(*I pray for the Spirit of Christ to give me wisdom with which to speak about Himself)
This week the students in our TESOL class are studying this passage of Scripture with hopes of applying it to intercultural communication. This was my response to the question of how should this passage influence our times of conflict:
I know that the things that I will say here are ideals. They are standards and that cannot be achieved without consciousness of God's Spirit and prayer while communication across cultures. With that said, in every situation we should be aware that we are ambassadors of Christ, representing His goodness and continuing His mission of reconciliation of the world's peoples to Himself. So when we find ourselves in conflict, when we are in a disagreement with persons of other views and practices we should remember our mission and continue to treat them with respect and with mercy as Christ did for us. Also with the knowledge that we are forgiven, we can forgive or overlook attacks from the other party because we are looking at the bigger picture, which is their value to God and the interaction from an eternal perspective. Ultimately, we are to protect and love them as ourselves even if they at odds with us. It is hard to reconcile an enemy to God, so our actions should be kind and bring them to the awareness of God's perfect love for them.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Monday, July 6, 2009
A Purpose Driven Life
I generally make blog posts based on something that I am studying, but I have not picked up the book titled The Purpose Drive Life. In fact, maybe to my shame, I avoided it because I thought it was a fad. I am always late to jump on the bandwagon for anything (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
I wanted to talk about how all these things online can contribute to noise (distraction) in our lives. Whatever we create online is indicative of who we are. What activities are we doing on our social networks? Playing games? Ministering? Catching up with old friends? This is not a question of whether playing online games is a waste of time or not, because God created all things for us to richly enjoy, but this is a question of are we are going onto this sites decidedly to play games, message friends, or minister to the loss.
The decision is what matters. What often happens is that we sign into these websites with one intention and then are sidetracked by other irrelevant information. Sometimes we even forget why we signed on in the first place? What am I doing? Before signing on a decision should be made of how much time we want to spend on that website and what we want to do there. The websites are tools for communication, but they've become hang-outs for bored people that have not really thought about what they should be doing.
I found something that I believe is worth my time. For the last couple of months I have been helping a Christian Non-Profit in South Africa establish an online presence. I am new to the world of non-profits, but one thing I understand is that they depend on the help and support of donors and volunteers. My recent purpose was to create a Causes account for them on Facebook and to start a campaign to dig a well for a local community.
Click Here to Visit the Help Us Dig a Well for South African Orphans Causes Page
So many years of aimless networking brought me to this point at which I can sow into the Kingdom. God can use whatever we're good at to reach people. For some it is singing, for some it is giving hugs or encouragement, and for others like me it is giving technical expertise and marketing advice. I never imagined that I would be able to use this type of gift for the Kingdom. Praise God! We do not have to move away from who we are or what we are to sow into the Kingdom. In fact, we need to redefine what it really means to wear the missionary hat.
My mother is a missionary to the ICU at her hospital. She ministers to many on their death beds. I am a new media missionary. I minister to those lost in meaningless chit-chat and advertisements. What is your area of missions? Will you make a decision to make purposeful action in that area today?
