THE GREATEST NEED. The greatest need in the churches today is compassion. Ninety-five percent of all the church problems would be solved if the members would have a “yearning of the bowels” for the lost and dying world. Churches have drifted to the Laodicean condition and need to hear the warning of Jesus who said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” (Revelation 3:19) The greatest need of the hour is for people to learn to cry again. Christians need to learn to weep and have an inner burden which forces them to go with a broken heart after the lost. Many preachers want to be like John and James and have a position with Jesus, but they do not want to be like Paul and earn it with sweat and tears. Paul said he had a “continual heaviness” and that if it would win people, he could wish himself accursed. The prayer of the modern day church should be, “Oh, God, give US MEN with such a burden! Give US COMPASSION.”
THE LACK OF COMPASSION. The lack of compassion among God’s people means multitudes will spend eternity in Hell. The cry of Psalms 142:4, “No man cared for my soul” is very evident today. This cry will lead to the sad condition of Jeremiah 8:20, where the poor man said, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” The most heart breaking condition today among the churches of the Lord is the lack of compassion. People are dying by the millions and going to Hell, and very few Christians seem to care.
PROOF OF LACK OF COMPASSION. The proof of the lack of compassion in the average Christian heart is obvious. One has but to see the small crowds in the churches, the slipping moral standards among the members, and the discouraged, defeated attitude that prevails almost universally in the Christian world. These are just a few symptoms of the sad lack of compassion. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of the lack of compassion is in the feeble results in the churches.
An excerpt from THE ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESSFUL SOUL-WINNING by James Wilkins
