To a Dear Friend

"STEWART WU, M.D. Stewart Wu, M. D. was born in Guangzhou Province, China, on December 8, 1928 and passed away in Chicago, IL, on June 21, 2015. He grew up in China, where he attended Pui-Ching Boys School and Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He came to the U.S. in 1949 to attend Oklahoma Baptist University followed by the Wake Forest University Bowman Gray School of Medicine. Dr. Wu and his wife, Fannie, settled in Valparaiso, where he practiced as a surgeon.He served on the board of several Christian mission organizations, many of them focused on evangelism or aid to China, and offered free medical clinics at churches in both Valparaiso and Chicago's Chinatown. Following his retirement in 1996, he devoted his time and energy to mission work. At home in Valparaiso, he hosted Bible studies in his home every Sunday afternoon for international students attending Valparaiso University, becoming a beloved mentor and surrogate uncle for many students and university faculty and staff. In China, Dr. Wu traveled, often with recruits from Chicago, to remote villages where people living in primitive conditions had little or no access to medical care. There he offered both healthcare and soul care, explaining the story and sacrifice of Jesus Christ to a people he dearly loved.  He is remembered as a kind and gentle, self-effacing and generous man, who was devoted to God and family. All his life, he obeyed the Great Commission given by Jesus to his followers in Matthew 28:19: "…go and make disciples of all nations…" He will be sorely missed." 

As a young man in ministry, Dr. Wu took me under his wing. He was at least thirty years my senior and I found it a bit weird that he would take a liking to a white farm kid new to the ministry. I wasn't the one who initiated the relationship. He sought me out. I had no interest in the Asian community at that time and it was all quite foreign to me. But...who wouldn't love a trip into Chicago to visit the non-tourist side of China town. He always told me that it was to get some Chinese spices for his wife but I knew better. He liked the food. I told him on one of our forays into town that he better not have a heart attack and die because I would never find my way out. I also remember the first time we did go into one of those back alley grocery stores...the one's where the ducks were freshly killed right out front and hung in the store window - the clerk hosing down the blood into the street sewers. Talk about culture shock! Then came lunch with food I could never pronounce - food I had never eaten before nor I think, since then. Shark fin soup and barbecued rooster feet were not on the main menu in my mother's kitchen. 

I often wonder if Dr. Wu had a divine secret from God regarding my life's journey. He ended up introducing me to the three most preeminent Chinese leaders in North America and to author and apologist Dr. Samuel Ling who gave me a four volume commentary on ministering to Chinese in America. Boy did that come in handy about 16 year later. Lesson:  Never give away your books and take note of important people that you "randomly" meet. Almost three years into serving the people at Chinese Faith Baptist Church and I am thankful for the divine humor of it all. 

Looking forward to seeing you at the trumpet call of God and the return of our Savior, Dr. Wu. For old times sake I'll have to go to a good Chinese bakery in honor of you sometime soon. I'd go for some dim sum but I still wouldn't know how to order. 

Grace and Truth

John 1:14,  "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." 

I don't think anyone was surprised by the Supreme Court's decision last week. When a secular system is set to redefine a sacred institution it will most likely be in favor of the secular populace. I am not upset about the ruling. I am upset with the Church in America (myself included) who for the last one hundred years has sat silently by and watched our country slide into a secular state and a redefined Christianity.  

I vividly remember back in the early 1990's Answers in Genesis founder, Ken Hamm, coming to our church in Indiana. He expressed then the idea that the Church in America was failing in its mission. He said that the Church is fighting the wrong battles then and I concur now.  

Is marriage an important matter? Clearly it is. But its not as important as telling people that God loves them, they have been created in His image for a divine purpose, and that they can be forgiven and at peace through Jesus Christ. It's not as important as defending the divine inspiration and truth of the Bible (where our morality finds it record of origin and is practically defined). 

People get married at the Justice of the Peace/Courthouse all the time. I don't care. Truth be told more people are simply living together than getting married anymore. Quite frankly, I wonder if the institution itself is on a road to extinction. I do care if it is someone who professes to know Christ because what we do in life is sacred and set apart for God's glory and as a witness to our world. 

In a church that I pastored years ago I had a young couple who just started attending and then suddenly left. They were not married and claimed to be believers.  But...sin entered into their relationship and she became pregnant. They were too ashamed to tell anyone and decided to leave the church and get married at the courthouse. I called on them on a Friday and learned of their decision to get married that day. I told them to meet me at the church. I asked my church secretary to round up some flowers and a few more witnesses (those in the building at the time) and we had ourselves a wedding - a proper wedding. 

It was proper not because we were in a church or that they were standing before a pastor agreeing to some pre-written wedding vows with a pronouncement of "by the authority given to me by the state of...". It was proper because they were able to know forgiveness from each other and forgiveness from God through the Word of God. It was proper because it became sacred - a testimony to the creative act of oneness divinely flowing from the heart of God. Proper because the Creator God was not only the true officiant but the witness and welcomed guest. Proper because they understood that their union was more that a social contract; it was a picture of the God-head. They started their life together with God's blessings instead of the well-wishes of a county clerk or judge. 

As followers of Christ we have to be people of grace...and truth. I believe that it has to be in that order. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well he offered her the gift of life - grace - before he revealed the truth about her sinful relationships. Grace and truth...

Grace draws people to the cross and the cross is where the Holy Spirit heightens the process of spiritual diagnosis. What did Jesus actually die for? Sin. What sin?  My sin. What sin? Stop speaking in generalities. Jesus died for my sinful pride. Jesus died for my lying tongue. Jesus died for my adulterous eyes.  Jesus died for my love of money. Jesus died for my...[put in every violation of God's law you can think of].  I have come to the cross and with tears have humbly fallen at his feet clinging to my dead Savior, my sin bearer. And yet, I have only touched the surface of my unholiness, of the depth of depravity that Jesus absorbed into his body and soul on my behalf. I have come knowing in my spirit that there is something intensely wrong between God and myself. I do not fully understand the magnitude of that truth but I know enough to plead for his mercy and grace. I have only started to understand the restorative work of righteousness connecting me to new life. 

But now something wonderful and equally difficult begins to happen. The Holy Spirit of God is set on making me holy. And so he begins to reveal things about my life, habits, practices, beliefs, relationships...that are not in keeping with holiness. He is convicting me of truths that I have been ignorant of or rebellious to. Grace....truth.  

I used to be disgusted by gay men...until I met one. I found out that he had the same universal dreams that I had. He wanted to be loved. He wanted a family. He wanted to be accepted in the church like every other broken sinner. He wanted me to know that he was struggling with his sexuality, his same-sex attraction, and had doubts about God's love in the midst of that struggle. We were both sinners saved by grace, wrestling with revealed truth, hoping that God's love was still extended in the midst of our personal failures. We didn't debate about whether this was genetic or chemical or social or freewill. We both just wanted to experience Jesus and acceptance. 

I didn't have to convince him that homosexuality was a sin. I didn't have to convince him that this world is broken on multiple fronts and in multiple layers. It is the complexity of the problem. We are trying to convince people of the truth before they can experience God's grace. We are trying to convince them of an ideal when they have no concept of what that is and why that is. Those issues are all grace and truth related. The problem, however, is that this "truth" is not a "truth" in our world and is an "inconsistent truth" in the Church. There is confusion about grace and truth. 

In my spirit, I can offer him grace because the most important subject is not homosexuality; it is Jesus and a person's relationship with him. I can offer him grace because I have Christian heterosexual brothers and sisters who are divorcing at alarming rates and often for unbiblical reasons. We can't even agree on this matter with unity. I can offer grace because I have confidence in the convicting, cleansing, guiding role of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, in this matter. 

Do I believe that homosexuality is a sin? I believe that any covenant marriage relationship or sexual relationship outside of the one God designed in paradise between a man and woman falls short of that ideal. This is not an issue of hate and denying the right to love. This is not a homophobic reaction to my personal preference. It is an attempt to follow the divine design that most effectively portrays and witnesses to the Creator God. It is about pointing people to Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict and guide in these difficult issues. It is about floundering and often failing to figure out how to do both grace and truth when grace is welcomed and truth is painful, even truth said in love. 

Unfortunately we don't live in paradise. Unfortunately we have to figure out how to live in a fallen world where truth and grace seem to some a bit obscure and open for interpretation. Fortunately, our Savior died to restore that ideal and someday....we won't have to struggle with grace and truth. We shall see Him face to face. 

For a strong apologetic and biblical approach to the subject of homosexuality see Homosexuality:  Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law by Dr. James B. DeYoung.  Published by Kregel, 2000. See also The Truth About Same-Sex Marriage:  Six Things You Need to Know About What's Really at Stake by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Moody Publishers, 2004.