Helping Everyone?

As I was preparing to teach our Tuesday evening discipleship study, I came across the following statement/challenge. I suggest you read it slowly several times so that its broader meaning and implications can be mentally absorbed. After you think it through, take some action. I'd love to hear from you about your experience in living out the power of the gospel. Again, read this s-l-o-w-l-y:

It's natural to want to help people who are like you, who like you, and who you like. But what would it mean for you to help people who are not like you, who do not like you, and who you do not like?

Staring Down the Proverbial "Fork"

"When God invites you to join Him in His work, He presents a God-sized assignment He wants you to accomplish. It will be obvious you can't do it on your own. If God doesn't help, you will fail. This is the crisis point at which many people decide not to follow what they sense God is leading them to do. Then they wonder why they do not experience God's presence, power, and activity the way some Christians do. The word crisis comes from a Greek word that means 'decision'. The same word is often translated 'judgement'. We aren't talking about a calamity in your life such as an accident or death. The crisis is not a disaster or a bad thing. It is a turning point or a fork in the road that calls for a decision. You must decide what you believe about God...This is not a one time experience. How you live your life daily is a testimony of what you believe about God."

H. Blackaby & R. Blackaby, Experiencing God

We are His!

"'You are my witnesses'-the Lord's declaration-'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. No god was formed before Me, and there will be none after Me.'"

Isaiah 43:10


As God's people, we belong to Him. Notice the possessive language used by God in describing us: "my witnesses" and "my servant". Our lives are completely defined by who we are as God's possession. Properly understanding this will cause us to arrange our lives differently than our worldly counterparts, and perhaps differently from our fellow believers who are struggling coming to terms with the reign of a sovereign and jealous God. Ask yourself this difficult question: Am I living my life as the possession of God, biblically content to have my identity and desires defined by Him? Or am I living my life as though it belongs to me, attempting to find a meaning and purpose apart from Him?