(Preached at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, 6-21-15)
Many of us have responded with shock and horror at the ISIS takeover of the good portions of two countries in the Middle East, with the beheadings and other atrocities they have perpetrated. But millions of us have also been praying for God to work in that region of the world like never before. And there is evidence that He is! Not long ago the Baptist Press reported that one of our missionaries ministering to the displaced peoples in the Middle East said that the refugees have come to them by the thousands, and that our workers have had the opportunity to care for them, ministering with food and other help items some of us have donate towards, and as they have cared for these people, they are having unprecedented opportunities to share the gospel with these people. In fact, the missionary said that the gospel is now moving forward among Iraqis and other groups in ways they could only have imagined before.
We see in this report from what God is doing in the Middle East, three keys to people coming to the Lord: first of all, prayer; secondly, a lifestyle or ministry that prepares hearts for a witness; and third, a verbal sharing of the gospel that people might be saved — the same three keys we find in our passage for today, Colossians 4:2-6. Continue reading
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