Making Changes

Courtesy allthingsworkplace.com

Once you start the process of change, you may end up changing more than you originally intended.

Yesterday I read post on the Fast Company website entitled "The Proven Length of Every Tweet, Facebook Post, and Headline Online" took some of the information I found there and decided to make some changes to this blog.  I fully intended to only make a few changes, but one thing led to another and I ended up making a lot of changes. Here are some that might interest you.

• A "Translate" feature located on the right above the book list that will translate the blog into whatever language you want. (Now I know that it probably won't be a perfect translation, but it should help.)
• The "News Updates" feature should be easier to read (These news articles are automatically generated by Google based on the preselected phrases that you see there.)
• The "My Favorite Blogs" section is easier to read, and has more blogs listed there.
• A "Reactions" feature at the end of each post in which you can enter your reactions to that post. (If you would like some reactions added to that list, let me know.)

Are there any more changes you would like to see in this blog? Share your views in the comments section. 

Edit: The items in the right column have been rearranged.

Apples, Milk, and Fire Hoses

Courtesy designtaxi.com

How Apple's latest software update reminded me about how we should talk with people.

As many of you know, Apple recently released it's new operating system, iOS 7, to the general public, and those familiar with Apple's style will notice a difference.  Gone are much of the three-dimensional images, wood, leather, felt etc.  A recent post on the website Fast Company explains much of the reasoning behind the change.  A quote from one of their sources,

"Our culture has changed. We don’t need translation of the digital medium in mechanical real-life terms. It’s an old-fashioned paradigm."

To put it in other terms, we don't need a calendar that looks like a physical calendar to know how to use the program.  We don't need that bridge to understand a no longer unfamiliar concept.  Those who want to share the gospel with other people need to implement a similar methodology.

In the apostle Paul's first letter to the believers in Corinth, he stated,

"Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?" 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT

Paul spoke to them in certain terms because they would have been unable to understand more advanced concepts.  In doing this, he followed the same line as Jesus with His disciples when He said

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." John 16:12-14 NIV

Now where the rubber meets the road is how do we put this principle into practice in our own lives.  We need to have discernment as to how much people can bear; how much can they understand.  We don't want others to have to drink out of the proverbial fire hose. A key to doing this is simply to relax a bit when communicating with others.  I know from personal experience that learning something new and interesting can be very exciting, and I want to transmit as much information as quickly as possible.  However, not everyone wants to hear it and even those who do want to hear it can be overwhelmed if it involves concepts that they don't understand.

So next time you want to share something with others: stop, pray, and then share.  The results may surprise you.

[SAHD] Diaper-Changing Song

For some reason I often have this song in my head when I'm changing a diaper.  I guess I saw too many reruns of the Bunch while I was growing up.



There's actually a lot of truth in the lyrics, which go as follows.

Autumn turns to winter,
And winter turns to spring.
It doesn't go just for seasons you know,
It goes for everything.

The same is true for voices,
When boys begin to grow.
You gotta take a lesson from Mother Nature,
And if you do you'll know.

[chorus]
When it's time to change, then its time to change
Don't fight the tide, come along for the ride, don't you see
When it's time to change, you've got to rearrange
who you are into what you're gonna be.

Day by day, it's hard to see the changes you've been through
A little bit of living, a little bit of growing all adds up to you
Every boy's a man inside, a girl's a woman too
And if you wanna reach your destiny, here's what you've got to do

[chorus]

Autumn turns to winter,
And winter turns to spring.
It doesn't go just for seasons you know,
It goes for everything.

The same is true for voices,
When boys begin to grow.
You gotta take a lesson from Mother Nature,
And if you do you'll know.

Hope you enjoyed your trip down memory lane, and have groovy day.

Paul a Prisoner

Paul ended up in chains, but it was the Jewish leaders who were truly prisoners.

This chapter details the events that led up to Paul becoming a prisoner. I found this chapter to be quite interesting because the story told here is filled with danger and intrigue, but it was disappointing to read that all these events could have been avoided.

What started these events in motion was that the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem were stuck in their old ways of thinking.

In the earlier years of the gospel work among the Gentiles some of the leading brethren at Jerusalem, clinging to former prejudices and habits of thought, had not co-operated heartily with Paul and his associates. In their anxiety to preserve a few meaningless forms and ceremonies, they had lost sight of the blessing that would come to them and to the cause they loved, through an effort to unite in one all parts of the Lord's work. Although desirous of safeguarding the best interests of the Christian church, they had failed to keep step with the advancing providences of God, and in their human wisdom attempted to throw about workers many unnecessary restrictions. Thus there arose a group of men who were unacquainted personally with the changing circumstances and peculiar needs met by laborers in distant fields, yet who insisted that they had the authority to direct their brethren in these fields to follow certain specified methods of labor. They felt as if the work of preaching the gospel should be carried forward in harmony with their opinions. pg. 400

I had mentioned in an earlier post about the need for God's workers to adapt there methods to their target audience. These leaders refused to change, and deceived themselves into thinking that their way was the best way to do things.

These men had lost sight of the fact that God is the teacher of His people; that every worker in His cause is to obtain an individual experience in following the divine Leader, not looking to man for direct guidance; that His workers are to be molded and fashioned, not after man's ideas, but after the similitude of the divine. pg. 401

The leaders that asked that Paul go through a process in which he should become ceremonially pure so as to not arouse negative feelings among the Jews. Paul wanted so much to reconcile these parties that he went through with this needless process, and it was while he was doing this that things really went awry.

 Those who advised Paul to take this step had not fully considered the great peril to which he would thus be exposed. At this season, Jerusalem was filled with worshipers from many lands. As, in fulfillment of the commission given him by God, Paul had borne the gospel to the Gentiles, he had visited many of the world's largest cities, and he was well known to thousands who from foreign parts had come to Jerusalem to attend the feast. Among these were men whose hearts were filled with bitter hatred for Paul, and for him to enter the temple on a public occasion was to risk his life. For several days he passed in and out among the worshipers, apparently unnoticed; but before the close of the specified period, as he was talking with a priest concerning the sacrifices to be offered, he was recognized by some of the Jews from Asia. pg. 406

This recognition brought about a flurry of events that included his binding in chains, ministering to the mob, a hearing in front of the Sanhedrin, avoiding forty Jewish assassins, and being transported out of the city by heavy Roman guard.

E.G. White writes a sobering epitaph for those Jewish leaders.

. . . Had the leaders in the church fully surrendered their feeling of bitterness toward the apostle, and accepted him as one specially called of God to bear the gospel to the Gentiles, the Lord would have spared him to them. God had not ordained that Paul's labors should so soon end, but He did not work a miracle to counteract the train of circumstances to which the course of the leaders in the church at Jerusalem had given rise. pg. 417

 Then she had this to say about us in modern times.

The same spirit is still leading to the same results. A neglect to appreciate and improve the provisions of divine grace has deprived the church of many a blessing. How often would the Lord have prolonged the work of some faithful minister, had his labors been appreciated! But if the church permits the enemy of souls to pervert the understanding, so that they misrepresent and misinterpret the words and acts of the servant of Christ; if they allow themselves to stand in his way and hinder his usefulness, the Lord sometimes removes from them the blessing which He gave. pgs. 417,418

Lord help us to appreciate those who sacrifice themselves for Your work.

Apostasy in Galatia

We are not to have a cookie-cutter approach to evangelism.

In this chapter the contrast is brought out between how the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and how he wrote to the Galatians.

How different from Paul's manner of writing to the Corinthian church was the course he pursued toward the Galatians! The former he rebuked with caution and tenderness, the latter with words of unsparing reproof. The Corinthians had been overcome by temptation. Deceived by the ingenious sophistry of teachers who presented errors under the guise of truth, they had become confused and bewildered. To teach them to distinguish the false from the true, called for caution and patience. Harshness or injudicious haste on Paul's part would have destroyed his influence over many of those whom he longed to help. 

In the Galatian churches, open, unmasked error was supplanting the gospel message. Christ, the true foundation of the faith, was virtually renounced for the obsolete ceremonies of Judaism. The apostle saw that if the believers in Galatia were saved from the dangerous influences which threatened them, the most decisive measures must be taken, the sharpest warnings given. pg. 385

To put it into more modern terms, Paul exercised some tough love with the Galatians. Many Christians are hesitant to get tough with people for fear of driving them away. The scales seemed tipped in the direction of softness, tenderness and permissiveness causing a lot of things to go on in the Christian church that should not be allowed to happen. I won't give examples, but I'm sure that you can think of some.

What made Paul such a successful missionary is his ability to adapt, and we can develop that same ability.

An important lesson for every minister of Christ to learn is that of adapting his labors to the condition of those whom he seeks to benefit. Tenderness, patience, decision, and firmness are alike needful; but these are to be exercised with proper discrimination. To deal wisely with different classes of minds, under varied circumstances and conditions, is a work requiring wisdom and judgment enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit of God. pgs. 385,386

A problem I see in much of Adventist outreach efforts is the lack of adaptation. We have programs on top of programs. Every time you turn around someone has developed a new evangelistic program. The individual churches take these programs, follow them to the letter, and expect the converts to roll in. We need less programs and more "wisdom and judgment enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit of God." I'm not advocating the abolishment of programs, I'm simply saying that we need to use wisdom and judgment in adapting those programs to the various circumstances and conditions.

A good example of this is an evangelistic campaign I was involved with in San Francisco, CA. The evangelist used the traditional program but changed it somewhat. The traditional Seventh-day Adventist program starts off with the metal image in Daniel chapter two and uses it to show how people can trust the Bible. The evangelist saw this and thought that something should be altered. He looked around and saw that San Francisco was an extremely secular city. Whereas in other places people grow up with some knowledge of God, the Bible, etc., in that city there was an extreme lack of that knowledge. So instead of starting off with the traditional presentation, his first presentation was "Who is God?" in which he sought to let people know the truth about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

In order to make such adaptations we need to get to know our surroundings. Exactly how we go about learning about them is something will probably vary but it often involves doing some research. I had a class in missions as part of my graduate work in which the professor advocated looking at recent census data, as well as looking at The Association of Religious Data Archives to see the socioeconomic and religious make-up of your area. Another great resource is Mark Finley's book "Studying Together" which goes through various belief systems and shows the similarities and differences between them and Adventism.

Whatever tools we use, they are useless if we don't have the Spirit of God in our hearts, so as we seek to draw others a better relationship with God, let us seek to improve our relationship as well.