The Cure for a Complacent Life…

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.       Romans 12:1

And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.       Hebrews 13:16

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself  unstained by the world.        James 1:27

With good will render service,  as to the Lord, and not to men.       Ephesians 6:7

Allow me to share a few things that God has shown me this week.

1. I have come away from this past week with the conviction that we are never closer to our Heavenly Father than when we are serving people for His name’s sake.   The phrase that resonated with me most powerfully was “practically living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.  God moved so powerfully in both my and Nate’s life this week.  We had the privilege to serve people who need to be served – people who are precious in God’s sight.  With full disclosure, I’ll admit that I have always been of the opinion that people who are needy – are in most cases there because they choose to be.  What God has shown me this week is that even though that may be true – to think that way is to lose the point of why Jesus died for us in the first place.  Thank you Jesus that you did not state as a pre-requisite that you would only help, much less save, those who have never refused your help.  If so, I would have died in my sins because I have lived most of my life refusing God’s best plan for me.  Thank you that you keep knocking on the door to our hearts and you never give up on us. 

2. I have come away from this weekend with total confirmation that God does not call us to live safe lives.  Lord forgive me for chasing comfort and for striving to attain things that have no eternal significance.  In my favorite book, The Barbarian Way, Pastor Erwin McManus says this:

We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God’s optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing.  Yet Jesus’ death wasn’t to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death.  Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live.  Jesus Christ wants to take us to places where only dead men and women can go.

The orginal call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: “Follow Me”.  He wants us to surrender our lives to him and follow him into the unknown.  and if it means a life of suffering, hardship, and disappointment, it will be worth it because following Jesus Christ is more powerful and more fulfilling than living with everything in the world minus Him. 

God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance.  

I hold steadfast to the realization that God has revealed just a glimpse of these truths to me.  I want my life to be eternally focused rather that looking on things that are temporal.  God started showing me this when I was in junior high (it has only taken me 18 or so years to allow Him to advance this revelation).  I remember my youth pastor, Darrell, sharing with us that our lives are not even a blink of time on the scale of eternity – so what will we do with our lives?  I have often shared with Nate and Phil that if salvation was God’s ultimate plan for our lives, we would be taken to heaven immediately when we accept Christ.  Instead, we are left on this earth to impact others.  Lord, forgive me for wasting so much time chasing things that have no significance.

3. God has shown me that anyone with a willing heart can do mighty things for the His Kingdom.  The SOS (Service over Self) ministry started with one church that felt the call to do something about the hurt, shame and poverty in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis.  To date, more than 10,000 volunteers (mostly middle and senior high students) have repaired over 500 homes in this neighborhood.  More importantly, they have played a part in repairing broken lives by ”practically living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.  In my group, and in the reports I heard from others - this group of middle school students powerfully ministered the love of our Savior to people who were in need of a Savior’s love.  In my group, 6 students ranging in age from 12-15 worked tirelessly on Mrs. Mary’s house while sitting at her feet and fellow-shipping with her. 

Mrs. Mary is 90 years old, grew up in Mississippi the daughter of cotton-pickers, marched in the Civil-rights movement in Memphis, and is a true southern lady.  She also loves her savior and was quick to add in during our devotionals at lunch a spirited “Amen” or “Thank you Jesus” – even though I am convinced that she did not hear most of what was being said.  Occasionally, she would scold one of her “children” for not drinking enough water, or me for putting her “children” in harm’s way on her roof.  It is very powerful to minister by providing the basic, but taken for granted, essentials of a home that is drier, warmer and safer.  Although Mrs. Mary lives on one of the nicer streets in Binghampton, the needs for her house were a new roof, new ventilation (she has a real safety issue with carbon monoxide),  new steps and railing for her front and back porch, and a new water heater – all of which will be provided by SOS over the next 8 weeks by 8 different teams of students. 

I was so proud of my young men and women.  I never heard a complaint – even in 90 degree, high humidity weather.  By the way, these were not jobs created for middle school students – these were dangerous, grown men types of jobs that you and I would pay professionals to do.  I have included some pictures of my crew: the 3 Morgans, David, Brandon, and Alex.

 

 

 

 

 

While we were on a relatively nice street, most of the teams were smack dab in the middle of the hood.  One team had a drug bust right across the street from them and every morning we passed by so many people that had no jobs to go to and were turning to all sorts of things to get by.   One of the houses below was on fire our first morning and we were told later arson was expected tied to a drug deal.  I left out some pictures of the gang graffiti that was everywhere you went. 

 

 

 

 

Nate was on another team that was fixing up Mr. Charles Richards’ home.  Mr. Richards was a WWII veteran, played QB for Penn in college and is 95 years old.  He is also deaf – but that did not stop Nate and his crew from communicating God’s love in abundance. 

I will wrap this post up by saying that my heart’s cry is to serve God in a significant way.  There are a thousand ways I can start doing that immediately – and I am praying that God reveal his long-term plans for our family concerning His work.  I am so encouraged that there are young people (including the college staff members at SOS that are the future leaders of our church) that not only gave up a week of their summer to invest in people’s lives, but did so with excellence and vigor.  I am so thankful that our Father gives us the opportunity to do something significant with our lives if we will just ask Him to show us what His plan is for us.  I am so thankful for a son that gets it – he is truly a follower of Christ!  I am so thankful for the rest of my crew (TEAMThompson) and especially my supportive wife that held down the fort while I was off playing with power tools and teenagers.  Most of all, I am thankful for a Savior that never gives up on me - and is calling us to fight with Him using the weapons of Faith, Hope and Love.

I want to challenge everyone to read Romans 12 about this service He calls us to.  Thank you for all your prayers and support.  Here are a few more pictures to enjoy.