“We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Years ago Barbara and I watched a video put out by New Tribes Missions about a couple who tried to get on the “mission field” but didn’t have the “right” credentials for various agencies to which they applied. They were older than the typical candidates, not as educated etc. New Tribes Missions accepted them and they went off to New Guinea to work with the Mauk people where there had never been a gospel witness. After learning the language they spent the first *3-6 weeks solely in the Old Testament. *(The exact time may be wrong; this was over two decades ago…so ya know, memory...)
After focusing on the OT stories of law, sacrifices, and judgment the Mauk tribe was nearly despondent as they came to understand the gravity of sin and its consequences. THEN—The missionaries spent the next weeks giving them the glorious news of grace, mercy and faith. As their eyes were beginning to open to the glorious realties of salvation by faith made possible by God’s own sacrifice of His Son, the tribe exploded into raucous celebration of relief that there is a way out of the horrible grip of sin—His name is Jesus. This celebration went on for days.
Could it be that the prosperous church of the West and elsewhere has so diminished the message of Good News, so as not to be offensive, rarely mentioning things like SIN, judgement, damnation, and eternal punishment, that the Good News, is hardly good news?
I don’t know how many of you reading this have been hungry. I mean ravenously hungry to where things you would never eat having the choice not to, actually looked and sounded pretty great. We are so blessed with bounty, and manifold choices, sitting down to a meal is hardly an “event” much less, cause for celebration. But to one who is truly starving, a slightly moldy crust of stale bread, and some cloudy water is life giving. In short, it’s hard to appreciate a sumptuous feast if you are bloated from sumptuous feasts as a matter of course. Food insufficiency in America is a mockery of "real food insufficiency" as I have experienced in Haiti and Central America. So the appreciation of what is in front of us is marginal at best.
When slave trader John Newton realized the wretched depths of his sin he was undone by the grace of God in providing him with the remedy of his polluted soul. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me..." was the out pouring of his gratitude--the lyrics flowing from unimaginable joy.
You don’t need to be an ex-con, murderer, pedophile, or addict to really appreciate the offer of salvation. All one need do is observe the cross, meditate on the fact that God Himself was the recipient of all your sin's wretchedness which put Him there. And don’t rush too quickly by Passion week: The brutality, the injustice, the derision, the whip-crack splitting Divine skin open and blood oozing and ultimately the cry of derision: “My God why have you forsaken me,” was all in your place. “He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)
I highly recommend investing 25 minutes in viewing the video referenced above. You'll be glad you did. https://ethnos360.org/mission-
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