Are we losing our Christian witness?
Are we losing our Christian witness?
Haha, I was literally feeding on sweets (sweets to relief cough, to be precise) the last few days - blame it on the irritating dry throat, and my muscle ache is slowly going away, though still aching now and then. And my inspiration is back!! =) Well, maybe my "retardedness" is also partly due to the semestral break at theological college - nothing to spur and stir up my thoughts =P pardon the whining ... anyway ...
During class and during chapel, I felt that God was asking the question, "are we losing our ground as Christian witnesses for Him?" Why do I feel this prompting from God?
This morning in class, my classmates did a presentation on Luke 7 regarding the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon, the Pharisee's house. The issue at hand was the hair of women in the Greco-Roman world - whether bounded or unbounded hair, and if either of it carries any implication, and what kind of hairstyle does the woman in Luke 7 has to be "noted" as the sinner of the town. I won't go into details on the presentation but I thought my lecturer sums up really beautifully the entire focus of Luke 7 ... it's not so much whether the woman has bounded or unbounded hair, but if persons of "questionable" characters were to appear in our church one day, are we able to handle the way Jesus did - with compassion and forgiveness, as opposed to Simon the Pharisee's opinionated judgment.
My lecturer mentioned that instead of making churches a place of welcome for those who need the Lord, we are building nice churches which deter people from entering, because they feel the church building is too nice, the language we speak is too perfect for them, our dressing are too upperty as compared to theirs - and they can't match up with us. She asked, "Are our churches losing ground? Are we losing our Christian witness? Are we bringing ourselves down to their level to reach out to them, or are we expecting them to rise up to our level so that we can communicate with them ... sometimes our church buildings are obstacles to the Gospel."
Sadly, I also feel that we are losing our Christian witness - we seemed to be focusing on issues that are not of primary concern and as she spoke, I just felt that "Hey, perhaps one of the reason for this is because we are too fearful of men's opinion, instead of the Lord's." Look back at Luke 7 - has it ever occured to you that when Simon thought secretly to himself about how Jesus should have responded that his thought was not prompted by his concern about Jesus' reaction, but perhaps "HOW DID THIS WOMAN GET INTO MY HOUSE? HOW ARE OTHERS GOING TO SEE ME? I AM A PHARISEE, THE RIGHTEOUS ONE, HOW CAN SHE BE FOUND HERE?" - that was a different angle I felt God was teaching me about this passage ... - the fear of men ... longing for the praises of men ...
Then at chapel, one of the faculty was preaching on Mark 9:30-37, and he highlighted that while the disciples should be concerned about fulfilling Jesus' command to minister, they are distracted by issues such as "who's the number 1 when Jesus becomes King?" - they were slow to understand the mission of Jesus ... they were afraid to ask ... and worse still, they were REALLY slow to understand Jesus' teachings - teachings about His impending suffering, teachings about being humble to serve and not clamor for positions of status, teachings about welcoming children, etc (see Jesus' teaching from Mark 8-9, and their repeated mistakes of what they should have learnt from Mark 10:13-16, 35-38)
Somehow it confirms what the Lord was telling me about this Christian witness thing - that in a way we are just so pre-occupied with looking out for praises of men that we lost our focus, we lost our touch in the ministry, we lost our base of communication and ability to communicate with people we need to minister to for Him.
The aspostle Paul in 1 Cor 19:19-23 challenges his readers to bring themselves to the level of the persons they are ministering to so that the Gospel may be shared. I guess his intention is not that we BECOME like those we mingle with, but we bring ourselves to understand them, to show compassion to them, to love them (but not their act) for who God has made them to be, and reach out to them. God approves of the sinner, though He disapproves of the act. You and I are good examples of His grace, isn't it? Are we then so selfish to hoard it for ourselves - we and we only?
Indeed, are we LOSING our Christian witness? Are our churches losing ground? Are we overly protected in our sheltered environment that we know not how to deal with people who are really in need of the Lord's grace? Are we too concern with getting men's praises, than getting the approval nod from the Lord?
You think about it ... and feel free to exchange comments and pointers with me ...
Haha, I was literally feeding on sweets (sweets to relief cough, to be precise) the last few days - blame it on the irritating dry throat, and my muscle ache is slowly going away, though still aching now and then. And my inspiration is back!! =) Well, maybe my "retardedness" is also partly due to the semestral break at theological college - nothing to spur and stir up my thoughts =P pardon the whining ... anyway ...
During class and during chapel, I felt that God was asking the question, "are we losing our ground as Christian witnesses for Him?" Why do I feel this prompting from God?
This morning in class, my classmates did a presentation on Luke 7 regarding the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon, the Pharisee's house. The issue at hand was the hair of women in the Greco-Roman world - whether bounded or unbounded hair, and if either of it carries any implication, and what kind of hairstyle does the woman in Luke 7 has to be "noted" as the sinner of the town. I won't go into details on the presentation but I thought my lecturer sums up really beautifully the entire focus of Luke 7 ... it's not so much whether the woman has bounded or unbounded hair, but if persons of "questionable" characters were to appear in our church one day, are we able to handle the way Jesus did - with compassion and forgiveness, as opposed to Simon the Pharisee's opinionated judgment.
My lecturer mentioned that instead of making churches a place of welcome for those who need the Lord, we are building nice churches which deter people from entering, because they feel the church building is too nice, the language we speak is too perfect for them, our dressing are too upperty as compared to theirs - and they can't match up with us. She asked, "Are our churches losing ground? Are we losing our Christian witness? Are we bringing ourselves down to their level to reach out to them, or are we expecting them to rise up to our level so that we can communicate with them ... sometimes our church buildings are obstacles to the Gospel."
Sadly, I also feel that we are losing our Christian witness - we seemed to be focusing on issues that are not of primary concern and as she spoke, I just felt that "Hey, perhaps one of the reason for this is because we are too fearful of men's opinion, instead of the Lord's." Look back at Luke 7 - has it ever occured to you that when Simon thought secretly to himself about how Jesus should have responded that his thought was not prompted by his concern about Jesus' reaction, but perhaps "HOW DID THIS WOMAN GET INTO MY HOUSE? HOW ARE OTHERS GOING TO SEE ME? I AM A PHARISEE, THE RIGHTEOUS ONE, HOW CAN SHE BE FOUND HERE?" - that was a different angle I felt God was teaching me about this passage ... - the fear of men ... longing for the praises of men ...
Then at chapel, one of the faculty was preaching on Mark 9:30-37, and he highlighted that while the disciples should be concerned about fulfilling Jesus' command to minister, they are distracted by issues such as "who's the number 1 when Jesus becomes King?" - they were slow to understand the mission of Jesus ... they were afraid to ask ... and worse still, they were REALLY slow to understand Jesus' teachings - teachings about His impending suffering, teachings about being humble to serve and not clamor for positions of status, teachings about welcoming children, etc (see Jesus' teaching from Mark 8-9, and their repeated mistakes of what they should have learnt from Mark 10:13-16, 35-38)
Somehow it confirms what the Lord was telling me about this Christian witness thing - that in a way we are just so pre-occupied with looking out for praises of men that we lost our focus, we lost our touch in the ministry, we lost our base of communication and ability to communicate with people we need to minister to for Him.
The aspostle Paul in 1 Cor 19:19-23 challenges his readers to bring themselves to the level of the persons they are ministering to so that the Gospel may be shared. I guess his intention is not that we BECOME like those we mingle with, but we bring ourselves to understand them, to show compassion to them, to love them (but not their act) for who God has made them to be, and reach out to them. God approves of the sinner, though He disapproves of the act. You and I are good examples of His grace, isn't it? Are we then so selfish to hoard it for ourselves - we and we only?
Indeed, are we LOSING our Christian witness? Are our churches losing ground? Are we overly protected in our sheltered environment that we know not how to deal with people who are really in need of the Lord's grace? Are we too concern with getting men's praises, than getting the approval nod from the Lord?
You think about it ... and feel free to exchange comments and pointers with me ...
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