Seeking and Sowing... Anywhere, Everywhere.

Maybe you know a missionary couple who have toiled for decades in a far away country and ended up with precious little to show for their labors.

You know them to be be hard working and faithful in their efforts to evangelize the gospel. They've preached faithfully and passionately for years but hardly anyone came to hear and even fewer gave their lives to Christ.

Some church people will think such a couple could have spent their lives in more productive places. With few results to show for their efforts, many will say they were wasting valuable time and they could have moved on to another, more fruitful field. For a dedicated couple in lifelong mission work, “each day” of their lives is a day of renewal and hopeful expectation for the people they minister to... that today, or tomorrow, or the next day will be the day they accept Jesus as Savior.

What would say to such a missionary couple? What would you tell them to do? All Christians are evangelists and missionaries. There is no “observer” section in this stadium, we are all on the field charged with preaching the gospel. How are we as ambassadors of Christ to take His gospel to the world? Just how and where should we sow the seed of God's Word?

According to the gospels, the Parable of the Sower recorded in the synoptic gospels at Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, and Luke 8:1-15 was an important story told by Jesus that defines our role and actions as His ambassadors.

Clearly at the time of the telling, like so many of Jesus parables, not everybody who heard it understood its meaning. Not even the apostles, whom we should view as the world's first missionaries understood its meaning. Like them, we tend to think this story is all about the different “soils.” There are different kinds of hearts who hear the gospel, Jesus explains, and the gospel grows best in fertile, receptive fields. So, as some have argued, this parable invites us to cast the seed of God's word on good soil... to preach the word to people who are most likely to be receptive and believe.

Church growth experts, church planters and missiologists say we should be looking for the most fruitful fields... places that are most likely to yield the best harvest, to give us the best return on our investment of kingdom resources. Sounds like a very sound strategy doesn’t it?

However, it is interesting to note that Jesus does not call this the “parable of the soils”. He calls it the “Parable of the Sower ”. Rather than just focusing on the different types of ground that receive the seed of the Word, Jesus invites us to pay special attention to the one who sows it.

When we do this we are confronted by a surprising, even somewhat scandalous perception. The sower is hardly a conventional farmer. Instead of carefully choosing only the best soil and meticulously preparing it for the planting process, the sower in the parable just randomly and recklessly begins to cast seed. Anywhere and everywhere. He casts it as if he had a never-ending supply, as if he didn't care where it fell. He casts it on the sidewalk, he casts it in the weed-infested vacant lot, he casts it in the sight of hungry birds. Now here’s the key to the parable... the sower does it intentionally, purposefully, knowing full well that most of his precious seed is falling on unreceptive soil. Who is this Sower and what it the world could he be thinking?

Ask any experienced farmer and they will tell you that no one would plant seed in that way. In the time of Jesus, seed was expensive and the pressure to produce a good harvest was great for these poor Judean families. Good seed should never be “wasted” on “bad soil” would have been the first reaction to hearing this parable by any Jewish farmer of that day. Probably a lot of head scratching was going on trying to figure out what Jesus was talking about. Most probably thought this “sower” to be a foolish farmer with little or no experience. But... is he?

Maybe the sower knows something about the seed and the soils that we simply have a hard time comprehending and accepting. Even today, with our sophisticated church planting and evangelical strategies, we often ignore an important aspect of what we’re doing and for whom we are doing it. The power of God, the power of the gospel message and the hearts of men can coalesce to overpower any of our slick strategies and techniques.

Conventional farming, the kind that we are inclined to do, saves the seed for the best fields–-the good, receptive soil that promises to yield the biggest crop. But it seems that in kingdom planting the seed is extravagantly scattered on everyone, regardless of how shallow, hard or weed-infested the recipient lives may be. In conventional farming the soil is carefully selected and cultivated using the best, most proven methods to guarantee a harvest. But in kingdom farming the sowing is done with loving, non-discriminating abandon, knowing that the harvest is guaranteed by a God who promised that his word would not return to him empty. (Isaiah 55:11)

When we understand this, our evangelism is driven by a totally new and different dynamic. Rather than depending upon ourselves and the genius of our own strategies, we learn to depend upon our God and the irrevocable guarantee of his promises.

Rather than worrying about being successful and living up to human expectations, we are free to be sacrificial and thereby meet the expectations of God. Rather than deferring to the path of least resistance, we are free to pursue the path of the greatest need. Rather than focusing on where we can find the most good, we can focus on where we can do the most good.

It's not easy sowing seed on hard soil. That's why so few people attempt it today. It's risky business for churches to support such ventures. Those who are willing to do it are often misunderstood and even criticized, most of that criticism ironically coming from within the body or community of Christ they depend on for support and encouragement. Supporters want to see results... souls saved. The visible indicators expressed in a growing number of baptisms, year after year. Mission minded Christians after all, should go where the opportunities are and stay away from hard soil. We are concerned about how we look to the watching world. It's hard to look “holy” when you are up to your elbows in hard soil–rubbing shoulders with people living in sin who care for nothing about Jesus and the Gospel. Good people, holy people, just don't hang out with folk like that. This might sound harsh and critical, but one only needs to look at the work of evangelism in the world today to see such attitudes.

By now you might be thinking, “How idealistic, how wonderfully theoretical. But it just doesn't work like that in the real world.” Are you certain about that... or have you forgotten the stories from the Bible? Oh, and don’t forget Church History. Some of the gospel's greatest harvests have come out of the hardest, most unreceptive soil.

We know ONE who trusted that seed cast anywhere and everywhere would produce fruit. Jesus, the Christ. He was the holiest person who ever lived. In fact this Sower went out of his way to sow seed on hard soil and in the process showed us what true holiness is... not the holiness of religious propriety, but the holiness of unqualified devotion to God's calling and unconditional love for all people. Even Jesus trusted in God the Father to bring forth the harvest. He did... and He is.

And that's what evangelism is really all about. Missions is not about the good taking the gospel to the worthy. It is about the loving taking the gospel to the lost. The world will not be won by the holiness of the church. It will be won by the love of the church... the people of God willing to sow the seeds of truth anywhere and everywhere. It will be won when the church learns to love people like Jesus loved them, when like this Sower, we passionately cast the seed of God's word on all kinds of soil... all the time.

All the great missionaries, whose lives and ministries inspire us, understood this basic principle. They knew that there was no heart so hard, no culture so resistant that it could not be penetrated by the supernatural seed of God's word. So rather than avoiding hard soil, they sought it out and spent their lives casting seed. It’s a really good thing to think and act like an unconventional sower. There are no boundaries, no barriers, no resistance that should ever hold us back from casting the seeds of salvation to a lost and suffering world. Our job is to sow the seed. God will make it grow and bear fruit.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.”

He who has ears, let him hear.

GIVING in Hard Times... and the Power of One

"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.... Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." (Deuteronomy 15:7-15 NIV)

" ... But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving ... " 2 Corinthians 8:7, 13-14 (NIV)

Surviving these hard economic times is what most of us are concerned about these days. Hanging on to our jobs, learning to adjust to salary cuts and unpaid leave, holding on to enough of our resources so we can pay our bills has become our obsession.

In many ways these are good times for America and much of the industrialized world, because all of us are rethinking excessive life-styles we have lived for so long. Excess and self-indulgence was considered normal everyday life in America. Two of everything, more of that, lavish vacations, personal spending, pursuit of things and stuff... was the everyday expectation for most Americans.

Times have changed and with change comes an opportunity to recalibrate our minds and hearts. Now we see the simple things growing in value. Time for each other, personal reflection, family and friends, and it seems everyone is spending less by necessity and saving more. These are good things for everyone.

What about those in need? The needy of our world are still with us... there needs today are as real and urgent as they were one or two years ago in our time of abundance.

None of us need to be told that we're living in tough economic times. And if these are hard times for us, it’s even harder for those who depend upon charitable giving to survive. Christian missions are fueled by contributions from western nations like America. For decades we have been supporting the Great Commission through our giving and we’ve seen remarkable results created for God’s Kingdom out of our dollars.

Christians are called on by command of our Lord... to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, set free the oppressed to care for widows and orphans and support the missionaries who we have sent around the globe to preach the gospel.
People on the margins face empty shelves at food pantries and the feeding kitchens in hard hit regions across America and around the globe are trying to make do with sharply decreased donations. In difficult times as we are experiencing, we tend to horde our resources driven by fear and the uncertainty of our own financial well-being.

Hoarding what we can give to hedge against an uncertain future won’t help those in need. Without the fuel of money in the form of our contributions, missions efforts around the world will grind to a halt. How does our faith speak to this dilemma? How can our faith help us?

Rethink the way we give in support of missions. It’s really a one-part solution. Start and end by trusting God. God actually challenges us to give in times like this. In Malachi chapter 3 God says, "You are robbing me . . . with your tithes and offerings! . . . Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, . . . see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down an overflowing blessing."

Imagine putting God to the test by giving even more, especially in these hard economic times. God's promises that we will receive an overflowing of blessing. How hard it is to give with only the promise of a blessing. And what kind of a blessing will it be? I know... this is where fear enters our minds in the form of “reality” and helps us build the excuses and justifications for why we can’t give anymore or any at all, until the economy improves.

One to Many? God is the “one” who can cause blessings to pour forth upon his faithful followers. He expects us to try and find sustainable ways to help those in need. He knows our burdens and understands our fears in uncertain times. For us, we need to accept that His blessings may not accrue to us in the form we hope for. Blessings might be something as simple, and yet spiritually powerful, as knowing that you and everyone else found a way to meet the needs of those in need. Participation motivated from a cheerful heart is pleasing to God. We might not see it as the blessing we desired, but as God continues to mold and transform us –– sacrificial giving is cornerstone of building character and a rich blessing.

Many to One? It is very challenging for a small number of givers to carry the burdens of mission giving. Sometimes, giving to missions is shouldered by as few as two or three families in a congregation. Local charitable outreach, whether through money or volunteering of time is also supported by very few. We Christians are many. A congregation of 100, 200 or 300 members is far more powerful in potential giving than one, two or three people. Let me illustrate what I mean.

Let’s say that a missionary your congregation supports needs $3,000.00 immediately for repairs to an essential vehicle. If a few contribute to this need in a congregation of 200, the burden might be several hundred or thousands of dollars from the small group of giving families. In a tight economy that is likely a financial burden. However, if the congregation is presented the need with encouragement for every family to share in the “mission of God”, then the burden can be distributed across more families. A per family share might be $50 or less based on the number of member families who can give. I know this may sound unrealistic based on your prior experience with such initiatives, but have you really used the Bible to teach the principles God has given us to share in the support of His Great Commission? You probably have. Well don’t give up teaching the principles. The Great Commission is our prime directive from Christ... the local and global mission of the gospel belongs to Him. Keep admonishing the body of believers to accept responsibility for their share of this urgent Kingdom work. In time, with prayer and the urging by the Holy Spirit people will open up and give to meet the needs of God’s work. Many to one, everyone participating in caring for the needs of the needy is a rich blessing from God.

Trust will conquer our Fear
The typical response to giving from many Christians today is anchored in our fear of the unknown. It really is trust in God... who knows what we can’t see and don’t know... our fear of those future events and circumstances yet to happen in our lives.

Make giving a spiritual exercise. I know that’s hard to do because by nature we are cowards. We normally give out of our abundance - the leftovers, after all the bills and "wants and needs" are paid and satisfied. Statistics validate that we rarely put church or charitable giving first in our family budgets. Why? Because we don't trust God.

Giving in hard times is not something we have had to face very often. Abundance has been our shelter. We have personal expectations about our needs and wants and they rarely match God’s. We don’t have the faith that God will provide enough to satisfy what we want. He has promised to meet our needs. But there is a big difference between what we perceive as our needs and what we want. So we mitigate our fear by hanging on to what we think will be the difference, hoarding our money so what God provides... short of our expectations, will be made up by our hoarded cash.

That attitude is a perfect foundation for putting God to the test. Remember, God’s blessing might not be what you expect. Money is not going to mysterious appear in your bank account... you won’t be finding envelopes full of cash on the sidewalk.

But... if you trust God, if you participate with your brothers in providing for the needs of others, God can change your attitudes about what you think is important to you. In fact, rather quickly in your “test of God” you will begin to see how those treasured desires, hobbies, vacations or whatever passion you pursue, is not all that important anymore. Your passion shifts to the “things of God”. You will be more curious about finding ways to help others advance the gospel and meet the needs of the less fortunate. Surprisingly, your money goes further than you ever though it could! That’s because you trusted God to reorient your priorities and recalibrate your values and now you see clearly through eyes of trust and faith in God’s promises. This might be the one time you can truly say... I have may cake and can eat it too!

Trust God. Test His promise. You will soon discover that the boat you thought you had to have, or the cabin by the lake, or the hordes of cash to cushion you through the economic hard times are not all that important anymore.

Don’t be afraid to give to the Mission of God. He will richly bless you and your life will never be the same.
Until next time.

Dream Big Dreams... Embracing the God-Inspired Plan for your Life

There is no magic in small plans. When you consider the ministry opportunities that exist in your neighborhood, your community and even your own family, you must think of the world.  Each opportunity is connected to the other.   Anything less than that would not be worthy of Christ nor His will for the life of one of His followers. (Acts 1:8) Our Lord and Savior thinks we’re capable of doing big things.  So... why aren’t we able to see our own potential in and through Him?  

Fear ran rampant when the economy took its downturn. Everywhere we turned, we encountered bad economic news. The tendency has been to hunker down, play it safe, and think small. Pursuing dreams is something one does only in good economic times.  

We need to be wise, not foolish, in the life choices we make. And yet, we must resist the temptation to think that God and His unlimited resources are in some way affected by the mortgage industry, the rising unemployment rate, and the stock market. God is sovereign, all-powerful, and completely capable of supplying us with all we need to do what He calls us to do. Perhaps what we need is a fresh invitation to pursue a God-sized vision for our lives.

What is a “Christian Vision”?
Think of vision for this discussion, as our God-given ability to picture things in our minds that are not yet reality. For example, a couple envisions opening their home to foster children. A medical student visualizes treating patients after completing education to become a doctor. You get the idea.  Your dreams and the process of preparation to acquire the needed skills are envisioned in a future reality.  A vision is a picture or idea of how God could use your gifts and your life to meet needs and accomplish his purposes.   His purpose for all of his followers is no secret and everyone qualifies to participate.  (Matthew 28:19-20; James 1:27)

Unlike a purely secular play in ones personal vision of dreams for the future, a Christian vision is inspired directly or indirectly by the call of God to embrace his commands, which is our ultimate work in His purpose. Christian vision is a combination of imaginative seeing that combines the insight of faith, which goes to the core of things below surface reality to the depths of our hearts, and the foresight of faith, which transcends the present with the power of a possible future.  There’s the dream... as if co-authored by “you and God”.   This combining of the not-yet-combined is the secret of visionary faith.... Dreamers come into their own and stay on course when they follow the calling of Christ. 

There is no magic formula, no specialized calling from God other than what He has explained to all of us through his Word.  Everyone can dream big dreams, accomplish great things for the Lord... because out of an honest and pure heart, he will empower and equip each one of us by the Holy Spirit to preach salvation in favorable times and bring honor and glory to Him through our faithful steadfastness, obedience and perseverance.  In short... keep on keepin’ on!

Unleash the Vision within You!
In the secular world of business, career driven professionals have a vision for their lives and live by a preprogrammed plan that moves them towards achieving their ultimate goal––usually fame, or fortune or financial prosperity or all of these things.  In contrast, Christians will often have no compelling vision of what God is calling them to do with the time He has given them on this earth. The business professional is driven by a vision, fraught at best with uncertainty, but driven they are to succeed.  Christians who already know the outcome of God’s eternal plan, know the power and resources at their disposal and know how to tap this vast unlimited power, can’t seem to craft a vision consistent with God’s purpose.  Many reasons... they may feel stagnant, frustrated, depressed, bored, underutilized and purposeless.   So how can you move toward a purposeful life that uses your gifts to make a difference in this world?

The first essential is to risk enlarging your perspective of how God wants to use your life.  Allow yourself to envision a “God-sized” response to what you already know and understand about your relationship with Him. Such a response, while certainly in the context of your “personal choice” is one that you cannot accomplish with your own power and resources.  A God-sized response, by definition, requires God’s power and resources to succeed. He has chosen to only respond through each one of individually based on our willingness to allow Him to influence our life vision.  God has given you gifts and abilities to be used in your family, your neighborhood, your career, your church, your community, and the world at large.  He expects you to join Him in arranging to deploy those talents and capabilities to accomplish great things for Him.  

The visions that God creates in our hearts and minds are always beyond what we feel is possible. Our first reaction and one that usually sustains our thinking, is the task always appears to be out of reach and beyond our ability.  Why do we think that?  It’s because the vision is beyond our ability.  God-ordained, God-inspired visions are always too big for us to handle. The problem for us... we stop and don’t move ahead because we don’t “trust God” enough to be our source of strength and power in unfolding His vision into Our reality. Don’t be too quick to disagree with that statement.   Think about your own life experiences and see if the “trust” factor [in God] is as strong as you think it is or it should be.  Your honest assessment on this point will likely disappoint you.

The second essential is to risk taking a few steps in faith to fully discover how God’s vision for your life, the one you and He have crafted together can begin to unfold. Many of us live as though we are waiting for God to send us his vision for our life via fax, e-mail, or some supernatural revelation—spelling out the actions we are to take in step-by-step detail. We also may want this divine message to include an ironclad guarantee that we will be safe from risk, financially secure, and successful in the eyes of all onlookers as we carry out this heavenly plan for our lives.  Not, I say not going to happen.  God does not work that way with us. Remember that “trust factor”?  This lack of trust and fear is why countless visions born in the hearts of Christians never come to reality.

God gives us enough to work with him in faith.   God help us to create the mental images, the vision, along with compelling ideas of how our gifts can be used to meet needs in the world.  The vision gives us enough direction to step out in obedience and faith, but it doesn’t give all the details or any guarantees about the outcome.  

God’s Plan for Your Life... get on with it!
God-sized visions can be of differing dimensions and degrees of visibility. God might call one person to develop a global worldwide evangelism ministry that has an impact on millions; he might call another to start an outreach Bible study in a neighborhood.  In one person God might instill a vision that uses innovative ways to collect food in the community and distribute it through local ministries. In another person, the vision God plants may be one of making his church’s food bank more organized, efficient, and effective.  You know what God wants... He has clearly spelled out our mission through His admonishments and commands in the New Testament.  The specific details of a God-sized vision are not always so easily discerned... that takes trust and faith.  You have to start the journey before you will know the details. Know this.... God wants you to trust him and He wants you to do great things for His Kingdom!  Really, what more could you ask or hope for in your life?
 
Most of us will never be called to develop and lead an international organization. Maybe not, but you will never discover how God has created you to be used in this world, until you step out in faith to pursue a God-given dream. But how do you know if your dream is from the Lord?

One test... is that all God-inspired visions of your calling always involve doing the work of God’s kingdom as the ultimate goal. God-inspired visions bring glory to God... not you.  God's ultimate plan for your life reaches beyond the visions He's given you for your family, business, ministry, and finances.  He has positioned you in your culture as a singular point of light. A beacon in a world that desperately needs to see something divine, something that is clearly not of this world.  Until you allow your God-inspired vision to unfold... it is nothing more than "potential" light with potential to reflect the power and glory of the Divine. It’s your choice... your trust... your faith... that makes it happen.

Risk Trusting God
From our human perspective, stepping out in faith to work at a God-given calling feels like a risk beyond our comprehension. From God’s perspective, trusting Him in faith is the only way to live our lives. You will only discover what God has created you to do when you “risk” following Him rather than playing it safe. 

God is faithful, and He is creative, often surprising us in how He works in our lives. As workers for God we have to learn to make room for Him—to give God elbow room.   How?  Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left.  Trust him...  you’ll be the first to know where, when and what He’s doing.   Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes and when He choses.

When the world is in a state of flux, as it is now... remember to trust Scripture instead of the news you read about the state of the world.  Remember that you have been designed for a purpose. And, remember that “with God, nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37). In spite of the economy or your circumstances, you can discover and live your God-given calling, and experience the purposefulness and joy that comes from doing the things you were created to do.   God must do the marketing for Nike.... “just do it”!

Road Blocks on the Informaiton Super Highway...

Today, it is easier than ever to stay connected with people all around the world. The Internet has brought humanity closer together in ways we could not have imagined 20 years ago. Websites, Email, Blogs, Twitter and the ability to transfer information anywhere, anytime, is now normal communication.

Is “big brother” watching? Probably. The most used and preferred form of global communication is still email. It offers text capacity, multiple recipients and the ability to add attachments. And it’s easy to track from sender to recipient.

The reality is this: When you send emails to missionary friends in foreign countries with repressive governments, especially those not real fond of Christianity, “big brother” is probably watching. Watching the frequency of your communications, reading the content of your messages and potentially tracking the activities of your friend.

When you think of what we do so naturally and consider as normal communication, it should give us pause when a simple email could compromise the safety and security of our missionary friends living in repressive countries.

The Countries of Concern: include Belarus, Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Zimbabwe, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. U.S.-made computer products and filtering software are actually helping these repressive countries control what their citizens can do on the Internet. The issue is getting wider attention, as more and more people around the globe are accessing the World Wide Web for email and other forms of commuication.

Why do these countries seek to block access to the internet and control the flow of information? Truth. The power of simple truth is threatening to repressive regimes. They don’t want common citizens to know too much about the outside world. Information is power in the hands of restless people. For countries that want to control what its population thinks, governments must impose strict controls on mass media and the internet to maintain their repressive regimes.

In the old days, when mass media was dominated by print and broadcast outlets, such countries could easily restrict access or distribution. Now, the Internet and new communication technologies like Twitter are giving repressive governments new headaches. You don’t just unplug the worldwide web, the global Internet framework, from a power source like you would a personal computer.

How can Christians everywhere safeguard their communications with missionaries and those we assist and support in these aforementioned countries of concern? Is it possible to use current technology to make it harder if not impossible for government watch groups to monitor email communications? The answer is yes!

What makes this even more plausible... the software is FREE and can be downloaded to your computer and if need be, you can even zip up the file and send it to your friend in a foreign country if they can’t easily download it. Let me explain how this works.

The concept is called Onion Routing.
Onion routing is a technique that allows for anonymous communication over a computer network. Messages are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several network nodes called onion routers. Each onion router removes a layer of encryption to uncover routing instructions, and sends the message to the next router where this is repeated. This prevents intermediary nodes from knowing the origin, destination, and contents of the message. It’s that simple. The onion router or Tor, is an open network software that helps defend against any form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom, privacy and relationships, by thwarting various forms of traffic analysis.

Onion routing can prevent the most commonly used methods of technical Internet censorship such as: IP address blocking; DNS filtering and rediection; URL and packet filtering; connection and web feed blocking and Reverse surveillance.

You can install Tor... The Onion Router, on your personal computer free of charge. To learn how Tor can protect the privacy of your communications with other Christians and Missionaries living in repressive countries... visit the website: www.torproject.org

Would you HELP supply clean Water to impoverished people?

Walk over to the kitchen sink, turn on the facet and fill your glass with filtered and purified clean water. Add some ice, let it chill.... take a refreshing cool drink. You take that experience for granted don’t you? That’s the experience in America. Clean water is considered a right that everyone is entitled to enjoy. No one should be deprived of clean drinkable water.

That experience doesn’t exist in much of the developing world. People do not have clean drinkable water. Water can make people very sick and even kill! Think about these statistics the next time you casually, easily and conveniently fill your glass with clean drinking water.

More than one billion people, one sixth of the world’s population, are without access to a clean, safe water supply. At any given moment, about half of the world's poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000, mostly children, die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.

One of the world’s most prolific killers is diarrhoeal diseases from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella and many others... all waterborne.

As Christians, concerned about spreading the Gospel to the millions of people who need to hear of Jesus, we must be aware that “hearing the message of salvation” can only effectively happen if the most basic needs of people are being met. Our mission to preach Christ today, is concentrated in many countries where clean consumable water is not available to the majority of the population. If you have traveled on short-term mission trips to the countries of southeast Asia, you have seen ample supplies of bottled water readily available in urban areas. But in remote and rural parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and many other places all around the globe, bottle water is not available. Even if it is, many people are simply too poor to afford to purchase it. So, they live each day with the high risk of drinking unclean dangerous water... just to continue living.

Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions, especially in the countries of the 10-40 Window. You can help spread the Gospel by providing a way for poverty stricken peoples to get clean water.

LifeStraw may be the answer. LifeStraw is a point-of-use water filtering straw-like device designed by a Swiss-based company (Vestergaard Frandsen) for people living in developing nations. It comes in two capacity formats... Personal and Family. LifeStraw was developed as a practical response to the billions of people who are still without access to the most basic of basic of human rights... clean water.

The aptly-named LifeStraw is an invention that could become one of the greatest lifesavers in history. It is a 25 cm long, 29 mm diameter, plastic pipe filter and costs just a few dollars, about $5.00 US. LifeStraw Personal filters a minimum of 700 litres of water, enough for one person for about one year. LifeStraw Family filters a minimum of 18,000 litres of water, providing safe drinking water for a family for more than two years. LifeStraw removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, such as Shigella, Salmonella, Enterrococus, Staphylococcus Aureus and E.Coli,
99.99% of viruses, and 99.9% of parasites.

LifeStraw is currently in use in Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda. Many more people need to be helped by this lifesaving invention.

Is this a project for your Church? I invite you to prayerfully consider becoming a provider of LifeStraws to an area of the world where people are in desperate need of clean safe drinking water. If you support missionaries in developing and impoverished countries, they can be your resource for distribution of this lifesaving
invention. Think of the possibilities LifeStraw could open for missionaries to proclaim the love of Christ, through this lifesaving way.

Presently, there is an initiative to raise funds to provide LifeStraws for the people of the delta region in Myanmar who are still suffering from the effects of Cyclone Nargis. Clean water is there most pressing need. Burmese adults and children are dying everyday without access to this most basic right of humanity.... clean water.

For further information about the Myanmar LifeStraw Initiative, please send your inquiry to the following e-mail addresses:

wayneford@myanmarchristianmission.com or gmnintl@comcast.net

If your church Mission Group has other countries where you would like to organize a LifeStraw Initiative, please send your request to gmnintl@comcast.net and information will be provided, enabling you to make your own direct arrangements.

Bridge Building for Christ... requires a Break-Through Attitude

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Imagine receiving a phone call informing you that you'd been chosen to become the American Ambassador to China. You'd consider that quite an honor! How would you prepare for your task? You'd want to do a thorough study of Chinese culture and customs. If you simply said, "No problem, I'm an American!" and neglected this study, you'd find yourself very ineffective as an ambassador.

Now imagine if Christ were to call you, as an American, to be His ambassador to America. How would you prepare for that? Well, in fact this is what Christ has called us to (2 Cor. 5:20). But what if we were to say, "No problem, I'm a Christian!" but neglected any attempt to understand our own culture? Just because you are a native born American, you cannot assume you truly understand the culture even though you are living surrounded by it and probably even immersed in it.

Surprisingly this is what many people in the church today have done. Some believers have actually managed to construct lives that avoid any connection with the world. Christians leave their safe surroundings, go to work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Churches and Bible studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoid interacting with in the normal course of a day-to-day living.

In early America, Christians enjoyed discussing philosophy and theology with believers and nonbelievers alike. America was a collection of diverse communities that fostered intellectual pursuit and understanding. Today's Christians however, are often viewed by the world as anti-intellectuals, as people who have neglected their minds in order to become "spiritual." But with this mentality, we are unable to address the critical issues of our day, and so our culture begins to look elsewhere for answers... to secular humanism, for example.

What is the root of this separation mindset? Well, many believers today hold to a pietistic view of the Christian life. Pietism is essentially 'platonic' in that it makes a sharp division between the 'spiritual' world and the 'material' world. The realities of human experiences are not afforded a proper balance.

This pietistic view of Christian living, has sapped the real life out of the Christian experience for many people. That's because one's spirituality never quite comes "down" far enough to integrate with the real world. We still end up trying to be nice Christians, but too many areas of our humanity get left out of the experience. Being Christian no longer looks very attractive to those first investigating the faith. In fact, some nonbelievers are scared away because of the disconnect from the realities of the world!

How can we change this pattern? We must remove this "sharp division" by finding out how our spiritual life works in the physical world, by developing a practical biblical world view.

As we learn to apply the Christian faith in our own life and world we become able to tell nonbelievers how it applies to theirs also, and this opens doors for the gospel. But without a well-thought-out faith we don't feel comfortable taking our message into the middle of the marketplace of modern ideas, and so we stay insulated and isolated.

What we actually need is a model for building bridges within the complexity of today's culture, one that makes Christianity relevant to the lives of real people. Christ Himself has provided this model in a absolutely amazing way.

Christ's Model is simple
The model is based on the character of God. The Bible presents to us a God who continually seeks man by interacting within man's cultural environments. In the New Testament we first find God seeking man by becoming a flesh and blood human. Adapting to the environment means becoming identified with the opposing party. It requires breaking through cultural barriers in order to establish useful and effective communication.

Through the incarnation of Christ, God crossed a rather large "cultural gap" to adapt to and identify with humanity, by actually becoming a man. In doing so, he broke through two important barriers that kept man from having a relationship with Him. What were these?

First Christ broke through our humanity barrier. Christ took on the flesh, cultural patterns, thought patterns, practices, and frailties associated with humanity. He left His world and entered into our world. Secondly, Christ broke through the sin barrier. He went to the cross and became sin on our behalf so we could be forgiven of our sins and come to know God personally and have intimate fellowship with Him.

Not only did Christ make it possible for us to seek him by “becoming a man and living among us”, His death and resurrection established another form for communication. His communication model, is accomplished through us... through His people.

In 2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us that God has called every believer to be an ambassador for Christ. How do we go about this task? By following Christ's model, and breaking through the same two barriers He did. First, we need to break through the humanity barrier. Motivated by His love, we also need to enter into the world of nonbelievers, seeking to understand their environment, and finding areas of common ground. This means that, without compromising, we are to get involved with real people and their needs, struggles, and intellectual doubts. Second, we need to help people overcome the sin barrier. We do this by sharing the gospel in a way that relates to their worldview, in a way that "makes sense" within another person's cultural and intellectual makeup.

The Church Christ built must be perceived as culturally relevant to the nonbelievers we seek to share the gospel with. Our responsibility is not only to hold to the basic, scriptural principles of the Christian faith, but to communicate these unchanging truths to every generation until God says His work is finished. If we can see ourselves in this essential and vital role then we can become effective at building bridges for the gospel that Christ has given us.

Building Bridges for Christ and His Kingdom

As Christians, we are called by God to be Christ's ambassadors. That's quite a job description by any measurement! In order to fulfill our assignment, we are going to have to step outside of our insulated Christian circles and learn how to bridge the gap between Christ's church and today's world.

Bridges are fascinating feats of engineering and design. They are designed to bring things together--land masses, roads, and people. Your life as a Christian can be exciting for the very same reason--because we get to be bridge-builders for Christ. Of course, Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5); but, acting under His authority, Christians have the privilege of building bridges that can attract people into His Kingdom.

What kind of bridges are still left to be built? Non-Christians often have barriers that keep them from considering Christ: intellectual, cultural, and moral barriers. We can be their bridges to the gospel. Just as Jesus left heaven to come and dwell with man in a sinful world, He's left us with the challenging task of creatively penetrating our world with the gospel of salvation He showed us how to be effective bridge builders. In a sense, then, there may never be a time when we are more like Jesus than when we are bridging a cultural gap with the gospel.

How does one become a bridge-builder for Christ? While it's true we need to understand the Bible, a measure of theology and most importantly the gospel message, we must also understand what non-Christians believe, how they think, and how they've been impacted by today's cultures. And then, as ambassadors for Christ, we become the bridge between His church and the world by communicating the gospel into the context of the non-Christian mindset.

I think most people today view cross-cultural ministry as something performed in a foreign nation. In one sense that is very true. But America today has become very secular, developing a culture of its own in an ideological sense-one very different from the cultural characteristics of the church. So today, we need to view our American culture as a place of opportunity for cross-cultural ministry! If you're a Christian in America, you live in one of the biggest most opportune mission fields in the world!

How do get started? First, by investigating and understanding the secular views of our culture. Understanding another person's world view, or belief system, is the starting point for communicating the gospel in any language, in any culture. By showing an understanding of and interest in another person's beliefs, we gain credibility and integrity with that person-and probably even a favorable hearing for the Christian message.

A bridge-builder is one who has made a commitment to understand people with different backgrounds and beliefs in order to make Christianity relevant to these people. However, in order to become an effective bridge-builder, we have to go through a process of transformation ourselves. First, we need to examine the isolation problem found in many of today's churches. So many churches today, are not actively seeking opportunities to be bridge-builders. That has to change if we are going to influence the world around us. Whether it’s our neighborhood, our community or some distant place in another part of the world, we must tune ourselves to the culture so that the gospel finds a hearing ear.

In future posts, we'll look at Christ's model for ministry which can help us overcome our tendencies towards isolation. We'll also explore how our lives can build bridges to the world. Finally, we’ll look at the need for preparation in order to be fully equipped to construct better bridges.