Running With The Devil, and Preaching With Actions

I'm going to join the many thousands, and give my condolences to Haiti. It's an absolute terrible thing that happened. I could spend this entire blog telling you to go to Haiti, or send money, but I'm not going to do that. Not because I don't want you to do that, but because I am going to talk about another issue...actually, a few different issues. Let's begin with a man named Pat Robertson.

Pat Robertson is a televangelist, who I'm sure has a great intent, however some of the words he says makes me ashamed to be a follower of Christ. (I attempted to upload a video from Youtube, but I have no idea how to do it, so I'm going to describe it to you to the best of my ability). Right after the earthquake, Pat made this comment:

"The people of Haiti made a deal with the devil. They were under the rule of the British, and the pleaded with the Devil to save them. The Devil said "Ok", true story, and he freed them from opression. Ever since then the Haitians have had one issue after another".

Now, I don't want to say that this 'legend' didn't occur...but the fact is, none of us were there. This is apparantly something that happened during Napoleon's day, so how are we to know what is true. Secondly, even if this story is true and the Haitians made a deal with the devil...that is something that occured generations ago, none of the people that are affected by this earthquake were even close to being around when the deal was made. Thirdly, the Haitians were never a Christian nation. Why this is significant is because it would determine why they would have made a deal with the devil (if they in fact ever did). It's one thing for a Christian person to turn their back against God and begin serving the devil. That is blasphemy and heresy and is definately a major issue. The Haitians on the other hand, never served God, and don't even know the name of Jesus. How could they ask God to save them if they don't even know he exists? They can't. They call out to the one thing that they believe in, and ask him to save them. Is God judging them for this? Is God angry that they sold out to the devil? Honestly, I don't know. The fact is, I'm not predicting why this happened. I do know one thing, regardless of the reason, God is grieving right now. He hates to see people suffer, especially innocent poor people, which is the entire nation of Haiti. God isn't up in heaven happy that he judged these heathen devil worshipers. I believe he is crying, hurting that there is such pain. I don't even want to get into why this earthquake happend, all I'm trying to say is that this is not Judgement because of a generations ago pact with the devil (in my opinion anyway).

The second thing I want to talk about right now is mission work. I'm not an expert on missions, I've only ever done 2 cross culteral missions trips in my life, but I do still have an opinion about this. Before I start, i do want to say that this is likely controversial, and I am attempting not to offend people. This is my opinion, and you are free to have your own opinion about things. Anyway, there are many Christians who have the mindset of "Preach First, Serve Second". They believe that the very first thing that should be done is convert people, and then give them food, water and shelter. I say, that's bull---- (sorry). If you look at the life of Jesus, before he preached to people, he would heal them. There are many stories of lepers, sick people, paraplegics, who come to Jesus, and he heals them. He could preach to them for an hour, tell them that they need to follow him, but he doesn't. He heals them first. There are even times when he never preaches at all. If we are suppossed to be like Jesus, is this not an example of what our missions should be like? I'm not saying that the Haitians shouldn't hear the message of Christ, they definately need to hear it, however if a Christian were to go over to Haiti right now, stand on a street corner, and tell people that "Jesus Loves You, Turn to Jesus, He can save you",. I can guarantee you that harsh words would be said, and not many people would turn to God. On the other hand, if Christians went over to Haiti with no purpose but to just love, give food and shelter, I can guarantee you that Haitians would come to Christ. But even so, even if a Christian went to Haiti, gave food and shelter, and not on Haitian came to know Jesus, they still better fulfilled the mission of Christ than if they went to Haiti, preached to everyone and thousands came to Christ. All I'm saying is, "Serve First, Let God do the rest". Definately, as you serve, you can read scripture or tell them of God, but don't spend the whole time preaching the word that God loves them, well all the evidence that they see points to the fact that God hates them. Think about it. If your house burned down, and everything you owned was inside, including family and friends, and someone came up to you and said "I feel terrible, but God loves you", how would you react? Now, in the same scenario, if someone came up to you, didn't even say anything to you, but hugged you, and began rebuilding your home, how would you respond? In which instance is Christ most evident? Serve. Go out and give food, shelter and show love to the needy, the homeless, the poor and the innocent. Whether they are in Haiti, India, Mexico, or just down the street from you. Sorry if that stepped on people's toes...let me know if your opinion differs, or if you agree.