-Back with the Family
You can do it and I can do it too – When looking at my potential in life, especially spiritually, I’ve always tended to limit myself. Subconsciously I’ve put it in my mind that some people are super spiritual, they are the pastors or the missionaries or whatever, and then their are us regular folks. The kind that love God and try but still struggle with laziness, don’t always know the right answers, and have a tendency to get caught up with “that one” sin too often. Many of the people that I’ve met these past eleven months have challenged me greatly, but in most cases it has been what they don’t have that has actually challenged me. Perhaps they don’t have money, or a great bible education, or resources, or a business background, or something else. Regardless, I have met so many people who have chosen to go forth in their ministry trusting God to meet them. They are fully aware that they are incapable in the natural.
Two versus that have convicted me and that I’m still working to fully believe in my heart 24/7/365:
Romans 8:11 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesusa]”>[a] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
James 5:17:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.”
The spirit of Jesus lives in me. I don’t struggle that much to believe that I too will be raised from the dead because of that spirit. What I am in the process of learning and understanding is that the Spirit is within me all the time. I have authority because of that Spirit. Who am I to pray for this person? Who am I to preach? Who am I to go and tell a foreign tongue about a foreign God? Who am to serve at my church? Nobody really, just a person with the Spirit of God in them. It is that spirit that qualifies me, it is that spirit that allows me to take risk. If that same Spirit is in you too, what is it that holds you back?
God is good, God is love – If I had to pick the most important thing I’ve learned I think it would be this. I wouldn’t actually say I learned it, more that I’ve understood it better. God is good. God is love. I am convinced that most people in the church don’t fully believe these two statements. I think they believe them at about an 80% level but those doubts still creep in. They creep in when conversations about hell come up. They creep in when bad things happen to good people. They creep in when prayers aren’t answered and God doesn’t seem like he is there.
For me their have been two keys to fully understanding God’s Father heart of Love and his goodness.
The first is to look at the life of Jesus. When I look at the big picture, the world as a whole doesn’t always make sense. I know that sin and evil is in the world, but still, I don’t know why this bad thing happened or that seemingly good thing didn’t. Jesus was God, he embodied his character, his heart, his being. Jesus chose to be crushed on a cross, to be humiliated, to shed his blood for the forgiveness of many. When he is being mocked, flogged, and killed his response is “forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” Luke 23:34. I have to think that if their is another way it would have been chosen, but their wasn’t. The blood of Jesus was the only way. I could probably say a lot more about this, but simply put, when I do doubt God’s goodness or Love – I just look right back at him suffering on the cross and say “how can I doubt that?”
The second is where I choose to eat from. In the Garden of Eden their are two trees – the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Similarly, I believe we can still spiritually choose which tree to eat from today. Satan comes along and temps Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge (where she has been commanded not to eat) and he tempts her by saying that if you eat of it you will become like God, implying that God is holding something back from her. We too have a choice of where to eat from. We can set ourselves up above God and make the determination that we need to know and understand all things (good and evil), like he does, and then we can rightly determine (judge) his purposes, character, and worthiness. Or, we can eat from the tree of life. We can trust him. We can come to him. We believe his promises in scripture. We can rest in his love. Jesus explains this concept perfectly when he says in Matthew 18:3 “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Little children don’t understand everything their Daddy does but when they see him they run to him.
“Jesus loves you” isn’t enough – True statement – Yes! Sufficient statement…No. In Thailand I had the opportunity to talk with many wonderful monks, some of which I have stayed in contact with. Many of the monks I interacted with were at the temples for classes and schooling and were not planning on being lifelong monks. Some took Buddhism extremely seriously, others were far more moderate. Many of the friends I made wanted to have serious and in depth talks about religion and beliefs. I would describe them as “seeker” types. I remember on multiple occasions asking them what they had learned from other Christians about Christianity. Often the extent was “Jesus loves me”. While this is a true statement I couldn’t really get over the lack of help it actually provided. First off – Buddhism in a nutshell is not based on love but is based on escaping suffering. It teaches that life on earth involves suffering and the goal is to reach Nirvana. Nirvana means that a person or soul ceases to exist. They aren’t in heaven or a place of pleasure, they simply cease to exist and therefore will no longer suffer. They also don’t believe in a God at all – at least not in the sense that other religions do. So jumping back on the topic – “God loves you” doesn’t mean a lot to a person that has never encountered the concept of a all powerful being and doesn’t see what love really has to do with it in the first place. In saying all this, my main point is that I believe it is vital that we are able to talk about Jesus, our faith, sin, and grace in an effective way that makes sense to those we are talking to. We don’t need to convince them of anything, that is the Holy Spirits job, but we do need to be able to speak effectively and accurately. We need to understand our own faith so that we can be a blessing to others.
“Introduce me to him” – I am convinced that people are much much much more receptive to the gospel when they are introduced to the Father/Son/Spirit rather than just told about God. (disclaimer: I think this is especially true in the West where everyone thinks they already know everything their is to know about God. Simply telling people about God is a GREAT place to START in places where they actually have never heard about Jesus.) Lets think about it like a parable. Jesus calls himself the groom and his church the bride. If you knew a single girl who was looking for a husband and you thought you had just the guy for her what would you do? Would you tell her tons facts about him and all the reasons she needs to marry him or would you simply introduce her to him and be confident that if he’s really so great, he will do a fine job wooing her. If you tried the first method you’d probably just creep her out. While introducing people to the Father/Son/Spirit is obviously a bit different than this, I’m sure you get my analogy.
So how do we introduce people to him: Our testimony (not just how you were saved but how the Spirit has moved in your life), the scriptures: as they themselves say, they are living and active, sharper than any double edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit. (Heb 4-12) Spirit led worship – Their is nothing quite like getting those Holy Spirit goosebumps and having love poured out over you in a time of intimacy in worship. Prayer – just talk to Him and see how he responds. Parables: they worked for Jesus. These are just 5 brief examples and they are far from the only ways to introduce others to God. The whole point is that Jesus is alive and the Holy Spirit is here to testify about him. Lets lead people to a real relationship with Jesus and away from a religion of facts about a distant God.
In Conclusion: I’m calling this my final blog because its the last World Race specific blog I’m holding myself accountable to. However, their could definitely be more if I get a hankering to write 🙂 . I want to close by saying “Thank you” to everyone who supported Marin and I via prayer, financial support, or just being a good friend. It is my great hope that you have blessed many others through us this past year. However, even more than that, you have blessed us directly. We have learned so much about our place in God’s kingdom and we pray that by his grace the investment that you have made in us can continue to bear new fruit that would not have been possible without the World Race. I also want to say a special “thank you” to the over 10 donors that gave $500 or more (a few much more). Scripture says that one man plants, another waters, but it is God that makes it grow. You have watered abundantly to get us in a situation to plant – Thank you.
Godspeed,
-Brady and Marin
