A Cassette Just for You — George Verwer

Cassette Technology as a Weapon for World Evangelization

One of the most powerful weapons that the Church has ever been given for the evangelization of the world, you probably think that I'm referring to the Bible, but I don't refer to that as a weapon, though of course it is, the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, but I'm referring to this cassette recorder.

You can now buy cassette recorders for about $15. There was a man back in Paris whose heart was filled with hatred toward Christianity, and through the cassette he completely took over the nation of Iran.

The first major cassette revolution. We as God's people, we believe we have the truth, we know the Bible is God's word, and yet we are so unbelievably slow in spreading it. So here we are in the subcontinent, a billion people, a thousand million people, and many of them have never heard a single message of the gospel.

Now in the last 25 years, OM and Every Home Campaign, a number of groups have been spreading literature, so quite a few have read the gospel, but many are illiterate, and they can't read it, though we know that sometimes people read it to them, and we are as committed to literature distribution as we have ever been.

It's staggering the amount of literature the brothers and sisters in India distribute. I mean it is just amazing. Truckloads and truckloads of literature go out, and yet of course there are 700 million in India alone.

I had this burden to somehow see OM move into higher gear in the use of the cassette tape. You can now buy a blank cassette wholesale for about 75 cents, 50 cents, 40 cents, depends where you buy them.

The ship has proven the enormous power of the cassette, and tens of thousands of people have signed up to receive these cassettes. The moment they hear the message on the ship, they ask to raise their hand, how many want the cassette?

I remember preaching to a group of pastors in Spanish in Mexico when I was done. How many wanted the message? I think a hundred. A hundred messages go out. If everybody played that to their church, a hundred times a hundred, how many people hear the message?

No, I haven't been back in Mexico much since. I'm ministering all over the nation. Even as I'm sitting here now, making another cassette, realizing especially OM, a number of the people I like to share with are out busy right now.

Cassette enables them to listen to it later on. I was just sharing with one of the brothers, we were having a little walk, and he said, oh, he doesn't listen to cassettes much, but he listened to one the other day and it really ministered to his heart, the seven major turn-offs, seven things people do that so quickly turn off other people, and he was challenged by that.

If you're into sevens, I've got a lot of new seven messages, seven major blunders I've just done down in Bhutan, Bhutan especially, the seven major blunders of returning OMers. I think here in Nepal, the possibilities for doing more with cassettes, on the increase, I know Gospel Recordings are doing something with records, the record of course is rapidly being replaced by the cassette, they are also doing something with cassettes.

Even those little Nepali tapes we made at the church last time I was ministering here, you duplicated sets of those. We can't even measure what those messages are going to do, as two of the pastors in Bhutan both have sets, and other people bought copies.

Biblical Grounding Through Recorded Teaching

I think we need to realize that many of the believers in Nepal are not being grounded in basic understanding of scriptures. Of course, often extremist groups and all kinds of interesting people are around with their various messages, and unless we give people a balanced diet and a solid spiritual diet, they sometimes get it from other places.

Now that isn't the main thing on my heart this evening, but I mention that in the way of introduction, because I think cassettes are also a tremendous way for OMers to get Bible teaching. All these OMers, probably a very high percentage, after one or two years in OM, they all feel they must go to Bible school.

And there's nothing wrong with that, except Bible school is very short, and if you think the knowledge of the Bible, you get in Bible school, equips you for ministry, life ministry, you must be a little naive.

If you're going to be equipped, you need to be in the Word of God all the time. You need to realize also that in a lot of the Bible schools, there's a lot of academic unreality. People are just talking about things that are not an experience in their own life.

In fact, quite a few people in Bible schools are quite discouraged, but that's their profession. They are now a teacher in a Bible school. That's their profession. That's their career. They're paid for that.

So they keep doing it, even though they're discouraged. We have, of course, people in OM sometimes that happens as well. And I just believe that if you're serious about Bible study, you want to make better use of ministry that is available on cassette tape.

Just in the last couple of weeks, I've been able to go through a series of tapes by Charles Swindoll, a series of tapes by David Maynes, a tremendous series on revival, and I'm in the middle of Peter Maiden's series that he gave here at the conference when I didn't have time to get in on the sessions.

This is how I extended. I only went to Bible college for two years. How I extended my Bible college for 25 years, always listening to systematic teaching on cassette, new ministry on cassette, and it really has been an enormous help in my own life.

And one of the reasons I can give out so much is because God has given me so much. I hear other speakers talk about getting dry. I've never known that experience since my conversion, getting dry. I'm willing to have that experience.

But to me, you've got this book and you've got these books and you've got also ministry on cassette, which people hundreds of years ago did not have. How in the world can you get dry? You won't always be the same.

And I think of this little library here. I know, of course, great books are missing, but I wonder how many of you just take advantage of the spiritual food in that library. I think behind that door over there are cassettes.

Somebody wrote from the ship recently, some of the cassettes are getting old here. You know, to me, the older the better. If they got any here by D .L. Moody, I'd sure like to listen to them. It's not the age of the cassette.

There may be a few things that are not relevant, but boy, if you can get any tapes by George Whitfield or Wesley, you listen to them. Some of the people who made those cassettes on the ship are now with the Lord.

I certainly hope they don't start throwing them away. Another tremendous thing you can do with cassettes is make cassette and send home to your churches. One of the messages I shared here at the Leaders Conference, and I hope you'll somehow get a hold of those tapes, you may want to write down a few of these tape titles because sometimes you have to battle to get a hold of them, but I shared a message on how to spread the vision.

One of our goals in India, perhaps a little more than Nepal, is to spread the vision to the Indian churches. We've been really trying to deal with this. And one of the ways that we can do that, of course, is making use of cassette tapes.

Last year here in Kathmandu, we made a tape with various reports of different OM leaders. A couple of hundred copies of that tape went all over the world. And people use those tapes in their prayer meetings.

A lot of prayer groups connected with OM are looking for new material. A tape with reports from the field, even the sound effects in the background, birds or gongs from the temples or whatever, can all add to the challenge of a cassette tape.

It's also a good way to communicate even to individuals. My wife and I here in Kathmandu made a tape for our children. They actually sent us one first before we even sent one back to them. So we can use tapes in evangelism.

We can use tapes to communicate the vision. We can use tapes to increase our own knowledge of the word. A lot of us have to do some routine things. You know, we have to clean. I like to clean. I have as nearly as much time to do it as I would like to.

And especially now with the Walkman, but even an ordinary tape recorder, for years they've had those little earplugs you put in your ear. That's a new invention. You can sometimes listen to messages without disturbing others, and you can listen to messages when you're doing routine tasks.

The last two years I've been doing a lot of my jogging, listening to Bible reading messages. And it's tremendous to be jogging along with Dr. Lloyd-Jones or Stephen Alpert or Alan Redpath. It does bother me that some people, because it's new, because they're not used to it, they reject this.

I had one leader very proudly tell me, major leader in Oregon, I never listen to tapes. What would he like if I looked at him and said, I never read books. I mean, ridiculous. And if we can read books, we can listen to tapes.

Because it's interesting, that same person actually went through seven years of university studies. You have to listen to all kinds of lectures. This way you don't have to sit in the classroom, you can take the lecture and even listen to it propped up in bed when you're ill.

I remember when I was seasick coming across the Indian Ocean to India, listening to a great series by Dr. Francis Shader. People said, oh, I wish I could go to Labrie. You know what you do if you go to Labrie?

You just sit and listen to tapes. Well, I never bothered to go, I just got the tapes. Listened to them, and I've been greatly helped in my faith through various tapes of Dr. Francis Shader. Once someone has this vision and has this burden, then they can build up their tape library.

If no one has the burden of the vision, of course the tape library just becomes something sitting in a box in the local base somewhere. The ships, of course, have fantastic tape libraries. Sometimes they even go extreme.

One Indian brother listened to 230-some Gerwar messages, which is way too much of one particular speaker. Eventually, we eventually had to encourage him to leave LM actually. But there's no miracle cure.

If you find someone actually eating the tape, you know that they've gotten too far, and they're trying some kind of a shortcut. But I thought in terms of cassette tapes, that rather than just give you one little message, a little time I have with you as an apology, I would give you a curriculum of tapes that I'd like you to try to listen to.

If you want to get a little better idea, or more of an idea, of some of the things that I'm teaching. For example, I go on Lagos, spend a whole week there teaching. I go on Dulas, spend a whole week teaching.

With the leaders, ten days. With those down at the border, of course, that was a different message every day, that I had 11 days of teaching. With you, I have one devotional session. So I thought I'd sacrifice my devotional session to give you a curriculum for advanced study in OM of people in out-of-the-way places.

If you ever feel a little neglected here in Nepal, there's now a petition that's gone down to India, send us your Bible speakers, which is good, of course. You can have a Bible study in a group listening to the best preachers in the world on cassette tape.

Now, it's a disadvantage you can't ask them questions after. That is a distinct advantage of having people. But one thing I've learned is you can write these Christian leaders and you often get more thought-through answers sometimes.

People like William MacDonald, you can write him. He'd be thrilled to get a letter from Nepal. He's got a burden here. He's been praying for OM 27 years. And he would be happy to answer your questions if you listened to some of his cassettes.

Now, I keep a lot of my outlines in my Bible, so I just thought I'd share a few messages. I'll say a few things about these messages and the Lord may speak to us through that. And try to whet your appetite, and then you'll have the task of trying to get a hold of these tapes.

Some of them are down with Ruby Gomez, the original, in Gorakhpur. Let me just give you some of the ones that have been on my heart lately and then a few others that I have in my Bible. I shared a message I'd like you to hear on how to keep OM young.

Never preached on this before. Why did it take me 25 years, 28 years to get this message? Thought of these things and mentioned some of these thoughts. Never had a message on this until a few days ago.

Five Principles for Keeping the Mission Young

That's five main points. We've got to remain learners. We've got to keep changing and avoid especially OM pride. We've got to understand and use modern technology in the media. We've got to specialize in hot communication.

And we can't sacrifice our basic policies. That's the skeleton on what I feel is a very, very strong message that really knocks out some of these ideas that as we get older we're not going to be able to relate to the young people.

And of course a lot of your mission agencies have grown older and they are not relating to the young people. And they are looking to OM to supply them with trained young people. There's a lot of thoughts on that subject that I would love to share with you.

Obstacles Facing OM India and the Church

Another message I shared recently I'd like you to listen to is the seven major obstacles of the work of OM India. Again, they outline the state of the church and God's people in India. Two, the sins of the tongue.

Three, the lack of vision, discipline, and initiative. Four, the financial situation of India. Five, the spread of extremism, denominationalism, and the lack of wisdom. Six, the family pressure problem.

Very important to understand that when you're in Nepal as well. And then seven, the lack of deep trust and faith. I was so encouraged by that message because the Lord gave me a message. I've never given that message before as well, maybe similar things years ago.

And I've asked everybody in Gorakhpur to listen to that tape. It's the only tape that I think everybody there may listen to. Then you, of course, as an OMer, already know this and are using this little leaflet.

I'm sure you already have it translated into Nepali. The seven major emphasis of Operation Mobilization. You don't even need to put the word OM. You can call it seven biblical emphasis. You don't have to mention OM.

And down on the border, I shared further thoughts on the seven major emphasis for people that have been studying that and are aware of that. Then I already mentioned to you the message of seven major blunders of the returning OMer.

Another message I've been sharing that you might want to get a hold of. I have nowhere. I guess copies are around somewhere. So seven reasons why you should go. If you have any friend and you want to give them something strong to get them to go to mission field, you just send them that tape.

I first gave that on the Dulas. Imagine on the Dulas. Seventy people stood to commit themselves to career missions as a result of that message. I've been giving it a lot more since. But I only give that message to people who've already had some experience.

I don't give it to new recruits generally. People who've already had some conferences or some OM experience because some of the reasons for them going are based on their previous experience. And if you can make use of that tape, I think you would find it quite encouraging.

Reaching the Unreached and Correcting Misplaced Priorities

Then there's a little tape floating around called The Challenge of Missions. This has only got five points. Five points. And you know, any of these messages, you can listen to them and make up your own message so that when you go back to your church, you've got some things to share.

This is the message I've shared in some of the churches. It's the challenge of the unreached people, the challenge of undisciplined youth, the challenge of sleepy adults, the challenge of frozen assets, and the challenge of misplaced priorities.

Isn't that dynamite for an outline? I must admit, even though I've done that myself, I get challenged by these outlines. What else should I share with you? You know, whenever I share the seven major emphases, I remind people that these seven major emphases are built on the major doctrinal emphasis of OM.

OM has a doctrinal statement. And those emphases in that little leaflet, if they're not built on sound doctrine, they could lead you even into a cult. And so I have ten major doctrines of OM message I don't have much chance to share because so many other people are preaching on doctrine.

The personal triune God of love, creation. The Bible is God's word. Number two, Jesus Christ and his atoning death. Number three, number four, the lostness of men. Number five, justification by faith.

Six, the Holy Spirit dwelling. Seven, the church, both universal and local. Eight, the second coming of Christ. Nine, the doctrine of heaven and hell. Of course, there are other major doctrines. Very seldom shared this.

Shared it once in a church in Jordan. I didn't know where. It was like Daniel in the lion's den. This church was drifting away from teaching on the trinity. And my first point was the personal triune God.

It had a revolution. An influence out of Iraq because of the sensitivity of this among Muslims was teaching a sort of Jesus only or one God, no trinity type of theory. And there's a lack of just basic Bible doctrine teaching.

And, of course, to be able to teach doctrine in a way that it's interesting and exciting is, I think, especially helpful. Then there's a message floating around you may want to get a hold of some day.

By the way, if anybody has the interest to write me for any of these tapes, you'll be sure you'll get them. There's not that many people ever write asking for tapes. They all think I'm too busy. But I just give it to my secretary.

She's too busy, so she gives it to Mark. He's too busy, so sometimes the tapes don't go. But anyway, we try hard. But this is a message you may want to get a hold of one of these days floating around the ON tape jungle.

Maintaining High Motivation and Spiritual Discipline

Keeping our motivation high. You know, if my motivation's high, nothing can touch me. I can walk by the best looking chick. Some girl just jogged past me down the trail here. My motivation is high today.

I didn't give it a second thought. But if my motivation is low, then, you know, somehow I can get in other troubles at least in the mind. So my goal is to keep the motivation high. I don't like any of this low motivation.

I like to get highly motivated. So this is a message for myself. Eleven points. Don't write these down. Just to whet your appetite. Discipline in the word. Eyes on the Lord at the foot of the cross. Looking to the fields.

All things work together for good. The life of Jesus, the life of Paul and all the other saints. Time is short. We have the truth. Little things count. Books, films. Number eleven. Seeing other people fall.

What will ever happen to me if I get away from Jesus? Well, there are many other points on that motivation message. I gave a message here in Nepali, which I think you ought to listen to, English Nepali, on how disunity comes.

Some of you were there. People came to me immediately. They said, look, this message is needed all over Nepal. Copies are already down in B12. And I think the Lord may bring healing. And that situation, which took place a year and a half ago, is still not healed.

I don't think that one church is ever going to all come back and sit in the same church. But I think there could be some degree of dialogue and healing. I spoke in both churches when I was there. A number of people caught up in that struggle and still don't go to any church now.

Enemies of Fellowship and Community

But enemies of... This isn't the same message, but this is an outline. Enemies of fellowship and community. And believe me, you may be having good fellowship here. I sense there's a good team spirit here, but the devil will attack.

He'll just wait. Maybe he'll wait until a change of seasons. You've got a lot of people coming through here these days. Maybe a lull somewhere and the enemy will attack through that. But here are the enemies of fellowship.

There's only ten of them. Pride, idealism, sins of the tongue, crooked thinking and the lack of wisdom, impatience, lack of true love, darkness, lack of vision, unfaithfulness and failure to receive admonition and correction.

How are you on that last point? Are you good at receiving admonition? Wayne goes over to where you're staying or up to your room. I just was up in that top room on the roof. It's not as messy as the last time I was here, so it's actually quite encouraging.

But, you know, how do you handle when someone tries to give you an admonition? You know, sometimes we receive admonition quite easily if it's a main leader. You know, it's a main leader we sort of respect him.

But what about when it comes from an equal? What about it comes from someone who you feel? You would never say that, but you feel, you know, they're not quite senior to you. And they try to correct you.

That's always an interesting experience. And then I have an old tape floating around dealing with emotional problems. Really being honest. These are eight ways to deal with emotional problems. Really being honest with ourselves and others to appropriating God's love and forgiveness.

I hope you're pushing healing for damaged emotions. Three, handling the fear of failure and rejection. Four, taking care of the body, relaxation, knowing your limits. Watch out for those big energy thieves.

Have you ever heard of the five big energy thieves? Some of you are tired. Here's the five big energy thieves. Worry, fear, bitterness, perfectionism and guilt. They can actually, I'm convinced, drain you of energy.

Now, you may be tired for other reasons. Failed to sleep last night. But there's five energy thieves. Being negative is another major energy thief. I've got to give my message, seven major energy thieves, but I haven't done that yet.

Five, getting involved. Getting involved with others. You know, as I was so involved with these Indian brethren in the last 11 days, I hardly had time to think about my own problems. And I got them. Struggles, doubts, you know, you name it.

I mean, these brothers, much more difficult situations than most of us. Their future, even finding a job, who they're going to marry, they have many of no choice of who they're going to marry, the dowry thing.

And, you know, I'm sure it's quite overwhelming sometimes when you get too involved. But a certain amount of involvement is incredibly healthy for our own emotional life. Getting involved. Six, positive attitude.

I have scripture references, of course, for all these things. Seven, most people go through life with problems. Don't overreact to yours. Eight, freedom via discipline and balance. Then I have my great mysteries message.

The Mysteries of Life, Death, and the Atonement

I don't think I've ever preached this one. The five great mysteries. To me, unless you understand the mystery theory, you run into difficulties eventually in life because you're always trying to find out the answer.

And you find the answer to all these problems and all these hurts. And why does God allow suffering? To me, the mystery message has really saved me. I have five mysteries. There are many more than the mystery of life itself.

Six mysteries. The mystery of life itself to the mystery of sex. That just blows my mind. I'd love to give you my sex mystery message, but I haven't preached it yet. And the mystery of death. You know, here we're having lunch, this guy walks in.

You know, son of a gun. You're never going to see him again. Down there burning in the river. Dead. Mystery of death. The mystery of heaven. Mystery of hell. The mystery of the atonement. Actually, it worked into a gospel message.

Balance in the Home and in Christian Life

And I don't know if you've heard my balance in the home message. Have you heard my balance in the home message? Nine ways to have balance in the home. Here's nine areas where you have to wrestle for balance.

You'll be going out of your minds to get all of these takes. Having respect and having humility. As a parent. Having respect and how to have humility. I goofed on that. I think I come out without either one at times.

Number two, discipline, love, and freedom. Forsake all. Maintain a home. A neat, tidy home and a testimony. A tough one. Four, living by faith. Taking proper care of the family. Five, getting things organized versus learning patience and long-suffering.

Six, sharing versus being kind in all things. Seven, having convictions versus letting love cover. Eight, having a healthy diet versus not wasting or living extravagantly. Number nine, work and evangelism versus play and recreation.

That's very much linked with a balanced view of God. Holiness versus mercy. Wrath versus forgiveness. Truth versus love. Righteousness versus grace. You know, my problem, I feel that I'm a truth glutton.

Yeah, truth glutton. That's a good term. I feel I have so much truth. I've read so many books. I have so many messages. I can't even share, even once a year, just the truths that are on my heart that I'm able to share.

There's many truths I have that I'm not maybe very good at sharing. And I think this is often a problem. I was listening to one of these revival tapes. And when the great revival broke out in the 1800s in New York City, the believers there gathered in these prayer meetings that led to this massive revival.

They said, we've had enough teaching, but nothing's happening in our lives. And so they stopped the teaching sessions. It was unusual. They started having prayer meetings. And then the revival came and spread to Philadelphia.

Hundreds of thousands were brought into the kingdom. What an amazing story. I'm sure some of you have read about that. Seven areas of false motivation in God's work. The praise of men. Pride and ego trips.

Three, vested interests. Four, money and selfishness. Five, fear to move out. Six, bitterness, revenge, and resentment. Seven, trying to prove oneself linked with insecurity. Foundation for knowing God's will.

Discerning God's Will Through Scripture, Prayer, and Faith

First preached this in German in a former Hitler camp. Up in the mountains, taken over by a group of deaconesses. They asked me to speak on the will of God, not my favorite subject. So I got this. Ten, twelve ways to find the will of God.

Number one, emphasize spiritual life. Two, submission to God. Three, thanksgiving. Four, trust. Five, witness. Six, learning God's viewpoint. Seven, getting things in basic focus. And then remember, God guides different people in different ways.

Two, waiting on him. Two different sections. Three, the word. Four, prayer. Five, providence. Six, moving by faith, not being passive. Seven, willing to take a risk. Many people never find God's will.

They're not willing to take a risk. I'd love to give you my risk message, but I haven't developed it yet. Well, have you had enough outlines? Miracles we need. I gave this message at Bethany Fellowship.

Spiritual Stability as the Greater Miracle

A man heard the tape from one of America's leading publishers, asked me to write a book on it, which I refused to do. It's called The Seven Major Miracles. The miracle of stability. It starts off talking about the miracles of New Testament healing, the raising of the dead, people really getting excited.

Wow, another miracle message. Then I go, the seven major miracles needed in America, especially, I usually change it depending on what country I'm in. The miracle of stability. The miracle of spiritual balance.

The miracle of moral purity. Many who have been healed miraculously later on fall into moral impurity. So that's a greater miracle, isn't it? The miracle of ongoing reality. The miracle of a happy holy marriage.

The miracle of listening and learning. The miracle of perseverance. In the last couple of September conferences, I've given the seven major message. Message. Any of you heard that? The seven major messes in OM.

Messes. You don't make a mess, you spill everything on the kitchen floor. Got to get all these into German. Here are the seven major messes in OM. Financial messes, social policy messes, literature message, organizational messes, transportation messages, messes, relationship messes, and doctrinal messes.

I like to mix the outlines, by the way. What time is it? We're going to finish right on time. Fifteen minutes. You won't hear from me for another year. Unless you get into these tapes. I love to mix red hot quotes.

Guarding Against Harmful Speech and Administrative Imbalance

If you're not a brilliant mind throwing out new quotes every day, well, simple, that's not a great problem. Get other people's quotes, like me. Here's Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Listen to this. It's in German.

The angry word is a blow struck at a brother, a stab at his heart. It seeks to hit, to hurt, to destroy. A deliberate insult is worse, for we openly disgrace our brother in the eyes of the world, causing others to despise it.

Just this morning I wrote next to that, Proverbs 18 .19 and Proverbs 18 .8. A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city. To me, that kind of quote is just so powerful. Here's a message I've probably only given once, especially dedicated to Wayne, because he's the administrator, now the acting leader of the Nepal field, a full-fledged field within Operation Mobilization.

Not to be treated like some second-rate, distant place of nondescripts. Here's the balance in administration. Here it is. Seven areas of balance in administration. Authority, liberty, methodology, expediency, thriftiness, accomplishment, quality, quantity, consolidation, expansion, being a servant, delegating details, overview.

You get it? Good. Praise the Lord, this work is going to go uphill. The marks of a living local church. I remember giving this one in Poland. All over Poland these tapes go in the Polish language. It's amazing the feedback I get from that.

Marks of a Living Church and the Need for Personal Discipline

The marks of a living church. And this is true of a living team, which I hope you'll be. Learn together by growing together. Learning to love, learning from God's Word, learning to pray, learning to witness, learning to repent.

Growing, multiplying the church. Seven things. Simple things. People say, last year when I arrived back in my team, it was in the worst state of any year that I'd ever gone to Asia. I mean, it was in disarray.

A lot of reasons, a lot of reasons. Not blaming anybody. But one of the things the enemy tries to use, is during the year we feel, well, it's not training a program enough. How am I getting trained? And we're looking for something at times in life that doesn't even exist.

There's not a little stereotype package I can give you for one year. At the end of the year you're going to come out trained. We could get five people to argue what the word training even means. Are you talking about intellectual training, academic training?

Are you talking about God's great training program? It seems to me everybody's in that, whether they come on OM or not. They may be running away from it. But you know, the things we need to be trained in, that is worked into our life, are these basics.

Like this. Growing together. Learning to love. If you learn more how to love in OM, then you have fulfilled a major training goal. If you haven't learned how to love, no increase of study program, no increase of academic things, is going to necessarily resolve that.

It may help. But without obedience it won't help. And studying the word, and especially learning how to study the word yourself, I'm sure probably your study program here in Nepal is not a whirlwind program.

When you read sometimes about other fields, it may always sound better. But when you get there, and I visit all the fields, it's not always all. It's crapped up to be. Because in fact, without personal discipline, the best of our study programs actually often go down, go down the tube.

And if you are serious about study and training, and really at least knowing what's on the heart of OM, then I do commend you to some of these messages that God has put on my heart. Let's just go to the back of my Bible and see what we've got.

Back here. You know, the 13 dangers that face OM, this is one I preach about three times a year, mainly to leaders. But I first gave this at the first Coordinators Conference in Diehl in the early 1960s.

Thirteen Dangers Facing Operation Mobilization

1960s, these were 13 things I felt were dangers for OM at that time. If they were dangers then, how much now? One, getting set in our ways. Two, not walking in the light. Three, not taking time to meet for prayer.

Four, not being involved in evangelism, very basic one. Five, subtle influences of the lukewarm. Six, presumption that we now know the principles. Seven, choosing the road of least resistance, especially in regard to our temperaments.

Eight, listening too quickly to evil reports. Nine, allowing discipline to slip. Ten, subtle forms of pride. Eleven, slacking off in our battle against lust. Twelve, neglecting the home. Thirteen, idealism.

You know, even before Dr. Seaman's book came out, we declared idealism as a deadly enemy of OM or of reality. The big mistakes the leaders make, this has gone to leaders and pastors conferences all over the world, it's very, very basic.

Neglect of the word, prayer and personal worship, one. Two, neglect of the body, especially discipline and exercise. Three, the neglect of reading and learning from others. Four, neglect of the wife, family, and sex life.

Five, neglect, that's for married people. Five, neglect, personal outreach and evangelism, and visitation, personal contact. Six, discipline, lack of discipline in food, sex, and sleep. Seven, failure to handle criticism, that's the biggest.

Eight, tangents, extremes, false doctrine. Nine, failure to press on to the end. Ten, failure to cultivate real love. Down at the border, I also shared my 18 secrets of survival, which are not secret.

Survival, Balance, and Missionary Strategy

I shared those with the girls, part one and part two, that tape is easily available. To me, the Christian life is at times survival. You know, if I had gone through what Wayne and Sheila went through recently to me, it would be just survival.