Christians speak a kind of universal language. When they do, you kind of feel it and know it.Rightfully, Christians should always use this language in all their conversations. Should always, but seldom. It is a language that Jesus taught His disciples. – Agape
I have just finished reading this book, God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew. It is a very old book. I first read it about 22 years ago. Thought I would like to go through some old books that challenge me to exercise faith in God, while the sermons on the Book of Hebrews are still fresh on my mind. It is more or less an autobiography and how his works in the communist countries led to the beginning of Open Doors, a Christian para-church organization. There are 2 lessons I learn from this book – Agape and Faith.
How do we speak Agape, I wonder? This thought came to me as Brother Andrew told a clerk of a hotel in communist country Rumania that he was looking for a church. Though he didn’t know Rumanian, he could communicate with the Christians through a universal language – Agape.
Thoughts drift back to more than a decade ago, somewhere in the north …
This universal language is most powerful when we cross border and into unfamiliar ground. I experience this when I was in London. You could know who the Christians were without them telling you they were Christians when Agape was spoken. Our universal language spoke loud and clear. Being alone there and always looking out for friendship, I always spoke in that language – Agape. When I was in London, around the campus and in the dormitory, I made it a point to smile when my eyes came into contact with another. This was the beginning of my Agape language. Very few reciprocated. Probably I was an oriental and more inferior. Those who did smile back would always be greeted with nod, my second Agape language.
One day, an Indian lady came to the centralized kitchen while I was preparing lunch.
“We had a volleyball game this Saturday morning and would you care to join us?”
She caught me by surprise but gave me a hope. After more than 1 week, I had already concluded that people around the campus and in the dormitory were not that friendly. My first instinct when talking to her was that these people who went around inviting students were Christians doing evangelistic outreach. After all, I am no novice in this kind of strategies, having involved in Campus ministry for many years. Anyway, it was an opportunity to meet Christians and to get to know people. So, why not?
After the game, they invited me to their fellowship and it turned out that they were the Church of Christ, a somewhat “off-skewed group” who believed that only "those who are baptized and always doing evangelism are saved". We then had a 2-hours (till pass mid-night) debate in my room using Scriptures. That was the time I felt all my effort in Scripture Memory was really put to good use. Unable to convince me and all their quotations were put to contextual challenge, they never came to talk to me again. So much about Christian love – Agape?
Real Agape came when I happened to talk to a French classmate - Luke. By instinct, I knew he was different; it was a kind of telepathy feeling or spirit-met-spirit experience. He invited me to a Campus fellowship and I got to know more Christians and the international fellowship where most of them are Singaporean, a few Malaysian, and one Ethiopian. All of them were very young in faith but very eager to learn.
It’s time to use the Universal Christian language again.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
Agape
Mark Lim
This universal language is most powerful when we cross border and into unfamiliar ground. I experience this when I was in London. You could know who the Christians were without them telling you they were Christians when Agape was spoken. Our universal language spoke loud and clear. Being alone there and always looking out for friendship, I always spoke in that language – Agape. When I was in London, around the campus and in the dormitory, I made it a point to smile when my eyes came into contact with another. This was the beginning of my Agape language. Very few reciprocated. Probably I was an oriental and more inferior. Those who did smile back would always be greeted with nod, my second Agape language.
One day, an Indian lady came to the centralized kitchen while I was preparing lunch.
“We had a volleyball game this Saturday morning and would you care to join us?”
She caught me by surprise but gave me a hope. After more than 1 week, I had already concluded that people around the campus and in the dormitory were not that friendly. My first instinct when talking to her was that these people who went around inviting students were Christians doing evangelistic outreach. After all, I am no novice in this kind of strategies, having involved in Campus ministry for many years. Anyway, it was an opportunity to meet Christians and to get to know people. So, why not?
After the game, they invited me to their fellowship and it turned out that they were the Church of Christ, a somewhat “off-skewed group” who believed that only "those who are baptized and always doing evangelism are saved". We then had a 2-hours (till pass mid-night) debate in my room using Scriptures. That was the time I felt all my effort in Scripture Memory was really put to good use. Unable to convince me and all their quotations were put to contextual challenge, they never came to talk to me again. So much about Christian love – Agape?
Real Agape came when I happened to talk to a French classmate - Luke. By instinct, I knew he was different; it was a kind of telepathy feeling or spirit-met-spirit experience. He invited me to a Campus fellowship and I got to know more Christians and the international fellowship where most of them are Singaporean, a few Malaysian, and one Ethiopian. All of them were very young in faith but very eager to learn.
It’s time to use the Universal Christian language again.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
Agape
Mark Lim
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