I had one of the most incredible moments of my life last night, and I’m almost hesitant to share it. I hate reducing significant spiritual events to simple words, but I’ll do my best. Last night after dinner everyone cleared out of the living room. It was only 9:30ish so I wasn’t ready for bed yet, but I went into my room too. My mama came in about 5 minutes later just to say goodnight and make conversation. She said that she and my Father were going to pray, but they felt bad because they couldn’t pray in English. I told her I didn’t mind at all, and I was content just to listen if they would let me join them.
They went back into the living room and my Father sat in a chair, while Mama sat on a mat on the floor. I sat across from them on a bench and they began to pray in Luganda. About a minute into their praying, God entered the room. I dropped to the floor on my knees as soon as I felt His presence there. It was one of the most intense feelings I’ve ever experienced, but I was caught somewhere between fear and adoration. Mama and my Father continued to pray in Luganda and then began to worship in song, all the while I sat on my knees with my headed bowed and prayed to Him and thanked Him for showing himself to me and just praising Him in complete awe.
I’d been really struggling lately with what it means to be a Christian and whether I could even call myself one. I think a lot of it stemmed from the discussions we’ve been having in our Faith & Action class where we’ve been discussing Christianity in the African context and discussing how it relates to other religions like Islam and African Traditional Religions. I’ve heard a lot of skewed interpretations of the Bible, and one girl went as far to say that as Christians, people of other religions are the enemy. I believe with every ounce of my being in Jesus’ message of love, but I really began to wonder whether I wanted to lump myself in with this group of hateful believers.
In the midst of these doubts and this struggle within myself, God has revealed Himself to me on more than one occasion. I’m not sure why He thinks me worthy to stand His presence, but I’ve never felt so on fire for the Lord, and I’m praying that it’s not a Christian Summer Camp kind of Jesus high, but a flame that’s going to continue to burn within me.
I guess my main point of telling everyone this story was both to share you with the grace of our God and to thank you for your prayers, because clearly, they have not gone unheard. After our prayers and worship were finished, God continued to keep the blessings coming and I got to talk to my host parents for a good 20 minutes or so. It was my first one-on-one time with both of them, and I was so grateful. I’m going to miss them tremendously when I leave on Friday, but I promised them that I’ll continue to visit them throughout the semester.
There are a couple other things that I wanted to share, but I may wait to tell you them tomorrow, because nothing seems worth talking about after what I just shared. I guess now, I’d just like to thank you again for your continued prayers and all the love and support I’ve received throughout my time here. I’ll leave you with my feelings for today, in the words of Flyleaf…
Here she stands today, in her big shiny way, fully alive, more than most, ready to smile and love life. Fully alive and she knows how to believe in futures.
Hi Kaity,
ReplyDeleteThis is Vince from your mom's office. I have been following your comments from Africa with great interest. And I have been praying for you. I read your blog this morning and the Lord has led me to make some comments which I hope are encouraging to you.
I know what you mean about being bothered by some Christian's attitudes toward people of other religions, such as you are encountering there. Many Christians feel as though they can judge other people's hearts. Yet God only is the judge of hearts, and people (Christians included) have no right or ability to do so. This is what Jesus meant when He said: "Judge not, and you will not be judged."
To be a Christian is to trust in Christ alone for our eternal life and to have a personal relationship with Him. Of course we are made worthy to be in His presence by His finished work on the cross. Being a true Christian does NOT mean we have to look on people of other religions as the enemy. It is true that a person in any nation can only be saved through Christ's work on the cross and not by their works or religious practices. Yet the Bible speaks in many places of those from other nations and religions who seek the Lord and find Him: (Acts 10:34, Acts 17:26-28.) God looks at the heart of each person (1 Chronicles 28:9, Psalm 33:13-15, Isaiah 55:6)
The key question is does the person have a repentant heart and are they willing to believe what the true God has revealed to them? An example is Cornelius, who was neither Christian or Jew, but God honored his devout heart and deeds and so revealed Christ to him (see Acts Chapter 10). Many Muslims with no access to the Christian Gospel have had Christ appear to them in visions. This has also happened to some tribal priests in Africa.
The way we as Christians show Christ to people such as you are encountering is not to argue with them about their religion. Instead, we are to love them into the kingdom of God. We need to love them into a relationship with the God of the Bible by demonstrating the reality of Christ by our relationship with Him. Islam teaches that God is unknowable personally. Many if not all African traditional religions teach that their many gods are beings who must be appeased by various rituals to prevent them from cursing the people. By loving these people and showing who Jesus is to them, you counteract these false ideas they may have about God, without arguing.
Some may resist, because just like some Americans, they love their sin more than they love God. But for many others they will find what they are truly seeking as our Lord said. And they don't need to have a lot of theological knowledge. Just look at Rahab in the book of Judges. She was a prostitute in a pagan country, yet God revealed Himself to her, and she was listed with the heroes of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. And she couldnt have had the knowledge of Christ's atonement that we have today, but she did have a repentant heart. There are many other Biblical examples. God can apply the payment of sacrifice of Christ to those who have been brought to repentance by the Holy Spirit who goes out into all the world, even without intellectual knowledge about Christ's atonement. And once they find out about His atonement (our mission) they can rejoice in the sureness of salvation.
Sorry this was so long, I hope it helps. I know this experience must be somewhat overwhelming for you, but the love and forgiveness of Christ will sustain you and guide you as you reach out to those around you of other religions.
With prayer
Vince Latorre
Hi Kaity,
ReplyDeleteI just read your blog for the 28th. I thank God for what He is doing in your life. I would like to comment that people of other religions are not our enemy, in fact it seems that the only true enemy of Jesus was the self righteous hypocrite.
Jesus it the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by him. He also tells us that there is no other name under heaven by which we are saved, and so when come across people of other religions we should not condemn but rather, have compassion. People apart from Jesus are simply lost and Jesus said he came to seek and save the lost.
As Christians we should have hatred for no one. We should hate what sin and lies do to people, we should have compassion in our hearts and our deepest desire should be to introduce others to the deep, deep, love of Jesus.
It is unfortunate that many Christians would rather spend their time telling what they are against rather than talking about what Jesus is for. If I understand it all properly Jesus seems to be all for hurting, lost, broken, and confused people finding life and hope in Him.
The truth of the matter is you are not worthy to stand in his presence, nor am I or anyone else in and of themselves.It is only his love and grace and mercy that allows you to stand and know Him and that same love and grace and mercy is available to everyone who will come to him, any one can fall under his grace and love no matter how vile or far away that have been.
Never forget that we are in war, but that was not with people, Ephesians tells us the war is not against flesh and blood but it is against forces of darkness.
We all wrestle and struggle with our faith at times but hold on to what God has done in your life and risk everything to stay faithful to Jesus!
God Bless
Pastor Ron