.

 

LORD willing I would like to do that. I notice that there is a section for Bible Studies so I will post one there called "GOD's Truth About Sin".


I suppose it would be a good thing to state here that approximately twenty-five years ago, the widow of a radio pastor gave me a few boxes of old Bible Studies and assorted material. I believe that GOD gave me the stewardship over these items - most of which are all uncopyrighted and out-of-print. It is my desire to post these on Bible-believing websites so that the messages of these people, most of whom are now resting with the LORD in His sweet presence, might be enjoyed by this generation as well.

I like these old studies - some short - some not so short (in fact some have been referred to as "never-ending" by some that don't approve of the material presented. I like them because they are reflective of an age when men still high a very high regard for the Fundamentals of the Faith. I might add that the radio minister was an IFB minister. His name was William "Bill" Parr and ministered in the Joplin, Missouri area. He also ran a church camp - the name of which escapes me presently.

Among the material given to me were also many reel-to-reel tapes that I plan to transcribe and post when the LORD provides me with a working tape player (and probably after I retire in 2008).

Should the LORD tarry, perhaps He and the good folk of this site, will permit me to reproduce some great old preaching and studies.

 

Well, I posted three of the shorter Bible Studies just to see if I could get a nibble - but the fish ain't biting. It would be nice if I could just get an Amen or an Oh me! A yea or a nay.

These studies were typed word-for-word earlier and the product of godly men and women that lived in an earlier generation. I believe that many, if not most of them, are gone to be with the LORD.

So, if someone has a mind to - why not mosey on over to the Bible Studies section and tell me what you think. Like maybe, "Hey BBB, keep it up!" or "BBB, we already know all of this stuff".

It would be nice to be able to know how many times a thread is looked at - like a "view" toggle as well as the "post" info.