Joel stole our hearts. His eyes were big and brown and he had the moves that would make Michael Jackson jealous. He cried big tears when it was time for our team visiting Agape Home to say goodbye. Joel was always smiling, laughing, kicking a soccer ball or helping with the younger children. After a celebration lunch on Sunday afternoon, we picked on Joel on how much he ate and his stomach looked like he was hiding a soccer ball in there. But this wasn't always the case for Joel. He has known hunger, disease, and the despair of deep poverty. He was rescued off the streets where he lived after his parents died of AIDS. His bed was a sidewalk. All he knew was the street life of begging for food and finding a way to survive anyway he could. He has found new life at Agape. Not only are his physical needs met but his spiritual needs. Joel came to know Christ and has begun to grow in Him. He is being supported, encouraged and equipped to become a man who will follow Christ into whatever he has planned for him to be a part of the mission of God. Now, Joel has hope.
When darkness surrounds us and circumstances seem hopeless, God is still at work turning death into life. This is the hope we have as Christians. We believe not only in a God who brings Hope in hopeless situations, but He also asks us to do the same.
Our God is a God who went to the cross and died for the least and the lost If we get real with ourselves, we understand that you and I are the "losers" God sent His Son to die for. When we hear stories such as Joel's, instead of perhaps judging his family or feeling overwhelmed for his circumstances, we should be reminded of our own neediness and poverty and the life saving and life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I once was lost but now I am found, I once was blind, but now I see!
But, how easy it is to get caught up in well meaning religious acts like studying scripture and going to church while failing to live out God's Truths. Full of head Christianity, we forget that we also worship God with our heart, our hands and our feet.
In our zeal for "good Christian living" we sometimes forget about God's passion for the fatherless and the widow. "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27
In our love for bible studies and program checklists we forget that God told us to "Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy." Prov 31:9
It is not as simple as writing a check or a well-meaning gesture of justice. God looks upon our heart. He's not after our money or efforts, He is after us. When our heart is surrendered to Jesus' call to "follow me." our hearts change to compassion and our actions follow as a grateful response to the love of Christ and the Gospel transforming our lives. I have been caught up in religious effort and comfortable Christianity and thought I was doing just fine. Thank you Jesus for an awakening and how He continues to clear the fog from my eyes to see things more clearly. How many years I wasted just doing the church thing while giving no thought to God's Kingdom in the here and now. This life and its comforts are temporary, the most important thing is taking the Gospel into the world. How can we receive the free gift of Salvation and not share it with others? Following Christ calls us into something greater than Sunday services and moral living. Response to the Gospel calls us to say, "Here is my life, God. Take it. It's Yours."
It is not enough to be simply a decider; Jesus wants disciples."-Richard Stearns
Being a disciple of Jesus is not a one time decision, a day of playing Jesus, or a discipleship program.
It is your whole life.
It is your whole life.
Discipleship is 1,000 moments every single day, choosing to walk in the ways of Jesus." -Jen
Hatmaker
I don't know what that will look like for each of you. For many, it may be as simple as picking up a phone, sending an email, driving down the road, sponsoring a child, adopting a child or buying a plane ticket. If we are His disciples, we act, speak, live as Jesus did. And if we look at His life to imitate, who did He spend time with and care for? -Children, women, poor, diseased, sinners, the marginalized of society. Then what are we to do in response to our lives being made alive in Christ?
We must prayerfully consider what God is calling our families to do to care for the poor and afflicted. We cannot help everyone, but we can help someone. You find your ONE. God will place situations, opportunities, people in your life to share Jesus with and to care for those society has marginalized. One thing is certain, Heaven and hell are real, the Great Commission is urgent and we all have a part to play.
Jesus speaks strongly and clearly to those who call themselves followers but refuse to care about the hurting and needy.
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me....truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' Mat. 25:41-43,45
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi
*Photos by Elizabeth Woodson
