Archives for February 2018

When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God – Leviticus 19: 33-35

I’m reading through the Bible at the moment, starting in Genesis. It is fantastic, and I would encourage everyone to do the same. A recurring theme, is the verse above, where God commands the Israelites to remember they too were slaves, terribly treated – and so not to do the same with ‘outsiders’ who came to stay.

I’m not sure the Israelites ever listened, and it got me thinking about immigration into this country. What is our view? If you’re view is like mine then you’re probably bigoted like me, slightly scared of different cultures on ‘our’ soil, why can’t they just stay where they were? Hardly Christ-like. Some are peaceful, most want to change our country to suit them, some even want to kill us; much of this is true, but on another plain Christ has brought us an opportunity to expand our Gospel to their lives. How do we react?

Last weekend we were engaged in some training and fellowship for a day, in a Western suburb of Sydney. The stats were 40% Muslim, 40% Lebanese Catholic, 20% all sorts. That’s right, there are suburbs in Sydney that are Muslim enclaves. So, in an hour and half before lunch, we went out door knocking. Protocols were explained to us before, such as women talk to women, men to men and so on, and then two by two, out we went. We came laden with Arabic Testaments, cookies and goodwill. I went with my wife.

Together we had a wonderful time; we met a man who spoke no English, but desperately wanted to talk; the only word he understood was Isa, Jesus, so he took our New Testament to read. We left after prayerfully blessing him. We talked and prayed with Fred the Turk, who had a loud, comical wife; she spoke to him in Turkish, he spoke to us in English, we spoke to her in English. We met a 94-year old who was likely a genuine believer who had been in the area when there were just 4 houses. We met and prayed for an Indian lady, a young woman who was very cautious. All in all, we had a lively, rich experience of approaching people from a totally different culture.

There is a tiny church in the middle, with 38 adherents who spend much of their time reaching out to this community. They speak Arabic, Urdu and run gatherings in multi languages. They have their work cut out, and so we were able to be a blessing to them as well. We gave them the names of people to follow up.

God does something in a person’s soul when we pray with them or explain the Gospel. He works unseen, and we may never know the outcome until eternity. All he requires of us is to get started.

Occasionally, such as with Rob the surfer, we get the chance to go a bit further. This Thursday, I started a Discovery Group in a coffee shop, Lok’s coffee shop down in our village. There are 4 of us; Rob, who walked up our drive to buy a surfboard who was spiritually searching; another who wavers from time to time and has a young faith and another, who talks, walks and acts like a believer, but deep down knows he isn’t. Lok, the owner, also looks on with interest.

Discovery Groups, centred around Discovery Bible Study are changing lives around the world. They require no one teacher (other than the Spirit of Christ) so anyone can run one with any group. Everyone gets to participate. Everyone is challenged and held accountable at the end, to share the passage with someone else this coming week. From the outset, new adherents to the faith are taught that sharing Jesus is a part of following him. There is no excuse.

I’d love to see this expand into more groups, but that takes more than me; I need to pray, and the group needs prayer. If you remember as you walk along, then lift us up to the Lord. He alone will multiply this; it is the culmination of several years work, just to get to this point.

He wants to, we want to see the kingdom multiplied. Within it, there will be sojourners, those who need a refuge. In Christ, we have the answer to their rest. Let’s get started.

 

From that time, Jesus began to preach saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – Matthew 4

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice to address them – Acts 2

My wife, who was right next to me, dug me in the ribs and said, “what shall we say?”

“Not sure” I replied, “but you say something as she’s a woman.”

So it went on, as we stood side by side in Toowong shopping centre in the ‘training phase’ of learning to make disciples. We had been told by Steve and Dave that morning, that lunchtime training would be a practical exercise involving our going out onto the streets to talk to people about our faith in Jesus. I distinctly remember thinking at the time, “wow do people actually do that?”

That was a decade ago now, and we did end up talking to the lady, and she was most indignant about our approaching her to talk about Jesus; it was probably one of the worst brush-offs we’ve had. Back at base camp though, many came back with incredible stories of others wanting prayer, being able to share testimony and sharing Jesus with complete strangers. There was much rejoicing, much amazement and a new sense of perspective.

Many are sceptical of course, that such action is relevant or necessary in the Christian faith. Why can’t I just share with my family or friends they ask, rarely admitting that doesn’t happen either. On the whole, modern Western believers simply don’t share the Gospel. It is an indictment on us, that after sitting listening to endless sermons, and engaging in sometimes brutal theological debate, few of us can share Jesus with a non-believer.

My biggest argument for going out onto the streets, is that it sharpens you such that you can share your faith with anyone. Like yesterday, as an example, where I shared Christ with a Bunnings employee who was interested in skateboarding. Sharing the Gospel has become a natural and intentional part of my life. But it wasn’t always like that.

What do we say to a complete stranger, how do we open up a conversation?

The first thing I would say, is that you have the Holy Spirit with you, particularly I believe, at such times. In my own instance, I learned a lengthy Gospel presentation (Torben Sondergaard’s) off by heart, such that I could use either all of it, or just part of it at any time in a conversation. It was a useful beginning and even now is a backdrop to answering many questions people have.

In meeting someone cold on the streets, I will usually start with something like, “we’re a community of believers who feel we never get out and share our faith with people enough, so if God could do something for you to do, what would you ask him to do?” Inside 15 seconds, I will know if there is interest.

If I’m on a plane, or in an Uber I will look to start a conversation that usually begins with business or work. I can then easily move that conversation to “another part of my life involves working within the housing commission where I live, with the poor and marginalised. I do that because I have a strong faith.” It goes from there. We always try to pray with the person, as I feel strongly God will always move in a person’s soul with such interaction, even if we don’t ever see it. Always.

Others recite their own testimony, “oh can I tell you how God moved in my life?” or tell a simple Bible story that is relevant to somebody’s life, all the time keeping a natural conversation.

Sometimes, we get to spend an hour with someone and share the full Gospel, other times we’ve got 5 minutes. The bottom line is, you need to be learn to share the Gospel and continue to learn how to share along the way. That includes the Father’s incredible love and our coming judgement because of sin. The story has to centre around the person of Jesus Christ, God’s complete answer to that story. For most believers, doing this is something they have never learned.

These days, we are trying to get people to commit to meeting ongoing as we seek to make Disciples, Jesus ultimate calling on our lives. We are running Discovery Bible Studies which are simple and easy, and engage all participants while allowing Jesus to lead. We’re not there yet, in fact along the way we are often disillusioned. To be frank, the disillusionment comes mostly from other believers who come wanting something different, so enthusiastic at first until they discover that church was never meant to be the church they have had, and that they actually need to be the church. There can be much pain.

Is that useful for you who read this? I don’t know, we meet many who are unsure but would like to do more, too embarrassed perhaps after a lifetime of listening, that they still cannot. When we scratch away, we discover so few can actually tell others of their faith through normal, everyday conversation. We were too, so please, take heart, you can learn! It is for all.

Just two more things to say; one, pray, pray and pray some more. God answers. Two, practise again and again. Open your mouths my friend, and let the journey begin. You will be fulfilled, the angels will rejoice.