The Tone...

You’ve heard the tone before. I heard it from my friend Kuky (pronounced liked “Cookie”) when he was ordering and looking at a Christian CD that we sell in the café. As he examined the CD called, “El Salvador” (The Savior) he got the “tone” and said, “Oh, he’s a Christian.” A little in jest and a bit in sincerity I asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kuky quickly tried to get himself out of that hole. “Nothing… I mean I believe in God and whatever.” And that started a really interesting conversation as we sat at the register. He informed me that he had faith and he believed that Jesus was a revolutionary, which I quickly agreed to. (Jesus put out ideas that would rattle most “modern day Christian’s” closed minded little boxes.) But as we continued to discuss, I said that I believe that the Bible is truth and the Word of God. He just smiled and said, “Now there is where we differ. I think it’s just a whole bunch of crap that man made up. The Koran has a better chance of being truth than the Bible does.”
That made me start thinking about the people who call themselves “religious” here… whether Catholic, Evangelical or (like my friend Kuky) somewhere slightly off in left field who are confused by the idea of truth, the Bible and a relationship with Jesus. A fellow missionary friend of mine reminded me today of the percentages of evangelicals that live in Loja. This number doesn’t even mean they are growing believers, it’s that they CLAIM to belong to some sort of Evangelical movement opposed to a Catholic movement… and the numbers are staggering. Less than 1%. Sometimes this number blows my mind due to the fact that I live in a normal apartment with normal electricity and water. I don’t live in the jungle or in a tribe. I live in a thriving city where they have heard the name of Jesus. Here’s the catch, they have not heard that Jesus wants an intimate relationship with them. They have not heard that this is not some set of rules by which to follow in order to “please” this angry God. Instead He is a God who was so angry at our sin that He sent His Son to take care of it so that by belief in Jesus Christ(not by going to church or doing good stuff or praying to Mary) each person is offered a living relationship with a living God!
All that to say, please continue to pray for open hearts to true Gospel where true freedom lies. Pray for my friend Kuky that he would know the TRUTH that is found only in Jesus Christ.