NO MUSEUM FOR SAINTS.
" I am not a biological Christian ", said Indian visitor, Paul Parker, as he eased himself into the chair in our lounge room one hot Saturday morning. " Although my father was a Christian, I did not inherit my christianity. I became a Christian by personal faith in a personal Christ.
Before that I regularly attended church to please my parents. I wore my best clothes, and dutifully spent an hour in the church building with its colourful, stained-glass windows. I felt I was in a museum for saints. But deep in my heart, I hated the white man." He hesitrated for a moment, as though remembering. " One day I was invited to play tennis against a Westerner. At first I refused, but later agreed toplay,and I determined to beat him."
" We played on a very hot Indian day, but the heat spurred me on and I resolved to win. During the game there was a doubtful call. The ball was in, which would have given me the set, but mu opponent called ‘out", and he finally won the set. He excused himself, and went off to Evensong, while I burned with anger, and I hurried home."
" To my surprise, later that night the Oxford-trained Englishman came to my home. I invited him in and offered him a drink."
" Paul," he began, " that was really your set this afternoon. You were right. The ball was in. I apologise. I went to Evensong, but I could not pray because I had cheated you. That is sin, and I have come to confess it to you , as well as to God. Will you forgiver me and accept my apology?"
" Of course," said Paul, as his own conscience began to stir. Paul Parker felt the pricking of God. Here was a man prepared to confess his sin to God, and make restitution. As this high-ranking Civil officer humbled himself and said, " I am sorry", Paul felt troubled about his own hatred.
" That was the beginning of my true Christian life," confided this Indian Christian. " I knew the reality of a man’s belief in Jesus Christ when it prepared him to call hatred and cheating by their right name - sin or rebellion against God. Only then would he be a credible Christian. " Without hesitation, Paul asked forgiveness for hating his white friend, as they arranged for another game of tennis.
This experience stirred Paul Parker to further personal change. " I remembered that I had on my desk an engineering dictionary, which I ‘permanently’borrowed from my University Professor. My intention to steal it was equal to stealing. So I wrote to my Professor to apologise for having kept the book, and the following Sunday I put double in the church offering to compensate for the dictionary, and to ease my conscience. As I thought how easily museum saints can opt out of responsibility,I realised Ineeded courage to visit my Professor to return the book and admit stealing. So I wrote him a letter,to which he replied.
" Dear Paul, - will you kindly visit me. While I forgive you, I also need your forgiveness."
Paul continued the story. " When I travelled to return the dictionary, the Professor revealed how he borrowed it from the Principal, and my restitution urged him to recognise his own need. So I pulled my New Testament out of my pocket, and read him the promise which spurred me to action, , " If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive sin and make us clean from all that is not right."
" Repentance and restitution are God’s principles," said Paul, as he sipped another orange drink.
" I did not want to be a musem saint. I live to be God’s man."
We asked Paul, " What is the need of all nations?"
His answer: " To understand that while sin is rebellion against God, we have a wonderful Saviour in Jesus Christ, whose death for our sin and resurrection bring us into a right relationship with God."
The President of an African nation invited Paul to become a Consultant Engineer. But he answered, " Sir, I am sorry to decline your kind invitation , but I am working for anew Boss. I have entered into a gentleman’s agreement with God, and I now work for Him."
True saints do not live in museums.
God.lives in them.