Acts 17:16-17
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
“Once again our family is hosting our friend Pastor Rodolfo Mojica from the Philippines. We first met the Pastor in 1997. A Filipino doctor friend brought him to our church and left him.
We formed a friendship that has been going on now for the past 16 years. In this time period, my family has traveled to the Philippines, and spent a couple of weeks doing mission work. I have also sent staff members and others there to do mission work. While there, I preached in churches, camps, and to the Manila Police Officers. My family witnessed the Filipino poverty, but yet also the genuine kind spirit of their people.
Often times, I have stated that driving in New York City and Atlanta had to be the worst two places to drive or ride. After going to the Philippines, I changed my mind. I saw my life flash before my eyes many times, including riding down the side walk with my driver beeping the horn and yelling out, “Man of God Coming Through!”
At every intersection the people beep their horns, and this can be quite annoying to me. Pastor Mojica came here one time and he borrowed our doctor friend’s Mercedes for a trip to Walmart. He had only been gone for a few moments and I looked up and he was pulling back in our driveway. He got out of the car and was clearly rattled. I asked him what was going on.
He said that he came to a traffic signal and was behind another automobile and he began to beep his horn. Suddenly the car stopped, a man got out and started cursing and holding his finger up in the air at him! I told him, my friend, you have just experienced American road rage. Do not blow your horn!!”
-DS
Just as Pastor Mojica has to adjust the way that he acts in certain ways in America and likewise for Americans in the Philippines, so we must be as missionaries while witnessing to people around us. It is ok to change our approaches and attitudes to different types of people as the Holy Spirit leads in order to reach them at their level…without compromising on the gospel and the truth!
In Acts 17 when Paul was preaching to Athens, he uses the idols and the inscription of the “Unknown God” (things that people were familiar with) to share the gospel to the “religious” group there. The Apostle John does the same thing in Revelation while addressing the seven churches separately using local references and angles. Let’s go out today, and not live fake lives, but lives that promote Jesus in a way that reaches as many lost souls as we can with the truth. Let’s live our lives for the sake of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
DPOD 