This spring the Lord again opened up the opportunity for us to play some music and to do a Gospel chalk art presentation at Mont Saint-Dominique – a Catholic nursing home at which Daddy works. We were amazed at how many people came. The nuns all showed up for the presentation, and even the “curé” (the chaplain) was there. Through the chalk talk, the Gospel was clearly presented. We pray that the Lord would use His Word to convict hearts and draw them to Himself.

Everyone loved seeing Daddy, the beloved doctor, playing music with his children.

A few pictures of the chalk talk…

   We were invited to stay for supper, which we readily accepted. This proved to be an excellent opportunity to interact with both the nuns and the residents, and to begin to get to know a few of them.

    Something I have often wondered when we do Gospel chalk art presentations is why we rarely see much response to the Gospel message. Everyone loves the presentation, but though it often elicits conversation about God, I don’t believe I can say that I actually know anyone who has come to the Lord through it.

    As I pondered this, the Lord opened up two things to me. The first was that God calls us to be faithful, not to see results. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58) Our toiling for the Lord is not in vain even though we may never see the results of our labour. God has promised that His Word will not return to Him void, however He has not promised that we, the bearers of that Word, will see Him accomplish that work. His withholding from us the visible encouragement of results necessitates a response of faith on our part. We must trust that He is at work, though we do not always perceive it.

   The other answer came to me through a book I read recently. I share a quote from it:

    “It [the knowledge of the sovereignty of God’s grace] should keep us from being daunted when we find that our evangelistic endeavours meet with no immediate response. God saves in His own time, and we ought not to suppose that He is in such a hurry as we are. We need to remember that we are all children of our age, and the spirit of our age is a spirit of tearing hurry. And it is a pragmatic spirit; it is a spirit that demands quick results. The modern ideal is to achieve more and more by doing less and less. This is the age of the labour-saving device, the efficiency chart, and automation. The attitude which all this breeds is one of impatience towards everything that takes time and demands sustained effort. ours tends to be a slapdash age; we resent spending time doing things thoroughly. This spirit tends to infect our evangelism (not to speak of other departments of our Christianity), and with disastrous results. We are tempted to be in a great hurry with those whom we would win to Christ, and then, when we see no immediate response in them, to become impatient and downcast, and then to lose interest in them, and feel that it is useless to spend more time on them; and so we abandon our efforts forthwith, and let them drop out of our ken. But this is utterly wrong. It is a failure both of love for man and of faith in God.

    “The truth is that the work of evangelizing demands more patience and sheer ‘stickability’, more reserves of persevering love and care, than most of us twentieth-century Christians have at command. It is a work in which quick results are not promised; it is a work, therefore, in which the non-appearance of quick results is no sign of failure; but it is a work in which we cannot hope for success unless we are prepared to persevere with people.”  Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

    We are called to patient labour. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:7-9