Day: June 27, 2018

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Have You Used Your $2?

Sunday as a part of the message I gave out $2 bills and asked people to grab a few and find a use for them that will somehow reflect the kingdom of God. It is easy to think that the big actions, the ones that are so often beyond the abilities of so many of us, are the only actions that matter. The reality is that such big actions are almost always the result of lots and lots of little actions and are usually done by people who have been trained by lots of small actions. So I asked people to grab a few $2 bills and do a kingdom act, after all those of us who are followers of Jesus are a part of a kingdom from which evil flees when that kingdom is really lived out.

So my question is simply this – what have you done with your $2 bills? If you haven’t done something yet, why not think about, or better yet pray about, what you can do.

I have a suggestion, if you don’t figure out something on your own. I know a person who is a part of Place of Peace (remember Tapestry does the meal this week and for the first time in a long time we aren’t doing jambalaya) who is having to drive to Marshfield each week for chemo and could use some help with gas. That might be a good use. No matter what doing some small kingdom act this week.

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Quote from “The Hole in Our Gospel”

The small group to which I and Pam belong is presently reading Richard Stearns’ modern classic “The Hole in Our Gospel“. I read this book years ago and it is wonderful how pertinent it still is. Here’s a part of the book that hit me today.

Finally, many Christians believe poverty to be the result of sinfulness and therefore see evangelism as the best, and sometimes only, medicine. They reason that if only the poor were reconciled to God through Jesus Christ and their spiritual darkness lifted, then their lives would begin to change. Poverty indeed can have profound spiritual dimensions, and reconciliation through Christ is a powerful salve in the lives of the rich or poor. But salvation of the soul, as crucial as it may be for fullness of life both in the here and now and in eternity, does not by itself put food on the table, bring water out of the ground, or save a child from malaria. Many of the world’s poorest people are Christians, and their unwavering faith in the midst of suffering has taught me much.

Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and their communities no matter how poor they are. Seeing their glasses as half-full rather than half-empty can completely change our approach to helping.

SIDE NOTE – If you aren’t reading my wife’s blog you should – she doesn’t blog often but when she does it is consistently wonderful and challenging.