It was a routine trip to visit a city near by. I called a man I had met a few months
before. His passion to serve hungry and
homeless friends hit me in the heart. We
met with one of my children as a place where all good meetings happen, Starbucks
Coffee shop. It took a little over an
hour for us to come up with something that blew most of us away.
A commitment was made for people from our church one a time a
month to make the trip an hour north to provide a meal and meet some homeless
people that we can encourage. The rest
is what we call “history” as that next year over 100% of the people who attend
our church served in this incredible ministry.
In the years since then we have few thousands of people, and many people
have accepted Jesus as their Savior.
What continues to run through my mind is the amount of people
that served that year. I remember the
meals we served, but I really remember that lives that were touched. Our people sat with folks, listened to their
stories, prayed with them and served all kinds of people. That is what ministry is all about people …
Are you ever amazed like I
am by what happened during the time of the early church (see Acts 2)? When there were needs, the followers of Jesus
gave what they have to meet needs. When
we get our hands dirty serving and when we give what we have to help others, we
are doing what God called us to do. The
people of Acts served in big ways.
They dedicated themselves
to God and to serving others. They helped people no matter what it
took. That is what the church is to be about. Serving is a choice
leaders have to make. Not an easy choice, but it is one that will change
who we are and where we are going as well as how effective we will be.
Does that make sense?
Matthew Barnett gave us this advise that
continues to rock my thinking about what I get to do:
"build the dreams of others then
your dream will become bigger than you ever imagined" ... "you now
have God's dream"
"reach the people nobody wants
you'll start seeing the people everybody wants"
Our calling is not to
those who do not need God. We are called to reach those reaching out for
God. Lets find them. Lets do what we can with what we have and
expect God to work in huge ways!
Proverbs 19:17 (nlt)
If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord—and he
will repay you!
Proverbs 21:13 (nlt)
Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will
be ignored in their own time of need.
What are we willing to do
to meet needs and see lives changed? One of the pieces we miss in
ministry and in life is when we try to do something we are not called to do or
try to be someone or something we are not.
I want to pattern my life
after the lives of people who have made a difference in the times they
lived. That was true in the book of
Acts. That has been true throughout all
of history. If we are not finding
ourselves seeing needs and having a desire to meet needs, maybe we are just not
connecting to God.
James 1:26-27 (nlt)
If you claim to be religious but don't control your
tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure
and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans
and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
It is the right
choice. Following the example of others we follow Jesus and serve those
who are in need!
Matthew 9:36 (nlt)
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on
them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
No comments:
Post a Comment