James 1:21-27 – “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.  If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” 

For someone who preaches theology as a means of knowing and savoring God, I wish that more of my life were spent in righteousness, instead of sin, visiting the needy, instead of indulging in my own comfort, sharing the gospel, instead of holding it in.  What loss I have in those things that seem at the time to be gain.  A heart that burns for God, will burn for the things of God.  It is not legalism or mere outward obedience, it is something much greater.  It is seeing Christ lifted up and finding in Him everything you ever need; everything you ever wanted; and then being free from everything the world promised as an alternative to take that treasure to others.  It’s a heartfelt desire for God that births a heartfelt desire for the things God delights in, justice, mercy, reconciliation, righteousness, freedom from bondage to sin…

Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

I ask myself this question – “Where is the place that no one wants to go?  Where are the voices that no one hears?  Where are the ears that would never hear the gospel unless I go?”  God has a purpose for each of us – work that only you can do, work that God has planned for you.  I can’t do it, someone else can’t do it, it was planned before the foundation of the world for you.  God wants to accomplish the work through you.  While for most, that work will not take you far away from where you are now, my encouragement is to ask yourself – “Do I ever get out of my comfort zone to visit those in need”?  This isn’t a call to get out your checkbooks and start sponsoring an orphan in Africa, or to take a mission trip to Africa – those are good things, but unless you are called to go and live there, you are not going to be the hands and feet of God to those people long term.  Look around, there are those close to you, in your city, that are waiting.  There is no one else that will visit them with the gospel, God has purposed YOU for that task.  You were not saved, reconciled to Christ, to simply await his return.  You may say, “I am not equipped” or “I haven’t the means”, but God will provide what is needed.  Instead of looking to what you don’t have in knowledge or means, how are you stewarding what you do know?  Jesus uses a parable to show us how He has stewarded each of us with the knowledge of Him, to reproduce:

Matthew 25:14-30 – “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.  To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.  He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.  So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.  But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.  Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.  And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’  And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’  He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’  But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?  Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.  So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.  For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

That is my heart, my hope; that God would rise up faithful Christians among those who profess His name, broken by their own sin and and helplessness apart from Him, and eager to likewise help the helpless; to make His name great in this city, and the world.  We are not meant to be hearers only of the Word, but doers.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 – “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Know you’re prayed for.  I’m always encouraged to know that God is working mightily through you all, and the Church as a whole.  Be encouraged, keep pressing forward; keep your eyes focused on the cross and the day when you will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam