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Over to AJ...
Jason J
INTRO
Life has been pretty quite over the past month. Waiting for university to begin at the end of September, I have been spending most of my time preparing the new houses for the coming Stint, doing some repairs, and learning Turkish. I have had a chance to reflect on some of the lessons God has been teaching me, and wish to share some with you now.SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
I have a socialist friend named "Onay". In a suffering economy, many people here place their trust in Socialism as the answer to the country's problems. But Socialism or Communism cannot answer the root problem of the world. As a humanistic philosophy (one that believes all problems can be solved by humanity), it fails to recognize that humans ARE the problem. Even Russian communism began with high ideals, but men, fallen and sinful, corrupt good ideas making them ineffective or even evil.When we are in a right relationship with our creator, and transformed by him, only then can we be sure of making a change for the better - one based on true wisdom. A few weeks ago my friend Onay understood this. There are elements of God's teaching in communism. The first church lived in a commune state, and Jesus reserved many harsh words for those who were rich - people who hoard for themselves rather than recognizing they are but stewards of what God had entrusted to them. But by declaring an independence of man from "a superstitious belief in a Creator", communism falls short of the truth and thus is met with failure. Communism relies on an inherent human goodness, and so falls short of practical without this relationship with the divine.
After discovering the truth of the Bible, and finding his sentiments for equality are more than adequately expressed there, Onay concluded all Socialists would accept Christianity if only they could hear what it truly teaches, seeing it not to be a religious tool that can be used by the upper class if studied by the individual. While I do not share his total optimism of a world-wide revival throughout all Socialist adherents, he has been successful in bringing a Communist friend along to our bible studies who also accepted Christ one week later!
Pray for the socialists of this country. People who have rejected Islam and believe they have only themselves left to turn to for hope.
STICK TO THE GAME PLAN!
Basic Judaeo-Christian morality is clearly amiss in the culture here. One of the more obvious aspects to the observer is a lack of honesty in business ethics. In apartment dealings during the past few months, one flat owner attempted to weasel out of us a 1000 Deutch Mark deposit that we should have been entitled to upon disbanding the flat. We were obviously very miffed and knew several ways we could try to pry the money back from her, although less than Christian in method. While discussing our options, I came across the following devotional on Patience:Patience
Patience should characterise the life of every believer who is trying to do God's will. John Wooden, ex- basketball coach of UCLA said, "In game play, it has always been my philosophy that patience will win out. If we break away from our style, however, and play their style, we're in trouble. Play your game. Eventually, if you play your game, stick to your style, class will tell in the end! This does not mean that we will always outscore our opponent, but it does ensure that we will not beat ourselves."
In Psalm 37, God says "Do what's right and trust Me. Regardless of how badly you may seem to be losing, just do My will and leave the outcome to Me. I'll make sure that eventually you'll be the winner." Such a strategy will not only keep us from beating ourselves, it will lead to glorious victory!
Martin R DeHaan
Just because the world plays one set of tactics,
it does not mean we are permitted to drop to its level. In fact it would
be totally illogical to do so! If we believe in honesty and integrity of
character, to compromise those values during trying circumstances essentially
means the values we espouse are not truly practical, and that makes us
fools for sticking to them in the first place. Stick to one game plan.
If we play both sides by breaking the game plan, we are fools by anyone's
standards.
cont...
This was very convicting for us. After reflecting
on it, we decided to do the right thing for ourselves even if it
meant we were unlikely to see our deposit again. In the end we only received
a portion of the deposit back, but at least we didn't sell our character
and reputation.
Sometimes sticking to God's way has very obvious advantages. Our Real Estate agent, after being very impressed by our insistence not to lie (something regarded here as part of normal business practice in order to get "a better deal"), has become our best reference when seeking other new houses. He now is willing to make all kinds of special allowances for us as a result of his trust towards us, which has already proven to be invaluable.
TOMMY
I call him jokingly the "propaganda machine". A name derived from his continual distribution of large quantities of bibles and apologetic materials to his friends and Muslims seeing such an act as propaganda.However, while Tommy has been making strides in some areas of his life, many problems have also arisen. About a month ago, Tommy was involved in a fight outside a Disco in which his close friend ended up shooting someone in the leg over a name calling dispute. His friend managed to avoid a conviction of any kind so long as he pays the medical bill for the injury man - a very lenient justice for one who shows no remorse for his action.
I talked to Tommy about the wisdom of keeping such a friend and spent some time talking with the friend himself explaining to him that if he was going to live his life in that way, I would advise my brother in Christ Tommy not to associate with him any more. It was a time for testing for Tommy as to what was more important for him - an old time friend, or staying away from men of violence.
Tommy has seemed to pass through that test with success, but there are still several areas in his life which he recognizes as sin and does not wish to confess to God. Harbouring sins, even if they are small, is dangerous business and can slowly draw us away from God. There is a sort of girlfriend (although he doesn't admit it) who he goes out with a lot now and is not a believer. A big pitfall, even in Australia, when Christians are taken out of the race by getting involved in relationships with non-believers.
I ask for your prayers for Tommy, he shows great enthusiasm for following God but needs to be convicted of the need to be holy in all aspect of his life allowing Satan no foothold with which he can destroy the new life Tommy has found.
NEW STINT
Five Americans and one New Zealand stinter have settled in and are ready to make a impact for God on campus this semester. Also, as a surprise last minute addition, a national has joined the Stint program, being the first national stinter ever! Keep these three guys and four girls in your prayers as they settle in and begin language learning.PRAISE / PRAYER POINTS
[Cut out along the dotted lines to insert this summary in the back of your day planner or bible]Praise:
* The new sisters and brothers we have gained, Onay and his friend.* The first national stinter.
Prayer:
* Pray that God will strengthen Tommy's resolve to commit his whole life to God, without reservation.* Pray for socialists that they may have opportunities to hear the gospel message.
* Pray for the new stinters as they settle in.