presenting the unchanging gospel in forms ... - Global Interaction

Love
Language and cultural understanding are vital for
sharing the gospel, but it is love that convinces
people of the truth of the message. Love is the
authenticating action and attitude. Many activities
are practised in other religions – reading scripture,
fasting, good deeds and acts of service. Some
groups do these more diligently than Christians
often do. I joined my friends for the fast during
Ramadan last year, and it is very diffi cult to do.
The Bible says that it is only love that shows a
person to be a genuine follower of the living God.
Love trumps other aspects of engaging people
in cross-cultural mission. Love is the essential
ingredient for reaching unreached groups like the
Yani. John, in his letter, says that “we know that we
pass from death to life because we love others”.
Love is the fi rst fruit of the Spirit and is mentioned
as a sign that reveals a person’s eternal status.
Being loving doesn’t exempt us from the hard task
of trying to learn another language and culture.
Struggling to speak and understand are acts of love
in themselves. It is love that carries the day. When
we have tried our best to communicate; when we
have fumbled and stuttered and tried our best to
understand, and yet still look so odd, love speaks
out. Love carries the message when our words
have failed. Love communicates, more powerfully
than anything, the genuineness of the message and
the messenger than anything we can do or say.
The love of God, expressed through us and others,
is bringing Yani people to faith in Jesus.
Yosefi Lutembe
God’s love is also fl owing through Muslimbackground
Malawian believers. Yosefi Lutembe
became a Christian and, like Abdul, was rejected
by his family. But he had a deep desire for his own
people to know Jesus. He prayed that God would
send someone to them. But God didn’t seem to
answer, and Yosefi fi nally realised that God was
calling him to go.
His home community had vowed that there would
never be a Christian church in their village. So,
when he returned, people threatened him. He
started to meet people and built a small grassroofed
building in which they met and prayed, but
one night they burnt it to the ground. They tried to
kill him, sending him poisoned food. They even
cursed him. This was not just saying nasty things;
they used powerful witchcraft to try to drive him
crazy. Yosefi suffered, but he never retaliated.
His motivation was, “God is love”, a side of God
that is not commonly known, but which they saw
expressed in Yosefi ’s life. He told them, “If you
kill me, others will come, because God is love.”
People began to say, “Hey, what is it about us and
our religion that drives us to do this.” Eventually,
recognising Yosefi ’s loving attitude, they said,
“We’re ready to listen.”
We are fi nding that Yani people are coming to faith
in Jesus because of the love of God shown in
people like Yosefi Lutembe.
We believe that what is true for the Yani is true for
people throughout the world, including Australia.
Therefore, let us go and become Jews to the Jews,
Greeks to the Greeks, Yani to the Yani, and Aussies
to Aussies in the love of Christ and we will see
people coming to Jesus as well.
Then, one day, we will all stand with a great
multitude of people singing and praising God
together in out own languages, in a way that is
authentically “us”. As for me, I’m looking forward to
joining the Yani group as well as the Aussie group!
What a privilege!
18 FEBRUARY 2008 | VISION | GLOBAL INTERACTION