Tag Archives: Religion and Spirituality

When You Build a Home, Plant a Tree.

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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:2

I still remember my first time in South Sudan. It wasn’t even South Sudan yet, it was still just Sudan. We went out to the ancestral village of a church planter we were working with. He pointed to a tree standing alone in a field, and said, “When I was a child, we were told to plant a tree when we built our home. That way, when we had to flee from war, when we came back we would know where our home had been.”

That was just the first of many times that it was made clear to me just how little I understood about war, violence, poverty, disease, and all of the other symptoms of fallen man that exist in South Sudan.

People always ask me about the projects we do in Africa through The Petros Network. There are of course many projects, such as food distribution for famine relief, digging wells, and operating medical clinics. All of these are noble things, but projects are  merely the things that alleviate the symptoms, not what cuts to the heart of the issue. The issue is the heart of man.

The heart of man is the reason that our primary focus at Petros is church planting. How can someone know to love his neighbor as himself if no one tells him? How can that man know that Jesus died for his sins as a sacrificial lamb, even when that man was an adversary of God, if no one tells him? It is only through the love of God that people change, and it is only when people change that nations change. When the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to a village, we believe there should be a tangible change for the better in the village. We call this “Redemptive Lift”. Christ changes the heart of one man, then his family. Soon the character of the village changes, and eventually the heart of the nation turns toward God. 

At the Petros Network, we believe in using indigenous DNA to send out local church planters to villages where there is not currently a church, “so that I would not build on another person’s foundation”.

You have the opportunity to change the world. I don’t say that to be dramatic; you literally have the opportunity to change the world.  For as little as $36 a month, you can help send out an indigenous church planter to a village that has not heard the gospel. God doesn’t need your money, but He gives each of us the opportunity to take the little we may have and multiply it, and in blessing others we in turn are blessed. Little is much in God’s economy.

Become a conduit of redemptive lift today for as little as $36 a month, or if you prefer, for a one time gift of $3600  you can send out a church planter who is waiting to be sponsored.

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When They Are Serving Toast, Make Curry

Parables, world missions, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Curry is good. That is my opinion anyway. Some might disagree with me. It’s complex and flavorful. It can be spicy. If it’s hot enough it might make you cry, but if you love curry you’ll take a swig of milk and continue eating. Others feel exactly the opposite, especially if the curry contains cilantro. So curry is something that elicits either love or hatred. It fires passion either for or against it.

Toast on the other hand is virtually flavorless. It’s bland and dry. No one is offended by toast, but neither does anyone have a passion for toast. Don’t believe me? No one has ever gone to an all you can eat buffet and joyfully exclaimed, “they have toast.”

The gospel is the same as curry. It is complex and flavorful. Sometimes it might make you cry, but most things that can be loved might make you cry. The gospel is deep and rich and worthy of devotion. And like curry people either love it or hate it, depending on where they’re coming from.

The problem is that many of our churches worry that people might be offended by the gospel. So we start removing spices from the curry. First the cilantro goes, then the cumin, and so on. Pretty soon we’re just serving toast. It’s not offensive, but it’s also totally incapable of eliciting passion in anyone. It’s flavorless and unfilling and unfulfilling.

So don’t be afraid to preach the gospel. Some might hate you for it, but that’s true of anything worthwhile. So even if everyone around you is serving toast, cook up the most delicious curry you can come up with.

“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Luke 14:34-35

Yum, said no one ever.

Gott Mit Uns

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When I was a kid, I had an eccentric uncle. He was an inventor, and had a lot of social quirks about him. I think a lot of these quirks came from some of the things he’d had to endure. You see, during World War 2, he’d been a pacifist, and since he would not fight, he was forced instead to do body counts after battle in the European theater.

One day he showed me a belt buckle he’d taken off a dead German soldier. It was pewter colored, and had the swastika in the center of that. Written along the top edge were the words, “Gott mit uns.” (God with us) in German.

Even at that young age, it was a shocking thing to see. How could the Nazis think, or wish, or even say that God was with them?

Well, it’s very easy to look back in history and ask how they could do that, but the fact is, as a church we do the very same thing today, though I will say generally not in such an obvious and glaring way.

I’d like to go to the book of judges where there’s an interesting story. Joshua is moving his armies through Canan, and he looks up and sees a man who he takes to be a foreign envoy.

“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”

So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”

It’s interesting to me that Joshua asks, “are you for us or against us?” And the angel answers “no”. In other words, you are asking the wrong question. But we ask the same question of God, as if we have any authority to ask it.

The question should be, “Have I found favor in your sight?” Or, “how can I serve you?” Or so many other questions that recognize who is in authority, that being not us. We need to stop asking if God is on our side and start making sure we are on his side.

It is possible to know exactly how to be on God’s side, but it requires commitment and study and being open to what the Holy Spirit would teach us. The bible is full of the commands of God. So many in fact that I wouldn’t know where to start.

The problem is that the American church in particular has given up on knowing what the scriptures say. And one of those scriptures says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Hosea 4:6

You see, without knowledge there is no possibility for wisdom. Without knowledge there is no possibility for discernment. Without knowledge, there is no possibility to know the will or the character of God. In short order we find ourselves making God to be anything we want him to be, so long as he’s on our side, and the next thing you know, we’re wearing belt buckles emblazoned with “Gott mit uns.”

So what do we do about this? Ephesians 4 says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

We must put the knowledge of who God is back into the churches, both through the study and memorization of the Word, and also through people who possess knowledge and wisdom and discernment to have the willingness to disciple others.

Jesus didn’t keep his knowledge to himself. He taught large crowds of people, while at the same time walking daily with twelve men that he could train to teach others. This is what we need to get back to.

It’s very easy to read something like this and say, “yes, those people need to do something about this.” But if you are part of the church, this is for You! There aren’t players and those who get to sit on the bench in the Kingdom of God. There are no stadium seats. As it says in the book of Hebrews, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I Know What You Don’t Do, But What Do You Do?

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When I was a kid, I grew up in a church where we didn’t dance, didn’t smoke, didn’t gamble, didn’t go to movies, didn’t listen to rock music, didn’t didn’t didn’t. There was a long list of things that we didn’t do. In fact, in the denomination we were in, I think it could be said that we were known far more for what we didn’t do than for what we did.

You know what else we didn’t do? We didn’t listen to Jesus instructions about what we ARE supposed to do. Things like free the captives, make disciples, feed the hungry, heal the sick, declare the perfect and glorious day of The Lord. You see, we were so busy running away from Hell that we weren’t being obedient to follow Christ, and to be an imitator of him.

No one wants to know what you don’t do. What people are looking at, whether you know it or not, is what you DO. In the book of James it says,

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

No amount of running from hell will lead you to Christ. Seek Jesus and be an imitator of him, and hell will fall by the wayside. We are called to so much more.

Six and a half years ago, I left South Sudan and thought I might never return. This Spring I have the opportunity to go back. South Sudan can be very hard, and if I’m honest, it’s not something I particularly look forward to. But I also know what I’ve been created for, and it’s not for a list of things not to do. I was created to be the imitation of Christ, and if he would leave the 99 to go after the 1 lost, so will I.

The face of a hard life in South Sudan.

Let Not My Own Strength Slow Me Down.

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Even though it wasn’t until I became an adult that I started entering races, I’ve always been into endurance sports. Even as a kid, I would go out into the school field behind my house and just see how long I could run. When I became an adult, I got into mountain biking and started racing in that sport. Later I started running marathons, half-marathons, and triathlons. At the peak of my obsession with it, I did a race where I had to bike for twelve hours, then run for twelve hours, unsupported. I ended up biking 105 miles, then running (walking really by that point) another 15.5 miles. I looked physically different when I was done from when I started the race.

But in the past few years, I’ve either had schedule issues get in the way, or had overuse injuries, or just gotten bored with the tedium that can come when you run for two hours at a time. So about two years ago, I started lifting weights just to mix things up a bit. As I lifted more, I started enjoying it more. As I enjoyed it more, I started lifting heavier weights. But as I lifted heavier and heavier weights and built up muscle, I also started to weigh more. And as I got heavier, my endurance for running got worse. Now I’m not complaining, because I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, but I’m also quite a bit slower than I was before.

As my mind is want to do in its obsession to find correlations, I found a metaphor in the above story. There are two verses that came to mind.

The first is Hebrews 12:1 and 2, which says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The second verses are in 2nd Corinthians 12. They say, “And He (The Lord) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

A lot of times we think that God is looking for strong, perfect people to serve him. On the contrary, he only asks us to run the race put before us with perseverance. The strength is up to him. He even says to put aside every weight. I’ve always read this to mean that we should put away sin and unhealthy and unhelpful habits, which is of course what the verse explicitly says. But when we tie this in 2nd Corinthians, it becomes apparent that our own strength can be a weight that slows us down as well.

Let me explain a bit. When we are weak, or poor, or sick, or inexperienced, or any other form of weakness, we find that we need to fully rely on God to run the race he’s set before us. As we become stronger, though we may find it easier to run the race using our own strength, often we end up straying from what God has called us to do, and so end up going the wrong way. We lose the intimacy of our relationship with God because, instead of fully relying on him for everything, we take control of some of the aspects of the race because we feel we can do it ourselves. It is a difficult pit not to fall into.

I am not suggesting we should not become stronger or more capable. These things should be a natural outgrowth of a life of serving. But we must not lose our humility and forget the lowly places we came from. We need to serve God with every capacity that he gives us while at the same time realizing that every ounce of it comes from him, and without him we are nothing. We must wake up every morning and declare to God, “more of You and less of me”.

Let me not stand before God some day and have him say to me, “I could have done so much more with you if there had just been less of you.” I pray that my own strength would not be something that slows me down.

Generosity

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Every time I go to Africa I learn something new. I learn new things about the places and cultures, and about how one country or one region or one tribe is different from another. And whereas when I first went to Africa everything was new and different and very black and white, over the years I’ve begun to understand the subtle nuances of why some things are the way they are. More exciting for me is that in coming to understand more about Africa and the Africans, I’ve come to understand more about myself.

My most recent revelation was on my last trip to Kenya. As a missionary, you grow in your relationships with the people you’re partnering with. As that happens, you begin to learn more not only about their interactions with you, but their interactions with each other. What I learned this time was that, with some notable exceptions, Kenyans are very hospitable people, but not very generous. They are willing to take people into their homes and spend time with them, but when it comes to giving money or volunteering for a cause, it’s a much more difficult proposition.

So I started thinking about that. How do we (missionaries) show a good example of how to be generous? Because we’re generous, right? And it was at that point that I learned the lesson about myself.

In the book of Mark, Jesus is at the temple in Jerusalem, and makes an observation to his disciples.

“Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

So how is this different from how we as missionaries act when we go overseas? We go to a foreign places, throw some money around, go home, and congratulate ourselves on how generous and giving we were. We give away used shoes and clothing, undermining the local merchants, and hand out money that creates dependency, ruining Africa one person at a time. Is this generosity? I think not. We give money because for us, relatively speaking, it’s easy to come by. They (the Kenyans) give of their time, because (again, relatively speaking) it’s easy to come by. Neither is really generous when it comes down to it, because, as we learned from the story of the widow’s mite, true generosity is when you give out of your lack.

I’m not saying that giving money is a bad thing, far from it. But what would it look like if we gave not only our money, but invested in meaningful relationships with those we are partnering with. What if we truly gave of our time and emotional reserves and truly bore each other’s burdens as if we were family? This is the model that Jesus set up for us, because we are brothers and sisters in Christ and therefore heirs of the same Kingdom. And that is the example of generosity.

Some people see life as a pie, and there’s only so much pie to go around. When you see life that way, you do all you can to get as much pie as you can, because the pie will soon be gone.

Others see a life of infinite pie. There will always be more pie. As Christians, we need to see life this way. We know the one who makes all the pie, and if we just ask for it with the intention of giving it away, he will give us more. But in order to receive it, there has to be less of us, and more of Jesus. That’s when we’ll see generosity take hold.

The Mountain Goat and the Muskrat.

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In the north there was a forest full of animals. Now there was a trapper that frequented that forest, and would put out spring traps or what most people would call bear traps along the trails through the forest. He was indiscriminate in the kind of animals he would catch, and some of them were very large and could work themselves out of the trap on occasion, so he began to put locks on his traps, so that once they snapped shut, it would take a key to open it back up again. Over the years of trapping, he had lost a number of keys as they dropped out of his pockets, but it didn’t matter, because there was only one kind of key to open the trap, so he wasn’t concerned.

One night a mountain goat was walking along the trail. It was a powerful animal with clean white fur, and a large set of curved horns. The mountain goat had come down into the forested valley to find something to eat. In the darkness it put its back foot into the trap, and with a rusty clank it snapped shut. Startled by the noise as much as the pain, the goat jumped into the air but was pulled immediately back to the ground by the chain. The goat struggled and writhed on the ground trying to escape. As it did so, it rolled in the mud until its white coat turned a dirty brown and its horns became entangled in the brush. The fur on its ankle turned red from the blood that dripped from where the teeth of the trap angrily bit.

For what seemed like an eternity, the mountain goat lay there suffering, praying that the dawn would not come, when the hunter would return to check the traps. Eventually a lynx came by. It was a pretentious and selfish creature that liked to rely on itself. It too had an old, healed scar on one paw from a trap, but another animal had managed to let it out before the hunter came back.

The mountain goat lifted its head enough to see the lynx, and asked desperately, “Please, do you have a key to let me out? The hunter will be back at dawn.” The lynx, feeling dirty just looking at the mountain goat, began to lick itself and said. “I have a key, but you are much too filthy for me to come near. You are a strong animal. Perhaps if you could clean yourself up a bit first, I’d be able to come near enough to help you.”

“I am strong,” said the goat, “but as you can see, my horns are my strength, and they have only caused me to become more caught, so my strength is in fact my weakness.”

“Well, I feel sorry for you,” said the lynx, “but I simply can’t help you.” And the lynx moved on.

A bit later, the mountain goat heard some flapping. It was a raven, and like the lynx before it, there was an old scar on its leg. Now the raven loved to collect things and had actually stolen a key from the hunter. The mountain goat could see this, because the raven had made an elaborate headdress from the key and other bits of things it had stolen or found at other times. There were bits of metal and wire, and colorful pieces of lichen and plastic mixed in. It was gaudy and ridiculous, but the raven was very proud of it.

“Please,” said the goat, “I see you have a key. Could you please let me out of this trap before the hunter comes back?”

“Yes, I have a key,” said the raven, “but I’m afraid I can’t give it to you. You see, I worked very hard for all of the things in my headdress, and I’m very proud of it. With these things I am very rich and the key is the centerpiece. I simply can’t give it to you. But good luck to you.” With that, the raven flew off.

The mountain goat began to give up hope, and could see a faint glow through the trees. As a bit of purple began to replace the black in the sky, a third animal came by. This time it was an arctic fox. Like the other animals, it too had an old scar, though this one had begun to bleed again. The fox was also missing an eye from an injury it received walking around in the dark. Like the mountain goat, it had writhed around and gotten covered in mud and blood. But instead of getting cleaned up after being freed, the fox had just found and old campfire pit and rolled in the ashes to cover the brown and red of the mud and blood in its fur. The filth and injury was still apparent to the mountain goat, but the fox had convinced itself that it was spotless and whole.

The mountain goat didn’t put much hope in getting help from the fox, but decided to ask for help anyway. “Please,” the goat asked, “do you have a key to open this trap? The morning is coming soon and the trapper will return.”

The fox, who saw himself wise in the ways of things answered. “Sorry, I used to have a key, but at some point I misplaced it. But it’s ok. That’s a very beautiful ornament you stepped in,” (referring to the trap). I accept you just the way you are. Keep that ornament with honor and don’t ever let anyone tell you there’s anything wrong with wearing it.” With that, the fox trotted off, all the while bumping into things because of its lack of depth perception and leaving drops of blood from its unhealed wound.

Orange and red began to creep into the colors of the sky, and a few birds began to call in anticipation of the coming day. The mountain goat closed its eyes, ready to accept its fate.

As it lay there on the edge of exhausted sleep, the mountain goat woke to some rustling. Out of the corner of its eye, the goat spied a muskrat. This gave the goat no hope at all. The muskrat was a dirty and dim witted animal. It was not wise in the ways of things, it wasn’t strong, and it wasn’t rich. Like the other animals, this one had a scar, though this one was recent and had not yet healed well and was still bleeding. The mountain goat laid its head back down, nit bothering to ask for help.

“Perhaps I can help,” said the muskrat.

“I doubt it,” responded the mountain goat.

Without arguing, the muskrat scurried over and placed a key in the lock. “I was stuck like you once, but someone used this key to get me out. Then they gave it to me and told me to pass it on, so when I saw you, it seemed the right thing to do.”

The rusty lock grudgingly opened, and the mountain goat pulled its leg free. Unfortunately, its horns were still caught. But though the muskrat was not a strong animal, what it did have was teeth. It made short work of the brambles and branches and soon the mountain goat could move its head. But the the muskrat went further.

“I know you are a noble animal,” it said, “and all of this mud doesn’t suit you. You were created for better things than this. I don’t have much but what I do have I can give to you. My fur has oil in it. Who knows, maybe it will help.”

The muskrat began to rub its fur against the mountain goat. When it got too dirty, it would shake vigorously until mud flew in every direction. When it rubbed against the goat’s wound, the bleeding began to stop and the pain felt better. But amazingly, as the mountain goat became cleaner, the blood from it’s wound began to wash the dirt off the muskrat, and the goat’s now fluffy fleece began to clot the blood in the muskrat’s wound. They found that as one helped the other, they were both made whole. And the muskrat found that even though he was already free, his healing came in looking outside of himself.

Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Isaiah 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

James 2:1-4 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in [a]fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:14-17 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Revelation 3:17-18 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

Romans 5:10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Spiritual Parlor Tricks.

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In about six weeks I’ll be going back to Kenya, and as usual God has been speaking to me about His Kingdom. Last week He revealed something to me that broke my heart; something about the western Church and about myself as well. I wanted to break this up into a couple blogs, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible, so I apologize in advance for the length.

This will be my thirteenth trip to Africa in the last eight years. When you go somewhere outside of your own culture, there are certain things that become impossible to miss. One of those is how closely the African Church, at least as far as I’ve seen it, mirrors the church in Acts, and conversely, how poorly the western church mirrors the early Church.

As Jesus was just about to go up to Heaven, he gave instructions. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16)

Largely this is what I see in Africa. I see the sight of the blind restored, the sick healed, the insane restored and their entire lives changed, addicts recover. I see people pray for what we would consider crazy and God answers it, and the list goes on, reflecting what Jesus said would happen as signs that would happen after the gospel is preached.

While I see some of that in America, I don’t see nearly as much of it. So why would that be? Well, that was what God spoke to me about.

There are a number of gifts of the Spirit of God that are listed in the bible, besides the signs that Jesus mentioned in Mark. There’s a somewhat comprehensive list of the more common ones in 1 Corinthians 12.

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works [e]all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

There are largely two lines of thought on this in the west. Those who think that the gifts of the Spirit mentioned above are to be sought above all other things, and those who don’t think they exist anymore. So how do we get such polar opposite views in a supposedly singular Church? Well the answer to that question is where we went wrong, and where the African church can save us, because we’ve gone way off course.

I’m going to start with those who seek the gifts over all things. There are churches that will tell you that if you do not speak in tongues then you are not saved, or other similar statements about the gifts of the Spirit. But what are the gifts? If you look at what they are and how they are used, they not only display the glory of God, but more importantly they display the love of God to a lost world. It is no mistake that the next chapter in 1 Corinthians after the one about the gifts is the chapter about love, summed up in the verse, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

If we seek the gifts of the Spirit but do not love our neighbor, we only seek to perform spiritual parlor tricks. If we do not love our neighbor, who was created in God’s image, then we do not represent the God who created them.

The other side of the coin is those who say that the gifts of the Spirit died with the apostles, and that God no longer does these things today. Dispensationalism is the name for this doctrine for anyone that cares. I’ve heard prominent pastors engage in spiritual contortions in order to make this work in their own minds, going so far as to forbid these gifts. (How you can forbid something that supposedly doesn’t exist, I don’t know, but that’s beside the point.)

Here’s the problem; When those gifts start showing up, who am I going to believe, your preaching or my own lying eyes? Faith is the evidence of things unseen, but when God shows up in powerful ways and we still don’t believe it, that’s something straight out of hell.

But when we don’t see God show up in the ways He said He would, it’s easier to build a doctrine around how God has changed and not have to face the fact that we were unfaithful. You see, if we were faithful to love our neighbors as ourselves, as we were commanded to do; if we were to give of ourselves sacrificially to the poor and the lost, then the gifts of the Spirit would show up as a matter of course. If on the other hand we seek the gifts without doing what Christ commanded, then we are guilty of idolatry, worshipping the gifts rather than the giver.

So boiling it down, and this is going to make people mad, but so be it; the African church loves the lost, and we don’t. We don’t love the lost every time we turn a blind eye to the poor, every time we refer to immigrants as filthy criminals, every time we judge the addict because they “made bad choices and they’re just reaping what they sow. Shall I go on?

How do the Africans love their neighbors? By blessing people and praying the love of God over people even as they’re being beaten, by exercising gifts of healing over the son of someone who tried to burn down his house, by giving sacrificially to the needy, even in their own poverty. This is what the Church was created for.

As Jesus said when he started his ministry,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

We’ve, no, I’ve got so much I have to learn.

Photo of the woman who’s sight was restored after two years of blindness in Ethiopia.

Maybe It’s Time To Serve Someone.

My thoughts on all things missions related., travel, world missions, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I remember back in the early 1980’s, there was a boy known as “The bubble boy” who had to permanently live in a plastic bubble. He had a compromised immune system, and any exposure to the outside world could cause him to get sick and die. As I prayed this morning, the Lord brought that analogy to my mind as I thought about missions and service. You see, many of us are living our lives trying to avoid the world. While the boy in the bubble was safe from the world around him, he was relegated to a life of ineffectiveness.

The book of James says, “true religion is this, to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unpolluted by the world.”

We spend an awful lot of time on the second part while often ignoring the first part. I think we are often afraid of what will happen if we take the world on for God’s Kingdom. But there is no reason for fear. Hebrews 13 20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ.” That’s right, we have access to the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and we walk in that victory as more than conquerors.

Jesus showed us the example we should live by in that he was the perfect imitator of The Father. How did he show that? By being a servant.

Are you feeling ineffective? Serve someone.

Feeling beaten down? Serve someone.

Are you feeling like you don’t know your place in the church? Serve someone.

Do you feel called to missions but don’t know how? Serve someone.

Feel like you are still working on you? Serve someone.

The more we take the focus off of ourselves and place it on God, the more he can do with us. And God will take faithfulness with little and give you larger things to be faithful with.

The Immortal Hamster

My thoughts on all things missions related., Uncategorized, world missions, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been back from Ethiopia now for nearly a month. I’ve thought about a lot of things in that time, from the things I’ve seen and the people I’ve met, to the vision I have for what God is doing. It’s very exciting, but also upon returning, I can’t help but feel as if I’ve come back to an American church that is fast asleep. The bible says that “my people perish for lack of knowledge.” Well, without knowledge, you can’t move on to wisdom. And without wisdom, there is no vision. Without vision, we have no purpose. Without purpose, we start chasing all kinds of crazy things, and the church gives up the gospel in exchange for prostituting itself to the world in the hope of finding “cultural relevance.” The bride of Christ is searching the street corners, looking for someone to tell her she’s beautiful.

I often teach a class on missions and poverty alleviation, and one of the questions we open with is, “Why did Jesus come to Earth?” The two most common answers I get are, “So my sins could be forgiven,” and “so I can go to Heaven.” Though both answers are technically correct, they are both tertiary reasons and completely egocentric.

In Luke 4, Jesus himself states why he came. “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus came to restore what was lost, and to put us back into relationship with God. He set in motion a restoration of relationship between God and creation. It wasn’t just so we could be saved from Hell but continue to do what we were already doing. It states right in the beginning of Genesis that men and women were created in God’s image. That being the case, we ought to imitate Christ as he imitates God the Father. If we accept Jesus’ sacrifice without accepting this second part, we have reduced ourselves to God’s immortal pet, his hamster, if you will, existing for God’s amusement but with no purpose, born only to consume.

I believe that this is why the American church is largely devoid of men. Men are designed and built to serve a larger purpose, to take hold of a challenge and to serve a greater purpose than themselves. But if we accept a Christianity that says “I’m saved now. Just sit in the pew on Sunday and listen to a watered down message of meek and mild Jesus,” a great injustice has been done. Do we need to be reminded that Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip….twice?

Jesus gave us a lot of instructions, most of which we aren’t following. Sure, we follow the ones about keeping ourselves pure…..sometimes, but what about all those ones about going out like sheep among wolves? What about all those instructions about feeding the poor, standing up for the widow, the orphan, and the alien? What about blessing those who curse us, or showing love to our enemies, or were those instructions for somebody else? What about dying to self?

I have to ask these things, because if we say we’re going to be Christ followers, then certainly we should take a cue from Jesus, who “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2)

God is looking for men and women of purpose. The Church has got to wake up.

“Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light.” (Ephesians 5:14)