C3 Encounters 2012 - Day 3 (Session III) - Pastor Chris Pringle

Note: Day 3 of C3 Encounters 2012 consisted of 5 sessions of teaching from 4 pastors. Pastor Chris Pringle took the first and third sessions. Pastor Pat Ancliff took the second session, Pastor Simon McIntyre the fourth and Pastor Phil Pringle closed the conference in the fifth session. I will blog about each session in separate blogs.

Pastor Chris Pringle – Extreme Love

Jesus clearly had a heart for people when He prayed in John 17:9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours” (NKJV)

In Proverbs 11:30 (Amplified) he who is wise captures human lives [for God, as a fisher of men—he gathers and receives them for eternity]

We are here to captivate humanity, not annihilate or alienate them.

We all know what John 3:16 says and the Amplified version of the bible expresses it well. For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

However, reading the Message – the context of John 3:16 is even made clearer in John 3:17.

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

She then said that acts of human kindness in everyday things mean much more to people than amazing miracles.

The example of being Christ-like

Sharing a story about Mahatma Gandhi [A Must Read], who being a Hindu was quite affected by Christ’s teachings; he had this conversation with the missionary, E. Stanley Jones.

ESJ: Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?

MG: Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.

In another conversation, he said, “If Jesus came to earth again. He would disown many things that are being done in the name of Christianity.”

Pastor Chris said we must make it our responsibility to love all those that God sends our way. We are [using the Dutch words for kisses and hugs] the kusjes and knuffels of Christ to the world.

Love never fails

She then shared stories of the simplicity of meeting people, chatting to people and in the process helping people. To illustrate how people are so removed from the things of God, she prayed for a lady with chronic back pain and the lady was healed – the next day, the lady referred to the miracle as “that thing you did.”

We need a love revolution in our cities and love never fails.

Love expressed by the early church were feasts of charity – bringing friendship and kindness to our communities.

She exhorted us to pray that God opens our eyes to see those who God loves – then invite them to church, Jesus has got people everywhere. Sometime we just have to stop and respond, interact, engage and be involved.

Interest in humanity always captivates humanity.

It is simple

For instance, when Jesus met the woman at the well, all he wanted was a drink and it turned into a conversation, then a discussion about spiritual things, then she told her townspeople, they all came to listen and believed asking Jesus to stay with them for a few days.

None of that would have happened if he had prejudged her; a prostitute, someone who had had 5 husbands and was unworthy of being told about good news of the gospel. It started with thirst for a drink.

She closed with the Message version of John 1:14.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, he one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

With love we need to move into our neighbourhoods and reflect the love, joy and peace of God – like Father, like son, like Father, like daughter – generous in spirit and in all things.

The missing link between bringing people around us to God is us.