God Uses Difficult Situations to Proclaim Christ

Text: Philippians 1:12-26

We, people love to complain. It seems natural for us to see negative things in almost every situation we are in. For example, it has been raining all week here in Mae Sai and we complain about it, we couldn’t help it. But when the sun shines, we also complain of humidity.

Have you heard the story about a man who looked at his house through critical eyes, and every place he looked it seemed that he always found something wrong. So he just decided to sell out and move somewhere else.

So he asked an realtor to help him sell the house. The agent came and they agreed to put out an ad about selling the house. But before the ads were sent out, he asked the owner to read it for editing.

The ad spoke of a good location, a well-maintained house, good grass yards, tall trees, a beautiful pond, good location and a great neighborhood. The man listened carefully, and then said, "Read that to me again, slowly." So the realtor read it to him again. Finally, the man responded, "Don’t put that ad in the paper. I’ve always wanted a place like that. I think I’ll stay right where I am."

I always believe that if we all just exert more effort, we can always find positive things in every situation even in the tragic ones.

In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul adopted this kind of attitude (which is obviously not so with his other letters). The Apostle gives us some great advice in Philippians 4:8. Here is what he says:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

Now we all need to commit that verse to memory, because what so many of us do is the exact opposite - dwelling on negative, things that are untrue and wrong and impure. People focus so much on the negative that the media seldom bothers to feature positive news items because people just won’t listen to it.

We can break this pattern and we can start doing that today. Let us look at the Apostle Paul as he focuses on the positive.

In Philippians 1:12-26, Paul does mention some very negative things that are going on in his life - unpleasant circumstances, unreasonable people, and his uncertain future. But Paul goes on to show that God was able to use those negative things in a very positive way.

God Uses Unpleasant Circumstances to Advance the Gospel

A. Paul begins by talking about unpleasant circumstances. In vs. 12 he says, "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel."

We think we have troubles, don’t we? But how does your list compare to that of the apostle Paul? How many times have you been shipwrecked? How many times have you been beaten near unto death? Or how many times have you been arrested and imprisoned and chained up 24 hours a day?

Yet Paul says, "I look at all these things, and I see that they have served to advance the gospel."

Now the word translated "advance" here has an interesting history. It originally was used of "wood-cutters who go before an army, clearing a way through the underbrush so that the army can march forward unimpeded."

Paul is saying, "All these things that have happened to me have resulted in clearing the way so that the gospel might be preached more effectively."

The imprisonment was positively crucial because the gospel was able to penetrate the ranks of the Roman military even the royal house.

These were the positive development that under normal circumstances would have been closed to the gospel.

In vs. 13, he says, "As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ."

Now here is the situation. For 24 hours a day Paul is chained to Roman soldiers, each serving a 6-hour shift. So every 6 hours a new soldier comes in and chains himself to Paul. The soldier was doing his duty, making sure the prisoner wasn’t going to escape.

But Paul saw this as a wonderful opportunity to tell the soldier about Jesus. There was no way that the soldier could escape. And it worked, for in the closing chapter of this letter, vs. 22, Paul writes, "All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household."

Now that tells me that some of these soldiers became Christians, and the gospel made its way even into the pagan household of Caesar - all because Paul was in prison.

There was a second positive result. In vs. 14 he says, "Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."

Paul is saying, "Because of my hardships, because of the things that have happened to me, other Christians have been encouraged. They have seen how God has protected me through difficult situations, and encouraged me, and given me strength beyond my own power."

"Now they’re facing difficult circumstances, too. But because of what they have seen, they’re convinced that God will take care of them, also."

You see, God can take the most negative things that happen to us in life, and make them positive, if we’ll just focus on the positive that is there.

So what are the unpleasant circumstance you have this morning? Are you chained to declining health? Are chained to a very difficult job, and you can’t make ends meet? Are you chained to a job that has no future? Are you chained to loneliness or grief or despair? Then you need to stop and ask, "How can God use this to advance the gospel?"

God Uses Unreasonable People to Proclaim Christ

Secondly, Paul talks about unreasonable people. In vs. 15 he says, "It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will." What Paul is saying is this, "There are some people who are envious of me, who see themselves as rivals, competitors in preaching the gospel."

Apparently, those who were preaching from envy and strife were not heretics. But they were jealous of the attention Paul was receiving and they were determined to sow seeds of dissension in order to give him trouble.

The motives of these believers were not good. Those who proclaim Christ whose motivation was selfish ambition implies that they did not preach to honor God or to help Paul but rather to gain applause and followers for themselves. They were not acting in pure motives.

Paul was convinced that these preachers actually desired to cause him additional problems while he was in prison.

What difference does it make? Paul asked. In essence he was saying, their motives are between them and God. Whether the preaching was done for false motives or pure, whether for show or for the sake of what was right, Paul was genuinely pleased that the gospel was being spread.

Now vs. 18 is one of the most incredible verses in the Bible. Paul says, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

Now, only if many Christians could take Paul’s attitude the body of Christ would really look good and attractive to the unbelievers. Paul could have fought back and said something nasty things to these people who were opposing him but he did not.
It is sad that many Christians think that their main ministry is to criticize other individuals or ministries just because their methods and focus are different from them. Just like the Apostle Paul we should rejoice that we are all together, united in our main reason to be here and that is to proclaim the gospel of our Lord and God Jesus Christ.

Let us make our fellow Christians look good. Let us make the body of Christ look good. Let us pray for each other, let us pray for our fellow missionaries, let us help one another to proclaim the gospel... because it is our great joy whether in pretense or in truth, that Christ is being proclaimed. Amen!

God Uses Uncertainty to Exalt Christ*

Finally, Paul mentions his uncertain future. In vs. 19 he says, "I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance."

Paul is facing trial in Rome. If he is found innocent, he’ll be freed to preach some more. If he’s found guilty, he’ll be executed. He knew he was either going to live, or he was going to die, depending upon the results of the trial.

So he writes in vs. 20: "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."

Here is what he is saying: "My concern is, when I stand before a pagan judge in a pagan court, that I won’t do or say anything to embarrass Christ Jesus, my Lord. My only concern is that I will have enough courage to stand up in their midst and by what I say and do that Jesus Christ will be exalted. Whether I die or whether I live doesn’t matter. All I want to do is exalt Jesus."

Vs. 21 is a very familiar verse. You probably have memorized it at one time or another. Paul says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

If you were going to write that verse, and truthfully describe your feelings, what would you say? "For me to live is money, and to die is to leave it behind." "For me to live is family, and to die is leave them alone." "For me to live is pleasure, and to die is to miss all the fun." "For me to live is fame, and to die is to be quickly forgotten." "For me to live is power and influence, and to die is to become insignificant."

The Living Bible paraphrases it this way: "To me, living means opportunity for Christ, and dying, that’s even better!"

In vs’s 22-24 Paul says, "If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;"

Kenneth Dodge tells about an 8-year-old boy named Frank. Frank had a date with his father to go fishing on Saturday. They were going to fish the whole day. On Friday night he had everything laid out. He was ready to go.

But on Saturday morning he awoke to discover that it was raining cats and dogs, and they couldn’t go fishing. So 8-year-old Frank grumbled and griped and complained all morning long. He kicked the furniture, the dog, the cat. Nothing was right. "Why does it have to rain today?"

His father tried to explain to him that the farmers needed the rain. But that didn’t satisfy Frank. "Why does it have to rain today?" he said. About noon the clouds broke and the sun came out. His dad said, "Well, we can’t go fishing all day, but at least we can fish this afternoon. Let’s go." So they jumped into the truck, went to the lake and fished all afternoon, and caught more fish than they had ever caught before. The baskets were full, and they had the time of their lives.

They came home, and mom cooked some of the fish for supper. As they were sitting down to eat, Frank’s dad looked at him and asked, "Would you ask the blessing?" Eight-year-old Frank prayed this prayer: "God, if I sounded a little grumpy earlier today, it was because I couldn’t see far enough ahead."

That’s the problem, isn’t it? We’re so caught up in the circumstances and people and things that surround us, that we just can’t see far enough ahead.

But when you take time to look, people, you’ll begin to focus more and more on the positive, because in Christ we have a wonderful future. It may seem uncertain right now, but we have a certain destiny in God. And one day we’re going to see Him face to face and be with Him for all eternity.

*The last point and illustrations are adapted from Melvin Newland's sermon

O nasty bug

It has been relentlessly raining here in Mae Sai for how long, I couldn’t remember anymore. The sun was able peek out of the thick clouds for a few hours in a given day. But boy, when it was out, it was hot and humid.

I was down with a nasty bug for almost a week. Shivering coldly at night and gritting my teeth trying to resist the excruciating headache, joint and muscle pains. It was a consolation that in the family, more often I was the one worst hit by the bug. Narlin wiggled out of it with just a little discomfort. Reuven is fighting it out with the bug today. He has fever and terrible headaches as well. We hope that it will be over tomorrow.

Lamin Sanneh on expansion of Christianiy

In the 70's prophets of doom predicted that Christianity will experience a steady decline and its adherents would be greatly reduced. This is confounded with the resurgence of Islam. This fact seems to put the nail in the coffin.

However, by the year 2002 the continuous growth of Christianity in Asia and Africa come as a surprise to many. It could not be denied though that a decline is happening in its counterpart in the West.

According to Lamin Sanneh, “it had become clear that a major expansion of Christianity had been under way in Asia and Africa in spite of prevailing pessimism. In Africa in 1985, there were about 16,500 conversions a day. In the same period, some 4,300 people were leaving the church on daily basis in Europe and North America.

Many people, however, are skeptical about this growth not only because this comes from Africa but also because many Christians believe that these African Christians have abandoned the Christian exlucivism and instead become tolerant and inclusivist.

Nonetheless, the facts of the expansion of Christianity cannot be disputed. Lamin Sanneh offers an explanation and cites four major factors.

First, the expansion happened after the era of colonialism and during the period of national awakening. It can be assume that colonialism is a big hindrance to the growth of Christianity.

Second is the result of the Bible translations in local languages, in this case African languages. With the vernacular translation went cultural renewal that encouraged Africans to view Christianity in favorable light.

Third is that the locals stepped forward to lead the church. Young people especially women, were given a role in the church.

The last factor is a theological one: “Christian expansion was virtually limited to those societies whose people had preserved the indigenous name for God. That was a surprising discovery, because of the general feeling that Christianity was incompatible with the indigenous ideas of religion.”

Centrist evangelical

Most of the missionaries I work with, I reckoned are fundamentalist, in the sense that they hold to the essential fundamentals of the Christian faith. I admire and love them for that. Except that sometimes, I could not help but feel bad when we have the tendency to looked down on other Christians because they believe differently from them in some issues.

I have to meet yet a liberal in the true sense of the world. Liberal after the mold of Albert Schweitzer or John Spong. Today, people like them would not be sent by any denominational mission agency because of their "bad theology." But of course, they can always go on their own.

I meet a few who can be classified as moderates and progressive. But to most people who don't know the what theological liberalism is all about, they are easily classified as one.

Bloesch statements is a good reminder that we don't have to remain in both extreme sides of the balance.

My theological stance could be designated as centrist evangelical in the sense of remaining in continuity with the message of Holy Scripture and the wisdom of scared tradition. Being centrist must not be confused with taking the middle road between fundamentalism and liberalism. It embraces the truth in both camps and negates the untruth in these positions as well. Being a centrist evangelical means building upon the center or core of faith--the gospel of God's reconciling act in Jesus Christ attested in Holy Scripture and clarified by the fathers and teachers of the faith through the ages. But whereas the fathers and teachers are fallible, the Word of God in Holy Scripture is infallible. Yet this Word is not in propositional formula at human disposal but the reaching out of the hand of God upon the human heart and conscience.

Donald G. Bloesch, God the Almighty: Power, Wisdom, Holiness, Love. Down Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, p 12.

Year two and thanks to Ben!

This month, this blog turns two. I would say that the best thing that happened to this it being linked to Faith & Theology and it resulted to being linked to other theology blogs and actually visited by more readers. For some time this blog was also linked by Jim when I was still have the time and energy to write sensible posts.

Interestingly, this blog is linked with other from missionary blogs. Some of them became our friends and one of them; Jonathan actually came to work with us after learning about our location and ministry from this blog. He is still here teaching in the Bible School and doing street evangelism.

Ben has done something special not only to this blog but also to me personally. His friendly appeal solicited incredible response that I now have a good collection in my library. In addition, Megan (our fellow missionary who went home to the States last July) left her bookcase to us upon when she saw those good books.

A “passing post” about a need for a spare laptop after I had a disastrous computer crashes. I admit I have not recovered emotionally since then after losing half of my dissertation. However, the good news is somebody gave me a PowerBook G4 Mac Laptop. My theology professor in the seminary sent it to me. The laptop which apparently was donated by somebody whom I don’t know personally. I don’t even have an idea if that person is reading F&T but just the same I feel I need to thank Ben for that.

Reconnected and it feels so good!

Our Internet was reconnected last week (support money finally came). I might be able to post more regularly now. However, our hands are still full preparing the facilities for the Bible School. We hope to start classes on second week of August. YWAM (Youth With A Mission) volunteers are helping us in painting the dormitories. Four of the students from Myanmar came to help. Three of them are staying in our house.

The children’s home is ready to be occupied. We are praying for 8 children that God will give to us. We still need a lot of furniture like beds, tables, chairs and if possible a couch. The house is still bare at the moment but we know that God will use people to fill up these needs.

I had been spending a lot of time with my sons lately (one of the benefits of not having Internet). We played a lot of basketball last week. This is not possible to do in the last two weeks because of constant raining.

We are going to Chiang Mai again this month for our visa extension. The visa is costing us a lot of money. Nonetheless, God is proving himself to be the great provider.

Of cyclones and typhoons

I received two emails lately and I will share them with you. First is an email from a fellow worker whom I had the privilege of meeting here in Mae Sai last year. Here is part of his email.

Greetings from Bangkok, I fly back to Yangon early tomorrow morning for the second time in week. Please pray for me and numerous workers who are feeling a little bit tired from all this. I hope to rent a cell phone when I arrive. It's only $3000 to purchase a sim card there. I know you are thinking...wow, what a deal!! The 86 Nissam Salone [sic] that I rented last year was priced at $18,000. Insanity?! That's life under a military government whose Generals have absolute control over Myanmar's 52 million.

Our friend, home village was destroyed but PTL they are all okay. She was just there two weeks before the Cyclone struck sharing the gospel of Jesus to her friends in the Buddhist monastery. She told us of our there were many crocodile farms down there and now all the crocs are free. Our friend plans to wrestle the crocs to protect his daughter and niece. He's 73 now and still is in good shape!

Even though there is incredibly terrific news coming out of Myanmar in the past few months, it is horrifying to hear that 90% of the 200k that have died were children and elderly. They couldn't swim and the tidal surge was 12 ft high along the coast.

Here is another email I received from my sister who is living in the northern the Philippines.

It was a rainy Saturday morning of May 17. Mar and I, along with a couple we are trying to help workout their marriage, were traveling to Dagupan--I would go to my masteral class and the three to Baguio for the counseling. After sending the couple to the counselor and showing them their housing, Mar immediately returned to Dagupan and texted me in my class that we had to go home because the weather was getting worse. I excused myself from the class at 4 pm and rushed to the terminal where he was waiting. As soon as I arrived, the passenger van went.

And then, happened one of the most terrifying experiences in our lives. We were caught in the middle of a strong storm. Roofs were flying all over, huts and small houses were being carried by the wind, trees were uprooted and electrical posts fell across the street and tricycles blown to the field. I thought, the van we were in will be blown to the cliff. Mar and I were praying. The wind was so low and strong with heavy rains. Then I sang, "I will soar with you above the storm. Father you are king over the floods and I will be still and know you are God."

The usual travel of 4 hours has become 12 long hours of agony in fear. We were stranded at the town before Alaminos. At 2 in the morning, when the rain stopped, we decided to start walking home. I had goose bumps as I saw all the destruction. We had to jump over and crawl under the trees and grope in the dark. But God is so good. Pastor Jay brought his motorcycle and meet us along the way. 3 big persons riding on a small motorcycle. At 5 in the morning, we reached home.

The next morning, we saw the church's school without roof. The library was empty as the young people tried to save some of the books from the rain. The office was wet all over.

It is another experience that calls us to trust in the Lord. In less than 3 weeks the school is about to open. The authorities said it will take about 10 days before the electricity will resume. We need your prayer.

Long silence

I know it has been a while since my last post here. However, many things have been happening to our family and us lately.

Nanay Linda (Narlin’s mom) came about a month ago. It has been a joyous day for us especially to our children. It has been more than two years the last time they saw their Lola (grandmother). We are now enjoying good Filipino foods that taste right. Thai food is great but after a while, you starting to miss the dishes you use to eat. Nanay Linda also bought for us a satellite disk. She was bored watching TV shows that she could not understand. Now we can watch programs from back home also with HBO, ESPN, CNN, among others. I just do not know if it is good or bad in the end. You see, before the satellite, we do not watch TV at all.

We had a one-week English Camp. 32 young people participated from Burma and from here in Thailand. However, a rumor that the Myanmar government would close the border on May 9 because of the plebiscite we ended the camp abruptly on Friday afternoon. The government deliberately sowed confusion and planted fear to the Burmese people living in Mae Sai so that they all should go back to vote in the plebiscite. They eventually did not close the border.

Most of our waking hours are spent in repairing, painting and cleaning the house we are moving to next month. Narlin and I together with our kids and friend have been doing the work of a carpenter, painter, electrician and janitor. The house is in such a bad shape that we have to work in it full time or we might risk moving to the house that is unsafe to live in. Now, this is the reason that my time online has been very limited.

Moreover, we have been affected indirectly with the Cyclone that occurred in Burma. No, we experienced neither physical discomfort or weather disturbance but the emotional and spiritual anguish we feel for the people of Myanmar have been very intense. Some of our friends whom we have been working just few months ago are in Yangon. They went home to take care of some personal concerns. The cyclone caught up with them and they could not come back here sooner. Our Pastor whose family is in Yangon also went there for a relief mission. Many of us desire to go there to help in anyway but were not allowed by the government. Please continue to pray for the Myanmar people.

We are also hearing about the strong typhoon that passed over the northern part of the Philippines. Narlin’s family are directly affected so are mine. Although fewer lives are lost compared to Myanmar, the devastation is almost the same. Houses are destroyed. Properties are lost. Normal lives are disrupted. Love ones are lost.

Regular posting will resume soon.