Today I’m overwhelmed with a concern I must share, and I may offend some in the process.
We call ourselves the church, the body of Christ. But sometimes I think saying we’re Christians means no more to us than saying we are white or black or live in America or Costa Rica. We leave our lovely homes, even the smallest of which is grandiose to most of the world, and drive our air conditioned cars to sit in Church and worship God. We have very little to give in the offering plate. We’re stretched just providing for our own.
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. ~ Isaiah 54:2
We pray that God would provide for our families, but do we pray that He would enlarge our homes, enlarge our visions, enlarge our limited scopes to welcome the abandoned children of the world into our families, no matter how hard it might be? What would we give to give a child a family?
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ~ 1 John 3:16
Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for each other. Do we lay down our lives for anyone?
If our children were homeless, living on the streets, enslaved in Human bondage, growing up in an orphanage, Heaven and earth could not stop us from going to get our children and bringing them home.
Yet God’s children are waiting, hungry, abused, alone, and we, His body, sit in front of our televisions, or our computers, or languish on the beaches of the world while God’s children wait. We are the lukewarm church, and this is what Jesus says about the lukewarm church.
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. ~ Revelations 3:15&16
If we aren’t bringing the children into our homes, then we ought to be providing the funds for others to do so.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ~ James 2:14-17
The difference between Christianity and the major religions of the world is that we serve a Risen Savior. Our God lives. He lives in us. He promises to do whatever we ask in His name.
Do we believe that? Do our lives reflect that faith? Do our actions reflect the living, risen Lord who is alive and working in the world today?
Or have we grown complacent and slothful in His grace?
God is love and grace and forgiveness. He laid down His life for us, and He asks for ours in return. Are we willing to allow His spirit to fill our hearts with His desires? Will we do His work? Will we go and get His children?
We must do the work of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ~ John 9:4
There ought to be an eagerness to our steps, an urgency about our days. The children are waiting.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was 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, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ ~ Matthew 25:31-40
Are we living our lives like we believe that the most high God lives within us, and whatever we ask in His name He will do?
Or are we doubting?
5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Oh that God would move in the hearts of His people to work to bring the children home. It is work. It is God’s work. It is the most blessed work of all.
May God move in His people as He did in the Prophet Isaiah to answer His call to care for His children with an earnest, “Here am I Lord! Send me!”
Blessings!
Diane,
Thought provoking, self-examining post.
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