It's more than a salad dressing

We are in the beautiful Thousand Islands, NY. We'll be away for a while so I may not be posting much. Thanks to my brilliant techie husband, I do have access to the internet...but there are loads of other things to keep us busy while we are here with my folks, brother, sister-in-law, and niece.

But...while I have just a few minutes...there is something that has been turning in my mind since the women's Sunday school class this past week. Here's a bit of what we were discussing:

I Corinthians 5:9-13a (from The Message)
9-13I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

Following discussion question: What is the difference between belonging to the world and being in the world and associating with the world?

Matthew 5:13-16 (also from The Message)
13"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

With this discussion question: If we are to be salt and light to an unbelieving world, we clearly cannot accomplish this task if we only minister within our "Christian bubble." How can we be salt and light without being of the world?"

The following, which I read in Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli, kept coming to mind. So, here is yet another quote...a great story that illustrates some of what we discussed.

"In his book The Easy Yoke, Doug Webster tells a story about an idealistic college student who ended up on a mission trip to one of the more dangerous housing projects in Philadelphia. A brand-new Christian, this wide-eyed urban missionary didn't have a clue how to evangelize the inner city. Frightened and anxious to share his new faith, the young man approached a very large tenement house. Cautiously making his way through the dark, cluttered hallways, he gingerly climbed up one flight of stairs to an apartment. He knocked on the door, and a woman holding a naked, howling baby opened it. She was smoking and not in any mood to hear some white, idealistic college boy tell her about Jesus. She started cursing him and slammed the door in his face. The young man was devastated.

He walked out to the street, sat on the curb, and wept. Look at me. How in the world could someone like me think I could tell anyone about Jesus? Then he remembered that the baby was naked and the woman was smoking. The plan forming in his head didn't seem terribly spiritual but...

He ran down the street to the local market and bought a box of diapers and a pack of cigarettes. When he knocked on the door again, he showed the woman his purchases. She hesitated and then invited him in. For the rest of the day, he played with the baby and changed its diapers (even though he had never changed diapers before). When the woman offered him a cigarette, even though he didn't smoke, he smoked. He spent the entire day smoking and changing diapers. Never said a word about Jesus. Late in the afternoon, the woman asked him why he was doing all this, and finally he got to tell her everything he knew about Jesus. Took about five minutes. When he stopped talking, the woman looked at him and said softly, "Pray for me and my baby that we can make it out of here alive," so he did.

...In one frustrating afternoon, he learned about the power of sensitivity, the meaning of evangelism, the hopelessness of those who live in urban areas. He also learned that sometimes the Holy Spirit asks us to violate our convictions for a season in order to live the faith, not just talk about it. When this young man returned to college he didn't start smoking, but he did start listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

This sentence is so key: "He also learned that sometimes the Holy Spirit asks us to violate our convictions for a season in order to live the faith, not just talk about it." Notice he doesn't say violate God's Word - scripture...but our own convictions and "for a season."

This post has gotten quite long...much longer than I first intended so I'll just shut up about all that for now. :)

And for those of you who are not from the Northeast and/or have never heard of the Thousand Islands...it is a region of NY and Canada in and along the St. Lawrence Seaway...some cool pictures and info. can be found here. If you are really bored curious, you can read all about the origin of Thousand Island dressing here.