Something To Think About

A story from a missionary to India...

My alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. this morning... way too early for my exhausted, jet-lagged body. But this was one morning I didn’t want to sleep in. I wanted to be on the River Ganges by dawn... I had traveled half way around the world to witness the sights and smells that were truly unbelievable.

By the time we arrived at the riverbank, thousands of people were already busy washing themselves in the filthy water. Hindus believe that if they ceremoniously bathe in this most holy of all rivers, their sins will be washed away.

But the waters of the Ganges are polluted by raw sewage, trash, dead bodies and ashes of cremated humans. Every day over 100 bodies are burned in Varanasi and their ashes sprinkled in the river. Hindus believe that this allows their loved ones direct access to heaven. I saw piles of wood . . . the smoke from the burning bodies . . . family members weeping . . . with little or no hope.

My heart was broken. Everywhere I looked there were people in the water, pouring water on their heads and actually drinking it. Some had brass pots where they scooped up water, held the pot over their head and slowly poured it into the river. Many folded their hands and prayed . . . Hindu holy men with painted faces and bright orange clothing chanted . . . music was playing in the background . . . all this was being sincerely done in an act of worship . . . asking for forgiveness.

As we glanced all around us at the masses of people . . . our hearts were broken.

Yesterday, we had met with about 70 of our World Help church planters in a secluded location. We had driven through over 100 isolated villages on our way to this meeting and I counted more than 75 Hindu temples and shrines . . . but no churches.

World Help’s senior vice president, Tom Thompson, brought greetings as we prayed with them, worshipped with them and encouraged them. They had seen over 5,600 new churches planted just in the last year in Northern India and thousands of new Christ followers have been baptized.

These church planters get together once a month for three days of training, strategizing and encouragement. They told us incredible stories of how God is building His kingdom in Northern India.

One of our church planters, Zul Fakar, was working in a very dangerous and persecuted area, when militant anti-Christians ambushed him in an alley and beat him to death . . . He died on August 10. He had been a believer for only 15 months, yet he already had 25 converts and two churches established in unreached villages. His wife, Rabia, was encouraged to deny her faith and come back to her home village. She said, "My husband died for his faith in Jesus Christ . . . the best way I can honor his memory is to spend my life serving the one he died for."

It was a sobering reminder that these church planters are in life and death situations every day as they take the good news to villages that do not have a church of any kind.

As I floated down the River Ganges early this morning, overwhelmed by the spiritual darkness that totally enveloped these truly "religious" people, I couldn’t help but think of these church planters. I was actually looking into the faces of thousands of sincere idol worshippers and realized that no one had ever told them that it was not the dirty, polluted waters of the River Ganges that washes away their sins, but only the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They have never heard of Jesus . . . they have never heard the Gospel . . . they are totally unreached.

And then I prayed for our church planters . . . asking that God would continue to give them boldness and courage and use them to shine the light of God into all of this spiritual darkness. Please keep our team in your thoughts and prayers and please pray for our church planters who pay such a high price to follow Jesus Christ.

Thank you and God bless you,
Vernon Brewer

Thought of the Day

“Run, run and do, the law commands
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
Better news the Gospel brings,
It bids me fly and gives me wings.”

Surefire Way to Build Your Church...

And we wonder why things are the way they are...

Check This OUT!

So If We Are The Body...

But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
(Casting Crowns)

Good question. What is the problem with “The Body of Christ”? Why does it not seem to be doing a very good job of what its Head, Jesus, left it here to do?

Is there a problem with the Head?

Is this whole Christian thing just a bunch of nonsense and what we see is merely a reflection of what happens when people make up a religion?

No, the problem is most certainly with people!

I think a good question to ask ourselves is what exactly makes the body the body anyway? And who is part of it? Is it possible that what is being described in the song is largely not the body at all, and that is why is it is not functioning?

The body is another metaphor that Paul used to describe the church – both local and universal. It is a telling and helpful metaphor because it is very descriptive of what the people of God are supposed to be doing with Jesus physically absent.

I believe it was our dear Anglican brother John Stott who was discussing God’s problem of invisibility: God, in a sense, does have this problem. He cannot be seen or touched or detected by the five senses, as He is a spirit. How did He solve this problem? By becoming human – God in the flesh – Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father.” (John 14:7).

But wait – there’s still a problem. Jesus was visible and could be touched and heard, but He left almost 2000 years ago, so we are back to the same situation.

Simply, God solved the problem with the church – it is the physical, visible, touchable body of Christ in the world.

But, you protest, look at the church! Hypocrites! Judgers! Lazy, good-for-nothing gluttons and materialists who mimic the culture around them! In defense of the church, we are at our best redeemed sinners who are in the sanctification process. But still, anyone who is paying attention to the church (in the West at least) has to admit the situation is far from ideal. What can explain the sad lyrics I posted?

I hinted at above, and let me share with you, loyal blog readers, my theory: Much of what we are calling “the body” is in fact not part of Christ at all. Like a prosthesis, it looks something like a real limb, but is dead. Its function is limited at best and detrimental at worst.

I know, I am so harsh…

I believe that the pathetic dumbing down of the gospel over the last several generations, primarily by Evangelicals (the supposed guardians of sound doctrine) has produced churches full of lost people who think they’re saved because they prayed a prayer to keep out of hell. Or to have a more fulfilling life.

Lest you think I’m picking merely on Evangelicals and/or conservative Protestants, theological moderates of the Mainline Protestant persuasion, not to mention theological liberals, have done even worse. They tend to define “body” as anyone who was ever baptized or in any way associates themselves with Christianity. Their “gospel” tends to be much more about temporal social change than about God’s wrath being satisfied by the sacrifice of Christ so that sinners could be reconciled to their creator and truly, fully redeemed.

So, what exactly makes a person part of the body?

Are Catholics part of the Body of Christ? What about Methodists? What about theological liberals? What about Baptists? They’re all part of the body, right?

Wrong.

Let’s take a look at Scripture…

“You were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Who was Paul talking to? The Corinthian church – far from a model body of believers. He describes them this way, however: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (I Cor. 1:2 ESV). THEY were baptized by the Spirit into the Body.

So there’s our first clue… in order to be part of the body, one must be baptized by the Spirit into it. The Spirit immerses us into the body of Christ (which does not involve water, with all due respect to my Lutheran brothers and blogging buddies). This is called regeneration. In order to be in the body, one must be regenerated, or made alive in Christ. Also known as being Born Again or Born from Above. If one is not regenerated, one is not part of the body.

So are Catholics part of the body? The ones who are regenerated are.

Are Baptists part of the body? Ditto.

What about Lutherans? Every regenerated Lutheran is part of the body, as is every regenerated Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Anglican, Methodist, Wesleyan, Anabaptist, Mennonite, non-denominational Christian or whatever. Heck, even Emergent guys who are regenerated are part of the body! Denomination was not a criterion when God invented regeneration! It does not determine our body status.

I submit to you that the reason the “body” tends to function so poorly is because many people call themselves Christians who are not, at least not by any biblical definition of the word. They are “dead in their sins and trespasses” (Eph 2:1) and try as they might, cannot do the works God requires (John 6:29; Eph. 2:10). They are not attached to the vine and so can bear no fruit.

Let us then go back to preaching the whole, hard and beautiful message of the cross. Apart from the true gospel is no power to save, and people become false converts. If we preach the whole message of the cross, we might be surprised at what happens…

Thought of the Day

“We have created a gospel for our own culture, tailor-made to fit smugly within the confines of the American Dream. The old-fashioned Gospel we should preach has been altered just enough to agree with our busy schedules and myriad amusements. By emphasizing certain biblical teachings and, more importantly, neglecting others, we have managed to create a whole new gospel that fits our American lifestyle…

Tragically, our rendition of Christianity makes no demands, expects no sacrifice, and yields no eternal rewards. The Lion of Judah has been anesthetized, declawed, and tamed. We have reduced the Almighty to a harmless icon we passively honor in our busy lives. The vision of a Holy God, a Consuming Fire, a Judge who will one day render unto every man his just reward has virtually vanished out of the American Church.”

Steve Gallagher Intoxicated with Babylon

The Kings are Coming

We're having a little trouble in my neighborhood these days. The Latin Kings are attempting to move in, or maybe back in. It's not that the Latin Kings are necessarily worse than the gang that's already here, but rather the transfer of power that I'm concerned about.

This is a picture I took tonight of the viaduct a half-block from my house as I was walking my dog. The graffiti was not there two days ago. ALKN means "Almighty Latin Kings Nation" and "MLDK" means "Maniac Latin Disciple Killers". And they're serious... they really do kill each other. While the politicians pontificate about more gun laws, broken young men in broken homes and broken families kill each other instead of playing baseball together and nobody seems to be asking why.

But we know why. Broken people break things. And we're broken because of sin - generational sin, institutional injustice, personal immorality, sinful choices, and our innate depravity.

Of course the Gospel addresses this powerfully.

Will we take it to the streets?

Bernard's Story

Back in the early 90's, a young man named John Opiyo from Nairobi came to Chicago to go to Moody and providentially landed at our church. He said he joined because, in his words, we "worship like Africans." I considered that the highest compliment and encouragement.

He went on to become a pastoral intern here, and eventually went back home to plant a church in Nairobi. Over the years, we have developed an intimate relationship with the church he planted there - Kahawa Sukari. About every two years, we send a team from Armitage to partner with them in various ministry ventures, and they send teams here.

On one of these trips (2002), a rather mystical and amazing guy named Mike Freeman was on the team and had a remarkable experience in Nairobi that resulted in a daughter church to Kahawa Sukari being planted in the slum. More on that later, but first a bit about Mike...

Mike was once a drug abuser, a drunk, and a gang banger with the Simon City Royals. His life and marriage were eventually broken - all by his early 20's - when he encountered Jesus. The transformation was nothing short of radical. Mike is one of those people who just exudes love for God, to the point where even other Christians consider him a little different and don't always know how to take him. He has a tremendous heart for evangelism, not surprising considering where he came from, and as I said, tends to be a bit mystical.

I heard the story about his Nairobi encounter back in 2002 when the team returned. I thought, "How cool! Mike witnesses to a guy who gets saved and starts a church in the slum." I really didn't think much more of it after that.

Then I went to Nairobi.

There I met a man named Bernard. Bernard was one of the guys that Mike evangelized on that day six years ago. Bernard had come to Kahawa Sukari from Hope Baptist Church in the slum for the conference we were having last month. He made it a point to introduce himself to me and tell me his story. To say the least, it was a lot more amazing hearing it from the guy who was on the recieving end of the Gospel.

Back when Mike was in Nairobi, our team stayed at a hotel. This particular hotel was across the little gorge from Mathare, one of the largest slums in Africa, and I believe the largest in Nairobi. Acre after acre of hopelessness.

Mike was washing his face early in the morning when God told him (Yes. You read that right) to go out and preach the gospel in the slum. Being the mystical guy he is, Mike walked out, stood on a culvert adjacent to the slum, and began preaching John 3:16. Loudly. At 6:00 in the morning.

Three guys from the slum heard him and said, "What the %#@* is that racket?!?!"

They decided to go and encourage the white guy to shut up. However, they got within earshot and began to listen to what he was saying. They believed.

Bernard told me, "I got down on my knees and was born again, right on the spot." They then asked Mike what to do, since they had no church in the slum. Mike suggested they start one, so they did. With the help of Kahawa Sukari, Hope was born in the slum.

Hope now has two or three pastors, a school that ministers to 200 slum children, and 60 or so worshippers on a Sunday. God has provided land for a building - in the slum - and a cluster of houses they are using now that they have knocked the adjoining walls out of to have a 20' x 20' space to gather. They just got a generator for electricity.

Bernard now oversees the school and wants to come to Chicago to study at Moody. He has this crazy idea that God can do anything. This guy from the slum that now pours his life into making a difference because one day somebody obeyed the voice of the Spirit and preached the Gospel.

And even though these church leaders could all now leave the slum, they have decided to stay. Imagine that. They seem to think God can take care of them there. I wonder how they ever got that idea...

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." Romans 1:16

Don't ever forget.