I’ve been reading Tim Keller’s book Ministries of Mercy. Man that dude knows how to articulate scripture, theology and culture. A thought from Keller based on Mark 10:17:

“It appears that Jesus sees care for the poor as part of the essence of being a Christian.”

There is a certain hope for many people who follow Jesus. We see our broken world, all the hurt and pain caused by sin, and we have hope that God’s people-the church can and will do something to deeply love and serve our broken world through Jesus’ grace and power. This is what keeps me up at night.

Yet, it’s quite difficult to look into one past and read the above quote by Keller and realize that I’ve missed the mark in so many areas. For instance, I read scripture in light of being selfish, I went to church to get “fed,” and the fact that many of the prayers  that I prayed were so self-focused.

Jesus taught us to pour our lives out for others, to stop when our “neighbor” is in need and bring aid, love, comfort and sacrifice, and to give our time and resources to help out. And yet for years I knew this, but I wanted to ignore the gospel or find ways to justify my non-action. It’s because of my attitude that the church is so anemic and lacks the power of the gospel to  transform cities and nations for God’s glory!

As a Christ-follower, I have to stop pursuing Jesus for what I can get, instead I have to start pursing the broken world for what I can give…And I think its in that journey that one finds the holistic gospel coming to life and the joy of what it means to love and serve humanity through Jesus’ grace and power. It’s truly the hope of the gospel.

Let the journey continue…

Subscribe to the post comments feeds or Leave a trackback