A Foreign Correspondent in Rome

This week, Kingdom Bloggers will share an occupation each of us would have worked back in biblical days.

It’s a bit different for a woman, to imagine herself in a chosen occupation in Biblical times.

What a woman did with her time was largely dependent on the socio-economic status of her family or husband. If a widow, whether Jew or gentile, poverty was her lot, unless her family took her in. Here is the reality: the Jewish community in general, out of deep respect for God and His law, treated women--those who were virtuous--better than the pagan crowd.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, however, his respect and treatment of women was radical. The women in his circle had never known such acceptance. To His disciples, when Jesus engaged the Samaritan woman at the well, it must given them a sudden rush of anxiety like the secret service suffers when the president jumps out of a limo against protocol to greet the people.

But I digress. If as a woman, I could be any occupation as a believing Christian in first century, I would want to be Luke’s associate editor and then foreign correspondent in Rome (interviewing Paul in prison; plus, I love Italian food :). Luke is a gifted writer and reporter--the Gospel of Luke, which tells of the life and teachings of Jesus, exudes with Jesus’ compassion, joy, miraculous works and powerful gift of storytelling; the Book of Acts records the beginnings of a movement that would grip the planet, and contains several examples of women being used by God to teach, pray, worship and provide hospitality and shelter to disciples.

How exciting--and dangerous--to be in the midst of watching and recording the lives of ordinary people being transformed and catapulted to the front lines of The Way. As a front-line believer, I could not be “objective” as reporters today claim they must be: I would be hopefully praying for and helping and learning about the faith as I spent time with Luke, other seasoned converts, and later Paul.

Just imagining that kind of life, makes me wonder if I am living with that kind of courage and gusto as I work in ministry now. May each of us live with full-force and faith in the occupation God has called us to now. For His glory.

God, what are you doing?

God, what are you doing?

Imagine a gun pointed at your head. If you agree with the message of this message the gun will fire—and you will enter eternity.

It will happen to someone before you finish reading this. Approximately one person every five minutes will be killed today, for their belief in Jesus Christ; twelve within the hour; two hundred and eighty-eight by this time tomorrow; over one hundred thousand by this time next year. BANG.

God, what are you doing?

The following is a statement from the White House: February 24, 2012.

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms reports that Iranian authorities’ reaffirmed a death sentence for Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani for the sole reason of his refusal to recant his Christian faith.  This action is yet another shocking breach of Iran’s international obligations, its own constitution, and stated religious values.  The United States stands in solidarity with Pastor Nadarkhani, his family, and all those who seek to practice their religion without fear of persecution—a fundamental and universal human right.  The trial and sentencing process for Pastor Nadarkhani demonstrates the Iranian government’s total disregard for religious freedom, and further demonstrates Iran's continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens.  The United States calls upon the Iranian authorities to immediately lift the sentence, release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.  The United States renews its calls for people of conscience and governments around the world to reach out to Iranian authorities and demand Pastor Nadarkhani's immediate release.

This man is on death row for his refusal to recant his Christian faith.

God what are you doing?

I prayed for my family, my kids, my country last night before I went to bed—and for you, before I went to church today.

Just for attending a church service, Damare, a young slave boy, was left to die after having his feet and knees nailed to a board. Miraculously he survived and said he forgave his tormenter because, Jesus was also nailed and forgave him.

God what…

I made some cookies yesterday. I had to ask my wife a lot of questions since I’d never really done it before. Figured I’d take some to a couple bachelors that live nearby—my Christian duty to reach out to the lost.

Right now thousands of folks are feeling the pain of hunger, and fourteen thousand will starve to death before another day begins.

God…?

115,000 babies were aborted yesterday, and that many more will be again today and tomorrow and the day after and…

I write words—and pray they make a difference.

God what are you doing? When I look at this great big world, with all of its great big problems, I look and feel disgustingly puny. God, what are you doing?

Loving.

In the next 24 hours statistics say eighty-thousand people will accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and be born again. Christianity: the fastest growing of all beliefs.

Through one venture alone: The Jesus film. Every eight seconds, somewhere in the world, another person indicates a decision to follow Christ after watching the "JESUS" film. Every eight seconds... that's 10,800 people per day, 324,000 per month and more than 3.8 million per year.

 

I’m supposed to write about: What’s God doing? But can I be honest here? It’s kinda overwhelming.  

 

There was this guy, John, sitting in prison and his friends were telling him about all the stuff Jesus was doing. So, John told them to go ask Jesus if this was God’s doing—if He was the Messiah. Jesus told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. Luke 7:18-23

 

I ask God what He’s doing. He’s doing what He’s always done—hanging out with those that need Him. He’s near the hungry, the sick, the dying, the hurting, the lame, the poor, the brokenhearted…He said those who are well don’t need a doctor but those who are sick. He’s with those.

 

So, when we see suffering—rather than asking: Where’s God? What’s He doing?—we should see God sitting right in the midst of it, looking to us to offer our support, our hand, our help.

 

And ultimately…when I ask the question: God, what are you doing? His reply is: What are you doing?    

 

The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
~

Signs of the Times

This week at Kingdom Bloggers we have been tasked with writing about “what God is doing.” Because we believe that God is living and active in our lives and in the world, we may see patterns of the unfolding of His plan and purposes for His kingdom.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the teachers of the Law and religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign to prove that he was from God. Jesus retorts that people like them make great weathermen, but terrible current event analysts:

“He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away” (Matthew 16:2-4).

The sign of Jonah (Jonah was a runaway prophet who was in a whale’s belly for three days), refers to Jesus’ death and resurrection over three days, an event predicted in scripture for hundreds of years, and one that would change hearts and history. The very experts in scripture had failed to recognize that their Messiah stood before them. We can be blind to what is happening right in front of us, especially when things aren’t jibing with our assumptions and pre-conceived notions.

The reason Jonah ran away from God’s directive to warn the Ninevites to repent was because he hated those people and believed they did not deserve to be saved! When God does forgive the Ninevites, “To Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:1-2).

Chad Pecknold, a theologian, states that it seems the way Jesus reads the sign of Jonah is as a clarifying, transformative, directive and predictive sign. Where God is, there is always love and transformation occurring, even though we may not see the results right away.

The reason I write about Jonah is because I see God at work in the hearts and minds of His servants. Jonah’s heart needed to be changed--and yet he was God’s man of the hour! God is at work in the hearts of His people, because we have been called to love people so much that we would die for them, like Jesus did. To be transformed requires change, and change usually comes with a cost. Oswald Chambers once said, “You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it." This "hard word" does not set well with us.

We see great pain, struggle, wars and rumors of wars all around us: failing marriages, struggles with addiction, adultery, church in-fighting, power struggles, racism, prejudice, hatred of women, disdain toward men--and these occur within the very people who claim to follow God.

Many of us point the finger at others to show how terrible things are in the world and proclaim that is how we know we are in the end times. That’s what Jonah did; that is what the Pharisees and Sadducees did. Next time we are tempted to do that, let’s step in front of a mirror. But then remember the sign of Jonah: God is in the business of transformation, redemption and hope--even in the belly of the whale.

Read the Book of Jonah here.

The image of Jonah is from a website that supports Ethiopian Jews.

My daughter sent me the Jesus face-palm image. Pretty sure He's done that over my foolishness, as well as his disciples, who were also slow learners :) : Matt 16:5-12; Mark 10:25-35.