Dear Spiritual Warriors,
I was flying to Bangkok with eight men from our church. We were going to help with a ministry we support that rescues women out of sex trafficking. I brought a book to read on the long flight – The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns of World Vision. The book is about the things in our world that break the heart of God, and how Stearns’s heart was broken by such things as poverty, famine, and sex trafficking. While flying at 30,000 feet I found myself hiding my face so others would not see my tears.
I re-read Matthew 25, through my blurry vision. There Jesus addresses the call to help the sick, the homeless, the naked, those in prison, and all who suffer oppression in our fallen world. He concludes by saying, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (V. 45)
A disciple’s heart is broken by the things that break the heart of God.
If someone would ask me what the greatest thing I have seen God do in our city, it would be God Works Soup Kitchen. This ministry began fifteen years ago. A great leader named Jeff had been given a vision. He invited four people to listen to it. I was one of them. Through us, God launched a ministry that provides a meal every night of every week of every month of every year, for fifteen years.
I remember driving around our city with Jeff. His heart burned to feed the hungry and homeless. I asked him, “Jeff, where did you get such a heart?” He told me, “My father would take me for drives in impoverished areas of our community. My father said to me, “Son, we must never allow people to go without food.”” Jeff said, “That got inside me and had never left.”
That is the burning heart of Jesus, right? John Wesley said, “The test of a Christian is to work as hard as they can, to make as much money as they can, to spend as little as they can, so as to give away all that they can.”
Disciples of Christ love the Lord with all they are, and love their neighbors the same. Just as Jesus sacrificed his life for the sake of the world, so also his apprentices give their lives away for the sake of others.
That’s me. And you.
We exist to know Christ, and make Christ known. This happens as the love of Jesus manifests itself, through us, to the benefit of others.
Love,
PJ
DECLARATIONS
I lay my life down for the cause of Christ.
I sacrifice myself for the benefit of others.
I give lavishly of my resources, time, and talents.
My heart breaks over the things that break God’s heart.
God leads me to take action in the war against poverty and hunger.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46 are engraved on the walls of my soul.
From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship (p. 92).
