Tag: evangelism

Categories
Christian Living

Get Rich… or Embrace a Wartime Simplicity?

As I have mentioned in the “about” section of my website, I feel most of us have waded in the shallows for far too long. Too many of us are still drinking milk when we should be chewing on a sizzlin’ and delicious rib-eye steak. Therefore, some of my posts might be perceived to “step on toes.”

Realize that nothing I post hasn’t already stepped on MY own toes. In fact that’s why I share some of them – God stepped on my toes and I want to share the pain with you! And also realize that if you are wanting to grow with God, you’d better lace up your steel-toed boots and put on your big boy or big girl underoos, cause God isn’t in the habit of tiptoeing around our feelings! He is in the habit of stepping on toes to get us on the track to being more like Jesus. Sometimes I wish that weren’t the case, but fortunately His yoke is easy and His burden is light (but He never said there won’t be a yoke or burden!).

Now… Warning – Sensitivity Advisory Label!
If you don’t like posts that step on toes – skip this one.
But for those of you who have adventurous toes that don’t mind a little danger, by all means continue!

What does it mean to be rich?
a large number of 100 dollar bills representing the idea of being rich What does it mean to be rich toward God?

I believe the answer is wisely explained by John Piper in his book to pastors (Brothers, We Are Not Professionals). But as these words were so convicting to me, I wanted to share them with you. (As I said – I like to share the pain!)

“Being ‘rich toward God’ means looking Godward for heavenly wealth. …God gives us money on earth in order that we may invest it for dividends in heaven. …God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized and uneducated and unhoused and unfed millions.

“The evidence that many of our people are not rich toward God is how little they give and how much they own.

“Very few of our people have said to themselves: we will live at a level of joyful, wartime simplicity and use the rest of what we earn to alleviate misery. But surely that is what Jesus wants. I do not see how we can read the New Testament, then look at two billion unevangelized people, and still build another barn for ourselves. We can only justify the exorbitance of our lifestyle by ignoring the lostness of the unreached and the misery of the poor.

“…there are three levels of how to live with things: (1) you can steal to get, (2) or you can work to get, (3) or you can work to get in order to give. …Almost all of the forces of our culture urge us to live on level two. But the Bible is unrelenting in pushing us to level three.

“You will have to make clear to the business people in your congregation that you are not against multimillion-dollar industries. Nor are you necessarily against [Christians with] six-digit salaries. The problem arises when they endorse the professional status quo that says a six-digit salary should have a six-digit lifestyle. It shouldn’t. Perhaps it should have a $40,000 lifestyle and support two families on a new mission field.

“The problem is not with earning a lot. The problem is the constant accumulation of luxuries that are soon felt to be needs.”

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! but Yes! Yes! Yes!
This commentary by Piper hurts my toes, but I find my heart in agreement with the answer. It’s like that “good soreness” after a workout. A pain, to be sure, but one that you know has stretched you and made you stronger.

I find that in regard to being rich toward God with my finances – my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. I want to live with simplicity. I want to embrace a Theology of Enough. But society pressures me to use my resources for myself. God help me to change and be rich toward You and Your Kingdom!

What do you think? Are Piper’s words Too harsh or are they On-Target?

— brian rushing

Categories
Sharing Jesus

Celebrating Failure

Fireworks are one of the ultimate expressions of celebrations. We are getting close to July 4th where many people will set up some amazing firework shows to celebrate the independence of our nation. We might also send up some fireworks for other personal celebrations, such as a birthday. But we don’t usually light off the fireworks when we experience some sort of failure. …Could that be a mistake? Fireworks representing our need to celebrate our failure in witnessing

Thinking about the issue of teaching our children how to fail (yesterday’s post) got me to thinking about another type of failure – the failure of sharing our faith and getting a “no” answer when asking if someone is ready to confess Christ as Savior and Lord. Is it possible that we should be celebrating our “failures” in witnessing?

Christians want to be obedient to share their faith beliefs with others. We want to share, and we want to lead others to know Jesus. But I have heard that it takes a person at least 8 times to hear the message about Jesus before they are open to the idea and in a mindset where they understand it well enough to even consider a personal relationship with Him. So from a statistical standpoint, that means that at least 7 out of 8 Christians need to be willing to share their faith while knowing that they will NOT lead the person they are speaking with to know Christ at that precise moment. But if we know this to be true and choose to be willing to speak the gospel message anyway, our “failure” has the possibility of moving them one step closer to trusting in Christ.

I know that sharing your faith is not a matter of math, but we need to realize that the statistics indicate that sharing your faith will lead you to hear the words “no” more often than “yes” when you ask for a response. But if we let that discourage us, we might stop witnessing all together. In fact, maybe that is one reason so many people do not share their faith… the fear of failure.

So maybe we start celebrating our failures and encouraging each other to fail more often. Maybe we say: “Hey celebrate with me – I failed in three different conversations with people about their desire to know Jesus!” And other believers would respond: “Hurray! Keep it up! We need more failures! More failures lead to more ‘yes’ decisions in time!” The more failures that we are willing to endure, the more chances that we will have a success. Let’s plant seeds no matter what the soil conditions, because if we choose not to plant due to our fear of failure, we will continue to find this next statement to be truth: With no planting comes no harvest.

“Time is too short; and the weather is too turbulent for business as usual in our Christian community.” (Mississippi Pastor Nathan Barber)

— brian rushing

Categories
Ethics

Pigsties, Rotten Apples, and Morality

One of my favorite quotes deals with pigsties and rotten apples, and the idea that you cannot legislate morality. So many times we want to force people to change.

pig laying in a fithly, muddy pigsty representing the idea that if we legislate morality but don't change the pig's nature we have not done anything of value
Certainly we might be able to clean things up a bit… clean up some violence on the streets, enact new laws that force people to behave, tell people that what they are doing is wrong. But the problem is that if you don’t change the heart, the violence will return, the people will only “behave” when they think someone is watching, and they will never agree that what they are doing is wrong. Here’s the great quote –
“Clean up a pigsty and if the creatures in it still have pig-minds and pig-desires, soon it will be the same old pigsty again. Preach the gospel…preach to the hearts of men. That‘s your business. Then the fruits, including the reforms in other areas, will follow as fruits. But it’s no good tying apples onto a tree. Soon they’ll be rotting apples.”

How very true. Tying apples onto a pine tree doesn’t change the nature of the tree. It might vaguely “look like” an apple tree for a moment, but we’d know it was just a facade. Next year it’ll produce pine pollen, pine cones, and pine needle, but never apples. So the idea is that instead of worrying so much about new laws and legislation and cleaning up the pigsty, we should focus on helping our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to be changed from the inside. Instead of trying to force change externally which is a momentary fix, our efforts should be to help people change internally, which cleans up a person for a lifetime.

The idea is explored a bit more fully in the conversation below which ends with a powerful statement:
        “You know, David, we’re out to win people, not war with them.” Miss Alice’s view was that we had an infinitely larger task than trying to end moonshine stills and stilling. We were to create an atmosphere in which men’s hearts could be changed so that they would want a better way of life than “stillin’” represented.

        Like so many of us, David did not agree with this…”what’s wrong with preaching the gospel and cleaning up the pigsty at the same time? Why should I put on blinders to walk by the pigsty? Besides, I don’t agree that if I preach and do nothing else, men’s hearts are automatically going to be changed and then they’re automatically going to want to do the right thing….Not by a long shot!”
        “The question at issue, David, is how to get rid of the evil in men. Attacking corruption in the environment won’t do it. That’s like cutting weeds in a field. In a few days the weeds will be grown again. And attacking the men themselves won’t work either. Whatever separates men from love can’t be of God.”
        “Then,” David said, “if that’s the technique, why aren’t people changed more drastically by today’s preaching?”
        “Could be because we don’t often have the courage to give the good news to people straight. Most of us are still talking religious theory that we haven‘t begun living; and talking in wornout clichés at that. A watered-down message is as futile as applying rose water to a cancer. When your heart is ablaze with the love of God, when you love other people–especially the rip-snorting sinners–so much that you dare to tell them about Jesus with no apologies, then never fear, there will be results. One of two things will happen. Either there’ll be persecutions, or the fire will leap from your heart to catch and blaze in the depths of other men’s beings. I‘ve watched the process over and over. And then when the blaze starts; the reforms will follow as surely as the flower follows the bud, or the fruit comes after the blossom on the tree.”
        “It’s too slow a way.”
           “No, David, it isn’t too slow a way. The other is no way at all.”

I agree. The other is no way at all!

(Quotes from the book “Christy” by Catherine Marshall)