Red Moon Rising (book)
Dubi Czech Republic pp. 46-47 sex trade. Author and wife decide to show love to the prostitutes. Awkward, but felt called by the Lord to do so.
Monroe, Michigan
Girl on the East Side cussed out by her man, children near her, we just walked by (Vickie and I). Didn’t know what to say. Angry man (“you go find you some bleepin bleeps over there, now!) just feet away, etc. I feel I failed.
Burdened by:
How I often lack love
By others’ lack of love
By my focus on others’ lack of love
By my feeling of powerlessness and timidity or “unworthiness.”
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
COMPELLED
When I wake up: Does my day go as I wish (with God?)
WHAT compels me? Why am I here? (Stockton: Who am I? Why am I here?)
• Political agenda?
• Just to make it through the day without much trouble?
• Money?
• Dress, and work, and converse in such a way that people will put me on their “acceptable” list, maybe even think of me as a friend?
Richards, Teachers Commentary
Paul now stated a powerful theological argument. Christ died for all. He died for us in order that we who live should stop living for ourselves, and begin to live for Him. That is, God’s purpose in the Cross was to change us, and change the focus of our lives.
Wiersbe
There is only one thing that will really bring about change in a believer’s life, and move him or her toward Christlikeness. That is the love that Christ Himself pours into the heart in which He dwells. Mere human forms of motivation—the attempts to coerce, to shame, to move by guilt—may bring conformity of action. But they will never change the heart, and it is the heart—the unseen world within—with which Christian ministry is concerned.
RED MOON, p 47, bottom – p. 50 (interesting that I read this story AFTER I walked by the girl on the eastside corner on my way to the Stewart Road revival)
My response to the girl on the East Side? I walked on by (got to get to the meeting)
Intrigued and encouraged by how Christians from one local church were compelled to reach out to a “forgotten community.”
Testimonies:
Mark: former pastor—wife divorced him, grandchildren murdered, denomination snubbed him, etc. yelled “SHOW YOURSELF” to God. Saw a rainbow he could “just reach out and touch.” Said it again a few days later (sunny, not rainy) and saw a rainbow in the reflection of a pond. Looked up and saw a “full circle” rainbow in the sky.
Lawn guy:
Suicide mom: gun to mouth: God, I can’t handle this anymore! I need you to help me! God: are you ready to do it my way?
. . .but i am also burdened by them: “why is my story not so full of belief?”
THESE STORIES TEACH US A LESSON ABOUT how God looks at us.
NO LONGER LOOK FROM A WORDLY VIEW
Lunch Room Hierarchy—sit according to pecking order
Searching for God Knows What (book):
Three Legged Man is better than a bearded lady! (story about hierarchy among “frieks”)
Republican/poor/skin color. All things we use to divide ourselves from others.
We do this inside and outside the church.
LOVE Quotient: Natural Church Development principle (book by Christian Swartz)
Jesus and the cup in Luke
Because “all things are become new,” we also have a new view of people around us. We see them as sinners for whom Christ died. We no longer see them as friends or enemies, customers or coworkers; we see them the way Christ sees them, as lost sheep who need a shepherd. When you are constrained by the love of Christ, you want to share His love with others.
In the same way, we must learn to look at our brothers and sisters with the eyes of faith. We must affirm, with Paul, that “in Christ” they are “new creations.” The old has gone, the new has come within. And because the new has come, in time, behavior too will change and our loved ones or friends will learn to love the One who died for them.
How do we help them come to this commitment? Paul said that Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation was accomplished by “not counting men’s sins against them.” God doesn’t count our sins. He doesn’t say, “You’ve failed 32 times. Oh, my, there’s 33.” And He doesn’t hold our sins against us. He keeps on loving, keeps on holding out hope.
This is just how we are to treat others—our children, our spouses, our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We don’t say, “That’s the thirty-second day you forgot to make your bed, and tomorrow will be 33.” And we don’t hold failures against them.
Instead we remember that, in Christ, there is a newness rooted deep within. We keep on expressing love. And we keep on expressing confidence and hope. And through it all we make God’s appeal. Bring your life into harmony with who God is, that “in Him [you] might become the righteousness of God.”
What do we do???
[Paul’s approach] was so different from “those who take pride in what is seen rather than what is in the heart” (v. 12).
This statement takes us back to the core concept expressed earlier. Some base their pride on what can be seen and measured. “Aren’t the folks in my congregation spiritual! Fifty percent of them show up on prayer-meeting night.” And, “My Johnny is an ideal Christian boy. Why, he reads his Bible every day.”
This is not to say we shouldn’t be pleased by evidence of spiritual progress or commitment. But pride in the 50 percent who come means shame on the 50 percent who don’t! And, neither coming nor not coming provides a basis for judgment of individual spiritual progress. Indeed, because anything that can be seen is temporary and subject to change, those who boast in externals set themselves up for a fall when the percentage drops off, or Johnny forsakes his Bible reading. (p. 883, The Teachers Commentary, L. Richards.)
Are we ashamed because of our small church? Compare to others?
HB LONDON: shouldn’t feel bad about pastoring a small church. LOVE the people. Regardless. Also he talked about feeling like a phony, pastoring a big church and being flown all around giving “3 points on this” 4 points on that. (from lecture at a function in Detroit)
