Coming Undone

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Have you read God's Word lately? Like really read it? I have. It has me coming undone. 

This Jesus that I love and live to serve...He is a servant. This Jesus whose life I strive to mimic...He was a lowly man. He kept company with fisherman and tax collectors, sinners and the sick. A humble King who effortlessly flipped every law on its head by challenging every religious authority of His time. How? He loved God with all his heart, mind and spirit and loved others as himself.

Ok, loving God is, uh...easy-ish. I pursue a relationship with God on a daily...ahem... basis. What is this love others as myself stuff He suggests? I live in my comfy big home with my husband, our two kids, two dogs, two SUVs, two jobs, two smart phones, too many TV channels, and more clothes than I can fit into my closets. Ahem. Oh but we give our junk away to the local charity. Oh and we tithe to the church. Yeah. That is all Jesus meant by love others.

(insert big red X and hideously disapproving horn sound from Family Feud) 

Sorry folks, Jesus has more in mind than my ideas of loving others. (warning: we about to quote some scripture up in here)
 
Matthew 25:37... Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 The King replied, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

He didn't say when it is convenient for you or when you have consumed so much extra junk that it is now cluttering your obscenely ginormous home. He said, when you see. 

Every. Time.

Give. 

The kind of giving that Jesus spoke about, taught, and lived is compelled by love and mercy.  Giving empowered by the Mighty hand of God. Giving so complex in its eternal effects yet so simple in execution that a child can do it…and often does it best. Giving that bends at the knee to clean another’s filthy feet.
 
Authentic. Sacrificial. Beautiful.
 
I am completely undone. 

As if that wasn't enough undoing, brother James stepped in with the sucker punch: 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
 
Insert knife into chest. Turn.

How am I truly caring for the least? What has been right in front of me yet I've had no eyes to see? So I asked...for eyes to see. Oy.
 
Ask Him for the eyes to see and suddenly your eyes will be opened to the marginalized, their poverty and pain. Ask Him for ears to hear and you will hear the voice of the abused, neglected, and forgotten. A broken world filled with lost children starving for the Truth. Ask and you shall receive.

Jesus came to “proclaim good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…set the oppressed free.” (Luke 4) Amen!

And He calls EVERY Christian to the same kind of radical giving. 


2 Co 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Oh my soul. Thank you Jesus for your awesome Word. Thank you for using it to mess me up. I was not saved by your grace to consume and self-satisfy. I am called to live and love like you did. Sacrificial service. Jesus I pray that these readers will thoughtfully read each post from this week, the scriptures... and never be the same.