THE HOLE IN ME

I felt like God wants me to share this with you guys. About two days ago, I was reading the book The Hole in our Gospel and I came across a point that made me stop. It was seriously like hitting a brick wall - It made me think.

When we read the news and hear about the starving children in Africa, we pause in sadness maybe for a second. But at one point we move on, turn the channel or flip the news page and go about our daily routine.

I challenge you to think about this. We have all, at some point in time, lost someone close to us, right? And for the most part it tares us apart (Instead: ‘Such an experience can be devastating – affecting us for years, and some their entire lives.’). Especially if that close loved one was your own child. Seriously think about this for a second. You would not only respond in remorse, and devastation, but you would respond with urgency, right? Well, what if one of those starving children from the news was on your front door step? What if that child was ringing your door bell, would you not stop everything, pick up the child and rush the child to the emergency room offering to pay it might cost to save their life in urgency as one human to another? The news bulletin that you might have looked over, and paused in sadness would become very personal wouldn’t it?

The problem that God laid on my heart so intensely was that I have to admit that I simply have less empathy for people of other cultures living in faraway countries than I do for Americans. My empathy is revolving around my social, my emotional, my cultural, my economical and my geographical way of thinking. Why do I distinguish the value of one human life over another, selfishness maybe?

I know that God doesn’t view people in that mind set. Richard Sterans said, “God doesn’t look at the suffering of a child in Cambodia or Malawi with a certain sense of emotional distance. God doesn’t have different levels of compassion based on a child’s geographical location, or their nationality, or their race, or parents, or income level. Each human being is precious to him.”

I know that I can be selfish, and the details of my own life can easily distract me. I also know that it I truly want to see into their eyes, into their souls, into their hearts, pain, loss or gains, of these children the way that God does, and if I want to know their names, I can’t just sit here and be angry with myself. It must be personal for me. How do I respond with urgency?

These are not just things that God is doing in me for the next big part of my life, but it’s for now. I know that when I let myself get in the way of ministry I will become selfish and even the kids that I see a few times a week will feel so distant from my heart, if I do not react-if I do not pray for a constant renewing of my heart- I will become hardened for God’s people.

I truly want my heart to be broken for what breaks God’s.

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” –George Bernard Shaw

Bamo.

As you know I have been reading Uprising by Erwin McManus. It’s awesome. I’m towards the end of the book now, but one of the major things that have stuck out to me was his view on faithfulness. He said, “There are moments when our greatest act of faith is to remain faithful. There will be times where no lever of faith will change our circumstance. Faith is not always a way out of crisis. I am convinced it rarely is.” Then he goes on to say, “Faith gives us the strength and confidence to see every challenge and crisis through to the end.”

I love this! Wow. Seriously though, faith is just a confidence in God that results in faithfulness. It is simple. It doesn’t solve our problems but it gives us the perseverance to keep walking though to the end-and then gain wisdom. When Jesus calls us to be faithful-and to even do great things-we are blessed when we don’t fall away from him- but continue to follow closely at His side.

end to week one.

As I come close to finishing the first week of The Hole in our Gospel, I can say that I have been uprooted from my former way of thinking. Not only my paradigm; but also, my faith has been shifted. I have come to a point of realizing that my belief is not enough, my worship is not enough, and my personal morality is not enough. I know that God is asking more of me (he wants all of me).

My commitment to Jesus is sharing the good news; his character of love, justice, and mercy-all through our words and actions is a commitment to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:20 kept getting to me as it was repeatedly popping up in Richard Stearns book, and small group study. It says, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Because of this study, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions, but here are a few:

What exactly does “ambassador of Christ mean?!”

Is this something I do or something I am, or become?

All I know right now is that Jesus chooses us to represent him, to proclaim the GOOD NEWS, and to change the world or just one person (read quote below). “Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”

“If you can’t feed 100 people, then just feed one.”
-Mother Teresa

The ambassadors commitment

As I come close to finishing the first week of The Hole in our Gospel, I can say that I have been uprooted from my former way of thinking. Not only my paradigm; but also, my faith has been shifted. I have come to a point of realizing that my belief is not enough, my worship is not enough, and my personal morality is not enough. I know that God is asking more of me (he wants all of me).

My commitment to Jesus is sharing the good news; his character of love, justice, and mercy-all through our words and actions is a commitment to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:20 kept getting to me as it was repeatedly popping up in Richard Stearns book, and small group study. It says, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Because of this study, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions, but here are a few:
What exactly does “ambassador of Christ mean?!”
Is this something I do or something I am, or become?

All I know right now is that Jesus chooses us to represent him, to proclaim the GOOD NEWS, and to change the world or just one person (read quote below). “Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”

“If you can’t feed 100 people, then just feed one.”
-Mother Teresa

Ethics

I just finished reading T Burton Pierce’s, Ministerial Ethics: A Guide for Spiritual-Filled Leaders. It was really good! It challenged me on a few different levels. My favorite chapter dealt with being authentic in your ministry. He talked about how our love for the people that we are leading to be evident. It has to be evident for assurance, but mainly because you love them just as Christ loves them. I love that. That is something that God has been teaching me the last few days.

I had to take a few minutes to think about this: I know his love and I know his power to do miracles, but do I show it the way God intended for me to show it?

I wasn’t positive of the answer and I’m still not at all. I have a lot of work to do.

Over the past 24 hours my heart has been on a roller coaster. I just started the six-week quest, The Hole in our Gospel (small group study). Going in to it I was unsure what God wanted to do in me. I was also unsure what he was going to do in my heart, but I knew it would be big. I thought it was going to take time. But once again I was wrong. My heart was broken immediately.

Some of you are probably wondering what the “hole in our gospel” could be. Don’t worry I was thinking the same thing.

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, first provoked my mind and then shortly after my heart followed, but in my heart it was a deeper provoking. In the first chapter of his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, he shared a story about his friend, Jim Wallis, who, at this time, was a seminary student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School near Chicago. He and some of his classmates had an idea. They went through the entire Bible and underlined every single verse that dealt with poverty, wealth, justice, and oppression. Then they took scissors and cut every one of those verses out of the Bible. After that the Bible barely held together. The remaining Bible was in shambles. Then his friend said, “Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible; it is full of holes. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical text that we just ignore.” The bible was literally full of holes. The word hole is defined: A hollowed place in something solid.

Questions that I had to ask myself:

Is there a hole in my “gospel/good news”?

Is my understanding of the nature of God’s call misunderstood?

I realized that I have chosen to pay little to no attention to holes in my Bible. I need to pay attention to the whole Bible. Every single word of God matters, not just the ones that apply to my life at this moment in time (it is all applicable).
The challenge for me, and possibly you as well: Getting what I know in my head into my heart and then out to my hands and feet - showing the love of Christ in a tangible way.

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out on to the earth. Yours are the feet by which he is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which he is to bless us now.”
-St. Teresa of Avila

Serve

With Servolution coming up I have been thinking a lot about serving, and the different ways to serve. Now I’m finally starting to come to terms with the calling of service. Serving should be my mindset all of the time. Not just the few times a year that I get to be a part of a group of people who are making a point to serve others in need, but everyday, 24-7.

If I want to be great I must serve. Serving must be my life. Sold out to Christ, who calls me to put others before myself completely. Jesus says, “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be first must be our slave- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life random for many” (Matthew 20:26-27).

This is crazy for me to think about. Earlier in this passage, the mother of Zebedee was faced with a decision, and Jesus asked, “Is this what you want?” In order to be completely sold out to Jesus, we have to decide that we are going to be great in the Lords presence we have to simply serve.