Oprah?

Today i was watching Oprah, and it was titled "America's Poor."  37 million people are in poverty in America.  That's the population of Canada. 

God is so crafty.  I went to St. Louis 2 weeks ago to help the poor.  I really wasn't expecting much out of the trip at all.  I thought that i'd go and help someone, and then come home feeling good that I did my part.  Little did I know that God would be speaking to my heart and changing my life.  I saw not just poor people, but broken people.  People that feel left out, alone, forgotten.  I saw children that have never seen any kind of love.  I ask myself, why has God forgotten them? 

God hasn't forgotten them.  We have.  The church that we visited while we were there was full of people that LOVE the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the oppressed.  So many families adopted children that looked nothing like them.  That came from places that are scary and dirty and poor.  Some of the kids have diseases that no one else wants to deal with.  These are children who people stopped loving.  But God loves them.  It was like seeing a piece of heaven in the members of this church because they not only speak the gospel, they live it every day. You can see the gospel in their diverse families, where they live, who they care for, who they help, how they give their money and their time. 

That week got me thinking about why most of the church isn't LIVING the gospel.  There are millions of orphans in St. Louis, and if every church in that city adopted just 2 children... 2 children per church... there would be no orphans in St. Louis.  What is wrong with the body of Christ?  Why do we discriminate and segregate?  Helping the poor is more than standing in a soup line serving the homeless.  it's sacrificing your pride and being their friend and loving them.  Oprah does a better job at helping the poor than the church does.  Oprah doesnt just stand in a soup line, she goes to the homes of the poor and cares about their lives.  She gives most of her money to the poor and the orphaned.  Dont you think if Oprah can do all that, God's people can do much more?

i feel like there is so much that i need to learn.  i need to not be blind anymore. 

Currently Reading Flags of Our Fathers By James Bradley, Ron Powers see related

I want to remember

yawn... what is wrong with me?  maybe i am getting old.  yes.  that's it.  i'm old and rickety.  lazy.  that's the word.  why can't life be easy?  why must i always be learning something or going through some sort of "season" (this is a new word that i learned christians love to use, so i thought since i am a christian, i should use it too)  in life?  it's rather exhausting.  always reading, and praying, and praying and talking, and talking and cyring, and crying and listening, and listening and reading... when shall the cycle end?  i  need to come to grips and realize that my life here on earth, which i was not made for, is full of sin of which i create and indulge in.  because of sin i will never be truly happy and at peace.  not until my Lord comes back and retrieves me from this world.  when he comes and whisks me away to the place i was created for and He forever comforts me and talks to me and loves me.  not until Jesus the prince of peace, the creator of the universe, our saving grace returns and takes us HOME will we be happy.  i love the world.  it is so beautiful.  everything about it.  god made it beautiful in every way.  yet... i know this is not where i am supposed to be.  i am not content.  i long to be in heaven where i was created to be.  i long to be in the presence of Jesus.  my heart longs for him.  i can't wait.  i just can't.  how great is that day going to be?  i hope to be taught.  i hope to be taught and broken.  i want to remember why Jesus had to die.  i want to remember that this earth is not meant for me.  i am meant to be with my Dad.  my dad in heaven who would take a bullet for me.  who took the cross for me.  i want to remember. 

Currently Reading Flags of Our Fathers By James Bradley, Ron Powers see related

oh, how i do love my friends.  i am really hoping to get some snow tomorrow.  reason:  1.) my history of the early republic test will be DELAYED.  2.) i can read flags of our fathers (which i highly recommend)  and finally 3.) so i can throw a snowball at anybody... just anybody :)

Currently Reading The Taking By Dean Koontz see related

hmm... apathetic.  that's what i am.  do i really feel like doing anything?  no.  not really.  i would rather:     A. read  B. sleep  C. watch Roseanne  sounds fun, huh?  i am, however, excited about spring break.  I'm going to St. Louis for a mission.  I'm real excited to see what God is going to do there.  how F-U-N.

Today, i got the strangest, most powerful feeling of LOVE, one only of which could have come from the Lord.  i was at large group tonight and i turned around to watch the people around me worship and i then just realized how much God loves them all.  It was a feeling that all at once funneled into my mind and i was struck with awe at the sight of God's kingdom.  I was watching the people in the worship band pour out their hearts to God and thought "wow.  Jesus loves them so much."  I could imagine God, in all of his power and glory, looking at them with tender loving eyes and saying "these are my children, whom i love."  i've known now for a long time that Jesus loves everyone, but this was a different sort of realization that i stumbled upon.  It was a realization that didn't involve me.  i know Jesus loves me, but i forget that he loves THEM just as much.  i have gotten so self absorbed that all i think about is how God is affecting MY life, and what he is blessing ME with, and how much Jesus loves ME, and praying for Jesus to heal MY pain.  Well, what about THEM?  Jesus wants me to care about them because he cares about them.  his kingdom consists of more than just me.  his love reaches farther than the depths of MY heart.  my image of God is so short sighted.  so limited.  my God can fit into a box, and book, a computer screen.  but our actual God doesn't just fit.  he creates, he beacons, he loves, he destroys.  he is the ruler of all that i have confined him to, yet i still don't see that he is omnipotent not convenient.  for, it's the world that he loves and the world which he died for.    

 sigh... how amazing is our father. 

Currently Reading Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership By Sarah Sumner see related

"Anyone who thinks that treating women fairly is a feminist thing to do, not a Christian thing to do, doesn't understand Christianity."- Sarah Sumner , PH.D.