In his experience it was too political
He introduced himself as Jim when he answered my ring on hisdoorbell
. I explained that I was in his street today representing my local church, offering prayer for any personalor family needs. Jim, perhaps in his mid-fifties,was surprised,telling me hislocal churchdidn't do this andwondered why mine did. I explained that we believed it was part of our calling, based on the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, who told the church to go and tell others what Christ had done for them. He nodded his head. I asked him if he would like a New Testament to read, but he declined, telling me he already had three Bibles in the house, plus a Bible Commentary. Some people express great pride to me when theymake similar statements, butthis was not case with this man, he had a rather sorrowful expression on his face. Ithen askedwhat church hewas associated withand when he told me, he added that hehadn't been there forsome years. With that, he invited me inside.I knew the Spirit of God was upon Jim at that moment because when this is not so,I don't get invited in. In fact, some people will oftenslam the door in my face or hurl some abuse, or both. He led me into a lovely big lounge-room and asked me to take a seat while he madeus a coffee.When he came back with the coffees andtook his seat, Jim asked me more about the work I was doing,seeming to be genuinely interested, asking one question after another. Based on those questions, I asked Jim what hisperceptions were ofthe church andof Christianity in general. He quietly repliedthat in his experience it was too political. Then he told me that heused to attend church regularly withhis wife and family,and that he was an elderfor many years. He paused in thoughtand thenmore words were spoken between us about church politics, me being rather ignorant of it at the time.Little didI know however,that in less than four years I wasgoing toexperience thevery unpleasant realities of that inmy own church. He went on to tell me that he'd put his heart and soul intoserving his local church as a young man and was still doing so into his early forties. He didn't tell me what specifically happened but I could see that he'dhad a severe negative experience in his church and that this had deeply hurt him. He shared with me that he'd losttime fromhis wife and family, as well ashis business.Not only that, buthis children, who were going to be Christians, had now become Buddhists.His wifewas from Thailand,and was a practising Buddhist. Jim made some remarks about the behaviour that he'd observed when amongBuddhist people,telling me how different they appeared to be in their religious practice and everyday lives, in comparison to the manychurch-goers that he knew.His wifeused togo to the church services withhim, butoftenmadecomments about the glaring conflict between the message of the gospel of Christand the behaviour ofmanyin their gatherings. Jim was agenuine person. During this time I was also praying to the Lord, asking Him to give me specific wisdom forthis man. At such times it'salways very easy to give "stock" answers from the Bible, but I knew that to be unwise. Then thePharisees came to mind, so I wasnow able to bring them intoour conversation. Hewas more than familiar with the gospels, which tell usof the on-goingproblems Jesus had withmost of those people. So we spoke about how these Pharisees saw themselves as the religious elite, a pious, controlling group who had, in their thinking,all the knowledge of God, buthow Jesus shows usthat it was allin their heads and nonein their hearts. We spoke about their love for religious legalisticbehaviour and the fact that thistype of people have always been alive and well in church gatheringsright down through church history. Prayingforcontinuous wisdom,Ithen spoke of theproblems we can create for ourselvesby confusing man's religious behaviourwith that ofJesus Christ.I then asked Jim if he hada personal relationship withChrist. I asked him ifJesus was his Lord and Saviour. He said yes. Following that, we had a longconversation about hisbeliefs, some of which by now had become a mixture of Bible andBuddhism, but he listened silently and gave positiveresponses when I shared the differences. I explained to him that basically Christianity is not a religion,but rather, itis a relationship - a relationship with God in the nameof Jesus Christ, as He reveals and teachesus of Himself from the Bible.I explained thatthe Bible shows us that Christianity is God reaching down to us in Christ, encouraging us to surrender our lives to Him, but thatmany people don't want that, they want to be in control of their lives and the lives of others, just like those Pharisees. Jimrelated to the latter part of that statement. I thenencouraged him toopen the Scriptures every day and look to Christ and trust His wordand reality,no matter what others may door say inHis name. He then spoke of his health (angina) problems, hisfamily and his business, sharing that his son runs a major part of it interstate and that they employ a lot of people from one particular Christian denomination, not his own. The presence of God was in the roomwith us. As mentioned earlier, atthe beginning Jimappeared to be somewhat sorrowful, but now he was relaxed and peaceful. He acknowledged this as being of Christ. I got up to leave and heasked me to stay and have another coffee withhim. Idid. During thisperiod hespoke moreabout his family, married daughters, business and then he brought the conversation back to Jesus Christ. I asked him if there was anything he would like me to pray for and he said yes. So I waited on God, He gave me the words to say to meet Jim's needs, prayer for him to trustGod's written word, trust His living reality, prayer for his health,protection for his wife overseas and for his children and business success. On the way out Jim showed mehis home extensions taking place and spoke enthusiastically of how he was going to use the extra space. After we shook handsthat day, I never saw Jim again, but it was an honour to be sent by God to speak with such a man for a couple of hours."All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." John 6:37.
In his experience it was too political
By: Roger Williams
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