A letter from Brother Eugene

This is a re-post of a letter from a guy that we know of as "Brother Eugene."  I listed his blog site at the bottom of this post.  I first heard this letter read by John Piper in a sermon called, "Holy Ambition: Paul's and Your's" in early January 2010.  You can find this message here: http://www.desiringgod.org/searches/holy%20ambition:%20pauls%20and%20yours
and I beg you to listen to it.  Piper talks about how our generation doesn't want to grow up!  We delay adulthood, and it is a call to grow up and do the wonderful, mighty, glorious tasks that God is calling us to do - for His Namesake.  I'm begging you to do the very same thing Piper asked in the message listed above.  If you are a teenager or college student, please, spend your time knowing God and making His glory known.  Don't wait until your 20...or 30.  Don't waste your life.  So, here's a letter from a real person talking about real things that really matter:) His blog is worth following.  Brother Eugene writes:

After spending my first 3 years as a Christian in the States involved in tons of personal evangelism and now after having spent nearly 7 years living in some of the most Gospel-deprived regions in the world, I am very frustrated by the amount of Gospel preaching that takes place in the West compared to the complete ignorance of the Gospel that exists all around me over here.
Let me explain myself a little better. Although it seems that the laborers are so very few even in America, it is impossible to even compare the amount of Gospel-knowledge available to the average American with the utter lack of the Gospel found in certain areas around the world.
I happen to live in one of those places. In brief, within a few hundred miles of where I am sitting right now, there are millions of Tibetan Buddhists and Chinese Muslims scattered throughout tens of thousands of towns and villages. The vast majority of these people have never heard anything true about Christianity, and (with the exception of just a handful) the villages have never, in the history of mankind, been graced by the presence of a minister of the Gospel.
The lack of the Gospel in this place is overwhelming and I truly believe that God will call more people out into these far flung corners of the world if only they have the chance to hear about the need and are shown how they can do something about it.
I simply want to encourage the Western Church to wake up and realize that dozens of regions around the world are still completely devoid of the Gospel AND most of these places are difficult places for even 'native missionaries' to work. It is going to take people like you and me (ie, Western, cross-cultural missionaries) to be sent to go and learn these languages and share the Gospel with these people.
For instance, the large number of Christians in China are primarily located in the eastern half of the country and their culture is radically different from that of the Tibetans and Chinese Muslims. Much of the time, Western missionaries do a better job of reaching out to these minorities than do the Chinese, especially with the raciscm that exists in China and the recent wars that the minorities have often fought against the ruling Chinese.
I hope I have explained my burden clearly enough. Please let me know if anybody has any thoughts, comments, or questions. For God's glory, we want to see more laborers raised up to reach these millions with the Gospel!

You can find this exact post here: http://china.myadventures.org/?filename=my-burden 
And his blog address is here:  http://china.myadventures.org/


Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest.  And pray that you would be obedient to whatever way He may be calling you to be part of this.

 

John 6:66-69 "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

John's account of the Apostle Peter's words resonate deep in my soul in John 6:66-69:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.  So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"  Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

Sanctification, is the process of growing in holiness.  It is a process that begins at salvation and does not end until the day we die.  I see this process at work in my life, and knowing that it is only by God's grace extended to me in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to God....


I often talk with people who are absolutely against anyone who claims to be a Christian.  Their hearts are so hardened because they have taken the silliest of myths and believed these myths in order to run from the God who is willing to extend grace to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ.  (Read Romans 1 to see that this is the what all men do until God saves them.)  In these conversations, my new friends are so proud that they can "disprove" the Bible with science, myths, relevance, or whatever other "argument" they can pull together.  They love to manipulate Scripture and history to the point that it almost sounds believable...emphasis on almost.   You would think that constant conversations with very intelligent relevant agnostics, mystics, scientists, and the common atheists on the street would hinder, if not destroy, my faith.  But when God begins a good work in someone, He will bring it to completion, and this is what He is doing in me.  Conversations with the most brilliant atheist or agnostic have only pushed me to a deeper dependance on God, a more vivid trust in the authority and validity of the Scriptures, and a humbleness when I think of the righteousness imputed to me by grace alone through faith alone in the blood of Jesus.  So, when reading John 6:68, I say along with Peter after lengthy conversations about Christ, "Lord, to whom shall we [I] go?  You have the words of eternal life."  There is no power, no words, strong enough to make me turn from Christ.  There is nothing that can be said that would make me believe there is no God.  There is no place I can run from His Spirit.  He dwells within me, and the power of His resurrection living inside me is proof enough that Jesus is Lord and worthy of my total devotion.  He is constantly in my thoughts.  How could I turn away?  I am not strong enough to turn away from Christ, and I find the greatest comfort of all in this.  He is stronger.  He is more faithful.  It's not my faithfulness or my strong faith.  I'm a weak, weak miserable sinner, but His love, faithfulness, kindness, and mostly, His desire for His own glory draws me near and will never let me go.  And one day, I will see His face and forever enjoy His presence...until then, keep the atheist, agnostic, mystic, and regular church-attending unbeliever coming my way.   

Beholding God

 A verse that has been transforming me the past year or so is 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 

The Word transforms us by allowing us to behold God.  Studying sermons, books, and commentaries will never compare with humbly bowing before the Word of God.  This is convicting.  I don’t want to come to the end of my life and have piggy-backing off of someone else’s thoughts of God my entire life.  I want to know Him as much as I possibly can, and this comes from His Word…I’m not hating on good teaching and books!  Those are good too!  But, the Word has to be central for us. Here's a helpful illustration that I heard Matt Chandler say in a sermon.  I’ve listened to this particular sermon a few times over the last year, and it's greatly impacted my focus on the Word of God.  I recommend it to anyone!  You can find it here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/sermons listed as "The Authoritative Word" from 9/13/2009.

“I think you live in a day and age where there’s great teaching available all over the place. So you never really learn to feed yourself. You’d rather live vicariously through other people’s studies. Which is kind of sad because you’ll never love the Lord like the people who studied that, found that and wrestled with that will love Him. Like if I started talking about all of the reasons I loved Lauren, it wouldn’t make you love Lauren. It would make you maybe go, “Oh, I wish I had that.” But it wouldn’t make you go, “You know, I love her too. She’s amazing. I love her with my whole heart right now.” That’s not how it works. In the same way, you hearing me or some other guy talk about the grandeur and might of God is not necessarily going to make you love Him. You need to read and let the Holy Spirit engage you, chisel at you, work you over. May we repent of our laziness.”

To truly have the Word of God deep in our hearts, we’ve gotta wrestle with the text.  We must allow God to work in our hearts before finding the easy meaning from a trusted source.  Watch the Spirit lead you as you read.  Struggle through hard passages with prayer and perseverance with the ultimate goal of knowing Christ more.  This is a challenge to myself as well.  As Chandler says, "may we repent of our laziness."  And may we fight to know Christ more through concentrated prayer and dedication to studying the Word of God.

Who did Jesus claim to be?

Who did Jesus say He is?  

And, where’s is it in the Bible?
These are extremely important questions.  A couple weeks ago, one of my friends who is not a Christ follower told me, “Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah.”  I turned to him and said, “Sure He did!"  I rattled off a Scripture reference that didn’t satisfy his claim, and thought that I need to know so much more about who Jesus says He is, and where that is located in the Bible.  

As believers, we need to know the evidence - for the glory, honor, and worship of Christ here and in all nations.  I assure you that if you share the Gospel with relative-truth loving Americans who are seeking to disprove Christianity (and they are), you will encounter questions like these that can give you a great opportunity to present the case of Christ’s Lordship from the Bible.  Here is my attempt to communicate who Jesus claimed to be.  I attempt this for strengthening my own faith and Gospel message, for your benefit in sharing the Gospel, and ultimately for the lost who are seeking to know if Jesus is truly God and worthy of worship.

First, we need to understand that the words “Christ” and “Messiah” are interchangeable in Scripture.  We can see this in John 1:41: “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).”  We also see this in John 4:25 “The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ)...”  Messiah is a Hebrew term, and Christ is a Greek term.   Both terms refer to the Jews long awaited and prophesied Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesy.   

So, who did Jesus claim to be???

When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well in John 4, He reveals He is the Messiah.  “The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:25-26 ESV)

Jesus admits to being the Messiah when teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4:
“And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21 ESV)

Jesus says he is greater than the temple and claims to be lord of the Sabbath in Matthew 12:6-8.  We must understand the context here. Jesus' audience understood that the temple was where the presence of God dwelt.  To Jesus’ audience, nothing was greater than the temple.  Here’s the Scripture: “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:6-8 ESV)

In Mark chapter 2, Jesus says He has the authority to forgive sins.  This is something only God can do, thus showing equality with God.  “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”   (Mark 2:10-12 ESV)

Jesus says He is the fulfillment of the Law, meaning He fulfills the Old Testament, in Mathew 5:17.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17 ESV)

Jesus says He is greater than Solomon and Jonah in Matthew 12:41-42 and Luke 11:29-32.  Remember, Solomon was the wisest man ever to live (1 Kings 4:29-34), one of the richest men to ever live, and the most blessed king in history!  Jesus says He’s greater!  Here’s a piece of two vereses in Luke.  Luke 11:31 “...and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”  Luke 11:31 “...and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

And the most convincing of all: Jesus admits very directly when questioned before being crucified that He is “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed” in Mark 14: 60-62.  “And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” This is the ESV translation.  In the NIV Translation, there is a footnote for verse 61 by the word Christ that says “or Messiah.”  

These are only a few references to who Jesus claimed to be.  There are also many references to who other people said Jesus was as well, but hopefully, these Scriptures - testimonies from Christ Himself - will serve you as you share Christ with the world.
References:
John 1:41; John 4:25-26; Luke 4:17-21; Mark 14:60-62; Matthew 12:6-8; Mark 2:10-12; Matthew 5:17

Love and War

Thoughts from the daily Bible reading:  Jeremiah 21-24

God is serious about His Justice.  You can see it over and over again....especially in the book of Jeremiah.  In the first 20 chapters of Jeremiah, God is telling the people through His prophet that He was going to punish them because they have followed their own evil hearts and forsaken Him.  God told them He would punish them by allowing the Babylonians to destroy them because they had forsaken God and had followed their own evil hearts.  Yet, in chapter 21, when war finally comes to the people, King Zedekiah sent word to Jeremiah asking him to go to the Lord. In the king's message to Jeremiah, he even said, “Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”  Amazing!  Time and time again, the people ignored the Lord’s words of judgement.  Yet, it the time of disaster, they thought God would simply overlook their sin and answer with “his wonderful deeds.”   God did answer according to his wonderful deeds, but they were not the people's desired deeds.  They were deeds of justice.  My human heart wants God to relent of  his anger towards them.  I want God to allow them to live.  But that would not be just.  Even in His Righteous anger and judgement, God told them that if the people would surrender to the Chaldeans, they would live….yet many did not surrender.  Even among a time of great judgement and unrelenting anger, God provided a way for the faithful who would trust in Him.  This is soooo relevant for our culture today!   God has told us that Judgement is coming.   He will not allow sin to go unpunished.  Yet, so many think that God will just let their sin go unpunished because, after all, “God is love,” right?  Yes, He is love.  He is the truest Love of all.  But He is also Good and Just.  Therefore, He cannot and will not leave sin unpunished.  So, in His perfect love and justice, He has provided a way for us to go unpunished….That way is through His Son Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for sin so that we could be reconciled to God.  He is the only way to be free from sin and brought near to God forever.  See the comparison:  Judah could be “free” from the Babylonians if they would just surrender.  They would be rescued by God.  We also see that when they didn’t turn to God, He did punish them.  In the same manner, God will punish your sin and my sin.  He has shown us through His Word that He will do this.  He has made a Way for us, the only way, Jesus Christ.   Let it soak in:  God will punish sin.  Trust in Christ.  Don’t delay.

follow your heart?

My faith family is reading through the Bible this year.  We are in the book of Jeremiah right now.  Jeremiah prophesied to Judah that they were going to be punished for their sins by being brought into captivity.  I am learning so much about the seriousness of sin and the mercy of God.  God is merciful and ready to forgive, but He also cannot and will not allow sin to go unpunished.  He shows us this clearly through Jeremiah....
We live in a culture that tells us to "follow our heart."  Many churches even tell us to do this!  It sounds sweet, warm and fuzzy, but the consequences of following our own hearts are HUGE.  Look at the passages below.  All of these passages are explaining why Judah was being punished:
Jeremiah 9:13-14
^"13And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them."
Jeremiah 13:10
^"10This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing."
Jeremiah 16:11-12
^"11then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹²and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me."
Through these verses, we can see that following our own hearts and following God's Word are in DIRECT OPPOSITION to each other.  Look at the verses again, and you will see that every time, God says some variation of this: that the people have forsaken Him and His law in order to follow their own heart. One chapter over in Jeremiah 17:9, God tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"


What is the solution to this problem?


Only God can change our hearts.  Psalm 51:10 is a cry for God to create in me a new, pure heart.  He alone gives us a new heart that is able to desire Him.  But, it still isn't easy after that.  God does not magically make every Christian wake up seeking Him wholeheartedly each and every day without sinful desires waring for our attention.  It is a battle.  That's probably one reason why God gives us such clear instruction in how to handle our evil hearts.  He also lets us know this will be WORK.  Check out Deuteronomy 11:18, "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."  
This verse doesn't describe a magical desire for God's Word to be obeyed.  Rather, it describes an INTENTIONAL relationship with the Word.  We must make a strong effort to know it, keep it in our hearts and in our minds.
This is all over Scripture.  Here are a couple places:
Psalm 119:11 "¹¹I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.^"


Isn't this what Jesus tells us to do when we are to lay down our lives and follow Him?  We must die daily to our own desires and very lives in order to give ourselves to God's desires.
Let's do the hard work of denying ourselves in order to give ourselves to doing the very Word of God.

we have work to do

Everyone wants to find purpose and meaning in their life.  Christians typically ask the question this way: "What is God's will for my life?"  

The answer is very simple answer: Worship God and lead others to worship God.  I am no where close to being where I want to be, but I can tell you that life - true, exciting, invigorating, meaningful, satisfying, joyful, peaceful, purposeful, driven, and gratifying life is found only in worshiping God and leading others to worship Him.  

Not only is this our purpose, but NOT fulfilling our purpose of telling others about the hope only found in trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation has SERIOUS, URGENT consequences for the people around us.  Your neighbors, co-workers, family members, friends, waitresses, all have SOULS that will live on FOREVER.   

Maybe one reason reason why we don't tell others about Christ is because we don't sense the urgency of eternity, or maybe we don't even think about eternity at all.  We are too consumed with our own agendas.  I want to urge us all to live in light of the reality that EVERYONE'S life, on earth is "but a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." (James 4:14) But it does not end there.  This passage from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis, shows a great way for us to consider eternity and the task of proclaiming Jesus to the world:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare....It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is is with awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals who we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

The most incredible privilege we have AND the most urgent need the world has is for believers to proclaim Christ Jesus to everyone they meet.  There is plenty of work to do right here where you live....TODAY....and in proclaiming this message, we will find the most meaningful, exciting life possible. 

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

(Matthew 9:37-38 ESV)