Outflow

13 December 2008 (John)

It has been said that the only difference between The Red Sea and The Dead Sea, is that, while both have water flowing into them, only The Red Sea has water flowing out. Have you ever experienced filling yourself up with Christian teaching and preaching, only to wonder why creeping spiritual deadness returns so quickly?

Looking back I admit I was far more fervent with sharing the gospel at the beginning of my Christian walk than now. I was not a very mature Christian, but I had a certain zeal. Now that greater maturity is come, I feel that the danger I face is losing that spark; loosing that zeal which is the well-spring of spiritual life. We may not all have the gift of an evangelist, indeed I don’t count it as a strength of mine, but we are all people who know people who need God.

Paul charged Timothy before God, telling him to:

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching (II Tim 4:2)

Interestingly he goes on to say:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (II Tim 4:304)

Which with some validity we could claim is the case now in our post Christian society, yet God still wants us to reach out to others.

Sure, the situation is different in some ways, after all many people in the west have heard the gospel. It’s not rigid formulas we need, we just need to walk in the spirit and reach out with the heart of Christ. We really need to do this otherwise our conscience condemns us before God. Hopefully we also do it out of love and compassion. And we must do it if we genuinely want to walk in the spirit, and not just substitute the filling of our spirit for the filling of our mind. Recently I wrote a short teaching called Knowing God, which compared “knowing about God” knowing him. This blog is really an extension of that teaching, because more than anything else outflow is the life blood of real Christianity.

My sister recently sent me a Voices of the Martyrs book called ‘Iran, Desperate for God’. Talk about changing your ideas on where many Islamic people are at with their faith. Really inspiring account of how so many Iranians are sick of Islam and hungry for true spiritual life. But I couldn’t help but being shamed by it too. In an oppressive Moslem country these new believers were really zealous with sharing their faith. They didn’t have any organized outreaches at all; they just did it in their extended families and daily interactions with people. They didn’t do it in a formula driven way, they just cared and did what they could to reach others. Now that the lure of modern entertainment has made it hard to draw people in the west to many traditional forms of outreach, I really feel that this oldest of ways is the best in the modern world too.

I seem to recall KP Yohannan saying something about how in the west a few believers are mumbling the gospel over and over to themselves, while millions in the world have never heard it. Reading ‘Iran, Desperate for God’ made me realize that although Christians can’t go as traditional style missionaries to these closed Islamic countries, they can usually go to them and work, and it seems can usually find ways to share their faith with those who are receptive to it. Again though, the principle I want to emphasise is not that we must all go to other countries, but that we must all have outflow. If time and calling allow, I would indeed consider living in a Moslem country, but this is up to God and he calls some to go and some to stay.

Outreach has layers. At the center is our relationship with Christ, without which we can do nothing of worth. Around that is our own immediate family, who I personally believe should be the first partakers of our outreach. Around this again is our wider community, friends, and associates. Everyone also has potential for outreach in this sphere. Beyond that is the world at large. Some Christians are called as missionaries of various sorts. In an age of many native missionary movements, many others are called to partner with them through forms of support. Others may have no opportunity to participate at this level other than in prayer. I think seeing it in this multi-layered way helps avoid the confused idea that if we’re not doing something “important” or “out in the world” we’re don’t have a valid outreach. All of these layers are valid, and I believe the healthiest is when they are all attended to. I don’t much like the idea of people travelling all around the world ministering to others but neglecting the needs of their own children. At the same time it feels too insular only to be concerned with our own family.

If, like me, you feel the need in your heart to renew (or start) your own outreach, one problem I can readily identify with is how. On this matter I share with you what an old Christian once said to me. He said “I never bought new shoes for my children until they grew out of the old ones”. What he was getting at is our propensity for seeking some great work while ignoring the smaller one right outside the door. If we attend to the small first, God will give us more as we grow. What did Paul say to Timothy? “Be ready”. Often we just need that readiness of mind and spirit and God will send the work, whether small or large. And for those larger works I’m convinced that the best way to start is together fellow workers and start praying. Lay the foundation with prayer and let God lead the way.

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