I almost forgot to get up. Guess that's what happens after vacation-you need a rest period. To all those who didn't notice that I was on vacation and sent me notes of concern, I appreciate them.

We left Tuesday night(actually 3am Wednesday getting there) fighting fog and sleep all the way. Got up at 10 and never left the house that day. Next day we went out walking down to the beach, with swirling fog all about us. Spent some time watching the news about all the ice and snow they were having back home. We headed back on Friday am, walking through the door to calls and visits. And for those who were concerned, I apologize. I had put together some messages but never got a handle on them. Never made it to another computer.

And yesterday I didn't even have to preach as one of my mentors came to preach on hope. It was funny not having to prepare a message, just reading the Word picking up the pebbles of life along the way.

But...

God has stirred a message in me this week, and I am not even sure how to approach it. But I recognize this part of it. Why am I or any other "preaching to the choir"? Somewhere down on the Cape, God stirred a tremendous feeling(once again!) about the lost. Here I am watching a movie about Vietnam in the 60's and I am watching as a man sat there as truckloads of men headed to battle. I just began to weep as I realized that is the truckloads of the lost pouring over the walls of hell, going to a place they are not sure of, even having the "smiles" pasted on their faces believing that "God" (whom they don't know) will protect them only to end up in a body bag called hell. So once again I am at that unusual place in my life where I feel the cries of the lost and the pain of the Lord.

"Preaching to the choir". To me that means preaching a message of salvation to a group of people who are already saved. But I am concerned about those who "know" me are Christians, and there is not a lot of eternal benefit to "knowing" me after they are saved. Am I being too rough on myself? There is a dilemma of knowing what God wants and doing what God wants. God wants His children back in the fold and that job falls on us. He has a recovery program for those He lost in Eden.

I am not a teacher, so standing before a room of saved people, I am so inadequate. The man who spoke for me yesterday said I have heart and love for Jesus(even though I am here and there!), and while that is a good testimony, I am concerned that I have been apathetic in my search for truth and the bringing it forth to the lost. Its like this list you are on. I send a letter out to 1,500 people and new ones coming on board every day. What keeps me fresh is the unsaved, the lost. And if I "preach" to you, perhaps it is of no eternal value, and yet if this seed is sown in the heart of an unbeliever then it is valueable.

Many of you forward this letter to unsaved friends and family and they write me from time to time, often beginning with prayer requests, and progressing from there. See that is the seed that is eternal. I am concerned with the lost in such a way, that once again I hear their voices of pain. Its been a while.

So when you are sitting with those unsaved friends, isn't time you told them? About Jesus, His love and His desire to be with them? Jesus is your lover, the one you will spend eternity with. He wants you to "boast" on Him, tell of His great love. Have we become so "church" oriented that we are not "world" oriented, telling them the Good News???

God is shaking me, He is shaking our church and if He is doing it here, He is doing it other places. Perhaps your own life has become apathetic, even boring. Perhaps warming a pew or a chair isn't fun anymore. You have just entered the "danger" zone. You will find something that appeals to you and if it is not Him, The Christ, that which you walk after will hurt you possibly even destroy you. The excitement comes from the freshness of knowing Him, having Him be the love of your life. Its time we recognize that the shaking will not stop, and that God will have His way, with or without us.