We have a lot of conferences and special meetings at Temple Baptist Church and Crown College.  Without a doubt, the meeting we have just concluded was one of the richest and sweetest meetings we have ever enjoyed.  God did a deep work in my heart. Pastor Sexton has said for years, “A great meeting is one in which God speaks to you.”  This was a great meeting.

I have learned that the most important times in a special meeting are the days leading up to the meeting and the days immediately following.  It is not the services themselves but the prayer preparation and application afterward that make the difference.  Today has been a day of reflection in my own heart – what did God say to me?  What will I do about it?

Our hearts have been fed, but now we must “gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”  I want ALL that God has for me!  Here are a few of the fragments that the Holy Spirit has impressed upon me…

1.  Revival is the only answer.

Not a strategy.  Not a plan.  Not a motivational talk.  Not money.  Not missionary videos.  Revival.

This week has been more of a “Mission Revival” than a “Mission Conference.”  Our hearts have been broken, humbled.  Only an awakened heart can think, feel, and act in God’s will.

No one has to coerce me to do the right thing on earth if my heart is in tune with Heaven.  Revival produces evangelism.

2.  I must die.

Pray.  Give.  Go.  These are the watchwords of the typical missionary emphasis.  But, “die?”  How could death be the key that advances the Kingdom of God?

Again and again God’s messengers reminded us this week that the secret to fruitfulness and blessing is death to self.  The world cannot be evangelized by our efforts.  Motive matters.  All of our prayer and labor must be for the glory of God alone. He alone is able and He alone is worthy.

I am so small but God is so big.

3.  Great missionary hearts are not those that can see the world but those that have seen the Lord.

Only looking at Jesus can we see the harvest as He does.  A fresh glimpse of a holy, loving Savior causes us to think differently about the world and our responsibility.  Teach a man to worship God and it will be easy to teach him to witness.

4.  World evangelism is about personal evangelism.

Pastor Sexton placed a great deal of emphasis this week on making it personal.  I cannot go everywhere (though I would like to!).  But I can begin right where I am.

Getting on a plane and learning a language does not make a missionary.  If we will not witness here, we will not witness there.  World evangelism is what happens when all of us take personal evangelism seriously.

We saw individuals saved this week.  There is nothing like it!  This IS God’s mission.

5.  God is at work.

It is happening!  Souls are being saved.  Laborers are being called.  Churches are being planted.  The Lord is on the move in this world and we get to be a part of that.  Praise His name!

An 18 year old young man came to me weeping one night at the end of the meeting, yielding his life to the call of God.  Only the Lord could bring such brokenness and surrender.  The world is bad but the work is advancing and “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

6.  The work of training laborers is not in vain.

We have many missionaries come through from many different places, but the three key note speakers this year were all men who have been trained at Crown College.  They preached with power and passion.  The Lord was on them.  

As I listened, the Holy Spirit reminded me that our “labor is not in vain, in the Lord.”  Laborers must be enlisted, preachers trained, workers equipped.  This is the work God has allowed me to be part of and I am grateful for it.

There is more – so much more – that God is teaching me!  The conference is over but the work is just beginning.  My prayer is that the reflections will become obedience.  This is our time and the time is short.