Yesterday I shared that there were two observations from my time with my Moroccan friend.
As we were working through the chapter – by the way, working through Jeremiah with him is the fourth time through the book this year. So, I have seen and heard the observations of several other men on this book in the past year and I have been through each chapter and verse several times.
As he was sharing what he saw and how it affected his community, I heard pieces of the same things I had heard from the other groups. The same struggles with apathy of people in the faith community, the same struggles of a leader trying to encourage people to take responsibility for their own walks with God. The struggle to move believers from consumers of others milk, to engaging in the rich meat of the Word.
Were there differences in details? Sure. But the struggle was the same. There are challenges and resistances that we do not face in this country – yet. But the mission, the heart, was the same.
Sometimes I wonder if the cultural issues in the spread of the ministry of the Gospel are there because rather than engaging in the Word together, we feel the need to share our opinions on what a Christian should look like in another culture. It seems to me that if we help believers become those who search the scriptures (Acts 17:11), and encourage and equip them to handle accurately the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15). The cultural issues will work themselves out. After all it was God who confused our speech, which lead to separation and development of those cultures. Seems to me that if we get people in front of God through His Word, He can sort all of those issues out much better than we.
As we were working through the chapter – by the way, working through Jeremiah with him is the fourth time through the book this year. So, I have seen and heard the observations of several other men on this book in the past year and I have been through each chapter and verse several times.
Were there differences in details? Sure. But the struggle was the same. There are challenges and resistances that we do not face in this country – yet. But the mission, the heart, was the same.
Sometimes I wonder if the cultural issues in the spread of the ministry of the Gospel are there because rather than engaging in the Word together, we feel the need to share our opinions on what a Christian should look like in another culture. It seems to me that if we help believers become those who search the scriptures (Acts 17:11), and encourage and equip them to handle accurately the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15). The cultural issues will work themselves out. After all it was God who confused our speech, which lead to separation and development of those cultures. Seems to me that if we get people in front of God through His Word, He can sort all of those issues out much better than we.
No comments:
Post a Comment