Last week I was privileged to preach at Iglesia Oeste (West Church) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  This outreach to the Hispanic community is led by a wonderful young couple, Pastor Mike Lobmeyer and his wife, Ruth.

What made this an especially moving experience for me is that Iglesia Oeste meets on the site of the church my dad, Warren Shibley, founded in 1955.  Gleaner Missionary Church was known as “the church with a missionary heart.”  Though never a large church, its influence was strong and reached to many nations.

From the first offering ever received until my father died in 1965, fifty percent of all money received at Gleaner Church went straight to missions outreaches.  This was my father’s heart.  He often quoted Romans 1:14-15: “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.  So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel…”  Referring to this verse he said, “Missions involvement isn’t sentimental philanthropy.  It’s just an honest man paying his debt.”

The gospel had reached him and changed him, so he felt a debt to get this Good News to everyone, everywhere.  With Paul, my dad saw no race distinction and no class distinction; everyone needs Jesus.

On July 18, I stood in the same church auditorium where my dad preached and faithfully pastored.  It was forty-five years and one day from the date of his death in 1965.  As part of heaven’s great cloud of witnesses, I know my dad rejoices that today Iglesia Oeste is truly a “church with a missionary heart.”  Not only are they reaching out to Tulsa’s Hispanic community, from their limited resources they are helping to support four missionaries.

The seeds my father planted fell on good ground.  A half a century later they have once again sprung to life.  Seeds are strong, and the seed of God’s word lives forever.  “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23, NIV).

Thank you for helping provide seed for the sowers of the gospel.  Your prayers and financial support are putting everlasting seed in the bags of church and business leaders worldwide.  The seed you’re providing lives forever!

“God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.  As it is written: ‘He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever’  Now may He who provides seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (2 Cor. 9:7-10).

Years ago an unknown poet wrote a heart-wrenching lament over wasted years, lost opportunities, and his accountability for the use of time at the Judgment Seat of Christ:

“When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ,
And He shows His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been,
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will,
Will there be grief in my Savior’s eyes,
Grief, though He loves me still?
Would He have me rich and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace?”

But, take heart. That doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
God gave the prophet Joel a sneak preview of a coming epoch of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring. He promised that a global outpouring of His Spirit would signal a new era of restoration. Lives would be restored. Nations would be restored. Spiritual gifts would be restored.

And, perhaps most amazing of all, time itself would be restored. “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). The “locusts” of failure, hurt, sin, and bitterness may have eaten away at your very life, consuming your most precious commodity: time. But now, through the tender mercies of our God, He will restore even the years to you that you grieve over as wasted.

You cannot recover lost years – but God can. He can compact your life with effectiveness, allowing you to accomplish in months what used to take years, and enabling you to accomplish in days what might otherwise have taken a lifetime. “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Lu 1:37). This miracle of recovered time can be yours today as you crown Jesus Lord of the years that are left to you.

That same unknown poet ends his lament with a faith-filled prayer:
“Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Your hand;
Take me and break me and mold me
To the pattern You have planned.”

(Based on the book Living as if Heaven Matters by David Shibley. Published by Charisma House.)

Global Advance’s Frontline Shepherds Conferences bring encouragement, practical training and effective tools to the very pastors and church leaders who are on the spiritual frontlines of the church’s advance. Of the thousands of frontline shepherds we will train this week for the Great Commission, very few have had any formal training or printed resources to help them in their ministries. We will go to help meet these needs.
As we’ve seen in hundreds of training events over the last nineteen years, the participants will leave with a vision in their hearts and tools in their hands. Churches will grow. Many new churches will be planted. Many will be called as missionaries to the yet unreached peoples worldwide.

Equipping these pastoral leaders in destitute nations remains, in my opinion, the quickest, most cost-effective, and most culturally relevant way to fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission.

We’re also grateful that hundreds of pastors’ wives will be attending this Frontline Shepherds Conference. These precious women shoulder an enormous burden. This week of refreshing and ministry will be one of the high points in their lives. Additionally, Global Advance will train hundreds of Christian business persons in two Marketplace Missions Conferences.

While all this is happening with our team, two other Global Advance-sponsored conferences are taking place in other nations.

The presence of God that I have witnessed through the years at Global Advance’s conferences is difficult to describe; in fact, sometimes it is literally beyond words. One divine moment can forever change us – and God’s powerful presence will forever change the lives and ministries of many this week. As an African pastor told me through his tears, “What you teach may be simple for you, but for us – it is life-changing.”

Jesus taught, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40). It’s the prayers and financial gifts of friends like you that enables us to continue equipping frontline shepherds for world harvest. Together, we’re lifting leaders and changing nations. Thank you, and God bless you.

Recently I was asked by a friend, “Do you believe Jesus is coming soon?”
Global Advance’s Statement of Faith affirms that we believe in the “visible, personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  While we are to discern times and seasons, date-setting that goes beyond Scripture has always left Christians red-faced, looking foolish, and in error.

I do believe the return of Christ is imminent.  Scripture seems clear on this.  The Early Church anxiously anticipated His physical return from heaven back to Earth.  How much more should we?  Further, the Bible teaches this is our Blessed Hope – the soon return of Christ (see Titus 2:13).

However, the response of many Christians to the potential of Christ’s soon return has been bizarre, unscriptural, and embarrassing.  Some panic.  Such a response makes me wonder if they truly know the Lord.  Others feel that we can just surrender our culture and world to the devil, waiting for Jesus to “fix it” when He returns.  This has bred pessimism, apathy, and even despair among some believers.  Also, it flies in the face of Jesus clear instruction to us: “Occupy until I come” (Luke 19:13).

Back to the Early Church.  I believe their hearts pounded every day with the expectation, “Jesus will probably come back today.”  They lived in this hope.  At the same time, they were fully engaged in expanding the church, transforming culture, and taking the gospel to the nations.  I say they were “planting the Kingdom while waiting for the rapture.”  And they saw no dichotomy in doing this.

This, in my opinion, is the biblical position.  Matthew 24:14 is Jesus’ cogent statement about the cause and effect relationship of world evangelization and His return to Earth.  He reiterated this in the Great Commission.  It has always puzzled me how some people can be fixated on the Second Coming yet have little interest in fulfilling the Great Commission.  Whose Bible are they reading?

So, yes, we are to look for and long for Christ’s return.  But in the mean time, we have a job to do – what He said our lives are to be about between the time He ascended into heaven and the time He comes back:  “Preach the gospel to every person” (Mk. 16:15).  “Make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19).
At Global Advance, this is our commitment and focus.

Over 350 Peruvian business leaders and professionals recently attended a marketplace leadership event sponsored by Global Advance and the Peruvian Cathedral de Fe Christian business network. The Business Leadership by Design course on leadership character and Biblical principles for business were taught by Don and Deb Jones, entrepreneurs from Dallas. Kevin Pate, who directs Global Advance Marketplace Missions, lead the entire group to commit their businesses to God’s purposes in their nation.

Cleaning Up for Christ

For the past three years, José ’s company has experienced an annual growth trend of about 20%. He believes that his carpet cleaning company has flourished due to his diligence to base his business on the Biblical principles of hard work, excellence, honesty and good customer service. He further stresses the importance of customer service in saying that about 80% of his customers are repeat business and most of his new customers come based on word of mouth from satisfied customers.

This dedicated Christian couple own and operate a successful business in Lima, Peru, which converts vehicles from gasoline dependent to natural gas or liquid propane gas dependent. They have just opened their second location in the city and are extremely excited about what God is doing in their business. They feel blessed that God is allowing them to be a part of this business, which they consider His business.

Nicolas and Mary Elena related the following testimony – Nicolas explained, “we have always believed in giving out of our business and over a year ago, God spoke telling us to give over and above our normal offerings for one year.” Mary Elena, the accountant on the team, said, “I was nervous about doing this, but we both felt with certainty that God had spoken.” In the next year, their business grew steadily each month and they had a banner year!

At the end of that year, Nicolas said that he and Mary Elena both agreed that they had completed their obligation to the Lord and would therefore, stop giving the extra percentage. Although they agreed to stop giving, “secretly neither one of us felt right, nor had a peace about stopping (our giving to the Lord). Immediately, our business dropped and we had a terrible month. In talking with each other, we discovered that we both strongly felt that we should not have stopped giving the extra percentage.” Without hesitation, they reinstated the extra percentage and their business rebounded the next month!

Nicolas and Mary Elena are a great example of a husband and wife team who work together, are generous and look to God for direction in their business. They are an inspiration of what can happen if we hear and obey the Lord’s voice in everything we do.

Too often Christians are trading in rock-solid, biblical hope for fragile, humanistic optimism. Believe me, they are not the same. Clear, scriptural teaching on our incontrovertible hope in Christ has too often been replaced with little homilies that basically admonish, “Hang in there! It’s gonna get better.” We are trading gold for fool’s gold.

Obviously a positive attitude has its merits. Nobody wants to be around dour, pessimistic people. We, of all people, should be the most encouraged and most encouraging. There is much to be happy about, and there is plenty to laugh about. But on the 9/11s of life, humanistic optimism alone will not cut it. Only a hope that rests on the sure foundation of Jesus will steady your life in times like these.

Let’s get real. Tomorrow things could indeed get better, or tomorrow things could get worse. The economy may recover, or we may sink into a “bottomless pit” of debt and hyper-inflation. We all face the very real potential of experiencing acts of terrorism. These are not “negative confessions;” these are facts of life. But if you know your Bible – and if you know your Savior – this does not mean you live in a morose pessimism. On the contrary, it means you live in joy, confidence and victory every day, no matter what may come.

I want to be very clear. Christ is our hope. His return, His rule, His global glory; this is our hope. No Jesus – no hope. With Jesus – great hope. All our hope is wrapped up in Christ. He is “the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1).

Through Christ we have:

• Hope that He will come again. “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

• Hope for a glorified body fit for eternity. He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:21).

• Hope of a home in heaven. “In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn. 14:2-3).

• Hope that the scales of justice will finally and forever be balanced. God “has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Ac. 17:31).

• Hope that we will be reunited with loved ones already with the Lord. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

• Hope for the unrivaled reign of Jesus Christ over all the earth. “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:13).

• Hope of a new heaven and a new earth. “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21:1).

It’s all because of Jesus. Stay anchored in the lordship of Christ over your life. His rule in you provides solid hope for the future and grounded strength and joy for today. “Christ is in you, the assurance of all the glorious things to come” (Colossians 1:27, Phillips).

Excerpted from Living As If Heaven Matters
by David Shibley (Charisma House).
To order your copy of this hope-filled book, click here.

Recently on a rainy East Texas spring day after speaking at Teen Mania I went to a small cemetery in Garden Valley, Texas. I was there to pay my respects and thank God for the lives of two men of God buried there – Keith Green and Leonard Ravenhill.

As I walked to Keith Green’s grave, I recalled that tragic day in the summer of 1982 when this influential musician-prophet was suddenly whisked into heaven at age 29 in a plane crash just beyond the property of Green’s Last Days Ministries (now the headquarters of Teen Mania Ministries). Compounding the grief felt by multitudes of young Christians, Keith and Melody Green’s three year old son, Josiah, and their two year old daughter, Bethany, also died in the crash.

The gravestone marking where Keith, Josiah, and Bethany are buried bears the hopeful reminder that they are “Gone To Be With Jesus.” Inscribed on the stone is John 12:24: “Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

Keith’s life and ministry continue to bear much fruit today as his passionate love for Jesus, so powerfully expressed through his timeless music, is discovered by a new generation. There at his grave I softly sang the song he and Melody had written shortly before his death:

Just a few yards away is the grave of Leonard Ravenhill, Keith’s mentor and a powerful prophetic voice who called the church to all-out devotion to Christ. Standing there I remembered how his book Why Revival Tarries had so stirred my heart years ago. And I chuckled as I remembered Ravenhill’s response to someone who asked him if he thought they were living in the Last Days. “I think we’re living in your last days,” Ravenhill replied. Whatever we’re going to do for Jesus, we’d better do it now. We don’t have the promise of tomorrow.

Often Ravenhill would say, “My main ambition in life is to be on the devil’s most wanted list.” I think he made that list. Inscribed on Leonard Ravenhill’s simple stone the old prophet still probes and preaches: “Is what you’re living for worth Christ dying for?”

These short cemetery sermons call us to ask some serious questions:

• When your life is over, will you be “gone to be with Jesus”?
• Is what you’re living for worth Christ dying for?
• What will be your epitaph?

Paul Billheimer wrote, “To locate the center of history one must bypass all these vast empires and the glittering names associated with them and find his way to a tiny land called the navel of the earth, the geographical center of the world. And in that tiny land is a tiny hill called Calvary, where two thousand years ago a Man named Jesus was lifted up to die. And this writer submits that that tiny hill in that tiny land is the center of all history, not only of this world, but of all the countless galaxies and island universes of outer space from eternity to eternity.” (Destined for the Throne)

This cross – this sacrifice – that is so repugnant to others is attractive and precious to us who believe. It is at the same time the ultimate tragedy and the ultimate triumph. Those who wish to escape Jesus and His cross find that it is too colossal to evade. Whether or not people believe in Him, they are compelled to deal with Him.

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense [‘skandalon’ in Greek], and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame” (Romans 9:33). The offense of the cross is that it is a scandalous line of demarcation, cleaving all humanity into disciples or opponents. Jesus is opposed – often violently opposed – by those He and His cross offend. But it is our honor, never our shame, to stand with Him.

May the blessings of our ever-living Lord rest on you and your loved ones throughout this Holy Week. As you remember the love-driven sacrifice of Jesus for you on the cross, may your heart be overwhelmed with gratitude for such a great salvation, purchased at such a great cost. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

As you rejoice in His glorious resurrection, may you experience the transforming power of the risen Christ. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:11).

Thank you for partnering with us at Global Advance as we proclaim the crucified and risen Christ around the world. And thank you for helping equip courageous church and marketplace leaders in needy nations by your prayers and financial support. This month, thousands of servant-leaders will be equipped for His harvest at Global Advance’s Frontline Shepherds Conferences and Marketplace Missions Conferences in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.

These victories for our risen Redeemer happen because of faithful partners like you. Again, please accept my thanks on behalf of frontline shepherds and business persons who are boldly sharing the Gospel in very destitute nations. By lifting these leaders we can help change nations for Jesus Christ.

The Lord may speak to your heart about a special missions offering in this special week to show your gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice. Your “thank offering” to spread the Gospel is a deeply meaningful way to honor Christ’s atoning work and celebrate His resurrection.

This week, remember and rejoice. Jesus died for you. Now He lives and intercedes for you. One day, He will come for you. As Michael Card sings, “The Crucified arose!”

Recently I was privileged to minister to over 700 fired up young men and women at Teen Mania’s Honor Academy in East Texas. I was deeply moved by their response and affirmation as I challenged them to be champions for Christ. Almost all of these young people are recent high school graduates. They are investing a year of their lives to grow in their walk with Christ, acquire a biblical world view, and learn how to impact their generation for Him.

No one doubts that there is a serious crisis among our young people. Some dismal statistics suggest that only 4% of America’s young people will embrace an evangelical Christian faith. Frankly, I don’t buy it. There are also very encouraging signs that point toward a new Jesus Movement that could explode worldwide.

• The median age at Global Advance’s Frontline Shepherds Conferences continues to be younger. In fact, at the recent Frontline Shepherds Conference in northern India almost 60% of those attending were 30 or younger! What a privilege it was for me to pour Great Commission passion into this new generation of leaders for the church in India.
  

• Christian teenagers in China are willingly suffering for Christ. There are reports of teenage girls who oversee networks of 5,000 people in underground churches. Tens of thousands of young Chinese are prepared to be part of the “Back to Jerusalem” missions movement, taking the old Silk Road and planting the gospel throughout the Islamic world on their way “back to Jerusalem” to support the church in Israel and the Middle East.
  

• Thousands of South Korean students are poised to carry the gospel to their repressive northern neighbor, North Korea. And thousands more young Korean missionaries are scattered across the world.
  

• I have personally seen thousands of Brazilian young people weep before God in deep commitment after I called them to invest their lives as missionaries.
  

• Here in America some research suggests that up to half a million young people ages 13 to 30 participate in some kind of cross-cultural missions outreach every year. This has never happened before in the American church – and this may be the single most hopeful sign in the American church today.
  

God has not overlooked this young generation. They have been singled out for great things. This precious, broken-hearted generation, battered and victimized by the sins of adults, is being raised up by God for fulfilling the Great Commission.

I plan to give a significant portion of the rest of my life to mentoring fired-up young people. Forty-three years ago, I entered the gospel ministry in youth ministry. That may well be where I finish the ministry entrusted to me – once again focused on youth. I am honored to stand with today’s young Jesus People as mentor, coach, and friend in the battle to make Jesus Christ known, ardently loved, radically obeyed and lavishly worshiped here in America and throughout the world.

As I have had the privilege of ministering to thousands of developing-world pastors, ministry leaders and businesspersons, I am struck with their character and the heart of God at work through these underserved brothers and sisters. These are some of the things I’m learning from our brothers and sisters in underserved nations:

• I’m learning Obedience. 3 John 17
• I’m learning the Love of God.
  

They went out “For the sake of His name…”
“It is the love of God that compels us…”

• I’m learning Simplicity. “They took nothing…”
• I’m learning Courage
• I’m learning Faith.
  

God responds to my faith and is insulted by my fears
I’m also learning to speak faith

• I’m learning Humility
  

“Humility is the mother virtue and the perpetual safeguard of the soul.” Andrew Murray

• I’m learning Teachability
• I’m learning Tenacity
• I’m learning about the Willingness to Suffer
• I’m learning about Lordship
  

Full Surrender for an unhindered Holy Spirit