Last week we said the Gideon tests sound spiritual but often just reflect a misplaced desire for clarity that God doesn’t owe us.

So, what are some good things to decide if you should go on an OYC?

One of the best reasons to go is also one of the simplest: because you can.

Many, many disciples simply cannot go on an OYC. Think of all the circumstances that might prevent disciples from going:

1. Some need support groups for chemical addiction recovery or same-sex attraction.
2. Some are under the care of a therapist they should stick with for now, or need to take specialized treatments for mental or physical health problems.
3. Some have special needs children.
4. Some have boyfriends or girlfriends who can’t go on an OYC.
5. Some are caring for elderly parents.
6. Some are so deeply in debt they could not maintain payments if they went to an OYC site.
7. Some are in the military or a program of study. Leaving in the middle of these situations would be unwise, so for now at least, an OYC is off the table.
8. Some would go if they could, but can’t get a visa because of their nationality. For example, it’s much harder for a Russian passport holder to get a work visa in most countries than it is for a Canadian passport holder, unfortunately.
9. Some are willing to go, but too old or too young to relocate.

You get the picture. Take all these people out of the pool of potential “go-ers”–they need to be stayers for now!–and how many are left?

Are you one of those remaining people who can go? Then, by itself, that’s a great reason to go!

“Putting out a fleece” is a Christian code language for “I’ll see if circumstances confirm God wants me to do this or that.” If you’re not sure where this idea comes from, the story is in Judges 6-8.

A lot of people considering an OYC use this kind of language when describing how they are going to make a decision:

1. “I’m going to apply for a job and see if God opens a door for me there. If He doesn’t, I’ll just know God doesn’t want me to go.”
2. “I’m waiting to find out if I got approved for a new home loan, but if it doesn’t go through, I am going to take that as a sign from God to just go on an OYC.”
3. “I’ve been praying that God will make it really clear to me whether or not I should go.”

All these statements reflect something positive: a desire to be convinced of what God’s specific will is for my decision through some visible sign.

The problem is these statements also tragically leave out faith in God’s care. They can just as easily be expressed as:

1. “If God makes it really easy for me to go by giving me an great job in advance, I’ll go. Otherwise, I’m not taking any risks.”
2. “If I can come up with some good reason not to go, and reasonably attribute it to God, I’m off the hook.”
3. “I’m not going anywhere until God satisfies my need for certainty.”

Step out on faith. Don’t require God to grease the skids to get you moving. Put your trust in God, not in “confirming” circumstances.

It sounds good to say, “I’m just seeking God’s will in this area of my life” but what do we really mean by that?

To be sure, there is a time for reflection on how God is directing our steps. But is it possible some quests for finding “God’s plan for me” are in vain?

Here are three points to consider, paraphrased from Send Me I’ll Go:

1. It demands information God has withheld. God doesn’t tell us everything that he intends to do in the world, but rather what we need to obey him. God doesn’t expect you to know his secret will. That’s what makes it secret! See Deut. 29:29.
2. It seeks guarantees where God offers none. James 4:13-16 makes it very clear that we’re not in control of our future, and cannot be. Trying to get God to “make it clear to me if I should do this” ultimately leads to taking the path of least resistance. Whenever circumstances get rough, you’ll imagine God is disapproving and moving you towards easier, safer options.
3. It presumes to speak for God. When someone says “I just feel like God is telling me to do this or that,” how can anyone answer or argue with such an appeal to authority? Would you be comfortable putting words into the mouth of anyone you know? Would you feel free to discern their intentions without actually hearing them say the words themselves? We’re not on solid ground when we attribute every strong impulse of our hearts or every profound thought that comes into our minds to God. Does what we feel or think agree with God’s actual, revealed words?

Stop waiting for a sign. Shed the extra-biblical ideas that feed your “finding God’s will” obsession. You’ll be free to simply obey him, and trust him in those areas where you don’t know exactly what his will is. That’s where faith really starts to matter.

No, probably not the way you are thinking of it.

Many disciples are hoping for some mysterious sense of God’s “call” that will tell them just where, or if, they should go on a One Year Challenge.

And many who don’t even get started in the process will dismiss the idea: “I know it’s important for some people to go. I just don’t feel called.”

But does this make sense?

Look at the world and the vast work that still remains reaching the nations for Christ. Then look at the small number of disciples who actually go and try to advance this mission.

If it’s up to the called to go and the un-called to stay put, there are only a few possibilities:

1. God isn’t calling many disciples.
2. God is calling many disciples, but there aren’t many who aren’t listening.
3. We have a wrong idea about the need for a “calling.”

Maybe this whole idea that “I need a special calling” is misguided in the first place. After all, we know what God wants for the world. We know where the needs are great. We know that every disciple is called to a life of sacrifice.

Do you really need some individualized calling? Or could this just be an excuse for not simply volunteering for something you know needs doing?

What if you don’t need to feel called? What if you just need to obey?

(H/T to the excellent Send Me I’ll Go.)

Your parents may have mixed feelings about you signing up for OYC. Need help? Check out Kim Ransleben’s advice to students as a parent herself on how to talk to your parents about missions. Here are her five main points:

1. Let your parents in on the journey early and often. Your desire to serve overseas shouldn’t be spontaneously announced like you do when you’ve decided to drive to the playoff game or change your hair color.

 2. Do first for them what you want to do for others. If you want your parents to believe that you’ll be faithful stewards out there, give them an idea what that looks like right here.

3. Watch your attitude. Parents have never done well with fits, and the greater the fit, the more they know you definitely don’t need to be given whatever it was that you’ve demanded.

4. Make sure that the reason you “have not” isn’t because “you’ve asked not”. How did you awaken to God’s heart for the nations?

5. Love your parents well…even if you can’t
follow them. It may be that after all this, your parents still don’t get it, and you still go.

Read the whole thing.

What story do you have for your life? Everyone has one. At some point in our lives we have all envisioned or imagined what our future may be, who we might meet and what we might do. The world has a story for your life too. Its a story that expresses itself in all parts of culture. The philosophy behind all Disney movie plot lines “follow your heart” or old adages like “the world is your oyster” and even “know thyself” all come from this story. It is the story of self-fulfillment.

This story says that our lives ought to be about realizing our gifts, cultivating them and reaching our full potential. It says that the direction of our lives should be determined by our choices and desires. It says that the highest goal in life is to be happy.

Worldly Christianity is tainted with this thinking. Worldly Christians think they can pursue their own dreams as long as they don’t miss a Sunday or a midweek service.

The Bible tells us to think differently than the world. It instructs us to be renewed in our thinking and to no longer follow the pattern of this world. This includes the story of your self-fulfillment.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Jesus taught that this in the story of the prodigal son, in Luke 15. In his parable, the prodigal son is on this path of self-fulfillment. He acquires wealth, travels the world and spends it all. Just like the prodigal son, we may be tempted to use God’s gifts to pursue our own goals and dreams. But what is so intriguing in the end is that the prodigal son is not satisfied! Even though he chases his dreams, in the end he realizes what will satisfy him is being with his Father. Chasing your dreams and your story will ultimately leave you unsatisfied.

Instead of using God to pursue your dream, have you thought about using your life to pursue God’s dream? You may dream for greater accomplishment in your career and your relationships. God dreams that the world be filled with saved souls, singing and worshipping Him. Instead of using your gifts and your life to serve yourself, why not use them to serve God and his Kingdom?

Jesus’s story for our lives is that we may deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. His story is that our lives be used to complete God’s greater story for the world, that the all peoples would be reconciled to him.

If you’re reading this, there could be several reasons why you feel like you want to wait before registering:

• I’m not sure if I’m ready.
• I don’t feel like I’m qualified to go.
• I am still in school. I need to finish school first.
• I don’t know if I will be helpful at the site where I want to go.
• I don’t know whether I can financially support myself on the mission field.

All of these reasons express some sort of uncertainty. They start with “I don’t feel like…”, “I’m not sure…”, or “I don’t know…”. Even the one about finishing school is based on the assumption that you can’t finish your degree on the mission field.

The Bible tells us exactly what to do when we plan to do something but we’re not sure or we don’t know if our feelings or assumptions are true.

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed

Before I went on a One Year Challenge, I talked to the brothers in my household, I talked to my family, and later I talked to my campus minister and my church leader. I heard sermons about going on mission. I talked to everyone except the disciples who are actually at the site where I wanted to go. Later I finally registered and contacted the site leader there.

It is not hard to imagine (but sometimes hard to trust) that the church leaders and disciples who are actually at the site know better; that they know if and where you can find jobs in that country; that they know if you will be helpful at that site; that they have experience helping disciples get trained to be effective in that mission field; that they might even have experience helping someone finish their degree while on mission. Don’t discount the fact that they might be an invaluable resource.

Registering is the first step to getting in contact with your OYC site leader and getting advice from them. What are you waiting for? Register now!

Making disciples of all nations involves helping friends turn away from idols and false gods. This will inevitably lead to conflict and calling people to repent. But part of missions work is being confrontational. Daniel Strange’s article how ministry confronts idolatry is a good read, especially for those who are looking for deeper reasons for joining the OYC.

Idolatry is always ultimately against God and against the way he has chosen to reveal himself to us. Its scope is broad enough to include not simply displacements of God, but also distortions of him, and even denials of him (for atheism makes up the ultimate false story about God: that he does not exist).

Read the whole thing.

Happy Chinese New Year!

What’s it like to be a Christian in China? Foreigners in China have a certain status. We are, in every situation, an anomaly. Going to visit Chinese disciples’ hometowns for the Chinese New Year, I ventured farther from the developed metropolises and deeper into China’s richly cultural, tradition-driven, conservative countryside. Everywhere I go, people stare, children point, voices cry out with their limited English saying, “Hello!”

During the Chinese New Year celebrations, everyone treats me as a child, and an honored guest. As a guest, I don’t fully understand the traditions, the hometown dialects, or why grandma is putting out an extra plate of fruit and a full cooked chicken and raw liver on the kitchen table (later I found out it’s a sacrifice for ancestor worship). My hosts quickly learn to work around me, letting me join in activities but not expecting anything. They hand me 红包 (hóngbāo), a red envelope with money inside, given by older, married generations to the younger. They add more and more food to my plate during the 除夕晚饭 (chúxīwánfàn), the New Year’s Eve meal. Their hospitality is so overwhelming that I feel like part of their family.

Chinese New Year through a foreign Christian’s eyes reveals the enduring qualities of Chinese culture that are in accordance with the Bible.

I see great sacrifice: Parents and grandparents work all year and deny themselves to save little by little, so that they can give wholeheartedly during the holiday season. The grandfather of one sister I visited sacrificed greatly before and even during the feast. He spent nearly all day in the kitchen preparing the meal, then was the last to sit down to eat, the first to get up, and barely ate anything compared to what could have been expected of him during the most important meal of the year. He then continued to serve in the next couple days, preparing a traditional breakfast of homemade 汤圆 (tángyuán), a doughy rice-ball with sweet filling, the very next morning and gave everyone in his family red envelopes. The sacrifice of one man made this family’s festival a huge success.

I see unprecedented hospitality: A large Confucian value is hosting guests. Many Chinese enjoy showing hospitality towards guests, perfecting activities such as 功夫茶 (gōngfuchá) a traditional ceremony of preparing, pouring, and drinking tea, always being prepared to serve snacks or fruit, and fully committing to serve every need in order to love and include their house guests. When Paul encouraged the Roman church to “share with the Lord’s people who are in need,” and “practice hospitality,” this hospitality exemplified by my Chinese hosts must have been what he meant.

I see the idea of family deeply valued and parents honored:  Families come together, traveling from every far corner of the country they may live in, braving the largest migration of people our modern world has seen, to return to their rural hometowns and enjoy the special festival time. Youngsters are taught tradition, corrected when necessary, pampered and often spoiled. Elders are respected for their age and wisdom. Parents are showered with praise and New Year’s greetings like “身体健康!” (shēntĭ jiànkāng, meaning “good health to you!”). The family becomes a unit, preparing together, eating together, and serving each other, each person playing their rightful role in the family.

What’s it like to be a Christian in China? God’s word is alive and active everywhere you go, and the same temptations are common to all mankind. What’s more, false idols and worship of the wrong things are prevalent everywhere in the world. Being a foreign Christian in China has its challenges, but it has confirmed my own biblical convictions, taught me that God truly is God of every nation, tribe, people and language, and that He desires deeply for the people of China, and the whole world, to know His name.

Have you been thinking about the One Year Challenge? How do you know when it’s the right thing for you to do?

Many disciples think about spiritual decisions in a way that can easily absolve them of any responsibility.

They will say something like, “I love the idea of OYC, but I just don’t feel a burden for taking the gospel to another country, or helping a campus ministry somewhere.”

At worst, it’s just an excuse.

At best, it’s a sincere expression of not feeling something someone thinks they should feel before taking the next step towards an OYC. So, what do you do with this “non-feeling”?

Consider that God often directs us to change our hearts: to exchange a heart of stone for a heart of flesh, to love our unlovable neighbor, etc.

We easily get that we can’t follow every feeling we have. But the opposite is also true: we aren’t excused from something just because we don’t have a special feeling about that thing God asked us to do.

By way of example, worshiping God is similar: some people just don’t easily get into it. But with years of bending our hearts towards the disciplines of daily prayer, meditation and Bible study, and as we learn to “sing a new song,” our hearts change from inwardly-focused to God-focused.

Your heart can–and often should–change.

So, if you aren’t “burdened” for doing an OYC, consider that the problem might not be what God hasn’t done in your heart, but what you haven’t invited him to do in your heart.