Friday Little Bits: Christian? Prove it!

If I give

To a needy soul but don't have love then who is poor?

It seems all the poverty is found in me

So let my life be the proof,

The proof of Your love

Let my love look like You and what You're made of

How You lived, how You died

Love is sacrifice

Oh, let my life be the proof,

The proof of Your love

from "The Proof of Your Love" by for KING and COUNTRY

What does your life prove about God?  

I have heard it said for years that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the you are the best Christian that somebody knows.  Let's assume for the next few minutes that you invest in this blog that that statement is true.  Christians are reflections of Jesus, so how accurately are you reflecting Him? 

• Jesus noticed those that the rest of the world had mostly cast aside.  Think woman at the well, lepers, blind men beside the road, greedy tax collector.  Will you notice the "invisible" people today?  Tomorrow?  Four months, three days from now? (When you have totally forgotten this post and no one is reminding you to notice those whom Jesus would move toward.)
• Jesus valued the humble and lowly in spirit.  Think Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).  Do you see the value in the "invisible" people or are they just there to give you your coffee, take your ticket, scan your grocery items?  Do you view others as better than yourself?
• Jesus put loving others right up there in importance with loving God.     “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”  He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.  The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  Matt. 22:36-39 (HCSB)  Think about your words -- spoken publicly or privately, written on social media sites -- do they reflect Jesus and of the great lengths He went to secure my freedom from sin and my hope for now and for eternity? 

I have considered all these things, and I don't measure up.  Neither do you.  I may not know you personally, but I can say with a great degree of certainty that you aren't perfectly reflecting Jesus either.  

I'm here to challenge all of us to more accurately reflect the heart of the Father who loved us when there was nothing lovable about us, to the point that He sent His Son to die on a cross and incur His wrath for sin on our behalf; in doing so, He adopted us into His family.  We didn't deserve His mercy.  We shouldn't love the "invisible" people because they deserve it, but because we received mercy and love when we ourselves didn't deserve it.  Loving them is a reflection of God's loving us.

Thanks for reading.  Now move toward an orphan, a widow, a foreigner, the poor.  Reflect the Father.

Al

4theVoiceless Ministry Project Updates: 

Hope for Haiti:  We will let you know next week where and when 4theVoiceless will be selling Hope for Haiti bracelets (and our other jewelry) in the weeks to come.  In the meantime they are available at the CHC Connections Bookstore at CHC Southaven.  We are still at about 26% of the funding required to build the new House of Abraham orphanage, and construction has begun.  Before reading any further, would you stop and join others in praying that God would raise up this money in time for the new home to be completed by mid-November.

Adoption Cookbook:  Recipes continue to trickle in, but we need them to pour in over the next couple of weeks.  We would like this project to be completed by mid-October so that we can begin selling them on Orphan Sunday (Nov. 4) and sell them through the Christmas buying season.  Remember, this project will give families much-needed financial assistance with their adoptions.  Anyone can submit a recipe; click here to send us yours (up to 10 recipes per person).  Thank you!

Orphanology Study:  Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at CHC Southaven from September 26 through November 7.  Click here for more information.  Let us know you're coming!