Living in the Light of Eternity

Living in the Light of Eternity by K. P. Yohannan Part 1. Hearing the Call of Eternity Chapter 1. Lift Up Your Eyes My name is Tom Dooley and I'll be your narrator for this book. What do you consider to be the rock-bottom essentials of life? Let's make some mental notes of the things we need to survive or just get by. Let's start with a house. How many rooms do we need to survive? All right, let's choose a one-bedroom house. Let's add a tiny bathroom, that should be enough. But what about a kitchen? Well, perhaps a small one. Refrigerator? I can hardly live without it. We'll need running water too, at least cold. And maybe we can add hot as well. What about electricity? We absolutely need that. Carpeting? Well, it does get cold in the winter. What about a TV? We need to know what's going on in the world. Let's move on to the car. What kind do we need? A small domestic-made car will be the cheapest. We should also consider a motorcycle or bicycle, cheaper still. How about clothes? We're not talking about what we want, remember, but only the essentials. A few skirts or pairs of pants, a couple of shirts, some socks or stockings, and underclothes will do. Shoes? We can get by with one pair. Personal care. Do we need all those shampoos and conditioners? A bar of soap and a toothbrush will do just fine. Let's also include some deodorant. Perhaps we can add a mirror, but let's keep it small. Our list is far from finished. What happens when we have a headache? We'd better keep some aspirin on hand. Oh, and don't forget the vitamins and Band-Aids. How about financial security? Well, we should have a small bank account with a few dollars in it. We do not want to forget the children. They need a few items of clothing, too, and perhaps some toys to keep them busy. Now, let's look over our mental list and think carefully about what we have included. What does it take to live? The list we have drawn up is pretty sparse. But in your mind's eye, light a match. Hold it to the list. Watch it burn until all that's left is a wisp of ash. We do not need any of these things, however basic they may be, to live. Millions of people in the world who live and die on the streets of New York, Rio, Bombay, Mexico City, and elsewhere sleep in cardboard huts, under bridges, and in cement sewer pipes. They get by without any of the essentials on our list. We, too, whether we like it or not, can live without any of these things. There are just two things we absolutely cannot live without. A glass of water and a piece of bread. Not long ago, while driving in India with several brothers from Gospel for Asia, I noticed something strange in the ditch on the side of the road. A closer look revealed a man lying there motionless. I thought he was dead. But the driver of the car said as we drove by, That man has been lying there for six days now. What? I exclaimed. Tell me what happened. He's an old beggar and has been living on the streets. Six nights ago he was hit by a car and must have broken his leg. No one wants to pick him up or even touch him. But an old lady comes every day and gives him some rice and a drink of water. I was stunned. If Jesus were to go by this place, what would he do? I asked. All of us in the car fell silent. When we arrived at our destination, I suggested we go to the police and ask for permission to pick up the old man and take him to the hospital. It was granted and some of our brothers went to get him. They told me the rest of the story later. The old man's hair looked as though it had never been washed, combed or even cut. He had probably not washed his body in years. The rags he was wearing were black with grime. Thousands of ants, the kind that feed on dead bodies, were eating away at his flesh. Since he had not been able to move since he was hit, he had lain there in his own filth. At the hospital the nurses tried to remove his clothes to give him a bath, but he kept fighting them. He clutched the rags he wore and would not let go. Finally, someone discovered that at one corner of his shirt there was a knot, and in the knot was a one-rupee coin, equivalent to about five cents. He was holding on to this rag for dear life because he did not want to lose his rupee. Once they handed him his coin, he relaxed and let go of his clothes. As he got better, I went to the hospital several times to visit and pray with him. I learned his story. His name was Kutapan. He was seventy-five, and for as long as he could remember he had lived on the streets. They were his home. He had no knowledge of relatives, wife, children, or home. Now let me ask you a question. Did Kutapan survive seventy-five years without our list of essentials? Yes, he did. As he lay unmoving on the street, only a handful of rice and a glass of water from an old woman kept him alive. We, too, could survive, just as Kutapan did. In fact, we would do all right without any of our essentials. If we lived in a tropical climate, we could even survive without a stitch of clothing, although perhaps not in public. But there is no way we could live without bread and water. Do you find anything in life that carries greater value than these most basic of essentials? Something of higher priority than even a piece of bread and a glass of water? Jesus did. Let's look at John, chapter four, to remind ourselves what was more important to him than eating and drinking. As we read through the Gospels and observe Jesus' life, we find that he took every opportunity to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God, and whatever he taught, he lived before them. Everything he said was clearly reflected in his life. He was a living, breathing example to his disciples. These twelve men had an opportunity to watch his life and learn from his every action. One of the occasions that challenged and changed them is recorded in John, chapter four. It is as relevant for us today as it was for Jesus' disciples. You are probably familiar with the story of the woman at the well to whom Jesus spoke about living water. The disciples had gone into the city to buy food, and when they returned, they offered it to him. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him food? My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. Can't you identify with the disciples' confusion? Jesus had to be hungry from his journey. So they had walked to the nearby village to buy him something to eat. They had not eaten yet either, and were probably just as hungry and thirsty as Jesus was. Then Jesus acted as if he had already eaten. I have food to eat that you aren't aware of. Well, this confused them even more. We go to all this trouble and now he won't eat. Has someone brought him something? What was Jesus saying? He was seizing on an everyday event, eating, to illustrate to his disciples a principle of a different kingdom. Jesus was saying something like this. You're horizontally oriented, thinking about the here and now. You're tired and dusty feet. You're growling stomachs. You're parched throats. But pull your attention away for a minute. Lift up your eyes. Look into eternity and see what I see. You say there are still four months before harvest arrives. But I tell you, look right now to the souls of men and women around you. The fields are already ripe and ready to be harvested. If you wait a little longer, the crop will be gone, destroyed. Yes, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. But the crisis out there is so real that it consumes all my being. Compared to what is happening, I no longer have an appetite. I am desperate to finish what my Father has given me to do. Jesus could have used any number of examples to explain kingdom principles. Why did he use food? Perhaps because it makes more sense to us. For us, the barest of necessities do not consist of only a glass of water and a piece of bread. Yet to Jesus, even the most basic of essentials, bread and water, were unimportant when he knew people were dying without his Father's love. Jesus speaks to us today just as strongly as he did to his disciples. He gives us the same command he gave them. Follow me. If we are his followers, we will hear this command and do the same things he did. But as human beings made of the same flesh and blood as Jesus' disciples, we are horizontally oriented too. We focus on the here and now, clothes, houses, educations, careers, bank accounts, finances, cars. But Jesus calls us to lift our eyes and look away from it all. He is calling us to see what he sees, to feel the urgency he feels, to share his heart for the harvest that will soon be gone, destroyed forever, if it is not reaped soon. Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus' life was marked by urgency. I must go. I must work. Night is coming. You go and make disciples. Phrases like these tell us how Jesus felt and what he lived for. He was so desperate that food and drink took a back seat. What a contrast with our casual, laid-back approach to life and our attitude toward the lost world. Newspapers in India carried the story recently of a Hindu man who, like many other devotees, embarked on a pilgrimage to a holy site to receive forgiveness for his sins. His desperate desire to be cleansed of sin caught the eye of the media. The man had begun his journey with his two sons about 125 miles from the holy mountain that was his destination. He took a small pebble in his hand and lay down on the dirt road, stretching his arm as far as he could reach and putting the pebble there. Then he raised himself up and walked to where the pebble lay. Picking it up, he went through the entire motion again and again and again, body length by body length. He and his sons made their painstaking way to the pilgrimage site. At one point along a busy highway, a speeding truck hit one of his sons, killing him instantly. But the pilgrim continued on his way, his passion for forgiveness greater than the grief he felt for his son. Nothing is too great a price to pay for my forgiveness, he told the news reporters who had gathered at the scene. I am willing to do whatever it takes. The man and his remaining son continued on their arduous journey until they finally reached the peak of the holy mountain. As they prepared to offer their sacrifice to the gods they worshipped, the man directed his son to turn away and begin to pray. The boy complied. While he was looking the other way, his father lifted a knife and sacrificed this remaining son in final hope of forgiveness for his sins. A missionary leader told me later, that man and his sons passed by on the road beside my house. If I had seen them, I could have given them a tract and shared the gospel with them. Tell me, how can I not be desperate to reach my own people with the gospel? His question has echoed in my mind many times since, especially as I read about events taking place in the world. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, for example, doors are opening for the gospel to reach some of her remotest regions. Some of the new republics are nearly 100% Muslim. Who will hear the call of God and win them to Jesus? They all need to be reached with the gospel. The Uzbeks, the Turkmens, the Azeris and millions of others. The underground church is coming forward, willing to send hundreds of young people well schooled and suffering to go and preach the gospel full time. One of the leaders I've been in contact with has told me, our prayers and support are urgently needed to reap a harvest of souls that is ripe today. But the average Christian struggles to apply these facts personally. It is easier for us to spend our time and money on ourselves. A wife, realizing her husband's birthday is coming up, shops for something nice for him. She spots a silk tie and thinks, oh, that's a handsome one. That'll look nice on him. She picks it up and takes it over to the cash register without even noticing the $20 price tag. One more tie to add to the dozens already in his closet. Yet, what do we do with information from the mission field about the needy men and women laying their lives down to reach the unreached with the gospel? Sometimes we do not want to incorporate these facts into our everyday lives or we do not know how. We must lift up our eyes. We need to retrain our minds to interpret everything we do, everything we see, everything we spend in the light of eternity, in the light of souls that are dying without Jesus. One of the things I learned on my first trip to China still boggles my mind that there are multitudes of churches there with hundreds, even a thousand members without a single Bible in the entire congregation. That $20 tie, do you know it could purchase 20 Bibles or 20,000 gospel tracts? Add to this fact that half the world is still waiting to see the first page of a Bible or even any gospel literature. In one of our Gospel for Asia board meetings recently, the members of the board brought up the need for a safer car for my wife, Gisela. Given the vital role she plays in the ministry, both in North America and abroad, they felt we should invest in a well-built foreign model that had some wonderful safety features. I thought Gisela, who grew up in Germany around expensive European cars, might see the wisdom of this suggestion, but she did not. Even if I were to ride in a tank, she replied, that wouldn't stop an accident from happening. And when I think about our brothers in the mission field who don't even own a bicycle and have to walk 10, 15, 20 miles to preach the gospel, I don't feel comfortable buying an expensive car, even a used one. I don't want it. We'll live with the car we have. It's good enough. Her reply should not have surprised me. As I share my heart with you in this chapter, I do not want you to come away with the thought that you have simply read another application of John 4. Please do something about what you are hearing. This is where lifting up your eyes and hearing the call of eternity truly begins. We are called to fulfill different tasks in the Lord's kingdom. Our responses to His call, therefore, will be as individual as we are. Some may hear the call to full-time missionary work. Others may sense the Lord directing them to pray for and send others. Some may make small changes in their lifestyles. Others may undergo a radical coup d'etat of the heart. Such was the case with a man who phoned me early one morning, awakening me out of a sound sleep. I'm sorry to wake you, Brother K.P., he said. It's no problem, I assured him sleepily. Please tell me what's on your heart. I didn't sleep at all last night. Then his voice broke. I could hear him sobbing. Finally, he continued. I want you to know a little about me. I live very well. I own my own business. I drive two Mercedes. My house is worth three-quarters of a million dollars. He went on listing the valuable things he owned. I'm a born-again Bible-believing Christian who goes to a fine church. But I just finished reading your first book, and I'm so torn up inside that I don't know what to do with myself. I want to be real for the first time in my life. I want to be able to live with myself. Just before I called you, I was on my knees before the Lord. I've decided that I'm going to sell my house and purchase a smaller one. After all, it's only me, my wife, and our child, one child. I've decided to sell my two cars and buy something less expensive, and I'm going to sell my $15,000 watch and get a cheaper one. He went on and on, listing the changes he wanted to make in his lifestyle. I'm glad you called me, I told him. I pray that as the Lord has spoken to you about making all these changes, they will not be only a little anesthesia to keep you happy for a while, but that you will go the distance in obedience to him. Then I prayed with him, and that was the end of our conversation. A few months later, I met a close friend of his. How is he doing? I asked. Oh, you wouldn't believe it if you saw it. He's sold everything. He is happily living a much simpler life and sharing with everyone why he's doing it. Oh, you may say to yourself, well, he was rich, and I'm not. Besides, he had a lot of things to get rid of. My friend, lifting your eyes from the things of this world is an activity that must begin where you are. Kutapan, the old man who lay on the street for six days, was clutching his ragged piece of clothing for dear life. He would not let the filthy thing go. Why? Because he did not want to lose his only coin. What are you grabbing for? Whether it's a luxury or an essential, nothing is more important to God's heart than reaching the lost. Lift up your eyes, if just for a moment. Ask the Lord to lay his burden on your heart. Ask to share his perspective. See eternity stretching out before you. Do you see any of the world's riches around the throne of God? No. Rather, you see multitudes. Men, women, and children that no one can number, according to Revelation 7, verse 9. Remember, millions of souls from every nation, tribe, people, and language are still waiting to find out how they can come before the throne of God. We must keep that vision of eternity before us and live our lives accordingly. Jesus died for us, that we may live. If we choose, we can lift our eyes, see the harvest, and live for others that they too may hear that he died for them. Now, this is no pie-in-the-sky spirituality. We have real-life examples to offer us guidance as to how, in our 20th century world, we can actually do this. Chapter Two Living for Another Kingdom In northeast India, a group of tribal people numbers well over 80,000. Traditionally, the members of that tribe are animists, making sacrifices, worshipping nature and their ancestors. As far as anyone knew, a church had never been established among these people. They lived in spiritual darkness. Until a man named Anil heard a gospel radio broadcast. Anil had been sent out by the tribe as a boy to get an education. Now, as a young husband and father, he was listening to his radio one day when he heard a name he had never heard before, Jesus Christ. The voice went on to say that Jesus was God who became a man and died for sinners to save them. Anil was curious and decided to send a letter to the address given at the end of the program. I heard on the radio about Jesus Christ being God, he wrote. Can you send me a book about your God? A few weeks later, a New Testament arrived for Anil, which he started reading every day. As he read, he grew more and more astounded. How is it that this took place in history, yet we know nothing about it? He asked himself. Since Anil was young and had no authority in the community, he went to speak to the elders. I received this book, he told them. It tells about a God named Jesus Christ. He told them what he had been reading and submitted the New Testament to them. The elders were interested. They decided Anil should come every day and read this book to them. He began in Matthew with the genealogy of Jesus, but became so confused that he skipped to Matthew 5 and started there. Every day, Anil met with the elders and together they read a few pages out of the New Testament. Within six months, the elders were grasping a new concept. Here was a loving God who had died for them, but now was dead no longer. This God asked them to live for him, but in return he said he would live through them. The Holy Spirit worked in their hearts one by one, drawing them to himself. The people of this tribe began to pray to Jesus. They had never heard of the four spiritual laws, but were coming to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus and gaining a relationship with him. Within a year, about 200 people had come to faith in Christ. Through Anil's reading, meanwhile, the elders learned about baptism. Since they wanted to understand what it was all about, they sent Anil to find someone who could tell them more. Anil had to travel almost 20 miles asking around until he found an elderly man who was a missionary in the area. We are some people who read your Bible, Anil explained. We believe in Jesus and pray to him. Now we've read about baptism. Could you tell us more about this and baptize us? Because the old missionary was unable physically to travel 20 miles to baptize these new believers, Anil went home to talk to the tribal leaders. They decided to send 50 to 60 believers at a time so the missionary could baptize them. About 300 believers were baptized in this way. Then the elders gave Anil another important mission. When you were a boy, they told him, we sent you out to learn to read and write, to become educated. You are the hope and future of our tribe. Now, Anil, you must go someplace where you can learn more about this God and then return and tell us. Anil had heard about a ministry in India that trained young people, so he wrote them, requesting to be part of their training program. He never mentioned that he was married and had a child. He longed for the training and wanted nothing to interfere with it. Nor did he tell them about the conversion of his tribe. Soon a letter arrived telling Anil he was accepted for their year-long training program and could come right away. During his year with the team, Anil soaked up as much as he possibly could. But he kept his identity a secret until one night during a prayer meeting when he began to pour out his heart to the Lord for his people. The leaders looked at one another curiously. Was it possible Anil was part of that unreached tribe in northeast India? Afterward they asked him. Then Anil astounded them with a description of the great move of God among his people. They went to see for themselves and found a radiant, born-again, baptized group in that remote region. Today there is a thriving, growing church there. Hundreds are coming to Christ and being baptized. Dozens of young people from the tribe are ready to go into full-time ministry to serve the Lord. The entire community has been transformed by the Word of God. Anil and his fellow tribal believers are examples of Christians who have lifted their eyes, seen the fields, and are devoting their lives to the harvest. The Holy Spirit touches the hearts of people who commit their lives to him wholly, who follow Jesus simply because he said, follow me and do whatever he asks them to do. It is as simple as that. We see the same response from the disciples Jesus called. In Mark 1, verses 16-20, the Word says, As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. These men dropped everything they were doing and followed Jesus. I imagine that Zebedee, James and John's father, watched in consternation at his sons as they got up from their nets and followed Jesus. Perhaps he called after them. Perhaps he thought they had lost their senses. But Jesus was saying, You could spend the rest of your lives catching fish, but if you come and follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Jesus still issues that call to those who claim to be his followers. 1 Peter 2, verse 21 says, To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Jesus told his disciples, In John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, A new command I give you, Love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. When we read straight through the four gospels, we can see clearly how Jesus lived his life. It is summed up in this statement from Matthew, chapter 20, verse 28, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. My purpose is not for myself, Jesus was saying, so that everyone can gather around and take good care of me. No, I have come as the poorest of the poor. I have come to suffer and die for others. I remember a story I once heard about William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. At the time, he was an old, weak man. He was expected to speak at a huge convention, but because of his physical condition, he was unable at the last minute to go. Instead, he sent a telegram. Thousands gathered at the convention, eager to hear this great man of God speak. That night, at the appointed moment, someone came to the platform with the sealed telegram and explained that General Booth was unable to be there, but that he had sent a message to be read. As he opened the seal, the crowd grew hushed in expectancy. There was only one word in the telegram. Others. What was Booth saying to them? Remember, while you hold this great convention and enjoy the food, fellowship, and laughter, remember, my message is still unchanged. Others. You see, if we're followers of Jesus, if we're to hear the call of God, this mindset must govern all of our thinking. We must, like Jesus, be others-centered. Jesus did not train his disciples in a classroom. He taught them through example. He lived his life before them and then willingly laid it down. No wonder that, after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they remembered Jesus' words to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and every one of them laid down his life for preaching the gospel. At one time, I thought John was the only disciple who was not martyred. Later, I learned that he was beheaded. Another disciple, Thomas, is said to have journeyed to India, where he preached and laid down his life for Jesus. One of the seven churches he planted is located about three miles from where I was born and reared. Doesn't it seem strange that these men who walked and lived with Jesus for three years, men who saw miracles almost beyond belief, and who must have had great faith, were not supernaturally translated to heaven, but died criminals' deaths? How could they have traveled to places and done things they knew would put their very lives at risk? Because Jesus was their example. Jesus was never the kind of master who told them, do what I say, don't do what I do. No, no, he said, come follow me. Jesus also said, in the book of John, chapter 14, verse 12, I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. I remember studying the book of Acts in Bible college. As I went through it, I thought it was a fascinating piece of history. But it is much more than history. The book of Acts is a living, open-ended book, whose story continues even today in the lives of committed believers. It is a book filled with the stories of people who are absolutely sold out, who had only one thing on their minds. Jesus died, he rose again, he is our Lord, he is coming back, and we must tell our generation. These believers yielded their lives unselfishly to communicate this message. When they were misunderstood, mistreated, persecuted, stoned and beaten up, they did not go around mourning their losses and licking their wounds. They went right back out and preached the gospel. And not just the apostles, but the believers, the everyday, normal people like you and me. When we read about Jesus' life and are challenged to follow in his footsteps, we feel overwhelmed. I can't help it, we rationalize. I'm only a human being, Jesus is God, how can I expect to keep up with him? And we excuse ourselves from total commitment. Then we come to Paul. It is not easy to write Paul off, because he was just as human as we are. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature, he wrote. In Romans 7, verse 18, he considered himself an earthen vessel, a jar of clay, according to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Paul recognized that in his own strength, he started from zero. He confessed his weaknesses and inadequacies continually. This is a man who argued with Barnabas, his co-worker. Acts 15, verse 39, tells us that they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. But for this normal human being named Paul, following Jesus was not a nine-to-five job, nor did it have a finishing point. This was everyday life for him. Let's look at an incident that took place in Paul's life when he came to Thessalonica. It's there in Acts, chapter 17, verses 5 and 6. It says, the Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here. This incident was just one of many for Paul, an everyday occurrence in his Christian walk. He was accused by the crowd of, in the words of the King James Version, having turned the world upside down. But to him, this was simply part of following Jesus. There was no dichotomy in Paul's life or in the lives of the early believers. Their lives were not compartmentalized into spiritual and secular activities. Their whole existence was a solid commitment, a life given for the Lord and his kingdom. Christians seem satisfied with only knowing what these New Testament believers did. We neglect to follow the example they provide. The curse on our lives as modern Christians is that we have carefully divided the spiritual from the secular parts of our lives. On certain days, we feel holy and wonderful. Our emotions are elevated and we feel ready to face any trial that may come. We're going to conquer the world for the Lord. On other days, back in the job and in the world, we say to ourselves, How can I do all that for the Lord? I'm doing the best I can. Somehow we have become comfortable with living a divided life. When we read about the uproar over Paul in Thessalonica, we have a difficult time relating to the treatment the believers received. But for those New Testament believers, normal everyday living for Jesus brought on persecution. These people lived in a community and worked faithfully at their jobs every day. Nothing about them stood out except the fact that they took the words of Jesus seriously and they followed him. The reason these believers lived was not to sew tents, teach school, or construct buildings. These activities were simply their means of making a living. But their lives did not stop when no one bought tents anymore, when they retired, or when they were too exhausted to lay another brick. While these believers lived on earth, their occupations were temporal, insignificant compared to what they saw as their primary responsibility. They lived for another kingdom. It is as if the first century believers were living in the midst of a whirlwind. Wherever they went, they caused some kind of commotion or turmoil or trouble, simply because they lived what they believed. We do not read passages like this in the book of Acts. And they gathered together for the committee meeting, ten people with long faces drinking black coffee with no sugar, because they all were watching their diets. And one spoke up saying, Brothers and sisters, God is telling us we should do such and such. Yes, another responded, I'm not sure. We should think about it some more. We're so much in debt right now, maybe we should vote on it. And so it goes in the lives of countless churches today. We're so intent on finding the hidden meanings behind the mandates in the New Testament that we forget to look at the mandates themselves. We're so organized that we make it difficult for the Holy Spirit to direct and use us to change the world around us. We find no committee meetings in the book of Acts. We find long hours of prayer, fasting and waiting on God to move. The believers of Acts were common people like us. But wherever they went, things happened. As these men and women moved out into the marketplace, into their neighborhoods and workplaces, they turned their communities upside down. They were revolutionaries who had heard the call of God. Look at Jesus' life. He was a revolutionary too. Wherever He went, nothing stayed the same. He saw the darkness, the condition of the lost, and it drove His life. This is how the Lord wants us to live as well. As world revolutionaries who cannot help but change the world around us because of what we hear and see, the call of Christ rings in our ears. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus is not playing games with us. And hell is no joke. Hell is real. I tell you, if we examine ourselves and discover that we really do not believe what we claim to believe, we might as well get out of this business. But if we do believe what we say we believe, let's be different. We cannot live for ourselves anymore. We've been given too much knowledge for that. And from those to whom much is given, much will be required. See Luke 12, verse 48. Let's think carefully and plan deliberately to live our lives in such a way that they will make a difference. The question is, how do we do that? How do we live our lives as world revolutionaries? Chapter 3, Revolutionized from Within. The small island nation of Sri Lanka, located off the southern eastern tip of India, was in the throes of civil war for a decade. Tens of thousands of innocent people were butchered as two separate races fought for what they both believed was rightfully theirs. These groups were involved in terrorist, guerrilla-type warfare, ruthless in their attacks and committed to their cause. Countless Sri Lankans fled the island and the violence, seeking refuge in India. Many native missionaries ministered to these refugees, who lost literally everything in order to escape with their lives. On one of my many visits to a refugee camp in the early 1990s, my eyes were opened to the horrible reality of what war could do. I saw ten-by-twelve-foot rooms with bare concrete walls, no cooling or heating, no running water, no windows, and only a door for ventilation and light. I saw thirty or more people crammed into each room. I honestly do not know how a person can survive in those conditions. As we went from room to room, the missionary pointed out certain people to me. That man is a medical doctor. His wife and children were killed. See him? He is a lawyer. That man over there is a teacher. I looked around and saw men and women who had lived in the upper class of their society, now brought to ruin by the war. The doctor sat in a corner, wearing the only piece of clothing he owned. He was dirty, unshaven, and looked depressed. I am sure he was dreaming of his wife and children, lamenting that they were no longer with him. Who killed the people? Who drove them out? Terrorists so bent on achieving their goal that they would stop at nothing, ready even to die for their cause. I am told that many of them carried a cyanide pill for use if they were captured by their enemies. I read in an Indian newspaper that thirty to forty of these terrorists died in one month's time. They were caught and arrested but committed suicide before anyone could gather any information. Recently I read about the recruiting practices of one of the groups. Four or five members would drive a jeep into a remote but populous part of the country and set up loudspeakers in the public market that blared out their message to the people. Finally, when a large crowd had gathered, the group would make an announcement like the following. We challenge you young people to come forward and give your lives for this cause. We challenge you parents to give up your sons. We challenge you mothers to offer your children for our people. And you will remember forever a people who laid down their lives for the future of our nation. I can scarcely believe this, but I read in the article that young people would step forward and mothers pushed their thirteen and fourteen-year-old sons forward, saying, Go! Go! Go! Then the group would load the recruits into the jeep and drive off, never to be seen again. What kind of creatures are these people? People committed to a kingdom here on earth, a kingdom that will eventually totter and perish. But their commitment gives us part of the answer to the question we asked in the last chapter. How do we live as world revolutionaries? The guerrillas from Sri Lanka demonstrate the first of three principles. I offer to help us become radical revolutionaries who have heard the call of God. We must live according to what we know, committed to a heavenly kingdom, so that our lives affect not only our home and community, and perhaps our state and country, but the entire earth. My son Daniel has always been fascinated with how things work. One of his favorite things to do is to take something apart and tinker with it. He is always inventing or reinventing some little gadget. One of his attempts as a young boy was reinventing firecrackers. He would break the heads off some matches, roll them up in paper and light it, hoping for an explosion. I never did see one of those firecrackers actually explode. On the outside, each one looked like a firecracker. But it did not act like one. Why not? Because what Daniel rolled up lacked the explosive charge of a true firecracker. We said in the last chapter that we know too much. We know about the gospel, but we do not give ourselves to its life-changing implications. Knowledge brings responsibility. Implementing our knowledge of the gospel is not easy. But it does no good for us to look right on the outside, but lack true power within. Just like Daniel's firecrackers, we will be duds. The Bible is full of illustrations of two groups of people. Those who know the truth and say, Lord, Lord, but who demonstrate by their very lives that they do not really mean it. And those who say, Lord, Lord, and follow His footsteps. The second group are the people who have counted the cost, who look straight at the cross and gladly accept the inconveniences, pain, and price they must pay to follow the Lord. We read about these people of faith in Hebrews 11. Their faith cost them everything, but they changed the course of their generation. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, Active habits are strengthened by repetition, but passive ones are weakened. The more often a man feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act. And in the long run, the less he will be able to feel. How true this is, God's word says in James 1.22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, The Root of the Righteous, We can prove our faith by our committal to it, and in no other way. Any faith that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief. It is a pseudo-belief only, and it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living. Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications. So wide is the gulf that separates theory from practice in the church that an inquiring stranger who chances upon both would scarcely dream that there was any relation between them. An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning sermon and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who had heard it would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions. Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it into practice. This is the end of Side 1. Please stop your machine at this point and turn the cassette over to hear Side 2.