Arabs, Palestinians, and Christians in the West Bank

This past week I was in the Palestinian West Bank in the Middle East and had the privilege of preaching at the Ramallah Local Church, an evangelical church in the West Bank. Pastor Munir Kakish made room for me during the Thursday night Bible Study to bring a word from the Lord.

We worshipped, sang (I mostly listened since the words were in Arabic); Randy Daniels presented words of greeting from Buckner. I preached about the Micah Mandate from Micah 6:8. The title of my message was borrowed from a framework Thom Wolf provided in the past called “Weeds, Deeds, and Seeds.” Micah 6:8 in the NIV says: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

To act justly is to pull the Weeds of injustice wherever we find them. Pulling weeds the right way means you have to pull them by the roots to get rid of them. Followers of Christ are compelled to identify, expose, and stand against unjust acts and situations wherever we find them. Zaccheaus, after hearing from Jesus personally, that it was better to give than to receive and the stealing was not part of Kingdom behavior, returned four times what he had taken from those he had cheated. Jesus responded by saying “Salvation has come to this house.” When we pull Weeds we provide Hope.

To love mercy is to do deeds in the name of Jesus. Some people call this mercy ministry when we give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan did for the wounded man what he was not required to do but out of love took his own time and manner to help a stranger. When we do Deeds we demonstrate Love to those around us. Buckner probably does this best in Texas, the USA and around the world. We provide shoes, hugs, families, and other mercy ministries to make life better for orphans, children at risk, and families.

To walk humbly with our God is to plant Seeds that reflect the substance of who we are. Wherever we go we call people to Faith through our words, actions, and way of life. Paul uses the word “walk” in Ephesians 4 to describe our way of life. Rather than anger, malice, greed, envy, jealousy, brawling, slander, stealing, lying, and a whole list of vices, we walk in the opposite way, the new man.

So this was my message: Weeds, Deeds, and Seeds which correspond to Hope, Love, and Faith (Faith, Hope, and Love). Pastor Kakish came to the pulpit after my brief message and contextualized what I had to say to the congregation and invited them to make a decision. After he prayed we were presented with a plate with the Lord’s Prayer written on it in Arabic. Next, we moved into the fellowship hall from a brief time of fellowship and then to Pizza Inn for a birthday party for the Pastor.

This felt like the kind of Baptist fellowship that I have been used to all my life. My point? These Palestinian, Arab background friends are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Geo-political tensions aside, these friends are family to us. What a blessing!