November 28, 2007
Playing With Fire
Jude says, “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 22-23 NIV) I think we’ve all tried our hand at snatching others from the fire and we’ve got the burns to prove it. If you’re like me, you have at least one relative who doesn’t want to be snatched from the fire…they’d rather play with it instead. My Sunday School teacher has a theory on witnessing. He believes we often fail in our witnessing to family members because they know us too well. I suppose to relatives some of our rescue burns could have a self-inflicted appearance…and in some cases they’re right.
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Gail;
-----I believe witnessing is done through three different functions involving a message of three different points. First, the points. The most important point, the point that ties the others together, is that Jesus Christ saves and rules. He is real; He is who He claims to be; and the Bible reveals what can be known about Him. The saved life becomes involved in Him not as a religious duty or religious participation, but as a permeating reality, a realization that every existing thing or idea is touched by Him, either to be taken with Him or to be cast into the trash fire. And the saved life is merely His for the taking. Another point important to make is the reality that we live within an environment of mixed good and evil where everyone and everything is a mixture of both good and evil. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. We try but we do not succeed at being perfect. Some claim that we are to be perfect, but they are wrong; we are not perfect. If we were perfect, we would not need point number one. Therefore the first difference between those who have the Lord and those who need the Lord is not that those who have the Lord are better in behavior than those who have not, but that they confess their own sins to be grave, fatal, and - at one level or another - pervasive. Though some who need the Lord, but are a mere step from Him, may also confess the same, the next difference is absolute. Those who have the Lord hold to the Lord to be taken by Him. Those who need Him still occupy themselves with any variety of other options. The last point is then obvious: although the genuineness of our call upon His name may be demonstrated by the effort we make to practice doing right instead of doing wrong, the effectiveness of our call upon His name is in His mercy alone. It is our genuine call upon His name which attracts His mercy. If the genuineness of that call were to be validated by achievement instead of effort, then the effectiveness of the salvation He brings would be from law instead of mercy. This final point is very important when witnessing to family members, because they understand the dynamics of the second point.
-----The spoken or written communication of ideas and feelings comes to most people’s minds at the mention of witnessing. “Go tell” is the direct expression of the Great Commission, so it is the quickest to be grasped, the easiest to be perceived. It is an intellectual meeting of minds, and many ideas involved in witnessing must be passed along verbally. For some, it is the hardest to do, but for others the easiest. Another function is doing what is right. It is a nonverbal communication that exhibits whatever reflections, however cleaned and primped they’ve been prepared, the believer can muster of the kingdoms right actions. And of course, some emphasize certain actions, such as attending church and tithing, while others emphasize different ones, like staying sober and helping the neighbors. Together, all the actions of the holy and perfect life are too many for any one member of the body to present himself. But the few that each of us may be able to stir up and perform are important demonstrations of the new way things will naturally be where Jesus is taking us. They are telltale that we believe enough to try to be like where we are going. What are yours? We all have them. For some, this function of witnessing is hard to do, but for others it is easy. Finally, there is the function of mercy. None of us who know the Lord are able to perform all of the acts of the perfect life. None of us are able to perform any act of the perfect life perfectly. Yet we must all come together. That means there are a lot of non-living acts, as well as a lot of non-living nuances of living acts that will be happening amongst us. These poke and hurt. Should we then respond with the law if we believe we are saved by His mercy? Of course not! The most telltale sign of our belonging to Him is our approaching others the way He approached them - mercy first. Of course, that did not prevent Him from making His calls to correct behavior, He did still purge the Temple and acknowledge the tomblike characters of the Pharisees, etc., etc. Nor should it also prevent us from speaking the truth in love. But our positions from which we speak out will always need to accentuate the mercy in the hallowed ground from which we call, otherwise we will be swallowed up by the very ground upon which we stand. And this is why Jesus was so pointed in proclaiming that if we desire mercy we must show mercy. It is the testimony that must be woven into every stitch of our characters, because it is the paper upon which all other testimony is written. If we believe enough in the truths about Him to speak them, if we believe enough in the acts of the perfect life to try to perform them, then we must also believe enough in this vessel of salvation to show it. For your hearer will receive no more of your message than he feels the mercy in which it is delivered.
-----Although the people of Nazareth watched Jesus grow up and could not accept that this simple child was the Christ, our family members watched us grow up and saw too many of the mispronounced messages, too much of the taint in our activities, and too little of the mercy that might have delivered the difference. Our only chance of changing those past messages is to confess our own sins and show mercy to theirs. Then what we have to show about Jesus may become attractive enough for them to give you a hearing. If not, just continue to be your new self in the background, praying and hoping for a call from the fire.
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