Stories for Lausanne III Congress

Tears and Truth: Lausanne III

All this week I’ve been at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 4,000 Christian leaders from 197 countries have come together here to confront the critical issues of our time as they relate to the future of the Church and world evangelism.

Richard Stearns speaks at the Lausanne Congress.

I have wept more than once this week. Tears ran down my face as I listened to Libby Little passionately tell the story of her husband, Tom Little, the medical missionary brutally killed in Afghanistan in August. She said that his death provided the fragrance of Christ to those who killed him.

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Rarity That Shouldn't Be

Some things happen rarely.  Depending on what it is, that can be good or bad.  Today, one of those good things happened that really should not be so rare, but for me, it is.

I was feeling just a bit beat up by the day - conflict and drama in abundance, some bad news about the tragic death of a good man I knew, two sick children, and not enough hours in the day to get everything off my tasks list. 

But as I hung up the phone from a call that drained me a bit, I saw that I had missed a call from an old friend.  I then had the kind of thought that is very rare for me.  My thought was, "God, I know you told Scott to call me."  I hit the call back button and Scott answered and asked, "What's up?"  I said, "I'm just calling you back."  Then he said, "I know.  I was calling you because the Holy Spirit just spoke to me and told me to call you."  I smiled.

My confession is that when I hear others talk like this, I get somewhat uncomfortable.  Little alarms go off in my head when I am around people who are  always "hearing from God" about this or that.  Maybe I've had a few too many experiences with people who were sure they had heard from God on things they clearly had not, as demonstrated by time and their lack of accuracy.

But this friend is different.  He hears from God all the time for one reason only.  He listens attentively.  Today, I am glad he did.  Just his phone call encouraged me and he offered to pray for me as well.  May Scott's practice of attentively listening to the voice of God become mine as well.