11.7.10 ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL?

worldmag, 11,6,2010, p79..there is a little thing called the 'OVERTON WINDOW'. it is the term for an insight by a joseph p. overton that at any given point in the stream of a population's public life there is a 'window' that contains or frames a range of opinion that is currently acceptable. outside that window lie the ideas considered wacko. the intriguing thing is that what is 'acceptable' and what is 'wacko' can, and does shift. the window itself moves - and clever and diabolical forces have an interest in moving it.
yesterday's 'radical' is today's 'acceptable'. yesterday's 'unthinkable' is today's merely 'radical - and, with a little deft manipulation, will be tomorrow's 'acceptable'. given more time and massaging, 'unthinkable' can go all the way to 'popular' and then 'policy'.
note: one example of the above would be ABORTION, the publicly known murder of over 50 million babies in america and over 1.5 billion worldwide since 1960 - the great majority of them 'legal'. to be consistent we all should have the right to murder whoever else we want when we want...but of course that is not currently acceptable. it's only acceptable to do it to those who have no voice or ability to defend themselves..the overton window.

jews for Jesus newsletter, 10.2010..SHARING THE GOSPEL the apostle paul said in romans 1.16, ' i am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..'

...a pastor once told me that he appreciated the ministry of jews for Jesus but could not invite us to speak in his pulpit. he had what he felt was a good relationship with the rabbi across the street, with an annual pulpit exchange. 'i have an opportunity to be a witness..by inviting you, i would be forfeiting that opportunity..
i carefully pointed out that his opportunity was only an opportunity if he could say something that would truly challenge his jewish friends to consider Christ. further, if anything he said or did ever resulted in a synagogue member coming to faith in Jesus, those ..exchanges would probably come to a screeching halt. sadly, i don't think that pastor was willing to give up the notion that friendship with the rabbi was somehow a prerequisite to evangelism and the fulfillment of his christian duty.
many christians today seem to think that gaining the acceptance of unbelieving jewish people is the way to gain a platform for the gospel. unfortunately, things usually do not work out that way.

some people speak about 'earning the right' to witness. while it seems like a humble thing to say, many people fail to see how that statement contradicts scripture. the bible teaches that proclaiming the gospel is an obligation to be fulfilled, not a right to be earned. the idea that people must accept us before the can accept Y'shua (Jesus) can actually become a subtle kind of pride that we fail to recognize in ourselves and our fellow believers.

we hear much about relational or 'friendship' evangelism, but the bible says '..do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity..with God? whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God'. james 4.4 (note: Jesus said, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kind of evil against you falsely on account of Me. rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for so the persecuted the prophets who were before you'.) i'm not saying we should treat unbelievers like enemies, nor should we be unrelational, unfriendly or rude! nevertheless, when we make friendship with unbelievers our first priority, Jesus gets short shrift.

few christians intend to shunt Jesus off to the side. most who never quite get around to giving a clear-cut gospel message don't even realize they are sacrificing their gospel witness on the altar of human acceptance.
once, when i was speaking at a church, a woman approached me after the service. she was pleased to inform me that her roommate and best friend in college was jewish and that she had maintained their friendship over many years. when i asked if she ever talked to her friend about Jesus, she responded, oh no, i'd be too afraid of offending her. i affirmed her desire to remain friends by suggested, 'perhaps what you fear even more than offending her is the possibility that she might reject you. i'm afraid that woman took offense at my suggestion but i had to do what she was not willing to do: risk being rejected for the sake of an important truth - a truth more important than my being liked or accepted.
it is easy to allow ourselves to believe that our silence is out of respect for those who might disagree with us. it is easy to see our motivation as noble, especially when we see our ultimate intention as positioning ourselves to be a better witness. but unfortunately, too often those intentions come to nothing and we need to face the truth that sometimes our tact and our long-term intentions are merely masks that cover our natural fear of rejection and our reluctance to position ourselves where God really wants us: in a place of vulnerability.

we need to be honest about our own hesitation to witness and we need to be realistic about this matter of offending others. God wants us to be loving and humble when we tell others about him. yet even the most inoffensive manner cannot guarantee that people will not take offense at what we have to say. ultimately, people decide the basis on which they will or will not be offended and sometimes taking offense is their best defense against the gospel.

there is much talk about the virtues of our pluralistic society. from a worldly perspective, tolerance is the greatest good. but today's society has twisted the meaning of tolerance, making it practically synonymous with relativism. TRUE TOLERANCE IS TREATING PEOPLE DECENTLY REGARDLESS OF HOW THEY MAY DIFFER FROM YOU. the false tolerance demanded by today's society requires that you accept all beliefs as equally true or if you can't do that, you keep quiet about it. the suggestion that someone else's religious belief might not be true is wrongly labeled as intolerance. if someone believed she could take a street that only runs east and west to go north, would it be intolerant for someone else in the care to suggest a turn? no. yet, when it comes to spiritual matters,the world insists on a degree of relativism that would spell disaster were we to apply it to the physical realm.
the christian belief that Jesus is the only way of salvation is perceived as intolerance, even bigotry by the world's standards. so the pressure is on us to compromise our strong stance and conviction in order to gain some acceptance, in order to avoid being marginalized by the unbelieving world. yes, we live in a pluralistic society, but PLURALISM MEANS THAT EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO EXPRESS HIS..OWN OPINION. IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT EVERYONE'S OR NO ONE'S OPINION IS TRUE.

whenever we proclaim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the inference is that all other ways are false and therefore those who trust anyone or anything other than Jesus for salvation are mistaken. you don't have to tell people they are wrong; the message itself pronounces them wrong. this will always be viewed as intolerance by those who don't believe. and those who are considered intolerant can expect to be rejected. that is why the idea that we must be accepted by those whom we wish to evangelize doesn't work.

many jews have risked alienation from family and friends to follow Jesus. we have been ostracized by the wider jewish community because we have embraced the One who was despised and rejected of men. but we have discovered that He is worth it! 'remember the word that i said to you, "a servant is not greater than his master'. if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. if they kept My word, they will keep yours also'. john 15.20

...the author of hebrews was writing to a group of first century jewish believers in Jesus who stood at a crossroads. they had suffered refection and persecution to the point where they were tempted to turn their backs on the Lord. they need to be encouraged and challenged to endure and be faithful. they needed to hear, '../Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. therefore let us go forth to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach'. heb 13.12-3..that call is as real today as it was in the first century - and it speaks to all christians...

note: i have been doing this exact thing..trying to be accepted, trying to escape reproach, putting human relationships above my relationship with God.

recently a person very close to my heart had a response that along with this article will hopefully act as twin catalysts to bring about a change. i had said virtually nothing to this person over a number of times with them 'on their own turf' with the (strange, i now think) thought that they were a 'captive audience'. i was hoping to win their friendship over time so that i could begin to speak from my heart as things opened up between us. recently there was an 'opening' between us and so i shared with them from psalm 22, a prophetic psalm about Jesus' sufferings on the cross. i did this in order that they might possibly see Jesus as a person, just like them, who was suffering...and as a person who, uniquely God, still allowed Himself to be mistreated by just men. i also asked if this person had ever read the bible. my question was not answered and the response was that this was all a bit much. the person went on to ask for 'respect', hopefully i'm mistaken in assuming that this meant that i am not welcome to talk about Jesus or the bible. even if the respect request ends up not to be about Jesus/bible kind of things...along with the above article it is enough to move me to prayer that God would help me not to continue being so callous as to never at least share about Jesus' love ...especially with those i am close with! what will i ever say if i should have to stand in judgment before God with them an try to come up with some reason why i never did...it's all to horrible to think much about. may God have mercy on me. may i start opening my mouth. may i start loving other people enough to witness to what i know to be true: Jesus died to save all of us sinners.

i am hoping to send this to the above person and pray that they would read and consider. all i can say is that i'm glad this person has not died all this time while i have been waiting for an 'opening' in our relationship to be able to openly discuss spiritual matters.

the request for respect (ie. silence on the subject of Jesus) is, to me, an inversion of sorts. (i always thought that good, respectful relationships were where there was a freedom to speak about anything combined with no inclination to force acceptance of opinions either way...that there was a mutual acceptance of each other, a thoughtful, reflective interchange of ideas back and forth.) i felt disrespected and not accepted and am now thinking i am not able to be myself always watching lest i should somehow inadvertently offend by something i say.

as an aside, i was struck by one statement of the missionary william carey. it was something to the effect that he had no focus on friendships. by reading his life i learned that he had a number of close relationships (this statement was another window from which i received insight), his focus was on the great work of translation of the bible into different languages - something God had gifted and called him to do. i'm not at this point of letting friendship go as a focus, but i believe it is a 'place' God would have me go. as an afterthought, i don't see any special desire in Jesus' for having and cultivating friendships. He seemed all about one thing: doing what God the Father had told Him to do.