Contextualization NAHIN (Not)- Reflections on Sunday Morning

I attended a local church service this past sunday morning. These are my reflections from during the service:

It just seems that this imported Western style of worship doesn’t fit with the culture. Why have hard wooden pews when people generally sit on the floor or on cushions? As they sing loudly I can tell the people want to be expressive and praise God. They know they have some reason to, although I think most aren’t completely sure of what that reason is. Who came up with this hard and fast model of Sunday morning Christianity that has not only plagued the west but been exported all over the world?

Stand up. Sit down. Pray together from a book. Read a Scripture. Stand up. Sit down. Is this how church was created to be? Is this the “perfect model” of worship? What happened to contextualization? How did we confuse spreading culture with spreading the gospel? Do Christians world over need to wear jeans?

What is the real purpose of the church? The purpose of the church is to love God with everything that it has. The church, as in the people who believe in faith through Christ, are to be the Bride of Christ when He returns. We must prepare to be the Bride. We must be a house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7), we must equip the saints. We must be a light to the world (Matt 5:16) so that all my come to hear the truth of the gospel.

This is my question for any church, in any country, are we doing those things or are we doing “Sunday morning?” Are we living as followers of the Way, the Truth and the Light, or are we living as followers of tradition? Do we know God? Do we aspire to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?

If the church is not doing its job, what then is it doing? If the church is not a place where we come together and encounter Jesus, then why do we come at all? If the church is not a house of prayer, then what is it a house of?
God in his manifest presence is not here, yet He longs to be. Our purpose in gathering should be to cry out for it. To cry out for God to make Himself known in our midsts. To ask Him to have mercy on the land, to heal us and our neighbors. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the elders and all who live in the land. The need is DIRE. The situation is urgent, for behold the day of the Lord is coming. It is at hand. A day of darkness and gloom. And we are not ready. How can we be the church and the Bride that we are called to be?

But this Sunday morning there is no alarm. No sounding the trumpet. Jesus is coming. We are not ready. We are not expecting it. We sit in our uncomfortable, impractical pews and pretend to pay attention. Yet the Word is not pentrating our hearts and minds. It is not washing us and making us new. It is not changing us. Every week we come. We go. We remain the same.

We keep coming because we must. I mean, we are Christians. Christians go to church on Sunday morning. They stand up. They sing a hymn or two. They sit down. They listen to a message from a man in his white robes. Bibles closed. Eyes fighting to stay open. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And life goes by. Same. Same. Same. Different shoes for Easter. A new suit for Christmas. But the heart remains the same.
Is this the fruit of the Haystack meeting? Of the Northfield 100? They would sit up in their graves and jump out if they saw us now. I have no idea why the church is full. But wait, I take that back. People are hungry for God. They want to know Him, but no one is telling them how. They think this is it, but something deep inside is saying there must be more than this.

After the service they ask me, “What did you think of our worship?” Kaisa laga hai? I think worship is not songs or Sunday morning. It’s a lifestyle. It is bowing down in reverence in submission to God. I use the pretend I didn’t understand the question card. “What did you think of our service?” they ask again as if it was a show. I have all this blog written in my notebook, but now is not yet the time to share with new friends. “Kab bijli chali gai, mai samaj aie. Lekin, kab bijli a gai, microphone kharab hai aur mai nahib samaj aie.” (When the electricity went out, I could understand. But when the electricity was on, the microphone was bad and I didn’t understand.) I try to avoid the questions by saying I had a language problem. This is something which needs much more prayer. My Korean friend knows how I feel and tries to help me avoid the question, as she already knows the answer.

I pause as my audience waits expectantly to hear more about the opinions of their guest. I am not one who thinks rating services is a good thing. The others start remarking that in America the style is not that different. “Bench hai, aur music bhi hai.” (There are pews and music). I think to myself, as if pews and music make the church. Finally I say, “America mai, mera church building nahin hai. Bench nahin hai. Kiomki church log hai. Church building nahin hai. Kabhi kabhi, ham ghar pe mile. Church log hai.” (In America, my church doesn’t have a building. We don’t have pews. Because the church is the people. The church is not a building. Sometimes, we meet at people’s houses. The church is the people.)

I want to say more, but I’m at a loss for words and I feel as if this is enough for one Sunday morning. The elder of the group smiles in agreement. “Ji, I like this idea. Church building nahin hai. You are right. Accha xayal hai. Church log hai.” (Yes, I like this idea. The church is not a building. You are right. Good idea. The church is the people.)

Join with me in praying for the body: Oh Lord cast a vision in their hearts to know you intimately. May they know that they can be born again and made new in you. May they know that they can come before your throne in confidence. May they understand your grace and your desire to make them your children. Oh Lord let them not only be Christian in name, let them not only be Sunday morning Christians. Let them be DISCIPLES who seek after your heart as David did. May they become lovesick worshipers of You. May they be saints whose prayers will be incense rising up before your throne. And God, send us teachers. Send us preachers. Not people to be in it for their glory or their fame, but those messengers who are only doing it for the glory of your great name. Oh God, in this time of urgency, send forth laborers for the harvest here. The church in this country needs to hear and understand the message of truth just as badly as the rest of the community. They need solid food. Over a hundred years on milk will not grow a church. Oh Lord grip their hearts to give them a hunger for your Word. Let them be restless, unsatisfied, constantly seeking One Thing: God and to spread your glory.

Update from Newsletter 05

I can barely believe I’ve been here for five months already. It’s gone by so fast and at the same time God is teaching me how much of an investment is really needed here in the M world. As you’ve probably read in my email updates, the past few months have been difficult but I have really been challenged to grow in my faith through all the circumstances. Even though I get so easily discouraged, God always leads me back to His Word and enlarges my heart to serve these people and for them to come to know the One who created them and loves them.

He reminds me of the vision that He has called me to. In one of my first
newsletters I wrote about what it means to have life vision, and what the vision is that God has given me to pursue. It’s so easy to lose sight of the vision when surrounded by so many distractions and cares of the world, but God is gracious in constantly calling me back to that
vision.

To preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.

To prophesy to the dry bones.

To prepare the way of the Lord.

To be a watchmen on the walls, a prayer warrior contending and standing in the gap for this nation.

To be an ambassador of Christ, living in reckless abandonment faint with love for the man Jesus.

No matter how weak I feel, no matter if my prayers feel as if they are just falling to the floor, I must press on and press in. I must equip and disciple others. I must desire to live and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. I must not be satisfied with less than “greater works than these.”

Before I set out on a ten day trip to the North, the Lord encouraged me with the
passage in Matthew 10:7-13 when Jesus sends his disciples out all over Israel.

“As you go, preach this message:
‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
those who have leprosy, drive out
demons. Freely you have received,
freely give. Do not take along any
gold or silver or copper in your belts,
take no bag for the journey, or extra
tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the
worker is worth his keep.

Whatever town or village you
enter, search for some worthy person
there and stay at his house until you
leave. As you enter the home, give it
your greeting. If the home is
deserving, let your peace rest on it; if
it is not, let your peace return to
you.”

At this point the followers were only called to the Jews and not to the Gentiles, but after Pentecost and the following events the disciples set out doing this same thing to Judea, Samaria, and “the ends of the earth” where Jesus commissioned them to go. This calling and this lifestyle was not only for a limited group of people 2,000 years ago, but it is also for believers today if we are to live out the Great Commission.

God is slowly breaking down my notions about the Christian walk, and instead showing me what a life led by the Spirit should look like. Step by step He is allowing me to move out in faith and see His divine guidance and provision. I desire to walk in this Matthew 10 reality, but my faith is so little. I am only at the stage of going and finding a man of peace and allowing the Lord to
provide for my needs. I long to be obedient to the Lord, and to grow in my gifts so that I can be used to share His word with power and authority.

After 27 hours of bus travel, I arrived at my destination where God provided a family for me to stay with. A friend of mine in Lahore was concerned of my determination to head to this town and called one of the area banks to get some information on the security situation there. When
he called the bank manager, the manager invited me to stay at his home and spend time with his daughter who is my age and his son who was back from studying in Karachi. When I got there I was unsure if I should go to a hotel or stay with the family, but when I was picked up by the bank manager I found myself saying, “Yes, I’d love to stay at your house,” and with that
I was off to a picturesque village outside of the main town.


The family was so hospitable and within minutes I was surrounded by about six or seven women chatting in Urdu, drinking tea and eating thick homemade bread. The house was surrounded by rose gardens, small pastures, and rock walls. After freshening up from
my journey and taking a nap, I spent the afternoon exploring the village, meeting neighbors and swimming in water running down from a nearby glacier.

The rest of the week was spent traveling from the town up to the northernmost border and back. I've fallen for the local langage of the area as well as for the landscape. It is spoken by about 100,000 people, including the family I stayed with. As linguists say, it is a language isolate, unrelated to any other language in the world, which is particularly fascinating. According to the Ethnologue, there is not yet a Bible translated in their language, although it seems that at
least one SIL worker (associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators) has spent time working on the language.

During my time with the people of the north I felt the Lord iincreasing my heart for this region.
Please join me in interceding for God to move in this remote region of the earth:

Oh Lord we pray that you would stir
their hearts with a hunger to know
the one true God. Lord you desire all
to be saved and that none should
perish. You are good and You
promised that people from every
tongue and tribe and nation would
worship you in their own lands.

We ask You, Lord of the harvest,
that You would bring laborers for the
harvest to this region. God we ask
that You bring your Word here to
this valley and prepare people’s
hearts so that it may take root and
grow to fruition. To Him who sits on
the throne forever and ever, Amen!

Israel as Central to God's End Time Plan

The other day Duarte and I were discussing the role of Israel in God’s plan which spurred me on to listen to a session by Wes Hall on the topic. Here’s some notes and reflections from One Thing 2006 – Israel in God’s End Time Plan.

Isaiah 62:6--7 – “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord give yourselves no rest; and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”

I. All Believers are called to pray for Israel

There are some people that God has given a special calling as watchmen over the city of Jerusalem. Their calling is to cry out day and night for God to restore His covenant people. But in verse 7 we see something interesting, “you who call on the Lord give yourselves no rest.” You who call on the Lord, this is anyone who calls on the name of Jesus. This applies to ALL of us who have faith in the Lord. We are called to pray, to give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem as the praise of the earth. Why should we be praying for one dusty city in the Middle East? Should we not be focusing our prayers on our own cities? Should we not focus on energies praying for revival within our local churches? Why does God call his people to cry out for Jerusalem? Why is God so adamant that we give him no rest, and that he himself not rest, until this city is the praise of the earth?

Throughout the Word of God we can find the answers to these queries. God’s ultimate purpose is to glorify himself, yes, and by glorifying Jerusalem he does just that. Why? Because God is serious about keeping His promises. God made a promise to Abraham not just concerning spiritual matters but concerning a specific piece of real estate. God has set his affection on Jerusalem, the actual city. God made many promises to Israel, and he will watch to see that all of those promises are fulfilled. We, as Gentiles, are grafted into the promises given to Abraham. If God has rejected Israel, then we have no redemption. God has chosen to make himself known in the earth by revealing himself through history and by making a covenant with a specific group of people. The covenant God made with Abraham still subsists today. The new covenant does not leave the Jewish people and replace them with the Gentile church. New branches must be grafted into the original plant, otherwise the new branches will have no roots and will surely perish. Yes, the old dry branches will be cut off, but the plant must not be uprooted completely or we as Gentiles have no promise to share in. We must partake in the promises of God alongside Israel. When God establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth He will be dwelling among men and his glory will fill the whole earth.

II. God is Zealous for Israel and for Jerusalem in a special way

Zechariah 1:14 “This is what the Lord Almighty says, ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion…”

Zechariah 8: 2-3 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”

God has tied his gory to Jerusalem. He will make this city the capital of the earth. His activity in Zion is connected with redeeming the whole of mankind. The center of his redemptive plan is Jerusalem and his covenant people.

II. God will use the Gentile church to awaken Israel to jealousy

Paul writes to the Gentile church in Rome concerning Israel.

Rom 9:2 “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Rom 10:1 “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”

Rom 11:1 “I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means!”

Rom 11:11-12: “Again I ask, Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!”

Isaiah 49:22-23 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘See I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up a banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

Israel will not come to salvation apart from the witness and zeal of the Gentile church.

IV. God’s redemption of the earth is dependent upon Israel’s redemption

Eph 1:9-10 “And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things together under one head, even Christ.”

Acts 3:21 “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”

Jesus will remain in heaven until the earth is ready to receive him. Before Jesus can come back, the Spirit and the Bride must call him, (Rev 22:17) and his covenant people Israel invite him back to Jerusalem as their king and Messiah.

Matt 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

In this passage, Jesus is addressing the city of Jerusalem. When he says “you will not see me again until YOU say,” this applies to Jerusalem and her children. Jesus longs to gather together the natural children of Israel who have been chosen as his elect. Before Jesus can come back, Israel must acknowledge him as king and say ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Jerusalem who has for so long scorned the prophets and run after other lovers, must acknowledge that Jesus is coming in the name of the Lord and that he is their long awaited Messiah.

Satan has been trying to work with this loophole. As he knows the Jewish people must invite Jesus back to reign on king David’s throne in Jerusalem, he is determined to extinguish the Jewish people and the city that God plans to reign from over the whole earth.

V. God will restore Israel as a nation

Isaiah 11:9-12, 16 “…for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters covers the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner to the nations and gather the exiles of Israel, he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth….There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.”

Isaiah 35:8,10 “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in the Way; wicked fools will not go about on it…But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Isaiah 49:5-6 “And now the Lord says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength, he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”


VI. Praying for Israel in God’s end time plan

Joel 2:15-17 (not all quoted here), “Let them say, ‘Spare your people O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn”

We are called to declare fasts and call sacred assemblies. We must cry out for justice night and day and ask God to make his dwelling among men. We must ask God to spare his people Israel and bring complete redemption to men by fulfilling his purposes on the earth. If God’s people are an object of scorn then God is not a God who keeps his promises and is therefore a liar. If God is a liar who breaks promises then he has no place to judge Satan, the prince of lies, and he has no place to take his throne. God desires to restore the whole earth, not only mankind. He had five days of creation before he created man. He desires to restore everything, plants, flowers, mountains, animals, to the way that he created it to be before the fall of man. When God created he said, “It is good.” When he is ruling and reigning on the earth he must be able to say, “It is good” about everything he created and therefore everything must be restored. If we desire to see God glorified in all the earth we must pray for the redemption of Israel and of Jerusalem.

Joel 2:28-32 “And afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors, whom the Lord calls.”

Afterward, after the worldwide movement of prayer, fasting and solemn assemblies calling God to come back and redeem his people. God will not be at rest, he will display his zeal in supernatural signs and wonders. What will be the result of this? All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved and there will be deliverance in Zion.

The prayer movement --> renewal and revival in the church --> provoking Israel to jealousy --> redemption and deliverance in Israel --> invitation by the Jewish people of Jesus to come back and rule --> Jesus comes back in a hostile takeover of the earth --> God dwells among men and rules on earth --> redemption and deliverance in all the earth à God’s glory will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea

For more info see www.ihop.org and check out Wes Hall’s teachings on the theology of Israel.

Backlog - May 21

So I haven't written in a while but here's an update from May 21st. I'll be gradually filling you all in on what God has been teaching me in the past month, which is a lot!

I had horrible experience going to the capital and it seems that the work permit I need just doesn't really exist in the system. At least there's no legal way to get it.
God is so amazing. I was so tired and discouraged after feeling like I was going to be deported and told that the work visa was impossible to get. Literally, I had taken an overnight bus, waiting at the Am Embassy for four hours in various lines and went through about 75 security checks only to be given a tiny slip of paper with a phone number for the Min of Interior which I'd been caling for two days previous and no one ever answers. Actually I have six numbers for the Min of interior. Nobody answers four of them and two are disconnected. Anway I then just got in a taxi and went o the Ministry of Interior which is only open like 1 hour a day. Praise the L that I was there at the exact right time. To make a long story shorter, the guys were SO mean and rude and I ended up outside the office crying under the hot sun (115 degrees) with tears falling on my visa extension letter. These Christian guys from the Samaritan's Purse and the UN came over to help me, and after going back into that horrid office two more times they at least accepted my tourist visa extension request and told me to come back in two days. They could have done it then, but hey they are gov officials and they do what they want.

In the car that rescued me and brought me to a ch-rch, I met an Iranian believer who had to flee the country six years ago. He's now a refugee here. He came to Chr-st twelve years ago, but then his brother reported his conversion to hte government and a death sentence was issued against him by his own family. He and his wife and two daughters escaped the country illegally and are now hoping that the UN Human Rights Commission will grant them the right to live in the US or Canada so they can practice their faith in J-sus. I was like wow God, if you sent me here just to be encouraged by this brother's story and to remember that HE is in control and that He has a purpose in suffering., then thank you Lord.

I could write a novel of what's happened in the past months, but basically my former employers were not very honest and seemed to be taking advantage of me. They held my passport illlegally and it's their fault why the visa is overstayed because they were demanding all this stuff from me to get it back. You can't go to the police because the society is too corrupt. God is teaching me, pray for those who persecute you in a way I never understood before. I realize I have to forgive them and ask God to give me a heart to pray for Him to have mercy on them. It's not easy, but God is changing my heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh and allowing me to love them despite the circumstances.

I tried to go to the Am Embassy and get help, but they've proved that they are NO help whatsoever and God is teaching me to rely on Him. Many days i have been discouraged and it seems like I never get a break from trying to escape some situation that I don't want to be in. The other night, God treated me by giving me this beautiful emply with furnished house to live in for a few weeks since I don't have a place. It's one of my friend's friend's houses and man they must be loaded. The family who lives there is currently in Seattle and only comes back every few years. Just the servants live in the house. I walked in and my bedroom is huge and the bathroom could be a garage for an SUV. There's a spa and everything. I just put on some IHOP/Misty Edward music, enjoyed the spa, gave myself a facial, and read my Bible. God was telling me that I am his princess and that He enjoys to romance me. I just got on my knees and started crying because I had been so discouraged lately, yet God is faithful in providing for me. I stayed up til 3am just enjoying God and interceding for my friends here to come to know him.

So things are crazy but God is good. My friend Anita who got married Aprl 19 is pregnant! I'm thinking and praying about extending my stay here. If I can get a decent salary by teaching four hours a day then I will have no problem staying here longer without raising more support. Pray for me as I ask the Lord for wisdom and direction!