Evangelism - Cultivation

I am using the word to include all those things involved in producing positive growth, like water, fertilizer, and weeding. These are controllable factors (if you turn the sprinkler on) that can be wisely applied. Love, compassion and service can show God's heart for people. As can, inviting people to participate in situations that enable them to connect with God's family, to interact with them and observe them, and observe them interact with one another. And defending truth steadfastly, persistently, faithfully, but with patience, kindness and gentleness.

Evangelism - Sowing

Seed is often used in scripture as a metaphor for the word of God. One plants different seed at different times, in different ways. Peas are planted very early. Cucumbers, squash and melons are planted in small mounds. Corn is clustered together. The timing and method of the planting determines the fruitfulness of the seed.

Successful evangelism involves proclaiming the word of God. Yet like gardening, there are timing and methodology issues. Today it is possible to go to a Starbucks and get in a spiritual conversation with a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Wiccan, a Mormon and a chemical-determinist. Each requires different approaches and different truths. Different truths are necessary, because they are in different stages of their journey. So, one may be ready to hear the good news message, from one of the popular tools. And another may only be open to a tiny bit. We need to approach each person with spiritual sensitivity, applying that part of the word that is needed.

Evangelism - Preparation

In the Bible, evangelism is described using an gardening metaphor. It is a process and each part of the gardening process can be viewed as part of the "good news" process.

The first step in gardening is preparing the soil. There are a number of things to do in preparation. The gardener needs to decide what to plant. Corn? Beans? Peas? Cucumbers? The methods of planting these common plants is different for each plant. He has to break up the soil. He has to lay out the garden, according to what is being planted.

There are a number spiritual practices that can be put under this category. There is prayer. And prayer with different focuses: to soften hearts, to remove obstacles that blind eyes, to hinder the enemy's work that causes confusion, discouragement and despair.

This area could also include acts of service, mercy and compassion within the local community. These acts can communicate the heart of God's people. Jesus served people who did not know Him by acceptance, healing their ills and insight into their problems.

It can also include lifestyle choices and practices to demonstrate integrity, character and Christ-like attitudes. The last two paint a picture of a positive effect of following Jesus to the world. The first works with God to promote a positive spiritual climate where all reparation can have the greatest effect.

Evangelism

Evangelism usually creates mental images of televangelists in big stadiums, unwanted intrusions knocking at your door, or someone sticking a pamphlet in your face. Usually, impolitely. Evangelism is derived from a Greek word meaning "good news" or "good report". Most people who are not part of God's family treat it like an intrusion. It doesn't seem to them to be good news at all.

It seems to me that for someone to receive it as good news, there is a process that needs to be gone through.

First, we need to demonstrate that in reality, it is good news. We need to show what a life of trust in Jesus means. Francis Schaeffer called this pre-evangelism. How we go about this changes, depending in circumstances, and cultural background. Sometimes rational arguments can be used. Sometimes an emotional stimulus is needed. And sometimes practical works. The end result that we are looking for, is someone saying "Hmm ... there is something good/right/true about this Jesus thing. Something that maybe I need." I am not suggesting that God's children over emphasize the positive aspects of living life with Jesus. Nor am I suggesting that they ignore or minimize the commitment and possible complications. Still, good news needs to be seen as good news.

Second, there is an explanation of the message of Jesus. Simply laid out. Tailored at the level of the audience's understanding. The Bible says we need to adapt our communication, rather than compel the audience to adapt to our communication.

The focus of our attention also gives us a picture of the core desire of our heart. God has designed our hearts to fulfill our place in His kingdom. He has placed this core desire to motivate us to the place that has the most profit and gives us the most joy.

The enemy wants to prevent that desire from actualizing. He will give us a counterfeit. God's purpose will gain as much profit in proportion to our grasping and pursuing our desire. Our joy will follow the same way.

Focus of the Heart

Jesus continues His theme of heart focus. What we focus on reveals much about the condition of our heart. What we give our attention to fills our hearts, and conidtions our hearts. And our hearts take on more light ... or more darkness.

Heart Focus

Jesus gave a series of instructions about people conducting spiritual exercises. (Fasting, prayer, giving to the poor, etc.) Some people would conduct these exercises in a way that would draw attention to their piety. Jesus simply states that God doesn’t give a reward for this. The attention from other people is their reward.

However, He seems to always go deeper. He is not concerned with the exercises per se. He is drawing attention to our hearts. What is the focus of our hearts?

The focus of these exercises ought to be the increase of depth, breadth and intimacy of our relationship with God. We can see the focus of the heart by its overflow. Where we expend our time, energy, money, passion and enthusiasm gives shape to our heart focus.

It isn't how much you know that matters. It's how much you love.

Shrewd Manager

To carry this one step further, after telling that story, he tells another story. This one was about a rich man, who hires a manager to take care of his investments.

One day . the rich man orders the manager to update the books, because he has ordered an audit. Evidently, the manager hed made some bad decisions, so the books weren’t going to look to good. He figured he was going to get fired. So, he needed to quick prepare for the future.

He wasn’t in shape for physical labor. But he wasn’t too pleased about becoming homeless either.

He came up with a plan to create goodwill with the people he did business, so he cold get a job with one of them. He called them up, and reduced their bills. Whatever money he would receive from these outstanding bills was not going to take him too far. But a large amount of goodwill might. His boss actually complimented him on the idea. It showed he knew what was important and he was wisely able to weigh to the positives and negatives in a method to achieve it.

Jesus told the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, and then the shrewd manager. Does anyone serious think this story is about managing money?

So, Jesus asks, “Why is it that those who are supposed to be spiritually in sync with God can’t recognize what’s important, and wisely assess the positives and negatives of achieving it.”

God is not glorified by condemning bad people; God is glorified by transforming bad people into good people.

We need to make sure we use our resources to achieve that which is ultimately important. And we are not considering money necessarily. The Pharisees were supposed to have a superior knowledge of God, and a superior relationship with God. Assets that should promote transformation.

In the Lost parables, Jesus demonstrates that people do not have God’s perspective on the lost. And in the manager parable, Jesus demonstrates that people, who are in the best position to search for the lost, are not interested in searching for the lost.

The Lost Parables

Jesus told stories to teach about spiritual truth. And it seems to me that a lot of times his stories were like jokes. That is, he would set you up, and then deliver a punchline. Except the punchline, instead of making you laugh, exposed wrong thinking or attitudes. For instance, I have been thinking about a case in point.

Jesus is talking to some people who are considered bad. Today, they would be drug addicts, or people with AIDS.

He tells a story about someone who has 100 sheep and loses one. He goes, finds it and has a party to celebrate.

Then, he tells the story of a woman who has 10 coins, and loses one. She cleans the house, finds it and has a party to celebrate.

Anybody besides me feel the set up? How do people respond when they lose something valuable? They go crazy until they find it. They look in places they haven't been in month. They look in pockets of clothes they haven't been in years. And they celebrate when they find it.

Then, he tells the story of a father and two sons. The younger son insults the father, the family, their values and way of life. He demands his inheritance, and wastes it all in one big party.

Then, he gets into trouble. And he realizes that the lowest person working for his father is better off than he is. So, he goes home, apologizes to his father, and asks for a job. His father, instead of a two-hour I-told-you-so speech, throws a party to celebrate. (Anybody see a pattern here?)

Now the older son -- who did not trash the family and worked hard -- comes home, sees what's going on, and gets angry. What's the difference? Evidently, it's OK to celebrate finding a lost thing. And it's not OK to celebrate finding a lost person.

Somebody doesn't understand how a Father views His lost children. And how we should view them.

Live By faith

We are to walk by faith. We are to carry out every single aspect of our lives by faith.

Faith must have an object. It has a direction. It is a vector. (A vector in physics is some property that has both magnitude and direction. Speed is a scalar. It has only magnitude. 55 MPH. Velocity is a vector. It has both magnitude and direction. 55 MPH north going toward Boston.) With a direction, something must point the way. Direction is given to men by the Word of God. So, we are to carry out every aspect of our lives according to the promises of God.

We go to work according to the promises of God. We raise our children according to the promises of God. We live with our spouses according to the promises of God. We complete the mission of God − establishing growing, reproducing churches among every people group in the world − according to the promises of God.

What does God promise about His mission:

• That His message will be proclaimed in all the world.
• That He will be with His people as the go into the world.
• That the evil one cannot stop His people.
• That, as a result, God will claim as His own some from every tribe, nation and tongue.

Hearts and the Spirit

The heart controls the person. Everything that he\she does arises from the heart. That's one reason why it is important for God's Spirit to reside in our hearts. He motivates our actions and words. He is the agent of transformation.

If anyone proclaims that Jesus is Lord, he is one of God's children. He is a channel for God's Spirit. Everyone of God's family is a channel for God's Spirit. 

Everyone of God's family has a special spiritual ability. This way everyone of God's children has a place to serve, to contribute, within the family. Everyone of God's family is a servant to God's family. This ability is a manifestation of the Spirit channeling through a person.

Community is important to God. But community is not important to western society. It is a buzzword we pass around. But our lives show that we are lying to ourselves.

There are values and practices that God esteems. We say we esteem them also. . But our lives show that we are lying to ourselves.

• If we believe in community, why is it so hard to become involved with a small group of people?
• If we believe that life is really in Jesus, life without Him not only results in eternal condemnation, but is also inherently meaningless, and we are God’s ambassadors, why is it so hard to talk to people about Jesus?
• If we believe that we need to be “devoted to prayer”, why is it so hard to spend time at it?
• If we believe that love is the most important work in life, why are we so focused on our own lives, to the exclusion of pretty much everything else?

We all believe that works demonstrate beliefs. What most followers of Jesus seem to believe is life in Jesus is going to weekend meetings, and following a list of rules that defines what is bad and what is good.

Living in the world tends to create a tension. Tension is caused by opposing forces acting on each other. One force is God’s Spirit pushing us to live obediently to his call and lifestyle. Another force is the world spirit pushing us to obey its call and lifestyle.

Human beings do not like to live in a state of tension. They will work to resolve the tension. Usually by yielding to the tension.

The family of God will relieve the tension by immersing themselves in a lifestyle surrounding by the “things of God.” Meetings, concerts, and radio\TV. They fill their time with “approved” spiritual events. As a result, they fail to obey God to engage the world in transformational ways.

Or they yield to the worlds values. They may not outright embrace hedonism, but the they will seek personal peace and prosperity. They engage the world, but not in ways that challenge the need for transformation, for reconciliation with God.

God call us to live within the tension. To live with uncomfortable forces demanding from us. To embrace values and a lifestyle that honor God. To engage with the world in ways that bring the transformational power of Jesus to bear on the world’s issues. To serve it with mercy and generosity. To challenge it will speaking truth, and radical living and loving.

God's Heart for the Nations

I have been considering for the last couple weeks how to view the average disciple’s responsibility to the world. God calls his children to adopt his heart. We should want what he wants. We should yearn for what he yearns. We should aim for what he aims. Jesus taught his disciples to pray:

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

We call for the realities of God’s kingdom to be imposed on this world. For God to infuse his DNA into the structure of the world, and cell by cell, to transform it.

Modern Jesus-followers has come to picture this as a type of “sharia” being imposed on the land. This seems to me to be a type of religious spirit. Disciples assuming the same mind-set as Islamic radicals. Maybe with a gentler face, but with the same constraints on behavior − rather than an inner transform.

God’s picture is very different in a number of ways. One of his pictures can be described this way:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne, and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice.

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”

From the beginning, God’s heart has been for the nations – recreated by a heart transformation. And God’s role for his family has been the same, whether it is the church or the nation of Israel.

• As priests, mediating between God and the world.
• As a blessing, taking what God has given us and sharing it with the world.
• As witnesses, declaring what we have seen, heard and experienced.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine on us, that your ways may be known on the earth, your salvation among the nations.

I tend to interpret the phrase about God’ face as a reference to experiencing his presence. If that is true, and worship is in its essence communion with God, (being in his presence) then, at least one purpose of worship is a proclamation to the nations of the nature of God, and what it means to live with and for him.

(I can see it could be a reiteration of God bestowing blessing on his family. Sill, many speak of God’s presence with us as one of the primary blessings of having a relation with him. And worship is often described in terms of communion and intimacy. Then, intimacy with God becomes one of the primary weapons of the gospel and kingdom propagation – at least, one that transforms our hearts to be like his heart.)

It may not be God’s desire for all of his children to travel to the “uttermost parts,” but it is his desire for them to have his heart. And we can see his heart by his expectation that all nations will be present with him, united together for eternity. And this should be our heart too.

Shaken

People have religious structures surrounding them, and in them. People work out their philosophy, theology and often, depend on them more than Jesus. So, there are numerous people that Jesus has worked through a process of stripping away these structures that people build.

The stripping process is very scary. The ground we stnd on seems to vanish beneath our feet. All the things we were sure of do not hold up anymore.

God want us to trust Him, so He needs to be the foundation. So, He intends to shake, sift and remove anything “false” that we rely on.

I put “false” in quotes, because often our foundation may even rest on true or good things. But, if the truth distracts us from real devotion to the person Jesus, we will eventually find ourselves going through the a stripping away.

Designed for Communion

Seems to me that I mentioned this idea previously, but I don't seem to find it. Maybe I need to start using labels. (I really like to understand embedding pictures and links. I'll experiment with those one day.) But this will expand a little on what might have been said previously.

God made us. God designed us. We are designed for communion with Him. We are designed for communion with a community. We seek out naturally our spiritual centers. We seek out naturally people to share with. We need these things. We are not whole if we do not have them. They are our fuel. We do not run correctly if we do not have them.

We seek them out and find them, one way or another. Whether they are the right sort of communion is another matter.

Many people find spiritual communion in counterfeit philosophy. We may find community outside of God's family. But it is not the proper resting place. Our hearts will still long for the correct place ... if we listen to them. One of the tactics of the enemy is to suggest a place, get us to stop there, and then try to drown out the calls of the Father, or the calls of our hearts. He tries to convince us to settle for a counterfeit. And our souls do not function well on polluted fuel.

Paradoxes

I witnessed a conversation yesterday between two people. The basic topic was about the goodness of God versus evil in the world. The discuss hinged around God's control and man's part. Not much was settled. There seems to be almost an unsolvable paradox surrounding these questions. Rather than regurgitate the arguments, I would like to list several things that seem to me to be true, and pertinent.

• God is good.
• God is in control.
• Mankind has free-will ... even to the point of defying God.
• God limits the use of His power to allow mankind to partner with God.
  
• Mankind does play a part in carrying out God's will.

How this all connects together and works out in any particular situation? I'm not sure anyone can answer that question.

Salt of the Earth

Thor Heyerdahl, in Kon Tiki, was half way across the Pacific on a balsa wood raft to prove that it was possible for the Polynesian islands to have been populated from South America. The water they stored in barrels was beginning to run out. They would not have enough to get them through to the islands.

They could call in the support boat and leave. But it would mean the purpose of their voyage would remain unanswered at best. Failed at worst. What would these south American sailors have done? They could not drink the sea water. They did not have enough fresh water.

Someone asked the question about supplementing the fresh water with sea water. By using a small amount of sea water mixed with the fresh, could they stretch out the consumption of water enough to reach their goal? So, they tried an experiment. They mixed a small amount of sea water with some fresh water.

They created a mixture that they could drink. And it did increase the supply of water. But it did something else. They discovered that their need for water decreased. They rate of consumption went down.

This probably has something to do with electrolytes. Salt is more than a spice. More than a preservative. It is a component of the body that facilitates proper hydration. Proper hydration is necessary for proper functioning of the human body. Electrolyte imbalance can result in sickness and death.

Jesus compared His family with salt. He said they were salt for the world. Followers of Jesus are necessary for the earth to function correctly. Without them, it will slowly die.

For my regular readers, (LOL) you will probably notice that I have not been posting recently. That's because of the marriage mentioned in my profile. It is getting very close. So, I have been trying to help get ready. (That plus graduations, graduation parties, ... Why is the beginning of summer so busy?)

It's not just getting ready for a wedding. It is also helping setting up a new family. Apartment. Furniture. Kitchen supplies. (All of which is now stored at my house. Makes breathing difficult, let alone blogging.)

Hopefully, I will be back exploring the dimensions of the God\man relationship soon.