This is a story about two young men, two lives, from two
very different backgrounds. The first
young man was born to a Christian family in the United States. As he grew, his family made sure they raised
him to know about Jesus. He was in
church most times that the doors were open and he had multiple Bibles in his
house. Bottom line is he heard the
Gospel on a regular basis. When he was
around eleven years old he became aware of his sin which separated him from God,
his inability to save himself through his own good works, and realized he
needed Jesus to save him. He accepted
the gift of salvation that Jesus offers at that time, but there was little
growth. The pull of sin and this world
pulled him away in his teen years.
However, he now had the spirit of God inside of him and he never could
get comfortable with his way of life. He
continued to hear the Gospel on a regular basis and finally when he turned
twenty one, he rededicated his life to Christ, was discipled, and now seeks to glorify
Jesus Christ throughout the world in all he does. He has been forgiven of all his sin, been
promised eternal life, been rescued from deserved eternal suffering and
separation from the one true God, and been given hope. All this because of the opportunity he had to
hear the greatest story ever told about the greatest person who ever lived –
King Jesus.
The second young man (let’s call him Raja) was born in a
small village in South Asia. As soon as
he was born, his father whispered the Shahada in his ear declaring their faith,
“There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.” As he grew, he was taught the five things he
must do to be a “good Muslim” – Confess the Shahada from the heart; pray; fast;
give a small percentage of his income; take a hajj (journey to Mecca). He was taught that if he just does more of
these “good things” than bad, he MAY have the opportunity to enter paradise if
Allah wills. As he grows he genuinely
tries to do these good things. When he
is old enough, he is sent to a Madrasah school to learn how to recite and write
the Qur’an in Arabic. He believes this
gains him more favor with Allah. He has
never heard that he is incapable of saving himself from his sin and that Jesus
died and rose again to pay the penalty for his sins and purchase a place for
him in eternity. All he has to do is
accept this gift. But how can he accept
it if he doesn’t know it is being offered?
He continues to grow and when he is old enough his father sends him to
the United States to get an education and to make money to help his
family. He is scared. He has been told his whole life to stay away
from Christians. He has seen American TV
and assumes all Christians are immoral, because he assumes all Americans are
Christians. When he arrives in America,
he is alone. He does well in school and
works hard at his job, but Americans aren’t very friendly to him. No one welcomes him to the country, no one
invites him into their homes, and if they do happen to look at him it is
usually with suspicion and disdain. He
finishes up in the United States and heads back home. He is thankful to be back
in his homeland. But in his homeland,
there is no Christian witness and no access to the Gospel. He never heard and may never hear outside of
a miraculous work of God…
The first young man is me.
I had every opportunity from an early age to hear the Gospel, understand
it, and respond to it. I had this
opportunity more times than I could count before I even responded to it. Raja could be any one of the millions of
immigrants that are coming to our country every year. The great question is what is the difference
in me and Raja? Why was I born in
America where I had every opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel? Why was he not? There is nothing special about me to deserve
this. I am the same creation of God as Raja. It is purely by the grace of God that He put
me in this situation, allowed me to hear his plan of salvation, and saved
me. An even greater question is what am
I going to do with the salvation I have been blessed with? The Bible tells us we are blessed to be a
blessing. Psalms 67: 1-2, “God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation
among all nations.” In 2012, more
than 165 million people entered the US for one reason or another from every
nation on earth. God is the great mover
of people and He, in His sovereignty, has brought the nations to us in the
United States where we are free to share the Gospel with them. This is something they may never have the
opportunity to hear in their homeland. Oh
what a shame it would be if most immigrants had the same experience as Raja. We must wake up to the opportunity that God
has placed before us!
In 1271, Marco Polo returned from his time in China among
the Mongols. The ruler of all of China
at the time, Kublai Khan, had given Polo a letter to deliver to Pope requesting
100 teachers to teach the Mongols about Christianity. For some reason, this request went
unfulfilled. Some say that the Popes at
the time were more concerned about defending themselves militarily than taking
the Gospel to those who needed to hear it.
With the knowledge we have now, some label this as one of the biggest
missed opportunities in church history.
For me, the similarities are staggering.
Will we, as the American church, be so concerned about our borders,
about possible dangers, about defending ourselves militarily, and about
strangers in our nation that we miss an unprecedented opportunity to take the
Gospel to countless numbers of people from unreached and least reached people
groups that God has sovereignly placed in our reach? Will Christians hundreds of years from now
look back at this as yet another of the biggest missed opportunities in church
history? I am not saying we don't need to pay attention to these things, but an unhealthy fear which derails us from the mission of God could have dire consequences.
In Numbers 13, the Israelite spies return from spying out the promised land. The majority of the spies let fear rule their decision to report that they could not take the land. Only Joshua and Caleb stand in faith stating of the people of the land, "...the Lord is with us; do not fear them." The decision made in fear had dire consequences for the nation of Israel as they wandered in the desert for 40 more years after that and none of them except for Joshua and Caleb got to enter the land that was promised to them. In the same way, may fear never keep us from carrying out the great commission Jesus gave to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." because just as He was with the Israelites, He has promised us "...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20)
No comments:
Post a Comment