Friday, June 24, 2016

WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?

What is it going to take to reach the entire world with the powerful good news that Jesus is the resource for hope?  What can be thought, said, or done to make aggressive impact on our neglected, our forgotten, our lonely, and our broken?  I believe that the hope lies within one mighty seed of human behavior that will stun society and shake the world.

Humility.

It is going to take humble spirits to wreak favorable havoc in a dark and selfish state...of which each of us tends to participate.  From top to bottom and side to side the range of personalities all have one thread in common; we are impaired because the cream of self-awareness perpetually rises to the top.  Jesus devastated such aggression.

What is it going to take?  This is such a monumental question because we already understand the question and know the answer.  Yet, we struggle to attain it.  Humility appears to be not so simple.  It takes the grandest self-sacrifice known to the heart of any man or woman.  Yet, we treat the subject as if it is a rather sweet character and a mild disposition like trying to be good.  Hardly.

Humility was the commitment of Jesus.  He was beaten, tortured, and died due to the truth that He could elevate each of us above himself.  In humility Best regarded us as superior.  It is within this framework that compassion is both allowed and then executed.

What is it going to take to inspire the church, reach the neighbor, and change the world?  It will not be due to church affiliate nor will it be because we regularly sit in church buildings.  It will only be because and when we can express authentic humility that there will be a hopeful surge of renewal.

For myself, I have yet to master this element of the Christian walk.  Many of you could attest to this from your experience with me.  Yet, it is the call and the direction of every believer.  Until we each grasp the truth that we are the least in any room, we will take up a few waking hours seeking or serving, proving or disproving; but we will not make impact like Jesus.

We are encouraged (no, called) to take up our crosses and follow him....day by day.  As we drag them through the streets, visible to all, may we dare hold the bravery to look bad in order to make even our enemies look good.  This....it what it is going to take to awaken a society which has rocked itself to sleep by our rampant self-serving.  Via the eyes of humility we are able to see the value of every man and every woman regardless of religious (or non) bent, educational level, or independent callings.

What is it going to take....practically speaking?

We must never write any person off as hopeless.  Jesus was always mingling among, what the religious leaders posed as, the wrong crowd.  We must get over the sense that what we each think, individually, is what God thinks.  Only by a downward shift will we truly be open to the upward call.  God has mighty and magnificent things in store for His children.  We must be open to changing our minds, reversing some courses, and redirecting ministerial energies in order to discover more clearly what it is going to take to win the most souls in this day and time.

This might be a portion of what it is going to take....to reach more, teach more, be more.




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