What I care about

We are called.

We are all called, as followers of Christ, to be missionaries.  The question is, are you?  Listen to David share at the Convention this past year.  It was such a wonderful message and a wonderful reminder of our how our focus is on the eternal things that matter, not material things or prosperity.  Platt is on at 8 minutes so you can fast forward to that if you want to skip the introduction.
 

Radical Risk, Radical Reward

What if?

What if Chrisitans took the Bible literally?  What if those who called themselves Christians truly lived what they believed and let Christ change their lives completely instead of picking and choosing what they liked out of the Bible to live by?  What if Christians DARED to be uncomfortable for the sake of Christ?


What if Christians lived as thought the Gospel wasn't optional?  What if Christians dared to live as God has called us to live?  What if Christians were....(gasp) different and didn't long for the American dream?  What if Christians lived as if the American dream was about how much you could give away or give of ourselves for the furtherance of the Gospel?


What if the Church did less performing and more discipling?  What if the Church gave more of their time and resources outside of the Church instead of pouring it into more programs at the church?  What if the Church became the Church that Christ desired throughout the New Testament?

 

What if we get out of our comfort zones and live as Christ as called us to live?  What if?

Compassion and World Vision: It does make a difference

We are so blessed to be sponsoring children through these 2 programs.  I absolutely love hearing from "our kids" and hearing from them quite often.  We have mostly younger kids, but we do have 2 older ones that are fun to hear from because they themselves write to us.  One is in Uganda and the other is in Rwanda.  The one in Uganda writes us in English with no translator.  His handwriting is pretty good!  I was shocked when I got my first letter from him!  Of course, it is in some broken sentences but we don't care.  His mom is sick. He is in an AIDS-prone part of the country, which is another reason we wanted him.  He had been waiting for a sponsor and after 3 years is about to graduate to the next level for someone else to help him through college.  He has huge dreams and we were able to make sure that happened.  All he needed was a chance. 

We got a letter from our son in Uganda (who always writes that he's our son forever) on Monday.  I couldn't help but tear up when I read part of what he wrote to us.  He said that he wishes we could visit him because we are his friend from out of the country.  He shared his memory verse he was learning and told us what it meant to him.  Then he said, "I thank  you for the gifts you have given to me.  I pray that God can give you more than you have given to me."  I have thought about that all week because it brought up so much emotion in me.  This boy has no idea how much we are blessed and how much we take for granted.  He thinks we've sacrificed so much for him when all we've done is eliminated some of our comfort purchases or entertainment.  I love the blessings we've received but not so we can use it for ourselves.  I love it because it means we can adopt another child or support another missionary or find some other way to help someone.  It was so humbling for me to know that this boy in situations much more detestable than mine is praying that we will be blessed.  Could it be that he feels sorry for me and how he hears that Americans take so much for granted?  That we can't be happy despite how much we buy?  How lonely many of us are?  How we foolishly use our time and money on things that will so quickly pass away once we die?  I don't really know what his thoughts truly are, but I do know that it made me want to give more and do more for the Kingdom.  I love all our kids, biological and "adopted."  I do think of my sponsored kids as ours.  We pray for them daily, we write letters to them, we talk about them, and we learn about their countries.  For the most part, we have specific reasons why we chose the countries it did.  It varies from matching up the kid's birthdays with a child with the same birthday so that my children can write to them and relate to them as they get older.  In some cases, we had missionaries in that country and it was one small way for us to get involved in that country.  In other cases, we WANTED to be in an AIDS community to give hope to the children who have lost so much and in many cases think that there is no hope for them so they go ahead and contract the disease since they think they will get it anyway.

I pray that someone who reads this will see the difference such a small sacrifice can make.   It's a commitment.  It's life-changing.  I'd dare say it'll change you more than it will them if you let it.  Dare to care.

Something to Ponder

As I mentioned in my book review below, I am really enjoying reading the book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman.  He has done an excellent job in making the reader really think about our relationship with Christ.  I tend to pull out some top things in a series of posts that really spoke to me and have left me saying "wow...good point.  I need to think about that some more and let it resonate."

I'll mention the first one today.  I'm just going to quote the paragraph because I can't do it justice if I don't.  It's powerful and I don't want you to miss it, either.

"A few months ago I was speaking in Houston, Texas, and a good-sized man, with a good-sized belt buckle, came up to me with tears in his eyes.  He began to tell me the story of his prodigal daughter, how she went to college and totally turned her back on the faith.  As soon as he started the story, I knew how it would go.  I've heard it so many times, even the details seem predictable.  But when he finished, he didn't ask me why she was doing this or what had gone wrong.  He wasn't looking for an explanation.  Instead, with one sentence he put his finger on what he thought happened.  Here's what he said...'We raised her in Church, but we didn't raise her in Christ.'

You hear what he is saying?  We raised her to look right on the outside but didn't teach her about the inside.  We taught her to keep all the rules, but she never really had a relationship.  We made her feel guilty for the wrong things she did, but somehow she missed God's amazing grace.  We taught her to be a fan of Jesus--instead of a follower of Jesus."

Wow.  Yet, how true is this statement in some of our own lives?  We're taught religion and rules, but often we don't teach our children to fall in love with Christ.  To want Him like no other.  To want to please Him.  To love Him and trust Him no matter what.  If you were honest, are you a rule-follower or are you deeply in love with Jesus?  Not to the point where you just do what He says because you HAVE to, but because you WANT to?  When your children look at you, do they see a reflection of Christ or do they see someone who thinks Jesus is good and all but will only follow Him to a certain extent or when it's convenient or when it doesn't make too many waves?  I think another powerful statement Kyle made was,

"The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren't actually interested in following Christ.  They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything."

I find this is true in so many churches and in Christianity, in general.  Why do we stop following Jesus when it requires us to give of ourselves or our resources?  I don't want to just be an enthusiastic admirer.  I want to be a whole-hearted devoted follower of Christ.