1. Practical Challenge #3 of 3: Share Jesus With Those Around Us

Lastly, on a day to day basis, we can share the love of Jesus with the people around us. This is often a risk. We can risk people thinking we are crazy or self-righteous. They may make fun of us for believing in God, or stop associating with you. Maybe your family doesn’t believe in Jesus, my family is not Christian.

We are fortunate to be able to talk openly in America about God, without being beaten or imprisoned for it. But that doesn’t mean it does not have risks associated with it. Take a social risk, possibly suffering some social awkwardness in the process in order to tell people around you about the Gospel.

“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12) 

Those are just some of the things I’m being challenged with as I’m going out into the world, working a full time Job, getting married and starting “life” as it is. I don’t want to waste my life day by day slowly slipping into complacency with the way things are. Like Vince was saying, as Christians, Jesus calls us to make a difference. The only way we will see the Gospel go out and change the world is if we as Christians choose to suffer alongside Jesus; but not in act of misery, rather experiencing the Joy that God brings.

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24)

In his last post James (one  of our college students), challenged our community to suffer for good by giving our time.  In this post, James challenges us to suffer for good by giving our treasure.

Money. Possessions. Homes. Cars. Food. The list goes on and on. The American Church is full of materially blessed people, in fact we are the wealthiest church in history. Jesus doesn’t call us to live a comfortable lifestyle. We are not called to live the “American Dream”. Consider this quote from 1800’s preacher Andrew Murray:

“How different our standard is from Christ’s. We ask how much a man gives. He asks how much he keeps.”

God is blessing us to be a blessing to the world, to those in need. Here’s what I mean: if all American church-goers tithed just 10% of their income, there would be an estimated $168 Billion on top of the currently tithed amount (including charitable giving). It would take about

·         $65 Billion to tackle worldwide extreme poverty

·         $6 Billion for universal primary education for children worldwide

·         $9 Billion to supply fresh water (wells, etc…)

·         $13 Billion for basic health and nutrition worldwide          *(figures quoted from The Hole In Our Gospel)*

You get the picture. Read the Lord’s Prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God wants his will done here, not just in the future. He has blessed us to make this happen. We will have to suffer the loss of a comfortable, wealthy lifestyle (the American Dream) to see this happen. It doesn’t matter how much you make, God has blessed you with something (93% of the world doesn’t own a car). I keep asking myself how can I live such a wealthy life on God’s blessing, and ignore the suffering, the starving, the dying – who He loves and gave me this blessing to bless others. How can I continue to keep it all to myself?

So today’s (March 28^th) talk Vince gave on suffering as the 3^rd function of the cross reminded me of this past summer and what God did (and continues to do) in my heart with regard to suffering for Jesus. Please consider what God has been challenging me with. 

Vince mentioned in his talk something to the effect of “as North American Christians, we don’t get many opportunities to suffer for Jesus”. I think what Vince might be referring to here is a physical suffering (persecution). I agree this is hard to come by for most of us. What I believe God has been showing me is that this is not the only way to follow Jesus’ example of suffering for the good of others.

Last summer God began challenging me with this idea of sacrifice and suffering as a Christian. Specifically, he used a book called "The Hole in Our Gospel" By Richard Stearns, CEO of World Vision. Some of you may have heard of it. The question he asks “is there more to our faith than just going to church, studying the Bible, and avoiding the most serious sins- does God call us to more than just this?” The answer appears to be yes.

“Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) 

So, while keeping this idea of daily picking up our cross and following Jesus in mind, I wanted to put forth some practical challenges to present God with a sacrifice of suffering for doing good and ultimately bringing God’s joy and peace to our lives through doing so.

Practical Challenge #1 of 3: Giving our Time

If we want something to happen, we make time for it. Now, I understand that life is busy with work, family, daily chores, etc… but our time is a valuable thing to waste. It will take a sacrifice on our part as the body of Christ to go and serve and love our neighbors (whether that’s literally in your neighborhood or on the other side of the world). If we cling to our own daily life, and making that as “good” as it can possibly be, the world will not see the love of God demonstrated. All we will do is talk about it. So, we have to sacrifice our time to see the Gospel go into the world, and thus “suffer” the loss of an easy carefree life.

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.” ‘Well, why don’t you ask Him?’   “Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.” –Anonymous

To be continued...

Post by: Jim MacDonald