7.15.09

I made it to school today, absolutely by God’s grace. I actually didn’t think I’d make it thought the day, even only teaching the two classes at the end of the day. I’m such a baby when I’m sick.
Today my classes talked about “salvation”. What a loaded word. I walked into class and wrote on the board, “Steps to Salvation”. I asked the students to give me the basic steps they would tell someone who asked about having a saving relationship with God. They gave me the following list:
1. Admit sin
2. ask for forgiveness
3. believe in Jesus/God
4. Try to stop sinning
At this point, there was a pause. I asked if I were to do those things if I was saved yet. No. so we kept going.
5. Tell others about God, preach
6. Be baptized a second time (they do infant baptism here)
7. Be sealed with the Holy Spirit (this was a girl in my Bible study…way to go, babe)
8. Ask Jesus into your heart
9. Stop sinning, be perfect.

I know, right.

So I read them the list again and asked again if I followed those steps if I would go to heaven. They said yes this time. “Well”, I said, “I’m going straight to hell along with you two boys who keep talking in the back of the class. They laughed, but were still confused. I’m not perfect, I said, and neither are you. This list is a tall order, too much for any one of us.”

We changed topics. I erased the board. “Steps to falling in Love” I wrote in it’s place. I asked them to give me the steps for a man to follow to fall in love with a woman. I mean completely in love, to the point where he would do anything for her.

“Ummm…think she’s hot,” the kid who kept talking in the back of the class suggested. I wrote it down. “Others,” I asked.

Silence.

“There aren’t really ‘steps’, Miss Amy. It’s just comes naturally.”

[I need to say that I got the idea to do this in my class from a fantastic book I’m reading called “Searching for God Knows What” by Donald Miller. I’d suggest it to anyone seeking God. He actually did this “experiment” at a Bible college and got the same results. Obviously, I can’t fault my students. I’m right there with them.]

So there it is. It’s natural. Not steps. Not a scientific process. Not a to-do list. It’s a relationship. What a crazy idea, for us as evangelicals. I mean no disrespect, but we’ve gotten it pretty wrong for quite some time, if you ask me. Remember what I wrote about those tracts with the Romans Road or Four Spiritual Laws? Well what if we presented the gospel to other by saying that there is a Father who wants to adopt you into His family, a Bridegroom who wants you to be His bride. That He wants to re-define you, to show you the love He has for you because He made you and said you’re valuable. Not just valuable, but worth dying for. What would that change? How would that gospel be received? It makes me wonder…

I have good GOOD news. Chandre came tonight during dinner!!! She hadn’t eaten in a while, and I mean a long time. But we were eating as a team so I gave her some food. Then I noticed some bruises. I’m worried about where they came from. She left right away. She looked scared. Please pray with me and praise our Lord I know she’s still around. Thank you for your prayers.