Were you colder than this? Posted by Bill on December 15th, 2010

This is  short story written by Ruth Seamands, a retired missionary to India.  

Were you colder than this?

It was Christmas Eve in Korea.  An expectant mother walked through the snow to the home of a missionary friend where she knew she could find help. A short way down the road from the mission house was a deep gully spanned by a bridge.  As the young woman stumbled forward, birth pains overcame her.  She realized she could go no farther.  She crawled under the bridge and there alone between the trestles she gave birth to a baby boy.  She had nothing with her except the heavy padded clothes she was wearing. One by one she removed the pieces of her clothing and wrapped them around her tiny son, around and around like a cumbersome cocoon.  Then finding a discarded piece of burlap, she pulled it over herself and lay exhausted by the baby.

The next morning the missionary drove across the bridge in her Jeep to take a Christmas basket to the Korean family.  On the way back, as she neared the bridge, the Jeep sputtered and died, out of gas.  Getting out of the Jeep, she started to walk across the bridge, then heard a faint cry beneath her.  She crawled under the bridge to investigate and there she found the tiny baby warm but hungry, and the young mother frozen to death.  The missionary took the baby home and cared for him.  As the boy grew, he often asked his adopted mother to tell him the story of how she found him. 

On Christmas Day, his 12th birthday, he asked the missionary to take him to his mother’s grave. Once there he asked her to wait a distance away while he went to pray.  The boy stood beside the grave with bowed head, weeping.  Then he began to disrobe.  As the astonished missionary watched, the boy took off his warm clothing piece by piece, and laid it on his mother’s grave.  Surely he won’t take off all his clothes, the missionary thought.  He’ll freeze! But the boy stripped himself of everything, putting all his warm clothing on the grave.  He knelt naked and shivering in the snow.  As the missionary went to help him dress again, she heard him cry out to the mother he never knew” “Were you colder than this for me, my mother?” And he wept bitterly.

When Christ came, He stripped Himself of every royal garment and entered our world of hatred and cold indifference.  Why did He do it? Because He saw centuries of broken lives needing a Savior. And then He died of a broken heart.  What broke it? The sin of human hearts.  The long history of men making slaves of other men; centuries of cannibalism and cruelty; starvation and suffering; the worship of false gods in temples made by human hands; war, bloodshed, crime and greed…..these [and more] broke the heart of Christ.  But so did we! Our coldness broke His heart and even now [still] freezes Him out. We complacent [Christians] who are saved, satisfied and sitting. We who pray, “give us compassion for the lost,” and then ‘sacrifice’ a pound for missions.  We with our nice homes and brimming refuge bins.  We who have the money, knowledge and manpower to take the gospel to every creature, and yet we don’t. We who say we love the lost, and neglect to tell a neighbor about a loving Savior.  Jesus’ love lies nestled between trestled lips that ought to be warm for Him.

Lord, we take off our garments of pride and self-righteousness, our glittering but transparently filthy rags that they are, and lay them at Your feet.  In our naked need we cry: “Were you colder than this because of us Lord?” And we weep bitterly because we know You were.

Emmanuel, God with us, this Christmas give us the boldness and love to share the life giving warmth of Christ with those who don’t You.

Blessings, Pastor Bill

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My take on the 2010 electionsPosted by Bill on November 12th, 2010

Depending upon which side of the political isle you’re on, the recent elections have you either excited or disappointed. Regardless of which side we’re on, as Christians we need to see our election cycles as sovereign Gospel opportunities. First to remind us who we are: 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  2 Cor 5:17 

Being new creatures, we are distinctively different from what we were. In Christ, we’ve:

….put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.  Colossians 3:10-11 

This doesn’t mean Christians somehow loose our cultural identity.  Far from it, as God has ordained diverse worship from every tribe and nation on earth. It means we’ve become a part of a new culture that trumps the old and any cultural barriers that separated us have been broken down by Christ.  So to that list of:  ‘Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free,’ we can add Republican and Democrat. To think in any other terms is to say Christ’s work was not sufficient to break down that barrier. Being a new creature also doesn’t mean we have to agree politically.  That simply will not happen on this side of heaven. But it does mean as Christians we have to treat those with whom we disagree differently, as Paul continues:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Colossians 3:12

The very integrity of the Gospel is at stake in this. Carl Trueman in his provocative book, Republocrat, says: “the evangelical church in America is in danger of alienating a significant section of its people, particularly younger people,” by making too tight a connection between politics and Christian fidelity, which the Bible never makes.  He goes on to add that Christians: “need to refrain from drawing ecclesiastical lines with political pencils. We need a little less us-versus-them rhetoric. We need to allow that good people work on the other side of the aisle.”   One of the greatest challenges facing evangelical Christians is idolatry in our worship of power, politics and patriotism. While I dearly love my country, I and we have to remember America is not the light of the world, Jesus is!  If we miss this, we miss the Gospel. The danger of failing to live in light of this truth is profound, but so too is the opportunity before us.

This second gospel opportunity then is to remind us of our calling to be salt and light in the world and the political season presents wonderful opportunities for outreach. For many who have put their faith and hope in political systems or personalities that have let them down, we have one to whom we can point them, who never fails and in whom there is real hope, the Lord Jesus Christ:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  Isaiah 9:6-7

Together, let’s prayerfully ask the Lord to give us a spirit of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience toward those on the other side of the isle.  Then ask Him to give us gospel opportunities to speak to them about the true light of the world and hope we have. And may the Lord richly bless us as we seek to glorify Him in this.  

Pastor Bill

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