I’m usually not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I sure am aware of needs for change. Changes brought about by my will-power are usually short-lived, but changes brought about by God’s grace are a different matter. Being his servant, I want to ask God to help me see differently and think differently. I am not the President of the United States or the Governor of my state. I am not a congressman or a senator. If I were such a leader in society, it would be my job to propose solutions to difficult social and global dilemmas. Holding no such office, my job is to pray for those who do. I can ask our Heavenly Father to give wisdom and strength to leaders and I can pray God’s will be done. I desire the “mind of Christ,” but as I listen to political observers, global experts, and talk show hosts, my mind gets clouded. Some of these voices claim to be Christian; all voices claim to be right; but I know there is only one voice that really matters… and his Kingdom is not of this world. Jesus turns everything upside down, but I want to follow him. I want to think like him. I want to love like him.
Here’s an example: When I see a person of Hispanic descent, I don’t want my thinking to shift to the huge immigration debate going on in our country. If I hear on my radio that an illegal alien committed a crime in my county, I don’t want encroaching judgment to poison the way I look at the person driving the car next to me. I can pray that government leaders make wise and fair decisions, but I want to see each human being from Jesus’ viewpoint: “I gave my life so that person could be forgiven and know my Father and live with me in Heaven forever and ever.” Now many people will say, “But what about…?” I know there are a million questions that can be asked, but I only want to deal with one: How does God see that person? Are there not two broad answers? He either recognizes one of his children, a member of his blood-bought family… or He sees a lost soul. A child of God is my brother or sister. A lost soul needs to meet Jesus. Should this simple thinking be troubling?
Here’s another example: Harm and Dagmar Tees, good friends and long-time missionaries in Jerusalem, reach out mainly to Arabs in the region. Harm, a native of Holland, is the general secretary of the United Christian Council in Israel. Recently this coalition of Christian groups celebrated fifty years of existence in Israel. A friend of Harm’s, also a native of Holland, came to speak at their gathering. Some of you have read GOD’S SMUGGLER, the story of Brother Andrew, a bold believer who has smuggled Bibles into the most dangerous places in the world. When Brother Andrew spoke to this council in Jerusalem, he gave a challenge that reflects the heart of God. At seventy-eight years of age, this radical disciple is now sharing the gospel with fundamentalist Muslims. By God’s design, Brother Andrew was recently invited to speak in a huge Islamic school in a Muslim country. Predictably, he used this platform to preach the gospel. After his message, a Muslim leader came to him and asked if he could hold the book from which he spoke – the Bible. Brother Andrew was invited to return and when he did many Bibles were given to the Islamic students. As Harm shared this message, a quote struck me: “Brother Andrew said it was not the fundamentalists’ fault that they had never seen a Bible or heard the gospel. He challenged us to reach out as well.”
As I write this, I see my need for repentance. My thoughts about Sunnis and Shiites are not God’s thoughts. My compassion is shallow. When an elderly Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of Voice of the Martyrs who was tortured for Christ and imprisoned fourteen years in Communist Romania, was asked what Christians should do about the growing problem of religious fanatics persecuting the church, he gave a profound answer (gained by walking a lifetime with Jesus): “Love them.” My love is weak. I don’t want to conform to the thinking of this world; I want to be transformed. “Lord, renew my mind.”
“He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17