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Article for the NHF September 2006 newsletter.
Resource Ministry refocused
The mission of the NHF Resource Ministry is to enrich the Christian
life of NHF members through books, music, audio books, video, and
computer programs, for kids and adults, in areas such as personal bible
studies, worship, devotional, testimonies, sermons, Christian living,
gifts, care groups and fellowship. Compare it to Amazon, CBD, a
library, an "all-you-can-eat" resource buffet, a book club, a
recommendation system, a spiritual health club …
Our busy lifestyle prevents us from enjoying these resources, just as
we have no time for materials in libraries, or exercise to maintain our
health. We only have time for the absolute necessities, or what is at
critical warning level. Our personal spiritual advancement often
gets postponed because we thought, "Though it is not spectacular, at
least I am doing OK spiritually."
The problem is that we often focus our Christian faith only in a
narrowly defined area between God and ourselves, AND we measure how we
are doing in that area by our own judgement. So if we recognize
and respect God, go to church, being nice in our daily routine, and not
commit major crimes or sins, then we are spiritually OK. Even if
we stumble in minor personal sins, we are good at rationalization and
readily excuse ourselves. We are very good at giving ourselves
inflated grade.
This is the same fallacy commited by many non-Christians, as they
similarly state: "I respect Christianity and God, but I don't have a
need for Him. I can do good deeds on my own. I am doing
OK." This line of thinking is further susceptible to the problem
of slippery slope: since no one can possibly be perfect, we can and
does label "OK" any level we feel is not the absolute spiritual
abyss. Then we will always feel justified to consider ourselves
spiritually OK, and not sense our dire need for God.
Until we expand the vision of Christianity, as applied to our lives,
beyond the self-centered piety (e.g. the righteousness of the
Pharisees), to a truly heart-felt higher calling that we can commit to,
we cannot grow in our faith nor have powerful personal witness and
evangelism. The only thing we can offer in our testimony is at
most the stereotypical "I believe in Jesus, and see what did for me, in
the area of personal comfort, success, ..." Yet these are the areas
that our friends often easily brush off as "I am quite successful, I am
already happy with my life, hence I don't think I really need God ,..."
It is with these issues in mind that I picked up Tim Keller's recent
book, The Ministry of Mercy, (incidentally the only book of his sole
authorship,) and find many issues resolved. As I read the initial
chapters, I am already convicted of the role that God calls all of us
to play in this world. Passages throughout the bible, like James
and John, speaks about the kindness and compassion that we need to
extend to the rejected in society, as a sign for God's love living in
us.
While our Christian faith is about the vertical relationship with God,
enabled by the salvation through Jesus Christ, the measurement of our
spiritual health is not by our estimates, but through the horizontal
relationships we have with other human beings. God has given us
the higher calling, to show His love spectacularly in all circles and
people in our lives: our spouse, family, coworkers, friends, people in
distant lands. Note that we are not simply called in one specific
area, such as missions, but are called in all spheres. Like a
crystal reflecting sunlight, the love we offer others reflects the true
condition of our relationship with God, and we need to display the
entire spectrum of human interactions for the beauty to stand out.
The world recognizes and yearns for the self-sacrificing kind of love,
as our recent Care Group study on 1 John showed, because such love has
a tremendous degree of beauty that captivate our eternal desire.
Afterall, why would most people think of Mother Teresa as a primary
example of a loving person? Why are young people so hype up about
making a difference in Third World developing countries, fighting
global poverty and diseases? God already gave us these higher
callings. When we live them out, people will be universally
attracted by our actions, and recognize the presence of God's power in
our lives. Perhaps then our examples can influence their view of
a full life worth living, and find the need for God through our
testimony.
With this new focus, the Resource Ministry will promote materials in
the area of social witness and local outreach in the upcoming
months. We will experiment with a new system to enhance
participation: Resource Ministry will charge you half price for
the book, and refund it if you finish reading it in a month, though you
get to keep the book if you wish. |
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