We were out on the streets last night things are starting to get a lot busier which is really good. We prayed, talked to number of workers and hung out in a few bars. At about 2am we decided to go home and as we walked along the street 3 of us were stopped by a lap dancer who remembered us from last year. She was deeply distressed about the disappearance of this young girl Madeline in Portugal, we chatted for a while and asked her if she would pray for Madeline, so she did.
Whilst this was all happening I got offered some Khetamine from a drug dealer, (Khetamine is a horse tranquiliser that is rapidly becoming a very popular drug)
Whilst she held my friend Steve’s hand the lap dancer told us how she felt God just didn’t like her, Steve reassured her that He loved her and cared about her, it wasn’t a deep moment as she was pretty drunk, but it’s a start. We will see her again and talk some more. So many people think that God couldn’t possibly like them and it’s our job to reassure them that he does. I wonder if it's guilt or a deep inner unhappiness that makes people think this way? Or maybe we have, as christians, given them cause to believe that God is judgemental, that he frowns on them, that he stands over them tutting and frowning, rather than weeping and loving.
I have been thinking about the PR’s who work in the west end their job is to be chatting outgoing and persuasive they have to use all there skills to get people to come and drink in their bar. In many ways they are un-redeemed missionaries they have a heart to travel and are fantastic at talking to people. If they become Christians they would be the best missionaries in the world. We pray that God would redeem them and bring to the fore their gifts and use to travel and spread a different kind of message.
See the good in people and then call it out of them, that’s what we are here for.
Psalm 139 springs to mind!
20 comments:
Brian,
you're doing stellar work there on the other island of importance (Ireland is, of course, still #1 - well certainly for drunkeness and rebellion fuelled by godless religion). Anyway, I was a little troubled by your comment "See the good in people and then call it out of them".
For me, that just doesn't sit well with much of what Jesus and Paul said in the NT about the fact that there is nothing about our un-redeemed nature (~flesh) that is "good" - Paul called it "all cr*p". Don't look for the good in those that you work with on the streets - but rather let them hear the Good News of salvation through Christ. No comdemnation or judgement but healing and peace, joy and forgiveness. Give them Jesus with all His love and acceptance.
That's what the entire scriptures are about from Genesis to Revelation. Creation (including mankind) is corrupted by sin but(thank God) there is a new plan for us all!
What do you think?
Peace.
I wanna go to ibiza and talk to drunk lap dancers :(
i don't think we understand what good is. To us good seems a bit flat and a sense of "is that all" but God looked at creation as said it was good, not perfect, not amazing, not great but GOOD.
In the original language the word used for good has a sense of growth and momentum attached to it. In other words The goodness God created will reproduce its goodness, it will contiune to grow more good. (not just in creation but in people)
In calling out the good in people isn't the prayer you're praying "God i've seen the goodness you've created in this person and i want to see more of that in them and less of their 'flesh'" ??
just a thought
Haha i'm glad William hid the word crap with a *. Although i think he probaby meant shit* Anyway, there is good in everyone and sometimes the salvation can come in their life when they realise that good. Amen
i know, i hate the idea of looking at a non church person, and thinking of them as evil. im pretty non church people do acts of kindness everynight in ibiza. there is obviously a lifestlyle attributed to doing it, but I dont think working in PR is a sinners job, of course their life can be redeemed but it can be redeemed and still work in PR.
sorry i meant 'im pretty sure'.
In response to the comment from William. I can see what you are getting at, but you are well off the mark mate.
Are you seriously telling me that you would look into someones eyes as there pour out their heart to you and show you a glimpse of who they really are, and dare to say that there is no good in them? Pretty much all of us sin daily if we are really honest, yet God still loves us and we still have good in us. Nothing about the sin is good, of course, but to say that we shouldn't look for the good in people, sorry mate, but that is bollocks.
Steve
William,
You said:
Don't look for the good in those that you work with on the streets - but rather let them hear the Good News of salvation through Christ.
What Brian and his team was doing in conversation with that woman IS the gospel of Jesus Christ, my friend. They were living out Jesus to her, offering her hope and love. That's what incarnation is all about.
I'd say Jesus was able to see a whole lot of good in the ruffians he walked alongside. All throughout the gospels he spoke vision and hope into people's messy lives, sometimes by pointing out the things that delighted him about them. I think of his recorded chats with Peter, Nathaniel, and Martha, just to name a few.
William, thanks for your input, I am thinking I will write a post about calling out the good over the next week to explain myself properly, hope that is okay.
Tim I wasn't saying that you can't be a PR and a christian. I didn't say either that it was a sinners Job. I was trying to convey that these are the kind of guys who by the very nature of who they are, are built to travel and talk to others. So if they had a little of the Jesus fire, they would be dynamite. But no way was I knocking PR'ing.
Wow Brian it's mad what you've written, Yesterday John and I were talking about how some people believe that God doesn't like them, or that they are not worthy of being a Christian.
We also talked about our time as PRs in Magalluf and how we use to behave and think.
Back then I use to believe that getting drunk everynight and having loads of sex was the only way to feel loved and have fun and that I would never become a Christian 'cause that would be boring.
How untrue! It's Jesus' love displayed in Christians that have shown me the light and made me feel valued, worthy and loved.
Keep it up guys!
It's great to hear what you guys are doing. I wonder if it didn't speak volumes to that lap dancer that a man would want to give her value and speak truth into her life (drunk as she was...but it's surprising the things you remember when you've had a few) in a way that wasn't leading to sex. You never know when you could be a part of someones defining moment.
In response to William. I hear you, and I would also add that since God in everywhere and in everything, God is in everyone and it's our job to draw that out in people who refuse/can't believe that.
I always illustrate this point by referring to some of the muslim families that I worked with in London. They don't believe in Jesus as the Saviour of the world but they are made in the image of God just as Christians are and in them I can see God through the value and importance they place on family life and their beautiful sense of hospitality. Those things are true things, and if God is truth then maybe, just maybe God is in them!
I hope that makes sense and doesn't sound too new age-y.
"Yesterday John and I were talking about how some people believe that God doesn't like them, or that they are not worthy of being a Christian."
-> This was me before I understood Grace! (I was 15) I think a lot of people who are not saved carry a lot of baggage of guilt and unworthyness. I believe in seeing the good in people too. Good comments here..
Hi everyone,
just in between meetings at "work" so I just want to clarify that my opinion is that all have sinned - not that you have the dirty pagans on one side and the holy church-goers on the other - but rather that the problem is SIN and the problem SIN causes in all of creation. Redemption through the blood of Jesus is the only answer - being "good" (or rather trying to be; as Jesus once said rather plainly, "no-one is good, except God") is not sufficient. It doesn't cut it for those in or out of the Kingdom (yes I believe in the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the chaff, etc).
If any man is in Christ he is a new creation - that is my wish for all that Brian and his team meets every day. To be "in-Christ" to know the power of forgiveness and the glory of grace. If we look for the good in people (including Christians) we will always be let down by the depravity of the human flesh. That is why He hung on a tree. If we could do it ourselves (improve our performance in life, become more kind, whatever), then he didn't need to die. Blood didn't need to be spilt. Read what Jesus said over and over again. He didn't look for the good but said "follow me".
More (if I have time...) later!
Peace (I mean that).
Oh, and Dave, if I had said crap or shit or turd or something else rude you might have been tempted to pin me on it. I was just keeping you from temptation.
I use these words everyday to prove that I'm biblically based!!! - just like the greek venacular!
Couldn't leave this one until later (sorry..):
Steve said:
"Are you seriously telling me that you would look into someones eyes as there pour out their heart to you and show you a glimpse of who they really are, and dare to say that there is no good in them? Pretty much all of us sin daily if we are really honest, yet God still loves us and we still have good in us. Nothing about the sin is good, of course, but to say that we shouldn't look for the good in people, sorry mate, but that is bollocks."
Steve, I'm a sinner saved by grace. Of course, without Christ I would probably still be "good" in the world's eyes in some aspects of my life and "bad" in others. Jesus said that even if you get mad with someone you've committed murder - what he was saying was that our worldly assessment of the relative merits of sin is insufficient. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Salvation through the blood of Jesus is not an improvement scheme but a change of nature (in the spiritual sense) that will, eventually, lead to outward changes [a good tree bears good fruit - it is the nature of the tree that produces the right sort of fruit - the DNA].
That is what Christ did on the cross - he changed our spiritual DNA and in the process set us free from the law of sin and death.
I usually refrain from quoting scripture references in blog comments (as I was widely criticised for doing so in my early blogging career, to my surprise) but consider this:
2 Cor 5v14-18:
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
When I look into the eyes of those who don't follow Christ I see that His plan is for them to be redeemed and renewed by being born again of the Spirit. Not very trendy and not particularly cool. But really, really good news!
Peace to you Steve.
Fair play mate. Sorry, wasn't meaning to give you a hard time, best not to post at 3.45am.
I just like to think of Jesus as a ferocious badger.
Steve
"I have been thinking about the PR’s who work in the west end their job is to be chatting outgoing and persuasive they have to use all there skills to get people to come and drink in their bar. In many ways they are un-redeemed missionaries they have a heart to travel and are fantastic at talking to people. If they become Christians they would be the best missionaries in the world."
You must have been chatting to Lee from Tenerife - heard him him say that loads of times. Bring it on I say!
Yes defo it was Lee from Tenerife who inspired me on this it was such a great though, sorry I didn't reference it to him, he's a total star and he's right.
thought
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