Introverts in God’s Service

God made so many different types of personalities with so many different variations to those personalities that it is almost mind boggling. To everyone, He has given special talents and strengths that should be used for His glory and purpose. While many men and women of the Bible seem to be extroverts, we also hear that a gentle and quiet spirit is very precious in God’s sight (1 Peter 3:4) and that we should be quick to hear and slow to speak (James 1:19). That tells us that God can also work through people who struggle with being outgoing and charismatic. Introverted people need to come to the realization that they should use what they have been given, and not force themselves to gain what comes naturally to others.

In a society that seems to prize extrovert styled evangelism, introverted people are sometimes erroneously “convicted” into believing that if they are not proselytizing the gospel in a really vocal way, somehow they are saying to the world “I am ashamed of my beliefs and of Christ!” It is true that in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells his disciples “¹⁸All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Christianity, as a religion, was birthed in an oral culture, which allowed it to grow rapidly. Throughout history, oral proselytizing of the gospel allowed literate and illiterate people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. There is little doubt that a fiery public message can elicit many conversions, but what if some folks are just not skilled orators, especially when it comes to spiritual matters? For many introverted individuals, what they mean or intend to say sometimes gets lost or forgotten in the actual delivery when they are required to verbalize them. Perhaps that is why God allowed the written word to be so powerful and why he chose specific individuals to write to certain target audiences.

We know that the synoptic gospels in the bible were written by three separate authors. God purposely chose those three individuals because he knew that each had a passion and desire to reach a unique sector of society. The word synoptic basically means “to see together with a common view.” When the first three Gospels are compared—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—it is unmistakable that the accounts are very similar to one another in content and expression. As a result, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the “Synoptic Gospels.”

Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and Matthew made his target audience the Jews. Matthew knew that the Jewish people were waiting for the long-awaited messiah that was prophesied about in the Old Testament and he wrote to his fellow country people in an attempt to provide evidence to them that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies and was in fact the Messiah.

When Mark wrote, he had a Roman Gentile audience in mind. Mark knew that the Romans were people of action and that any God that he was going to share with them was going to have to be a God of power and action. Since the coming of a messiah was a Jewish idea that would not appeal to the Roman people, Mark knew that they would need convincing evidence that Jesus was not only the Christ, but he was a Christ of power and action. For this reason, everything that Mark wrote was in support of that need.

Luke is the third categorized as a synoptic writer who was writing specifically for the Greeks. Although the original body of Christ was largely made up of Jews, as time passed an increasing number of Gentiles were being added. Since Luke understood and related to the Gentile way of thinking, God used him to provide a view and emphasis of who and what Christ was that Greeks could understand and relate to. Luke’s message was that the good news was universal and that anyone who was willing to accept Christ could be saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are just three of the forty authors that documented everything that we know about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This reiterates how important the written word can be and that it has a place in communicating the gospel. In the 2,000 plus years that Christianity has existed, oral and written communications have both been the dominant ways of communicating thoughts and ideas and have allowed Christianity to flourish.  Although oral proselytizing may be the primary means of sharing the gospel message, the written word continues to be a viable avenue for introverts to participate in evangelizing the world. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” When God calls someone, he equips them and that equipping could very well be the ability to share, through a written message, the gospel of Jesus Christ to somebody who may not otherwise be able to “hear” it.

I Deserve Better and I Deserve More!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Is it only me or have others noticed that there seems to be an entitlement mentality rampant all around us? It says, "I deserve better and I deserve more. I'm entitled to more than I'm getting and I want it now!"

I can’t even point my finger at others without having some guilt myself. There have been times when I started to believe that I deserved what God was allowing me to have just because I was doing things in his name and within his church. Unfortunately, when we have this entitlement mentality, it eventually invades our relationship with God. We begin to feel that we deserve more from God. That he owes us more because we are his children and we are doing what we believe he wants us to do!

Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, no matter what we do in his name and whatever part we play within the body of the church, what we ultimately deserve is death and hell. That's a bitter pill to swallow, but the Bible is clear about that: "the wage of sin is death". What God owes us in wages is death!

The good news is that he doesn't give us what we really should have coming to us. Instead, in mercy and because he loves us, he gives us life! He gives us forgiveness, hope and love. This Christmas, I am going to try to be more grateful for God’s mercy and grace and dwell no more on perceived lost entitlements.

Bethlehem PD Video

Strange things are about to happen as Joe Thursday and his sidekick Frank Cannon walk the beat in Bethlehem one winter night. There's a census in town, and everyone is on edge. Suddenly, a celestial disturbance prompts the officers to investigate. The trail leads them to the holy family. They help Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus escape Egypt just ahead of "Dirty Harry" (Herod).

 

 

Christmas Blessings

Saturday night my wife and I got to spend some time with a family whose prospects for Christmas by most American’s standards are rather bleak, but what impressed me or touched me the most was one of the boy’s outlook on the whole situation. Their tree was very sparsely decorated to say the least. On a 6-7 foot Christmas tree there were less than a dozen ornaments. They were proud of their tree and were excited and eager to show it to us. What was more touching than anything was when one of the boys showed us the present that was next to the tree. It was the only present they had and will probably be the only one this year. It was one present more than they expected to receive so it gave them something to look forward to on Christmas morning. It was one gift for all 5 people to open.

So why mention this? I have to say that I have had a rather negative attitude when it comes to this Holiday/Christmas season because I have had to interact with a lot of people with entitlement mentalities. My co-workers and I are used to getting a share of the net operating result where we work and for 2013 that has been taken away. That equates to several hundred dollars that most of us use for Christmas. That is on top of the insult of having been furloughed earlier this year and losing a substantial amount of our incomes.

As an “older dog”, I am not too old to learn and I choose to learn from this boy’s outlook. My family has still been greatly blessed and we have so much to be thankful for. I have a good job, healthy family, warm home, plenty to eat, good friends and the list goes on and on. For that, I am truly grateful. To my friends and family, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all join me and my family in being thankful for the “enough” that God has blessed us with.