Go here to read about my horrible church experience last week but this week was an amazing contrast. At my church one of our associate pastors gave a trip report about 170 of our congregants going to Africa with Dream for Africa. I just can't explain the impact of the stories and the pictures that were show. Bottom line, the church in America has a golden opportunity to make a huge impact on this world.
Our people met with black people who'd never met a white person. They planted thousands of gardens and showed the love of Christ to the people of South Africa. Here's the amazing thing, do you want to see Jesus? These people did see Jesus by helping these people learn how to feed themselves:
'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
I know that I'm always wondering when God will touch me. Instead I need to go seek Him and one way is to serve Him by serving the poor, imprisoned and the sick. As a friend of mine once said, sometimes God just tees up some extremely obvious things and waits for the Church to take Her shot. Now is that time. There are many opportunities to serve the poor, sick and imprisoned. If your congregation doesn't offer any type of service opportunities to help the "least of these" then the church needs to be fixed. If you are not hearing about the "least of these" every once in a while from the pulpit then talk to your pastor. Let's not wiff at this one.
Posted by Tim at July 17, 2005 09:42 PM
