The Mighty Call to Love in Action

This morning I thought I was going to lay in bed a few extra hours and just watch a sappy love story on DVD.
...Then the Spirit of God fell on me, right here on my air mattress, and everything changed.

When is America going to WAKE UP?! When is the bride of Christ going to get real about the fact that God's love for the broken is as thick as ever, and you and I are called to participate in His love?! Jesus paid much too high a price for us to bypass preaching the Gospel!!! There are people who are homeless, afflicted by disease, broken by family, victims of murder, orphaned by "accidental" parents, stricken with the demonic, yet we SIT HERE! AND DO NOTHING!!!!! Why do we somehow think God enjoys watching them suffer?!

We live our wonderful lives (which we are thankful for), but our eyes become so stuck on us that we can't even think about getting them on Jesus or His heart!!!! America is way overdue for drawing close to God... we'd rather draw close to our iPhones, mansions, "bling-bling", TVs and computers. I think more often than not, the case isn't whether we know what needs to be done in the Kingdom; it's thinking we can't possibly change world (and if that's your stance, you are dreaming much too small), and because we don't "feel called" to a certain group of people, or nation, we aren't responsible for doing anything. We think someone else will take care of it. Nothing could be further from the truth! The reality is that until we become intentional about ministry, it's not going to happen. Did we somehow forget the passage where Jesus told us to GO, and heal the sick, cleanse the lepors, and cast out demons?! When are God's people going to awaken and ignite their spirits?!?!

We act as if we don't need Jesus; as if the cross means nothing to us! WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! God gave us the gift of salvation so we can work it out with fear and trembling, and be His hands and feet in the Earth! We are COMMISSIONED to preach the Gospel--it is part of our DNA! Your make-up and mine consists of the Truth that is preached by us having the very access to God at any time of any day! We love only because He first loved us, and His love is what compels us to love IN ACTION. The Bible says Jesus Himself was moved with compassion. We're called to imitate Christ--why do we think we should be any different?! We ought to be moved with compassion like He is! I would hope we would more than consider opening our eyes to the love Jesus DEMONSTRATED when He walked the Earth. Love is more than words; it is ACTION!

I am absolutely disgusted with our response as Christ's Bride. I am sickened by the fact that missions means nothing to some believers, when it's God's heart exactly! I've said this before--our mission field is everywhere God wills us to be, but if you're willing, He will give you a burden for a nation or people group that is in turn a treasure for you to carry. It's a treasure from heaven you can keep your entire life because you know God shared an intimate part of His heart with you. Listen, God wants to let you feel His heart, but you have to choose to seek Him and partner with His vision to see redemption come to His people.

For me, I know that God's heart yearns to reach the Rwandan people affected by the 1994 genocide. He wants His love made known to the orphaned children who feel abandoned by their parents, and the innocent ones whose parents have been slaughtered because of their height or the width of their nose. He wants His love to reach the ones who question their worth and value because it's been destroyed and diminshed their entire lives by a group of people inferior to them. And trust me, I know He desires His love to reach the husbands who watched their wives raped before their very eyes, and the families who watched their family members be chopped to shreds with machetes and shot in the face because they were qualified in the "wrong" tribe the minute they were born. I know that I have willingly accepted to carry a portion of the burden of God's heart for these precious people and this nation, which invites me to weep with God as He weeps for His hurting people. The pain I feel in my heart for those who have experienced the ultimate evil in Rwanda is much too great for me to describe in words, but it's such a privlege to so close to Daddy that I feel His pain as well as His joy.

This intimacy with God and His response to our intercession isn't rocket science... God said Himself that if we humble ourselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, then He will hear from heaven, will forgive our sin and heal our land! Besides Christ simply being enough, what more motivation than that do we have to do something in this Earth?! You're only as effective as you choose to be, and I can guarantee you that you will never feel more effective in God's Kingdom than when you love and serve in action, because that is the divine purpose of each and every one of us.

Hear me: I am not ignoring the miraculous things God is doing in the Earth--in fact, I am praising Him every day for how He's choosing to reveal Himself to man. But I refuse to only see with eternal eyes the good that is happening. If all I offer is to see and do something about the good, I am only half-heartedly honorning Him and am only living out half of my mission and purpose. Pure and undefiled religion before God, as James said, is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. It's recognizing the trouble and then choosing to do something about it!

...Mrs. Cowman once said, "Nearly all of God's jewels are crystallized tears." I invite you to get close to your Maker and feel His heart for the broken. Let Him draw you to weep for those He weeps for. Please, Church, awaken to the needs we are called to meet. Don't wait another day to pray and think about how to get involved in missions; today is the day of salvation! God's people need to hear the Truth as much as you need to share it. We're called to bear one another's burdens, but I encourage you to take it a step further and ask to carry one of God's burdens. Remember, He doesn't need us to reach His beloved, but He will certainly use us to reach the broken if we allow and respond to Him. Don't wait any longer. Cling to His heart, and get so close you feel His heartbeat. It's absolutely possible, and it's a reality you need to experience.