What a World We are in!

When we go to a foreign country to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel, we go as American missionaries. Neither of those appellations should be considered a big asset in many places.
We are proud to be Americans, but in many parts of the world, being an American may be envied but not liked. It used to be that we had to worry about being the “ugly American.” That still is a concern, but perhaps a greater concern is that being an American under any circumstances may be considered being “ugly.” There are people who look at our invasion of Iraq as some sort of colonial type maneuvers. We know that the motives of our government were not to entrap a people into our nets, but to free a people from the tyranny that surrounded their lives for many years.
It does not matter how pure the motives of our government have been. What matters is the perception that many have. They may envy Americans while not really liking them. While in South Africa I had some friends who spoke freely of their bad feelings about the apartheid sanctions promoted by the US. I think they liked the result of the sanctions without liking the sanctions.
How do we stay on the side of the people we are working with while being identified with the government they resent. It is not easy. If it is at all possible it is preferable to try and not defend policies that bring resentment in the hearts of the good people with whom we are working.
We not only go as Americans, but we also go as missionaries. In that we represent the King of Kings and all of His policies rather than the policies of our earthly government. In this it is important that we don’t allow the American nature of our lives and background to override the development of a work within a foreign culture.
It concerned me when we were in the Philippines that we saw churches that were duplicates of the churches of the missionaries who had brought the Gospel to the people there. The things that were distinctive to those churches may have been fine, but there were many things that should have been left in the States.
I remember reading a book by a Chinese missionary who was describing how there was a comity agreement between Southern and what was then Northern Baptists in their ministries in China. He said that the Northern Baptists agreed to work in the south and the Southern Baptist agreed to work in the north. This meant that the churches in the south were called northern Baptist churches and the churches in the north were called Southern Baptist churches. The Americans understood why but the Chinese people didn’t understand why.
We can do many things like that which are unfortunate. We carry concepts and procedures with us and most of them should really be left at home. There was a conversation I had with a missionary who felt that the races should not be mixed in a church. He was working in France where that concept was foreign to the people. He should have left his prejudices at home.
We probably have trouble knowing what it is that makes a church a church that is not encumbered with cultural prejudices. It would be nice if we could just say to the people, “Here is the Bible. Go ahead and build a church that is consistent with all the biblical teaching. It is hard to sit back and let that happen.
It is a great privilege to carry the good news of the Gospel to another people. We should pray that we don’t do anything to stand in the way of the work in that new area being hindered in any way by our prejudices. It is possible that we are afraid to let the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of people and allow them to become the very best Christian they can be in their own land. God is able to do that.

What does it take to make a disciple?

Christ’s great commission was clearly given in Matthew 28. We have often made it sound like His commission was that we should go into the entire world. That idea is implicit in the commission but it is really not the commission. His commission is that we are to make disciples.
That has never changed from the time that Jesus gave the command to the day we live and until the day that we enter into His presence. Since that is the case we need to be sure that we know how we are to go about making disciples. Discipleship is not a Friday night meeting over coffee and donuts while we discuss great Biblical truths or perhaps just talk about life’s problems.
That kind of a meeting may be incorporated into a life committed to discipleship, but it is not an end in itself and many times fails in its purpose because that concept of discipleship may be too shallow.
Discipleship is built on the promise and power of the Lord Himself. He has declared in verse 18 that “all power is given unto me,” and then He concludes, “Lo, I am with you always.” The impetus of the presence and power of Christ Himself should be enough to stimulate a successful discipleship ministry. Certainly it should remind us that while we are not sufficient, we go in the power of the all sufficient Christ.
The Commission makes it clear that baptism is a first step in the life of an obedient disciple. Obedience should be a mark of a believer evident in the life and walk of a follower of Christ. There is a question about the commitment of a follower of Christ who does not do the first thing He says should be done.
Obviously we are not able to do the making of disciples, but we are able to aid people in becoming disciples. Jesus says that we should do that by teaching these disciples everything that He has commanded. Implicit in that is that the true disciple learns what Jesus has taught and understands that all of His commands are to be obeyed.
That is a very simple program. It is not hard to understand that as we go into all the world, we are to teach everything that the Lord commanded so that those whom we reach learn to obey all that He has commanded. The great thing about this simple program is that He then promises to be with us each step of the way. We don’t have to rely on our own smarts, but we have the presence of Christ in our lives speaking to those are in the process of becoming His disciples.
Too often we fail in seeing believers become disciples because we have set our own methods and our own standards in determining how to reach that goal. Sometimes the failure comes because we do not model what that disciples should be. We can’t teach new believers to trust completely if we are not trusting completely. We can’t see new believers really loving others as they ought if we are not really loving as we ought. We must be ready to see that the new disciple may not becoming all that he/she should be because that new believer is not seeing a model that is all that a disciple should be.
All of this means that when we don’t see the final product that should be the result of carrying out the Great Commission, we ought to take a hard look at ourselves and be sure that we are the model that the new believer needs to see. Trust begets trust. Love begets love. Disciples beget disciples.

More Than Conquerors

HERE I STAND

I once heard a young man speak to the question raised about his going to a country where his life was in danger. His answer to the question was, “God has called me to go. He has not promised I will return.”
There are new dangers in the world every day. We seldom think in terms of our lives being the ones that are on the line. We marvel at those who are like that young man and can handle the danger with such calm resolve to do what God has called them to do.
We do not have to be someplace where there is an imminent danger, but we have to be prepared to face that kind of danger. I am sure that the missionaries in the Philippines that were captured on their vacation did not expect to be taken as hostages at that point, but it is evident that they were ready for it and when death came to the husband, the wife showed the kind of resolve that we all should have.
We need to be reminded that death is certainly not the worst thing that can happen to a child of God. Death is the entrance into the presence of the Savior. No one likes the prospect of facing torture or any kind of mistreatment, but God is ready to give us the strength to go through that kind of experience. We just have to put it in His hands and expect Him to give that great strength He has promised.
Recently I read of an Indian pastor in the Indian province of Orissa who, when he left his home, the Hindu forces who were persecuting the believers in that area, burned his home and took everything that he had there. When he arrived at the conference to which he was going, he said that he would not return to his ministry in that place of persecution.
The conference was a refreshing time of study in the Word of God and challenge to be committed to whatever God has in store for you. By the end of the conference that pastor indicated that he had to go back. It is difficult to understand what it would be like to return to a place where your home has been burned. The place of your ministry has been burned. Those who did those terrible deeds were still there to carry out all the threats that they had made for the safety of the believers.
We have to admire the commitment that makes a person willing to face persecution that has been promised. It would be much easier to conclude that God brought you out with your life and your family and it would be unwise to return to what looked like certain persecution and probably death.
Even though most of the people in the world do not like committed believers, the worst prospect for most of us is a little embarrassment for our testimony. What is Paul talking about when he says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Paul knew what it was to be stoned, thrown out of town, and on occasion, escape with his life.
We need to shore up our lives and be sure that we are ready to face whatever it is that the world has for us. It is important to realize that this is not something that can be done in our own strength. That is the wonder of it. He has promised the strength for the trials and we can know that this resource is ours right now. We can be prepared because we are more than conquerors in Christ.
We need to be ready to be like Martin Luther who when he nailed hi 95 Theses to the door said, "Here I Stand."