Sunday

I don't always know what to do with myself here. I often end up wandering and sometimes bumping into something wonderful and inspiring, sometimes not.

I like sundays because they always turn out interesting, trying to find a church.
I thought that I would find one sweet humble church in Africa to go to (mostly because I really had no idea what to expect) and join a gospel choir or something, But I have been moving around a lot so usually end up at different ones.

My first sunday here in Tamale I went with 2 of my Ghanain friends and we were picked up by a guy who worked for world vision. Now one of my friends has a job with them.

The next week a little 12 year old girl came to our door and invited us to go to church with her- I thought that this was such a beautiful thing.

This week- I didn't have a place to go so I just started walking. Its important to walk by faith sometimes, I think. So I was walking along and just said "God- I don't really know where I am going but I'd really like to go to churh today so could you pleae please lead me to a place?" The North is predominately Muslim so there arn't a lot of churches around like on every street corner in Accra.

"Despa" (good morning!) I said to a guy riding by on a bike. There was no one aruond as it was pretty early (and a sunday) and I like greating people anyways. He stopped, delighted I was speaking Dagbanli and asked me where I was going. "I don't know" I said "Im trying to find a church but I don't know where one is"

"Oh!" He said "I can show you one I think" He was a Muslim, but wanted to learn more about the bible. "I want to know it well" he said "These Christians, they say that Jesus Christ is God. I just want to know the Truth about him- I just want to know the Truth."

I thought that this was very beautiful. For two reasons. First that usually when I tell people I'm a Christian, they don't want to know "the truth about Jesus"- they tend to want to brush it off or try to prove me wrong or make a judgement and be done with it. I find poeple don't really want to "know the truth" about anything these days. "Whatever works for you" they say.

Secondly I find it curious that anyone would WANT to know the Truth about my Jesus . I mean- there are a lot of people ou there who claim a lot of things. Alot of religions, a lot of revolutionaries, a lot of great thinkers- a lot of things to believe. I find it crazy and beautiful that 2000 years later people are still curious about this Jesus- that people still gather all over the world to worship him, that hes still changing lives (hes changing mine) to this day.

One time I had this guy I barely knew call me over early in the morning because he had been up all night, on his knees, because he felt that Christ was calling him. I think it freeked him out a bit. "He just loves you" I said "thats why he wants you so badly"

After church I went to lunch and had this guy sat across from me. We got to talking- he'd ordered some drinks. He said he wanted to stop drinking. He said he was a Muslim and that Muslims shouldnt drink. I said that was probably a good thing and he should keep working toward that. He also thought that "thou shalt not drink" was one of the ten commadments in the bible. I said this wasn't true. "Jesus came to set us free" I said "not to tell us not to do things" Then he said he wanted to learn about the bible, but to this I didnt know that much to say.

You see- I have a confession. As much as I love reading the bible I don't really know how to talk about it somtimes- what to say about what the gospel is. But I think it is important, what it is about this Jesus, so I tried to write out some things about what it is that as a Chirstian, I believe:

(1) That we are all sinful, and have fallen short in some way.

(2)That Jesus came to bring us back to God- to set us free from the Law and from sin and from death. He didn't come to give us more 'dos' and 'donts' and make us feel guilty- but to really set us free and give us life into enternity that starts today.

(3) That the only way that he could save us- from our rather dreadful and somewhat dismal fate- was to come down from heaven as still fully God but also fully Man, and live a life of love. A life that was Holy, and then die as an attoning sacrifice FOR our sins.

(4) Because I think that we all know that we really arn't 'good' people. I think deep down we all know that we all sometimes have bad motives and do bad things.

(5) But the truth is, no matter how much we get right or how much we mess up- that Jesus MAKES us good, because though he died to save us he also rose again. He rose again so he could lead us, and is still, to this day, calling us back to him.

(6)And I belive that one day he will come again, to judge the living and the dead.

We Christians, we believe some other things too. Like- we believe in the Holy Spirit lives inside us, we believe that Satan is really real and really does come out to seek, kill and destroy. We believe in the Kingdom of Heaven- that we should love each other, that we should love God with all our hearts and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. That the word of God is the Truth.

But even still, being a Chiristian isn't about believing these things, as much as it is good that they are preached. Its really about responding to them. Its just to Love the One who taught us how to Love by Loving us first.

That is it.