by Michael E. Brooks

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live" (John 11:25).

The Church in Bangladesh was saddened recently at the untimely death of one of its young people. Thirteen-year-old William Hasda died after suffering through a brief illness with one of the fevers so common in flood-time Bangladesh, possibly Malaria or Typhoid. William was the son of Noren Hasda, a Gospel preacher from Naogaon district in the northwest. Every possible effort was made to provide medical care, and many prayers were offered, yet death came.

Death is sad, under almost all circumstances. No matter how old a person may be, or how ill, if they are loved they will be missed and their passing is grieved. The death of young people brings even greater grief. We mourn the unfulfilled potential their future promised. We mourn our inability to guide and help them as they mature and then become blessings to others.

Death is also certain. "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). We don't know when, nor under what circumstances, but death will come to all. And in that certainty there is solace. It is not death that is tragic, but death which does not leave the promise of eternal life.

No story in the Bible is more relevant or needed than the resurrection of Lazarus. When Jesus shared in the mourning of Lazarus' sisters, he demonstrated compassion and complete identification with the human condition. But when he raised Lazarus from the grave, he showed Divine power. He also promised to use that power on behalf of all who believed in and obeyed him. Through faith in Jesus, we will all have life. Not just for a time on this earth, but throughout eternity.

The Apostle Paul placed the resurrection at the very center of the Gospel message.

"But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty ... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:13,14,19).

We do have hope in Christ, because he was raised from the dead. And not only that, but he has demonstrated his power to raise the dead. Death remains real and sad, yet it is not tragic. Not when it comes to those who love the Lord, who have hope in His coming.

By Michael E. Brooks

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

Doing business in a land with different laws, customs and values than those one is used to is a difficult and frustrating process. For the past several weeks here in Bangladesh I have been meeting with government officials, lawyers, and others trying to finalize some necessary matters associated with our college property. To say that I am "out of my element" would be a gross understatement. I am not a business person even in the United States. Here, I really do not know what I am doing. I don't understand the language, the legal requirements, or the customs and procedures. Help!!

Yet, is this not the situation that Christians face every day in this world? We are not "of the world" and our values, interests and rules are different from those we must sometimes deal with in everyday affairs. Have you ever wished you could just "suspend" your identity as a Christian for a little while, and take care of something, then go back to your religion untouched by guilt or regret? I suspect we all wish that, and certainly many try it.

But that is not an option to the sincere Christian, earnestly striving to please his Lord and impact this sinful world. There is a solution, however, one proposed by Jesus himself even before the Church was established. We must "be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." What a paradox. And yet, how perfectly appropriate it is to our situation in a hostile world.

Jesus knew that all who genuinely sought to follow him would be at a disadvantage in worldly terms in dealing with the dishonest, the ruthless and the criminal. "Turning the other cheek" leaves one rather helpless. Loving one's enemy makes one vulnerable, because the enemy is unlikely to reciprocate that love. Are Christians to merely be victims, helpless before the unprincipled? No, at least not entirely. Jesus permits, even encourages, us to avail ourselves of worldly wisdom and be prepared to meet others with at least knowledge of their ways. In what is perhaps Jesus' most perplexing parable, the unjust steward is commended for his guile. Then Jesus states the "moral" of the story, "Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home" (Luke 16:9). Does he endorse or encourage dishonesty? Certainly not. But he does recognize the need for even Christians to have knowledge of the ways of the world that they may prepare to face them.

I don't pretend to know just how to apply the above principles and texts. They have puzzled Bible readers for two millennia now. But I do recognize two principles they clearly teach. First, Christians are not permitted to engage in the sinful practices of the world, even in self-defense. "Be harmless as doves" needs little explanation. It is unequivocal. We are not to do wrong, to bring harm, even when dealing with the unrighteous. But the second principle is equally clear. Christians are not required to be mere gullible victims, naïve and blindly trusting to the mercies of the unmerciful. Wisdom is required and encouraged, even the wisdom of the worldly.

And that leads me to a conclusion, perhaps something of an assumption. That is simply that God has not left us defenseless. We are restricted in how we may deal with the people of the world. But God is with us and he will help us. Deal knowledgeably, but honestly as a Christian, and then rely upon him who is our defender. Faith is the final answer, and it is enough.

By Michael E. Brooks

"If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience sake" (1 Corinthians 10:27).

In my experience one of the greatest concerns for those traveling for the first time outside their area of experience is the food that will be available to eat in the place of destination. We are aware that different people and cultures have widely varied dietary habits, and we are not always sure whether we will find the food of others to be appetizing or even healthy. Some like their food highly spiced, others like exotic meats or other things not customarily eaten by the travelers.

Campaigners in certain South American countries identify the menu as "curried mystery meat," and practice the advice of Paul quoted above -- "Don't ask –- you may not want to know what it is." In other places that is not normally a problem, but the menu is still greatly different from what people usually eat in Alabama. For instance in Bangladesh it is usually much spicier, with a lot more rice. No problem, I like it.

But it is not really that important that I like it. If I did not, and continued to serve the Lord by coming to such places, I would need to eat it anyway. Paul himself "became all things to all men, that [he] might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Food is only one area where that principle applies. And evangelism is similarly only one type of service in which we must adapt. Every Christian must learn that his own preferences and "comfort zone" will often be abandoned if he is serious in serving the Lord.

Nowhere in Scripture do we read that we may do only those things we like to do. Nowhere are we invited to tell God how he can use us. Always and invariably we read that it is God who gives gifts, God who opens doors, and God who holds us accountable for our resources.

In Corinth some Christians may well have been limiting their evangelistic opportunities by refusing to visit in homes where the wrong food might be served. Paul taught that such limitations are neither necessary nor desirable. We must be willing to expand our capabilities in areas of custom and expedience that the Lord's work may be accomplished.

By Michael E. Brooks

"For you have the poor with you always; and whenever you wish you may do them good; but me you do not have always" (Mark 14:7).

I have been in Bangladesh again for three weeks as I write this. Even before I departed the U.S. I was seeing on the news and in the papers that the monsoon rains had begun early in South Asia and were heavy. When I arrived I found flooding to be a problem, and during these past weeks it has increased to the point that it rivals past records. Two thirds of the land in the nation is affected, with over thirty million people either displaced from their homes or suffering from interruptions of drinking water and sewer services and food supply. Several hundred have died from the flood or from flood-caused disease. This weekend I will travel to Dhaka to distribute a small amount of relief funds to families of a congregation that have been displaced by the floods.

Jesus showed great compassion for the poor in his ministry on earth. Lazarus, a poor beggar, received his "good things" after this life ended – those things which were denied him on earth (Luke 16:25). In his parable of the judgment, the righteous were shown to be those who gave food to the hungry and otherwise assisted the needy (Matthew 25:34,35). In the stories of great feasts, it was the poor who became the invited guests (Matthew 22:8-10).

Elsewhere in the Bible the duty to help the poor is emphasized as vital to "pure religion" (James 1:27). Christians are to "be ready for every good work" (Titus 3:1), and to "learn to maintain good works" (Titus 3:14). "Good works" is a phrase often associated in the New Testament with helping the needy (Acts 9:36). The prosperous are to "do good ... be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:18).

Christianity has emphasized the need to help the poor from its very beginnings. Thousands of hospitals, relief organizations, orphanages and other benevolent works have been established by believers in Jesus. Yet poverty remains. No government, religion, or social system has succeeded in removing it, or even significantly reducing the numbers of the poor. Millions of people are hungry, homeless and largely helpless.

Natural disasters account for some of this. When floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes hit population centers, people are displaced and supplies of necessary things are interrupted. In places like South Asia, where the population is so large and natural disasters so frequent, this means that the people never completely recover, and need is always present. The flood of 2004 followed rapidly upon those of 1998, 1988, and many previous.

Some have taken the words of Jesus in Mark 14 to suggest resignation and acceptance of this situation. There will always be poverty, don't worry so much about it. Do good when you can, but there are more important matters for the church to be involved in. I suggest that this is a misunderstanding of the context of Jesus' statement. He chided the apostles for not doing the good deed available at the moment. If they were so concerned with the poor, why had they not already been helping them? It is easy to make excuses. "We cannot do this today, for there may be another and greater need tomorrow." That seems to have been the attitude of the Twelve. Jesus refused to allow it. Rather he commanded, "Meet the need that is before you; do the good that you can do, now."

Yes there are always the poor. And our responsibility is to love them and help them, whenever and wherever we can. We cannot remove poverty from this earth. But we can feed one family, educate one child, shelter one village. We must use the opportunities and the resources we have, not finding excuses in the impossibility of doing everything.

By Michael E. Brooks

"Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world'" (John 4:42).

I never believed in jet lag. Oh, I understood the concept and intellectually accepted that for some people at least there must be some physical effect of flying long distances, crossing several time zones quickly. But I just couldn't believe there was much to it. I had flown some and crossed three or four zones –- no big deal. Then I started flying to South Asia. Halfway around the world. Twelve time zones. Two days in an airplane. Guess what –- I now believe fervently in jet lag. It is real, and I have learned to prepare and to allow for its effects.

On some levels there is no real substitute for personal experience. It does not apply in every case. There are too many things for us to learn for anyone to insist on personally experiencing everything before accepting it. We must accept the work and testimony of others. Consider scientific knowledge for example. If every generation started from zero, we would still be inventing fire and the wheel. Technology, medicine, space exploration and countless other fields would never have opened. We have learned to build on the knowledge of others and to proceed from what they have obtained.

There are areas of life, however, where personal experience is not only valuable but essential. One cannot truly appreciate a classic work of art through an oral description from someone else. One must see it for oneself. No one develops muscle tone by reading a book about someone else's workouts. Each one must do one's own exercises.

Faith is an aspect of life that demands personal encounter. The Samaritan villagers listened to Jesus because of the testimony of their neighbor. But they believed in Jesus because they heard and saw him themselves. We are brought to Jesus by the example and words of believers. But we commit our lives to him because we examine their testimony, study our Bibles and learn Jesus for ourselves.

On his second missionary journey Paul came to the city of Berea in Macedonia.

"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed" (Acts 17:11,12a).

They were open-minded, willing to listen to the words of Paul. But they insisted on proving their truth by studying their Bibles for themselves. This led to individual and genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

Note that this is not the same as "experiential religion." We cannot expect a special visitation from Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The Bible is the source of God's Truth -– it is what we must "experience" for ourselves, studying and learning it and allowing Jesus to speak to us and reveal himself to us through it. This is what the Bereans did, and they believed and were saved from their sins by their obedience.