Where we are: Prayerfully Prepared

Not long ago we heard a fire-y sermon about evangelism.  It would have made Billy Graham or Bill Bright stand up and hoot and holler I think.  And I think Jesus was happy..... but it does remind me of a quote from one of my hubby's favorite seminary professors:  "You can't say everything when you say anything."

The sermon was aimed at instigating boldness....  "preaching the Gospel without words is like trying to tell the evening news with no words."  and... "I would have trusted Christ a lot sooner if they guy who visited me weekly in more dorm room would have just told me about him way earlier than he did."  Good.... so true....  we do need words and we do want to be wisely bold.  And yet, our goal is to proclaim it clearly, penetratingly, more than just what we would call bold (on our parts).

Ahh... I'm well aware that even just trying to write this post, those professor's words are so true again.  There are years of prayers and heart yearning and ministry labors already poured out on this and I don't have the time to try to coney all of it here now.....  but I do want to tell you two things:

1-  I am beginning to see what I think my husband has known for years.... that our Muslim friends here are hearing, understanding more of Christ and, though we wish it wasn't the case, if they are coming... they are coming to Christ SLOWLY.

Our summer room mate just shared with me this past week some of the heartache of her life, her abuse as a child, her abandonment, her parents separation, her lies to others about it all.   Here I've been aiming at spelling out the whole story of forgiveness of sins, Christ on the cross, and I am so glad we've covered that with her.  But boldness- one loud, complete telling of the Gospel story- on our part doesn't "get us off the hook."

Later, we watched a bit of a Christian music video together as a family and she joined us too.  After that I talked with her about culture and how it changes and people change but God never changes.  She is seeing so many different cultural things in our home this summer...  bread, cakes, cookies.... a dad that helps in the kitchen.... a courteous disagreement between husband and wife... discipline that is firm and loving....  repentance and forgiveness when one of us looses our cool.

So... there seems to be a good, real heart work going on in her.  But it's not coming with instant openness to salvation in Jesus.  Perhaps the Lord has called us to this to teach us this lesson in falling His lead, going His pace.  And I sure do wish it was a speedier pace and I sure Don't know why it isn't... but we will keep trusting Him for that.

Another issue with Slowness is that the Lord is in charge of it.  In all the commands he's given us to preach and make disciples, he's never told us that we need to make it happen fast.  But there is lots of emphasis on that in missiological strategy today.  Even to the point of one direct imperative to go against scripture... where Paul wrote to Timothy about not appointing a new believer to leadership, some strategies say we must promote a new believer to Bible study leader in Two Weeks!!!

May the Lord give us firm faith and patience to trust him for his timing and to be willing to have slow, small "results" and not abandon faithfulness to His battle strategy/ commands in scripture because we think we must have masses of converts....

2-  For us, the "solution" that seems to fit into our hearts on this issue:   We want to see our Uyghur friends come to Christ!  So perhaps we need to be more bold?  Perhaps we need better strategies, resources to share with them?  Perhaps we need more people praying for the Red Seas in their hearts- indeed in their whole culture- to open wide???  And if we preach boldly on street corners and the first time we meet any new friend, we'll be sure to get kicked out of this country and what then?  We've done our duty?  But what of the millions that still don't understand the Gospel!?  We sure don't want to sit back and wait til they tell us they're ready, eager to hear about Jesus now that we've been friends for a dozen years....

For us the answer that seems to be fitting into our hearts for this complicated issue is this:
Be PRAYERFULLY PREPARED

We absolutely do want, need!, people praying with us and for us, and for these friends and for authorities not to notice our sharing.... Our own prayers most often focus on "Lord open their hearts to you!  Give them understanding!  Cause them to see the inconsistencies of Islam and give them courage to be willing to turn away from it.  Give them eyes to see and know your love which far surpasses the acceptance they have in their culture because of the name of Islam."

When we have fervently pursued the Father's heart in prayer, when the church is praying with us for the tilling of their hearts, we believe the Father will open doors to proclaim bits of his mystery or to tell the whole story of His love or to salt another conversation with the gourmet flavor of His goodness, thus preventing more decay from the dark deception of Islam.  

And when he does, we want to be ready!  Ready with verses memorized in Uyghur, ready to share a praise song, ready to tell the websites where they can read God's word or share a video or radio Bible teaching in Uyghur....

The hurdles to their salvation are so many-  cultural biases and slanderous stereotypes against Christianity and Christians, coercion and forceful acceptance of Islam for the sake of family and jobs, legality issues (the Uyghur Bible is illegal to have in your possession, evangelism is illegal, web sites are often blocked), the eagerness of China to control the Uyghur territory and "protect" XinJiang from foreign involvement.....

So friends, would you ask with us that the Lord would continue His true work of drawing hearts to Him.  Ask that there would be many who would come to Him (His word promises that in the end there will be many around his throne) and that until harvest time, the workers in His field would be faithful to His commands, to His word.  Ask that we would be well prepared... that our language study woudl be fruitful and graced so that words stick in our brains and are useable to proclaim.  Ask that we would have wisdom to proclaim the right pieces of His word, His story, at the right time in friends' lives.

Ask that His glory would cover Xin Jiang as the waters cover the earth!  And ask that the Uyghur people would be made glad because of hte salvation of our great God, given to us in the Savior Jesus!

We are so grateful for you praying with us.  Would you consider sharing our need for prayer with others?  I think there are just a dozen or so who read here sometimes....

Thank you dear friends!

May Christ be praised!