Rise & shine

Gods passion for the world. He loves all people and is good. But it is hard for people to believe that God is good because there is so much pain. How are these people supposed to find it believable?  That He is good for those that are hurting with so much pain in the world. The answer I am discovering from the Bible is a little surprising because it turns out that we’re the plan! God doesn’t have another plan. Jesus says to His followers, us as His disciples( Matt 5: 14, 16 ) YOU ARE the light of the world... Let your light shine among men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven! Jesus doesn’t say “you might be the light of the world” or “you could be the light of the world” or “I sure hope you turn out to be the light of the world”. Jesus says to us “you are it”.  In 2 Cor 5:20 Paul says God is making his appeal through us. For 2,000 years Christians have been trying to make it believable that God is so good through us, especially to those who are hurting and in pain by going to them and showing them the love of God. When we help these people, give, serve them, love on them and they see us- the body of Christ actually shows up. It becomes believable to them that God is so good.

             There are people suffering, not suffering because they haven’t heard the Gospel or because they don’t have food or because they don’t have doctors or don’t have housing. These are the people that are suffering in our world because of intentional oppression and abuse of other people... victims of injustice in our world. We know that God hates this kind of abuse and wants it to stop- Psalms 10: 17&18, Psalms 35:10. This is good news from Scripture. What is His plan for making it stop? The answer from the Bible again is that we are the plan, no other plan- Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 61. No doubt God has given us the job of justice in the world. When we feel powerless or full of despair or “who are we to do this” we can remember that the disciples felt the same during the feeding of 5,000. Jesus asked them “well, what do you have?” He told the disciples to give what they had to him. In that moment Jesus precedes to take responsibility.  “Will you give me what you have, so that I can do the miracle?”

The light of the Gospel goes to the darkest places. Let’s offer back to Jesus what He’s given us so others can know Gods goodness and freedom. We have influence.