Tonight, I heard David Hosaflook speak at a service for a missions conference at another church here in town. As I listened, I was encouraged and challenged by David’s message. He read a quote that was something to the affect of, “Find out where the greatest need is (need for Christ) and make that your home.” He said that we fill our lives with sin, self and stuff. We need to claim our place in Christ and be free of these hindrances.

I have been thinking a lot about this trip to Albania, and one thing that has been on my mind is the cultural barriers that are already there – language and social cultures. For the first time, I will experience social poverty at level that is much different than my own. I will be in a place where I will not understand anyone, and they will not be able to understand me. Eloquence is no good if people can’t understand you. (I am not saying that I am eloquent, I am saying that they can’t understand me.) I will have never before experienced what it is like to live the way they live. I am an “rich” American.

Fortunately, I have something that breaks through those barriers – the Gospel. The Gospel levels the playing field. Spiritually, I am as poverty stricken as they are – to the same degree. But the Gospel offers equal status with Christ, not because of what I have done, but because of what Christ has done. And the Gospel is, too, seen; but it is seen through the love of Christ incarnated. Christ’s love is a universal language. I pray that God will enable me to grasp a hold of the love of the Gospel and, first, be engulfed in its embrace. Then, I pray that God would shatter these barriers that are there by letting His love flow through me.

I once again would like to post the quote that I received in an e-mail from a friend in light of these thoughts:

We are apt to say that because man has natural ability, therefore he will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our ability but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge and experience-all of that is of no avail in this matter. We must never allow anything to injure our relationship with God; if it does, we must take time to get it right. The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 21st, 2006 at 2:11 am and is filed under Albania, Missions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.