Do I understand the news? This isn’t just some fancy PoMo way of talking about the gospel. It truly gives an image that carries the idea… Do you know what this news means? Do you believe the news?
Either I get the news about Jesus, or I don’t. Sadly, if I say “I kinda get it” and remain indifferent to it, I don’t get it at all.
Seeing the GFA announcements about Orissa, India and now even in Karnataka (another state) makes me both humbled and fired up. I actually stopped my afternoon and began praying, really praying. Praying like I believed.
Praying for people I would call brothers and sisters keeps my heart grounded… I am so stinking comfortable here, with 4 different bible versions sitting on my desk… my brother in India was forced by Hindu extremists to burn his own bible to ashes. My heart begins to plead, why am I here and not there? Why do I have this many copies of the Word and others, who would devour theirs, lose their only copy? Why am I so comfortable, so soft to sin, so hard hearted? What if our entertainment news in the evening went like this…
http://www.gfa.org/orissa-video
There are plenty of people railing against American Christianity, as some kind of sick hybrid between the American Dream and the teachings of the bible. I feel acceptable when I don’t break the rules, as if the gospel is about me, and making me a better American… I ran into a woman the other day who actually talked like her Father in Heaven was real… Like the kingdom of God was a spiritual beachhead actually established, really created, by the gospel. She walks around and talks like Somebody is listening. If our Creator is there, it makes more sense to talk to Him, than not.
The part of me that thinks she is weird is the same part that doesn’t believe.
Sometimes I start to think that my heart doesn’t want to understand the news… check Luke 24:25 “And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” That’s me more than I wish…
Our brothers and sisters in India - who get told to deny Christ or lose all they own – they understand the news like I wish I did…
Sigh… Lord. I believe, help my unbelief, even so, Come Lord Jesus….
PS 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"
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