Staying Quiet WILL Lead to Death

"The greatest sermon is the one unspoken."

I've heard this quote before, but I recently heard somebody say this. And all I can say is, "God, may this never be my attitude. Motivate me to preach the Gospel. Never let me be content with 'living a good life'. I want to do that and more for your Kingdom. You gave us your WORD that we can proclaim it to the nations. Let that mandate control my decisions."

That quote is the biggest excuse to keep our faith under a bushel.

Our Burden

I recently had a conversation with a girl in high school who had to cancel her mission trip to Mexico on two different occasions: the first trip was to Tijiuana due to all the gang violence as of late. The second was to Mexicali because of the Swine Flu. Her church was finally able to find of a hole in the curtain separating the US from the world in Jamaica.

I think it's great that these Christ followers are willing to relentlessly seek to do the work of the Kingdom. Even when it's inconvenient.

But why is it that we refuse to send missionaries to dangerous places?

Are we afraid of what might happen to us?

Is the risk of losing our lives to great?

I even see this at my school. They will not send students to India because of the danger. Why don't we just sign a reliability release form?

Jesus took the biggest risk. He knew He would be murdered on Calvary. He knew, yet He went. And it turned out to be the mission trip that brought Salvation to this world. His blood washed sinners clean. It is my prayer that we do not back down as Disciples. That we take off the burden of fear and put on the burden of the Cross.

Made Me Think

Last week, I was in my very last Biblical Preaching class (Biblical is a loose term) and one of the sermons opened very thoughtfully with the most sinful city in America, San Jose. It was surprising to me that it was not Las Vegas, and apparently it surprised some of my classmates who are from LV. They both in unison let out a rejoiceful, "YES! It's not Vegas!" It made me think.

Yesterday, while I was in staff meeting at church, one prayer request read, "Pray for my sister, she is recovering from surgery in Utah and is surrounded by Mormons." It was apparent that the request was for spiritual strength to get through their "evangelism." It made me think.

I've recently started reading a book titled The Reason For God. And in it, the author Tim Keller began to depict the city that he decided to plant a church in, New York. He was saying that the reason he chose this city is because of all the liberal/theologically absent thinking in the area. It made me think...

Why are so many people in our Christian culture afraid of being apart of a conversation about God? Why are so many people happy that they are "not" in a culture flooded with sin? Shouldn't we be excited at the possibility that we live in the city with the most sin in America? When I heard that statistic at the beginning of the sermon, I thought, "I want to live there." And immediately after, I heard the shouts of acclamation. During the staff meeting, I prayed for something that the requester was not thinking. I hope that lady recovering from surgery is used by God to start a revival in that lost state.

I'm not saying this to make anybody think that I understand what it means to be Christian, because I don't by any stretch of the imagination. But I am saying this to try to make myself, and hopefully somebody else as a vicarious consequence, to think about where I am in life. Where is it that God has put me to make a difference? Am I in a city that does not have a light? If so, what am I doing to make the Gospel known?

It is those cities and places that Paul had in mind when he wrote this in Romans 10,

"How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'"

Paul made me think. And hopefully the Gospel makes me act.

Martyrs in Iraq

Voice of the Martyrs 

Doing Missions when dying is gain.

they need me

Could you imagine a world where Christians lived the way God called them to?

What would it look like? Maybe people would start to say, "I like those Christians. Maybe they aren't all that bad." 

I understand that we are going to be hated by the world for our beliefs...but are we hated for the right reasons? 

A book by David Kinnaman, unChristian, reported that most nonbelievers said that Christians were, "hypocritical," "insensitive," and "judgmental." Is anybody surprised by this? I think it is only fitting that people think of us like this considering the way we act. I don't like it, but it's true.

Christians are arrogant jerks to say the least. 

But if we started to live radically, maybe we would start being disliked for the right reasons. I would love it if people hated me because they thought I was a weirdo. If the only thing I ever talked about was Jesus and was totally overwhelmed by this overwhelming god. People would inevitably think I was a psycho. I think it better to be considered a psycho rather than a "cool" Christian. 

At the same time, if I was radically living the way Jesus tells Christians to, maybe I could make a legitimate difference. God tells us to love the poor, care for the widowed, protect those who need protection. What if I did all of those because it came to me naturally? This should be the norm. Radically following Jesus. 

I pray that radical would become the norm. And that Christians were leading the fight against injustice all around the world, including at home. It is so much easier to be Christian overseas. Why am I not being one in America? There are people all around me who need Jesus just as much as the drug traffickers in Mexico. Just as much as the entrepreneurs in Japan. Just as much as a sex-slave in India. Just as much as the child soldier in Africa. Everybody needs me to be a Christian, dare I say they need me to be a radical Christian at that? It is pathetic that I have to add an adjective to explain what a true Christian is. 

Uh Oh

I'm getting ready to go to the Middle East next week and I stumbled upon this from George Otis Jr.'s book The Last of the Giants: Lifting the Veil on Islam and the End Times

"Should the Church in politically or socially trying circumstances remain covert to avoid potential eradication by forces hostile to Christianity? Or would more open confrontation with prevailing spiritual ignorance and deprivation--even if it produced Christian martyrs- -be more likely to lead to evangelistic breakthroughs? Islamic fundamentalists claim that their spiritual revolution is fueled by the blood of martyrs. Is it conceivable that Christianity's failure to thrive in the Muslim world is due to the notable absence of Christian martyrs? And can the Muslim community take seriously the claims of a Church in hiding? . . .The question is not whether it is wise at times to keep worship and witness discreet, but rather how long this may continue before we are guilty of "hiding our light under a bushel. . . . The record shows that from Jerusalem and Damascus to Ephesus and Rome, the apostles were beaten, stoned, conspired against and imprisoned for their witness. Invitations were rare, and never the basis for their missions."

The part of the ME where I'm going is a pretty safe place to be. Probably safer than LA. But still...makes me think a little bit.