This month I led a team to Bulgaria for a week of mission work with the Church of God in that country. Most of our work consisted of evangelism and care in remote villages of ethic Gypsies. I have traveled to Bulgaria several times am grateful for the opportunities to assist in the work of the Gospel. During the week I woke early each morning for my personal devotions that included reading Eric Metaxas’ biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sections from the gospel of Matthew.
Our first visit on this trip to Bulgaria was the ghetto near Yambol in which thousands of Gypsies dwell in abject poverty. I had seen this before, but for everyone else on our team this was a first. Many team members wept as they witnessed naked children running in the streets, and human beings living in dwellings not fit for livestock. We participated in a worship service that evening with about 65 believers. The small building in which we worshiped was sweltering hot and the music was loud. One might think that living in such conditions might produce despair beyond escape, but the believers who worshiped in that small place were filled with joy. They sang with passion and they responded to the preached word. In the midst of despair, the gospel of Jesus Christ was salvation and joy.
During my devotions the next morning I read the first words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). I could not help but reflect on the previous evening. In the midst of such poverty and despair, there was a church – a group of Christians – who had an abundance of joy. Paul wrote, “…for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). In the United States many believers hold to a prosperity gospel that is so out of place in the rest of the world. The prosperity gospel is truly an American heresy. We have deceived ourselves into believing that joy consist in possessions. But, even as many American Christians hold to some form of the prosperity gospel, they are miserable! Joy seems to be a rare commodity in American churches. We are expert at manufacturing a “worship experience,” but we are spiritually bankrupt in the virtues of peace and joy.
We visited many other remote villages during the week. We delivered food, prayed for the sick, fed the homeless, and visited the lonely. But it was the worship experiences that were the most significant events. As people sang songs of praise and worshiped Jesus Christ, it seemed as if they were lifted up into heavenly places. I reflected on another saying of Jesus: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). These people, who have so little of the world’s goods, seemed to be full – they were satisfied with Jesus.
