Thursday, 03 May 2007

• just thinking..."Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die."

  Coming from a place of intense poverty into the city produces a strange thing in me I think.
  
  My wife reminds me that guilt is not something that God puts on us...but still, sometimes I feel guilty...perhaps even convicted...about the fact that I've left them there.
  It's difficult for me to leave the bush...to leave people behind that I love, and people that have loved me.  Because when I leave that place, I know what I'm returning to.  I know that I'm going to a place where I can get water no problem, and that I can take a shower instead of a basin bath from stream water.
  
  I know I had sushi last night...in Nairobi...and it was good.
  
  But I feel that guilty hangover when I remember them, and it makes me do one of two things. 
  Either I numb them out and turn my heart off to their plight while I'm back in the city enjoying myself,
  or I feel and my thoughts and even tears are constantly back in Sudan for this Church that the Lord himself delights in.
  
  Maybe I'm just immature in my own perceptions and of how to "handle it".  Or maybe I am suffering from a broken heart, and the only way to heal it is to be obedient and be there with them.
  I am struck dumb by this about the Acts church:
  The people...when they come to the Lord, give EVERYTHING that they have as an offering to the Church as a blessing.  They withhold nothing.
  It sounds familiar to me...wasn't it Jesus that said, "Unless a man willingly forsakes all that he has, he cannot be my disciple."
  I can translate and explain and water that down, but only if I'm exceptionally educated, over-churched, and numb to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It melts hearts.
  
  I guess I'm not looking for an answer really, but I am wrestling with these things. 
  Last year, before I left the Sudan, I had a mind to stay there and to just give all the extra money that I had for travel expenses to the Church there and lay it all at their feet as a way to Love and because I believed in my God as one that would take care of every detail of my life...even if I was in poverty WITH the people I was trying to minister to.
  
  I realize that most everyone would deem this as a foolish thing to do, but then i think about how foolish the widow with 2 pennies to put in the offering was.  Or the woman that fed Elijah from the jar of flour and oil that she was planning to use to make her last meal for herself and her son before they would starve.
  I thought about what an offering before the Lord truly was.  And I wondered...if He really was asking for my all...is it wrong for me to do that...literally?  
  Because wasn't Jesus speaking to UN-educated and UN-churched people...that were taking him QUITE literally?  I teach these people in the Didinga Hills here when I'm allowed to preach, and I can't help but go straight to the Gospel and give them what Jesus himself said. 
  Because you know what they do? 
  They believe it...and they take it literally...and many of them don't follow because it's hard.  That was in the Bible too.  But many of them do believe...and take it literally...and calculate the cost of being like the Master and willingly choose to follow.
  These people also bear witness to miracles and acts of God there.  They know God in a way that I do NOT...but I want to.
  It is challenging, it is convicting, and it is grossly inspiring.  I bless God for those believers.  They are FREE!
  
  Bono (who IS one of my heroes and a follower of Jesus Christ) has fueled and stoked my fire many times with his bold and wonderful perspectives on God's heart for the poor.  If you've got any desire to be inspired to follow Jesus Christ in loving the poor and need some more inspiration for living simply so that more people can simply live, just click below.
  
  Take a few minutes and check out how God used Bono at the NAACP Awards for yourself at this link.  You won't regret it: 
  Who says that God's Spirit can't reside in a rockstar?
  
  Notable quotes:
  
  "Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die."
  

  “Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice but a command.”

  “Whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is or even if God exists, most will agree that God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble of the cries that we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us, if we are with them.”

  "We ought to not look at our giving as charity, but as Justice."
  
  
  And for any of you who are checking my site wondering about progress for the multi-tribal boarding school to help end the mindless hatred and killing that's going on in the Nagishot area of Southern Sudan as a result of the tribalism....It's on! 
  There will be much more coming from Lauren and I on that in the future...rest assured, but know that God has made water run through the desert for this vision.  He's a good God...and He's on the move.  I'll be emailing those of you who have expressed interest in the school as soon as I can stop spinning about it all, connect some dots and get more time.  Pray...continue to pray to God.  He hears....HEARS!  Listen for His voice with us...and pray His will.
  
  Love.
  
  

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