Discover Grace Blog

The Smell of Death and the Aroma of Christ: Tom Little

The smell of death and the aroma of Christ

Like martyr Tom Little, we carry both | Mindy Belz

AFP Photo/Handout/Courtesy of Tom Little Family/Newscom

Sometime after Taliban affiliates gunned down Tom Little in northern Afghanistan, the FBI visited his wife Libby to give her personal items recovered from his body.

Included was a small notebook, and in between the pages listing medical equipment and supplies for the team he led to the upper reaches of Nuristan province last summer were what looked like penciled sermon notes. "They were stained with blood and blotted with sand," said Libby, carefully unfolding them before an audience of several thousand at Cape Town's Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in October. "Were these some of the things he shared with the team on that last Sabbath rest before they were killed? I'd like to think so."

There were several notations from Ephesians and a reference from 2 Corinthians 2:15, where Tom wrote, "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, to one we are the smell of death and to the other the fragrance of life." To the side Tom had jotted, "Use the Nuristani goat cheese story."

As Libby explained, "Some aromas take some getting used to," and Nuristani goat cheese is packed on donkeys in animal skins and carried for weeks, permeating even the saddlebags with its strong sour scent. Herdsmen who carry it are smelled from far off, she added, but once you have acquired a taste for it, you're hooked. Folks travel miles for a taste of Nuristani goat cheese.

Think of Tom Little with his colleagues, hiking mountains and fording rivers in Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces last August, reeking of Christ as they delivered medical care to remote villages—before militants killed them one by one in a forest. The Taliban accused them of spying and proselytizing. Dirk Frans, the head of their organization, International Assistance Mission, insisted both charges were "out of the question" as they were "against the laws of this country and the rules of our organization."

What Frans didn't say is that those accusations were beside the point, the aroma of Christ already so strong among them. Little, a 61-year-old optometrist, had worked four decades in Afghanistan, spoke fluent Dari, was referred to among Afghans as one of "the ones who stayed": He and Libby reared three daughters there, survived the Russian occupation, civil war, and Taliban takeover. When a rocket attack flattened one of his eye hospitals, he built clinics and expanded into remote areas. He was on his fifth trip to the Nuristan region when he and nine other aid workers were killed Aug. 5.

The year 2010 has brought multiple encounters with people like the Littles, "ones who stayed," men and women of whom the world is not worthy, as the writer of Hebrews calls them. One is Joel, pastor of an evangelical church in Baghdad. Asked how to pray for a congregation that has faced death all year long, he didn't ask for safety or prosperity but for his church to experience deliverance from a "spirit of religion, where we worship creation instead of the creator" and from "our spirit of pride, rooted as we are so close to ancient Babylon."

Another, Baptist pastor John Bell in Zimbabwe, told me that living through dire crises has taught his church better to appreciate the reality of Jesus' life. Feeding 5,000 or walking on water are sought-after traits when grocery shelves are empty. "There are certain things about Christ you only learn in a storm. That has been our privilege here to have Christ manifest Himself in ways that you do not see in the calm," he said.

And there is my friend Labib, an Arab Christian living in a Jewish settlement facing the security wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. How do you survive this place? I asked him one day waiting in Jerusalem traffic. "The importance of the Christian community does not come from its numbers but from our presence and our service and our witness for Jesus Christ," he said calmly.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance the race set before us in 2011, looking to Jesus.

From:   http://www.worldmag.com/articles/17439

Martin Luther & Football

It is not a new story -- pundits and the populace are abuzz with the latest sports (football) melodrama.    At stake is the reputation and eligibility of a young sport star.   Perhaps we are too quick with our judgments, but we do not need to look far for examples of wrong doing.  And that makes it easy to come to a quick conclusion, without all the facts, and assume guilt. Yet, we live in a world with much compromise -- in sports, in politics and in people around us; there is so much inconsistency that nothing really surprises us anymore. 

 

Then we look to the Reformation and find a man of deep conviction, a man without compromise.  I was recently gripped with an account of Martin Luther, the Father of the Reformation, standing strong in the transforming power of the Gospel.   Facing certain death from his persecutors at the Diet of Worms  he was told he must recant.  His response?   “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”  He did not compromise, even when faced with death.  Michael Reeves draws the reader into the historical moment as he outlines these events in his excellent book, The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation. 

 

How did  Luther have so much integrity?  Why would he go against the teaching of the Church?  Why leave the comfort of “popular thought?”  Why make waves?  Luther had been gripped by Romans 1:17,  “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” 

 

God took hold of Luther’s heart and transformed him from a man with questions to a man who had answers.  He was a man who sought a way to remove his own guilt, and was transformed into a man with a clear conscience as He understood the Gospel of Christ.  He had received Christ’s forgiveness and righteousness from “Christ alone,” through “faith alone,” by “God’s Grace alone,” as he learned through “Scripture alone.”  Truly his story was a story that God was weaving for “his glory alone.”  (The Latin word for alone is “sola” and these phrases are known as the “Five Solas” of the Protestant Reformation.)

 

So, are there any righteous?  Are there any who seek God?  The third chapter of Romans (as quoted from Psalm 14 and 53) is abundantly clear: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”   Luther knew that his righteousness in Christ was alien to his flesh.  It was a gift of God.  This transformed him into a righteous man who lived by faith.  In a day and age when we are constantly disappointed by both the actual and alleged failures of sports stars, I pray that you and I will be called all the more to live godly, consistent, unequivocal lives of integrity for the glory of Christ.   This is the result of a heart that is changed by the power of the Gospel.

Adoption: Abba Changes Everything

To often we excuse away the Biblical mandate to care for orphans and widows: "it is someone else's job....I am already busy."  Yet there is an encouraging movement within the Church in America to capture a vision to adopt the forgotten into loving, godly homes. 

Consider this recent news blip in light of the economy:

Adoptions Increase
Bethany Christian Services — the nation's largest adoption agency — reports that international and domestic adoptions have increased by 26 percent over last year. Bethany has also seen a 19 percent increase in families stepping forward to begin the adoption process this year. Bethany has partnered with many organizations to promote adoptions, including Focus on the Family and the MTV reality show "16 and Pregnant." One of the most watched episodes for MTV in 2009 featured a Bethany birth mother who decided to place her baby with a family in North Carolina. [CitizenLink.com]

As encouraging as this is, I hope it will be only the beginning.

Here is a most excellent article that every Christian ought to read...and it will move your heart (and if necessary: heart of stone):

"Abba Changes Everything"

The Most Religious States V. Crime

VERY interesting photo of recent research to show the most religious states (AL is #2).  Take care to notice what very little difference it makes when you compare crime, divorce, and poverty.   This is stunning and eye-opening.   What are we (the Church) about?  What is our purpose?  Too often we look at external change and not heart change.  Time to engage hearts!

http://i.imgur.com/kpb5A.png

Matt Chandler - Jesus Wants the Rose

Do You Remember?

In the days immediately following 911, I talked with numerous people that expressed a deep desire to  live differently.  To be different.  To be a changed person .  To love God.  To be a "good Christian."  Do you remember how full the churches were?  It was not long until the crowds were gone.

My question 7 years later is the same 7 weeks after 911: "Do you remember?!"  Do you remember the promises that you made to me?  To your pastor?  To your spouse and children?  More importantly, do you remember the promises that you made to God?

Unfortunately, the resounding answer is that most do not.  It reminds me of Isaac and Ishmael.  Ishmael a child born by the schemes of man.  Isaac a man born of God.  Only God calls people to himself.  Only God can change the heart of man.  He is the only one that makes Isaacs--true sons!

Exodus 33:19 - And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

My prayer is that God would use Katrina, Gustav, Ike, the memory of 911, and every calamity (both big ones and personal ones) to call people to Himself.  This is my prayer for those in my church, family members, friends, and neighbors that do not truly know Jesus Christ. 

My advice to those who promise to seek after God?  Don't make promises.  Get on your face before God and beg for His mercy.  He is the only one who can save you by His rich mercy.

Piper - "America's Ugly Exported Gospel"

I am going to the Together for the Gospel conference on Tuesday...and I can hardly wait (Piper, MacArthur, Sproul, Mohler, Mahaney, etc.).  Here is a taste of why I am so excited: