Sunday, August 12, 2007

Proclaiming God's Love with Boldness

Read an article about speaking the truth in love.

It just struck me: sometimes love has to speak the truth, even if it's difficult to hear. Especially if it's for the other person's sake.

That involves the gospel. Very convicted when I read this true story:
Decades ago I worked as a part-time secretary at a small church (not the one I attended) that had once burned with passion for Jesus but had since fallen into a deplorable lukewarm state of social acceptance. When the pastor turned over the monthly newsletter to me and told me I could put whatever I wanted into it, I wrote up my testimony and plastered it on the front page. Then I mailed it out to the approximately 250 people on the mailing list. A few days later an elderly man came into the office and demanded to speak to the pastor, and he insisted that I accompany him into the pastor’s office. I did, and as I stood there in the doorway, I watched and listened as that man planted himself in front of the pastor’s desk, slammed the newsletter down in front of him, and demanded, “Is this true?”

The pastor was stunned and asked what the man meant. The gentleman explained that he wanted to know if what I’d said about repenting and accepting Jesus as my Savior and being “born again” was absolutely the ONLY way to heaven. The pastor’s eyes glazed over for a moment, and his Adam’s apple bobbed a bit before he answered. Finally he bowed his head and nodded, admitting without speaking that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” and that NO ONE comes to the Father except through Him.

And then the old man’s voice dropped and trembled, as tears formed in his eyes and he asked the man who claimed to be his earthly shepherd, “Then why didn’t you tell me? I’ve sat in your church and listened to your sermons for years. Why didn’t you tell me?”

The pastor, his head still bowed in shame, answered, “Because I didn’t want to offend you.”
Then I thought about my colleagues. They know that I'm a Christian. But to be honest, I feel quite ashamed at times to declare with joy that I'm a Christian, because I know that I'm imperfect - and I feel that because of my mistakes, I'm a bad testimony for Christ.

Is being a Christian anything to be ashamed of?

Yeah, that may be so... but... is anyone perfect? And... is the gospel about you looking good for Christ or, in the end, is it about pointing people to Jesus?

A man dying of hunger doesn't care about how nice the bread wrapper looks. He doesn't give a damn - he wants FOOD.

A man dying of thirst doesn't care about who gives water to him - his saviour can be a bandit or a murderer or a prostitute - the fact is that the saviour is giving him WATER.

Because in the end, it is not the person who saves, but the FOOD, the WATER that saves a person. Because Jesus Christ himself said that He is the Bread of Life, the Living Water.

I remember my young days as a Christian, when I didn't give a hoot about my past, my imperfections, my mannerisms - I was so excited about telling others about Jesus, that I just kept telling people. And one of my friends received Him on the spot - she was so hungry to hear about Jesus, whom nobody had told her about! (I was totally surprised, because she was reading the New Paper in the canteen when I approached her...)

But now, I guess sometimes I'm just too scared to show my Bible in public, etc. If we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, why are we so scared of that? People do respect those who live by Christ's teachings... Gandhi said that it's Christ that he respects... it's the "Christians" that he can't stand!

Oh God... give us a deeper yearning to share the gospel... it is for the sake of telling others about a God who loves us so much that He gave us His one and only Son to save us... that Christ's love compels me to go out and make new friends, to live with joy, to live right before Him... and in turn, I realise that, as I make new friends, I do love them so much that I want them to taste God's love for themselves. It's a beautiful cycle...

Oh God, oh dear. Oh how? Help me, help us, help us all, be men of courage!

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