Hostage Situation

This guy in class says that he is going through a Kurt Cameron The Way of the Master training and good ole Kurt says that we cannot wait for people to open doors because everyone of the people we wait on could go to hell. What? I cannot tell you how much this burns me up. So many Christians (all with good intentions mind you) run around this world anxious and trying to enforce their faith on others. The result of course is the nasty scarlet letter modern American Christians run around wearing. Instead of seeing it as a mark of disgrace though, they see it as a mark of honor. The problem with that is they run through the world hurting people in order to shine that badge that is really only a weight that hold them back from truly reaching as many people as God could use them to reach. We have short sightedness. We think that if we could reach as many people that we could dream about it would be a great thing. The sad thing about that is our number system is a joke to God. What if we truly reached the amount of people God wanted us to reach, not that we want to reach. What if God put you on earth to reach 10 people that no one else could. Would we be pleased or think we are not doing enough? Evangelsit pull things out of Scripture and are so worried about saving the lost that they run over those who are lost in attempting to reach those distant ones. How many people at work do those who are concerned about reaching others so much have feet marks on their backs from being pushed to the side because the “lost” are needing them. We have the messiah complex. We think we can save people. We cannot save anyone. The people who think they can save, run around like wild trying to do so. But that actually doesn’t make sense, the one who had the most concern about saving people and actually had the power to never seems anxious or in a rush. Jesus Christ was never running around or stressing about saving people. This is going to offend and possibly make people who read this think I am a heretic, but I’m going to say it anyways, because it is something I’ve studied and been convicted as truth.

Nowhere in scripture is the gospel proclaimed without a common ground being established, common ground being an open door or some kind of permission.

Read that again and swallow, don’t be so quick to spit it out. Digest that thought. Think about it, really. Read any Gospel and the book of Acts and study each time someone is preached to or saved. You will not find a random occurrence. There is always a common ground, always a common thread that they walk in order to speak. The problem with evangelist is that they don’t know when to shut up. They cannot understand the thought that maybe they don’t have the right or maybe their timing is all wrong.

They think they can just go around enforcing their faith on others. So instead of being patient and looking for open doors they runaround kicking them in. I’d imagine any police officer or swat team member could comprehend this and relate to it quite well. I’ve seen movies and reality shows about police officers and when they are put in a long hallway with many doors they do not just go around kicking doors in. Why? Well, if they just kick in doors they could get killed or they could kill others. If there is a hostage situation and Officer Genius just goes to the random door and kicks it in, the criminal is going to blow their head off. Good job genius! His over willingness or anxiousness caused a life lost to the enemy. Isn’t Satan just holding God’s children hostage? So all these well meaning men and women are running around all pumped up on this faith they have (which you should be, if you are not excited about the faith you have something is wrong) but rather than being patient and checking out the doors and walking in open doors, they kick them in and millions around the world have been lost. So many people have scars inflicted by those who say they are doing God’s will. Have you ever thought that Jesus was a little less froggy than you are? Jesus wasn’t jumpy, he didn’t kick in doors, He waited, looked for opportunities or created them smoothly and then shared he good news. Paul, Peter, all the early church leaders did it the same way. The gospel is spread much more affectively by a patient, smart, tactical, team of officers than it is by a gang of gun happy new recruits. Our gun is the truth of Jesus Christ, our mission is to bring those who are being held captive by Satan into His custody, bringing them back to Him (Jesus) to save, are you willing to accept this mission? Let us be used by God (who is always in control and never anxious) to free hostages from the nasty grips of a deceitful, twisted, hostage holder.

May you slow down and look for open doors instead of kicking them in. May you exhibit patience and self control. May you seek those who are lost, not hunt them down. May you seek the Word of God and look to our forefathers, the men who have been used to institute our establishment of faith, and really wrestle with that thought: Nowhere in scripture is the gospel proclaimed without a common ground being established, common ground being an open door or some kind of permission. May you seek to tell everyone who have the opportunity to who Jesus Christ is and what He wants form them.