Smorgasbord

An Evangelism Book to Challenge You

I recently received a copy of a book, Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis, from Missions Frontiers in exchange for a honest book review. I was challenged so much by this book I decided to put the review on my blog too. (and maybe it will get me blogging again- I've just been too busy to blog lately.) Here is that review:

Speaking of Jesus: the ART of not-evangelism

By Carl Medearis

Reading this book by Carl Medearis is like sitting around with one of the wise and experienced veterans of ministry. As they talk you realize that you wish you had pen and paper with you so you can write some of this down. They have wisdom and they have great stories that illustrate that wisdom. So much connects and helps you understand things you’ve been thinking about or brings clarity to things you’ve been struggling with. And sometimes they say things that make you think, “Um, that seems a little too far of a stretch.” Parts of the book made me say “Yes! Thank you.” Other parts, far fewer, made me say “huh?” But the good parts are so worth it – jewels.

There are so many people I know I wish would read this book. I often get frustrated at what people consider “doing evangelism”. Often it’s more about methods and even trickery rather than about the Gospel or Jesus. Carl Medearis wants to challenge us about what we are sharing and wants to get us back to the main message.

For Carl that main message is Jesus. Not Christianity, a religion, but Jesus, the person. He wants to get Jesus followers out of our “holy Huddles” (“rabbit holes” – John White) and out into the world where we will be comfortable being in any circle of people and being willing to talk about this Jesus that we have given our lives to (see chapter 12 for where he likes to prepare his sermons! Talk about getting out of the Saltshaker!). It’s a great message.

For me he gives a great illustration that gets us to the point in chapter 4. He compares Christians as a bunch of people standing inside a circle, the circle of Christianity, and we are calling out to those on the outside, trying to get them to listen to us. Most walk away, they just don’t know us or care to know us. Some listen and maybe even respond to the message of Jesus. But then, for those few who respond, we start giving them the rules of “being a Christian” and they lose interest. We preach our religion as much as about the person of Jesus. The religion can turn people off, the person of Jesus is interesting and exciting. So preach Jesus.

There is so much more in this book. It is thought stimulating and I think so many of us will be better witnesses if we read this book, talk about this book, and start sharing Jesus.

A life of Faith, A life best lived

“The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act out the aggressions of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. People, aimless and bored, amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines.”

Concerning the fascination with evil acts and people:

“The mass media report their words and display their actions. Writers vie with one another in analyzing their motives and providing psychological profiles on them. No other culture has been as eager to reward either nonsense or wickedness.

If, on the other hand, we look around for what it means to be a mature, whole, blessed person, we don’t find much. These people are around, maybe as many of them as ever, but they aren’t easy to pick out. No journalist interviews them. No talk show features them. They are not admired. They are not looked up to. They do not set trends. There is no cash value in them. No Oscars are given for integrity. At year’s end no one compiles a list of the ten best-lived lives.”

This is from the book “Run with the Horses” by Eugene Peterson. I read this book in 1983 when I was first entering a life of ministry. And it still confronts and challenges me. His comments are still right on.

The book is about Jeremiah the prophet. He writes of Jeremiah:

“ In Jeremiah it is clear that the excellence comes from a life of faith, from being more interested in God than in self, and has almost nothing to do with comfort or esteem or achievement.”

It’s a great book to challenge us to live a life of faith – a live best lived.

Prayer Challenge 1:9-11

Last night at our ISCA Bible study we studied the first part of Philippians Chapter 1. After we read verses 1:9-11, Paul’s prayer for the Philippians, one of our members said “I’d like to have this prayer said for me!”. Here is that prayer:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

One question we asked was what would happen if we all prayed this prayer for our fellowships and friends every day? What would be the impact on the world? On us? We all agreed that it would be amazing. Amazing!

So here is the challenge we agreed on: Every day this summer we are going to pray this very prayer for each other. It’s very simple. Say the prayer inserting your friends name in the prayer for all the “you and yours”.

Will you join us in this challenge?

What do you think will happen?

Heroes All

Heroes All.

‘There are heroes around us all the time” – Barack Obama in Joplin

Today is memorial day, a day to remember the soldiers who have given their lives for this country. Barack Obama’s quote above reminded me of a song from the TV show Cop Rock. I think I might be the only person in America that liked this show. This 1990 show last only 11 shows but I think it did a great job using music to illustrate important issues.

In one episode one of the characters receives an award for being a hero and then the cast breaks out into a song about heroes. The main line from the song is “If one of us is a Hero, then we’re heroes all.”

It’s a good point. Thank you all of you heroes.

Watch the song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyM3qhWFuKs

Rejoicing at Death

“Will not rejoice at the death of an unrepentant sinner.”

This was posted by a Christian Friend on Facebook today. I think it’s something every Christian should think about.

If you believe in a real and permanent Hell as a place of eternal punishment, there is nothing to rejoice. The dead are facing torment forever and a living human who has been killed will have no more chances at repenting. I can’t imagine someone rejoicing another person being tormented forever. Our response should be more like Jesus in Luke 19:41-42.

If you believe in Annihilation, the belief that after death our soul is judged and then just ceases to exist. I guess you could rejoice that “the bad man is gone”, but still there should be sadness that this person never got to enjoy the eternal relationship with Jesus that Jesus desired for him.

If you believe in universalism, the belief that all people go to heaven, then you have nothing to rejoice in either – Osama made it there before you and he’ll be waiting for you when you die. (Unless you believe that God can’t judge people (and therefore universalism) but you can if people are really bad! In otherwords, universalism unless you really don’t like the person).

A day will come when God will judge the world (see Matthew 25:31-46 for just one example). On that day those who know and are known by Jesus will rejoice. Until then let’s pray like Paul told us to in 1 Timothy 2:1-6.

Some other verses to consider:

Ezekiel 18:21-23

Proverbs 24:17

Morning Prayer: Almighty God we greet You.

Check out this song. It's such a great way to begin the day:

Ultimate Reality, we greet You

In you the whole Universe is held together

Your life fills every nucleus that has ever been created

You dwell in our flesh and bones

Your Great Liberation is to bring us into loving oneness with you,

so full, that we can no longer feel any separation between us

We greet you, O Supreme One, all pervading, and eternal

The song is in Hindi. I love how the songs starts out slow and mysterious and builds up into a full throated praise of Almighty God. I pray I can begin every day becoming this aware of God. It reminds me of Psalm 5, especially verse 3. When I first become a follower of Jesus I began each day reading and singing Psalm 5. Greeting God and His "amazingness", what a way to begin the day.

Watch the video and greet God this morning (Make sure you check out the comments from the video maker about the images in the video):

Aradhna: Namaste Sate'

If you like the music make sure you let me know, I'd like to bring the band to town soon.

Morning Prayer: Almighty God we greet You.

Check out this song. It's such a great way to begin the day:

Ultimate Reality, we greet You
In you the whole Universe is held together
Your life fills every nucleus that has ever been created
You dwell in our flesh and bones
Your Great Liberation is to bring us into loving oneness with you,
so full, that we can no longer feel any separation between us
We greet you, O Supreme One, all pervading, and eternal

Watch the video and greet God this morning (Make sure you check out the comments from the video maker about the images in the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4IsuYFQazA

If you like the music make sure you let me know, I'd like to bring the band to town soon.