Who's doing what?
I just got finished watching extreme home makeover and I gotta say that it's by far my favorite show on T.V. right now. Ya I know...it's a chick show but whatever...deal with it. The thing I love about it is that you never see a house being built for someone who doesn't need it. Sure the house is over board and there are kids in third world countries that need food but I think there are people that are just in need right in our back yard. This lady had 6 kids, one a 3 month old and her husband died on Christmas eve due to mold poisoning in his lungs because he was trying to renovate a house they had just bought for their family. It rocked her life to the core and this house was just a little taste of a normal life.
But you know what really bugs me? It's the fact that a stinkin' t.v. station has to be doing this kind of stuff! It really gets me fired up to see how much people in the "real" world are doing for people in need and the people that are supposed to be doing something sit idly by watching. Sure we love talking about it and hoping something will happen but a lot of times, that's as far as it goes. Sorry, that just came out of the blue. Maybe I'm more ticked at myself. At how selfish and greedy and conceited I am to think that my life exists for me. That my faith exists for me. That the church exists for me. And I too often forget that I don't exist for me, that once I decide to follow Jesus I'm in on the mission of Jesus - connecting the disconnected to Him.
Today I talked about how generosity gives love a voice and how we can say we have faith all we want and that we love Jesus and others but if we're not doing anything, James says that our faith is dead. Useless. Ouch.
A huge part of our dream for TXC is that we would be an insanely generous church. We want to be a huge part of this community. I'd love to come alongside other churches in town and pay off their mortgages so they can be more effective with their resources. I'd love to drop thousands of dollars into other charities in town so they can be more effective. I'd love to pay for a renovation of a business that is making a positive impact in our community so that they can continue adding to who we are as a community. I'd love to provide an entire village in a country with the resources they needed for as long as they needed until they were fully self supporting - wells, animals, schools, supplies, etc.
Even as I type this I fully realize that this is completely impossible. The beautiful thing about that is that when I look at all the guys/gals in the Bible, a lot of them were losers. They had nothing going for them at all. The only thing that led to their success was obedience and the faith to believe that God was who he said he was. And you know what? That's all I have...or at least I'm trying to have.
I still believe, if not more now, that we are living out God's dream for this church. His dream is huge. And it goes even beyond just physical generosity. It goes into the spiritual. A house is nice but if you're just gonna continue living in hell on earth in separation from God now and the rest of eternity, what good does it really do? It sounds like I'm contradicting myself with my previous paragraphs but I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to make a point that I think peoples' needs are deeper than physical. What I dream of seeing is that meeting people's physical needs will lead them to see that they're real need is spiritual. And it's at that point where true freedom comes. That's when hope they never new existed comes. Peace deeper than any ocean. Grace wider than any horizon. When someone really encounters Jesus...I mean really does...not just those fluffy feelings, but when they are rocked to their core and everything else falls away and all they are left with is looking into eyes that show nothing but love...that's when real life is lived.
If that doesn't get your blood pumping, maybe you should check your head. This is the dream that we are stewards of. It's the dream that I'm giving my life to.
I couldn't imagine my life any other way.
But you know what really bugs me? It's the fact that a stinkin' t.v. station has to be doing this kind of stuff! It really gets me fired up to see how much people in the "real" world are doing for people in need and the people that are supposed to be doing something sit idly by watching. Sure we love talking about it and hoping something will happen but a lot of times, that's as far as it goes. Sorry, that just came out of the blue. Maybe I'm more ticked at myself. At how selfish and greedy and conceited I am to think that my life exists for me. That my faith exists for me. That the church exists for me. And I too often forget that I don't exist for me, that once I decide to follow Jesus I'm in on the mission of Jesus - connecting the disconnected to Him.
Today I talked about how generosity gives love a voice and how we can say we have faith all we want and that we love Jesus and others but if we're not doing anything, James says that our faith is dead. Useless. Ouch.
A huge part of our dream for TXC is that we would be an insanely generous church. We want to be a huge part of this community. I'd love to come alongside other churches in town and pay off their mortgages so they can be more effective with their resources. I'd love to drop thousands of dollars into other charities in town so they can be more effective. I'd love to pay for a renovation of a business that is making a positive impact in our community so that they can continue adding to who we are as a community. I'd love to provide an entire village in a country with the resources they needed for as long as they needed until they were fully self supporting - wells, animals, schools, supplies, etc.
Even as I type this I fully realize that this is completely impossible. The beautiful thing about that is that when I look at all the guys/gals in the Bible, a lot of them were losers. They had nothing going for them at all. The only thing that led to their success was obedience and the faith to believe that God was who he said he was. And you know what? That's all I have...or at least I'm trying to have.
I still believe, if not more now, that we are living out God's dream for this church. His dream is huge. And it goes even beyond just physical generosity. It goes into the spiritual. A house is nice but if you're just gonna continue living in hell on earth in separation from God now and the rest of eternity, what good does it really do? It sounds like I'm contradicting myself with my previous paragraphs but I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to make a point that I think peoples' needs are deeper than physical. What I dream of seeing is that meeting people's physical needs will lead them to see that they're real need is spiritual. And it's at that point where true freedom comes. That's when hope they never new existed comes. Peace deeper than any ocean. Grace wider than any horizon. When someone really encounters Jesus...I mean really does...not just those fluffy feelings, but when they are rocked to their core and everything else falls away and all they are left with is looking into eyes that show nothing but love...that's when real life is lived.
If that doesn't get your blood pumping, maybe you should check your head. This is the dream that we are stewards of. It's the dream that I'm giving my life to.
I couldn't imagine my life any other way.
