When I started reading Captive in Iran and have heard testimonies recently from missionaries in hostile environments, like Mid-India Christian Services, I keep having this question ringing through my head: Why don't the "old" ways of reaching the lost for Jesus work in the U.S. anymore?
Now, I'm sure there are dozens of people that would love to educate me about living in a post-modern or post-Christian culture. You could even debate how intellectual we are or dare I say, how we've "evolved"...but I already know a lot about these subjects and they just don't seem to be the answer to my question.
Are you telling me that Iranians or Indians are not as smart? That somehow people in other parts of the world have lesser mental capabilities than we do? No...I'm pretty sure we all have the same God-given mental capacities.
So why? Why can two women being held in a cesspool of human waste, hopelessness and pain walk up to a complete stranger and say essentially, "You are lost. We know the God who loves you. We would like to introduce you to His Son, Jesus. And He will be your hope and shield." And often the response they get is, "You know what...I think you're right. I believe."
Okay...so I've streamlined the conversations a little for dramatic affect...but the basic premise reigns true: Why does it take so much more here in the U.S. to convince...beg...someone to believe they are loved by the Creator and need Him more than anything else in this life?
I was asking this throughout the entire reading of the book. Here's what I think the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart as the answer...it's nothing complicated...in fact, it's only one word...but the implications are more than I think we would really like to grasp. The word?
Suffering!
There it is. In places where to be a Christian is to automatically expect persecution, suffering and even death...the Love and Hope of Jesus is spreading like a desert wildfire. Why? Because just like the early Christians going to their deaths in a coliseum singing...we innately know there is nothing rational about joy in the midst of pain. When it is witnessed by the unbeliever...God's unfathomable Love cannot be denied.
We in the U.S. for the most part have never suffered. When we grasp that the poorest person in the U.S. is still 90% richer than over half of the world...we will understand what a tremendous blessing we have been given. But the blessing has in fact, become a curse.
No longer is the love of Jesus needed for salvation here. We can self-help, self-medicate, self-esteem and self-ishly get our way out of almost anything. And if someone can't...then we can blame the government, schools, deterioration of the family, gun laws, entitlements, video games, climate change, the media or a plethora of other things for why someone fails to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and get better. When will come the day that we must admit...the bootstraps are not ours to pull?
I'm not a doomsday prophet...nor do I want to be. I wish the good times would just keep rolling in...but do we really worship a God that came to our Earth and said, 'Take up your cross and follow me." (see Matthew 16:24) ?? Do we worship the suffering Savior that for our own sins was beaten beyond recognition, hung on a cross in the town dump, while being mocked by strangers and denied by his friends and not really expect some of the same treatment? (See Matthew 27)
I also don't believe that God ever loses hope of drawing people to Him. We are told that God isn't slow in keeping His promises (to return). He tarries so that everyone has a chance to repent. (see 2 Peter 3:9) So I don't think God will ever just "abandon" the U.S....even though it may seem like people are abandoning Him for their own comfort, pleasure and indulgences.
What will it take to draw people to Him? If history is accurate...it takes suffering. When we have nothing left...we find that the only thing we ever needed was Him. That has proved true in my own life as well. So when the rocks are tumbling and the light is dwindling and the hope seems to be fading...do not despair...
He's on His way!
Now, I'm sure there are dozens of people that would love to educate me about living in a post-modern or post-Christian culture. You could even debate how intellectual we are or dare I say, how we've "evolved"...but I already know a lot about these subjects and they just don't seem to be the answer to my question.
Are you telling me that Iranians or Indians are not as smart? That somehow people in other parts of the world have lesser mental capabilities than we do? No...I'm pretty sure we all have the same God-given mental capacities.
So why? Why can two women being held in a cesspool of human waste, hopelessness and pain walk up to a complete stranger and say essentially, "You are lost. We know the God who loves you. We would like to introduce you to His Son, Jesus. And He will be your hope and shield." And often the response they get is, "You know what...I think you're right. I believe."
Okay...so I've streamlined the conversations a little for dramatic affect...but the basic premise reigns true: Why does it take so much more here in the U.S. to convince...beg...someone to believe they are loved by the Creator and need Him more than anything else in this life?
I was asking this throughout the entire reading of the book. Here's what I think the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart as the answer...it's nothing complicated...in fact, it's only one word...but the implications are more than I think we would really like to grasp. The word?
Suffering!
There it is. In places where to be a Christian is to automatically expect persecution, suffering and even death...the Love and Hope of Jesus is spreading like a desert wildfire. Why? Because just like the early Christians going to their deaths in a coliseum singing...we innately know there is nothing rational about joy in the midst of pain. When it is witnessed by the unbeliever...God's unfathomable Love cannot be denied.
We in the U.S. for the most part have never suffered. When we grasp that the poorest person in the U.S. is still 90% richer than over half of the world...we will understand what a tremendous blessing we have been given. But the blessing has in fact, become a curse.
No longer is the love of Jesus needed for salvation here. We can self-help, self-medicate, self-esteem and self-ishly get our way out of almost anything. And if someone can't...then we can blame the government, schools, deterioration of the family, gun laws, entitlements, video games, climate change, the media or a plethora of other things for why someone fails to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and get better. When will come the day that we must admit...the bootstraps are not ours to pull?
I'm not a doomsday prophet...nor do I want to be. I wish the good times would just keep rolling in...but do we really worship a God that came to our Earth and said, 'Take up your cross and follow me." (see Matthew 16:24) ?? Do we worship the suffering Savior that for our own sins was beaten beyond recognition, hung on a cross in the town dump, while being mocked by strangers and denied by his friends and not really expect some of the same treatment? (See Matthew 27)
I also don't believe that God ever loses hope of drawing people to Him. We are told that God isn't slow in keeping His promises (to return). He tarries so that everyone has a chance to repent. (see 2 Peter 3:9) So I don't think God will ever just "abandon" the U.S....even though it may seem like people are abandoning Him for their own comfort, pleasure and indulgences.
What will it take to draw people to Him? If history is accurate...it takes suffering. When we have nothing left...we find that the only thing we ever needed was Him. That has proved true in my own life as well. So when the rocks are tumbling and the light is dwindling and the hope seems to be fading...do not despair...
He's on His way!
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