Balancing the salvation check book

How much would you pay for a life? No, I am not talking about a hit job, but how much would you pay if you “could” buy someone’s salvation?

I came to think about this question when I first became a Christian.  I wanted so much for my parents to be saved, but to this day they’re still not.  I thought at that time, if only I could trade something with God for their salvation, I mean anything, even my life.  If God says, “Amy, in order for your parents to be saved, you have to die.”  I would say, “Absolutely! Take my life!”  Thankfully, Jesus has already given his life for my parents, and I am not qualified for the job anyway.

If one could give one's life up for another's salvation, I don't know how many Christians would give up their lives for Buddhist and Muslims.  I thought of the decades of unceasing work in the gospel hard soil of Japan and numerous Islamic countries. The enormous amount of resources pouring in sure does not seem like it is ‘balancing’ the number of people saved. However, I am sure if you ask any one of those who are supporting ministries in these countries, who are working faithfully, who have given their lives for the people in these countries, “Is it worth it?” They will give you a definite "YES!"

God, through this, is telling us that ‘balancing the salvation check book’ is not our concern, it's his business, all we need to do is to remain faithful to what he has called us to do, walk with him, look to him, feel his heart for the lost, the rest is God's concern, not ours.

What is history?

All that we call human history -- money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery -- [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which make him happy. ~ C.S. Lewis

We see all these happen everyday around the world, no matter which culture you are in, which level of society you are in. It is astounding though to see all these displayed so plainly in the Philippines, which is supposed to be a Catholic country. A lot of Filipinos are "religions", today we attended church service, we drove to the mall to make a few last minute purchases before we leave Cebu. On the way, we passed a large Catholic church. The church was so full that there were about 100 people standing outside of the church to attend the service. Filipinos are religious.

However, something is wrong with being just "religious", without Jesus Christ as the center of their worship, man still tries hard "to find something other than God which make him happy." The Bible explained it very clearly, in Romans 3:23-24, it says " for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Life is tasteless and hopeless with Jesus.

Making culture

Dan and I have quite a few conversations about "making culture" these days. By that, I don't mean changing a certain culture of a country or an ethnic group, it has nothing to do with that fact that we are living in a different culture right now.

A professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) once told us in person that he was invited to preach and teach in South Korea. In one of his sermons, he told the hundreds of Korean church leaders to "stop acting like Koreans, start acting like Christians." Surprisingly, his 'suggestion' was well received by the Korean church leaders. The professor saw that many cultures, especially the Asia culture, has a lot of negative effects on God's church.

A very common phenomenon is that certain person or certain group of people is 'in charge of the church', no matter they have a title at church or not. If you have been in the church for a long time and are influential, you will stay that way until you die. You don't need an official position to be influential, you just are. The 'I am the parent, you are my son, therefore, whatever I say, you listen' type of mentality is quite common. That's the culture in a lot of the Chinese or Asia churches.

It is important to instill in the congregation a cultural of being Christians, instead of a Christian of a certain ethnic group. That said, I didn't mean that ethnic churches should not exist. However, if an ethnic church governs the church using their own ethnic "rules and regulations" than what are taught in the Bible, the church will be more likely to be sickly than not.

In the past weeks, we experienced some sad incidents at the church we are attending. We now see how being more Chinese than Christian has affected negatively on the health of the church.

We don't know how the situation in the church in Cebu will fan out, we just pray that whatever happens, God will be glorified, not shamed. I also hope that as time goes on with the leadership of the church involve in leadership training and bible study, a Christian culture will replace the more dominant Chinese culture in the church.