Pray for Growth in Personal Evangelism and Christian Fellowship
Since much of my time has been in an office environment (getting the Project Support and Development Office started), I was concerned about my personal evangelism. God always has a better plan; I just need to be willing to change my plans. It seems at first that God wants me focusing on office establishment, campus ministries, and my home church, because amazingly, friends have been bringing men of other faiths to come and talk to me about Jesus, and they have been willing to come! In this way, I have met Mohammad, Ishmael, Hassan, Isalaama, and Oscar (names changed).
I met Mohammad and Ishmael, only once, on a holy high day here. We really met just to share greetings, not our different faiths, but again God had a different plan. Since it was a holy day in their faith, they wanted to share its significance with me. It was humbling to hear Ishmael’s dedication and reverence for his religion. They started asking me many, many questions about my faith in God. Mohammad questioningly said to me at one point that it seemed to him that to be really right before God, one would have to have a totally new start, right?
Mohammad was so perceptive to understand that we all need a new start, to become a new creature, to be born-again, to be clean and pure and stay that way before God. They both said that all of our own attempts to appease God’s righteous anger for our sins would be of no value, which seemed an odd statement to me since they both asserted that all their “good” and bad actions were recorded by angels to be weighed by God for Him to decide if the “good” outweighed the bad, thus determining their eternal resting place: paradise or hell.
We talked about God providing a new birth and new way of life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: the perfect payment for our sins. In Africa, no matter the religion of the person, all realize that God demands blood, a perfect sacrificial life, for wrongs committed against the only Life Giver!
Isalaama came my way through his relationship with the Director of the Center of Good News. He is a man who has advanced degrees in his religion. For the past 12 years, he has been living in abject poverty due to a falling out with his peers. It was to such an extent, he thought that he was having mental issues. Since meeting with him for over a month now, he seems to be quite rational.
However, Isalaama is working terribly hard to reconcile some of the religious precepts, in which he is steeped, with his logic and with the Bible. We always talk about life (which in Ghana always includes God); he seems to be in turmoil as he seeks the truth over Who God is, what He desires, and how we should respond to Him. We meet almost every Tuesday for life discussions and for my Arabic lessons. In this way, SGM is supplying a small income for him and I am gaining (ever so slowly) a skill the Director of Good News wants me to possess.
In the same way that Yerri came into my life, Hassan appeared as a result of meeting Leah, my American co-laborer here. Hassan is a taxi man who gave Leah a ride about a month ago and has come by our office a number of times. Of course, Leah always brings Jesus into the conversation (right from the start); people here not only don’t mind, they enjoy the discussions. Hassan is a fine young man, so traditional in his mannerisms and attitudes. He is not free to think beyond his father’s limits, which is not a negative, but displays an interdependence that is useful in the African context. He asked his father for permission to continue our discussions, to which his father said yes, as long as the father stays informed of them.
Listening to Hassan talk about his father’s responses about our talks, Hassan’s dad’s motivation is grounded in the welfare of his son. Hassan said that he wants to be a Christian, as it really makes sense to him, but he wants me to discuss it with his father further. His father has agreed to discuss it with him and wants to meet me, so we are to meet sometime after the holidays. Please pray that our meeting does indeed come to pass; that I go in real love, being respectful and gentle; and that we connect on many levels. Pray that his father sees the great value in knowing Jesus Christ, and that a truly rewarding life on earth and eternity hangs in the balance.
Oscar has been harder to connect with as he is busy working (PTL). He is very faithful to the traditions of his religion. However, the more he has pursued God through them, the more he has been troubled by a number of questions that he would like to resolve. They also revolve around the sufficiency of Oscar’s works before God, and the Personhood of the Prophet Jesus, Whom his religion says was sinless, born of a virgin, and brought by God into the world by His word ‘Be.’ I am not pretending to know his religion or know his holy book: Oscar is the expert; however, God has given me insight into Who He and His Son is through the Bible. So I listen to Oscar, then just share my faith with him. It is not my place to convince Oscar or change his mind; rather, I need to just share my life with him. God can surely testify Who He is and what He desires. Ultimately, we all must decide Who God is and if we will respond to His will; whether we believe it or not, we will all stand before Him to explain our response.
Lastly, because the Center of Good News is so respected around the world, I have had the honor of meeting Christian men and women from all walks of life whom God is bringing to the Center for varying reasons. I have met a renowned Christian who is an apologetics scholar; another who has established 167 mission training schools around the world; a man equipping indigenous ministries with advanced technologies to reach people through the airwaves; a businesswoman with a compassionate heart and capacity to help many; and a couple to whom God has given a deep burden to help those most vulnerable—orphans.
It is comforting to know that God never sleeps, has limitless resources—earthly and spiritual—and that His plans will be accomplished according to His ways: not according to mine or those of any other man. The longer I am here, the more I realize that I can’t out-give God! His benefits are inexhaustible—joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, hope, faith, and love—oh, what a full life God brings today and for eternity! May we all live in peace with God and each other throughout the next year. Please pray for all those mentioned, as the Lord leads.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under Prayer Requests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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