Boijan is just so. He consistently and faithfully states his opposition to the idea that God exists in any form, and in fact, declared last night in Brenda’s English class that one of his primary goals in life was to debunk all religious belief.
Yet he comes to an openly evangelisticly-oriented English class which uses the Bible as its only textbook and meets in an Evangelical church! Brenda always declares loudly and clearly at the beginning of her English class cycles, “if you have a problem reading the bible or coming to a protestant church, then this class is not for you.” Boijan is in his fifth level with Brenda’s class!
Brenda often tells Boijan that she is praying for him, and he says, “don’t waste your time.” Occasionally Boijan will ask Brenda to pray to God for him to receive certain things, like most recently, to win the Apartment Lottery. Boijan did not win the apartment so thus once again he insists that God does not exists.
Then Brenda proceeded to tell Boijan of Amy Carmichael who as a child had prayed that her brown eyes would be made blue. Of course God did not answer that prayer either, and Amy found that in her years (55 without a furlough!) in India, having blue eyes would have made life a 1000 times more difficult. By the time Brenda finished telling the story (to Boijan), the whole class had stopped what they were doing and were listening carefully. Who knows what is going on with Boijan, the devout atheist who reads the bible twice a week for years now in Brenda’s English class? God’s word is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword . . . may it cut the blindness from Boijan’s heart and free him up to be a member of God’s family.
While this story from Amy Carmichael’s childhood is powerful and moving, it has not nearly the thunder as do some of her adult statements. The one I find most true and most difficult and maddeningly painful is what she said in response to a young lady who wrote her a letter and asked Amy “what is missionary life like?” to which Amy replied “Missionary life is simply a chance to die.” In our modern world of me, I guess that concept is no less strange than an atheist who reads the bible.
Yet he comes to an openly evangelisticly-oriented English class which uses the Bible as its only textbook and meets in an Evangelical church! Brenda always declares loudly and clearly at the beginning of her English class cycles, “if you have a problem reading the bible or coming to a protestant church, then this class is not for you.” Boijan is in his fifth level with Brenda’s class!
Brenda often tells Boijan that she is praying for him, and he says, “don’t waste your time.” Occasionally Boijan will ask Brenda to pray to God for him to receive certain things, like most recently, to win the Apartment Lottery. Boijan did not win the apartment so thus once again he insists that God does not exists.
Then Brenda proceeded to tell Boijan of Amy Carmichael who as a child had prayed that her brown eyes would be made blue. Of course God did not answer that prayer either, and Amy found that in her years (55 without a furlough!) in India, having blue eyes would have made life a 1000 times more difficult. By the time Brenda finished telling the story (to Boijan), the whole class had stopped what they were doing and were listening carefully. Who knows what is going on with Boijan, the devout atheist who reads the bible twice a week for years now in Brenda’s English class? God’s word is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword . . . may it cut the blindness from Boijan’s heart and free him up to be a member of God’s family.
While this story from Amy Carmichael’s childhood is powerful and moving, it has not nearly the thunder as do some of her adult statements. The one I find most true and most difficult and maddeningly painful is what she said in response to a young lady who wrote her a letter and asked Amy “what is missionary life like?” to which Amy replied “Missionary life is simply a chance to die.” In our modern world of me, I guess that concept is no less strange than an atheist who reads the bible.
2 comments:
Great post Dr. D!!!!
I love the story and I love your commitment to the word of God.
Really powerful post, actually I've liked several of yours lately but zilch time to comment
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