open

Yesterday I saw friends who are travelling through New Zealand.  It is always pleasant to to catch up with people.  As we drove around Auckland he asked a really good question.

“Has the accident (and subsequent protracted recovery) changed how you see things?”

It was a helpful moment to reflect. 

The quickest thing to mind is that I’m more committed to openness.  One of the impacts of the injury was to reduce my ability to filter what I say.  It lead to a few embarrassing moments which won’t be detailed here.  It also made me more aware of how we make choices about what we say, how we live and how we present ourselves.

Sometimes ‘filtering’ can be ‘masking’.  It is good to set a guard over our lips – to not speak every thought that passes through the neural matrix. However there are times that I, that we, choose to filter not because of a concern for ourselves rather than truth, beauty or honouring God but rather because we are concerned for our honour.

It is all too easy for Christians, and leaders in particular, to become ‘masked’ in a thin veneer of what looks like integrity but is actually just PR; carefully engineered brand management. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” Matthew 23:23-24

But there is hope for you and me: not a call to ‘do better’ but rather a call to being transformed from the inside out.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:7-17

I want to live with less filtering, no masking, and more transparent integrity: transformed inside out by the glory of God.

There is of course a covering that the heart needs – the covering of Christ Himself - which anticipates the great uncovering of all truth: the Day the whole of creation is waiting for.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

Oh God who knows the human heart – unveil in me the Glory of the Lord Jesus.  May my unmasked heart reveal your goodness, grace and mercy at work in a sinner like me.  Grant to me the joy of living an open life as you bring the culmination of the ages closer each day.

Texas Friends

After Urbana09 I headed to Texas for a couple of days to see friends who I’ve not seen in a long time.

First stop was Dallas to see Jordan Gropp. Jordan did the Relay programme back in 04-05.  It was great to see her, to hear her talk of her business and the meet a couple of her friends.

We visited Dallas and Fort Worth: saw where JFK was shot, ate the best steak ever, enjoyed Texas sunshine and talked a lot about Jesus.  It was a good time, if a little short.  We chatted much about mission, ministry, life and frailty.  It left me greatly aware of the joy of knowing Jesus who does not require us to be anything but faithfilled and faithful. We also met Nina and that incident spoke to us both.

Then I headed down to Houston.  There I met with a friend, Ken, I had only seen once for two hours in 1991. When we met I was his waiter in a St Andrew’s hotel.  It was a quiet night in the middle of July and he was the only customer for a large part of the night.  As I took his order and served his meal i saw he was reading a very small book about discipleship. I thought ‘this is either good or bad’ so I decided to set the table of twelve right next to his table for one and see if he wanted to chat.

Chat we did – he was an American business man and golf fanatic who was up to play in St Andrews.  He asked me if I was working my way through college and I told him about the trip to South Africa I was going on in Dec 91.  He said he was a Christian too. It was a pleasant chat. As he finished his meal he asked if it would be OK if he took my address and he would talk to his wife about financially supporting my trip to South Africa.  I was amazed and dumbfounded. I gave him my address and that was the last time I saw him.

Later in the year, as the due date for the payment of the trip in full was due, I was beginning to consider withdrawing from the trip. One morning whilst shaving I was praying and felt God plant into my heart “Cast your nets out on the other side Peter”.  So I decided to entrust myself to God, but in truth struggled to believe he could and would provide.

That day I went into college, where I’d applied for a travel bursary for theological students who were doing study related travel. I’d been told it might only be £80.  There was an envelope in my pigeon hole from the bursary committee, I opened it and there was a cheque for £80: it was a start. When I looked again the figure was actually £800 – no one had claimed the money for nearly 10 years: they’d decided to give it all to me!  I arrived home that night to a letter from Ken and his wife.  Inside that letter was a cheque for £550 – the exact amount I needed to complete the £1350 to pay for the trip to South Africa.

Ken and I kept in touch for a few years but eventually lost touch.  Within a few days of me booking my flights to Urbana – Ken wrote to the TSCF office asking if he could be put in touch with me.  I responded and asked if they would be willing to have me come and stay: an incredibly bold request.  They were and so I did.

It was great to see them, to meet Hope, Ken’s wife, and their two adult children.  It was a real excitement to share with them the full story (they didn’t know the bit about their gift arriving on the same day as the bursary). It was fun to share how much that gift has shaped my understanding of God’s provision for his work and how it showed me that trusting God for finances is a crazily exciting thing.  It was encouraging to encourage them with some of the stories of how God has used me to minister into various situations and lives – if you’ve ever been encouraged or strengthened through my ministry then you owe that, in part, the Ken and Hope.

It was neat to hear Ken’s side of the story – that he’d walked the streets of St Andrews for an hour not really feeling happy about any of the many other places to eat – eventually thinking he’d just go back to the restaurant of the hotel he was staying with.  How he sensed God’s hand in our conversation.  How they’ve often chatted about and prayed for me since that time. I said I was amazed that Ken remembered my name “Oh no,” Hope said, “you’re famous in our house” Their two kids confirmed it and said it was great to finally meet me.

It was brilliant to go to church with them, eat with them, laugh and share photo’s with them.  It really did feel like being with family: amazing – two hours 18.5 years ago leading to this random but brilliant time together.  I was sad to say goodbye but hugely encouraged at the timely reminder of God’s provision.

Urbana 09 has led to a renewed commitment to living the Gospel out here in New Zealand: it has also led to a fresh sense of frailty in my own life as well as the great strength of God’s grace in a sinner like me!

With this trip to Dallas and Houston I’ve been reminded me of God’s great provision. Between them Ken (and his family) and Jordan, my Texas friends, form a bracket around my life – Ken the start of understanding ministry in a global context and experiencing God’s financial provision; Jordan being one of the last year of Relay Workers I led in UCCF.  God pointed my gaze toward the past through the 48 hours I spent in Texas “See what I have done!”.  He also pointed my heart toward the future “now see what I will do!”

I am a sinner in need of much grace.  In Jesus there is much grace for needy sinners.  Oh God that you would do in me that which I cannot imagine so that you might receive all glory and honour through the endless ages to come.  Oh God that you would take the meagre life I offer and make out of it an offering of praise and worship.  Oh God whose hand is not restrained by anything but love and mercy would you please use me as you would for that to me is life itself: to know you and to make you known.

Here’s to the future… stay tuned!

at the ends of the earth

This will be the last of my Urbana09 posts – though it won’t be the last of the impact of Urbana.

Here are some of the things still brewing and maturing in my head and heart in a response to the week in St Louis.

1. God is weighty. We live in a world of heavy realities and were not sheilded from them in St Louis: people trafficking, sex slavery, arms proliferation, terrorism, injustice, inequality and all sorts of moral and ethical foulness were spoken of with great passion.  It might be possible to be overwhelmed by all of this if it were not for the fact that the reality of God confronts the ‘heavy’ realities with His own solid reality.  You see the God of the whole universe became human in Jesus Christ: he dwelt in the midst of this world. True different times, different cultures but he indwelt a world riddled with people trafficking, with men and women forced into sexual degradation by economic pressures, with war around the corner, terrorism on the streets, people dying of poverty, the rich shielded by wealth and the powerful living in the ease of evil lives whilst excluding the poor from hope and life.  God’s weight is well planted in this world – for He is the centre of it’s historical gravity; the reason for being – the source of life.  God is weighty in this world of heavy burdens: he is not an airy fairy belief of the good intentioned He is the reason people choose to live in the full fury of the evils of this world in order to shine the light of Christ, work for change and transforms souls and lives and communities and countries and most of all to call men and women to faith in Jesus.

2. God is great. How do you bring joy into the midst of sorrow? How do you so comfort the broken hearted that they might have so much comfort that they SHINE with radiance?  How do you do more than bandage wounds and feed the hungry so that people are healed and nourished?  The greatness of God was evident all through the week and for me most evident, or at least most celebrated, in the song “there’s no one like Jesus”. 

There’s no one, there’s no one like Jesus!

There’s no one, there’s no one like Him!

I’ve walked and walked all over, over

I’ve turned and turned around,

I’ve searched and searched all over, over

There’s no one, there’s no one like Him!

God’s greatness is seen in the risk, the patience and the absolutely resolute walk to the cross and onto the resurrection of Jesus.  His greatness is known in Him, is demonstrated and revealed in Him – He is unique in the breadth of history, distinct from religious leaders and set apart from philosophers. He did not come with a message – He came as the message, lived out, made flesh and thus demonstrates the greatness of the glory of God in the midst of the banality of the mundane.

3. God’s plan confounds human pride. There are many ways in which we would have had God act that makes us look good; fortunately He is not the PR agent for our egos.  God’s plan, to bring and form a people for himself for all eternity, eats at the very heart of what we think would be good, what we think looks like a good career plan.

Patrick Fung’s exhortation to live to be forgotten hit me hard mostly because it is true.  We read about the few ‘heroes’ of the faith whose names are easily recalled and want to be like them in their Christian celebrity – WHAT FOOLS WE ARE! There are Christian heroes whose names are unknown to us to day who have lived faithfully and born grieves uncounted, who have travelled in discomfort and watched children die, who have given all and gained little of note in this world, who have thrown away their lives unseen by the wider public but making Christ known in word and deed, who have gone to places that few have heard of and fewer seen so that some might hear the gospel only to reject it. 

In God’s plan He sees and knows and honours the humble and the lowly.  Jesus, you see entered obscurity in order to change history and effect salvation: those who follow Him must walk likewise.

4. God’s mission knows no boundaries. Faith in Jesus robs you of your ultimate agency: Jesus is Lord not you, not me.  There is no place he will not send His people in order to make Jesus known.  There are no areas of life He is dispassionate about.  There are no boundaries to the claims He makes for His Lordship.  He is Lord over our walking and sitting, our talking and our eating, our work and our rest, our buying and our spending, our comfort and our ill-at-ease, our strengths and our weaknesses, our locations and our destinations.

When we commit our lives to Christ we do the right thing and surrender our lives before Him – to be dispensed as He sees fit. This is radically offensive today, in truth it always has been and always will be.  In coming to Jesus to gain salvation you lose yourself and become caught up in the boundless work of God.  This hit me most when an unassuming woman spoke of serving in unbelievable hardship for an incredibly long time: if God would call her there then there are no boundaries to what he will and can call people to do for His Kingdom.

5. God’s call to His people is urgent. Right now, as you read this (and as I type it) children are being raped for economic gain, workers are being enslaved for the comfort of others, the industries that provide for our comfort are dependant upon factory workers being underpaid, farmers being oppressed and the flouting of human rights.  What is more in the squalor of the worst moral offenses the human heart can conceive of there are men and women slipping into eternity without a notion of the love of God made real in His Son coming not to judge but to bring eternal life.  RIGHT NOW. The call to engage in mission NOW is for NOW.  Urbana 09 made it clear – start where you are, with what you can but start right now.

6. God’s people are frail. The attendees are Urbana were ordinary, mundane people. Some were good looking, some physically good specimens of the human species BUT frailty was all around. Some cut the line to get an earlier dinner placing their convenience above others, heralding ‘i’m more important to me than you are’. Some were rude to the staff of the conference centre as they headed into seminars on social justice, heralding ‘I don’t think of you as a person because you work here’. Some didn’t speak to the people next to them in the many queues (especially if that someone was a nearly-40-year-old man from New Zealand) despite that we were being taught about reaching across cultural and ethnic boundaries, heralding ‘I’ll hear about mission but I’m looking for my friends just now’.  We were not perfect when we came to Jesus and we’re not perfect now and won’t be till he comes. 

7. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Though we are sinful, selfish and short-sighted people we are enlivened by the God who uses the weak to demonstrate his weight, greatness and glory in a dying world.  It is our frailty as well as our strengths that reveal Him in all His goodness and glory.

I reflected on this several times as I spoke with frail people who were on the verge of giving up and questioning if God could still use them.  It was at the cross that Jesus ‘hour had come’ – there he showed His glory; there won our salvation – it is by preaching the cross, living it out, and thus declaring the saving and transforming power or God that we are most useful to Him. This is why Paul was willing to boast in his weakness – so that Christ might be all the more evident in His strength.

Who’s missing from the table

The final night of Urbana we celebrated communion together.  It was a feat of organisation as well as an opportunity to reflect at the "Lord’s Table”. Brenda Salter McNeil led the celebration using a Tanzanian liturgy from (I think) the Anglican tradition.

It was well done and there was real joy in celebrating the death and resurrection of  Jesus with so many people: it seemed appropriate to wrap up the week in this way. 

I thought the liturgy had come to and end and then Brenda called out

“is there anyone who has not eaten of the bread, is there anyone who has not drunk from the cup of salvation?”

I thought it was a call around the stadium but I was wrong.  Ramez Attallah then read out

Millions of muslims are missing from the table

Millions of hindus are missing from the table…

The list went on and on… At that point the reality of the week hit me: the call to believe in Jesus is urgent and important. There are souls slipping into a lost eternity: men and women and children from all nations and cultures and languages around the world.  This is no game, this was not just another conference.

God touched my heart and it broke. Embarrassingly I began to sob – really sob. I didn’t really understand where it came from but there and then the reality of God’s call on my life HIT me hard.

God called me to make Jesus known, to help others understand His Word and to answer the call to respond in the obedience of faith.

I am a weak and faulted man – there is NOTHING in me that is worth God’s attention.  This is a broken and rebellious world.  There is PLENTY in Jesus which means that in Him there is MUCH that He can do in me.  I am not fit for the task but He is more than able.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21

As I now head back to Aotearoa/New Zealand I’m more than aware that without Christ Jesus I still and will always have nothing to offer BUT in Him I have life to offer to one and all.

Here’s to the future in Jesus that the Table of the Lord might be full in due time for His return: when He returns there will be none of His who are missing from the table!

Christ Incarnate in a Mall

Six hours ago I posted this to twitter:

“Ft Worth today, Houston this evening: God send me into your world today so I may love the people around me in Christ. Life after #urbana09”

I’m now sat in Dallas Love Field airport waiting to catch a flight to Houston where I will meet someone I first and last saw 18yrs ago: he was a customer where I was a waiter BUT this post isn’t about that!

On the way here Jordan, the friend I’ve been visiting here in Dallas, and I went via a mall. We wondered into an exclusive men’s shirt shop – not to buy, just to look.  As we walked in the lady said “Hi” I responded in kind, “is that a British accent?”

“yes, but now I live in New Zealand”

Her face changed, she look more than suprised – more shocked - “oh, how, how is New Zealand?”

Something (someone!) in my heart acknowledged that this was going to be a different conversation than the normal ‘wow that’s far’

“New Zealand is beautiful” I replied.

She talked about her best friend in all the world who had always wanted to go to New Zealand but had just ‘passed’ on.  As she spoke her heart opened and her eyes filled. “I’d better stop – otherwise I will cry.” The professional store owner stepped up to front of stage, the tears receded, she administered her hospitality smile to her face. “Are you looking for something in particular?”

I said we were just looking, but wouldn’t be buying “Oh look around, you’ll like those shirts over there – he’s an American designer who manufactures in India”.

Immediately my mind went to images of workers under paid and under resourced producing these amazing shirts selling here for USD$250 each.  But now was not the time for a cleansing of the temple.

I looked around and the someone in my heart and mind was prompting me to pray with Nina.  Holy space had been created in our brief conversation.

As I left the store she broke her conversation with the shop assistant and came to say goodbye.  I asked her name and said I would like to pray with her.

She told me her name is Nina and told more of her story. Her friend who had died had been her first love who did not marry her when she was younger.  They had remained friends and their bond of friendship was deep – her eyes spoke of her love for him – and then she said he had died in October of cancer.

“May I pray for you right now?” I asked. “sure” she said and bowed her head – right there in the shop entrance.

I prayed no puny prayer – Krishner would have been pleased.  I prayed that she would know the love of God for her and that in the loss and the pain she would come to know that Jesus Christ as her great comforter and foundation for eternal life.  Her eyes were once again bright with tears as we said goodbye.

I’m praying that Jesus will turn this woman around and bring LIFE into her life.  I’m asking that just as at that well in Samaria when Jesus turned up and a woman who came for water left with eternal life inside her that Nina will know that same spring and that I will meet her again before the throne of the lamb.

I walked away – not sure that I would have taken the time to listen, the time to pray if I had not attended Urbana and responded to the call to incarnate Christ in the midst of the mundane as well as the extraordinary.

As i opened my laptop at Dallas Love Field looking for wireless access (and finding none) I saw my own tweet – I’d forgotten that I’d written it.

And in my heart the Sovereign God whispered in the quiet nudging of the Holy Spirit.

“I DID THIS”

Peek on in (5 of 5)

Peek on in (4 of 5)

Peek on In (3 of 5)

Peek on in (2 of 5)

Peek on in (1 of 5)

The sung worship at Urbana was well performed, professionally produced and ROCKING.  Here are a few peeks into what it was like.

Spring Up Oh Well…

Brenda Salter McNeil walked onto the stage and started singing: “Spring up Oh Well!” Not only was her voice remarkably great but she stirred the whole auditorium to sing, to pray.

Do we really mean what we sing? She hated the song at first! Do we really mean the words? That the river of life flows within us. 

This is not some ditty to sing. It is John chapter 4 – a promise of LIFE in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To understand what is happening in John 4 lets look at the woman who Jesus sets free. 

As a Samaritan she was discriminated against publicly and vehemently: reviled, rejected and disadvantaged.  Jews would put themselves in danger rather than travel through Samaria.  She knows the biggotry and hatred of the Jews.

As a female she was discriminated against. She was property of her father or her husband.  She was reduced to a child bearer. It’s hard to hear your very being reduced by being put down in prayer. Added to this the Pharisees declared Samaritan woman that they were perpetual menstruants: dirty, worthless and not to be touched.

When we are emptied in this way we’ll run and escape into other things.  But when Jesus comes to the well – he does not destroy her dignity, he comes in weakness and need.  You never know when Jesus will show up.

No one had spoken to her like that: no one! He spoke to her of her thirst and need for life: and offers her the wellspring of LIFE in His Name.

To be like Jesus we need to walk through Samaria – we HAVE to like Jesus. We need to decide and choose to live alongside those who cannot hear what we have to say unless with live, incarnate, the truth about Jesus in their lives and their neighbourhoods and their mess and the pain and loss and lostness and business and affluence and comfort and contentment and gated communities and despair and numbness and computers and music and entertainment and charitable givine and addictions and rejection of us as the people of God and doubts about Jesus and fears about belief.

We need to work out how we talk about Samaria without going there! We need to work out why we disobey: fear of insignificance or a lack of safety. How do we be Christ in our brokenness?

You are a wreck – broken vessels in the hands of Jesus – like the woman of Samaria: “come and see a man who told me everything I ever did.”

We go to Samaria because we need the Samaritans in order for ourselves to be changed.

1. start where you are

2. name your fears

3. move to a new neighbourhood.

Going in the power of God – without God’s power we will fail. We are more than volunteers and good doers: we are the CHURCH. We go with the power of the Holy Spirit’s power with the word of God the Father proclaiming Jesus the Son.

With the Spring of Life in us we go, so that the river of Life might bring healing to the nations by God Himself!

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Rev 22:1-2

Reaching into the horrors of the past

Michael Oh spoke powerfully about the horrors of the Japanese aggression against the peoples of Asia. When he discovered the details of the horror he became SO angry that it challenged his life in Christ, his calling to serve.

The gospel had become ‘old’ to him: self-righteous and self-serving. God convicted him of his need for forgiveness. This realisation opened his eyes to the reality of the guilt of ALL people before God.  He knew then that he had no human right to hate the people of Japan – regardless of the horrors of the past. 

The gospel reaches into the horrors of the past in order to offer forgiveness for all. The horrors of the human heart: all hearts – is demonstrated in the monstrous deeds of human people.

Michael knew that he was loved undeservedly and now could love unreservedly.  Reconciliation begins with repentance by sinners of their sin before God.  Then reconciled men and women hold out the truth of Jesus Christ to the people of this world – even those who have been most hateful.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no-one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore,  if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Out of horror because of God’s grace and through the horrors of the cross of Jesus Christ the glory of God is made known and eternal life is made available and the unlovely and unlikeable can be reached with the power of the Gospel.

Moving Neighbourhood…

Alec Hill spoke on the need for beginning to live as a missioner now rather than in the future.  How do you get to great endeavours if you will not do the mundane now.

In the parable of the talents – the one who receives great responsibility is the one who takes the responsibility he has.

Pluralism is the major reality of how freshmen live.  80% say they are interested in spirituality. We are to have compassion on the sheep without a shepherd.

Each of the following 4 stories speak of students impacting others:

Walter 2006 befriended Festus at Houston and Festus became a Christian.  Festus then met Zach who then later became a Christian.  Zach is involved in campus chapter, reaching out to homeless, prostitutes and transvestites.

Estelle attended Uni 2001 of Nevada in Reno.  She lived in halls of residence – one day she heard a student playing piano, danced into the room and then befriended the pianist. Takuya is a japanese student who then came to Christ, leading others to Christ and now the Bible study he started reaches 50 students.  Takuya is now working in one of the largest Japanese churches which is missional and intentional in planting churches.  Takuya continues to lead colleagues to Christ – also taking part in KGK Bible study.

Dean was at Harvard 1994; he dropped out of church in his teens but joined the IV chapter at Harvard and agreed to host a Bible study.  His friend John resisted the gospel and in his final semester at Harvard joined a Bible study and eventually accepted Christ for himself.  John became the successful leader in business, a church leader and is impacting the world by providing clean water in Mozambique.  Dean is a quiet and persistent witness as a Doctor in indiana.

Lisa, Uni of Virginia. 1988 was given a leadership position and was given contact details of Sharon a Jewish student. Sharon came to Christ slow and steady.  She eventually told her family and took part in world mission and Urbana 91.  Sharon is senior VP of the International Justice Mission.  Sharon is involved in releasing children from sex  slavery.  Lisa is a 1st grade teacher. They remain friends/family to this day.

• Sharing the truth about Jesus with another student maybe the MOST important thing you ever do.  BE MISSIONAL NOW – WHERE YOU ARE!
• The Lord will use you to reach the obvious as well as the unlikely – Alec Hill dumped a gifted Bible in a bin 6 months before he came to Jesus.  The  gospel reaches one and all – beyond the comfort zones of ‘safe’ Christian communities. The gospel entices the curious who see it’s validity.
• The Lord will use you in the context of Christian community. We are not individuals who can do it all – we are better in the context of community: stronger, better, clearer.

Tim was a student in Bucknell Uni.  He came to Christ and joined IV staff after graduating.  That Tim is Tim Keller.  The students reaching him had no idea of the far reaching power of their witness through the call to Tim into a submitted and joyful relationship with Jesus.

Many do not feel up to the challenge.  You are imperfect so has been EVERY other Christian – weak vessels in the hands of a VERY strong God.

Do not wait to be missional: live it now.

A Woman Set Apart

Ramez Attallah opened his talk today speaking of Elizabeth Elliot wrote about the Christian life not pursuing success but choosing obedience.  We suffer, defeat, struggle and even apparent failure.  The Christian world rejected her because she had been prophetically honest.

In 1973 David Howard invited Elizabeth to be the first woman to address the plenary session.  She is his sister. He knew she had to have a second chance to address the Christian world.  She spoke and students listened and gave a standing ovation.  She was restored to the Christian world – continuing to write and speak.  She was rejected and eventually vindicated through God’s grace.

The Samaritan Woman in John 4 – there are blind disciples, an evangelistic sinner, a harvest of people and believing heretics.

Blind Disciples: they didn’t see the people who were around them.  They saw only servants and Samaritans. We see so little of the people around us – to be cross cultural missionaries we need to reach the people that God has put us right next to.  There is no point in being willing to travel the globe if you won’t look and see and respond to what is in front of you.

The woman is an evangelistic sinner – she calls her town to Him by telling them to look to Him.  We too are called to call those around us: called to call people to look to Him.  To plod on and run toward the end.

A harvest of people: the currently unbelieving people of God are waiting for the call to come to Him, to be harvested.  These people are all over the world – for Jesus came for the World, people the world over.  From the garbage collectors to the people in the highest echelons of society.

The gospel transformed the garbage collectors of Cairo – they discovered the dignifying love of God. They built homes, churches, schools and impacting the whole of Cairo – returning lost goods and quietly sharing the gospel with Cairo residents.  The gospel TRANSFORMS through salvation.

Believing heretics: how could Jews share life with the Samaritans? Jesus does it boldly, dwelling with them – they recognise Him as the Saviour of the World.  The disciples don’t get it – these heretics do!  When we come to Christ it is as though God pushes the ‘restore to factory default settings’

Ramez discovered discovered that his great-grandfather was a well known evangelist.  There is a rich family heritage of gospel service.  God brought Ramez to the America in order to fulfill the dreams and passions and prayers of his great grandfather.  Ramez only discovered the truth after his sojourn in the states.

The dream of a new heritage and a generation who set a rich heritage for the next is a burning one: the only condition is obedience for God’s Glory!  Respond to the call of God on your life today!

One God before Many

Neha spoke of her journey from Hinduism, being born Brahmin, to loving and knowing Jesus.  In loving Jesus above all else she initially rejected not only Hindu religion but Indian culture.

Her family were hurt and bridges of community were broken.  In Urbana 03 she began to rediscover the depth of her culture and how to express her relationship with Christ in an Indian way.

God has placed her own people deeply into her heart – it is hard to separate religion and culture.  There is the need of men and women rooted in Scripture to work through the difficulties and the pain of enlivening faith in the reality of Indian cultures. He will come to the world as Judge and King.

One day Jesus will be known to all Hindu’s as the One True God – the hope and prayer is that many will experience that in salvation and that the tears and work of Neha and many others will not have been in vain.

HE IS NOT SAFE

BUT HE IS GOOD.

Antoine Rutayisire spoke about his long borne desire to attend Urbana.  From his earliest days in pioneering the work of IFES in Rwanda in the early 1990’s he has wanted to come. Only this year has it been possible.

He grew up staunchly in Roman Catholicism and was given a Bible which sat unopened for 6 years.  Then he read it 6 times in 6 months.  At the end of the 6th time he gave his life to Christ.  “My life became more and more empty and then I met Jesus”. The same week he started preaching.

He is a Tutsi and his father was killed by the Hutu, he was kicked out of school because of his people and finally lost his job. He was so full of hate that he would have become a suicide bomber.  Even after becoming a Christian he said “I will teach the Hutu’s and send them to heaven BUT they will never come into my heart”.

After reading the crucifixion account he struggled for 2 weeks not to pray for his enemies.  Then he said “I did not choose to be a Tutsi but I chose to be a Christian and I will live by my choices”.  Then he spent a day in his room with a lit of people that he hated with cause.  God spoke to Him about the radical power of forgiveness, broke his heart and changed him from a hater to a reconciler.

Even in the midst of the 1994 genocide God made Antoine into a reconciler and a forgiver.  Rwanda is being transformed by the power of forgiveness and   reconciliation.  He has preached the gospel in every prison in Rwanda – addressing murderers – and seen many men and women who were once haters become reconciled to God.

God can use whom he chooses by his power to transform whole communities: the one true God truly dealing with all people.

unexpected meeting

We’d met a couple of times during the conference and so sat down to talk more.  As we chatted our ‘lets chat’ turned from a casual moment into a sacred space.

It took us both by surprise, God opened our conversation and as we talked about Him, about ministry and life, God revealed a deep level of dryness and brokenness in my new found friend.  There was no way he was planning on walking onto this ground of vulnerability with a stranger from the far side of the world.  However, God was more interested in speaking to us both than in what we intended for our chat.

My friend spoke of his struggle and with brutal honesty said he wanted to escape: to escape responsibility, mission, failure, frailty, sin – even Jesus. His eyes filled with sorrow as it poured in liquid form down his face.  I know the look, its been in my own eyes at times over the last 20 years.

God moved into our conversation: it was as though the Father had drawn extraordinarily close, Jesus sat at table with us and The Holy Spirit pushed back any barriers and there we were: holy ground.

Urbana 09 has all been about the Word becoming enfleshed and living in the realities of a fallen and broken world to bring eternal life into it’s midst, transforming sinners and changing the world forever.

I felt His agency in this conversation we spoke and He worked; opening up the wounds of the man in front of me was obviously painful but they needed the fresh air and cleansing water of the Holy Spirit, they needed the balm of Jesus who knew sorrow, the shame and the fullness of our sin: Jesus alone who can deal with it all, my friend needed the call of the Father to the prodigal to come on home.

My heart sang as I sat and listened and we talked.  Not that I rejoiced in his brokenness but that I rejoiced to see God so evidently at work.  Here in the mess of this fallen world the gospel was being made real to the broken hearted and the weary.  Here, with this man who had been almost a stranger before we spoke, a friendship, a brotherhood, around the grace of God was being born. 

I shared much of my own story or rather of God’s story in my life.  In many ways it was like talking to a younger version of myself and the older me, me now, heard the encouragements and reminders and call afresh: remembering, repenting, re-calling on grace in my own life as I spoke of those realities with someone else.  If God can use a man like me, He can use all men and women, if He will take me on, there are no boundaries around His grace made real in Jesus Christ to all who will come turning from sin and turning to Him.

The breaking of bread, the sharing in the sorrows of our brothers and sisters in Christ, the rebuking of sin, the reminders of grace, the  opportunity to reflect on our eternal destiny together, the joy of knowing that God redeems and restores and renews. 

All’s I wanted really was company over lunch.  This was an unexpected meeting and it has left me a changed man.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24.30-32