Tonight, I have a couple related thoughts, both related to evangelism

Thought One

Over the past week, I have been working at getting rid of the weeds in the flower beds of the parsonage. In addition, I have been fixing the edging bricks. This past week, one of the local tree cutting services gave us some wood chips, so I covered the freshly weeded beds with wood chips. It’s amazing how different the front of the house looks now. I still need to trim the rosebushes. They are all over the place. One is a beautiful dark crimson rose the other one has a beautiful coral color to it. As I was weeding, i was amazed at the strength of the root system of the weeds. The weeds go down into the soil, but they also crawl across the soil and put new roots down. If you don’t get the roots, they will just come back again. I’m hoping the tree chip covering will help keep the weeds that I didn’t get all the way down, but probably not!

Sin is alot like these weeds. It doesn’t take much to get it’s foot hold, spreads easily, and to get rid of it can be difficult. But, isn’t that our job as Christ’s church? Just like pulling the weeds, pulling sin out of people’s lives can be messy and dirty. After I got cleaning up the flowerbeds, I had to go take a shower to clean up myself. We can get involved and over our heads quickly, when we start messing with the weeds. We also have this assurance, without Christ’s help, we will get tangled up in the weeds that should come as no surprise. But with the power of Christ in us, we can be Christ’s ambassadors, taking the message to others and being His hands and feet. We can urge others to be reconciled to God.

Thought Two

I’ve been letting this week’s sermon stir around in my head for the last few days. This week’s sermon is titled “Does Anybody Hear Her?” Again, it is from the Casting Crowns’ Lifesong CD. (Did I tell you that this CD has influenced my thinking lately?) Verse two goes like this;

She is yearning
For shelter and affection that she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming and he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason and she gives herself away

Does anybody hear her?
Can anybody see
Or does anybody even know she’s going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that’s tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her
Can anybody see?

As I sit here tonight, this could describe any of our students who attend Mosaic. I think about the students who show up on Wednesday evening. I think about the love that we need to show them. About the love that they don’t get at home. I know several have responded how much it breaks their heart to send our students home at the end of the night. As a pastor that is cool; to see godly compassion for those who need it so desperately.

Jesus commanded his disciples to “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them…Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you…”

Our job as a church is to go out and make disciples, immersing them in God, the Father; Jesus, the Son; and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them the things that Jesus taught us. Paul asked the question in Romans, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”

Like I said this song has been rattling around in my brain for a few days now. I often wonder how many, within the shadow of our church, could really use what we have? This relates to last week’s sermon, how many are trapped by a “slick talker” rather than a genuine follower of Christ? We need to be real and share the gospel with those who really need it. We can’t be fake. People can see that from a mile away. My heart aches for those in our community. I know many in our church have that same heart ache. I am glad for that. How do we reach them? We are working together to do this. Mosaic Student Ministries is one way that we are reaching the students of Henry County for Christ. If we can help students avoid the trap that is described in the song and share the love of Jesus with them we’re on our way.