Exchange Students and the Gospel

It’s been a week since our exchange student arrived from Germany. It has been quite a busy week with making adjustments to our schedule, but it has been well worth it. LaNae and I are learning a lot about the life of a teenager. He wakes up with nothing to say, but when it’s time to turn in for the night at around 9:30 pm, he is ready to talk about his day for the next hour or so. Needless to say we have had a few late nights getting to know this young man. Last night I had my first spiritual conversation with Julien, particularly as it related to Sunday mornings message from our pastor on the topic of “religion as the cause of problems around the world”. He agrees to an extent with this argument, but at the same time I asked him if he thought we were religious people. To which he replied, “yes”. Then I followed up with, “do you think we’re causing problems in the world?” He paused for a moment, then smiled and I think realized that the argument is a general statement that has no validity.

I decided that while he was here with us for the month of August (however we are praying about keeping him for the entire school year) we would go through the gospel of Mark for our family devotions. This was to give him a glimpse into the life and person of Jesus Christ. He actually looks forward to our Bible times in the evening. This evening we read Mark chapter 2 focusing on the story of the paralytic and the calling of Levi. The main point of our Bible time was that Jesus loves sinners and he wants to forgive them. He demonstrated both these truths in these stories. This theme forced me to answer the question of “who is a sinner” and “how does a sinner attain forgiveness?” It’s exciting because Julien has very little Bible background. In fact the only Bible story he is familiar with is David and Goliath. It seems like he’s open to having conversations about the Bible.

Please pray as we continue to show him the love of Christ both in the Scriptures and also through our lives.

"One sows and another reaps..." Part II

It is Monday afternoon and I am recovering physically after a 4 day long outreach camp at Tshimakain Creek camp just outside of Spokane, WA. My body is physically worn out, but my soul is spiritually full after laboring for the sake of the gospel to 47 children between the ages of 8-11 years old. These kids were from various walks of life; many of them from extremely difficult home situations and from low income neighborhoods. Church life for these kids is a foreign concept. In fact most of them didn’t even know there was such a thing as an Old and New Testament in the Bible. This is indicative of a culture that is becoming more and more godless with each successive generation. This was all the more reason I believe it was right for us (FBC) to partner with Union Gospel Mission of Spokane in an effort to reach the younger generation with the gospel. Perhaps the Lord will show his kindness towards many of these young ones and bring them to saving faith. I took a staff of 27 adult and high school students ranging from ages 14 to 51 with me. What an incredible team. A team that worked together so well, one would think that we had known each other longer than the 4 days we were at camp.

It’s hard to believe that the week of ministry to these young people is over. Who knows if we will ever make contact with these kids again? I am in the middle of strategizing with the Tshimakain Outreach Team ways in which we can incorporate many of these kids into the body of Christ here at FBC. It will be a difficult task because many of their parents may not want to have anything to do with church. My encouragement to the team members is to pursue these kids, regardless, through letters or phone calls, but that they should try to make contact with the parents as much as possible. A parent whose child is loved by another will find it hard to resist that person. It will be a challenge for the team to follow up because for many of them this is new approach to gospel ministry, but each team member is up for the challenge of a possible negative response. They realize that part of the consequence of extending the gospel in word and deed is at times rejection.

If we never see these kids again, I can say with a clear conscience that we as a team sowed the seeds of the gospel. The theme for the camp was “King of the Jungle”. There were six messages presented during the 4 days at camp. Each message was preceded by a skit with three characters in search of this “king of the jungle”. The king of the jungle of course was King Jesus and throughout their journey in search of this King they would be led to some so-called kings. On one journey they were led to the Lion King. On another journey they were taken to King Kong, and yet on another journey they were taken to King Tut. All did not fit the characteristics of the one true King they were looking for. The King they were in search of had the attributes of Power, Justice, Promise, Humble, Love and Glory. We used these six characteristics of King Jesus to present the gospel. After 20-25 minute messages each cabin leader took their kids through a series of questions and reiterated the contents of the message and took the opportunity to present the gospel in word. By the end of the week, one cabin leaders can say with confidence that one of the little girls in her cabin made a commitment to follow Christ. Many of the kids listened intently, they seemed to get the contents of the gospel, but were not vocal about any commitments to follow Christ if they did.

However, what will be imbedded in the minds of many of these children is the kindness and love that was extended to them towards by the staff. Every one from the work crew to the cabin counselors went out of their way to show the gospel to these kids with their actions. They were sacrificial in their actions. They took the time to do things the kids wanted to do. They did not have one break away from these kids at any time during the camp. It was indeed a labor of love and work produced by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can say they were moved by the love of the staff because many of these young ones were in tears when they came off the bus and had to say good-bye to their cabin leaders.

Time will tell whether the seeds of the gospel landed on good soil; we can only pray. We sowed; perhaps another will one day reap a harvest.

"One sows and another reaps..."

One Sunday, I was talking with one of the Sunday school teacher from our church and I asked him how his class was this morning. He was encouraged to be able to teach the children the word of God, but I could tell that he was burdened by something. I waited a few moments thinking that perhaps he might share what was burdening him. And then he spoke. He said, “I just don’t think the kids get it. I put all this time preparing, which I love to do, but I don’t know how much they actually walk away with.” I was so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to be in John chapter 4 this past week particularly verses 36-38, which reads; "Already the ones who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

This was the passage the Lord brought to my attention for this brother who was burdened by the lack of visible fruit in the children’s lives. I reminded him that perhaps he had been called to sow and someone else was going to reap his labor later on down the road. This was exactly what happened with the disciples as Jesus promised. The disciples would enter into the labor of those who had gone before them. In Acts chapter 2 after Peter’s powerful sermon, 3000 souls were added to the Kingdom of God. In Acts chapter 4 another 2,000 souls were added to the Kingdom. This was the fulfillment of what Christ told them they had entered into. This is no different for us today. Some will be called to reap a harvest of souls and others will be called to faithfully sow the seeds of the word of God with no visible fruit. In a ministry to children, the primary calling on the teacher’s life is to sow the seeds of God’s word into their hearts. This is also a primary principle in parenting. Much of what teaching children and parenting is all about is sowing the seed of God’s word into the lives of children.

It’s tempting to become discontent or discouraged when you continually labor to sow seeds of God’s word and see no visible fruit. Those who are called to a labor of sowing must keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." You see, in the end, both reaper and sower will rejoice together. The whole purpose of having sowers and reapers is so that their will be much rejoicing when we join together in giving the Lord praise for His incredible work of saving sinners from His wrath for all eternity.

Let these words encourage your weary soul to press on to joyful and faithful ministry. Let these words encourage you to faithfully proclaim the Gospel to those you come in contact with.

Gospel Growth through Hospitality

Two weeks ago we had the privilege of having one of our neighbors over for dinner. His name is Don. He is an 80 year old man whose wife passed away about 5 years ago. I remember when we first sought to build a relationship with this man and his wife. We had only one child at the time and we went to their house during the 2000 Christmas season to share some Christmas cookies in the hopes of building a relationship with them. He and his wife were so appreciative. And to top it off my 2 year old daughter at the time sang three Christmas carols that was piercing to the ear, but they loved it and it melted their heart. Since then we have continued to build a relationship with Don and have had the opportunity on different occasions to share the gospel with him. But he is a skeptical man. He reads his Bible as a literature book and with a critical eye. Since his wife passed away our family would have him over for dinner on a regular basis. And during the course of dinner our conversation would lead towards a discussion about the Scriptures. He would usually raise a question about the character of God, namely in how God is seen in the Old Testament. And I, in turn, would eventually take our discussion to the story of the gospel. At this moment is when he would get most critical and condescending. My children would listen to him (with eyes wide open) sentence by sentence mock the story of Christ. In their minds they were probably thinking, “How could this man say such things about something we hold on to so dearly?”

We have been gone for nearly 2 ½ years while I was attending The Master’s Seminary in Southern California, and had lost contact with Don. However, during the Snow Storm 2008, I had the privilege of rekindling our relationship with him as we were both shoveling our driveways. As we stood at his newly shoveled driveway, I asked him, how he was doing. And the first thing he said was, “I haven’t had a regular meal with meat and potatoes in a long time.” Sadly, my thoughts initially didn’t go towards asking Don to come over for dinner. I actually started thinking about how I didn’t want to have him sit at our dinner table because he would probably mock the story of the gospel. And then my heart was suddenly convicted, that’s exactly why we need to have him over for dinner. So I asked him if he would like to come over that week and he said yes. I told my family that I had invited Don for dinner, and we all took a deep sigh (even the kids). As we anticipated sitting with Don at the dinner table this actually drove us as a family to our knees to pray for him. That week, we prayed that our aim would be to show him the love of Christ through our hospitality. We didn’t want to get in some kind of debate over something we hashed through in the past. We simply wanted to give him the best meat and potatoes meal so that he would sense that we genuinely loved him with the love of Christ. LaNae and the kids made a great meal, and we actually had an enjoyable time with him. We found out that he is a Civil War buff. In fact, this sparked Cade’s interest because he is taking a class right now on the Civil War. He invited Cade and me to come over his house some time to look at his Civil War collection, which we plan to do some time. He made an attempt to bring the Bible into our conversation during the course of dinner in a rather skeptical way, but I had resolved to simply display the love of Christ to him through our actions. He heard the gospel before on many occasions, and we realized that it wasn’t going to be more information that would penetrate the heart of this man, but rather more actions.

The evening ended and we felt like not much had changed with regards to Don’s heart towards spiritual things, but we were ok with that. We know that in the Lord’s time He will work on Don’s heart. We will continue to pray for him and continue to have him over regularly for meals.