“NICKY, JESUS LOVES YOU!”
I am not against using modern methods in ministry. We employ many such things in our ministry but we do not receive our direction from these "ministry tools." We spend time on our knees, seeking the Lord for direction in every area of outreach. Yet, prayer is a lost practice among many ministries today. They rely on computers and modern methods rather than on Christ.
Today, "experts" have taken over the reins of the church. Sin is seen in psychological terms and called a "disease." A drug addict is said to have a "weakness." Altars have been replaced with counseling rooms. Prophets of holiness have been replaced by psychologists and social workers spouting the latest man-centered jargon. In short, Jesus is being dethroned—and Freud is being exalted.
Fifty years ago God led me to start a ministry to drug addicts and alcoholics in New York City. We had no money and no how-to books, only total dependence on the Holy Spirit. A sign in our offices read, "No one shines here—only the Holy Ghost!" During our chapel services, we prayed, "Lord, our help isn't in psychology or psychiatry, but in the Holy Spirit. We can't work on the head unless you change the heart!"
Nicky Cruz, one of the first gang members we encountered, was a killer at heart. A psychiatrist we knew took an interest in his case. After spending an entire day with Nicky, the psychiatrist decided Nicky was incorrigible, hopeless. (Little did this man know that Nicky delighted in confusing all "head doctors.")
Yet Jesus had other plans for Nicky, and Christ accomplished in five minutes what the experts said could not be done. Nicky was not psychoanalyzed; his head wasn't examined. No, God sent an arrow into his heart and that arrow was the truth of the gospel: "Nicky, Jesus loves you!"
In a single moment, out went Nicky's heart of stone, replaced with a heart of flesh. Nicky wept, hugging us all. He was supernaturally transformed by the power of God after society's experts had written him off.
Today, "experts" have taken over the reins of the church. Sin is seen in psychological terms and called a "disease." A drug addict is said to have a "weakness." Altars have been replaced with counseling rooms. Prophets of holiness have been replaced by psychologists and social workers spouting the latest man-centered jargon. In short, Jesus is being dethroned—and Freud is being exalted.
Fifty years ago God led me to start a ministry to drug addicts and alcoholics in New York City. We had no money and no how-to books, only total dependence on the Holy Spirit. A sign in our offices read, "No one shines here—only the Holy Ghost!" During our chapel services, we prayed, "Lord, our help isn't in psychology or psychiatry, but in the Holy Spirit. We can't work on the head unless you change the heart!"
Nicky Cruz, one of the first gang members we encountered, was a killer at heart. A psychiatrist we knew took an interest in his case. After spending an entire day with Nicky, the psychiatrist decided Nicky was incorrigible, hopeless. (Little did this man know that Nicky delighted in confusing all "head doctors.")
Yet Jesus had other plans for Nicky, and Christ accomplished in five minutes what the experts said could not be done. Nicky was not psychoanalyzed; his head wasn't examined. No, God sent an arrow into his heart and that arrow was the truth of the gospel: "Nicky, Jesus loves you!"
In a single moment, out went Nicky's heart of stone, replaced with a heart of flesh. Nicky wept, hugging us all. He was supernaturally transformed by the power of God after society's experts had written him off.