CHILDREN & “CRISIS CONVERSION”

“If you can’t tell me when & where you were converted, you’re not saved.” I’ve heard statements like this quite a few times over the years. Evangelicals & Pentecostals believe in a clear-cut conversion experience, where individuals experience being born again thru the working of the Holy Spirit. So, for most believers who came to the Lord (or came back to the Lord) as an older child, teenager, or adult, it is reasonable to expect them to be able to describe their experience.

But, what about those who came to Christ at a very young age & stayed true to their commitment over the years? What if they can’t give you a specific time & circumstance when Jesus came into their lives?

At the children’s ministry seminar, we’ve talked about this. Although such followers of Christ seem to be relatively rare, there may be more than we realize. And, their lives demonstrate the grace of God in just as precious a way as those who have come to Christ from a very dark & sinful background.

I have a theory. One of the many reasons that we fail to minister to children is that we don’t really believe that they are capable of making the same kind of commitment to the Lord as teenagers or adults are able to make. We believe that, because they don’t have the ability to express in terms that are satisfactory or sufficiently clear to us, they can’t have the same experience with God as older persons have.

One friend at the seminar noted that if we reach people at an early age, they won’t have nearly as much of the “junk” in their lives, & will thus tend to be more spiritually stable & mature than if we had not reached them when they were youngsters. I believe that’s valid.

God has a lot of ways of manifesting His grace. Can we also be more expectant about the work of the Spirit & the spiritual potential of young children? Can we embrace God’s consuming desire to reach every human being with the Gospel?

After all, the devil doesn’t have age restrictions on those he wants to destroy.

CHILDREN? IN CHURCH?

Part of our missions team is attending a seminar on children’s ministry.  

One of the speakers mentioned that in some parts of Asia, churches don’t count children in their attendance count because they are afraid that others will think they are inflating their numbers. That is unfortunate, because it seems to imply that someone is not legitimately part of the congregation until they reach a certain age.

Scripture is full of intimations about how God values children. It also shows that they have equal if not greater potential for the Kingdom than any other age group.

For example, consider two heroes of the Old Testament, Joseph & David. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him, & despised him because he was the youngest. But God gave him wisdom far beyond what his siblings thought was possible for someone his age.

When David offered to fight the Philistine Goliath, his older brothers tried to shame him into complacency & acceptance of the defeat that they believed was inevitable. He didn’t buy it. Instead, he did what the “old timers” were unwilling to do.

“And (Jesus) called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18:2-4).

I’ve heard it said a number of times that, instead of calling children to make an adult kind of commitment to Himself, Jesus actually called adults to have child-like faith. This observation recognizes the kind & quality of the faith that children can have in the Lord. Since God calls people to faith, trust, & obedience, doesn’t it make sense that we bring the Gospel to & disciple those who are most open to it?

THEY’LL KNOW WE ARE CHRISTIANS BY OUR LOVE

There was a popular Christian chorus years ago by this name. I believe it was popular because it reflected many believers’ desire to be witnesses to Christ thru their compassion for others.

I also believe that sometimes those who do not profess to follow Christ can knowingly or unknowingly use this desire to convince believers to act in a certain way. Have you ever heard someone say, “And you call yourself a Christian!” in response to a Christian’s statement, action, or beliefs?

That is sometimes a manipulative way to demand that Christians conform to what non-Christians understand love to be or to require. It can also can reveal an ignorance of what God expects of Christians & what love in a biblical sense means.

The popular chorus was probably inspired by what Jesus said in John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It’s extremely important for Christians to know what the Bible means about love, & to make that clear to others. It’s also important for those who don’t know Christ, before they expect disciples of Christ to display Christian love, to honestly ask themselves if they know what they are asking of us.

The demonstration of love between disciples of Christ bears witness to the fact that God changes people in radical ways. By its nature it is not something that is understandable or even acceptable to those who have not experienced salvation in Christ. Why is it not acceptable?

First, something that is different from what they don’t know tends to intimidate people. Jesus’ radical love is intimidating, even frightening.

Second, because He recognized this tendency in people, Jesus warned His disciples: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (John 15:18-21).

In our thin-skinned, offense-sensitive culture, a demonstration of Christ’s love can indeed be offensive. So offensive that it leads to a cross.

A FEW MORE THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUAL LEADERS

Spiritual leaders, especially in the local church, provide an irreplaceable link in the process of fulfilling the Great Commission. They are so valuable that in Ephesians 4:8-11 they are called God’s gift the church. Their work is so important that a list of strict qualifications is given for them in I Timothy 3:1-7.

Thru their words & way of life, spiritual leaders provide instruction on how believers are to live.

Jesus’ words & example provided instruction to the early disciples about how to live. As the church expanded, its leaders continued to provide the example thru their repetition of Jesus’ words & way of life.

This leads to the relevance of those who provide spiritual leadership today. Just as Jesus gave the model to the early believers, pastors & other leaders now provide a contemporary example. They are to proclaim & teach God’s Word. They are to model how to live it.

What is the responsibility of those who follow these God-called leaders? According to Hebrews 13:17, believers are to obey them; this implies doing what they ask, following their example. It is primarily an outward, behavioral emphasis. This verse also calls believers to submit to them; this is more of a heart attitude emphasis.

One of the best ways to show our obedience to the Lord is to honor & submit to the spiritual leaders He has placed in our lives.

HONORING SPIRITUAL LEADERS

I've been thinking about Hebrews chapter 13. Every sincere believer in Christ takes seriously the moral commands in the first 6 verses: brotherly love, hospitality to strangers, compassion for the suffering (especially fellow believers who suffer for their faith), purity in the marriage relationship, contentment with finances & trust in God’s provision. As moral commands, these are not something we can take or leave according to our personal wishes.

They are followed by something else that seems to also be a moral command, one that must be followed by disciples: “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 7:7-8).

Believers are to remember those who brought God’s Word to them, consider seriously how they lived, & imitate the way they lived. Verse 8 indicates that Jesus Christ continues to work, raising up new leaders in every generation.

But this is not the only reference to leaders in this chapter. While verse 7 refers to former ones, verse 17 refers to current ones: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

As believers, we must strive to be content, pure, compassionate, & generous. We must also be conscientious to obey & submit to the spiritual leaders whom God has placed over us.

What specific things will you do this week to honor your leaders & to demonstrate that you are following them as an act of worship to the Lord?

A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF SELF

Several New Testament passages are commonly cited in popular views of Christian life and spiritual growth. They are sometimes understood incorrectly. Here are a few of those passages:

^·            John 3:3 “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist speaking of his relationship with Jesus).

·       Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

·       First Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

·       Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

·       Galatians 5:24-25 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

·       Ephesians 4:20-24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

·       Colossians 3:9-11 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him —  a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

If sincere believers misunderstand this important issue, they may believe that they must come to a place where they have no more self, or that the self must somehow be eliminated, removed, made passive, or incapacitated. This kind of view arises from a misunderstanding of Scripture and from a dualistic view of the material and non-material.

A more accurate understanding should see the self as being subjected to the authority of Christ, and being completed through the transformative work of the Spirit. This transformation involves a conforming of the inner person to the image of Christ. It also includes individual and corporate (or social) aspects of the person’s self.

TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

Although there are many certainties for disciples of Christ, there are enough uncertainties to keep life unpredictable.

My wife & I became aware that God was calling us to minister overseas between 1994 & 1996. But it took another six years until we finally arrived in the Philippines in April 2002. During that season between awareness & fulfillment, we experienced much more uncertainty than we had ever before imagined possible.

Why was this time of uncertainty (which really seemed like an eternity) necessary?

First, it was a time to clarify exactly what God was saying to us. You may have noticed that when God puts something in your heart, it’s easy to read all kinds of things into it that He may not necessarily be saying. Time is required to sort that out.

Second, God needs time to prepare us for what He wants to accomplish thru us. In my case, four of those six years we spent serving at a church where I learned a lot of things about leadership. I needed to learn those things in order to pass them on to the pastors I serve here.

Third, how big is your vision of what God wants to do in & thru you? Is it so big that, if it is fulfilled, it will be clear that God did it? If not, it’s not big enough. We needed the time, experiences & perspective to develop a God-sized vision.

Finally, we needed time to build relationships with people who would have a part in the fulfillment of the vision. They were people who believed in us, encouraged us, prayed for us, & spoke into our lives by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Has God spoken to you about something He wants to do in your life? Don’t give up. Be ready to learn & be challenged. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen if you stay true to Him & His plan for you.