Dangerous Assumptions

“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:22-23, NAS.

For the past year I’ve had the privilege of discipling a 7th grade Korean student named Charlie*. He’s got a great heart, but lately he’s been getting into trouble for breaking school rules. I had been told that Charlie was a believer and just assumed that to be the case. But as I questioned him recently, I learned that he had no idea what actually made a person a believer. He thought it was genetic and works-based. 

How is it that I’ve spent the last year with this amazing kid and not understood why he was getting into trouble? Now it made sense. If he’s still controlled by the old nature, no wonder the rules are hard for him to follow! Even more frightening was the realization that I hadn’t cared enough to find out where he stood with Christ, even after hanging out with him for a year.

Charlie’s conversational English is great, but he had adopted the “smile and nod” approach when it came to hearing English words he didn’t understand. He could give me answers, but didn’t have the slightest idea what words like faith, redemption, and belief in Christ meant. We spent the next hour or so reading verses from Romans and Ephesians. We took the verses apart slowly, and talked about them until he could explain them in his own words. We also marked the verses in his Korean Bible so he could read them and think about them later in his heart language.

Charlie isn’t ready to commit himself to Christ yet, but at least he now understands what it means to believe in and follow Christ. I’m so grateful that God didn’t allow my assumptions to keep me from missing this opportunity to speak into Charlie’s life.

*Names changed for privacy.

Pray that:

Pacific Rim personnel will be careful in making assumptions about a person’s spiritual condition and will take the time to find where people stand in relation to Christ.

Language barriers will be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit so that real and meaningful conversation will be possible.

Charlie will give his heart to Christ.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.