To be Christ to the WHOSOEVER

NEW ORLEANS

I can't wait for this weekend! Summit Church is going to be taking our 1st ever official Missions Trip down to New Orleans. We will be working with West Vego Church down there and they have been amazing at setting us up and providing us additional information as needed. I think it's wonderful when churches come together and work to be Christ to those hurting and in need...it doesn't happen enough.

Recently I've been reading alot, and in a way I've had to, but I've also really enjoyed what God has been showing me throughout my reading. I finished the book The Gutter by Craig Gross (the founder of XXXChurch.com), and I was amazed by the attitude and heart behind everything that was written as well as the situations that were described.

The best quote from the book was from one of Gross' friends who said "you can't blame the darkness for being dark, but you can blame the light for not shining in it". That's probably where I am with our Missions Team. I'm not blaming anyone, but I am calling us to act.

So many times, every Sunday, we take in, or even worse we don't, and then we keep God to ourselves. The only way we'd invite someone to church is if they said "Hey can we come to your church", and we said YES you can. It's sad when people aren't excited...not about their church building or their Pastor, or whatever, but when they are not excited about Christ and what that could mean to another person.

Ultimately, we're all beggars telling another beggar where to find food, and in that we should not become a "Holy Huddle" and keep Christ to ourselves, but share Him as if it were to be food to a starving person. I know everyone has seen those commercials where they show the starving children and how you could feed them through awesome groups like Compassion international and Children's Hunger Fund, but imagine those physicial needs that we see flashed in front of us are nothing like the spiritual needs that people have...the only difference is instead of seeing a bloated belly and the tears of a mother in need, we see a BMW driving man who is cheating on his wife and wondering how to pay off debt (we think "that guys evil and in trouble...maybe even trouble he desserves", and that's because we're so quick to forget the fact that we were in the trouble, we were evil, and we were well deserving of Hell...but Christ thought more of us...enough to lay down His life.

Now, we need to do the same "to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us", and to see people as "pre-Christian", the future Son/Daughter of a King.