“I Wonder What God Is Up To?”

By Larry Spargimino Ph.D

“…praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Col. 4:3-6).

Missions is one of the long-declared burdens of God’s heart. Going back to the original promise to Abraham, “…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This theme continues in the Old Testament: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: For I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:22). “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Is. 49:6).

God really means it. In the past, Assyria moved troops down a highway to wage war on Israel, but the time is coming when this highway will be one of peace and redemption. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, And Assyria the work of my hands, And Israel mine inheritance (Isa. 19:23-25).

And God still means it. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This prophecy tells us that the growth of Christianity worldwide would come about through the witness of Christ’s obedient followers. From the very beginning, the body of Christ is presented as a witnessing community. The result of this witness would be measurable geographical expansion, and would extend to the ends of the earth. At the time of the Book of Acts “the ends of the earth” was coextensive with the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. As new lands and peoples were discovered in the following centuries, Christians understood this to mean that the scope of their witness must continue to expand worldwide.

Foreign Missions Is Here

At one time religion was limited by geography. Certain tribes and people groups had certain religious beliefs in common. Parts of Asia were Buddhist, others were Hindu, Shinto, and what have you. Anglicanism was the religious preference of the British, Lutheranism that of the Scandanavian countries, Presbyterianism that of Scotland.

All of this has changed drastically. According to Bob Roberts, Jr., in Bold As Love: What Can Happen When We See People the Way God Does (Nelson, pp. 6-7), today, in Dallas, Texas, 44% of the population was born in a non-English speaking nation. Some 238 languages are spoken in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. While there are large numbers of Hispanics in the DFW area, there are also 40,000 Arabs, 90,000 Chinese, 25,000 Columbians, 5,000 Egyptians, 80,000 El Salvadorans, 7,500Cambodians, 8,000 Bangladeshis and many others. In 1975 there was one Islamic mosque in the entire DFW Metroplex, today there are 43, some of them quite large and prosperous.

America is an increasingly pluralistic society—ethnically and religiously. At one time the phrase “religious pluralism in America” meant that there were two Baptist Churches downtown and one Catholic Church in the Italian section. This is nothing compared to what we might find today: an atheist publishing house next door, a factory down the street making hijabs for Muslim women, and a same-sex adoption agency next to the sheriff’s office.

These are the facts. The trends are not surprising. The question is: will we adjust or self-destruct? Will we be obedient to the Lord and reflect the Lord’s heart in our witness, or will we dance to the doleful tune of our own pity parties? America has changed, and it is continuing to change exponentially. Should we build a bunker, or should we ask: “I wonder what God is up to?”

The Nearness of “The End”

The nearness of “the end” is something that weighed heavily on the minds of the New Testament writers. Peter writes, “But the end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7). What does this mean for Christians living in the 21^st century? Surrender? Hopeless resignation? No, Peter continues and says, “The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. Andabove all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging” (vss. 7-9).

Do these words challenge, perhaps, some preconceived notions, notions that may lead to paralysis and fear, terror and dread? Rather than giving up, Peter tells us that we should be serious, prayerful and show love for one another. And even beyond that, we should be exercising our gifts for ministry: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (vs. 10). It doesn’t sound like the nearness of the end should stiffen us up. Rather, it should fire us up. But can we be “fired up” in such an hostile environment?

When Paul wrote 2 Timothy he was in prison. This was his second imprisonment, and he was awaiting execution. During this final imprisonment Paul wrote 2 Timothy to request another visit from his “son in the faith.” The Apostle wanted to give final exhortations as he anticipated his martyrdom (chapter 4).

Paul is under no illusion that the world will get better and better, but he believed that eyes would be opened and false teachers would be recognized. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Tim. 3:1). In the verses that follow the Apostle details many of the conditions that we see today: “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection…”

But when we come to verses 8 and 9, we read something that seems almost out of place: “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”

Jannes and Jambres are not referenced in the Scriptures, but ancient Jewish tradition, which Paul obviously knew, states that they were the Egyptian court magicians who spoke against Moses and did likewise perform miracles (Ex. 7:11). Pharaoh’s magicians “cast down every one his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods” (vs. 12). This left no doubt regarding who was speaking for God: “their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.” Paul had no erroneous notions about the world becoming pro-Christian, but he knew that God is opening eyes, and calling people into service, even as Timothy was learning, and growing in the faith so that he would have an effective ministry.

Might this mean that bold, Christian outreach is still in the plan of God, and has not been eclipsed by the lateness of the hour?

In the Foreword to Once An Arafat Man – The True Story of how A PLO Sniper Found A New Life (Tyndale), Joel Rosenberg, author of Epicenter and Inside The Revolution,writes:

Let me be brutally honest. Tass Saada was a killer. That’s why the first section of this book was incredibly difficult for me to read…Tass and his closet friends murdered Jews in Israel. They murdered civilians and soldiers alike. They attacked Christians in Jordan. Sometimes they tossed hand grenades at their homes…they did so eagerly. Tass certainly did. His nickname was onceJazzar – “butcher.” It was a moniker he relished…What follows, then, is the unforgettable story of a jihadist who found Jesus, of a violent revolutionary who was radically transformed one day by the power of the Holy Spirit and became a man of peace…

I had been invited to preach at a Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem that night. My sermon title was “What God is Doing Among The Muslims.” This is not a typical message for a Jewish audience. But after much prayer, I felt the Lord wanted me to share with my Israeli friends what he had told me to share with my Jordanian friends when I had preached in Amman not long before: We need to get serious about obeying Jesus’ command to love our neighbors and our enemies…

That was the message I came to share in Jerusalem, and who was the first couple I was introduced to that night as I came to the front of the door of the congregation? Tass and Karen Saada (ix-xi).

Uncharted Territory or Forbidden Territory?

On January 26, 2010 ministrytodaymag.com published thefollowing article under the title Texas Church Worships With Muslims, Jews.

Bob Roberts Jr., pastor of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, isn’t afraid of venturing into unfamiliar territories. In the mid-1990’s, Roberts began making trips to Vietnam with teams from his church to pioneer medical, educational and orphanage-related work. After 9/11, he traveled to Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and other Muslim-dominated regions to establish similar works.

Now the 51-year old megachurch pastor is blazing a new trail back in his home state: a “triologue” between three vastly different congregations. This past weekend, Keller’s Baptist-leaning congregation combined with those from Dallas’ Temple Shalom and the Islamic Center of Irving for “multifaith” worship services dedicated to highlighting and discussing the similarities and differences among the three represented faiths.

On Thursday, the congregations met for a “typical” Jewish worship service at Temple Shalom; on Saturday, the Christians and Jews visited the Dallas-area mosque; and on Sunday, boththe Jewish and Muslim congregations attended NorthWood. After each service, the leaders of the three congregations—who have become friends in recent months—answered questions about their unique faiths.

continue article at RaptureReady.com:

http://raptureready.com/soap/spargimino2.html