Looking at New Things With Old Lenses

Every Background Under The Sun

Acts 10.34-35 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

I am thinking today about the situation we have in mission where we refer to new believers with reference to the background they have come from. According to their background they will face different challenges which is why we make the distinctions, but essentially we are all disciples following Jesus just like Peter and the centurion in Acts chapter 10.

For instance we may have a new believer who comes from a Muslim background, this becomes abbreviated to an MBB which is a ‘Muslim Background Believer’. They face particular challenges because this is viewed as apostasy by the Muslim community and is punishable by death. Also while they have many of the same old testament stories and also know about Jesus theirs is a different understanding and it needs to be reinterpreted for them.

Then we also have people who have come from a Christian background knowing the tradition but perhaps not the faith, who then awaken to a new and living faith in Jesus, these can be called Christian Background Believers abbreviated to CBB. Here I particularly think of a friend from Iraq whose business was burnt to the ground by Islamic fundamentalists because he was a Christian, he and his family fled for their lives. But when he came to Lebanon he started asking what is it about Christianity that makes Islam so angry. As his questions were answered his Christian faith came alive and prayer and worship were now things he wanted to do and not a duty. His whole life became alive and his Christian traditions suddenly made sense to him.

I am used to talking with Christians here in Lebanon who find it difficult to believe that a Muslim would ever become a Christian and they say they only do it to receive help from the church or to get a visa to travel to the West. Undoubtedly there are some MBB’s where this is true but not all and many who started like this have been won over completely by the gospel message and the love of the Christians.

But here in Lebanon we are seeing a new thing, the economic crises are causing the Lebanese Christians to search for answers in their own faith and the evangelical churches are seeing many CBB coming regularly to Sunday services and attending prayer meetings. Here we see an awakening of their dormant faith, the Good News is changing lives for the good.

But here is the thing, I was talking to an MBB and he was saying about the CBB’s he see’s in his church, he says ‘they aren’t real Christians they are talking the talk but they are not walking the walk’. They are both new christians in their way and we all struggle to walk the walk. How sad it is that we are so quick to find fault with each other simply based on a persons background. Peter had to learn this by revelation in the verse quoted at the top in Acts chapter 10. We all make judgements based on past experience or hearsay and can easily deny the truth when God is doing a ‘new thing’. By definition we cannot view the ‘new things’ with the old lenses.

Let us expect and believe that Jesus is doing a new thing, and look to see it springing forth from every background under the sun. New Life is being born when the Good News of Jesus encounters a humble repentant heart.

Isaiah 43.19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.