by Dr. James Ray - Eecutive Editor

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased (Daniel 12:4).

Years ago my uncle, Joe Kelly, who lived in Louisville, Kentucky, had a great restaurant. He would grill and barbecue and cook excellent fried chicken. He told me there was an old man who came into town driving an old car. The man came into his restaurant and tried to sell him a chicken recipe. The man told Uncle Joe, "Joe, if you will just give me a nickel per order, then I will let you get in on this." My uncle laughed him out of the store. The old man got back into his old car and drove away. Uncle Joe prided himself in avoiding another crazy idea.

With a tear in his eye Uncle Joe said: "That man was Colonel Harland Sanders." Harland Sanders took his first social security check of $105 and started the business called Kentucky Fried Chicken. He didn't have much when he started, but the man had a vision. Today, two billion chicken dinners are sold every year. Just think, a man with a vision and a social security check of $105 today touches the lives of two billion people a year–with chicken. Colonel Sanders saw the potential of using modern methods to spread his message of good chicken. He could have remained content with his small chicken restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, but the man had a vision.

Uncle Joe was an enterprising businessman. He made money and he excelled. However, on the day that Harland Sanders came by, he was "stuck in time" and missed a great opportunity.

Some of us are old enough to remember "how it used to be." Many of the young people of this generation might be puzzled at the mention of days when there was the "ice man" (no refrigerator), when butter had to be churned, when water came from a deep well, when letters were written on a typewriter and when corn had to be taken to a grist mill. They might marvel that there were no televisions and a radio was a luxury. But ask them about computers, text messages, cell phones, GPS's, mp3 players and they will respond immediately. The technology phenomenon over the past 75 years is staggering. BIMI is in its 49th year with over 1,000 missionaries serving in 89 countries of the world. WE ARE ALIVE IN THE GREATEST POPULATION ARENA OF ALL AGES. There are more people alive today than have ever lived before. Think about the world population.

• During the time of Jesus Christ, 170 million people lived in the world.
• One thousand years later there were 254 million.
• When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, there were 400 million people.
• In 1800 the count climbed to 813 million.
• In 1950 it had climbed to 2.4 billion.
• Today there are 6.7 billion men, women and children that need to be reached with the Gospel.

If the 12 apostles had known that there were 170 million people living when they were called, they would have been staggered when Jesus told them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel–so FEW apostles and so LARGE a task. How could so few people reach so many with so little?

If you lined up the population of the world, there would be a line 37 to 40 people deep going all the way around the world. But if you took every Bible-believing missionary that even borders fundamentalism, there would not be a single line going all the way around the earth. It would only be a single line 20 miles long. Now think about 7 BILLION people–and a 20 mile line of missionaries! We must remember the five loaves and two fishes and Andrew's question, "But what are these among so many?" When God touched those meager rations, five to twenty thousand people were able to eat.

Every second, four human beings come into the world. Every second two human beings leave the world and go into eternity. There are at least a billion people that have never heard the name of Jesus. They have no churches, no missionaries, no Scriptures, no witnesses at all. These lost souls exist 2,000 years after Christ gave the Great Commission to His Church: "Make disciples of all nations." The mission has not changed; however, the methods of communication and technology are constantly changing.

Once missionaries could only communicate over oceans by way of undersea cables (a marvel for the time). Now, from the most distant point of the globe, a missionary can dial a number by way of a cell phone and talk to someone thousands of miles away. That missionary can also send a letter through the air (over mountains, deserts, and oceans) in the same amount of time.

BIMI is utilizing much of modern technology to reach the unreached for Christ but more needs to be done. Information is gathered and distributed among thousands of churches through the internet. When there are crises anywhere in the world or on any mission field, BIMI notifies churches and donors immediately. Funds can be electronically wired to the most distant points of the globe. Missionary personnel can travel to the other side of the world in hours. The voice of Radio Lighthouse in the Caribbean daily reaches hundreds of thousands. Missionaries working with BIMI use the means of radio in Uganda, the Niger, Philippines and other places.

It was only a few years past when the sun came up on one of their desolate days that the people whom time forgot in the Sahara Desert heard a different sound floating across the dry landscape over the radio waves. Many of those out in the desert circling Agadez heard for the first time the voice of a missionary proclaiming a message of hope and redemption. Amazing–beyond their life of struggles and hardships there was a place called Heaven. When death came, it would not be the end but the beginning–all because of the modern technology of radio reaching where no missionary might ever go. BIMI's Moments for Missions, heard on over 50 stations in the US and overseas, challenges thousands and thousands of Christians to do more.

Never before has there been such opportunity. Why not 100 radio stations around the globe promoting, not religion, but the true and uncompromised Gospel of the New Testament? Why not printed Bibles in every language? Why not missionaries in every capitol city and every land? The mission never changes: "...into all the world...." The methods do. Like my Uncle Joe, we cannot afford to be "stuck in time."

Opportunity knocks!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

KIRK & KATHY HICKOK -  BRAZIL
CHRIS & CHRISTINE HILMER -  CANADA
HAROLD M & BRIDGETTE HOLDBROOK -  GHANA