Salem Baptist, Salem, NM

No one is happier than the one who has sincerely repented of wrong. Repentance is the decision to turn from selfish desires and seek God. It is a genuine, sincere regret that creates sorrow and moves us to admit wrong and desire to do better.

It’s an inward conviction that expresses itself in outward actions.

You look at the love of God and you can’t believe he’s loved you like he has, and this realization motivates you to change your life. That is the nature of repentance. — Walking with the Savior / Lucado, M., & Gibbs, T. A. (2000). Grace for the moment : Inspirational thoughts for each day of the year (217). Nashville, Tenn.: J. Countryman.

First, they did most of their evangelism on what we would call secular ground. You find them in the laundries, at the street corners and in the wine bars talking about Jesus to all who would listen. Although it was impossible for them to hold large rallies, which would have fallen under an imperial ban, we get the impression that they had a penchant for small open-air meetings. Gathering a small crowd they spoke as warmly, thoughtfully and challengingly as they could. It is fairly common in the Acts; common too in the second century. It is salutary to recall that the early Christians had no churches during the first two centuries, the time of their major expansion. They had perforce to use the open air. Today open-air evangelism has been largely discredited. But it is my experience that it can be recovered if it is done with humour and lightness of touch. It helps a lot to have a team of people working together. It helps to use drama, dance, juggling and other art forms to help people see as well as hear. I have sometimes seen people come to a deliberate commitment to Christ through such meetings. More frequently, however, it starts a process which is carried through later with proper instruction which is naturally impossible in the open air. Moreover if it is done well, it fascinates a wider circle of passers-by, and at least sends them away with the impression that these Christians have got something sufficiently exciting to spur them to face ridicule. And that might prove the beginning of a quest.

Michael Green. Evangelism In The Early Church (p. 23). Kindle Edition.

Other leaders told us that an attitude of excellence engenders an atmosphere of excitement, which in turn encourages church members to invite their friends. A Southern Baptist deacon in Georgia told us, “For over twenty years we would never see more than two or three visitors a week, even though we held an average attendance over three hundred during these years.” But those years, he said, preceded the arrival of Denzil T., the church’s current pastor.

The deacon continued: “When Denzil came, he started emphasizing excellence in all things. In music, in our buildings, in our programs, in our grounds—you name it. He said that if we couldn’t do something excellent for God, then we shouldn’t do it at all.” For the next several months, the attitude of excellence began to take hold in the church. The facilities started looking nicer. Someone volunteered to landscape the grounds. The musicians in the church became enthused about improving their ministries. This new attitude in turn excited the once struggling congregation. The deacon explained: “You know what I did for the first time in years? I invited my neighbor to church. I guess I was never really too excited about the church before now.”

Rainer, Thom S. (2009). Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them (Kindle Locations 2421-2430). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I told a story in my book The Jesus I Never Knew, a true story that long afterward continued to haunt me. I heard it from a friend who works with the down-and-out in Chicago:

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter—two years old!—to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable—I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

What struck me about my friend’s story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel

Yancey, Philip (2008). What’s So Amazing About Grace? (p. 13). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Carrie stood before the bathroom mirror putting the finishing touches on her makeup before rushing off to the county fair with her girlfriends. Just a bit of lip gloss and one more swipe of the hairbrush and she was ready to go.

Carrie heard the horn blow as the girls pulled in the driveway, and she grabbed her sweater and yelled to her mom still in the kitchen.

“Bye mom, I’ll be home by eleven.”

“Be careful,” her mom called out. Carrie, Katie,

Clair, and Meghan scurried from booth to booth as the carnival barkers drew them in. They watched boys humiliate themselves with attempts to fire rifles at metal foxes running across a black backdrop, shoot basketballs into hoops that seemed strangely small, and bang a giant hammer to prove who was the strongest among the bunch. The girls tried their hands at throwing darts to pop balloons, casting rings over old milk jugs, and tossing balls in slanted straw baskets. After eating a pink sticky cloud of cotton candy, the girls wandered over to various side shows.

“Come one, come all,” the barker called. “Step right up and see yourself as you’ve never been seen before. The House of Mirrors, sure to entertain and amuse. Step right up.”

“Come on in, little lady,” the dark man with greasy black hair and toothy grin motioned to Carrie. She shivered and wanted to turn and run away.

“Let’s go in here,” Katie said. “This’ll be fun.”

Carrie was whisked away with the crowd and lured into the first mirrored room. Elongated reflections stared back, and the girls giggled at the taller, thinner versions of themselves. In the next room, they doubled over in laughter at their stubby arms and legs, expanded torsos, and chubby cheeks. They struck various poses and got a taste of what midget versions of themselves might look like.

The girls then ran to a third room, but Carrie stayed behind. She was silent as she stood mesmerized at what she saw staring back at her. Words began to appear across her chest, fading in and out in various scripted forms. Worthless. Unloved. Ugly. Stupid. Unacceptable.

Sharon Jaynes. “I’m Not Good Enough”…and Other Lies Women Tell Themselves (pp. 7-8). Kindle Edition.

Standing on the windswept shores of Lake Michigan one wintry night, ready to throw himself into the freezing waters, a 32-year-old bankrupt dropout happened to gaze up at the starry heavens. Suddenly, he felt a rush of awe, and a thought flashed through his mind: You have no right to eliminate Yourself You do not belong to t,ou. You belong to the universe. R. Buckminster Fuller turned his back to the lake and began a remarkable career. Best-known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, by the time of his death he held more than 170 patents and was world-famous as an engineer, mathematician, architect, and poet.

Buckminster Fuller’s experience that night on Lake Michigan merely echoed the words of the ancient psalmist, who also contemplated the night sky and was awed by its grandeur:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

The psalmist was inclined to feel insecure and inadequate in the face of such magnificence, but back came a resounding reply to his question:

You made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor (Ps. 8:3-5).

Like it or not (for it does carry with it certain responsibilities as well as glories), we have been created by God, and our Creator has endowed us with remarkable capacities.

Alan Loy McGinnis. Confidence: How to Succeed at Being Yourself (pp. 22-23). Kindle Edition.