The Joys of New Christians

There's a section on seminary applications that asks you when you became Christian or accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.  I keep dreading that question because I really have no idea when I became Christian.  I don't even have a specific experience of personalization (a fancy term I learned at UCLA as a Religion major meaning the act of taking and making the faith of one's parents into one's own personal faith).  I just always went to church (as if church is just a building right?) and God became more evident in His existence and sovereignty in my life.

As a result, I don't really even have a "first love" experience or memory.  Whenever I read Revelations and think about my first love, I usually just go back to previous "moments" -  the kind where you are so in awe and consumed by God's love and grace. It's probably the same thing right?  (This is probably why my personal theology on salvation centers not around a decisive moment but rather a life of continual sanctification and obedience to God...but this is not to de-emphasize that singular, important moment of justification...but I digress).

Regardless, whether your story is like mine or you have a more decisive salvation story, the fact is we as humans are quite forgetful, especially of the love and grace of God.  Sometimes we just get into the grind of life, work, school, and ministry and forget the reason why we decided to do everything in the first place.  We may be faithful in terms of what we do, but our heart and motive behind it has become hazy and unclear.

On the mission field, I have found no better first love reminder than seeing and witness to the first love of new Christians.  God is like that shiny new toy that we loved and played with and got bored of, but when someone new comes and is having fun with the toy again, you suddenly want it back.  But with God, there's enough to go around for everyone!

I bring this up because in the past two weeks we've had two new believers put their faith in Jesus Christ.  The kind of joy in the air and the excitement in their eyes can't be replicated by other circumstances.  If I remember correctly, John Piper's father once told him, "There's no greater joy than winning souls."  I truly do believe this because as new believers learn about God, share their experiences and testimonies, I see God reviving joy in the hearts of all the other members.  Both of the staff members here cry every time they hear someone's testimony.  I see friends of new believers with tears of joy that their friend has entered into and are now enjoying the great community of God.

Back when I was in college (that is...seven months ago...), I got to experience the kind of joy and love of teaching and sharing Christ with younger believers.  This brought me great joy as other students moved from the socialization of Christianity (growing up in a faith or tradition) to personalization of faith, but I regret that I never saw one complete non-believer come to Christ.  And this is my fault because I never bothered to go outside the bounds of church.

I mean if you really think about a complete non-believer putting their faith into Christ, it's really an amazing thing.  And I'm not just talking about the amazing theology behind it - God by his grace regenerating children of wrath, and calling rebellious beings into the adoption of sonship through the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ.  I think about all the practical things behind conversion like the fact that someone is giving up a worldview that they've grown up with, with its attached cultural and behavioral values and customs.  Christian kids know the Christian law, values, and behavior before they accept the Christian gospel, but when they put faith in Christ, the worldview of Christianity is more or less there.  But growing up Buddhist for twenty years, believing in the power of merit from all sorts of rituals, then leaving all those things behind to follow a daresay foreign God?  I mean Buddhism technically doesn't even have a God in its belief system.

But these new believers have found something worth throwing away twenty years of what previously gave them worth and value in their life.  They're willing to face being shunned or shamed by family members and friends.  And on top of that, they're just filled with this infectious joy that's overflowing from their first love.

I would love for brothers and sisters back home to be able to experience this kind of joy, and they CAN.  We just need to step outside our four walls and turn to a neighbor or a classmate.  But more on my thoughts of how that can happen later.

For now, please pray for Kazuko and Jubjib, the new sisters in Christ, that their joy would only continue to grow as they come to know and be known by the living God.

God is moving!