I love to travel. As much as I like to travel, I like to host people that are traveling. When we host people in Orlando, we take them to see the sights of Central Florida. That usually means Walt Disney World, Daytona Beach, air-boat rides to see alligators, or Universal Studios. When I visit other countries, they take me to see their sights. I will be in India next month and have been told we will visit the Taj Mahal.
I was in Rwanda for a church mission trip a few years back. During our time, they took us to see a game reserve. It was very exciting. We were going to see monkeys, zebra, hippos, and perhaps elephants.
Upon entering the park, we stopped several times for the guide to point out various birds. Birds? That is like stopping to show a visitor to Orlando Chuck-E-Cheese on the way to see Disney. Forget the birds! Take us to see big animals we don't see every day!
Next stop, a family of giraffe. Now we are talking! As we drove through the uncharted course of the game reserve our guide told us he had heard of a sighting of Mutwumbe. Mutwumbe was a large elephant who had been kicked out of the herd because he was aggressive. Even elephants have standards apparently. Because he was alone, he became even more aggressive toward anyone that approached him, like a grumpy old man.
We drove to the spot where he was bathing, and had to walk a short distance to find him. There he was. Very large, and in about three feet of water facing away from us. You could hear all the cameras clicking away under the whispers of our group of 10 tourists, not wanting to attract the attention of our grumpy friend.
Our guide addressed the group in a low voice. "Let me call his name so he will turn and you can get better pictures", he said. "Oh, I think we are ok with these pictures" one person replied. Another asked, "is it safe?" "Sure", came the confident reply of our guide. With that, he turned to shout at the elephant as we anxiously waited to see what would happen. As the guide drew his breath, he glanced our way and whispered "Get ready to run!"
Um, no, wait...was all I could think. And then I thought back to 3rd grade and remembered the survival of the fittest. I don't have to out-run the elephant, I just have to out-run someone in our group.
Fast forward to today. Our church just went through a tough time. We had news crews on our property last weekend inquiring about a breaking story that was not favorable for attracting new members. When our pastor called me the day before to tell me the news, it was like he was telling me "get ready to run". I turned on the news at home to see what was being reported. Our story was small compared to other news. Just like my safari story, I saw that we don't have to out-run the news, just out-run the other people that have bigger problems.
As we study the New Testament, we find plenty of warnings for the church about the behavior of the people. These writings are not prophetic. They were not predicting the problems we would face today. They were actual problems the church faced then. But we are to use the teachings and advice for today. It still applies today.
Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to get ready to run. Not to run from the world, but to run into the world proclaiming the truth. That also applies today. What is the church doing today? Are we hiding? Or are we ready to run?
I was in Rwanda for a church mission trip a few years back. During our time, they took us to see a game reserve. It was very exciting. We were going to see monkeys, zebra, hippos, and perhaps elephants.Upon entering the park, we stopped several times for the guide to point out various birds. Birds? That is like stopping to show a visitor to Orlando Chuck-E-Cheese on the way to see Disney. Forget the birds! Take us to see big animals we don't see every day!
Next stop, a family of giraffe. Now we are talking! As we drove through the uncharted course of the game reserve our guide told us he had heard of a sighting of Mutwumbe. Mutwumbe was a large elephant who had been kicked out of the herd because he was aggressive. Even elephants have standards apparently. Because he was alone, he became even more aggressive toward anyone that approached him, like a grumpy old man.
We drove to the spot where he was bathing, and had to walk a short distance to find him. There he was. Very large, and in about three feet of water facing away from us. You could hear all the cameras clicking away under the whispers of our group of 10 tourists, not wanting to attract the attention of our grumpy friend.
Our guide addressed the group in a low voice. "Let me call his name so he will turn and you can get better pictures", he said. "Oh, I think we are ok with these pictures" one person replied. Another asked, "is it safe?" "Sure", came the confident reply of our guide. With that, he turned to shout at the elephant as we anxiously waited to see what would happen. As the guide drew his breath, he glanced our way and whispered "Get ready to run!"
Um, no, wait...was all I could think. And then I thought back to 3rd grade and remembered the survival of the fittest. I don't have to out-run the elephant, I just have to out-run someone in our group.
Fast forward to today. Our church just went through a tough time. We had news crews on our property last weekend inquiring about a breaking story that was not favorable for attracting new members. When our pastor called me the day before to tell me the news, it was like he was telling me "get ready to run". I turned on the news at home to see what was being reported. Our story was small compared to other news. Just like my safari story, I saw that we don't have to out-run the news, just out-run the other people that have bigger problems.
As we study the New Testament, we find plenty of warnings for the church about the behavior of the people. These writings are not prophetic. They were not predicting the problems we would face today. They were actual problems the church faced then. But we are to use the teachings and advice for today. It still applies today.
Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to get ready to run. Not to run from the world, but to run into the world proclaiming the truth. That also applies today. What is the church doing today? Are we hiding? Or are we ready to run?
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