“I just woke up one day and knew it all had
to stop.” Keshon said when I asked what made him give up drug dealing. Coming
to Christ, for him, is about more than changing his mind, saying a few words,
and getting dunked—it’s a new life at a high cost.
“You can’t just walk away from the drug
game—it follows you. I knew I couldn’t live for God and stay in it, so I walked
away. That meant no income, no rent money—so no home—but that wasn’t the worst
of it. I stayed in the shelters ‘cause I knew I didn’t need to be around my old
friends and their bad ways. When I went out looking for work, I got jumped by
one of the other dealers and his guys. I told them I was done, I didn’t want
any trouble, I just wanted to live for God. They thought I was a snitch, so
they beat the tar out of me and told me that if they ever saw me again they
would kill me.”
“I went to the hospital and as I was checking
in, I saw someone I knew, but I didn’t think anything of it. I guess they made
phone calls, ‘cause when I walked out of the ER, the waiting room was full of
people who were mad that I left my old life. I sat down so there would be
witnesses around, but one of the other dealers told me ‘you gotta walk back at
some point.’”
Keshon feels like there is a target on his
back wherever he goes now, but he knows what he has to do. “It’s hard to hang
on sometimes. I know I can’t turn my back on God, but it is hard when it’s been
days since your last meal, you have no money in your pocket, you’re sleeping
under a broke-down truck and you know that in a matter of hours you could have
several thousand dollars by dealing.”
“I learned something though, every time I’m
put to the test, when I’m not sure how much longer I can make it, and I choose
trusting God, He comes through. Someone will offer me some food, or a place to
sleep, or I get a call, like today, telling me I got a job! It’s not the kinda
money I was making, but God is showing me that He’s enough.”
Keshon was even able to help his uncle to leave
his old ways and draw closer to God. I haven’t seen Keshon in a month. I pray
he’s just busy working, but I don’t know. Sometimes discipleship comes at a
greater cost than we would imagine. Levi walked away from his tax booth and
left everything to follow Christ. James and John left their father and the
family business. Keshon left friends, family, home, wealth, and puts his life
on the line every day.
People like Keshon are why I’m at RCM. God’s
message changes lives and is making a real difference here in North Little
Rock.
In the 11 months of my RCM apprenticeship,
I have helped to lead 140
people to be restored and 47 baptized. I look forward to the opportunities that
God allows me in the second year of this apprenticeship.
God bless you all.
“After
this, Jesus left the house. He saw a tax collector sitting at the tax booth.
The man’s name was Levi. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him. Levi got up, left
everything and followed him.” (Luke 5:27-28).
We live in a male dominated world. We take a day, like today and "honor" mothers, but I wonder if it only emphasizes the difference in how we treat women every other day of the year. Women have gone from being property to objects, and some days I have trouble seeing the difference.
Women are still sold, just take the awful mass kidnaping that has been on the news for an example. Sex slavery is a real thing, as a matter of fact, there are now more slaves in the world than there were at the height of 1800s. Women are still treated as objects of male fantasy. Women are fed adds representing the image of who every woman "should be." When women don't live up to this image they are ignored, while those who try to become what they see in magazines or on TV are called sluts by the same men who do the fantasizing.
Women are made to feel that if they do not have a career they are "only a mother," as if that was some small and unimportant identity. At the same time, women who do enter the work place are paid less than men doing the same work. Women are viewed as somehow less valuable.
Listen to music or the language boys and men often use and you will find that ladies have been reduced to hoes, sluts, bitches, and whores. Men abuse women sexually, physically, and emotionally and justify and joke about it. Men who refuse to take responsibility for their actions leave women to raise and provide for children on their own and then treat them as lesser beings for being in their situation. Men who stay with their women often act as if they are kings who make all the decisions and cannot be questioned for their actions.
It was not intended to be this way! God did not make men to behave like this, or women to be treated like this. Just take a look at what I mean.
Genesis 2 tells us that God placed man in a beautiful garden, he gave him every tree good for food, beautiful scenery, a source of life everlasting, and a purpose, but something wasn't right.
Everything God created He called good, but then he looked at Adam, alone in the garden and He said "It is not good..." God created man to have a relationship with him, he showered him with blessings, but He saw that for man to be without the woman was "not good."
He said, "I will make the companion he needs, one just right for him." This word translated companion or helper is not best translated this way. It is actually the same word used to describe God over and over in the Old Testament when He is called strong deliverer or savior. God said, man is in a terrible situation, I will make a savior to deliver him from loneliness. But God did not make her right away.
Now, God could have made woman in that moment, but He did not. God does all that He does for a reason. He wanted man to appreciate what he had, so he allowed Adam to come to understand his aloneness and desire deliverance. He brought all the animals before Adam, everything that crawled and everything that flew, but Adam did not find a companion who was right for him. No animal could play the role of savior and deliver Adam form his lonely state. When it says there was no one right for him, the term literally means to stand in front of. There was no one Adam could look at, face to face, eye to eye and share his experience with. No animal knew what it was to be Adam, when he looked into the eye of the animals and birds, he could see no mirror back into his own soul.
Only when Adam realized this did God act. He caused a deep sleep to come over Adam and He took a rib from Adam's and formed Eve. He did not use one of Adam's toes to form the woman. Had He done this it would suggest that the woman was below the man. He did not use part of Adam's skull to form her either. Had he done this it would suggest that the woman was above the man. No, God took a rib from his side. This was the only one who could stand in front of Adam, an equal, taken from his side.
When God brought her before Adam, he was amazed! In the moment of face-to-face, when he looked into the eyes of his equal, he gained understanding of who he was, he found his identity. He said I am man and she is woman, flesh of my flesh. He used a new word here, the word translated as man, up to this point was Adam, but now he recognizes himself as man because he sees himself and something not himself in the woman, the same, but different.
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness... So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them. The image of God was expressed in man and woman. A complete picture. In seeing this, Adam saw himself cast in a different light. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one. (Gen. 2:24). Because the man's identity is not in his heritage, not in his title, not in his inheritance, but in his wife. What a beautiful picture. Relationship according to God's design. So what ever happened? Sin! The very next chapter tells of the fall and the curse. We know the story, but there is a part of the curse we seem to always forget, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." This was not the plan, this was the result of sin, the curse. This explains why it is so hard to leave the man who mistreats and underappreciates you. The woman's desire is no longer toward her God or toward herself, she no longer finds her identity there, her desire is towards the man, and she does not know who she is without him. This allows the man to rule. But there is hope which comes from the seed of woman! In Christ all are one! Christ is the true savior of all! He delivers us from sin, from death, and from the curse! Your identity is not in any man, it is in your relationship with God. The woman was made to complete the representation of God in mankind, to deliver the man from his loneliness, and to experience oneness with man and God. What is a woman's worth? God said that without her the crown of His creation was not good, but together they were very good. That is worthwhile! Women, take pride in the place God has given you. See yourself for who you are. Understand your identity in light of who your God made you to be, not in light of the way you have been treated by anyone. You were made because man needs you, not because you need to put up with any man mistreating you. Men, treat your women right. Be a man! Admit your need and treat women with respect remembering that she was made so that you could have an equal. Things don't have to be so twisted, we can have the relationship God made us for if we are delivered by His Son and live as He guides us. Christ left everything for His bride and he promises her everything. Take a lesson from him.
“Praise the
Lord… his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be
remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate… He provides redemption for
his people; he ordained his covenant forever... holy and awesome is his name.”
- Psalm 111
We have a
great and powerful God and there is nothing He cannot accomplish. Through
wonders, signs, and miracles He brings about His will, and He uses whomever He
pleases to accomplish it. God uses servants with willing spirits, like Abraham,
Joshua, Samuel, and Isaiah. Men who were ready to answer God’s call whenever it
came. But what about those with reluctant spirits? What can God really do with
them? What does God even want with them? Remember back in Psalm 111:9 when the
psalmist said God “provides redemption for His people”? This includes even
those with reluctant spirits. God wants to redeem the reluctant spirit, and He
is willing to provide whatever it takes.
Jonah is a
perfect example of this. God gave Jonah a mission, provided him with an
opportunity, and Jonah ran (Jonah 1:1-3). He ran because God’s Spirit prompted
him to do something he didn’t want to do. This is often the case when God
reveals His will to us. Moses did not want to go to pharaoh, Jonah did not want
to go to Nineveh, Jesus did not want to suffer crucifixion and asked for the
cup to pass from him.
Sometimes this
prompting of the Spirit is an occasion when God makes it clear that there is
someone we need to forgive, there is a habit we need to give up, a relationship
we need to get out of, or something we need to start doing. Last month, for me,
it was a sermon I didn’t want to preach, but God kept bringing me back to it.
For Sharon, it was a combination of many things, but it began with giving up
her habits.
Sharon was
one of the first people I studied with when I came to River City Ministry. She
has been growing closer to God, she was baptized last year, but she was stuck
in a cycle of bad relationships. The more she read her Bible, the clearer it
became to her that she could not please God and keep on having sex when she
wasn’t married. Sharon knew this, but she had lived this way so long… the
easiest way to deal with it was to act like it wasn’t real, not address her
situation, and just stay put.
When God
told Jonah to go, he did more than just stay put, he ran the other way. Because
of the pains of his past, the cruel things he saw the Assyrians do to his
people, Jonah refused to go. He said “…I knew that you are a gracious and
compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from
sending calamity… That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.”
(Jonah 4:2). So he boarded a ship headed to the edge of the known world and God
began providing his redemption. “…the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and
such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” (1:4). God
provided the storm to begin the process of bringing Jonah back to Him. When the
sailors realized the storm was because of this Jonah running from his God, they
asked all about him and Jonah said, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who
made the sea and the land.” (1:8-9). This was something Jonah needed to realize
himself. If he took stock of this in the first place, would he have ever tried
to flee? Jonah needed to stop and think about who his God was.
Like Jonah,
we need to realize who our God is. When Sharon finally did this, she had to
make a change. She told her boyfriend (the man she had called her husband in
public because she was ashamed of her sin), “I can’t keep sinning like this, no
more sex!” This was a tremendous move for Sharon! But it was only the first
step, and there was trouble. You see, Sharon was living with her boyfriend who
had started out as a roommate to help with half the rent. She told him he had
two choices, he could respect her and keep to his side of the house, or
preferably, he could move out. He refused to move and he took the other news
even less well. He started beating Sharon. Things seemed to be going from bad
to worse, but really, God saw another opportunity to provide Sharon with what
she needed.
Jonah saw
who God was, and he realized that he was in the wrong, but the only solution
was bleak. “’Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and I will
become calm…’” (1:12). When the men finally did this the storm stopped and the
sailors worshiped the one true God. Sinking into the sea, Jonah thought this
was the end, but hey, at least he got out of going to Nineveh. Little did he know,
God was not done with him. God did not want Jonah dead, he wanted him redeemed.
“Now the
Lord provided a huge fish to swallow
Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”(1:17,
emphasis added). God provided Jonah an escape from death, he preserved Jonah’s
life, and even though he was stuck in the belly of a huge fish, he was alive.
It may have been a miserable three days, but it got Jonah out of deaths grips
and back where he needed to be.
This time when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, that is exactly what Jonah did (3:2-3). He preached, as swiftly as he could (only saying “forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed”), and went away and pouted (3:4-4:3). He was still too angry, too hurt by his past to move on and forgive as God was ready to forgive.
Sharon’s
time in the deep came too. She dealt with the sin problem but she was still
stuck in the same kind of abusive and destructive relationship that she knew
since childhood. This time, when the abuse got worse, she considered suicide.
Like Jonah, she thought, “I’m going to die, but at least I will be done with
this life.” But God did not want Sharon to die, he wanted her to be redeemed.
God provided Sharon with something that she did not have the last time she was
in this kind of relationship. God provided a family for her; a father in heaven
who she now knew to be a loving and caring God, and church family, friends who she
knew loved her and would help. And help they did.
Jonah needed
some help too, and, as always, God provided. When the whole city of Nineveh
repented, Jonah was so filled with anger and self-pity that, again, he wanted
to die (4:1-4). “Then the Lord God provided
a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease
his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.” (4:6, emphasis added).
But God was not done, “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which
chewed the plant so that it withered.” (4:7). Then Jonah became so angry he
wished he was dead (that’s pretty angry). But God provided the plant and the
worm so He could provide Jonah a lesson; “But the Lord said, “You have been
concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It
sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the
great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty
thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many
animals?”’ (4:10-11).
We don’t
know if Jonah got the message, if he changed his ways and got the redemption
God offered. But Jonah’s response is not the most important thing. What is more
important to see is what God was willing to provide to redeem Jonah, if he
would just reach out and take it. What may be even more important is what God
was able to accomplish with such a reluctant spirit. The storm was because of
Jonah, but it was for the sailors. God used Jonah and the storm to bring the
sailors to the one true God. God used a prophet who hated those to whom he
preached, yet they all repented. God’s will was accomplished, and Jonah could
not stand in the way of it. Look at all the people in this book for whom God
provided redemption!
I am proud
to say that Sharon found her redemption, not just the redemption of her soul,
but also the redemption of her relationship, life, body, and image. She was
able to find help at RCM and RCC. She is now out of that relationship and
looking for a man who cares more about God than himself, a man who cares about
her, and God, enough to wait, to treat her right, and to marry her. She turned
to God and her church family rather than taking her life. She is now living
alone and is safe. And, God has revealed how precious he believes Sharon to be,
which has helped her to find healing and rediscover the image of God that he
placed within her. And as great as her story is, like Jonah, Sharon’s story may
not even be about her, it may be about those around her who hear her story and
turn to God because of it.
In the end,
God wants the same thing for a willing and a reluctant spirit, redemption. The
truth is, no one, not even Abraham, Joshua, and Samuel were always willing, and
Moses and Jonah were not always reluctant, like us, they were some of both.
Either way we choose to be, God will accomplish His will. But if we surrender,
we will find that God provides opportunities for growth, which, although
painful at times, lead to redemption. If we stand in His way, God will still
accomplish His will, He may just have to run over us to do it.
Sharon's story is far from over. She is struggling to come out of her past and into the life God wants for her. Please pray for her to have the strength and determination to cling to God rather than harmful relationships.
When God
formed you in His image, when He shaped you into an entirely unique
representation of Himself, He made you unlike anyone else. God breathed life
into you as He did Adam He made you a living being through His Spirit (Gen.
2:7). The word breath and spirit are the same in Hebrew, to say God gave man
the breath of life and he became a living being is to say God gave man the
spirit of life and thus man lives. Just like when Jesus breathed into His disciples and told them to receive the Spirit (John 20:22).
“The Son is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together.” (Col. 1:15-18).
All things
were made through, by, and for Jesus, and He is the one that holds them all
together. In Him we live and move and have our very being (Acts 17:28). If that
is true, how can we separate ourselves from God? God and His creation are inseparable.
So what does this mean about the way we live?
How can we
set this time aside for God and that time aside for ourselves if we are connected with God at a subatomic level? I used to believe that when I chose to do
something outside the will of God that it was my decision and it would only
hurt me; I make the choices and I will deal with the consequences. But it’s not
really like that. If God’s presence is continual, how can I bring God into my
sin? This is why Paul said that when we sleep with a prostitute it’s like
joining Christ with that prostitute (1 Cor. 6:15).
The way that
I’m living right now, is God happy with me dragging Him into it? This
is why sin is so disgusting to God. Not only did God not create us to be
dragged into sin, He never intended us to try to drag Him along with us. God
can sever that inseparable tie, we can quench His Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19), God’s
Spirit will not struggle with man’s forever (Gen. 6:3), we can experience spiritual
death, and be eternally separated from God in Hell (2 Thes. 1:9). So then, how
can I live in God’s presence? How can I get rid of the sin?
Usually when
we talk about sin, we addresses it as the problem, but I don’t believe that is
entirely correct. The sins we often commit, our addictions, our habits, our dysfunctions
are really only symptoms of the real problem. Violent acts that we commit come
from our anger and our anger usually comes from our own deep hurts and pains.
Now, we can address our behavior, learn to control our anger so that we don’t
allow it to force us into an action that we will regret, but this doesn’t take away
the anger, it only helps us control the outcome of our anger. If we don’t deal
with our anger, we will end up finding another outlet for it. If we deal with
our anger but never face our hurts and pains, we will find another way to cope
with them. We may choose drugs or alcohol, and those may be sinful habits, but
the true problem is still the hurts that lead us to these habits. Sexual acts
that we commit come from our lusts, and our lusts usually come from deep
feeling that something is lacking. Perhaps we were never loved as we needed to
be, or maybe we lack confidence and use sex to boost our ego. We can stop
having sex but not address our lusts and end up finding another way to get what
we need. We can even address our lusts, but if we never deal with the feelings
that something is lacking, we will end up using something else to fill the
void.
What we
really need to do to remove the sin, the hurt, the void, and anything that
would keep us from experiencing the full joy of God’s presence and being the
person He created us to be is take a deep look inside our selves at where the
problem really lies. To get to the heart of the problem we have to look deep
inside ourselves and ask, why are these unhealthy things so appealing to us? We
have to ask ourselves, why are we going to our sinful habits to find relief? Why
am I making the same mistake Adam and Eve made?
Instead of
going to God with their desires, Adam and Eve went to the forbidden tree, the
listened to Satan, and they tried to be the answer to their own problem. I don’t
have to keep doing the same. I can turn to God, submit to His will, put myself
in the hands of the potter who shaped me in the first place, and let Him shape
me back into the true me.
This is not
about me becoming what anyone else says I should be (that’s how this whole
thing began – Gen 3:5), this is not about me becoming someone else, this is
about me becoming the best and truest me. Christ didn’t come to change
everything, but to reconcile everything. That means to end the conflict and put
things back the way they belong. Look at Colossians chapter one again.
“The Son is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created
through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and
the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the
supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through
him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things
in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
“Once you
were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to
present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if
you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope
held out in the gospel...” (Col. 1:15-23).
It’s time to
stop trying to be someone else, and start dealing with the hurts and
pains that lead us into sin. God never wanted this for you, instead He wants
you to partake in His divine nature and escape the corruption caused by evil
desires (2 Peter 1:4). He wants to be one with you!
Put those
pains, hurts, and labels to death. Come to Christ and be born again, be a new
creature, be the you that you were made to be, that no one else can be. It’s
not just about losing yourself, it’s about finding yourself and being truly free.
I am trying a first. At the bottom is a link to an audio file of the sermon, you are welcome to read, or skip to the end and listen, or both.
When I come
into River City Church and I look around, I see a beautiful sight! I see men
and women, brothers and sisters, black and white, side by side. I see the power
of God at work. I see racial reconciliation, I see forgiveness, I see
understanding, and oneness. I see unity and a celebration of racial and ethnic diversity.
Not a lie of colorblindness, but an appreciation and respect for our
differences and the beautiful array of giftedness that God blesses us with.
I feel
gratefulness for the freedom to speak about a legacy that is not my own, but
inspires me daily. In the last week of Black History Month I got to share
something that has been on my heart since January 15th, Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
On MLK day, I
read an intriguing article about Dr. King (you can find the link at the end of
this post).A young man, only three
generations from slavery on a Virginian tobacco plantation, was raised by a
father who worked his way from a share cropper to a good paying blue color job.
This father grew up in the days of the Jim Crow laws, the days when there was
no high school for blacks, and though he was only able to earn a 7th
grade education, he was able to provide his son with a quality college
education.
His son
thrived on this educational experience and his eyes were opened to a new world
of Black Nationalism. He discovered and devoured the autobiography of Malcom X.
When he came home and visited his father he mentioned that he believed that Dr.
King just didn’t go far enough and that Malcom X was willing to go where he
couldn’t. His father told him that Malcom X didn’t accomplish anything like
what Dr. King did.
Here’s the
kicker, his son asked “So what did Dr. King accomplish besides giving a great
speech?” Wow! His father was stunned and told him “You have no idea what Martin
Luther King actually accomplished!”
You know
what? Most of us have no idea what Jesus Christ actually accomplished! What do
we talk about Jesus doing? He saved our souls! That’s amazing! But that’s not
all. That was not His whole mission, and if we miss what Jesus actually
accomplished, we miss out on everything!
So often we
limit what Jesus did. We make it a very external and intangible thing. We end
up with portraits of Jesus that don’t resemble Him at all. Read Jesus message,
how often does He specifically talk about saving our souls? He doesn’t! Yes,
Paul tells us that through Christ we receive this (1 Peter 1:9), but why does
Jesus say He came? Let’ face it, most of us don’t know what Jesus actually came
to do!
Martin
Luther King didn’t just march, he didn’t just make great speeches; that was not
what he accomplished. The father of the young man whose story we began with
gave his son the answer. He told him, you don’t know the horrors I grew up with.
The lynching, the senseless killing, the beatings, the sheer hatred we faced
and the fear it created. We were in such fear of the racist white man and what
he would do if we stood up for our rights that we were trapped. But he showed
us how to take a beating and not fight back. He taught us how not to lower
ourselves to their level. He showed us that we could take the worst the world
had to throw at us and we could get back up and keep going. He showed us the
power we always had and never know was there. What did Martin Luther King Jr.
actually accomplish? He ended racial terrorism in the south.
So, what about Jesus? What did he actually accomplish? We tend to
create an image of a very small Jesus. He is able to forgive our sins, to save
our souls on the Day of Judgment, and give us entrance to heaven, but is very
ineffective in changing our lives in the here and now. He is a God of the past
because He can take away the sins we committed, and he is a God of the future
because he is preparing a place for us, but not a God of the present.
We make him
a God who saves the soul but leaves heart, body, and mind to fend for itself.
We make Him a Jesus who doesn’t care about our problems, only our soul. A Jesus
who would have turned to that woman with the bloody issue who touched his robe
and said “I know you didn’t just get blood on my robe!” We create a Jesus who
would tell the sick and demon possessed to come back when they were ready to
get their lives right, who would never have sat down with that floosy at the
well because he wanted to save souls, not deal with their personal problems. We
end up with a polished, censored, shaved, and rationalized Jesus … a picture
painted by Satan himself.
Nothing
could be farther from who Jesus is! Jesus came to end spiritual terrorism. Jesus
came to give abundant life, not at the end of time, not at his return, not at
the end of your life, not 20 years from now, not tomorrow, but today!!
Satan likes
nothing more than to trap us with fear. The truth is we can receive the
forgiveness of our sins and allow Satan to keep us trapped in the system of
sin. Satan would love to keep us blinded to what Jesus actually came for.
Jesus came
to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). What does that really mean? It means
calling us to a new life. A new life which is actually an old one, because it’s
the life God always intended for us.
Christ came
not just to forgive sin, not just to die for the sins of our past, but to free
us from the system of sin.
Christ has set us free. He wants us to enjoy freedom. So stand firm.
Don’t let the chains of slavery hold you again (Gal. 5:1).
Close your eyes. Picture yourself shackled by the hands of Satan. From
those shackles hang the links that are my sins. Picture your sins, all you have
ever done against the Lord, hanging from your wrists, entangling your whole
body. You lift them up and try to carry them forward, but the weight is too
much. But there is Christ! He says, you don’t have to carry these any more,
you’re free! And he gives us the key to the shackles. But we never take the
chains off. Instead we continue to let Satan have control, we make more and
more links because we stay in that same old system of sin.
I can keep wearing the chains even
though I’ve been set free. “I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link
by link, yard by yard, I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free
will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you? Or do you not know the weight
and length of your own.” Or, I can channel the power God has given me and break
these chains and never put them on again!
Jesus was
called the Son of Man for a reason! He showed us the power God has put inside
of us that Satan has convinced us never existed. Jesus stepped into a boat. He
went over to the other side of the lake and came to his own town. 2 Some men
brought to him a man who could not walk. He was lying on a mat. Jesus saw that
they had faith. So he said to the man, “Don’t lose hope, son. Your sins are
forgiven.”
3 Then some
teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is saying a very evil
thing!”
4 Jesus knew
what they were thinking. So he said, “Why do you have evil thoughts in your
hearts? 5 Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’? Or to say, ‘Get up and
walk’? 6 I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins.”
Then he
spoke to the man who could not walk. “Get up,” he said. “Take your mat and go
home.” 7 The man got up and went home.
8 When the
crowd saw this, they were filled with wonder. They praised God for giving
that kind of authority to men.
We have the power
from God to forgive sin?! Yes, we can tell Satan that rather than embracing
anger, guilt, grudges, and strife we choose to forgive. We can get up and walk
in the power of the Lord now that sin has no hold on us, and we can stand
against everything Satan throws our way.
10 Finally,
let the Lord make you strong. Depend on his mighty power. 11 Put on all of
God’s armor. Then you can stand firm against the devil’s evil plans. 12 Our
fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities
and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in
the heavenly world.
13 So put on
all of God’s armor. Evil days will come. But you will be able to stand up to
anything. And after you have done everything you can, you will still be
standing.(Eph. 6:10-13).
The Lord
came to show us how to take a beating. He taught us how not to lower ourselves
to Satan’s level. He showed us that we could take the worst the Satan has to
throw at us and we can get back up and keep going. He showed us the power we
always had and never knew was there. What did Jesus actually accomplish? He
ended Spiritual terrorism and delivered us not only from judgment, but from the
system of sin. What are you waiting for? Break free!!
A question which I am often asked and weighs heavily on my heart is how to reach the
poor. I have given this topic much thought and I take it to God every day,
seeking for the answer. Here is
what He has given me. The answer, as I see it, begins with asking a deep soul searching question. How dirty are you willing to
get your hands? Seriously, look at what Jesus did. When Jesus began His “war on
poverty,” if I may borrow President Johnson’s phrase, He was completely
intentional in all He did. By this I mean that it was no mistake that when He
was born there was “no place” for Him or His parents. It was no coincidence
that his parents were so poor they paid the beggars tax of two turtle doves
when they went to the temple. It was not mere happenstance that Jesus became a
homeless man that had “no place to lay his head.” It was not because of a
wrong turn that Jesus ended up in Samaria with a woman the world shunned. It was
not by chance that Jesus befriended the prostitute, tax collector, sinner,
leper, thief, and outcast.
Jesus fully embraced the
poor and their world. He walked in their shoes, he felt their pain, their
hunger, their rejection, their sorrow and their loneliness. He didn’t judge,
but instead saw the humanity, the value, the person He created, deep within the
sinner. He did know “what sort of woman” washed His feet, and He looked at her
with love, not disgust. Seeing the lost and lonely state of man, knowing what it
was to have no place in this world, He called out to them, He showed them that
they were valuable, He created a place for them by making them His community,
His family, He gave them hope, He made them His life, and then He gave His life
for them. Nothing that He did was not intentional. And He didn’t do this so we
wouldn’t have to, He did it to show us how.
So, I ask again, how
dirty are you willing to get your hands? Are you prepared to step out of your
comfort zone and into another world? Are you prepared to make room in your
life, to prepare a place for those who have no place? Can you forget everything
you think you know about the poor and see their precious souls?
Our goal at River City
Ministry is to serve in the spirit of Matthew 25, while seeking and saving the
lost (Luke 19:10). We believe that the work that Jesus said he came to do in
Luke 4:18-19 is the same work we are here to continue. We thank you for your
concern, support and love. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to learn firsthand
how to reach the poor. Please continue to pray for us and for the poor and
homeless. God bless you all.
“The
Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for
the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The
eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to
them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21).
A lot has changed since
I came to River City Ministry in July; mostly me. I was pretty unsure of myself
when I came. It took time to earn my right to speak in this community. I feared
that the cultural differences would make it difficult for me to relate to the
people I encountered. Fear and uncertainty had a hold on me that I had yet to
acknowledge.
The time I spend
processing with Anthony, my mentor, the time I spend alone with God, and the
time I spend with the people who frequent River City Ministry, both clients and
staff, drive me to deep soul searching.
I realized that many of
my wounds of my past have yet to heal. I thought I put behind me, many things
that I actually only buried. Sitting with broken
people made me realize that my own wounds are not that different. I realized
that it’s the human element of brokenness that allows us to be empathetic and
draws us together. Hope is all the more beautiful when viewed from a point of
desperation. It puts us in a wonderful place to acknowledge our need for a
savior.
As I
become more confident of who I am in Christ, I grow stronger and more courageous in reaching out to others.
More
than ever before, here now burns in me a strong and urgent evangelistic spirit.
It’s such a privilege to be an instrument of God’s will to play a part in
someone coming to know Him!
2013
was a banner year for restorations. Our combined total was 192 people who
renewed their walk with the Lord. There were also 93 people who were baptized
last year. This is the most baptisms in a year at RCM since 2009. We have
immersed 602 people since Anthony began leading the evangelistic outreach in
2007.
Last
year I was blessed to have 125 Bible studies which lead to 76 restorations and
21 baptisms. I was able to speak with over 600 people about God and I look
forward to the opportunities that God allows me in 2014. Thank you for your
constant support and prayer and for making our ministry your ministry. God
bless you all.
P.S.
Please consider supporting this
apprenticeship or River City Ministry. Feel free to forward this newsletter or share
our contact information with them. Thank you, and God bless you.
