Is Normal Best

Thursday evening, May 26, I finished up my evening class in Ruth. It was a class in which God clearly began to speak more clearly to me about this little book. The Tuesday class should have finished last Tuesday afternoon, but because of scheduling of special programs, three of six of my classes managed to get cancelled. I managed to make up one, which left two to go. Joy2 thought she could get enough together for a makeup class on Saturday morning and then we would finish Ruth with lesson six Tuesday afternoon. Friday morning I got a call asking if I would consider teaching both lesson five and six Saturday morning. I agreed, but wasn’t so confident that I would have many students there.

Joy2 contacted Joy1 and asked if she would come in and be my interpreter. I arrive Saturday morning and found my classroom occupied with about 60 adults singing hymns. I looked for Joy2 and ask what I should do. She tells me to go in and set up for class. She drags me into the room, pushes the song leader aside and tells me to get ready for class. I get set up and they keep on singing. At 9 AM Joy2 gets up and tells the song leader to sit down and then tells the group something, which involved me and then she sits down. Joy1 then gets up and tells me we are ready to start. All of a sudden my class of 20 became about 60. I recognized that most of my students were part of this singing group.

We went through lesson five, took a five minute break for people to stretch and leave if they wanted to. Maybe three or four decided they had to go, but others joined as we started. As we worked through the lesson God again began to speak to me about the same thing he did on Thursday evening. I don’t have space left in this entry to discuss what I learned from God. That will come later. What I say then will probably upset some male leaders in the western conservative church, but that is ok. In fact I will probably say more in the future that will upset the western church, but I think that is also ok. With the tremendous growth of Christianity in Asia it has the potential of reshaping Christianity. With Christianity dying at the rate it is in the western culture, the focus of God is clearly shifting to this arena. It is exciting to be here and see that and be a part of that movement as a Bible teacher.

I believe one of the reasons for this growth is that there is enough persecution here that people have to pay a price in some way to become a believer. That creates value that the unbeliever sees and admires. It stimulates interest in becoming part of such a movement. That value is missing with the American believer and unbelievers see no reason to become involved.

Join me next time as I open up a topic that is causing author Carolyn Curtis James to be barred from teaching her materials in certain churches. I am also beginning to experience some of this opposition from western believers. I want to write about this and what I am learning from God concerning this.

When I began my casual reading of the “Gospel of Ruth” by Carolyn Curtis James I had no idea I would end up teaching it in China or that it would change my life in the way that it has. As a man I find myself living with and working very closely with women that I am not married to. As a result lessons learned from this study of Ruth apply directly to me. I have been criticized by both men and women from the western church that I am wrong with my living and working relationships here in China.

I will close this entry by asking you if God did the right thing by having Ruth go to the threshing floor and lay down near Boaz in the dark of night? What character qualities have we learned about them that allowed God to put them into this situation unmarried? How does the two Hebrew words “Ezer” and “Hesed” fit into this midnight drama? This series should be interesting.