“At all times preach the gospel and when necessary use words”
St Francis of Assisi famously said “At all times preach the gospel and when necessary use words”
This statement is so true. People don’t want someone jumping down their throats with religion. They wont respond to guys standing on the corner of the street with a blow horn yelling at them, saying their going to hell. Tracks usually end thrown on the ground and washed up in the gutters.
In the book of Galations it says, “All that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” It doesn’t say faith expressing itself through religion. It doesn’t say faith expressing itself through a blow horn. It doesn’t say faith expressing itself through not drinking, swearing or stealing. It say’s faith expressing itself through love.
Don’t get me wrong – not drinking, swearing, and stealing are probably things you shouldn’t be doing. And I’m sure the man with the blow horn, or the people with picket signs all have good intentions. But that alone wont gain righteousness. Being a morally good person, doesn’t mean you’re saved. All that counts is faith expressing itself through Love.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.” Whoever you clothed out of Love. Whoever you fed out of Love. Whoever you housed out of Love. You did it to Jesus. How we treat people is our response to the cross.
John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” God didn’t send the body of Christ into the world to condemn the world, to point fingers at the world, to judge the world, but to change the world. To save the world.
God has called the body of Christ to be the biggest force of tangible change the world has ever seen! Revival is when God’s people get so energized to make a difference that crime rates drop in the neighborhood. It has to be such a tangible way that the world has to take note that God is doing something. There has to be tangible evidence from a non believing world that says, because the church body is being the light in this neighborhood, everything about that community has changed.
How amazing would that be! That the non believing world recognizes the power of God! So my prayer is that where ever you live, where ever you work, that we will be sensitive to the needs. That the scales would be peeled off our eyes and we would have a spiritual awakening to what is going on around us. What is happening on the streets of our city. What’s going on inside the houses of our neighbors. And when that does happen, when we have our own spiritual awakening, that we would do everything in our will to fill that need with love.
walkinginhisdust
