Excessively busy, physically fatigued, emotionally drained and information overloaded — But enough about me, how has your week been? J “Similar,” you say? These wagon-wheel ruts are getting deep in our culture’s well-worn paths on our maddening journey toward lifestyle management and standard of living maximization! Three-cheers for the American dream! Isn’t it time for what motivational author and consultant Laurie Beth Jones calls a “pattern interrupt”? It’s time for us to stop, slow down and help the world.
Jesus spoke of coming to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). That “other-centered” mission took him out of cultures well-worn paths of personal concern and into trail-blazing ventures of life-altering significance. We are all called to be world changers. John Wesley once said, “There is no holiness but social holiness.” By that, he meant true Christian piety leaves footprints of social and spiritual transformation everywhere – undeniable evidence that Jesus has “been in the neighborhood!” We leave our homes every day to go to work, shop, bank, taxi kids around, enjoy a dinner or evening out, maybe (hopefully) even attend church. What kind of footprints are we leaving? After we’ve “come-and-gone,” who might they say has “been in the hood?”
Pastor Rick Warren likes to say, “you were made for a mission.” John Wesley captured the essence and spirit of this sense of total deployment of “my” life for others: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” I realize that’s a lot of “cans” to meet. But Paul does remind us, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 ESV). So, here’s what you can do to change the world and join Jesus in his mission to set people free.
Christians are called to pray and act simultaneously. Log on to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website (ushmn.org) and take action to speak out on the human genocide currently progressing in Darfur of Sudan. Join the ONE campaign (one.org) to help advocate to make extreme poverty, aids and malaria history. Read E. Benjamin Skinner’s exposé on the modern day slavery we call human trafficking entitled “A Crime So Monstrous.” Pray for the persecuted church internationally and become informed of their plight with Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com).
Know that true liberation only comes through the Holy Spirit. Discover that global Pentecostalism is now the largest and fastest growing expression of Protestant Christianity in the world. Once chided and snickered at as “strange and bizarre people,” Pentecostals (ala Miller and Yamaori in their book “Global Pentecostalism”) are now being experienced around the world as the new “compassionate conservatives.” Not only are their hands up in the air, but also extended out to the poor, disenfranchised, hungry, sick and hurting. People are being healed, liberated, set free and made whole. Sounds like Jesus is showing up (Isaiah 61:1-3).
Learn to know, understand, live and give your faith away with others in safe and nurturing relationships like in the Alpha movement (alphana.org). Help our overly addicted culture escape the grip of habits and heart-breaking actions that destroy self and others through partnership with organizations such as Teen Challenge (teenchallengeusa.com), Pure Warrior ministries (purewarrior.org) and Celebrate Recovery (celebraterecovery.com).
Where will you be walking this week? Make sure that you are leaving tracks for Jesus!
Pastor David Parker
