Yet another flight around the globe
This time next week I will be landing in South Africa. It's amazing how this whole trip came about. In case I haven't told you, the Missions committee at Christ the King, which I am a part of, planned the South Africa trip throughout the year. Early on, we found out Melissa couldn't get off of work for another 2 weekend (she took 6 for our Thailand trip), and because we didn't want to be separated I decided not to go either. As we recruited for the trip, lots of people signed up, but no one was ecstatic about leading it. The church asked the deacons and the elders to go, but every single one of them had already made plans for that week. It finally reached the point where our head pastor realized there were only two people in the church available to lead the trip: him and me. We talked for a while and realized, it makes way more sense for me to go than to take our head pastor away for ten days right when people are arriving in town for the upcoming school year.
So, here I am, ready to go and honestly excited. It will be rough to be away from my new bride for 10 days, but it's clear God wants me to go. That fact became even clearer when I managed to raise almost all of my support in two weeks. Someone who I had not even consider writing a support letter to ended up sending me $1300 just a few days ago. All that's left for me to do in the next 5 day is finish Harry Potter and start packing.
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Melissa and I have been reading through the Mcheyne Bible reading schedule this year. I highly recommend it for everyone who has trouble keeping regular time in the word. Reading the entire plan will get you through the Ot once and the NT and Psalms twice every year. Reading the first two columns one year and the second two columns the next will Get you through the same amount in 2 years. Anyway, we are doing it half speed this year and right now we are reading through Acts. It is a great book to read through when thinking about evangelism.
Today I read Paul's sermon in Antioch from Acts 13. What a masterpiece, everything is in there, and it has a great conclusion. "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses." then the next week "almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord." a lot of them got upset, but "all who were appointed for eternal life believed."
Paul new the gospel was a message worth sharing and he wasn't concerned with stepping on people's toes. I know there is an element of sensitivity that must be present when we speak to non-believers, but by and large, Christians err on the side of hypersensitivity/timidity when it comes to sharing the life-giving truth of the Gospel. Why do Christians care so much about offending others with their agenda when the majority of political and social activists run in your face awareness campaigns. Why can most Americans elucidate the finer points of pro-choice/pro-life debate, but have no clue the difference between being saved by Grace or by Works? It's time for us to actually tell people what we believe rather than blogging and talking about telling them. Be bold, walk up to our friends, classmates, parents, siblings, and co-workers and say like Paul in verse 16 "listen to me!"
So, here I am, ready to go and honestly excited. It will be rough to be away from my new bride for 10 days, but it's clear God wants me to go. That fact became even clearer when I managed to raise almost all of my support in two weeks. Someone who I had not even consider writing a support letter to ended up sending me $1300 just a few days ago. All that's left for me to do in the next 5 day is finish Harry Potter and start packing.
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Melissa and I have been reading through the Mcheyne Bible reading schedule this year. I highly recommend it for everyone who has trouble keeping regular time in the word. Reading the entire plan will get you through the Ot once and the NT and Psalms twice every year. Reading the first two columns one year and the second two columns the next will Get you through the same amount in 2 years. Anyway, we are doing it half speed this year and right now we are reading through Acts. It is a great book to read through when thinking about evangelism.
Today I read Paul's sermon in Antioch from Acts 13. What a masterpiece, everything is in there, and it has a great conclusion. "Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses." then the next week "almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord." a lot of them got upset, but "all who were appointed for eternal life believed."Paul new the gospel was a message worth sharing and he wasn't concerned with stepping on people's toes. I know there is an element of sensitivity that must be present when we speak to non-believers, but by and large, Christians err on the side of hypersensitivity/timidity when it comes to sharing the life-giving truth of the Gospel. Why do Christians care so much about offending others with their agenda when the majority of political and social activists run in your face awareness campaigns. Why can most Americans elucidate the finer points of pro-choice/pro-life debate, but have no clue the difference between being saved by Grace or by Works? It's time for us to actually tell people what we believe rather than blogging and talking about telling them. Be bold, walk up to our friends, classmates, parents, siblings, and co-workers and say like Paul in verse 16 "listen to me!"
