Brother Justin Peters tweeted this monthly newsletter from John MacArthur at Grace To You. It is a year-end wrap up letter. I found it so encouraging! With so much negative news today (another shooting at a bowling alley last night) and negative Christan news constantly barraging us with the alleged imminent failure of the church, the alleged exodus of youth from the faith, and the rising number of false teachers and doctrines, we tend to get overwhelmed with the sad news.
So here is some great news. The Lord is alive and constantly working in the world, making converts in every nation for the glorification of His name!
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From John's Desk
Dear Friend,
A couple of weeks ago our board of directors met. I am part of the board, and every fall we review Grace to You’s finances, hear reports on how the Lord is using the ministry, and receive updates on current projects and new endeavors. I can’t imagine how the meeting could have been more encouraging. Here are some of the key points and highlights:
The men and women who benefit from Grace to You, share our commitment to Bible exposition, and want a role in reaching others with it, are supporting our efforts at an unprecedented level. By God’s grace, all our financial needs are being met. I’m so thankful.
- Users of our website and apps are downloading or streaming an average of more than 60,000 sermons every day. In the ten years since we opened the vault, visitors worldwide have downloaded nearly 190 million sermons, all at no charge.
- We continue serving our Grace to You family through the more than 100,000 CDs, booklets, and books we distribute by mail free of charge every year. Since 2017 we have given away four major titles, including 35,000 copies of The MacArthur Study Bible anniversary edition.
- We recently formed a new radio network partnership. We now air on that network’s nearly one hundred stations, expanding our reach to more than 1,350 outlets in the United States and Canada. We also air on more than one thousand radio outlets across dozens of nations in the Spanish-speaking world.
- We are more than halfway finished with phase one of our Grace Reaches Out initiative, a project begun in 2015 to translate six hundred of my sermons into Arabic, French, Mandarin, and Portuguese. We’re adding the sermons to our website for free download as soon as they’re recorded.
- We also received a report on the ministry’s plans for an important celebration in 2019. I delivered my first sermon as pastor of Grace Community Church on February 9, 1969, which means this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Grace to You. Our celebration will span all of 2019, and of course you are a part of our plans. Our goal as we mark the occasion will be to minister to the Body of Christ and to thank the Lord for His faithfulness and goodness—and to thank the many people through whom He has blessed us.
- Our board meeting culminated with a report from a pastor in Asia who has translated a large number of my sermons and placed the recordings on portable “radios.” A ministry partner that specializes in international broadcasting is now spreading the devices across urban and rural areas, reaching an estimated 600,000 people. (We were told of a farmer hanging the radio on the horns of his water buffalo and listening while working in his field.) These same ministry friends have also translated the entire MacArthur New Testament Commentary series for free electronic distribution to pastors nationwide. All of that started when the pastor found—and began downloading—sermons at our website.
As I ponder what I’ve written in this letter, I am utterly amazed. Amazed by the goodness of God. Amazed by the power of His Word to transform lives. Amazed by how He is using our resources to evangelize, edify, and equip His people. And amazed by the thought of the opportunities, known and unknown, that await us in the future.
As we launch into 2019, I really believe this ministry’s best days are yet to come. Every day that we air on radio and TV, every day that all the resources of our website are available for download by people wherever they live, every day that men and women are receiving and using the CDs and books we mail out—every day is an opportunity to reach a person, a family, a church, and a community with biblical truth. It’s a big world, and the spiritual needs are significant; we are poised to help in significant ways.
Of course, we don’t want to presume on God’s provision for next year. So if the opportunities that are before us—opportunities to reach people with the Word of God—resonate with you, I encourage you to help make them realities through your support for Grace to You. Your generous gift now will help us sustain and extend our ministry in your neighborhood and others like it around the world, bringing clear, transforming, biblical truth to people who desperately need it. Thank you for doing whatever the Lord leads and enables you to do.
Love in the Truth,
John MacArthur
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