What are your favorite films? According to David Bruce, host of HollywoodJesus.com, the top 100 films of all time have one thing in common. They are about relationship. It is what people seek most. I don’t know how many men they surveyed, but even top action films that are the most successful have relational themes beyond grunts and fists connecting with bodies. I like action films, when the plot is interesting.The same is true of music. The top songs are all about relationship. These words from Kelly Clarkson’s “You Found Me” show the kind of relationship people are searching for in the hurting, lonely cultures in which we live.
You found me when no one else was lookin’
How did you know just where I would be
You broke through all of my confusion
The ups and the downs and you still didn’t leave
I guess that you saw what nobody could see
You found me
This is a picture of God’s kind of love, the unconditional love He showed when He came to seek and save that which was lost, dying for us while we were still sinners. We are called to demonstrate this kind of love to the people in the cultures in which we live. Here in Kiev a few days ago I saw a young woman among the passers by dressed in a skimpy top and black underwear. Yes, underwear, not shorts. She looked as if she was asking to be invited to a bathroom stall, not to be loved as a multi-faceted, beautiful creation of God. Warped value systems. Broken families and relationships. These are some of the areas we need to minister to in this culture. In every culture if people attempt to draw life from something besides God, their souls will become bankrupt sooner or later.
In his book The Radical Reformission, Mark Driscoll challenges believers in Jesus Christ to make a commitment to love what God loves: people, not traditions, and to stay true to the text of scripture within the context of culture. This requires us to go into the cultures in which we live to demonstrate and minister the gospel.
“Reformission requires that God’s people understand their mission with razor-sharp clarity. The mission is to be close to Jesus. This transforms our hearts to love what he loves, hate what he hates, and to pursue relationships with lost people in hopes of connecting with them and, subsequently, connecting them with him. This actually protects us from sin, because the way to avoid sin is not to avoid sinners, but to stick close to Jesus.”
Mark Driscoll, “The Radical Reformission”
I want to thank VCF in the Philippines for their heart and example in understanding and walking out this mission in their culture.
next post: Reformission and Hope for Life
1 comment:
Good thoughts! God came to seek and to save the lost. Oh that we would have his perspective and reach out to the people around us. They need the love that only a realtionship with Jesus can bring :)
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