Many months have passed since I first sat down to lunch with Kevin. Kevin enjoyed coming to our church, but was bothered by the T-Shirts and invitation cards I regularly give out to people. Our Reunion Church invitation starts out, “We’re confused…”
Given Kevin’s religious background, I can see his point and understand why this poetic-style message is so hard for him to embrace. Kevin, like most of us, were raised to see everything as totally black and white. The standard reasoning is that there is no gray with Jesus. Since our first conversation, Kevin has left Reunion church because his faith in religion would not allow him to accept the possibility that there are some questions no human being can answer.
- Why did my child drown in the pool?
- Why does one person get healed of cancer and another one die?
- What is God’s purpose for my husband cheating on me?
- What good can possibly come from getting laid off and having to declare bankruptcy?
- Where was God when my 4 year old was being sexually abused? Why did God allow this to happen?
Pick up any book on Apologetics, and they will give you THE answer to these questions. To the person in the midst of suffering , to the person Living in The AND, those books are nothing more than the fictional ramblings of a religious zealot. Understand, my friends, that no rational argument is a substitute for the balm of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 8:22; 46:11; 51:8–9)!
1 Corinthians 1
6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
Psalm 7314 All day long I have been plagued;I have been punished every morning.15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”I would have betrayed your children.16 When I tried to understand all this,it was oppressive to me17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;then I understood their final destiny.18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;you cast them down to ruin.19 How suddenly are they destroyed,completely swept away by terrors!20 As a dream when one awakes,so when you arise, O Lord,you will despise them as fantasies.21 When my heart was grievedand my spirit embittered,22 I was senseless and ignorant;I was a brute beast before you.23 Yet I am always with you;you hold me by my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel,and afterward you will take me into glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you?And earth has nothing I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heartand my portion forever.
1 Corinthians 1-2
1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
I will leave you with the words of this Black Spiritual.
There Is A Balm in GileadThere is a balm in GileadTo make the wounded whole;There is a balm in GileadTo heal the sin sick soul.Some times I feel discouraged,And think my work’s in vain,But then the Holy SpiritRevives my soul again.If you can’t preach like Peter,If you can’t pray like Paul,Just tell the love of Jesus,And say He died for all.
Regarding 
Regarding 
Regarding 
I am confused!! LOL
Way to stay strong to your convictions!
Joe, I get your point, and there are some points of agreement, but how does what you put on the shirts reconcile with some of your didactic comments in previous blogs? Is it really true that you don’t have answers? What do you call the stuff you write about in your blog? Are your meetings devoid of content? Isn’t this the same as signing your pastors name to a letter? I don’t quite get the emphasis. I’m kind of wary of catch phrases. They mean something, to someone, at some particular point in time, but they’re not eternal. These kind of statements tend to have the philosophical error of reductionism. They reduce a complex subject to a simple phrase that takes on a life of its own. I know you mean well, and I don’t like to hear superficial answers to deep questions, but……?
David, Consider this and you will discover the answers.
Ecclesiastes 3
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
I like the handout. What I see is that you’re adopting a certain posture which, in the U.S. context of Mormons, JW’s and the like who evengelize by “having ALL the answers”, is very appropriate and even humorous (in a good way).
Recently I was out evangelizing door to door at an apartment complex and encountered some Mormons also going door to door. I asked them politely if I could watch and listen from a distance to several of their interchanges with the people and it was very interesting. They of course framed each conversation as them having all the answers and the person on the other side of the door being absolutely bereft of any hope of salvation whatsoever. There was no dialogue – only a direct presentation of their dogma. My approach was different – more engaging in a polite relational dialogue and even, several times, actually APOLOGIZING for interrupting meals or other things the people were in the middle of when I knocked on their door.
This gave me an idea: to dress up like a Mormon and knock on some doors and ask the person on the other side to save ME rather than the other way around. Just a random thought but it would be an interesting experiment…
Greg
http://suppliants.blogs.com
that would be a funny experiment… let me know if you ever try it out and how it goes
I’m here to comment via your comment in Jeff McQuilkin’s blog today. I like the card very much. But when you said:
“Given Kevin’s religious background, I can see his point and understand why this poetic-style message is so hard for him to embrace. Kevin, like most of us, were raised to see everything as totally black and white.”
…did ye not find it ironic that the card itself is printed in black and white?
)
Hey Jim, the irony of that did escape me. good catch