Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, #18

Some good articles for you to check out from the Lausanners:

• In successive eras, Bible translation has been at the heart of the communication of the Christian message. Societal changes and upheavals have not stopped this; indeed, at times they have only accelerated the process. (Read Article)
• The goal of the twenty-five leading Bible agencies which are part of the Forum for Bible Agencies International is working together to maximize worldwide access and impact of God's Word. (Read Article)
• Bible translation does not take place in a vacuum. Not only are there societal factors to consider, there are also developments in biblical studies, linguistics and the social sciences. (Read Article)
• To plant or grow a church congregation, two basic things must repeatedly occur: people must come to know Jesus and they must become members of his body. Read the perspective of the Bible League's Ronald Vander Griend on the relationship between the Bible and church growth. (Read Article)

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Fasting. I have taken a new interest in fasting. In the New Testament Jesus instructs his disciples that “When they fast…” Not “if.” But also interesting in the Acts is this passage:

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
"Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

One has to wonder that if we were more intense at the point of fasting (integrating worshipping and praying, of course) that we might be a more missional, evangelistic, sending church.

When in Nigeria I asked if they fasted. They were stunned that I even asked. Of course! It is an answer that you can hardly imagine the average believer in the West to emulate.

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Quotables: Wesleyan preacher William Bramwell wrote in 1809 that the reason many do not live in the power of their salvation is because ‘there is too much sleep, too much meat and drink, too little fasting and self-denial, too much taking part in the world ... and too little self-examination and prayer.’

When we finish a fast, we cool into tempered Christians strong with self-control. The dross and cinders of our lustful cravings are skimmed off. Fasting produces a work of art - the tempered, selfless Christian - that can be created through no other process of refinement. [Lee Bueno]

Humility and self-denial are two sides of the same coin. Jesus’ greatest calling for us to deny ourselves came when He stated, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me’ (Matt. 16:24). By fasting as unto the Lord we answer His call to deny ourselves for the sake of the cross. [Lee Bueno]

"Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him. Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and let the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice. Let t feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at what is sinful...Let the ear fast...by not listening to evil talk or gossip...Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism. For what good is it if we abstain from meat and fish, but bite and devour our brothers?" (St. John the Chrysostom)

"The sisters of fasting are five: 1) prayer, 2) charity, 3) humility, 4) abstinence, 5) love. Fasting without prayer is simply a medical diet, a healthy diet, a change of eating habits. Fasting without charity is selfishness and co-worker with.... greed. Fasting without humility is food for the monster of vanity. Fasting without abstinence is simply mockery. Fasting without love can become cannibalism!" (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia)

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Rainer: The book Effective Evangelistic Churches is the product of a survey of 576 fruitful soul-winning churches. Author Thom Rainer observes that intercessory prayer and fasting is a crucial component:

Fasting has often been a key factor not only in focusing the people but also in bringing about spiritual power. One pastor wrote, “I pray and fast one day a week. Though I do not advertise it, the church has become aware of it and many have followed my example” (Rainer, p. 75). Of those responding to the survey were “many testimonies from church leaders about the miraculous work of God after a new corporate prayer emphasis was begun, or after the leadership of the church called the people to an extended lime of prayer and fasting. Not only did numerical and evangelistic growth result, but new ministries often began as well” (Rainer, p. 152).

On Zeus worship

It has been centuries since Zeus-worshippers have gathered at an Athens temple to bend their hearts to the old Olympian. The Roman empire outlawed such gatherings in the late 4^th century and, well, that was the end of that.

Until now.

Probably not much of a threat to global religiosity, recent modern pagans (around 20) paid homage to Zeus with costumes, hymns, wine and incense. Said one wag from the WorldMag blog: “One may well ask why anyone would exchange the loving, self-sacrificial Christ for a malicious demigod who married his sister, raped women, and was more like a sinful human being than a transcendental authority.”

Well, yes, Zeus was a bit of a mess. But twenty confused people singing mythical songs to the creation of imagination is hardly worth an article in the Associated Press. And that people have a hankering to toss his name skyward is probably more a result of shared eroticism, something they likely grew a taste for watching American television and reading Western magazines than studying Hercules’ father.

When I was in Lagos, Nigeria the last couple of weeks I strolled past a wall on my daily trips to the graduate school where I taught and saw this strong message spray-painted on the side: “Beware, this property is not for sale!” I queried a friend about it and he told me that it is not at all uncommon for unscrupulous real estate agents (or those posing as agents) to sell a property over and over again. He said, “Sometimes, five people can ‘own’ a property before anybody really knows what has happened.”

Zeus worship aside, I have wondered if the American Church – or the Church found anywhere on the globe – can have the same tendency of selling her soul to multiple loyalties if we are not very careful. Could a local church worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit and new buildings, more people, fancier accommodations, increased prestige and respect within the community. Wasn’t it A.W. Tozer said that significant discipleship means getting rid of that “and” and putting God alone on the throne of our hearts where He deserves to be?

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, knew the temptation of the Church to get captivated with more than the God.

“You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises- very much of heaven on earth.

"Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

"You must do it.”

No one in the Church would say they serve Zeus, or Bacchus, or Apollo or Aphrodite or Plutus. But these “gods” were known for eroticism, wine, music, beauty and wealth respectively. The Church, like much of the world, has been sorely tempted with all of these.

And sometimes, throughout our history, has fallen hard for them.

Whether we bow to Zeus or actual eroticism, Apollo or pop culture, Plutus or lust for mammon makes no difference. The “god” or the tangible reality reflected in our lives is an idol worth rebuking nonetheless. By the grace of God Almighty we were meant for far more than selling our collective souls panting after “pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects” rather than following after the Christ who leads us to a cross.

Be sure to check out the new movie about William Wilberforce

And here is a great website that is related to it.

Back from Lagos

Sorry for the absence. I have been in Lagos, Nigeria this month teaching and therefore distracted or unable to blog on their slooooooow internet connections.

I taught at West Africa Theological Seminary and, as I always do when I go, had a wonderful time with their students. They soak up your teaching, then go out to be a blessing with it at their places of ministry in immediate fashion. A teacher could ask for no more.

Or so it seems.

One interesting thing out of many - on the wall of the seminary perimeter I read the words "Beware, this property is not for sale." Hmmm. Someone told me that unscrupulous "real estate agents" will sell properties four or five times before some figure out that someone already owns it!

On Sunday at my church, I made a spiritual connection. How many times do we sell ourselves to other priorities, institutions, relationships when, in reality, we have already been "bought and paid for with the price of Jesus blood." We should have proverbial signs hanging off of us that say to the world "This souls is not for sale!"

There is much at stake in Lagos. It is supposed to become the third largest city in the world in short time but with few jobs, precious little infrastructure and 10,000 people a week moving to the city limits. Incredible. The government is rudderless and corrupt, and the church is growing but having little impact on the direction of the nation. "The life of God in the soul of man" and those men unleashed into every nook and cranny in the nation is the dire need of the hour.

Almost sounds like the same remedy of what ails the USA...

And it would be a sin if it weren't true...

This from Charles Colson. Just as most of us have thought...

Are conservatives and Christians becoming too narrow and selfish? Are we hypocritical skinflints, indifferent to the suffering of the needy?

The liberals say so. But is it true? Do conservatives and Christians really love their money more than they do the poor?

A new book by an expert on charity says: absolutely not. The real skinflints, he writes, are secular liberals.

Arthur Brooks, professor at Syracuse University, writes in his new book, titled Who Really Cares, that he grew up in a liberal home and accepted one of the liberal political nostrums: that the political left “is compassionate and charitable toward the less fortunate, but the political right is oblivious to suffering.”

“If you had asked me a few years ago to sum up the character of American conservatives,” he writes, “I would have said they were hard-headed pragmatists who were willing to throw your grandmother out into the snow to preserve some weird ideal of self-reliance.”

But his own research forced him to change his mind. Religious conservatives give more, and do more, for the poor than anyone else. By contrast, liberals, who tend both to be irreligious and to believe that government can and should redistribute income, tend to be far stingier.