Horse or Mule?
Are you a “horse” Christian or a “mule” Christian? What’s the difference you may ask? Your right, they both eat the same food, they both do the same kind of work, the both live in the same kind of place, they look very similar, they even sound somewhat alike. What is the difference?
The horse can reproduce, the mule cannot!
Jesus said that every branch that beareth not fruit will be cut down and throne into the fire and burned. What kind of Christian are we?
So often I can get caught up in “my” life that I forget I gave it away to Christ. What does He want me to do with it. One thing that He has made abundantly clear is that I am to tell others about His love and coming judgment. I am to bear fruit!! But do I?! Am I willing to sacrifice my time, my reputation to my customers, my easy life to tell others of the right way to walk? Many times I have to answer “No.”
When we looked at going to Thailand in mission work, a great Brother, Luke Kuepfer, talked about a paradigm for church planting in that culture and I wonder, would it work here?
As a way to reach people, you start an English class. You use a bible based learning to read curriculum and after a few times you may notice that one of your students is more interested in what the lessons are saying than in what they are teaching. You take him aside and when he asks you questions about what your saying in class, you respond by giving him the basic plan of salvation and your life testimony over the next couple meetings. You then ask if he would like to receive this same Jesus into his heart. If he says “no” then you need to keep working on the need of salvation and personal repentance. If he says “yes” then you teach him on who he is in Christ, baptize him and show him the promises of God for His children. But, within a short time, (weeks not months) you set him or her down and give them a paper and tell them to write down all the people they know on a conversational level who don not know Jesus as their Savior. It may take them some time to come up with this but when they are done, tell them to pick out 3 people and tell them about what Jesus has done in their lives. If they are unwilling to do this, then we need to go back to the salvation issue and relearn what Christ calls us to do as His child.
Then when he has started telling others about Jesus, don’t have him bring them back to you, you teach the first guy and let him teach those HE has lead to the Lord. To often we want to quick bring them into OUR church and make them dependant on us! If we lived out the Great Commission in our daily lives, and taught others to do so as well, Christ’s kingdom would explode! If you don’t believe me, read the first few chapters of Acts.
Would this paradigm work here in America? The very worst it would do is get us off our duffs and put Christ at the center of our lives instead of something we try to fit into it.
Are you a spiritual horse, or a spiritual mule? What would Jesus say?
Thanks AIG for this fitting cartoon!
The horse can reproduce, the mule cannot!
Jesus said that every branch that beareth not fruit will be cut down and throne into the fire and burned. What kind of Christian are we?
So often I can get caught up in “my” life that I forget I gave it away to Christ. What does He want me to do with it. One thing that He has made abundantly clear is that I am to tell others about His love and coming judgment. I am to bear fruit!! But do I?! Am I willing to sacrifice my time, my reputation to my customers, my easy life to tell others of the right way to walk? Many times I have to answer “No.”
When we looked at going to Thailand in mission work, a great Brother, Luke Kuepfer, talked about a paradigm for church planting in that culture and I wonder, would it work here?
As a way to reach people, you start an English class. You use a bible based learning to read curriculum and after a few times you may notice that one of your students is more interested in what the lessons are saying than in what they are teaching. You take him aside and when he asks you questions about what your saying in class, you respond by giving him the basic plan of salvation and your life testimony over the next couple meetings. You then ask if he would like to receive this same Jesus into his heart. If he says “no” then you need to keep working on the need of salvation and personal repentance. If he says “yes” then you teach him on who he is in Christ, baptize him and show him the promises of God for His children. But, within a short time, (weeks not months) you set him or her down and give them a paper and tell them to write down all the people they know on a conversational level who don not know Jesus as their Savior. It may take them some time to come up with this but when they are done, tell them to pick out 3 people and tell them about what Jesus has done in their lives. If they are unwilling to do this, then we need to go back to the salvation issue and relearn what Christ calls us to do as His child.
Then when he has started telling others about Jesus, don’t have him bring them back to you, you teach the first guy and let him teach those HE has lead to the Lord. To often we want to quick bring them into OUR church and make them dependant on us! If we lived out the Great Commission in our daily lives, and taught others to do so as well, Christ’s kingdom would explode! If you don’t believe me, read the first few chapters of Acts.
Would this paradigm work here in America? The very worst it would do is get us off our duffs and put Christ at the center of our lives instead of something we try to fit into it.
Are you a spiritual horse, or a spiritual mule? What would Jesus say?
Thanks AIG for this fitting cartoon!
Comments
So this pondering, well-worded theologizing is by Japheth Stauffer - the little curly-headed boy I used to know up north. No offense man, that's just how I remember you. I have relatively little contact since then to go on. My sister, April, sent me a link to her blog a number of months ago, and since then, I've gone from link to link as they've been advertised on various other people's blogs. I don't have a blog myself, but occasionally respond.
Your comments on horse and mule Christians are good. The paradigm for witnessing you mentioned is actually not such a bad idea, and is the model that many church cell groups are based upon. I know there are many in conservative Menno-ism who frown on the cell group, for what reasons, I'm still unsure of. However, that's what it's designed to do. And as referred to in some of your other postings, denominational Christians do have a tendancy to focus inward, to theologize and stare down their noses inside their own little churches. That's the dangers of blogging; you get so caught up in thrashing about your own little issues and points of view, that you forget the great commission. I'm not pointing fingers exactly, just going by experience.
But you do have a good thing going here. Keep up the good work and I'll read occasionally.
Best wishes,
Ed Hertzler
I liked what Ed had to say too on the part of denominational Christians tending to focus inward, and I see too much of this in our Mennonite churches. I find the blogging experience a way to discuss many issues, but it too can become something that takes up our time from witnessing to the lost as we should. We need to find a balance in everything we do and put our witnessing on top of everything. I hope that I am found to be a horse Christian.
Ann V HolyExperience