The message of biblical Christianity is not "God loves me, period," as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is "God loves me so that I might make him--his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness--known among all nations." Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is. -David Platt, Radical
Recently I have been reading the book Radical by David Platt and as I read, my desire to take the gospel to people who have never heard it has grown even more. Through Platt, my eyes have been opened to see that God calls all believers to take part in taking his Word to everyone. Radical has also caused me to re-think how much wealth God has blessed me with in light of our brothers and sisters around the word who are "without clothes and daily food." I may be just a "poor college student", but I do have a bed, clothes, a dorm to live in, water, food, and a job, which puts me in the top 15 percent of the world's people for wealth, and those are just a few of the blessings God has poured out on my life.
More than twenty-six thousand children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease. That.breaks.my.heart.
How can you and I sit in ignorance and happy bliss, living the American Dream, all the while failing to obey Jesus' command to take the gospel to all nations? How should we respond to the startling numbers of people around the world that are dying every day from hunger?
I think that we must first have faith that God will provide for our needs and then we must give generously. If God cares for the flowers of the field which are here today and gone tomorrow, as Matthew 6:30 says he does, then why do we have so little faith? Shouldn't we trust him to provide for everything we need? He loves to give good gifts to his children, (Luke 11:13, Matthew 7:11), and for those of us who have accepted Christ's free gift of salvation -- that means us!
Certainly God's desire for us is that we would use our wealth to bless others. This is a struggle for me, but I'm striving to give God full control. To help me get there, I've given up buying coffee for the next month and I'm going to go through my clothes and find articles I no longer wear to give away. I'm also going to set up an account to set aside money for tithing and giving to those in need.
What will you do?
1 comment:
Love this post! God has really laid this on my heart too. Although I don't think there's something wrong with having a normal job & family here in the US.. I badly want to do more! I really can't understand how people casually sit around and do nothing when there is so much hurt, suffering, and hunger in the world. It's way to easy to get comfortably in the American "lifestyle." Easy is nice, but typically easy doesn't make a difference.
Post a Comment