Sunday 29 October 2017

Bridging the Gap by Keeping the Focus on the Gospel


In my last post, I reflected on the growing gap between believers and non-believers, as well as those attending church and those who don’t go to church. This separation is evident in the ignorance of many people--there is no longer an understanding of what the Bible teaches or of mainstream Christian beliefs. Children are not taught these truths in school and parents have stopped sending their children to Sunday school. Adults don’t discuss religion and don’t see how anything the Bible could have to say would be relevant to them.

I have recently started taking a book table with free Christian books out in my local town centre for a few hours a week. I thought it would be a pretty non-confrontational way to get Christian literature into the hands of those living in the town. It is a different type of low-key evangelism aiming to build contacts and, in time, get people to church.

A few weeks ago I was sitting quietly reading near to the table, but not on top of it. I try to keep a distance so people don’t think I’m going to pounce on them and preach a sermon if they show a flicker of interest. I can usually sense whether someone wants me to talk to them or not by their body language as they look at the books.

Anyway, on this day, my peace and solitude was suddenly disturbed by the noisy arrival of a white van man. He crashed to a stop directly in front of me obscuring the table from view. He then jumped out and marched to the back of the van where he began opening then slamming doors. He was a youngish man wearing shorts and casual clothing. I did not expect to have any interaction with him.

I watched his activity thinking that, based on his appearance, (I know this is a stereotype but we all do it!) he wouldn’t even cast a glance at my books. I was also silently praying that he would move along quickly so that my table would be visible again. However, there was an “Oy love” or something similar shouted in my general direction followed by something about Bibles. Confused, I immediately felt a stab of guilt, this man was actually a lost soul looking for a Bible and I had been wishing him somewhere else….

“You are looking for a Bible?” I keenly asked him.

“No, I said, what version of the Bible do you use?” He responded as he continued loudly going about his work.

Still thinking he was looking for a Bible, I said “Well, I have some John’s Gospel’s here and my church uses the New King James version.”

“You know that’s corrupted,” he responded. He then proceeded to tell me the reasons why, at length. At times he was shouting at me across the street as he moved around his vehicle. This was obviously drawing the attention of passers by. Nothing like a loud debate about religion to draw a crowd.

I patiently waited for him to finish before explaining why the Bible wasn’t corrupted. At this point, he changed the subject and still in the same loud voice began explaining why Christians should use the “flat earth theory” as their foundation for evangelism. (You think I’m joking but there are an increasing number of these people around.) He even had proof of the effectiveness of this method in the form of a recent convert, or so he said.

After discussing some of these issues somewhat fruitlessly with the man who was becoming more and more aggressive as I refused to accept what he was saying, he disappeared into a shop. Re-emerging he tried to continue insisting that I needed to watch certain videos on Youtube and to change my methods of evangelism and the Bible I was using etc etc. I changed the subject by asking him which church he was involved in. Turns out, he doesn’t go to church, corruption there as well….

Why have I relayed this story? Not to highlight the absurdity of this man’s beliefs, or to express my frustration with this type of situation. Purely to demonstrate what happens when the focus of our faith becomes something other than the Gospel. It makes me very sad that this man had become so fixated on two areas that don’t have much, if anything, to do with forgiveness of sin through Jesus. He was so desperate to convert me to his way of thinking that he wasn’t hearing the true message that I was trying to convey to him.

This man claimed to be a Christian yet he was willing to spend time debating these issues aggressively in public in the presence of many non-believers. What an evangelistic tool a conversation between two believers in the street could have been if we had been able to encourage each other with truths from the Bible, whichever version we happened to be holding.

Similarly, in my town, I have been attempting to befriend a drug addicted lady who mixes with some pretty dangerous people. I learned, the hard way, in the Philippines, how to try and truly help people with these types of problems. I also developed a thick(er) skin for self preservation!

This lady was ranting and raving abuse at me whilst standing smoking behind my book table. Clearly, the situation was less than ideal not only because passer’s by probably assumed she was my ministry partner which raised some Christians eyebrows and kept the rest well away, but now because she was screaming and swearing at me.

It crossed my mind that the police might be called which would be tricky. She was upset because I was trying to draw some basic boundaries about what I was and wasn’t prepared to do to help her. This involved reminding her constantly that I could and would give her short term help on the day she needed it, but that long term help could only come from God and that her true need was to get right with Him.

Afterwards, it occurred to me that this was probably akin to gobbledegook in her drug induced rage and that I was probably frustrating her by referencing a Deity that she could not comprehend or see the relevance of, for her immediate problems. This became evident when she calmed down sufficiently for me to offer to buy her lunch at a nearby cafe. After initially refusing due to a sudden stab of conscience and not wanting to “use me,” she consented.

We sat down and she began eating. I tried to broach the God topic again, this time with more urgency as I honestly didn’t know how long this woman could continue living in her emaciated body with the risks she was taking on a daily basis. I could see that she was softening towards me, probably due to the food. She realised that she needed to show willing and that all I really wanted was for her to listen to me talk about God. This is what she said….

“Do you mean like when the man gets some bread and …er…does something…and dips it in something and er……”

“No, look, forget all that.” I cut her off abruptly with a wave of my hand. Perhaps, I shouldn’t have told her to forget her vague idea of Communion but that could be dealt with at a later stage.

Improvising, I looked around and grabbed two sugars. I placed them on different sides of the table then placed a teaspoon in the middle. “This is God,” I said, pointing to one of the sugars. “This is you, and me.” I pointed to the other sugar which she was staring at intently. “This spoon is all the bad things we do. It keeps us separated from God because He is perfect and holy and cannot get close to us because of it. That is also why we cannot get to heaven.” I looked around for something else and grabbed a ketchup bottle, it helped that it was red but I think this aspect was lost on her. “This is Jesus. He died for the bad things we do. He died instead of us and took our punishment. He is like a bridge between us and God.” As I said this, I picked up the spoon and balanced it on top of the ketchup bottle. My presentation had become even more urgent as I was just desperate for her to understand. She was still staring at the hastily assembled items then she looked up. Making eye contact she spoke softly, “I get it now.” She cried then about her life and everything that had gone wrong. We talked for a long time, I made sure I explained how she could get right with God and filled in some of the gaps, then she went home.

I saw her again a few weeks later and she seemed a lot calmer, something was different in her general demeanour, she was less frantic. She had started making gradual changes and was trying to keep off the drugs. She mentioned the sugars, spoon and ketchup bottle and how she had heard bits of this message over the years but hadn’t understood it. Now, she said she did. She took a John’s Gospel from my table. She asked to come to church.

We arranged to pick her up but she didn’t turn up at the meeting point. The next time I saw her she blanked me in the street. This is where the thick skin comes in and I have to trust that if God has His hand on her, she will be back. I sense that she is lost in the darkness of the underworld and that she can see the light of Jesus hovering at the edge, that she is starting to grasp for it but that things are getting in the way. Please pray for her.

This story is another example of the gap between believers and non-believers. I established later that the lady had been thinking back to a time when she had been given Communion, or their equivalent, in a Greek Orthodox church. Christianity had become about this vague ceremony in her mind.

A Christian recently told me how excited he was that a local school had allowed a vicar in to give all of the children Communion. I was shocked commenting that most were probably not Christians and that this would surely do more harm than good, according to the warnings in the Bible. However, this man felt that the fact that there was Christian influence in the school through the Communion was a good thing. Is this not, though, just another way of getting side-tracked from a person’s true need?

During evangelism, it is essential that we stick to the core truths of the Gospel and simplify them to the level of the person we are speaking to. This is where debates about methods fade into obscurity because we cannot plan for every situation. Sometimes, when we are faced with someone ready to listen and in a desperate condition, all we will have is two sugars, a spoon and a ketchup bottle!

In our town, a group of churches (not including our church,) have regular healing meetings on the street. They combine this with preaching. A fair number of people stop and receive prayer for healing. At least one of the main leaders believes that it’s always God’s will to heal and I’m sure he’s communicating this to the non-believing community.

Will these people go away and find peace with God as a result of this intervention? What will happen to them if they aren’t healed? Surely then, the gap between believers and non-believers will be wider as they won’t trust anything that is said by Christians in the future. Perhaps, they will also doubt the God that the Christians claim to represent when they promise healing in His name and He doesn’t deliver. If God does deliver and heal the person, will they know enough of the Gospel to realise that their greatest need is forgiveness of sin rather than just earthly healing?

We must keep the focus on the Gospel during our evangelism. Forgiveness of sin through Jesus is the only way that a person can be saved eternally. We can bridge the gap between believers and non-believers by communicating the life-saving message in a way that the recipient can understand and relate to.



“If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead. You will be saved.” Romans 10 vs 9



Monday 23 October 2017

Bridging the Gap by Being Real


It seems that the gap between Joe Public and the majority of church-goers is widening. This trend is evident in conversations with people from both sides of the divide and looks set to continue. I often meet people born in England who have never heard about Jesus.

Joe Public doesn’t care, he’s just relieved that the ‘odd bunch of God worshippers down the road’ seem at last to have realised that he doesn’t fit into their circle. Finally, they are leaving him alone. What does anything they could have to say have to do with him anyway? He isn’t religious, doesn’t have money that he wants to give them and isn’t interested in giving up his Sundays to go to church. He doesn’t want to wear smart clothes, sing old songs about concepts that are alien to him, or listen to boring sermons with a lot of words he doesn’t understand.

Joe has to work hard to keep his house. He has bills to pay and a wife and two teenagers to keep happy. There is a constant list of ever-growing demands. He worries that his wife will leave with the children if he doesn’t live up to their expectations. The stress of work is getting to Joe and he has been on anti-depressants for a number of years. His father has terminal cancer. His parents separated after forty years of marriage and are now fighting about money. He’s sure one of his children is experimenting with drugs.

What could the religious zealots at the end of his road know about any of this and how could anything they have to offer help Joe with his immediate problems? They always seem to be cheerful and without a care in the world.

Mr Church-goer is in a rush. He must get to church on time to make sure things are set up for the service. His suit must be smart and his shoes polished so that everyone will see that his life is orderly and he needs to be an example to others in the congregation. He is out of the door and into his car. There is just enough petrol to get him to church. He heads off, arriving just in time. He summons his best fake smile and plasters it across his face as he greets people entering the church. A nod and a handshake here and there. He hears himself using words like “fellowship, welcome, gathering, warm” and making bland comments about God and the weather. He isn't really listening to the replies and his eyes have glazed over by the start of the service.

Mr Church-goer is dying inside. His wife lounges at home in bed. She walked away from God a year ago but hasn’t told anyone. He apologises for her absence but doesn’t explain it. His children are off the rails. He’s pretty sure they take drugs at the numerous parties. Mr Church-goer has to work hard to keep his house. He has bills to pay and things he must buy. He is also on anti-depressants although no one knows apart from his doctor. A close relative has cancer. He knows that a couple that used to be in the church are getting divorced. He worries that he will be next.

Perhaps the gap between Joe Public and Mr Church-goer isn’t quite as wide as it appears to be. In fact, they are often facing the same crises and struggles. The difference is that Joe Public doesn’t have a solution--he will just hang on, trying his hardest until everything falls apart. Mr Church-goer has the solution, providing he is actually a Christian. His response to trials and difficulties is what is important and he should face them differently as a believer. He needs to remember that he is not living for this life but for the life to come in Heaven.

Unfortunately, Instead of being open about his problems, Mr Church-goer often feels that he has to hide them. He tries to deal with them in-house to avoid bringing dishonour to the church and/or ‘losing face.’ His number one priority is holding himself together instead of honestly facing up to his situation and admitting that he needs help. He may feel that he is somehow letting God down if he fails to be the example he should be as a Christian, or that he shouldn’t have gotten himself into the mess in the first place. He has false expectations of himself and of God. Often, he struggles alone until he too falls apart.

What Mr Church-goer really needs is for his church family to encourage, help and pray for him.  He needs to be reminded that we all fall short of God's holy standard by a very long way. We fall short due to our own sin, and we suffer the consequences of the sin of others due to living in a world that is under the curse of God and the temporary schemes of the devil.  Mr Church-goer cannot deal with his failures and trials alone, none of us can. He needs to ask Jesus to carry his burden, then he must trust God to bring Him through.

When I came to faith after years of backsliding, I found myself in a group of Christian young people. Most had been Christians for as long as they could remember having been raised in Christian homes. I felt like the black sheep and they seemed to be talking a foreign language at first. They were very nice, but the nicer and more patient they were with me, the more of an outsider I felt. I wondered if I would always feel like that or if one day I would fit in. It wasn’t until someone took pity on me and shared a few of the problems that were commonly known in the group that I felt a bit better. These people were human too!

This failure to be real is one of the reasons for the widening of the gap between Joe Public and Mr Church-goer. A testimony of triumph after years of visible struggle is much more powerful than a hidden struggle resulting in a superficial appearance of a wonderful life that no one can relate to. 

This is also why presenting the Gospel in the popular format beginning with, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life….” is misleading at best. What if God’s earthly plan includes trials, struggles and pain? Contrary to a lot of contemporary teaching, we are not promised health, wealth or happiness. Christians are, however, promised forgiveness of sin, peace with God and a certainty of life eternal in Heaven. Consider that the wonderful part won’t be fully enjoyed until we get there! It's worth asking the question, what is man's greatest need?--Surely this is it!

Let’s be real about our trials but show people that there is hope for the future through Jesus and that we can face the toughest circumstance with God’s help.


Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
 1 Peter 5 vs 6-10


Monday 2 October 2017

10 Reasons Why Christians Should Go to Church


I am meeting more and more people who claim to be Christians but who aren’t committed to, or members of, a local church. (“Church” throughout this post refers to a local gathering of believers rather than a specific meeting place or building, despite the picture.)

Some of these people are church hoppers”- those who flit from church to church either to look for potential dates, or to find a specific “church experience” or those who are forever seeking the perfect church. These people never really settle anywhere, they are therefore never really accountable to anyone or anything and they prefer it this way.

Others have been hurt by Christians/churches in the past and are wary of getting burned again. This is perhaps understandable. However, the bad behaviour of the select few shouldn’t stop a true believer from persevering.

Some have allowed family or other life commitments to get in the way of regular church attendance. Meeting with other Christians has somehow slipped down the list of priorities. These are the people who loudly proclaim that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.

There are also a number of people who haven’t been able to find a Bible teaching church in their area. Maybe they have travelled long distances in the past and become fed up with this or decided it’s not worth it. They worship alone at home.

In this day and age, there are people who trawl the internet listening to sermons from a variety of speakers or who tune in to a mega pastor from a mega church that is beamed around the world to all and sundry. This is “church” for a growing number of people.

Are these people right? Is it okay not to be involved in and committed to a local church? Consider these ten reasons why Christians should go to church.

- The Bible tells us to meet with other believers. As with all areas of Christian life, we need first to look at what the Bible says about this. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.Hebrews 10 vs 24-26. It seems clear that there is an expectation that Christians should be meeting together on a regular basis.

- "No man is an island." A well known quote by John Donne. We were not made to live in isolation but for relationships with other people. If we want to be effective witnesses for God then we need to build relationships with others. This should start with fellow believers.  Iron sharpens ironProverbs 27 vs 17

- Accountability. This is one of the main reasons professing Christians are not in church. They don't want to be accountable to anyone or anything. They want to do their own thing and free themselves of the rules and regulations of their local church. The alternative is that they submit to the church authorities until something happens that they don't like, then they just leave without a backward glance.

- Each Christian has a job to do! As Christians we are part of the universal church of Christ or the body of Christ, but we should also be serving locally in our churches. The New Testament gives clear instructions as to how local churches should be set up, led and function generally. The details cannot logistically refer to the universal church therefore the expectation is that all believers will be part of a local gathering.

- Evangelism. One of the main purposes of the church is for evangelism: reaching others with the saving message of Jesus. How can we do this if we arent committed to a local church? Where will we take the people we have witnessed to? Where will they be discipled or taught? How can they grow as believers or learn more? What type of example are we setting if we dont take our faith seriously enough to meet with other believers?

- Spiritual growth. God calls certain men to lead his churches. They are gifted in teaching and preaching and have special authority for their respective roles. We miss the benefits of learning and growing as believers if we fail to put ourselves under the leadership of these men in a local congregation. This is the method that God has chosen for us to grow and mature.

- Protection from the world/putting on the armour. When I was working shifts in the police I used to find it hard to get to church but always planned to make at least one service on Sunday and to try and get to the midweek prayer meeting. I noticed a distinct difference spiritually when I failed at either of these goals. I needed a spiritual energy boost that could only properly be obtained from meeting with other Christians before I headed back to the battlefield of work. Think of the church as a light and everything outside it, including secular work, as the darkness, if that helps!

- Prayer support. Church is where we can go for encouragement, help and prayer. We need to be praying together for unsaved family members, for colleagues at work, for situations around the world and for more personal things. We need to be both praying for others and receiving prayer for ourselves. The more people who gather, the more voices in prayer.

- Worship. Worship has come to mean all sorts of things, but how many of us actually sing hymns, songs or praise to God when not in church? If we aren't regularly attending then we are missing out on a vital ingredient in our spiritual lives. There is also something very uplifting about singing together with other believers, assuming your church isn't one of those where everyone mumbles into their hymn books!

- Socialising. Some churches have taken this to an extreme. Our church services should be recognisably different from worldly events. However, our local church should be our extended family. We should want to spend time together and enjoy each other's company. I have spoken to isolated believers in Turkey, Iran and Syria who would love to be able to even find another believer local to them let alone have the privilege of meeting together, they are envious of the freedoms we enjoy!

There are probably other reasons that you can think of, feel free to comment with your suggestions or to add to these ideas. If you have done everything you can to find a Bible believing church in your area and have failed, then why not start a Bible study in your home and invite your friends and neighbours!

All true Christians should belong to a local church.