Happy New Year

No New Year's resolutions here. Just wishing you all a happy New Year and trusting that you will draw nearer to our Lord, that you will find in Him all joy, and that your life will resound with His glory in 2010.

Paul Had It Easy In Corinth!

When we read through Corinthians in the New Testament we see that the Apostle Paul had some pretty serious issues to deal with. Gross sexual immorality, division, bad doctrine, and bad behavior seemed to define the young Church in Corinth. As Paul wrote to correct these things he crafted 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter. It stands as one of the most beautiful things ever written and I think that Paul intended it to be the heart of his answer to the problems the Corinthians were facing. It was written almost 2000 years ago and yet we are so far from experiencing a 10th of what he described.

I was up in the north of Gondor last week teaching a class on Missiology for a local Bible College. A friend of mine whom I had worked with five years ago found out I was in town and took me out to eat one evening. It was great to see him. I asked him how he was and how his relationship with his church was. He had often been at odds with his church in the past and he was often in the wrong, so I wondered how he would answer me. He left his church about a month ago. I was not too sorry to hear about this as he described the church he was going to now. There are only five churches in all of the north of Gondor, so not too many to choose from! But why did he leave his first church?

About six weeks ago a broken, homeless, middle aged man came to the service. He had been there before. The church had tolerated his on-again off-again attendance for a few years. He was homeless for a reason, he had lots of issues. That Sunday he came forward to repent and asked to be baptized. The church voted on the baptism as was their custom. Every hand went up for 'no'. Every hand except that of my friend. He stood up and said, 'All of you who have taken so little effort to raise your hands for 'no', all of you who have such a strong opinion, how many of you visited this man over the last year as he was struggling?' No one had. 'I visited him several times. Ok, I should have done more, I didn't help enough but I tried to do something. I tried to encourage him some. Can you just send this man away now? Can we really throw out a man who has asked us for help?' The Pastor stood and asked that my friend leave. So my friend said, 'I am sorry for bothering you. Please forgive me if I have offended you but if you can, please help this man.' And then he walked out. I asked my friend what the objection to this man being baptized was. He said that every one knew he still dipped tobacco. Such an offense! Two days later the Pastor came to my friend and apologized. He said he should not have spoken to him rudely and thrown him out of the church. My friend said that he forgave him but now he was going to a different church.

I asked my friend if he thought this man was really ready to be baptized and he said, 'I don't know. I can't see into his heart but I know that he came for help. I know that he wanted to change.' He went on to explain something that touched me deeply. 'I can't say if this man was a truly repentant man who was ready to fully follow Christ. I do know that when I stand in Heaven before Jesus he will never say to me, 'You were too forgiving, too loving, too accepting.' He will never condemn us for welcoming and loving others but what will he say to us about any of His children that we might turn away?'

What indeed.

Paul had to contend with a lot in Corinth but I wonder if he would write such a grace filled letter to this church? I wonder if he would be so patient with us?
Maybe, Paul had it easy in Corinth after all.

Teaching a Bible College Class

Some friends of mine started a Bible college here to stop the bright and talented young believers from leaving to go to the US for Bible college never to return. I have been very supportive of this effort since I can either help do it right or complain about how someone else has done it wrong. That being said this has been a challenging week. I am teaching 40 hours of missiology this week to a class of 12. I will go up north and teach it again next week. This eight hours of teaching a day for five days is brutal but as I sit and drink a cup of coffee and prepare to start the next session I thought I would share with whoever is left reading this occasional blog a great chart given to me by my good friend Ted Sandyman.

Christian approaches to Muslims

If we see Muslims as …
Enemies
Our approach will be …
Attack!/Defend!
Our heart attitude will be ..
hate

If we see Muslims as …
Foreigners
Our approach will be …
Separate Coexistence
Our heart attitude will be ..
Indifference

If we see Muslims as …
Poor, uncivilized, uncultured
Our approach will be …
Invite them to be like us (join us)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Pharisaic/condescending

If we see Muslims as …
Rivals
Our approach will be …
Polemic debate
Our heart attitude will be ..
proud

If we see Muslims as …
Human beings
Our approach will be …
Respectful dialogue
Our heart attitude will be ..
listen and learn

If we see Muslims as …
Unresponsive
Our approach will be …
resigned to do nothing
Our heart attitude will be ..
hopeless

If we see Muslims as …
Lost people Jesus died for
Our approach will be …
Salt/light (demonstrate love)
Preach the Gospel (speak truth)
Pray for their needs (show power)
Become all things to all people (Pauline)
Our heart attitude will be ..
Love

I like Ted's chart. Why not apply it to the people you meet today?