January 5, 2007

• Good People

  An important life statement, plans for our future, Conor’s future, and pretty much everything else. Sorry it is long, but if you ever read all of anything I write, THIS is the ONE to read all of. I can’t use this computer to highlight, but for family and friends there are some VERY important things about our plans and Conor throughout.

  
  

  What is ever enough?

  Being a ‘good person’ is not enough. What even defines a good person? God makes it clear in the Bible that by breaking one law- any law, just one- we become ‘criminals’, we have sinned and the punishment is death- and eternal separation from God. Only perfection- that is, never committing a single sin- allows a person to ‘earn their way’ to Heaven, and Jesus Christ is the only man who ever lived that did not break God’s law. We are all born inherently sinful- kids start breaking rules as soon as they are old enough to know what rules are, and it goes up from there. It is only by accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for us and having the Holy Spirit- a part of God himself- come and dwell inside us (something that only rarely happened to certain people in the Old Testament, but now is available to ALL who believe after the Spirit came in book of Acts). Because of the Holy Spirit and the work that God is doing inside us, we now have the ability to change- to cease breaking God’s law (God’s law being made clear throughout the Old Testament, and complimented by new commandments in the new- the law of LOVE does NOT change the old law, only compliments it. Murder is still a sin, adultery (sex outside of marriage as well as breaking a marriage vow) is still a sin and still wrong and still hated (the sin, not the person) by God.)

  Embracing the new, rejecting the old
  

  Those who accept Jesus’ death as a covering for their sins also turn away from their sin- they commit to make Jesus LORD of their life. That means that they will allow God and His law to guide their choices and actions, not their own will. It is like taking a blank page as a contract, signing the bottom, and handing it to God telling him “Okay, YOU are Lord- you fill it in, whatever you decide is fine”. This is the kind of saving Faith Paul talks about, that all the New Testament writers exhort us to have. It is a Faith that bares FRUIT. Jesus said “You know the tree by the fruit it bares”. Bad fruits are sins- sex outside of marriage, dishonouring parents, showing hate instead of love, gossip, lies, etc, etc. Good fruits are talked all about in the New Testament, the fruit of the Spirit- LOVE, JOY, FAITHFULNESS, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, TENDERNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF CONTROL (not sure if I nailed em all, but close enough, may have gotten one off I think but you get the picture). This doesn’t mean we are perfect- heck, it doesn’t mean that, like David, we don’t sometimes commit grevious sins. God DOES forgive. But if we never improve? If we know we are committing one of these sins, and we do not seek to prevent it happening in the future? If there is no sign of change in our lives that others can see- if we don’t feel guilt over committing these sins we do know about and feel driven to grow beyond them… then are we saved? Works alone do not bring salvation- but works come as a byproduct of salvation. You can’t be saved and not eventually start having works (works not just being good things, but a lack of sinful things as well).

  Salvation is also the start of a relationship with God. I know my Mom loves me- she also will no matter what I do or where I go. But if I go off to the mission field, but never or rarely call her- will it not still deeply hurt her? Will it not hurt and degrade our relationship? What does it speak of my love for her, if I never communicate or show her my love? Part of salvation is a relationship with God- and choosing to love Him back, to relate to Him. If we don’t talk to him constantly, share with Him as well as seek to hear back (reading His word in scripture, listening for His quiet voice when we stay silent in times of prayer) how can we claim a relationship with Him? How can we claim we even love Him at all if we never talk to Him?

  IF you believe the Bible is true- that it is the Word of God and tells us about God and how to have a relationship with Him- then to say good works is enough, to say the above is not true… means you haven’t read the Bible well enough. Otherwise, you have to say that you don’t believe all of it- or find some way around the parts that say the above, which is making the Bible not GOD’S word but MAN’S word. That completely destroys the purpose of it.

  A ‘good person’- someone can be what we define as a ‘good person’ and still go straight to Hell, eternal and everlasting separation from God. Jesus makes it clear “I AM the WAY the TRUTH and the LIGHT, NO ONE gets to the Father but by me”. Without a relationship with Him- without turning from our sin and OUR desires and seeking to put HIM first, we are still condemned to death for eternity. Likewise, those who have NEVER heard about Jesus- never had the chance to make the choice… because God reveals Himself in nature and wrote his law ‘on our hearts’, as Paul says in Romans. Listen to some of Romans 2

  12 When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. 13 For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. 14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. 16 And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

  Gentiles being at the time those who are not Jewish, but now we could even compare them with those who are not raised in a Christian or Jewish environment as well. Many in America have the CHANCE to hear this message, they get the CHOICE to reject it. But even more people around the world have NEVER HEARD A CLEAR presentation of this message that could save them forever.

  Either here or there- Missions
  

  (note- the below won’t make sense without fully reading and understanding the above. This is part of why I went through the above in such detail)

  Some say that Katrina and I should stay here, that it is more important to try to convince those who rejected this message to accept it- than to make sure others have a chance to hear it at all. God NEVER gives up- God will continue to work on those who have rejected His message, and likewise there are those here in the states who have never really heard the message (not accurately) but still due to their own reasons choose to reject it. God desires to reach out to them- but it is HIS responsibility. It is MY job to follow His will in my life- to reach out to those around me- but it is not on my shoulders to save the world, or feel guilty because while I try to save someone in South America someone in America dies without knowing Christ. If I share Christ, to the best of my ability, and it is rejected completely- I am not held to blame, because it is NOT ME WHO SAVES, it is GOD and the Holy Spirit that causes people to feel shame and guilt for their sins and turn to God. A Christian who tries to do this job FOR God is the Christian that most athiests cite as representing ALL Christians- a pushy, self righteous person who judges others and tries to get them to feel guilty beyond simply sharing the truth of God’s word and allowing it to convict the person.

  God tells me in His Word that my responsibility is to share with others- if I meet someone who does not know the message of Jesus, and I pass up the chance to share it, God will hold me accountable when I die for not sharing. I’m forgiven, yes, but I will still be responsible. However, as Paul says, if I share it and yet they refuse to listen- I have honoured God, and I have loved that person… I cannot force them to change their mind, because we all have Free Will. Free will to choose to be with Jesus and obey God’s law, free will to reject it and spend our eternity paying the price.

  The Great Commission in Acts 1 sets the tone for all of Acts- the message of the early Church.

  6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
  
  7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

  This tells us the message for the Church, for all of us who believe in Jesus: “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to EVERY NATION” (another direct quote from scripture, though I forget the reference details). We are to start with our own culture and home, then with other cultures near us, then other countries, and then all over the world. Each Christian is to have a part in sharing Christ around the world- whether it be supporting those who do it with prayer or finances, or *giving our own sons and daughters up to do this work*. It isn’t a request- it is Jesus last, most powerful command in His resurrected form as he ascends. The Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to do this.

  A Christian who doesn’t share what Jesus did for them and can do for others- who doesn’t share the message that Jesus died for us and is the ONLY way to a right relationship and eternity with God- isn’t living like a Christian. The Bible said it, not me. If it weren’t for missions, the Church never would have reached the gentiles- and Christianity would have died out where it started.

  America is NOT the majority of the world’s population. There are MORE people who haven’t heard outside America than inside it. There are churches in thousands upon thousands of cities, and in most cities you can find churches all around of all denominations. People in Taiwan, China, and Japan cannot understand the concept of denominations- how we not only have churches here, but ten different kinds that teach the Bible in ten different ways. They’re lucky if they can find ONE Bible-believing church nearby.

  Based on reading Acts clearly, on reading the message on missions in all of the New Testament, the message is clear. Even those Christians who are “willing to go to share Christ in foreign missions, but planning to stay unless God tells them to go” are not holding to what the Bible says. As a believer, I should be PLANNING to go- packing my bags, making preparations, and getting things ready to share Jesus with other countries… and stay ONLY if God makes clear that isn’t what he plans.

  There are millions of people in the USA who claim to be Christian and know the message. So why are people so desperate to see someone who is not only obeying the command to spread the gospel to other nations, but clearly called by God and passioante about it… why are people so desperate to see them stay and do the work that those who are already staying here anyone aren’t doing? Because of Christians who are not choosing to share the message of Jesus where they are- who aren’t choosing to live a life in obedience to Jesus Christ and share that with others.

  ALL people on Earth are loved by God, ALL of them deserve to hear about what He has done for them- He wants them ALL to be with Him and to hear about Him. Americans don’t get preference- whites don’t get preference- blacks don’t get preference- it doesn’t matter your race, your heritage, or country… YOU deserve the chance to accept God’s free gift of eternal life with Him as much as anyone else. BUT, if you hear it and choose to mock it, to be angry by it, to say “how DARE you tell me I live a life of sin and NEED to change?” Well, you CAN do that. But to do that, and then ask me not to give others the chance I gave you? Or to accept Christ, because of someone telling you, but ask others not to try to give people who may never have that chance… THE chance you got? Is that not selfishness?

  I do not claim I have some great thing I can give that nobody else can’t. No- I am valuable because God gave me all the gifts I have, and He made the sacrifice of His son. What I have of value that MUST be shared is the truth about this gift- you, having read this, now have that truth too and can choose to listen or not. You can choose to take it and share it or not. You can choose to take the message to every nation, or not. You can choose to start taking it to the friends and neighbours around you, or not. You can choose to accept Jesus and follow him- being obedient to God- or not. You have that choice, I have that choice- and I have made the choice that despite my frailties, despite my lack of experience, despite my selfishness, despite my mistakes, despite my lack of finances, despite it all I am still going to obey Christ and carry out the great commission He gave to me, and to my Wife, and to my family.

  Parent and Child
  

  (again, the above is all necessary to understand what is said here)

  And my parents have carried this commission out too. Why? Because by giving us up, even though it hurts at times, to serve God elsewhere- by encouraging us, by praying for us, by making us an offering to the God they love- they, too, have obeyed the commission Jesus gave to us and will be blessed for it. I pray that one day soon, my son Conor will understand what Jesus did for Him and choose to follow Him. I pray that one day a little later, He will also be sent out into the world to share Jesus- that, too, will be a sacrifice on our part to God, to let our baby go one day as a man to leave us, and to serve God in bringing Jesus to others who haven’t heard. I hold my baby one year old boy in my arms- I look at Him- and I can honestly say I would rather know that one day, maybe in his thirties, he will die as a martyr for Jesus Christ telling someone in another country about Jesus… than live to be 80 years old, bitter and hardened towards God. Or even to live to be 80 with a family, in a relationship with God, but never having reached his full potential- never having really lived the kind of powerful life God wanted him to.

  As Conor’s parents, this is our decision to make- until he is old enough to live on his own, then our job is to raise Him up in the Lord and trust God to protect him. I believe Conor will be far safer with us doing the Lord’s will in another country- than with us disobeying God here in ours. In a world where looking away from your child for a minute could mean him drowning in a pool, getting run over by a car- it is faith in God’s protection and will that brings security, and God is just as capable of protecting us and our son in the middle of a swamp in Africa as He is in the middle of New York city, in the suburbs of South Carolina, or anywhere else a person might consider ‘safe’.

  By making these choices I can honestly say I am no more foolhardy than Paul who went throughout the provinces of Rome, than Peter or any of the disciples of Jesus or early apostles. I am no more foolhardy to give up my life to God’s plan than the one who gave up His life for me.

  I gently, lovingly, but honestly say- if you do not believe the message that we intend to share as I stated above, then how can you counsel us accurately in how to share it? It is like me telling a buddhist (sp) about Jesus, and how his faith is not enough to get him to heaven… and then telling him “Well, if you’re going to do that anyway, here’s the right way to say your chants.”

  We love our family DEARLY. We intend to do our best to keep them a part of our lives, and a part of our son Conor’s life- and any future children we have. We hope they will join us by praying for us- by supporting and encouraging us as we seek to share Jesus Christ around the world. We have made our choice to answer His call- and it grieves my spirit that some find this a cause for anger rather than joy, a cause for arguments rather than support. Perhaps, at the least, having share what I have now shared I can at least know that our purpose and our reasoning is fully understood.

  Peace, love, joy, comfort, and all of the love of Jesus our Christ to you all,

  Patrick

  • 10:05 am
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