Listened to this sermon this week … one of the best I have heard on this topic. thoughts? let’s here them.
Hey Everyone!
I would like to take a moment to share with you regarding the door God has opened for me to be his hands and feet in Central America. On January 5th I will be Boarding a plane in Toronto, Ontario and heading to Guatemala to work with a local missionary named Pastor David. I am very excited to join with Pastor Davis in what he is doing there. Most people don’t know that Guatemala is the 6th worst country in the world for malnutrition. In response to this, Pastor David planted a church back in 1982 in one of the most remote poor and malnourished villages in Guatemala. When the church was planted in the village it was run by gangs. Because of the hunger and poverty in the area, children in the village join gangs as a means to survive. Some join gangs while they are still as young 8 years old. For many kids joining gangs is a way of getting food but for the gangs, kids are very useful for gun running, drug dealing and prostitution and in time, kidnapping and murder. Most men in the village were not living to see their 30th birthday.
After seeing the needs in the community, Pastor David and his small church started a small feeding program for the children of the community. Children could come and get a good meal 5 mornings per week. The program has been running strong now since 2002 and kids no longer have to join gangs to eat. In fact, over 250 kids are a part of the program that now provides basic needs like: school supplies, shoes, health care and clothing. They also provide after school tutoring, as well as computer, vocational and english training. The Kids also hear from the Bible on a daily basis in the program. Since the implementation of the feeding program, gang involvement in the city has dropped exponentially in the village! The church is seeing miracle after miracle in the lives of the people in the community. God is at work in the this little Guatemalan church.
Ok, here is the really exciting part! God has now given Pastor David and his church a vision to do “feeding program planting”. The church is now working in 15 other remote Spanish and Mayan villages with local pastors to plant the same kind of feeding programs. At least one day a week people travel from Pastor Davids church to provide meals, vitamins, medical care, hygiene training, bible teaching and fun games for to over 1700 kids!! Wow! This is the church being the church.
So here is what I will be doing:
The "Agony" of Discipleship.
“I want to give my all to God, but I am scared of what He might ask me to do” has been a recurring statement among people within the church. This thought has also crossed my mind and still does so with some frequency. As I was reading this week, I was enlightened and reminded of something revolutionary: our hesitancy to commit to Jesus is rooted in a misunderstanding of His Gospel and his Kingdom. Will you unpack this with me?
There are two stories in the Bible that Jesus used as starting points for describing the Kingdom of Heaven (or “Kingdom of God”).
Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like where something of extreme value is concealed in a field. Someone discovers it, and quickly covers it up again. Overflowing with joyous excitement he pulls together everything he has, sells it all and buys the field.” (Matt. 13:44)
Jesus also said, “What the Kingdom of Heaven is like is illustrated by a businessman who is on the lookout for beautiful pearls. He finds an incredible value in one pearl. So he sells everything he owns and buys it.” (Matt 13:45-46)
Is this how we feel about being a part of his Kingdom? Or we might say, “Is this how we feel about being a Christian?” After reading this, I was very much convicted and began to think a lot about this concept. In both the stories, we see the Joy, the Excitement, the Preciousness, and the Opportunity. in being a part of the Kingdom of God. This however is such a contrast from our initial statement about giving our all. That statement is filled with Fear, Hesitancy and Worry! We are terrified of surrender…
It is both comforting and frustrating that no matter how fast I run, those who have long since died have already arrived at where I am attempting to go.
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Peter Rollins (This is concerning new philosophy, understanding, orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Christian faith) |
The Abstract and the Right Now.
Hey all, just wanted to share something I’ve been processing. Hope this makes sense:
If we are Christians, we try and live our lives like Jesus, right? We even ask ourselves things like “What would Jesus do?” I think that this is a good question to ask, but I also think that trying to live our lives like Jesus did, can sometimes be too abstract of a concept for us to grasp. Perhaps a better question is: “How would Jesus live my actual life if he were me?” It is then our goal to live like that.
I realize that these seem to similar goals, but to me, the second question is a lot more tangible - and a lot more difficult. It is not just an abstract question, it is a question of Jesus living out our current actual life right now. What would that look like? Our goal is to then live that out through him
This thought has been changing me. Hopefully it makes you think as well!
- Josh
