An Experience in Sharing the Gospel

June 14, 2010

Maria Gospel, Reflections, Uncategorized, Wisdom , , , , Leave a comment

Colossians 4:5-6 Be wise in the way you act with outsiders, make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I clobbered my mother-in-law with doctrine.  I wrote her a letter outlining my concerns about her spiritual life.  I shared some basics about sin, repentance, the Good News of what Jesus has done for us and how to grow in the love & knowledge of God.  But I overwhelmed her with my intensity. And I have irrevocably moved our relationship into a new territory where neither of us knows how to maneuver.  All of this – 2 weeks before our youngest son’s wedding when family will gather.

My mother-in-law is 81.  She grew up in the Catholic Church, switched to the Episcopal Church in college, met & married a seminarian and shared the life of an Episcopal priest & bishop for almost 59 years.   Thus has the Episcopal Church been the center of her life.

My concerns for the state of her soul were cumulative over many years as my husband and I were graciously drawn out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light.  Looking back on our past, Mike & I recall how we truly THOUGHT we were Christians all the years we were faithful church-goers and served in different ministries.  Indignation and denial most likely would have been our reaction had someone confronted us with the state of our souls.  So I understand how it must seem puzzling to someone living a ‘religious’ life, that it might be possible not even to belong to Christ.  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”  Matt 7:21

As we discovered truth and life, we wanted to share this joy and the assurance of salvation with those closest to us.  My mother was a believer, yet died before I was regenerated.  I failed to share the Gospel with my father.  I tried, but was not equipped and backed off many times when he didn’t want to talk.  Out of that experience, my husband and I approached his parents.  Our concerns for their spiritual well-being intensified over the past months as my father-in-law was dying.  We prayed for opportunities to have authentic discussions about the reality of Christian hope.  But we could do no more than skirt the periphery of religiosity.

I don’t understand people’s boundaries.  To my discredit, it is very difficult to imagine or empathize, and therefore yield to limits and walls friends and family erect to protect emotions or comfortable routines of looking at life.  (Why wouldn’t you want to talk about the most important topic in life? – your future after you die?  Don’t you want to know if what you have staked your life on is valid?  Don’t you want to even know WHAT it is you believe?) My grown children and husband consider me intense.  But I can’t see that:  I am what I am.  Is a fish aware that he breathes in through gills?

So returning from my father-in-law’s funeral I wrote my mother-in-law THE letter and launched her on a roller-coaster of emotions of anger, shame, indignation and horror.

Here is what I have learned from this experience:

(1)   – Patience is not something I practice naturally, so just as a pilot must intentionally crab into a wind to keep her flight path straight, so must I wait longer than I think is necessary.  I composed THE letter on a Friday and sent it to two people whose opinion I value.  I received a green light from one, but did not wait long enough to hear back from the other person before mailing it off.  She replied 3 ½ days later and suggested restraint.  But I had already mailed off the letter. To my ‘partial credit’ I had slept on it and prayerfully revised it over a 3-day period.  Yet I should have waited for this second person’s wisdom, since I had explicitly asked for it.

(2)   Offhand remarks I wrote that were not even my main point were received poorly.  This really surprised me.  I should have considered every sentence.  When I closed the letter to my dear mother-in-law with the reassurance that her grandsons would be praying along with me for her, I thought that would encourage her.  Instead she was horrified that I had shared something ‘negative’ and had ‘misrepresented her’ to the boys.  I never would have anticipated that reaction.

(3)   Less is more.  I dumped TOO much on her (14 pagesL).  The quantity had two negative effects: a) she missed some important parts because it was too much to take in all at once and b) she felt bludgeoned by the sheer amount of what I wrote.

I failed to SEASON my written conversation with her; I just dumped out the whole blue container of Morton’s iodized salt.

So, I am trusting God now to work my blundering efforts for her good and for mine.  I am praying that we can sort out a way of relating that is safe and comfortable for her when she arrives next week for the wedding.  I am sorry that she will feel self-conscious around her grandsons and us.  That was not my intention.  But I don’t regret that I initiated the discussion.  I could never have said some of what I wrote face to face.  I will continue to share the Gospel with others when appropriate and will trust the Holy Spirit to let me know His timing and the proper words.

Reflections on the state of Dad’s soul

June 6, 2010

Maria Philippians, Reflections , , , Leave a comment

Philippians 1:6 – being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus

We’re back from the funeral for Mike’s dad who died after a yearlong journey with cancer.  He was a retired Episcopal bishop living in Seattle, an Episcopalian all his life.  We, too, were brought up in the Episcopal Church.  But once my husband, I and our two sons started to grow in the knowledge of the Word about 10 years ago, (being transformed by the renewing of our minds à la Romans 12:2), we left the Episcopal church at different rates. Graham (age 27) & Wes (age 22) exited with no regrets once they moved on to college. Mike and I took a slower route, transferring first to a more orthodox-believing Episcopal Church and then finally altogether out of TEC (the Episcopal Church) in April 2009.  We now worship with all our minds and hearts, at home in a Reformed PCA community (Presbyterian Church of America). Our boys are not affiliated with any denomination, their only criterion being – does the church preach the Bible?

When Dad died we all hoped he was a believer.  He was the kind of man who didn’t seem to want to talk about his faith beyond the superficial.  Knowing that he was dying, I flew out in April during my spring break.  I prayed that I would have an opportunity to share about the Hope that awaits us.  He had to go the hospital during my 4–day visit, so we didn’t get to talk much.  I did ask my mother-in-law if she and Dad shared much about heaven.  Sadly to me, she said that they had talked only about funeral details and that she wasn’t going to bring up weightier issues if he didn’t.

When I left Dad in the hospital, parting for what I knew would be the last time on this earth, he seemed sweetly serious.  I told him I would see him again, either here in Seattle or in heaven.  He understood and affirmed the same.

Graham and his family were the next to fly out to Seattle. I thought, if ANYone can share the Gospel and be sure they were saved or at least sure that they heard the Word of God in all its fullness, then Graham could.  He is a worship leader with a student ministry down at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  But he, too, encountered pushback from his grandparents, the reaction of a couple who didn’t want to engage in something out of their comfort zone.

Then Mike flew out the first week of May to visit his dad, arriving about 10 hours before Dad actually died.  Mike took his Bible and read a few chapters out loud from Romans and from the Gospel of Mark.  Dad was mostly in and out of consciousness, but Mike’s mom was beside his bed and alertly engaged in a discussion about the Gospel.  She apparently doesn’t believe in a God of wrath – only the God of love in the New Testament.  At least we know where she stands.

The funeral was delayed 3 weeks to give us time to celebrate with Wes the end of his four years at West Point.  Mike, Wes, Graham & I flew back out to Seattle over Memorial Day weekend.  We had a lot of time to pray and to seek closure about where Dad actually is – in the presence of God or not.

The service, in its typical Episcopal liturgical style, was full of words that were very biblically sounding.  Unfortunately, many Episcopalians are ignorant of their original meaning due to the pernicious liberal movement in church scholarship, dating back to the end of the 19th century.  The church is focused NOT on the good news of God’s provision for our most serious problem- that we are saved from His justifiable wrath by Jesus dying for our sins.  Instead today’s Episcopal Church preaches the gospel of social justice. Furthermore, political peace and environmentalism are seen as pressing problems for the Church to address.

Yet, I came away from the funeral with hope for the man who had been my father-in-law for 30 years. Although we never had a serious discussion about the Bible or about God, I do think he was a believer.  But the state of his eternal soul was NOT helped by a church which continually re-interpreted its own doctrine, a set of beliefs that he had pledged to support first as a young deacon in 1951, then as a fully-ordained  priest,  and finally as a consecrated bishop in 1976.  Yet almost despite the Episcopal Church, he had sucked out basic truths from the Bible.  I saw this in the detailed instructions he left for his funeral, setting the tone with a theme that was centered on the Resurrection.  The scripture readings in particular were chosen to point all of us to the truth of life with Jesus after death.

I thank the Lord for His assurance that my father-in-law is in heaven.  Since our God is one who does more than we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20) I am praying that not only does my mother-in-law come to a saving faith, but my brother-in-law too and many who were in that gathering of 500 in Seattle.  The words my brother-in-law delivered in the eulogy were Gospel truth.  He labored over them as an act of love, a gift to his father.  Since God’s word is alive and full of power, I am hopeful that these words of truth will not return void to the Lord, but will actually convert Steve.  After all, faith comes from hearing the word of Christ.  I’ve read of an English preacher who became converted while delivering one of his own sermons he was preaching.  I am counting on God to do the same for Steve.  May many others present in that service also come to a saving faith in the Lord.

Words & Doctrine Matter!

May 12, 2010

Maria Gospel, John, Uncategorized , , , Leave a comment

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:30-32

Words matter.  Many words are equivocal, they mean different things.  So two people can converse and think they are communicating when they really are not.  And if words matter, then content matters.

I had a conversation with someone close to me recently who has grown up in the church and uses all the right language but is not saved because of two problems.  Of course the main reason she is still not born again is that the Holy Spirit has yet to ‘quicken’ her.   The other problem is that she has words, but not the correct content. She would maintain that she believes in Jesus, that He is the Son of God and that He died for our sins.  But she doesn’t believe she is a sinner who has God’s wrath bearing down on her.  She believes that the idea of a wrathful God (‘the one portrayed in the Old Testament’) comes from a primitive people’s understanding of God.  The god she likes is the god of the New Testament, namely Jesus, and He is a god of love.

Let’s return to our verse in John.  Jesus says that if we are to know the Truth, then we have to abide in His word. Therefore, it is important to know the content of the word we are abiding in. If the word is a doctrine, then we need to know the exact meaning of words that explain that doctrine.  If the word is a person, i.e. the Logos/2nd person of the Trinity, then we need to agree on the character of that Logos.  We can’t just make up what we think the words mean, whether they refer to doctrine or a person.

So this dear woman is still locked up in her sins, not yet set free by the Truth.

Pray with me that I can clearly and persuasively argue three points:

a)   God’s plan for redemption is one story throughout both testaments. Furthermore, this overarching mega-story begins early in the Old Testament, when Adam & Eve fall and God provide animal skins to cover their nakedness.  Not much later, God’s rescue plan is reinforced with a hint of Christ’s sacrifice to come when a substitute animal is caught in a nearby bush.  Finally, Moses is instructed to set up and teach the people to observe an elaborate sacrificial system pointing to Jesus, with the offering of animals and the transferring of sins on the scapegoat

b)   Our God is one God with many attributes.  God’s loving-kindness (chesed) in the Old Testament is as well known as His hatred for sin.  Jesus’ love in the New Testament is as prominent as his discussion about Hell.  God does not change

c)    Finally, what one must do to be saved?  Being baptized and attending services does not make one a Christian.   I want to carefully lay out the plan of salvation and not assume this woman understands what terms mean.

I’m thankful that the results lie in God’s hands.  I’m to do my part and trust Him for the rest.  May I faithfully represent the truth without pride or condemnation, but with humility and love.

Sola Fide – how to be prepared to share

May 3, 2010

Maria Ephesians, Gospel, Hope, Uncategorized , Leave a comment

I read something that Ken Boa wrote recently – it was a very succinct summary of the essence Gospel.  I realize that if I am to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the hope that I have, then I have to be ready and prepped with, at a minimum,  a 30-second blurb.  But I want this good news to roll off my tongue, in order to feel confident.  It’s stressful, if I am not prepped, when someone asks, “What does your license mean – ‘sola fid’?” I purposefully chose those 7 letters just SO someone would ask.

I have taken what Ken Boa says and massaged it a bit to strip it of ‘Christianese’, to make it more accessible to those with no knowledge of the Bible.

“Sola Fide” means – by faith alone. That refers to being right with God, having a right relation with him.  We are right with God only through God’s GIFT of this right standing with him, and that through faith.  Furthermore, this right relationship or ‘righteousness’ is found in the good news or gospel.  The Gospel teaches that Christ died for sin as a sacrifice.  We have to let go of our own efforts of justifying ourselves:  this giving up that is an action called repenting.  Only then, with empty hands and no agenda can we receive as a gift his sacrifice, thereby making us right with God.  Amazingly, this right standing with God brings a boat-load of benefits that defy imagination.

Our record, with the listing of all our innumerable misdeeds since we were infants, is taken away and Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account.  Together, these 2 actions guarantee our admittance into the presence of Holy God for eternity.  But that is not all!  We also get the assurance that we are LOVED, we get a PURPOSE for life that will satisfy us (to live for the praise of the glory of this grace) and we get a NEW FAMILY – we are brought into relationship with other believers both for our comfort and our growth. Last, but not least, we get POWER for daily living – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  He is a guarantee of our future place in Heaven, kind of like an engagement ring.   After all, the Church IS the bride of Christ. (arrabon meaning a deposit/security in biblical Greek and in modern Greek, it means engagement ring). The Holy Spirit is also the ultimate power source – Paul reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.  So we don’t have to despair of being incapable of obeying God and relying on him.  The HS gives us the power. We just have to trust and step out to do what He calls & empowers us to do, no matter our fleshly feelings of weakness!

The good news of the Gospel is amazing – but I need to be amazed and astonished daily or I slip into fear, worry and complaining.  So prepping to share the kernel or essence of the Gospel actually helps me as I rehearse continuously.  It keeps my mind focusing on this good news and it prepares me to give a reason for the hope that I have.

Be prepared!

April 27, 2010

Maria Colossians, Gospel , 1 Comment

Col 4 : 5-6  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

My prayer every day is that God will give me the opportunity to share a portion of the Gospel.  That implies that I need to be prepped, ready.  That means that I need to be meditating all the time on why the Gospel is such GOOD NEWS.  That means I have to be preaching to myself, encouraging myself.

What is all that good news? And how do I boil it all down to a 5 second sound-bite that would be salty enough to cause someone to want to talk to me?

My challenge is that I live in a family of believers (a blessing) and I teach in a Christian school.  So my contact with the outside world, the ‘gentiles’ of my day, is limited to encounters at the gym, on neighborhood walks, at the grocery store and in emails to relatives or other friends from my past.

What line will be the best incentive to encourage someone to engage in a conversation?  That’s all I want.  At the grocery check-out line, I usually ask the cashier, ‘How are you’ and she/he responds ‘fine’ and you?  That’s my cue for the 5 second line.   Here’s what I have thought about the past few days:

  • Great!  I’m meditating on the secret of life (go into how there IS purpose in life, both here on earth and in heaven)
  • Great !  God’s goodness is so apparent this time of year (beauties of Spring)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about heaven and how cool it’s going to be (new body – appealing to an elderly person)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about man’s greatest problem and what the solution is  (God’s wrath against us – and how Jesus takes care of that)

A good line will suffice to prompt a discussion if the other person wants one, or it can be easily ignored/ dropped by the other person.  My job is to fish.

But I find that I have to be prepared always.  I have to remind myself of the story –and its component parts:

a)   The truth about God – He is loving, perfect and holy

b)   The truth about humans – i.e. the good news AND the bad news which leads to THE PROBLEM

c)    God’s solution to the problem – Jesus

d)   What awaits us – when Jesus comes back – our AMAZING inheritance

What works for you?  I get discouraged that I don’t have MORE of these conversations.

**

If you need to get a glimpse of what awaits us, then I would recommend John Piper’s sermon from 18 April 2010 – it’s all about how much God loves us.  Here is the link to the audio, video and print.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2010/4581_How_Much_Does_God_Love_This_Church/

Why baptize babies?

December 28, 2009

Maria Colossians, Reflections, sacraments , Leave a comment

Colossians 2:12 Having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead.

We are new to the reformed faith (PCA) and have been learning a lot about baptism and why infant baptism is practiced. I came out of a ritualistic, liturgical church where many people believe that the baptismal rite itself has the power to insure entry into Eternal Life for recipients. I rebelled and took up the view that baptism should be reserved for those who make a profession of faith. After all, Jesus commissioned his followers to disciple all people groups. Following that imperative, He then mentioned two component parts of that process: a) baptism b) teaching. I interpret the Great Commission as an activity whereby we share the good news about what Christ has done. People repent and put their faith in Christ’s work on the cross and in God’s promises of present spiritual gifts and in future grace. They are baptized as a sign of that transformation and they continue to be taught.

But what about infant baptism? Where does that fit in ? Why baptize a baby if he hasn’t repented yet because he hasn’t HEARD that he’s under God’s wrath? Why baptize a baby if he has yet to learn the way to escape God’s wrath, thus fleeing to Jesus?

A clue came to me today as I was meditating on Colossians 2:12. I am enjoying the process of memorizing the Book of Colossians. It’ll probably take me 6 months, but every moment spent on it is worth it. Memorizing Scripture as opposed to reading Scripture is like walking instead of driving by a place. You see so much more because every word has to be chewed on and placed in one’s memory.

Maybe infants are ONLY buried with Christ in baptism. They are raised to life later when given faith (faith comes from hearing…) and that faith is actually exercised. Verse 12 says that we are raised from death when we believe that God actually raised his Son from the dead. At the point we understand and believe God we get LIFE. So baptizing a baby is a good thing. It’s like Part One. It doesn’t magically impart eternal life. But it does bring a baby into the family of God and bodes well for the baby. Hopefully he is discipled so that faith can take root and grow. A crucial component of the infant baptism process in the PCA church is that only believers’ children are offered baptism. So the sacramental ceremony is a reminder to the parents and the wider covenant family of the church that they are undertaking the responsibility to train up this child in the faith.

Live the Gospel versus Explain the Gospel

November 26, 2009

Maria Reflections Leave a comment

Whew!  I’m relieved.  After reading one of Michael Horton’s books, (Christless Christianity), I found out that the way to share the Gospel is to open my mouth and witness to the objective, true, historical reality of what Jesus did for us.  For years, I had heard it said that we should follow Francis of Assisi’ life motto, essentially live out the Gospel and only use words as necessary.  That sounds great..until one actually looks at one’s life.  I mean, I’m a believer.  But I’m also very selfish (sinful, in Christianese).  And I’m sure there are many non-believers who are more neighborly and caring than I.  I don’t have to go far to be reminded of our neighbor: ‘Super George’ – he helps EVERYone.  I don’t.

At one school where I taught, the Latin teacher was Jewish.  People often quipped about this kind lady, “She’s more Christian than most Christians”, referring to her unselfish, neighborly behavior.

But being kind to one’s neighbor doesn’t always get them to say, “Gee, there is something different about you, tell me!”

So we are commanded to explicitly proclaim the good news.  I can do that, with God’s help.  Truthfully, the Gospel is not about my transformed life, but about what Jesus did on the cross so I could have peace with God.  My sin was put on Jesus and Jesus’ life perfectly lived out was credited to me.

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