Defining Success at Northchase

In the current era, Christianity tends to define success in numbers, but is that Biblical?  What does the Scripture say?  It is true that people from all tribes, nations, and tongues will be in heaven.  The Bible also calls this a multitude of people, which is by definition a large number of people.  However,  the Bible does not measure our success as Christians based on how many people are saved by what we do.  How then does it measure our success?

Throughout Scripture, we read again and again how faithfulness is considered righteous, and Paul goes to great lengths in Romans 4 especially.  Abraham was called a friend of God not because he produced immediate results; on the contrary he was called a friend of God because he was faithful even when times appeared destitute.  Actually, when we tried to force the blessed offspring to come of his own will and working, things went down hill.  However, after the fiasco with Hagar, Abraham continued to remain faithful, and God intervened in His time when Isaac was brought forth.  Therefore this was credited to Abraham as righteous (Rom 4).

We can then go through the Hebrews Faith Hall of Fame and elaborate on this.  Abel was faithful, and he was killed.  Noah was a preacher of righteousness, yet but 8 people were saved in the Flood!  We've already mentioned Abraham.  The many prophets were killed by sword and even sawn in two.  Jeremiah preached against the ungodliness of his generation, yet they refused to repent.  All of these great saints are made great by the grace of God through faith and not of any work of themselves.  

How then does this apply to us today at Northchase?  First of all, God commands us to evangelize, and we have a great desire to do exactly that because of His grace in us.  We did not know what that would look on a broad scale in our community, but we prayed for the Lord do open up a door in His time.  By His grace, He did.  Through several contacts the Lord has used, we have been working at Northchase for about 2 months.  Now that we are there, our success in God's eyes is measured by our faithfulness to preach the good news, and we are to do so with truth and love while meeting the people's physical needs at the same time.  We have seen the Lord work through the hearts of these people week by week, and we are thrilled that the Nepali people in particular have just been given New Testaments in their own language!  And when they have stayed for the English Bible study, it is amazing to see how they react at the good news that have probably never heard before!

We pray for jobs of those to whom we have been teaching, and those jobs may lead them to other areas at different times, but for them not to be able to return to the ESL and the Bible study that we are doing for such reasons ought never be counted as a failure.  Quite the opposite, it is rather the work going on there by means His sufficient grace through our faithful prayers that such wonderful things have happened.  In this way, God gets all the glory in His time!  We then fall at his feet in absolute worship as we marvel at what He has already done and continues to do! Amen!

Our ultimate goal then is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever by which we do this through loving Him and loving neighbor.  We many never see one conversion at Northchase and they all may leave tomorrow, but God will count our faithfulness as righteous, and for that we shall never be ashamed.  To Him be all the glory forever! Amen!