How do you explain Luke 14:13 when Jesus says not to invite your friends to dinner!!
Christians value hospitality, the Chinese value hospitality. We invite our friends over all the time!
I am studying the parables of Jesus with several Chinese friends (who have been to our house for dinner by the way). We had just read the parable of the rich fool, who wanted to build bigger barns so that he could rest and enjoy his life. My friend understood the error of selfishly living for yourself, but what should you do with your goods? So I turned to Luke 14.
After some help from the Holy Spirit, I think we finally understood that while it is good to invite friends to dinner, it is not really noble if we are likely to be repaid. And God is not so interested in “good” things that we do, but in “noble” things that we do. Selfless giving. “Wow” he finally said, “That is powerful.” And I was impacted too.
So, are there any internationals that you can get to know, someone who cannot invite you back to dinner? Oh how blessed it is to give!
“… and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”
This is what an Arabic woman thought. Her American friends invited her to lunch, but she always politely declined, as her culture dictated. When the Americans did not ask her again 3 times, she felt like they didn’t really want her to come. “That’s why I have been so lonely in America.”
“What did you think of the movie, “Amish Grace” that we watched last Sat.?
Oh how that opened up an entire discussion! I (Mary Kay) forgot the English teaching time and my student told me how she had shared the story of the movie with her husband and several other Chinese friends. Each of them were left awestruck , mouths open wide as they heard how people chose to forgive rather than take revenge.
She told me about an incident in China that had hit the news last week. There had been a very angry driver that had punched a lady that had cut him off. She told me that many Chinese people were discussing how they did not understand how the Chinese had become like this. “People don’t seem to have any moral values. Young girls are becoming prostitutes in order to have more money and there is no law against it.
My friend explained how science has been so important to her culture. There has been no room for a belief in God. Growing up she was told that God and ghosts do not exist because you can’t touch them and that the Bible is just a fairy tale, especially the story of the resurrection. But when she came to America she saw professors believing in God and the culture here taking Christianity very seriously. It didn’t seem like a fairy tale.
It has made her wonder if what she was taught was wrong because her culture is spinning out of control. Her comment was that “people have no “heart of love.” But since they don’t have any faith/religion in their society it is very empty and chaotic right now. She is a very intelligent person and studied law. In China she told me that the law constantly changes as they don’t really have anything to base it on. So instead they just keep copying from other nations.
Oh how her heart is sooo open right now and she is searching. She is just a representation of so many students that are on the same journey. Thanks for your heart to intercede and love these people to Jesus!!
(PS This woman was just interested in learning English from Mary Kay, but now she wants to study the resurrection!)
We hated to say goodbye to our friend, a visiting scholar from China. She had been learning so much in such a short time. After visiting our church, she said “It was the most wonderful experience of my life.”She continued, “But I cannot be a Christian because Christians should get together with other Christians and there are none in my country.” We assured her that there were.
Before we left her, she shared her husband had called her, saying “I had a dream that you became a Christian and got baptized.” She responded, “what did you think of that?” “I think it would be wonderful” he replied.
So keep praying, God is still working!!
On another note, we were also sad that three other of our friends that we have been studying the Bible with are returning to their home country. I (Fred) had a great time sharing more deeply the faith with them, and giving them DVDs to help them continue. I was sad that they do not have the peace that we have. Not yet.
On a positive note, they recommended my English Bible class to their friends and now there are three more students!!
We are taking about 15 students to Lancaster, PA over spring break! We will see Hershey Chocolate World (simulated factory), plus an Amish meal and an Amish tour with a Mennonite pastor that can explain the faith, and the musical Sight-n-Sound (“Moses”). A highlight last year was visiting a Christian Chinese bookstore that gave away lots of books and DVDs about the Christian faith. Almost none of the students are Christians, but most are interested. Do pray for a spiritually good trip!
We just had a wonderful retreat with about 14 nonChristians (22 people total) where we discussed “Who is Jesus?” We met in Gatlinburg, where we combined Bible study and fun.
MK is now meeting with two more women who wanted to learn the Bible stories!
“The best part was the Bible studies” said one new Christian. He led a small group for the first time.
“It was a perfect retreat, I wouldn’t change anything” said one seeker.
In small groups seekers expressed their concerns about hell. Young Christians sharpened their apologetic skills.
One woman shared her mother gave her a cross necklace, meaning that she had her mom’s approval to learn about Christianity.
Another young man publicly shared how he didn’t want to be converted, yet he had chosen to come to the retreat which we had prominently advertised the Bible studies. He had deep questions.
One young man called two days before, and said he would drive himself and sleep on the floor if needed, as we were already full! He did come, one person had canceled without telling us!
It was also a great time working with coworkers from ISI (International Students Inc).
Wow! Thank you for your prayers to getting a great start to the year!
We had 10 visiting scholars from the East, for Christmas parties at our house this year!!
We felt like Mary and Joseph, who also had visiting scholars from the East. I think they enjoyed hearing the parallel, and they also loved seeing the story, new to almost all of them, of the first Christmas. We saw the Nativity Movie together, and discussed it afterwards. We shared presents and good food and saw Christmas lights. My wife, a Yankee, even learned how to cook a Virginian ham! (She asked for help from a New Yorker!)
But the dearest, was when one student told us, with tears in her eyes, that we had made Christmas really special for her and her husband, for the first time.
Keep these Virginia Tech visiting scholars, most of them from China, in your prayers.
We are having a retreat with nearly 20 non-Christians, in Tennessee, on the theme of “Who is Jesus?” We are working with two dear friends from International Students Incorporated (ISI).
Please pray for this retreat!
good weather,
travel safety,
open hearts,
clear teaching, and that everything would be smothered with
the love of Christ from our hearts.
That’s January 5 to 7, Monday to Wednesday just after the New Year.
I (Fred) try to play racquetball every week for my health. I play with a group of “mature” men (not their real picture). As typical, sufficient Americans, they are generally non-conversant regarding religion, if not smugly against it. So I don’t share much, until yesterday….
racquetball
My athletic friend shared how he went on a six day wilderness hike, got lost, and wound up in a poor Indian village and soon to miss their plane back. While without hope, someone led them to a missionary, who kindly gave them all a ride, barely making their flight on time (but no time for showers!). Being extremely thankful, he listened to the gospel message during the whole three hour trip to the airport .
He listened carefully, he didn’t want to be kicked out of the car! And he said he was surprised by the missionary. He had had a dim view of them, thinking of them as subverting other cultures and being cultural imperialists. But while in the village he had seen the utter drunkenness of the people — mothers with children strapped to them, passing out and crushing them. Now he says he really respects what this man is doing to help change their culture. Not only did he pay for the gas but he donated to him!
I asked him if was familiar with Star Trek and the Prime Directive, which says that Captain Kirk and the Enterprise were to never interfere with primitive societies. But every other episode Kirk does just that, because the societies that he encounters are highly dysfunctional. The Prime Directive is good in theory, but in reality there is the stark realization that there are cultural absolutes of right and wrong, and there is a cross-cultural mandate to assist all others, no matter where they are in the evolution of their society.
Assistance of a missionary is a tacit admission of cultural absolutes, and eventually of a Right and Wrong by which we ourselves will be judged. Now I pray for him to discover his own moral poverty.
Do pray for this man and his friends to find the Savior before he meets the Judge.
We were Exhausted after our Thanksgiving trip to Ohio, looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!! But at 4 in the morning we heard a scuffling sound behind our bed. We tried to sleep, but it kept going on. Finally I (Fred) pointed out to my wife that in my family’s household, it was my mom that took care of animal pests in the house and mouse traps and all of that stuff.
Mary Kay reflected. “Well in my house it was always my father….”
mouse (changed to protect the guilty)
We giggled like school kids. Expectations. She expected me to take care of it, I had hoped she would rise to the occasion. Finally we decided just to hold each other tightly, and discuss whether a mouse could climb up a bed post.
But the noise continued, so I looked very carefully behind the nightstand. Nothing. I went to get a flashlight, I came back and the noise was on the other side of the bed! But I saw nothing. So, having looked, we turned off the lights, got into bed, and waited. And then the theory. The second noise was because of the trash can being rattled when I went to get a flashlight, and the persistent noise, was in the wall.
We finally decided it was a Chimney Sweep bird, as we had problems before with them. We camped out downstairs for the rest of the night. The next night he returned. So I rose to the challenge, covering the only opening I could think of in the attic, and waited. He still returned early in the morning!
So later that morning I cut a hole in the wall and discovered not a bird, but 3 mice!! One was still alive, and very much afraid — just as I was afraid to touch them, dead or alive. I tried chopsticks, but I needed one hand to hold the light and my free hand wasn’t that good with using two sticks.
Inspiration struck. Aspiration! I wheeled my shop vac upstairs and sucked clean the hole perfectly. Then I set him free in the woods, he seemed very thankful and unhurt, though a trifle blinded by the light.
The mouse was probably much more scared than I was. Ideally I could have coaxed him out of the hole with water and cheese, and gently escorted him outside. But he probably would have been too afraid.
How unlike God I was. God had a problem with people in the Earth that He had made. They were making a mess. He could have just sucked us all up in a gigantic vacuum cleaner and thrown us out. It would have been a lot quieter for Him then. Are we as disgusting to Him as the mice were to me? Nevertheless, his solution was to enter into the disgusting hole, as a man, that would take away our fears, and who would lead us out of the hole we were in, leading us to a new home.
And that is the story of Christmas. We truly hope you have silent nights to help remember that most silent night.
Saturday was a special October event where we took our international friends into (and out of) a corn maze, chucked some pumpkins, listened to folk music (first time to hear a banjo), and learn about common barn animals.
And we love working with our new co-workers who helped in driving!
I am studying the parables of Jesus with several Chinese friends (who have been to our house for dinner by the way). We had just read the parable of the rich fool, who wanted to build bigger barns so that he could rest and enjoy his life. My friend understood the error of selfishly living for yourself, but what should you do with your goods? So I turned to Luke 14.
Almost none of the students are Christians, but most are interested. Do pray for a spiritually good trip!
