Rescue "Rahabs" With Questions From The Heart

Releasing Of Balloons At The Recent Yusheng Celebration In The Community

Joshua ordered the two men who had spied out the land, "Enter the house of the harlot and rescue the woman and everyone connected with her, just as you promised her." So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, and brothers — everyone connected with her. They got the whole family out.
Josh 6:22-23

One of the most effective ways to know our the people we want to reach and rescue is to ask them questions…something that we really aren’t good at. Instead, we Christians, assume a defensive posture, making conversations doctrinal battles or apologetic arguments. Ethnographic research tells us to take a more humble path, the path of learning from those we hope “to reach.”

By asking questions from concern and genuine interest, we will travel much further and faster in our relationships. But first, we have to be convinced that we have something to learn from others, especially from those who don’t believe as we do. Our biblical anthropology that all men are created in God’s image, should convince us of that, but only the Spirit of God can convict us of subtle self-righteousness in viewing non-Christians as projects to complete, not persons to love.

Jesus, of course, is the ultimate example. At the well, in the garden, in the temple, he constantly asked questions from love and for life. Through attentive conversation and questions, Jesus lovingly related to others, eventually leading many into new, restored living.

Jesus-like "serachers" and "rescuers" will ask lots of questions and listen to the answers. Francis Schaeffer once said something to the effect of: “Give me an hour with an unbeliever and I will listen for the first 55 minutes and then in the last five minutes I will have something to say.”

Listen to the lost and you will learn. Love the lost with that understanding, and often you will see life.

This Friday, we fan out as a church to invest into the lives of our “Rahabs” in the community. May we ask questions that will stir our hearts to love the lost; questions that will help us help them find Christ.