Is it just preaching to...
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Is it just "preaching" to declare that we are to put off our old selves and put on a new self or new nature (RSV)? On this day (August 4) in 1786 John Wesley warned of the possibility of Methodists "having the form of religion without the power."
In 1950 Burleigh Law was a lay Methodist minister in the Congo where he served as a pilot, mechanic and construction worker. Fourteen years later Law received word that rebels had taken a missionary station and were holding missionaries as hostages. Law immediately flew there. He circled and dropped a note in a rolled up newspaper. Those on the ground were to sit down if they were in immediate danger, stand if they were all right for a while, and to wave if there was no danger. Law acted as if he were going away but landed on an airstrip outside the village. A rebel shot him and in four hours Burleigh Law was dead.
How did he react to this situation? A missionary asked Law why he landed when no one waved? Law responded that he knew the signal, "... but I couldn't leave you here without trying to help." A missionary came up to Law and started for the man who had shot him, but Law said, "Don't blame him. I couldn't speak his language. He didn't understand me." Now, is it just "preaching" or is it possible to put off our "old" way of looking at others, those who need our help and those who hurt us, even mortally wounding us?
-- Richardson
In 1950 Burleigh Law was a lay Methodist minister in the Congo where he served as a pilot, mechanic and construction worker. Fourteen years later Law received word that rebels had taken a missionary station and were holding missionaries as hostages. Law immediately flew there. He circled and dropped a note in a rolled up newspaper. Those on the ground were to sit down if they were in immediate danger, stand if they were all right for a while, and to wave if there was no danger. Law acted as if he were going away but landed on an airstrip outside the village. A rebel shot him and in four hours Burleigh Law was dead.
How did he react to this situation? A missionary asked Law why he landed when no one waved? Law responded that he knew the signal, "... but I couldn't leave you here without trying to help." A missionary came up to Law and started for the man who had shot him, but Law said, "Don't blame him. I couldn't speak his language. He didn't understand me." Now, is it just "preaching" or is it possible to put off our "old" way of looking at others, those who need our help and those who hurt us, even mortally wounding us?
-- Richardson
