So, yeah I cried…

Okay, Vanessa makes me cry. Thanks.

Love Lost I

“Fag.” He said as he shoved his friend out of the way. “Dude, I don’t have time to be playing games, we have a few more hours and this party needs to be planned. No, I’m not giving you a hug, and I need those cases moved over here.” Billy pushed Jake out of the way as he walked towards the ten cases of beer they had purchased from the local grocery store.

“C’mon bro, you’re like one of the most emo people I know, now all of a sudden you’re acting like a tough guy. All I’m saying is I want a hug on New Year from my best friend, is that too much to ask?” Jake said, as he helped his friend open the cases and store the beer in the refrigerator. “Sheesh, freakin girl.” Jake watched his friend as he bent over to open a case of beer. Jake looked at Billy, he hadn’t noticed how much more built he had become since working out on the farm with his dad in Massachusetts. Billy stood 5’8, he had pasty white skin, tan lines that stopped at his bicep showing how he worked in a tshirt. Blonde hair, blue eyed and never left home with out gel in his hair.

Billy and Jake had been friends through high school and afterward, they’d always spent the New Year out somewhere partying, doing drugs, or sleeping around. Lots of things changed though when Jake moved with his parents to a small town in Massachusetts. Billy missed his best friend, and now they were reuniting for the holidays, and the New Year meant one word: party.

“Ey, Bill will you grab those cases over there and move them back, we don’t need to fill the entire refrigerator. Julio said he was bringing some jello shots, and Brandon is gonna grab some bottles before he heads over. We need room for that stuff too.” Jake said as he finished placing the last bottle in the refrigrator. “Is she coming over tonight? Bill?” He shut the refrigerator door, and walked over to his friend who was securing the cases against the kitchen wall.

“Who?” Billy said. “Oh, I’m not sure. I sent her a text message inviting her, and she called but I was asleep when she called I totally missed it.” He wiped some sweat off of his head. “Damn, moving cases of beer is tough, maybe we should just drink them.” He said with a smirk on his face. “I really miss her a lot, its been a year since I’ve seen her.”

Billy was referring to Brea his ex girlfriend. They had dated for three years in high school, and after an on and off relationship it turned into a what she called ‘mere e-lationship’ where they’d send email, or texts and never talk or get together. Billy had become preoccupied and consumed by school, and family events he’d forgot he had a girlfriend. At least thats what he told Brea, the truth was Billy was so preoccupied with himself, so consumed with all of his own duties he’d fail to give any attention to his girlfriend when he wasn’t receiving it himself. Billy loved attention.

 ”Sure you do, last we talked she said you were so self centered it ruined her life. I’m sure she misses you, but you don’t pay attention to her” Jake said in judgment.

“Okay, listen you prick…nevermind.” Billy didn’t want to fight with his friend about his ex girlfriend. He’d have to bring up the fact that Jake had messed around with Brea one night at a party, and that he knew about it. Jake never knew the word got out, Billy just couldn’t bring it to tell them he knew. He let out a huge sigh. “I just, I didn’t know what I lost until she was gone…yes I know its typical blah, blah, blah but thats how it worked for me.” He refused to tell them he knew about their fiasco because it would ruin everything between them and their friends too. I guess I am the girl, he thought.

That night, the party came and it was executed elegantly. Jake and Billy got piss drunk, the dj did a good job, and the beer lasted all night. Jake was asleep on Billy’s bed, and Billy crashed on the couch. To Billy’s dissapointment Brea didn’t show up, well he wasn’t that dissapointed but he would not have minded a good time with her for the night.

Knock, knock, knock…

When Billy heard the knock, at first he thought it was a dream.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Huh!? Uh…wha…hello!?” With sleep on his eyes, hair gel dandruff in his head, the stench of a rotten corpse in his mouth, and terrible stomach pain. “Who’s there?” He walked towards the door, and looked through the peep hole. Outside the door stood three finely dressed men.

“Hello, we’re with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…” Billy heard through the door.

 ”I’m not interested.” He said as he watched the men through the peep hole. “I’m a Christian.” The word irked him, he hated the word but he knew it would keep the mormons away.

The men stood at the door a little longer, one whispered something to the other, and then finally they turned and left.

 Phew. He thought as he laid back down on the couch.

…to be continued…

building His church

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven; And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

-Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:16-18

Its time for us to recognize that we no longer need solely to look to the Western Hemisphere for the future of the Christian faith. its time for us to think globally. In 1900 80% of the Christians in the world lived in Europe and America.

But in 2000 60% of the Christians in the world are found in Asia, Africa and Latin America…during the 20th century Africa was transformed from a continent that was 10% Christian in 1900 to one that is 46% Christian in 2000. There are now more Christians in the continent of Africa than there are citizens in the United States. Over the last hundred years Christianity has grown from 10 million professing believers in African to over 360 million, by 2025 the most conservative estimates, if these trends continue are that in African there will be 630 million believers, 640 in Latin America, and over 500 million in Asia. At which point the typical Christian will be a woman living in Nigeria, or a Brazilian village as opposed to the typical Christian of 1900 which was a man living in a midwestern town in the United States.

-Dr. David S. Dockery

 

I’m just sayin…

You know, I’m not the hard core evangelist kinda guy. I don’t pass out tracts, don’t stand up in a crowd of people to preach, and I don’t wear ‘Christian’ t-shirts with a Gospel message so that perhaps the spirit would use the t-shirt to save men. I’m much more comfortable being the quiet guy wearing the Abercrombie t-shirt, or the just fellowshipping with the brethren over coffee, or cooking fajitas at my house for my brothers.

I’m not into Ray Comfort, or the popular evangelical tactics. I don’t really like the attitude of ‘us against them’ in evangelism, and I don’t really like the whole ‘fighting the culture’ mentality that some evangelists take. In this sense, I reject the whole transformationalist messsage carried in evangelical pop-evangelism. I’m unashamedly opposed to transformationalist (cha ching…two kingdoms huh Daniel?) views of culture. The culture is not to be confused with the cult. There is a sacred and a secular.

I don’t think of myself as an anti-evangelist, although they have given me good reasons to be anti-evangelism because the abrasive attitude of some evangelists reminds me more of Westboro Baptist Church, than the Church Christ founded.

I think apologetics isn’t evangelism, and evangelism is much more important than apologetics. I don’t confuse the two categories, while I do recognize the necessity of both. Apologetics is used to shut people up, evangelism is heralding the message of the Gospel, the announcment of forgiven sins, and the reconciliation of a people to God. 

I’m not big into confrontational evangelism, I am big into relational evangelism. I do witness to cousins, friends, brothers and sisters. Although, I have witnessed to the occasional stranger, for example the young hispanic gangster who asked me for a cigarette (gasp! I even smoked one with him!). It was an interesting interaction of culture, I’m a hispanic but I’m not a ‘cholo’  and while my background may have some ‘cholos’ in it, I don’t familiarize with the subculture they’ve created. Of course the message transcends the culture, so whether it was a yuppie, or a cholo the words of sin, righteouness and judgement all mean the same thing to both groups of people. I would think that I presented a coherent message in a gracious manner. No need to yell, no need to run him through a list of sins – he knew he was evil. I didn’t attract him by giving him dollars, being tied up, or playing a game. All he wanted was a cigarette.

I don’t mind open air preaching, but I’m not an open air preacher. I do think some tracts make the Gospel herald look like an Entertainment Tonight reporter with some Gospel mixed in. But, I also don’t think the other methods are evil, or should be excluded from the life of the Christian in evangelism.

I guess, what I want to say is that sometimes we run into the zealot, the guy who can’t stop sharing Jesus, the guy who treats sharing Jesus with people in his manner, his way, and only his way as if it is the supreme act of piety, as if God’s work will not be done if we don’t evangelize in that way, at that time, in that manner. I don’t need to stand on a stool, passout million dollar bills or chick tracts to get someones attention. I already have some peoples attention, why not focus on them and include the occasional stranger?

Finally, what about the church? After all the Lord commissioned the disciples, and people have interpreted that as implying the Church. If its the comission of the church to evangelize the nations through preaching and the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper, wouldn’t it be beneficial to invite unbelievers to the gathering of the Church? The great commission wasn’t given to us as individuals but the chuch as a corporate entity.