Today's musings

Today I visited an international church.  Why?  Because I have a friend who goes there.  She and I have been friends for a while, and she found this church as she was searching for a place to learn more about Christianity.  Today, she was baptized!  After the service, we went to the beach and she was baptized there!  It was a new experience for me to witness a baptism in the ocean, but it was fun!

Though the international church doesn't believe all of the same things as I do as a Lutheran, I listened intently to the message.  There was a guest pastor from Vancouver, so it was nice to hear some very familiar English.  He was talking about how the Word of God was spread from Israel to Europe to the Americas, and now it's being spread to China.  The reason he stated for the urgency is not a Lutheran belief, so I will leave it at that.  But taking away the denominational differences, he said some things that I DO agree with.  He emphasized the urgency to share the Gospel.

He said the he believes that Christ will come in the next 20 years.  Whether or not that will happen, I don't know.  No one actually knows, as only the Father knows.  But nonetheless, it got me thinking.  Remember the parable of the virgins?  If not, here it is: they were waiting for the bridegroom to come to bring them to the wedding.  Some of them came prepared with enough oil for their lamp, as they were not sure when he would come to pick them up.  Some did not come prepared, and eventually ran out of oil.  As the latter group was off getting new oil, the bridegroom came, and basically they missed the ride, while those who were prepared were taken to the wedding.

So why do I bring that up?  I am often quite guilty of thinking that there is no way that Jesus will come back in my lifetime.  So...I get lazy.  I forget how urgent it is to share the message with non-believers.  Reading through the New Testament, the disciples fervently believed that Jesus was coming back...quite soon!  They devoted their lives to spreading the word so that many people would believe!  The fact is, it is quite possible that he will come tomorrow.  If I told you that he was coming tomorrow, wouldn't you spend all of your time urging your friends to recognize and stop refusing the FREE GIFT that God has given us?

I am not saying that you should quit your job and only share Jesus with non-believers.  Think about your coworkers: you come into contact with them every day, but are they Christian?  Have you invited them to church?  If you did, and they didn't come, did you continue to invite them?

God wants His message to be spread.  You don't have to come to China to do that.  You can do it right where you are!  In case you would like to come to China to help with that, see this video that my Hong Kong colleague made to encourage people like YOU to come to Macau as a short term teacher!

Continue to be zealous in the Lord, asking Him to light your fire each and every day, and to send His Holy Spirit to you to give you the words to say and the actions to do to share His love to the future Christians of the world!