Today was a blessed Lord's Day in Lubin. We were able to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ here from Poland, but also two Ukrainian families as well. There were many familiar songs with the exception of Polish, but also some we did not know.
Many people criticize Christians for evangelism, accusing of being fundamentialists, irrational, oppressive, and so the list goes... While Bro. Claypool was speaking to a group of Polish and Ukranian brothers and sisters in Lubin, it struck me that the Gospel is not just like a cure for cancer. It is more than that.
Imagine a brother or sister, a close friend or relative, who is dying with no chance of survival outside the discovery of an antedote. But, there is an antedote and you have it. Would you keep it from them? No! Some are skeptics though and they believe there is a cure for cancer that pharmaceutical companies have kept hidden. Does that mean keeping the cure for your brother or sister, friend or relative, is okay? Just because a huge company may or may not have that cure hidden deep in the safe of some lab? No! It is pure evil for anyone to hide a cure for cancer if one exists.
Sin is like cancer. It eats away at us. It separates us from God. It is the cause of our physical death. Death is not natural and neither is sin. It goes against the way we were created, but it is now inevitable. We inherit a sin nature.
There is a cure for this cancer known as sin. Jesus Christ died on the cross, fully human and fully God, after living a sinless life so that we might share eternity with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit. He did not just die, but he rose on the third Dayton prove his deity, to ascend to the throne at the right hand of God the Father. Christ is our cure for cancer.
Some of us have this cure. When someone goes through chemotherapy, there is a process in which they go through to be healed. Though all illustrations or analogies break down at some point, chemotherapy is akin to sanctification. Like chemotherapy, sanctification is the process of curing our sin nature (cancer). But unlike chemo, we must die a physical death and also die to our sin nature to defeat our spiritual cancer (sin).
Do not be angry with Christians for being exclusivists, we must be if we are faithful to Scripture. Do not be offended by our evangelism, we see it as the cure for more than just temporal physical ailments, but as the cure for eternal separation from God. Rather, you should be offended by those Christians who are not sharing the Gospel because they prove their lack of love through their inaction. I love all of God's creation and that is why I have come to Poland.
Our brothers and sisters here in Lubin and Glogow have just returned from a trip to Minnesota in the U.S. Mario, an elder in the Lubin church, made us aware of something we are blind to. American Christianity is almost disgusting no matter how orthodox, conservative, evangelical and etc. it may be. We have developed a civic religion here where we do not bow to Jesus Christ but rather seek God's blessings for a church that does not seek to glorify him.
Our patriotic civic religion of "God bless America" with American flags in our pulpits seems to indicate that our citizenship in the U.S. is somehow greater or even equal to our standing as sons and daughters of God. We want God to bless America, but we do not have signs that also say, "God bless the world," or, "God bless Poland." Why?
That is a question I think we must ask ourselves... It is almost as if we are saying you have to be American to be Christian. Wake up Church! This includes me too! We are to bless the world, not just America. Thank you
Mario for this great insight!
Many people criticize Christians for evangelism, accusing of being fundamentialists, irrational, oppressive, and so the list goes... While Bro. Claypool was speaking to a group of Polish and Ukranian brothers and sisters in Lubin, it struck me that the Gospel is not just like a cure for cancer. It is more than that.
Imagine a brother or sister, a close friend or relative, who is dying with no chance of survival outside the discovery of an antedote. But, there is an antedote and you have it. Would you keep it from them? No! Some are skeptics though and they believe there is a cure for cancer that pharmaceutical companies have kept hidden. Does that mean keeping the cure for your brother or sister, friend or relative, is okay? Just because a huge company may or may not have that cure hidden deep in the safe of some lab? No! It is pure evil for anyone to hide a cure for cancer if one exists.
Sin is like cancer. It eats away at us. It separates us from God. It is the cause of our physical death. Death is not natural and neither is sin. It goes against the way we were created, but it is now inevitable. We inherit a sin nature.
There is a cure for this cancer known as sin. Jesus Christ died on the cross, fully human and fully God, after living a sinless life so that we might share eternity with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit. He did not just die, but he rose on the third Dayton prove his deity, to ascend to the throne at the right hand of God the Father. Christ is our cure for cancer.
Some of us have this cure. When someone goes through chemotherapy, there is a process in which they go through to be healed. Though all illustrations or analogies break down at some point, chemotherapy is akin to sanctification. Like chemotherapy, sanctification is the process of curing our sin nature (cancer). But unlike chemo, we must die a physical death and also die to our sin nature to defeat our spiritual cancer (sin).
Do not be angry with Christians for being exclusivists, we must be if we are faithful to Scripture. Do not be offended by our evangelism, we see it as the cure for more than just temporal physical ailments, but as the cure for eternal separation from God. Rather, you should be offended by those Christians who are not sharing the Gospel because they prove their lack of love through their inaction. I love all of God's creation and that is why I have come to Poland.
Our brothers and sisters here in Lubin and Glogow have just returned from a trip to Minnesota in the U.S. Mario, an elder in the Lubin church, made us aware of something we are blind to. American Christianity is almost disgusting no matter how orthodox, conservative, evangelical and etc. it may be. We have developed a civic religion here where we do not bow to Jesus Christ but rather seek God's blessings for a church that does not seek to glorify him.
Our patriotic civic religion of "God bless America" with American flags in our pulpits seems to indicate that our citizenship in the U.S. is somehow greater or even equal to our standing as sons and daughters of God. We want God to bless America, but we do not have signs that also say, "God bless the world," or, "God bless Poland." Why?
That is a question I think we must ask ourselves... It is almost as if we are saying you have to be American to be Christian. Wake up Church! This includes me too! We are to bless the world, not just America. Thank you
Mario for this great insight!
Location:księcia Jana II,Głogów,Poland
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