J. N. N. Ng’ang’a – Meditations for 12th December , 2011 …….why are professionals not integrating their faith and profession?-:The fifth lie believed by professionals is:Your mission is fulfilled just by your financial giving:
Day 1
Sixth Lie: Your witnessing mission is fulfilled just by your financial giving:
This is the worst lie because it is believed by many serious Christians. Also many pastors encourage it. Pastors in wanting to raise a lot of tithes, give you the impression that if you partner with them by giving them your tithe, then you have discharged your responsibility to do witnessing. The emphasis is on the congregation giving , not on congregation witnessing in the market place.
That is not scripture. The new testament does not have some people who are supposed to work for God and others who are not expected to work for God. But the pastors have taught us that your mission is fulfilled just by your financial giving. So you feel happy that after all you are supporting a missionary in the Philippines. But financial support does not replace your call to witness to those you are working with.
Day 2
Of course financially supporting missionaries should be encouraged .
Paul was at times given support to do various missionary tasks. A group of us in Kenya are currently supporting one Kenyan missionary in Ethiopia, and two in Sudan. So we can feel like we are doing a lot of mission work in those countries while still in Kenya. We get reports of what the missionaries are doing and how they are confronting the issues that are currently happening in Ethiopia and the north and south Sudan, and so we feel like we are really there. What does that do to you? It makes you feel like you have fully fulfilled your mission to witness to others fully just because you have paid the money for the missionaries to do such a commendable job. It’s a lie. Your total mission to witness is not fulfilled by your financial giving.
Day 3
Acts 1 :15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters,[d] the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.
As discussed elsewhere, the commission in Acts1:8 to be witnesses was to the whole church and not just to the apostles. Both the apostles and other disciples had to witness. It was not for apostles to witness supported financially by the followers. All, those who work for church, and those who work in industry, etc, were commissioned to be witnesses.
In the upper room when the promised of the holy spirit was fulfilled there were 120 disciples as Acts 1:15 above says.
Was the commission in acts 1:8 given to only the 12 or to the 120? How many were in the upper room? They were 120 not 12 . The order or commission given was not to just the 12 people but to the whole group of believers .We know the commission and the promise were to all believers because when the promise of the holy spirit came, He fell on all the 120 and not just to the 12 apostles .
In the promise, they had been told to wait in Jerusalem. They were told that if they waited in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit would come upon them. How would they know that the Holy Spirit had come? Once He came they would become His witnesses. The Holy Spirit would prompt them to witness.
So you need to understand that this idea that pastors are the only ones expected to witness and we support them financially, is not scripture. All the disciples, including Peter, but also including the one who had gotten saved just before Jesus died, all of them in that meeting , all and not just some, were told to wait for the Holy Spirit so as to be empowered to be His witnesses.
So when did the commission start meaning that some will be my witnesses by giving?
Day 4
The second argument related with this is that, only those with the gift of witnessing should witness but all should give financial support to those witnessing. Just like no pastor will accept your excuse not to give financial offering because you are not gifted in giving, nor should he accept your excuse for not witnessing because you are not gifted. A lot of us say that those who do not have the gift of evangelism, are free not to witness. Have you ever met people with the gift of giving? All of us give, but there are people who have the gift of giving. I know of a lady who was our neighbor for many years who had a gift of giving. She gave beyond average giving.
Yes, some of us have the gift of giving but even those of us without the gift of giving are not excused from giving. Have you ever heard a pastor say, “We are just about to collect offering, those of you without the gift of giving let the offering bag pass,”? Every pastor says that everybody should give. How come when it comes to evangelism, pastors are ready to excuse some of us because we are not gifted?
That is how the church is emphasizing witnessing only by those who are gifted. We need to understand that witnessing is to be done both by the gifted and the non-gifted because it is a commission given to the whole church. There isn’t anybody who has an excuse not to witness, not a single one of us.
What we are admitting is that it is true that some are truly gifted in evangelism but all should witness according to their level of their God-given ability. Us if I am gifted in evangelism, may be more people will come to the Lord through me than through you even if we both witness.May be if iam gifted I will bring ten to the lord . But if you, who is not gifted bring only two, our church of two will have brought a total of twelve to the lord. We would have lost the two by discouraging you from witnessing.
The same way if some people give a million shillings when their salary per year is only two million shillings, they are giving 50%. Others are getting the same two million shillings; if they give two hundred thousand shillings they would have tithed. Somehow, pastors have no problem accepting money from both. In the same way witnessing must be done by everyone. What has gone wrong in the market place is to believe the lie that if you tithe you have also fully discharged your responsibility as a witness.
But why does anybody believe the money itself can witness? Is there anybody reading this who got saved through money? I have never heard of one person who has ever been saved through money. You can give your money in millions but unless somebody is willing to actually witness, nobody gets saved.
Day 5
Romans 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g]
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”[h] 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ
The scripture in Romans 10 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, not money.If money could bring faith the Bible would have said it. But now the bible makes it clear that nobody would be saved until they put faith in Christ and hence salvation will come when we start sharing the word. Faith comes only by hearing.
Thus we need to understand this lie has bad impact to the fulfillment of the great commission. A lot of us who are pastors have continued propagating that lie as we try to get more cash into the church. This way giving people who never mention Christ in the market place a sense of feeling nice as he tells them , “after all I know you are too busy to do witnessing ”.They do no tell their congregation the truth. The truth is that anybody with the Holy Spirit has become a witness, and must witnessing all his or her life. This means all of us Christians. Whatever our career, we must be witnesses if we are believers.
In fact my theory is that pastors can’t do much evangelism, not because they refuse to but because they do not meet with non-Christians most of their lives. Some of them are so busy counseling Christians with family or other relationship problems, they have no time to come into contact with non Christians. Some time back I was talking with somebody who was working for FOCUS among Christian unions . He was telling me that he hardly met a non-Christian, because in the Christian union he was targeting the Christians. That was when I realized that working for an oil company , I ,unlike him, hardly met a Christian. So we were facing opposite circumstances. He hardly met non-Christians and I hardly met Christians. So do you realize that the people who should be witnessing are not the pastors but the flock.
Pastors are called shepherds . If I am the shepherd, and you came to my place and found me with ten sheep: two males and eight female and I am taking good care of them , giving them minerals, food and water, then you come ten years later and they are still ten, whom will you blame: the shepherd or the sheep? The sheep would be to blame because as long as the shepherd feeds them, they are to reproduce themselves since a shepherd does not give birth to a lamb. It is not expected that shepherds would bear lambs but it is for sheep to bear lambs. The work of the shepherd is to feed and that of the sheep is to bear lambs.
It is therefore the same thing with church. If you go to a church and there are a hundred people, then come five years later and you still find the same a hundred people, if the pastor is feeding them, the problem is not the pastor. The sheep must be barren. That is where the trouble is. The issue is not the pastor because he is not expected to bear lambs. It is the work of the sheep to bear lambs.
We have taken away the ministry from where the scripture say it belongs .By the people in the market place only tithing, in the process we have made our churches not to grow. We have given the responsibility to the shepherd to bear lambs and he is not capable
Day 6
Seventh lie : your good and Christian acts will evangelize without you having to use words
Let me say that evangelism by works is a false type of evangelism. This false lifestyle evangelism teaches us that we should witness with our lives rather than our lips. This gospel is even being taught in Bible schools as we emphasize need for good Christian living. They teach that confrontational evangelism is the one that is destroying the name of the church of Christ, so “just live a good life’ and this is adequate . We only need to live a good consistent Christian life before the unsaved and eventually they will notice something in us that will cause them to want to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.
No such teaching is found in the Bible. Nowhere from Genesis to Revelation have we ever been taught that anybody can get saved only by seeing someone live a good life. Let me challenge those readers who are born again, did you get saved simply by seeing a Christian live his good life?
The best that a good Christian life does is to attract you to a church, where somebody must talk to show you the way of salvation. A good consistent Christian life gives you credibility to witness. It only places you on the swinging board; you subsequently must dive. It just makes gives you an opportunity to witness.
If you start witnessing after living a good life, people will start listening to you but it is not a witness on its own and was never intended to lead a soul to Christ on its own. Yes actions speak louder than words but they only speak louder if they amplify the words. Just like a microphone has an amplification system. Let the speaker say nothing…is it going to amplify? But when he says’ Jesus is Lord’, it amplifies it load enough to be heard by all, isn’t it?
You need to know actions speak louder than word but only when they amplify the words. If you say nothing to your workmate about Christ, live as holy as you want, you’ll never get him to Christ. The best they can say is you look like a Christian but it will never show them how they can accept Christ as Lord . Yes there are a number of phony Christians who spoil the name of Christianity by preaching loudly and yet their lives do not approximate the truth they preach. However , in order to emphasize need for Christian living, we have gone overboard, and denied need for verbal witnessing. To witness effectively we need both verbal witnessing and a righteous life.
Day 7
1st Peter 1:23-
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[c] And this is the word that was preached to you.
One is won to the savoir, not only by observing the life of a dedicated Christian but by the word of God.
In addition to 1st pter 1:23 we also as we saw above
Romans 10:17
New International Version (NIV)
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
So does the Faith come by observation? Is that what your Bible says? That they will watch me and they will get faith. That’s not in the Bible. For people to be saved, it is not by observation. It’s not Ng’ang’a saying it, it is the Bible.
Also 1 Corinthians 1:21
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe
God is being pleased not to save just through someone’s lifestyle; it pleases God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe. So that if you sit there feeling that just your good life will win anybody, that’s laziness and it is a wrong gospel . You need to deal with it as a wrong gospel.
And Romans 10 goes on to say
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
And that’s what we are..preachers of the word whatever other career we have . I have heard people from industry emphasizing “You don’t need to say anything, just live a Christian life”. That is not in the Scripture. The scripture wants you to live a Christian life in order to gain credibility to share the gospel. Good Christian living will attract the others, it will not necessarily save them.
So how do you, in THE market place, rescue the well to do but LOST colleagues? I suggest several steps.
1. Start with self-evangelism.
I think I have emphasized that long enough. Your priority must be in keeping intimate relationship with the Lord before you can tell others about him.
2. Do indirect evangelism. This case is where we are saying your lifestyle will start attracting others to you.
3. Value evangelism. Start exhibiting a value system. Your values become core Biblical values. It will attract others to find out how you are able to keep these values .
4. Target the person most attracted to your lifestyle to whom you plan to share the gospel. Begin praying for the target persons, invite them to small groups and or other special programs. Small groups may be Bible studies. The idea is that when you form a Bible study it becomes the basis of inviting your neighbor to where he can be exposed top the word. Unfortunately for evangelism some of us enjoy our Bible studies so much that we feel the fellowship will be spoilt if our non-Christian neighbors come. It is very important to understand that the Bible study can become a witness tool within your neighborhood or office .
5. finally look for direct ways to share the gospel one on one with the person already exposed to the gospel .
Conclusion
Thus we need to have the type of values that allows us to influence society through our professions or business. If we believe above devils lies, we shall think we are successful professionals just because we are rich or in high positions, yet in reality we are not achieving both spiritual impact objectives as to why God has put us in industry.