We have a new pastor at our church. Daniel Cohee lived here in Taiwan and preached occasionally at New Hope while studying Chinese last year. Then he went back to the States and spent almost a year trying to raise money to support himself as a full-time missionary to Taiwan and other places in Asia.
New Hope’s previous pastor, Joel H. Linton, felt God calling him to a ministry in rural Taiwan. Last fall Joel and his family left for a year-long furlough in the United States. When they came back they would be living outside Taipei. Our church group’s ruling elders and other men had been preaching the sermons since then. During that time we asked Daniel if he’d consider coming to Taiwan earlier than he expected and serve as New Hope’s interim pastor. He agreed and has been at it for about a month now.
Emily and I have been excited to see God work. God has been so good providing direction for Joel and the Linton family. He also has been so good in giving us that time in between pastors for the ruling elders and other men to preach. During that time it was so cool to see different things brought up as each man had his unique perspective to share from.
And God is also good in leading Daniel to serve as the interim pastor. A few weeks ago Daniel began preaching from John. I have been so interested and encouraged by how much Daniel’s sermons point to Christ. How, he points out time and time again, everything in the Bible and about Christianity points to Jesus and confirms His divinity and rightful place as our Head.
Yesterday the sermon was on John 1:35-51. Daniel pointed out something I had never really gotten before. He pointed out Andrew, right after learning where Jesus was staying, immediately went and got his brother Simon and brought him to meet Jesus. Daniel explained how that is what evangelism is all about. It’s not about ideas or arguments or proving points. Evangelism is about bringing people to meet Jesus.
It makes so much sense. When people ask me to explain one of Christianity’s obtuse concepts or whatever I should instead bring them to meet Christ. I shouldn’t be wasting time trying to explain about head coverings but instead just show them where Jesus lives.
Since we’re on the subject of religious revelation I had another one recently. I need to be wary of living for myself without hurting other people. My goal should not be to do what I want to do without hurting other people. I need to be living for Jesus, full stop. My mother-in-law shared the JOY acronym with me recently and I really liked it. It’s cutesy and it’s true: Jesus first, Others second, You last. True joy can only be found living this way. Thank you MommaMuffett and thank You Jesus.
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