Feast or Famine

by Dr. Don Sisk

It’s 3:00 a.m. and I am looking out a hotel window in Mexico City. Last night I finished my part of a great missionary conference in this vast metropolitan city.

As I look to the south, to the east and to the west, I see lights in every direction. There must be over a million lights and every light represents several souls. I have heard population figures quoted, ranging from 15 million to 22 million. I have no idea how many people there really are. Probably nobody knows, but Mexico City is known as the largest and fastest growing city in the world.

This early-morning sight could be Tokyo, Japan; São Paulo, Brazil; Seoul, Korea; Bangkok, Thailand; Santa Cruz, Bolivia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; or Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic. It could be New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles or Philadelphia. It could be any of hundreds of thousands of great cities all around the world. It is hard to sleep when I think of the millions of lost souls who are dying every week. At least 200,000 people die every day. At least 1,400,000 people die every week. The fact that people are dying would not be so bad except that most of them are going out into eternity without Christ.

The cry of a Mexican pastor, Brother Enoch, continues to ring in my ear as I remember hearing him say, “There is enough of the Bread of Life to feed the whole world. There is enough of the Light of the World to enlighten every person who lives on the face of the earth. There is enough of the Water of Life to quench the thirst of every thirsty soul in the whole world. But the great majority of the people of the world know nothing about the Bread of Life. They know nothing about the Light of the World. They know nothing about the Water of Life.”

People are hungry. People are in darkness. People are thirsty. In hundreds of ways they cry out for help to us who have the Bread of Life, who know the Light of the World, who have tasted of the Water of Life. The directive to go and tell may not be quite as clear for us as it was for the Apostle Paul as he contemplated where to go for his next mission work. That night in a vision he saw a man from Macedonia and he heard him crying out, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” But the need is no less real.

The dope addict can never get enough dope. A sex-crazed world can never be satisfied. The greedy can never get enough money. The liar can never tell enough lies. The pleasure-seeker is never satisfied, thus he must seek for greater thrills in some more dynamic fashion. The wife-abusers and child-abusers can never inflict enough punishment. The lesbians and homosexuals can never recruit enough people to their wicked lifestyles. The covetous can never have a house large enough, a car fancy enough nor a wardrobe stylish enough to influence everyone. These carnal and material things cannot satisfy. Man is a spiritual being, and he will always be hungry until he finds the Bread of Life. He will always be in darkness until he sees the Light of the World. He will always be thirsty until his thirst is quenched with the Water of Life.

The world is out of control. Everyone, everywhere, is scared to death! There doesn’t seem to be a safe place anywhere in the world anymore.

It is 3:30 now. The traffic is picking up. In a few minutes, the streets will be packed as the millions of people begin another day seeking for that which will satisfy them. Perhaps there are 200 Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in this city. There is about one Christian worker for every 300,000 people. In contrast, there is about one for every 150 people in Chattanooga, Greenville, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Memphis. On we could go naming cities in America where the gospel has been preached.

In a few minutes, I will be leaving my hotel room for the airport. I will be leaving Mexico City and flying into Dallas where there will be a church on almost every corner. After preaching three days in a missions conference in Dallas, I will be going to Nashville where I will be speaking again in a missions conference. It won’t be difficult to find a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church in the Nashville area. And then after several days on the road, I will be going to my home in Chattanooga. Thank God, there is an abundance of good, gospel-preaching churches in Chattanooga.

I have resumés from many pastors and prospective pastors who are looking for open doors somewhere in America. Somehow they all feel that even though they have been called to a work, they need some kind of a special call to leave a certain geographical area and go where they are needed. The missionaries in the New Testament churches were called to a work, but they were led by God from one geographical area to another. When will we lift up our eyes and look on the fields that are “white already unto harvest.” When will we heed the cry of our Savior when he says, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

If you will be sensitive today, you will hear the multitudes crying out, “Please help us.” They may never audibly utter those words, but their ceaseless searching for something to satisfy should tell us that they are hungry, that they are in darkness, that they are thirsty.

Should not each of us who have tasted of the Bread of Life, who have seen the Light of the World, who have partaken of the Water of Life, search our souls? We should determine in our hearts that with our lives, our possessions, our influence and our bodies, we will use our hands to take to them the Bread of Life. We will turn on the light so they can see, and we will be a pipeline through which the Water of Life can flow to these millions of needy people.

They may be next door to you, across the street, across town or on the other side of the world. You can be selfish and keep what you have for yourself and refuse to be used. You can allow them to die without ever tasting of the Bread of Life, without ever seeing the Light of the World, without ever drinking of the Water of Life, and without ever being satisfied. You can leave them to perish in a Christ-less eternity.

God help us to see their needs. However, if you are willing, God will use you and what you have to help them. God help us to have compassion in this needy hour.