What an example the Gerasene is to us of an unabashed witness of God’s great power at work in his life. The delivered demoniac knew the glorious heights of salvation having first been drawn into the darkest recesses of hell, and he could not keep silent! He proclaimed the work of God not only in his city, as Jesus instructed him in Luke, but throughout the ten Grecian cities in his around his home, according to Mark 5:20.
Herein lies the beauty of our call as witnesses of God's redeeming power at work in human lives: God does not expect every Christian to defend His existence with sophisticated arguments but He does instruct us to proclaim what He has done in our lives. I am not slighting apologetics and very much believe in its importance. However, I am persuaded that what catches the attention of today's pluralistic world isn't reasoned arguments in favor of God but testimony's of lives renewed by the power of God. People can find scores of objections to counter Christian thinking but they cannot ultimately dispute a transformed life. Throughout Scripture and the Church's history, the gospel appears to have spread best when Christ-followers unabashedly celebrated God's work of redemption and daily deliverance in their lives. And the best part of it is this: You don't need a MDiv to tell your testimony.
May we repent that we are not ecstatic about God's great work in our life. May our Lord grant us an ever growing awareness of the perilousness of the foul pit from which He has saved us and the pricelessness of the precious kingdom to which He has saved us. And may He open our mouths like He did that of our Gerasene brother so all who hear of Jesus' doings may marvel as they did at the former demoniac's testimony (Mark 5:20).
Really top-secret blog you got here, Kent... I mean, sir, whoever-you-are...
ReplyDeleteI ran into some strange thinking yesterday at work from a so-called Christian pastor who said that ALL he could do was share his testimony, his story about what God had done in his life, and because he was such a serious "Calvinist" he said that it was up to God whether this would lead the person to Christ. This all sounded fine until it became clear that he would not judge whether "his" way to God was the only way. "I'm not God. I'll leave the judging to God." He also thought that there was some narcissistic complex in any Christian who believed "they could save a person" by telling them truth and not letting them believe what they wanted. I couldn't believe this was coming out of a pastor's mouth! Granted, he was PCUSA. But he's planting a church apparently in cooperation with a PCA pastor and I wanted to run and warn this guy what kind of heresy would be propagated from that pulpit. I gave him Scripture, I asked if he believed the Bible was divinely inspired, I told him he didn't have to worry about his judgement 'cause God's already put it down pretty clearly in his Word! And he just smiled wanly and still said it was God's business not his. He only really got excited when I talked about Christ as the ultimate manifestation of God's love. A general statement about love we could agree on, but when I got too specific about judgement and brought out stuff like 1 Corinthians 6 (which I see you also mention in your post on tolerance), he would just start talking about how much he enjoyed this discussion and that he could see I had the spirit of Christ and that he would pray for me and look for me when he came back. His friend who was with him said she had also never encountered all this doctrine before and that she was fascinated with just listening to us. So I'm praying for Brian and Malika 'cause they're about to plant a church that's going to do a lot of good in the community but very possibly a lot of evil in a whole bunch of souls eager to lap up more of the tolerant spirit of the age. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this except that I haven't really been able to hash it out in my mind yet and writing stuff down always helps with that. Perhaps I should start a blog too...
I find it sad that so many people think judgment and God's wrath are like warts on an otherwise pretty face, elements that need covering up by we "modern" humans and our adept abilities with theological makeup. If there's something we don't find attractive about God, then the fault lies in the eyes of the beholder and we've got to come around to the right perspective.
DeleteSounds like this man wants a God palatable to our modern tastes, a God as "tolerant" as we are rather than the long-suffering God portrayed in the Bible (a divine quality that endures far longer than our fickle idea of tolerance). And if he doesn't believe in the utter inspiration of Scripture, than you've got your work cut out for you, trying to bring him to embrace the God of the Bible and not some fabrication of our age. The lack of doctrine in their lives, mentioned by his wife, doubtless accounts for their vacillating "faith," like the people of James 1:6-7. After all what can you cling to if you don't believe there is a solid foundation in Scripture and its promises, like the rest of the Bible, are completely reliable? We don't need more of this gutted version of Christianity, a mere human religion with deceptively similar language but missing the heart of God which places Christ at the center of everything and the Bible as God's mirror reflecting His character to human beings.
But, hey, well done in being a witness. Maybe God will use your interactions with this couple to show them real Christianity, a relationship with God that embraces Him for who He reveals Himself to be in a completely trustworthy form of revelation––the Bible!
And if you start a blog, I'll read it. Honest. Maybe. ;)