I sense God´s unfathomable and undeserved grace when I hear like music our new Iranian friends say "We miss you - When may we see you?"   Just a few days ago a family said to me, "We like your (American) idea of having a potluck once a month, while you yourself may have something from the Bible!" 

In other words, "We´ll be responsible for the culinary side, and you´ll be responsible for the spiritual kitchen!" Isn´t that a hungry heart´s cry?   Is the answer anything less than the gospel of Christ?  Or should it rather be philosophy, politics, "contemporary" worship music, religious ideas, denominational preferences or some leading issues of the day?  No, such things fade away compared to the powerful and "up-to-date" gospel.

I´m convinced that there are Christians much more gifted than I am  who could do a better job, but sometimes (or usually) the Lord is pleased with imperfect and poor tools in order for Him to get all the glory (Isa. 48:11) as part of the wisdom of the gospel ministry.

The irony of all this is, however, that if I ask some of my friends to join my "gospel kitchen"  to "serve" a gospel testimony among non-Christians, they usually don´t have the time as they are busy with their own Christian "image", church programs or other things.  Their private homes would work fine for the strangers, but this is not part of our traditional "values".

God´s chosen people, Israel, were supposed to have a heart for the "strangers" (Ex 22:21, 23:9) and not be so "chosen" that the ethnic strangers are lost sight of.  God´s chosen people on gospel grounds face the same challenge today, don´t we?  So let us encourage each other to share the good news with others in a world so full of bad news. 

Jan. 22, 2016 - jn