further thought on 'that porch by debenhams'...

Maybe I got carried away there...It should be made clear, not everyone needs to go and get mad about helping homeless people giving themselves on behalf of the poor. I know that sounds like a contradiction of scripture – but bear with me. I mentioned that it shouldn’t be a surprise to do such a thing, shouldn’t be a one off, that it should be the natural thing to do…in a sense it may be the case, but the important thing isn’t that we get hyped up about helping the homeless and poor, or anyone actually…(still bear with me!)…

The important thing is that we follow Jesus, and by that I mean follow the Holy Spirit and his leading, keep in step with the Spirit, to see what God is doing and join in. We serve only Jesus.

For some, that may mean they keep walking past the guy in the porch next to debenhams, and just pray for him.

Follow Jesus, not our own thoughts / guilt trips about ‘what we ought to do’…

This actually means that sometimes, he'll lead us to do something very unnatural or fairly abnormal, even though doing it would be the natural thing, because our ultimate action is serving Jesus in the various ways he leads us in. It's this that needs to be our natural response, our 'normal' way of life.

The social gospel is in just as much danger as the prosperity gospel simply because it puts a word before the word “gospel”, as if the word gospel wasn’t enough already. It categorizes the gospel and takes away some of its meaning. It means ‘this is the gospel, and that is not’…ok, there are things that the gospel is not, but it’s holistic if anything – its goods news for all of life, in every area of life.

It’s good news because it means Jesus in all of life. If our focus leaves Jesus we focus too much on social things, or wealth and riches, our ethic quickly becomes man made. The holy spirit may lead us to give up all to help the poor. Equally we may be lead to help someone dressed in a suit, looking very wealthy – but they’re in just as much need for care and the love of Jesus as anyone else.

We can’t restrict our view to people and to man made things and ideals – our eyes always have to be upon the Lord Jesus – to see what he’s doing and to do the same.

I heard yesterday, that “Jesus didn’t die that we’d become Christian, but he came that we may become Human.”

He came to give life to full. That’s what we need to live. His life is the criteria for human living, for humanity – for what humanity is meant to look like. That’s what we embody, we are meant to live a life that is different to the world. To live in such a way that those around us realise that ‘that is the way life was meant to be lived.’