Swedish for Aliens at The Space Market

"I once heard a man use a phrase which affected me very deeply at the time, and still does. I am not sure it is not one of the most searching statements I have ever heard. He said that the trouble with many of us Christians is that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but that we do not believe him.  He meant that we believe on Him for the salvation of our souls, but we do not believe Him when He says a thing like this to us, that God is going to look after our food and drink, and even our clothing....That is the ultimate trouble. 'Little faith' does not really take the Scripture as it is and believe it and live by it and apply it."--D.M. Lloyd Jones, Studies in The Sermon on The Mount, "Little Faith," p. 398.

One of the terrific things about this church plant is the pastor's personal library. Daniel has got some great books.

One of the terrific things about ministering to others is that, almost without fail, I find myself benefitting as much if not more from it.

These two terrific things, Daniel's book collection, and the opportunity for me to minister to others, came together for me this week in the two bible studies I led.  The first was Tuesday on Psalm 27, in English for ethnic Swedes who are part of the church plant. The second was yesterday on Matthew 6:24-34, for ethnic Iranians who are not part of the church plant, but who are friends with Omid. This I led in Swedish.

Omid says my Swedish is as good as most immigrants here, so I was challenged to give it a shot with them.  The meeting was held at Omid's apartment, which is in Rymdtorget.  Rymdtorget literally means, "The space market."  I suppose it may not be technically accurate to call his Iranian friends aliens, since they have become naturalized immigrants.  And as it turned out the only one really speaking alien Swedish was me! (The ethnic Iranians have been here for several years already and are well integrated into Swedish society.)  Nonetheless, we were able to unearth and apply some deep truths from God's Word  to our lives.  I think we ministered effectively to a need and area of growth that one of them in particular has in their walk with the Lord.  But as I said, perhaps the best thing for me in all this is that my own studies relating to this has resulted in greater growth for me personally.

One of the sermons I brought with me, in the event that I would need another sermon to preach, happened to be on the passage we studied together from the Sermon on the Mount. In the sermon, I reflect upon the challenging truth, as I have seen it, that many Christian brothers and sisters do suffer drought, famine, and exposure. In the sermon I ask the question, "Is God not following through on his promise?" My answer is that Christ may not be promising The Father will shield his children from such suffering.  God cares for us as a Father, but the evidence of that may not be so clearly seen in whether or not we have the bare necessities all the time. Jesus teaching on the sheep and goats in Matt 25 seems to bears this out.

Here's where Daniel's book collection comes in handy.  D M Lloyd Jones has challenged me on my perspective with this in his chapter in Studies in The Sermon on the Mount: "Worry: Its causes and cure." He quotes Psalm 37:25, which says "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread."  He asserts that this statement is literally true for genuine Christians (not for merely professing Christians).  It reminds me of what I heard someone say on Moody radio last year, that relief agency World Vision's former president said essentially the same, that he also had never seen the righteous forsaken, not his children begging bread.

Van Gemeren's Expositor's Bible Commentary supports this view: "God gives life to his people and supports the righteous with 'bread.' From elsewhere in the Psalm it is clear that the righteous may experience a variety of adversities at the hand of the wicked.  But the Lord comes to the aid of his own.  They are not abandoned.  The children of God are not immune to the experiences of alienation and to the groaning of this world, but they have God's promise that he will not completely forsake his own."

As a musician, "stage fright" has often been an ongoing battle.  Certainly, the audition here last month gave some evidence of that.  But if I remember to take Jesus at his word, as Jones advocates, what have I to be anxious about?  Jesus chided the disciples in the storm at sea, "where is your faith?" He expects the same kind of faith from me. And you.