Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 1 of 4)13 November 2012In "Devotional"
Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 3 of 4)15 November 2012In "Devotional"
Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 2 of 4)14 November 2012In "Devotional"
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Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 1 of 4)
Posted on 13 November 2012 by jmichaelrios
“Mahatma Gandhi, I am very anxious to see Christianity naturalized in India, so that it shall be no longer a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing to India’s uplift and redemption. What would you suggest that we do to make that possible?” He very gravely and thoughtfully replied: “I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ.” ~ E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, “The Great Hindrance.”The mission we are called to embrace and follow is so simple, yet we are negligent of it. We have one simple task, but we replace it with many other things. We try to fulfill our Christian life with a host of extraneous details, when the real thing we must do is seek to live more like Jesus Christ. That it is one of the world’s greatest non-Christians who says this to us is to our greater shame. Gandhi can see that the power of Christianity is Christ–why are we so dense? O Christian, live like Christ! Be like Christ! Follow, imitate, copycat Christ! And let nothing else cloud the clarity of our common call!
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Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 2 of 4)
Posted on 14 November 2012 by jmichaelrios
“Second,” says Gandhi in response to Jones’s question about Christianity in India, “I would suggest that you must practise your religion without adulterating or toning it down.”Jones then writes the following: “The greatest living non-Christian asks us not to adulterate it or tone it down, not to meet them with an emasculated gospel, but to take it in its rugged simplicity and high demand. But what are we doing? As someone has suggested, we are inoculating the world with a mild form of Christianity, so that it is now practically immune against the real thing.” (E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, “The Great Hindrance.)
Have you been living a mild, weak, and cut-off form of Christianity? Have you fed it to your friends and family like a mild form of the flu virus–inoculating them against the reality of your faith? Have you watered down the strong wine of communion with the tepid waters of cultural relevance? What the world needs is not a weaker, more accessible faith–what the world craves is real faith. My former pastor used to say, “People are searching for a genuine alternative to the world; not a weak imitation of it.” Never compromise or settle for less as you seek to follow Christ, because to the degree that you radically commit to him, you will be a radical, vibrant, and living testimony to the power of God.
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Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 3 of 4)
Posted on 15 November 2012 by jmichaelrios
“Third,” pronounced Gandhi in response to Jones’s question about Christianity in India, “I should suggest that you must put your emphasis upon love, for love is the centre and soul of Christianity.” Jones then says this: “He did not mean love as a sentiment, but love as a working force, the one real power in a moral universe, and he wanted it applied between individuals and groups and races and nations, the one cement and salvation of the world. With a soul so sensitive to the meaning of love no wonder there were tears in his eyes when I read him at that point the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.” (E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, “The Great Hindrance.”)Love is the real, abiding, and potent power of Christianity. It is not sentimentality, nor is it touchy-feeliness. It is not a weak response to life or a cultivated emotional state or devotion. No, love is the central, pulsing energy of Christianity in practice–it is the love of Christ compelling us. Were we to live out this Christ-love for one another, what would be the effect of our mission in the world? I can tell you in a word: unstoppable.
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Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 4 of 4) | Toolshed Meditations
TOOLSHED MEDITATIONS
Devotions and Quotes to Give Glimpses of God
Stanley Jones and Mahatma Gandhi (Part 4 of 4)
Posted on 16 November 2012 by jmichaelrios
E. Stanley Jones once asked Gandhi for his opinion about the formation of Christianity in India. Gandhi gave four answers, the final one was this: “Fourth, I would suggest that you study the non-Christian religions and culture more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people.” To this Jones responds, “Quite right. We should be grateful for any truth found anywhere, knowing that it is a finger post that points to Jesus, who is the Truth.” (E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, “The Great Hindrance.”)With what kind of sight do you approach mission? Do you come as a conqueror in power? Do you come with open ears and open eyes? Do you remember, at all times, that Christ goes before you in mission, that the Spirit sows seeds in advance, waters those seeds, and that you are merely a harvester of God’s work in the field He has prepared? When you approach another culture, another religion, are you attentive to the work that God is doing in that culture and religion which prepares the way for Christ? If we come to missions with eyes that are open to the ongoing work of God, with spirits that are attentive to God’s Spirit working in others, then we will not come as judges or powers, but as people who recognize in others our common need and search for God. Plant the Gospel, O Christian, after the pattern of the Master Sower–He has been in the field before you and left tools for your use. Employ them and your ministry will honor it’s King and Maker!
