Not Yet Christians

Not Yet Christians

Now here’s a bit of positive thinking for you. Our pastor yesterday refused to refer to the ‘lost’, or the ‘non-Christians’, or the  ‘unchurched’, or ‘sinners’, or any other popular pseudonym; he prefers to call them the ‘not-yet-Christians’. What a great way of putting it – ‘not-yet-but-hopefully-soon-will-be-saved’ people.

How many of these do you know? They come in all shapes and sizes, and in all political hues, and in all manner of religious views too. They are anything from members of your immediate or wider family, neighbours, workmates, acquaintances, shop workers, and complete strangers. They come with odd beliefs or none – atheists, agnostics, other faiths, and no particular faith. Some come with a degree of religiosity but not knowing or practicing very much at all. Some come from a church background but with no concept of new birth or salvation or a relationship with God.

The variations are as many as there are people.

We pigeon-hole all of them to some degree. We like to put them in a box and label them. How exciting can it be to regard them all as having just one label; as being all in the same box? The Bible tells us of the great revival to come when millions will be swept into the Kingdom of God. The   prophets all tell us that this ‘end time revival’ is approaching very soon. So how exciting can it be to regard all who are not saved as ‘not-yet-Christians’?

How can we expedite this ‘end time revival’?

We can’t as that is in God’s timing and not ours. What we can do though is to be prepared. Like the five wise virgins, we need our lamps full and wicks trimmed ready for our Saviour to move. All we have to do is to be prepared to ‘make disciples of all men’. We preach the Gospel in word and deed. We live the Gospel by our life style and our display of ‘loving our neighbour as ourselves’. That is our job and that is all. In fishing terminology, Jesus said he would make us fishers of men; all we do is cast the nets out one more time – wherever He tells us. The rest is up to God, through Holy Spirit. To guide the ‘fish’ into the net.

We had a wonderful salvation last week at church. Our pastor gave some of his testimony of how, as a very young man and before he was in any kind of ministry, he trod the path of alcohol. A young man, who only popped in for whatever he could get, sat wide eyed in amazement. We watched him. With each new revelation from pastor, we could see him thinking – “these guys were the same as me. They had drink and drug problems, yet here they are, free of all that and living for this Jesus.” He ran forward when the call went out and was beautifully saved – his face was shining and glowing – such was his joy and Holy Spirit’s presence resting upon him.

All pastor did was give his testimony – Holy Spirit did the rest. Pastor did his job. Holy Spirit did His job. A young man became a new born Christian. Wow – what a privilege to even be there and watch it happen. Can you imagine many more like him in your area? In your family, among your neighbours and workmates, among those you know and many more you don’t yet know. All we do is our job and leave God to do His job.

Be prepared. It is coming soon. What will we do with all these new Christians in our churches? Hey, give me the problem and with God’s help we will get through. What an exciting ride lies ahead of us.

Are you ready?