I don't even know what title to give to this entry ... I guess for once I'll do without a title???
It's definitely good news to all who had been praying for the survivors of cyclone Nargis in Myanmar when reports of the junta now being willing (FINALLY) to open its doors to accept foreign aids are being telecasted.
As I hear the reports, I was filled with much joy and thanksgiving - though the news come many weeks later than it should, but at least it's better late than never. At the same time, I was also asking myself the reasons why the juntas were not willing to accept help from foreign counterparts.
Well, whether the reasons I could come up with are valid or not, I thought it had some parallelism to the way people perceive the Good News and receive salvation ...
1) I guessed there's much suspicion within the hearts of the junta?? Maybe they are seriously guarding their territory with so much resistance that they perceive every effort and offer of help as suspicion, ie. "what are you up to??" .. "are you here to see how vulnerable we are and invade us??" ... etc etc
2) I supposed there's much pride too?? Pride that they can manage the entire situation themselves ... pride that they can contain everything with resources they have ... etc etc
3) Maybe they had been "hurt" or "betrayed" before by people who claimed goodwill?? I don't know. I'm not a history person, nor am I an ardent fan of politics or current affairs, ie. in the sense that I won't deliberately search for answers to long stories of what happened in the past, or the politics that took place to bring the country to this current situation and so on.
Looking at my shallow guesses about the juntas, I could see some similarities to the way people perceive and receive the Gospel. Very often, Christians with goodwill will persist in their efforts to share the Good News, regardless of whether the audience is ready to hear it or not. Sometimes we become so caught up with our task and mission of preaching that we fail to exercise sensitivity to the person we're sharing the Gospel with.
As we look at the way Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, we will never see a time where He forced the Gospel down the throat of those He spoke with. In fact, He always exercised sensitivity towards those He ministered to, meeting their needs first, and using that as entry points to share about who God is and His love for them. The other observation I made is that Jesus never, at any point in time, forced a decision out of those He met. He merely say His piece, and leave the choice to those He spoke with, and as we can see, many of those Jesus spoke with met with this God of love because of unconditional acceptance from Him. I wonder if in our efforts of evangelism, we became so absorbed with results that when we faced rejection from the person we preach to, we took it personally and become discouraged? Or worse still, we decided that that person is no longer worth our time and efforts that we quickly switch our attention to another "target". Have we forgotten that it's about the work of the Holy Spirit, and about God's timing? Are we playing God as we share the Gospel, measuring the results of our effectiveness in such tangible ways??
Pal was sharing with me a book she was reading about the help given to aids victim. She said it was a great book that criticized the church so honestly in their efforts to reach out to these victims. Instead of walking through the difficult journey with the victims, the church always preach, "repent and confess your sins (coz HIV victims are usually infected with the virus due to sexual promiscuity, in a way)" ... and instead of ministering to these victims in their point of needs, the church chose to stay away for fear of being infected with the same virus. Hey, look at the way our Lord reaches out to the lepers - He wasn't afraid to be near them at all!! Well, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't exercise caution to protect ourselves where health is concern, but I think our whole mindset is simply incorrect to being with, when we share the Gospel or when we minister to people with needs. Are we more interested to have the person receive the Gospel FIRST, or are we more interested to be Jesus to the person first, then allowing the person to see Jesus in and through us?
A sister was sharing a short testimony during service yesterday and she ended with these words, "why is the world still so dark??" ... "because all the lights are contained in the church - you shine at me, and I shine at you ..." Need I say more?
It's definitely good news to all who had been praying for the survivors of cyclone Nargis in Myanmar when reports of the junta now being willing (FINALLY) to open its doors to accept foreign aids are being telecasted.
As I hear the reports, I was filled with much joy and thanksgiving - though the news come many weeks later than it should, but at least it's better late than never. At the same time, I was also asking myself the reasons why the juntas were not willing to accept help from foreign counterparts.
Well, whether the reasons I could come up with are valid or not, I thought it had some parallelism to the way people perceive the Good News and receive salvation ...
1) I guessed there's much suspicion within the hearts of the junta?? Maybe they are seriously guarding their territory with so much resistance that they perceive every effort and offer of help as suspicion, ie. "what are you up to??" .. "are you here to see how vulnerable we are and invade us??" ... etc etc
2) I supposed there's much pride too?? Pride that they can manage the entire situation themselves ... pride that they can contain everything with resources they have ... etc etc
3) Maybe they had been "hurt" or "betrayed" before by people who claimed goodwill?? I don't know. I'm not a history person, nor am I an ardent fan of politics or current affairs, ie. in the sense that I won't deliberately search for answers to long stories of what happened in the past, or the politics that took place to bring the country to this current situation and so on.
Looking at my shallow guesses about the juntas, I could see some similarities to the way people perceive and receive the Gospel. Very often, Christians with goodwill will persist in their efforts to share the Good News, regardless of whether the audience is ready to hear it or not. Sometimes we become so caught up with our task and mission of preaching that we fail to exercise sensitivity to the person we're sharing the Gospel with.
As we look at the way Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, we will never see a time where He forced the Gospel down the throat of those He spoke with. In fact, He always exercised sensitivity towards those He ministered to, meeting their needs first, and using that as entry points to share about who God is and His love for them. The other observation I made is that Jesus never, at any point in time, forced a decision out of those He met. He merely say His piece, and leave the choice to those He spoke with, and as we can see, many of those Jesus spoke with met with this God of love because of unconditional acceptance from Him. I wonder if in our efforts of evangelism, we became so absorbed with results that when we faced rejection from the person we preach to, we took it personally and become discouraged? Or worse still, we decided that that person is no longer worth our time and efforts that we quickly switch our attention to another "target". Have we forgotten that it's about the work of the Holy Spirit, and about God's timing? Are we playing God as we share the Gospel, measuring the results of our effectiveness in such tangible ways??
Pal was sharing with me a book she was reading about the help given to aids victim. She said it was a great book that criticized the church so honestly in their efforts to reach out to these victims. Instead of walking through the difficult journey with the victims, the church always preach, "repent and confess your sins (coz HIV victims are usually infected with the virus due to sexual promiscuity, in a way)" ... and instead of ministering to these victims in their point of needs, the church chose to stay away for fear of being infected with the same virus. Hey, look at the way our Lord reaches out to the lepers - He wasn't afraid to be near them at all!! Well, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't exercise caution to protect ourselves where health is concern, but I think our whole mindset is simply incorrect to being with, when we share the Gospel or when we minister to people with needs. Are we more interested to have the person receive the Gospel FIRST, or are we more interested to be Jesus to the person first, then allowing the person to see Jesus in and through us?
A sister was sharing a short testimony during service yesterday and she ended with these words, "why is the world still so dark??" ... "because all the lights are contained in the church - you shine at me, and I shine at you ..." Need I say more?
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