• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

the Ransom

Posted on August 27, 2012 by wtdavid

Today’s post comes from Lynette in Cambodia about chapter 12: The Ransom

Most of us seek out people who are “easy to love”. . . people who don’t have problems or issues. . . people who don’t require a lot from us. . . people who are just fun to be around.  Yet according to Jesus’ example and Keller’s summary, “all life-changing love is substitutionary sacrifice”.  I tried to think of some incidence, some person, something where that statement was not true.  Sadly, I could not.  To love someone, really love them, requires tremendous sacrifice on our part, maybe not initially, maybe not for a time;  but, there comes a time in every relationship where we face the question, “Am I willing to deny myself for the sake of the other person?” Or put another way, “Am I willing to love this person in a redemptive way?”

Looking at our life and ministry through the eyes of “redemptive love” shades what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and to whom we do it in a completely different light.  Redemptive love enables us to love the unlovely, to be lovely when we feel unlovely, and to seek ultimate good for those that the Lord allows to be in our circle of influence.  Keller brings out the passage, Jeremiah 29:7, which spoke to me specifically when my team moved to a new provincial location.  “Seek peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, . . .”  During our time in that province, that verse kept coming up in my heart as a basis for why I was there coupled with Matthew 5: 16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Jesus is our example of redemptive love through His life, ransom and resurrection.  So the first challenge I leave with you comes from Keller, “ Be so sacrificially loving  that the people around you, who don’t believe what you believe, will soon be unable to imagine the place without you.”  Does this characterize the place where the Lord has “carried you into exile”? 

The second is how would loving sacrificially (redemptively) change a relationship in which you are currently involved?

 

Next installment of the King’s Cross blog post will be September 3rd, looking at Ch 13 “the Temple”

Filed under: King's Cross, Reflection | Leave a comment »

King’s Cross Speaking to Us

Posted on August 20, 2012 by wtdavid

Reading Henry & Janet’s (WT Singapore) recent prayer letter, I really appreciated the honesty with which they shared what the Lord has been teaching them through the book, King’s Cross.  “Keller is bringing home a lot of things that have been toying around in the back of my brain for the last few years, but he also is introducing so many new things,” Henry wrote.  The following are some excerpts from their letter that I trust will encourage many of us:

“Recently I had the tremendous privilege to speak to about 270 church leaders in Asia. Being given the freedom to develop my messages as I saw fit… and as I felt God’s Spirit leading me, I felt very much at ease talking about God’s awesomeness and His Grace. Often the church tends to focus on what we as Christians are supposed to be doing. Not often enough do we concentrate on what God has done. I am as guilty as anyone. We tend to build our lives on our religious beliefs and guard or guide our lives by the rules we feel are what God wants us to keep. Too seldom do I just allow God to be my vision for life. Too seldom do I look at the world the way He would have me to look at it.

In His Sovereignty, God has allowed Janet and me to live in S.E. Asia for most of the last 33 years. We have been blessed by what God has done, and by whom God has placed in our lives. Yet, I know so little about this amazing God who created the universe. And sadly, it is so easy to get sidetracked by the little things that can cause irritation or disappointment (especially in other people), or by challenges that we were not expecting and lose sight of what God is trying to do in our lives through those things. Lately I have been challenged by a book I am reading … called “King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus” by Timothy Keller. Now, I know that not everyone gets the same sense of impact or satisfaction out of a book or a movie, but I don’t think you could miss on this one. Keller’s insights into scripture and his applications to my life are incredible.

For example, from his comments on Mark 4: 35-41, concerning the reaction of the disciples to the storm on the sea… and to how Jesus then stilled the sea…. “… if I go to Jesus, he’s not under my control either. He lets things happen that I don’t understand. He doesn’t do things according to my plan, or in a way that makes sense to me. But if Jesus is God, then he’s got to be great enough to have some reasons to let you go through things you can’t understand….. He can love somebody and still let bad things happen to them, because He is God – because he knows better than they do.”  I remember the amazing peace I had 10 years ago when Janet was in the critical care ward for eight weeks on life-support. I knew God would do the right thing, but I had no assurance that Janet would still be with us. It was out of my control, but Jesus gave me peace.

Keller’s comments on Mark 5 really hit home: “Right now, is God delaying something in your life? Are you ready to give up? Are you impatient with Him? There may be a crucial factor that you just don’t have access to. The answer, as with Jairus (whose daughter died while he waited for Jesus to talk to a woman who had touched Him in the crowd*), is to trust Jesus.” (*explanation added by me) Just as I was able to trust Jesus with Janet’s life, am I now willing to trust God for my future?  Now that I face the challenge of raising more finances for rent?  Now that my job description is still in the process of being written?  Now, after living out of suitcases for 5 months.. with a possible 5 months of the same on the horizon?”

Henry & Janet leave us with a good question to reflect on this week: how will I express my trust in God with what is in front of me this week?

 

Next Monday, we restart our study by looking at chapter 12: “the Ransom”

Filed under: King's Cross, Trust | 1 Comment »

Can’t Get Away From Going Slow

Posted on August 17, 2012 by wtdavid

Today, I read the following quote from a blog I visit occasionally: “The urgency of slowing down – to find time and space to think – is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context.  “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”  He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

It seems I just can’t get away from this idea of ‘going slow’.  In the quote above, I am struck by how often ‘going slow’ is associated with an individual action or decision, and certainly in one sense it is.  We, as individuals, need to step back from the distractions that so easily amuse and satisfy us to take the time to more deeply reflect on the ultimate values we should be pursuing.

However, our individual driven lifestyle must also be addressed by connected relationships or community.  We suffer from “crowded loneliness”, as one writer put it.  We exist, we live, but unconnected, isolated from others and deep relationships.

We need others and they need us.  That’s why so much of the New Testament is about “one another-ing” each other.  Life in Christ is found and experienced in community.  Now we just need to ‘go slow’ to create that community and live out of it.

 

 

Filed under: Community, Reflection | 2 Comments »

Jesus, the Only Saviour

Posted on August 15, 2012 by wtdavid

It seems that my post from Monday struck a chord with a number of people.  Many could relate to the struggle of becoming a ‘saviour’ to those we are discipling and mentoring.  The trap is one we easily fall into because our hearts are warmed when others put such confidence in us.  However, our hearts need to be trained to warn us of “misplaced confidence” and to consistently point others to Jesus, the only Saviour.

Misplaced confidence is when others consider that they cannot move forward or continue in the Christian journey without us.  Oswald Chambers puts it this way when he speaks to those mentored by others: “But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, “I cannot continue without my ’Elijah.’ ” Yet God says you must continue.”  Our confidence, as well as the trust that others express, must be in God; not in ourselves nor in one another (Psalm 20:7; Proverbs 3:26).  When we allow misplaced confidence to continue, though it may be a boost to our spiritual pride, it will spiritually cripple any follower.

To consistently point others to Jesus, the only Saviour requires that we develop the reflex to turn situations and questions into learning moments where we go back to Jesus together to find Him and all that He promises to give to His children such as wisdom, discernment, hope and the fruit of the Spirit.  It is so much easier to just answer a disciple’s queries than it is to push him/her back to Jesus and His Word.

Once again this is why we need the input of a community around us as we seek to learn how to direct others to know more deeply their need of a Saviour, and that it is not us.

 

Filed under: Community, Reflection | Leave a comment »

Going Slow

Posted on August 13, 2012 by wtdavid

Jesus’ words to His disciples in Mark 6:31, in the midst of a hectic ministry schedule, should cause us to stop and reflect on our need for “rest”.  Jesus says to them: “”Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

When I say “rest”, I am not talking about inactivity, but about stepping back and asking some hard questions about what rules or governs our time.  Getting away for holiday is important, but there is another “rest” we need to consider as well.  Ministry can be intoxicating.  The ‘rush’ of people in need and the feeling that we are having an impact in the lives of others can drive us past our limits: “and they had no leisure even to eat.”

Here are some questions that come to mind in this regard:

  • How well I am able to say ‘no’?  This is not to imply that we say ‘no’ to every new ministry opportunity that comes our way, but most of us struggle with over commitment rather than under commitment.  Learning to say ‘no’ means I am learning to prioritize well.
  • How have I become blind to God’s work in my life and another’s life by becoming their savior instead of Jesus?  Sometimes our desire to help another actually hinders another from learning to live out their faith on their own with Jesus.
  • What would it look like for me to ‘go slow’ and gain another perspective on life and ministry at this juncture in my walk with Christ?

These are not easy questions, nor is this an easy exercise.  It is interesting that Jesus called the disciples as a group to get away together.  Maybe this is another reason why we need the input of a community around us as we seek to “rest”, step back and evaluate what we should be giving ourselves to in ministry.

 

Filed under: Community, Priorities | 4 Comments »

Going Glocal

Posted on July 27, 2012 by wtdavid

The world is always becoming ‘smaller’ in terms of the connectedness potential between peoples.  Global trends impact not only large scale structures, but local frameworks and cultures.  However, what is different in today’s world is that the local cultures are choosing to contextualize global changes to their particular environment.  Thus, we are going “glocal”; where global shifts may have different applications or outworkings in different local contexts.

This is particularly important for us as cross cultural workers as it means we will need to listen more intently and exegete more carefully the contexts in which we live and work.  In order to facilitate others well in their local “theologizing”, we will need to recognize our deep need of God and dependence on the insights of those from the cultures and contexts we find ourselves in.  For this is their work. The work of local believers is to discern what “glocal” looks like in their world.  Humility will be needed in this process, but we can be thankful that God truly does “give grace to the humble”.

I will be away for next number of days, and I would like to leave us with this question:  what one step could I undertake in the coming month (September) that would lead me to facilitate others more in applying the Gospel in their context?  Hopefully, we can pick up with that question and your insights when I return.

 

Filed under: Global realities, Humility, Listening | 1 Comment »

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