The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-03-25
Door For The World
Lesson for March u, 1860

if paid enough, carry posters
telling the world that 1.-The fami-
" that prays together, stays to-
gether." Some of this advice
must be taken, to Judge from
the crowds one sees coming out
of churches of all kinds. Our
country may not be a maturely
Christian country, but at least
the church is respectable, and
popular besides.
This is not true all over the
world. There are more places
where this is not true, than
where it is true. In East Ger
many today boy or girl comes
near losing all chance of a job
if he or she does not leave the
church and join the youth Or
ganization sponsored by the
Party. In Japan, India, and
other countries, to be a Christian
is to he thought of as unpatriotic
We Have Always Had Rivals
America is one of the few
places now where Christianity
is both popular and respectable
These other places where it is
not are more like the situation
when the Christian faith was
new. Many American Christians
have the curious idea that if the
going is rough we should not
send missionaries; that if there
are lots of religions in a coun-
try like India. for instance, we
should not upset their theologi
cal applicant and confuse them
with a new religion. The real
New Testament Christians
would have thought such no
tons rather ridiculous. 1t can
not be said too often: The Chris
tan religion did not get its start
in a religious vacuum. Every
body had rehgion-of som e
kind. Only, most of the kinds
were bad. and the good kinds
were not good enough. Christians
did not propose to merge with
other religions, they urged men
to turn from dead idols to the
mot az Living God" The
Gospel train" has never tied In
with any other.
A Door for the Word
Christianity, in other words, |
is exclusive. But it had anlaz-
ing success in that world so
crowded with religions. And this
was because Christians like
Paul never failed to take ad-
vantage of any door for the
Word that stood open. Paul
while a prisoner at Rome. had
what most modern preachers
would consider a bad situation.
He was drawing no salary. he
had no church as the saying
is, he could not look forward
to promotion. he could not do
any organizing, his only par
ish" was a jail and jails don't
offer much in the way of a |
future. And what a congregation
Criminals and prison guards
not much hope there. Yet Paul
could write to his friends at
Colossae about a door for the
word He did not expect a door
for himself, but he did pray
for one for the Word of God. |
His prayer was answered. too.
Ono of the doors for the Word
was the conversion of a run
away slave called OneSinuS. |
Through this man the religion
OF Jesus spread where Paul him |
self could not go. Then at the
end of Paul's letter to the Phil |
Eppians. written from a Roman
prs on, he speaks of the saints
in Caesars household. palace
servants no doubt. Paul would
never have been invited to the
royal palace, but these humble
Christian men and women,
whom Paul had probably con-
verted in prison. since he had |
no chance to go anywhere else
these would take the Word where
Paul could not hope to go.
And If No Door?
There must have been times
when even for the Word there
was no door that Paul could |
find. So it is in many parts of |
the world today. Nobody is ex-
pecting any great outbreak of |
Christianity in East Germany or
Japan or Yemen or some places
Oh the Amazon. When all doors |
aic closed. as they are now in
China. what do we do next? |
Do we write off missions as
lost cause? Paul did not. He
wrote to his friends at ColoSsae
to pray that God would open to
him door for the Word. You
Go not pray for what you al
ready have. So now, when doors
are shutting in many lands, we
are poor Christians if we just
accept this as final. For Japan,
for Russia, Abyssinia-yes for
Suburbia. that often pagan land,
we must pray for the open door.
Biased on outlines copyright
ed by the Division of Christian
Education. National Council of
the Churches Of Christ in the