Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Archives for January 2010

What Breaks Your Heart?

by

Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision used to regularly pray “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God”. What an amazing attitude to seek to achieve. When we see people less fortunate than we are, what is our attitude toward them? Are you thankful that you are blessed and don’t have to live in those circumstances? Do you quickly look away before they catch your gaze and in some way obligate you to do something about their plight? Or do you perhaps say a quick prayer for them and then carry on with your day? I must admit that, at one time or another throughout my life, I have experienced all of the above reactions. On occasion, thankfully more often than not these days, I am deeply moved by their condition. I sincerely want to help, yet often find my hands and feet are slow to move and reach out to them. How different would it be if we truly saw them the way God sees them? We know from Scripture that poverty breaks the heart of our God. We know that Christ loves with the deepest of passion and that He weeps with a soul-aching sorrow. I believe His heart is broken and He weeps whenever He sees one of His creations in poverty, struggling just to get through each day. How I want my heart to break in the same way. When I see those in need, I don’t want to pass by or just be thankful that I am not in that condition; I don’t want to stop at a quick prayer or with a burdened heart. I want my heart to break apart in agony as I see one who is loved by God, and yet is hurting in our broken down world. I want to ache so badly for that person that I will give them a smile and a kind word, wrap my heart around them and discover ways I might help them. I want my heart to break for the things that break the heart of Jesus.

How about you? What is it that breaks your heart? Do you find yourself aching for those in need or is it easier to avoid those people? In James 1:27, we are told that true religion is found in caring for the widows and the orphans. In Isaiah 58:7 we are told that true fasting is to share food with the hungry, give the homeless a place to stay and clothe those who are in need. These are the things that we must do if we are to be true followers of Jesus. Look again at the things that break the heart of God: widows (as I’ve pointed out before, I believe this includes the single mothers that are so numerous in society today), orphans, those who don’t have enough to eat, the homeless and those who live in poverty. These things all break the heart of God! Do these same things break your heart? What are you doing today to help those in need? What are you going to do tomorrow? Will we continue to walk by the very ones that God is aching for us to help? We are the hands and feet of God. We are the called. We are the servants of Christ. There is no one else to do this job. How will we respond? Let us pray that our hearts would be broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Reverse Your Message

by

We talk about love on this blog, and we talk about it a lot. In fact my goal is that every reader would become a love extremist. Nothing will deter us from our mission of spreading love to each other, our neighbors and the world. Love is the central tenant of Christianity; we love others because Christ loved us and commanded us to do the same to others. We are committed to following Christ and living as He did. Therefore, we are committed to love.

If Christianity is all about love, why then are Christians so hated, and Christianity so reviled around the world? I believe it is a matter of the message that we present to that world. For many years, we have presented a message of what Christians DON’T do. If you’ll excuse the generalizations, realize that many Christians do indeed do these things, and also realize that none of them prevent a person from being a Christian, I offer this list of things we tell the world that Christians don’t do. We don’t drink, cuss, do drugs, gamble, sleep around, engage in homosexual activity, lust, lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, look at pornography, gossip, or get jealous. And oh yes, we also don’t associate with anyone who does these things. Thus, we present Christianity as an exclusive, intolerant, holier than thou club. God forgive us.

We need to reverse the message. We need to get over ourselves, our ego and our piety, and begin telling the world the list of things Christians DO. We care for the sick, provide clothing for the needy, feed the poor and take in the orphan and the widow. In other words, we love. We are a body of imperfect, but loving and wholly accepting people. We need to deliver a positive message of hope, a message of what we as Christians believe and do. As we tear down the walls of injustice and intolerance, others will be able to better see the hope in the love of Jesus.

I am not enough of an historian to tell you how it is we got to where we are today. How did we go from the first century church that shared all they had with any in need and accepted all who came, to the modern church of greed, apathy, indifference and condemnation? We turn away those who look different, dress different, or engage in lifestyles we deem inappropriate. We turn our backs on those who have had abortions, cast out those who were unfaithful in their marriage and turn away those desperate for a meal. What have we become? We’ve become a people with a list of things we won’t do at the sacrifice of things that we should do.

What is your message? Who are you telling the world that you are? Who are you telling others that Christ is? If you are delivering a message of don’ts, reverse your message. Let people know who you are and what you do because of what Christ did for you. Put aside your prejudice and tradition and exchange them for a life devoted to living out the love you have received from Christ. We are Christians. We love as we are loved. This is who we are. This must be our message to the world.


Do Something in Difficult Times

by

After dealing with poverty over the last two posts (see “Haiti: What’s Our Response?” and “Unity and the Poor”), I had intended to move to a different topic today. But in addition to continuing to read Richard Stearns’ excellent “The Hole in Our Gospel”, I ran into these sobering words from Proverbs this morning:

“If you do nothing in a difficult time, your strength is limited. Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we didn’t know about this,’ won’t He who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t He who protects your life know? Won’t He repay a person according to his work?” Proverbs 24:10-12 (HCSB)

The fact is we do know what is going on in the world; we are aware. Never before has the world seemed so small. We have up to the minute newscasts available to us from almost every part of the world. Television, newspapers, magazines and the Internet put pictures and video right in front of our face. It is not that we are unaware of the poverty and evil in the world, it is simply that we do not care. What other conclusion can be drawn from our lives?

The above passage in Proverbs calls us to action in difficult times. There is strength in action; lack of action produces, and signifies, weakness. I do not want to stand before the Lord in weakness; I want to demonstrate the strength of His power through one willing to be used. How dare we pretend to be unaware of the plight of the poor, the homeless and the victims of war and genocide? Jesus said that the peacemakers will be blessed (Matthew 5:9). Yet we choose sides in every conflict and pray that the “right” side will win. There is no right side in war. There is only death and peace; those are the two actual faces of war. Pray for peace, pray for the enemy, pray for the lives lost and otherwise permanently affected by the violence. In addition, take action! Do something in the face of difficult times. We each have different gifts and capacities to help, we all have different circumstances and situations, but we can all do something. If you cannot help a hundred people, then help ten. If you cannot help ten people, then help one. We all can help one. This is how differences are made: one person, one precious human life, at a time.

You have probably heard the parable of the starfish before, but it is a relevant and helpful reminder to the problems we see in the world today:

“Once upon a time there was a philosopher who would walk along the beach every morning, thinking about how to help the world.One day as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a figure moving back and forth, rhythmically dancing to the day.

This gave him great pleasure, so he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young woman and the young woman wasn’t dancing, but instead she was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

When he got closer he called out, ‘Good morning! What are you doing?’

The young woman looked up and replied with simple joy, ‘Throwing starfish in the ocean.’

The man looked puzzled and said: ‘I guess I should have asked why you are throwing starfish in the ocean?’

‘The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.’

‘But, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!’ said the man.

The young woman listened politely. She then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea past the breaking waves and said with a smile…

‘… but I made a difference to that one’.” –Anonymous

Some of us have the power to change the world. All of us have the power to change the world for one person. Together we can do amazing things in difficult times. We will draw strength from each other as we work to take the love of Christ to those in pain and poverty. The call is clear; the mission is set. What will you do in these difficult times?

Unity and the Poor

by

Lately my study has been focused on the poor and unity in the Church. In my last post (see “Haiti: What is Our Response?”), I talked about what our response to those in need should be. I want to continue on that topic today as it is so prevalent in Scripture, and so ignored in our modern society.

Let me first speak of unity among the body of believers in Jesus Christ. When we choose to follow Christ, our lives are forever changed. His priorities become our priorities. We love the way He loves. We treat others the way He does. At least this is what should happen. Many of us accept the gift of Christ, pledge to follow Him and we never hear from them again. Others begin to follow Christ and do well until they join a church. Within the walls of the church building they become disillusioned by the infighting, jealousy, greed and apathy. Still others find that their fellow members do not hold exactly to their own beliefs. More infighting breaks out. Along the way, the call to follow Jesus becomes nothing more than some words on a projector screen.

We are not called to this; we are called to be gentle, humble and patient with one another. We’re called to accept everyone with love. We’re called to be unified with peace (Ephesians 4:1-4). We let our petty arguments get in the way of our calling. We are called to the hope of Jesus Christ. What exactly is that hope? That all people would experience the love and grace of God in their lives; this is the hope to which we were called. We cannot take the hope of Jesus to the world as long as we are wasting time fighting one another. As we fail to take the message of hope to the world, the world remains starving and in need.

If we would but put aside our petty jealousies and disagreements we could actually begin to make changes on this planet. If God can use a single individual to effect great change, how much more a hundred individuals or even a thousand! My first plea is to decide right now to strive for unity with everyone you meet, particularly with your brothers and sisters in Christ. We need each other to work for the common goal of living a life that looks like Jesus.

Once unified (or alone if others simply refuse to come together), our mission is simple: give the love of Jesus to everyone we meet; feed the hungry, care for the elderly, house the homeless and take in the orphans. To this we were called, and to this alone. Are you willing to give up everything you have, everything you are, for the simple reason of giving it all to those in need? The poor are all around us, down the street, across town and all over the world; probably even in the pew next to you. What if we, as a church with one purpose, decided to get mad enough to do something about poverty? What if we gave more than one Saturday a month and more than what we could afford to give? What might be accomplished through our unity for the good of the Kingdom? My second plea is to do all you can to serve the poor.

If we love Jesus, we will do what He says (John 14:15). Do you love Him? Are you truly a follower, one who has committed all to follow Him? Are you holding back, concerned about doing it your way, or maybe wounded by the words of others? We have a limited number of breaths on this earth. How many more will you spend not caring for the poor and others in need? We, as followers of Christ must put everything aside and serve in unity. It is our duty to serve the poor. Let’s come together and make a real and lasting difference in the lives of those in need. We are the called; are you with me?

Haiti: What’s Our Response?

by

I try and steer away from tying in a blog post to a current event. My thinking is this gives the posts a more timeless element so that they can be applicable regardless of when you read them. The recent earthquake in Haiti (and subsequent aftershocks) has given me reason to break my unwritten rule. Looking at the pictures of devastation is heartbreaking. There is a great outpouring of support from the world at large which is heartening. At least we have not totally lost our soul; not yet anyway. As followers of Christ we must ask, “What is our response to the tragedy in Haiti?”

The most basic tenet of Christianity is to care for the poor and needy. Haiti is a poor country. They were before the earthquake; they are even more so now. As Christians it is our duty to serve them. We should have been serving them all along, but perhaps this tragedy will awaken our slumbering hearts. In mere moments, tens of thousands found themselves homeless, hungry and without basic sanitation. Tens of thousands more are no longer among the living. In the blink of an eye their lives ended and we lost the opportunity to serve them and to share the love of Jesus with them. It’s too late. We waited too long. We waited because missionary work was always someone else’s job. We waited because we were too afraid to give of our time or our money or ourselves. We waited because we were simply indifferent to the plight of a poor nation thousands of miles from our front door. While we waited, Jesus wept. He gave all He had for us. He died for us. He set the perfect example for our response to those in need. We ignored it.

Now, we are awake. Our eyes are open to the plight of these dear people. Each one of them is created in the image of God. Each one of them is loved unconditionally by the same Savior we call Lord. Do we love them? Are we willing to give everything we have to serve them? Will we open our checkbooks, our cupboards or our life to them? They are our brothers and sisters. Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, in his terrific “The Hole in Our Gospel”, writes “Authentic faith, rooted in the heart of God, is expressed in deeds done to ease the pain of others; it is imbued with personal sacrifice, and it comes with a cost.”

This is our opportunity; this is our time of great decision. We can rise up and stand with people of Haiti, or we can turn our back on Jesus and all we profess to believe. In a couple of weeks, Haiti will be off the front page, but the need will remain for years to come. So I ask again, what is our response to Haiti? Will we be unchanged by the tragic events or will we use it to open our eyes to the poor and suffering all over the world? Haiti needed us before the earthquake, and few of us did anything. Are we awake now? Do we now see the need that has been there all along and is far greater now? What will our response be to Haiti and the rest of the world in need? Whatever we do for them, we do for Jesus; if we turn away, we turn away from Jesus. How will you respond?