Thursday: A Force for Good
Having the truth, however wonderful, is not enough. In Isaiah 58:1-14, God’s people were passionate about their religious forms and practices and yet weak in applying their faith in a practical manner. God is calling His church today to be a force for good, echoing the call of the Old Testament prophets to demonstrate the truth about His character.
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Read the following texts. How can we, as a local church and as a world church, seek to do what we have been called by God to do in this area?
One urban church is in a community plagued by gun violence. In 2011 the clear prophetic voice of its pastor rang out during an urban ministry congress in a large city. Here are sample thoughts from his speech: “Christians must stop the death march!” Referring to the biblical story of when Jesus stopped the funeral train for the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11-17), he explained how the church could not sit idly by while street violence escalated in their community. He asked his audience, “Are we simply a church that stands up to do eulogies?” Instead, we need to ask ourselves if we are a church that works to relieve suffering.
This church is also very active in community development. For seven years the church choir went to the streets of their community. They sang, passed out flyers, and offered the services of the church to those who had needs. From this contact with their community, the church helped their neighborhood in numerous ways that greatly benefited those in need. Through various and numerous programs the church made a big difference in the community.
This church is just one example of the many ways that we, as a church body, can be a ministering and healing force in our communities.
| What can your church do to help the needy in your community? |
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“Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Savior mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’” (MOH, 143)
Asking the Lord to transform me that this lesson to reach out to the poor, the fatherless and to clothe the naked, that it will be another SSLesson that just is passing throughout, but to make a change in my life to action with the right motive.
The very essence of christianity is SERVICE. Christ, in the night of the passover left us a lesson that true nobility has its roots not in serving self but in serving others. The church would have maintained her purity had she been true to the charge given her in Matthew 28: 18-20. Our faithfulness in carrying out this noble task is the only measure of our prosperity as a church and of course to our individual spiritual growth. The church is you and I, we must not forget this. It must start with 'me.' The 58 chapter of Isaiah descibes a remedy to our sin-sick souls. We are to look away from ourselves to Christ in the ministry of service around us. May God help us to be faithful to Him this quarter.
Robert Rosana, Kenya.
profound....may God bless u.
Some times it is hard to get a ministry going. How about promoting a "Each one help one" movement. How many members are there in your church? 20? 50? 100?
If each member helped one non-member each month, by the end of a year a church with 100 members would have helped 1,200 non-members!! No need to wait for someone else to organize 'the church' let us organize ourselves and start helping others right away.
Greetings, my friend. Our church has entitled our most recent effort, "Each one, reach one!" You are absolutely right, the church would grow exponentially, if we followed your formula. God bless.
At first glance,the word force may sound a little absurd! How be it then that our subject for today is entitled, A force for Good! However, it is not that bad a word when we consider this definition, "to drive or push against resistance". There is of course some room to make varied conclusions.
The path I would like to take is this - the resistance we encounter daily, as sinful carnal human beings, is against doing good. We are inclined to do wrong, to treat people unfairly, to judge unjustly and simply minding our own business such that we do not get concerned about defenseless people. It is not easy to grow from such a sin-engraved attitude, but the bible gives strong assurance that we sure can. Isaiah says, Learn to do good. The concept of learning is what is paramount. When you learn something, it is a step toward attaining what you previously did not possess. Along the way, there is need to accumulate all relevant resources to equip and reinforce. As Christians, we are called to learn to do good, and resist doing bad. That implies the use of force through resisting what we are born with. As we do good, God's character is developed in us. We will be better able to defend and protect the weak and vulnerable. This means Christians can be a powerful army against wrong doing.
May the Lord help us to learn to do good.
The bible is teaching us today to defend the rights of the poor and the orphans and to be fair to the needy and the helpless.
As individuals, we should not wait for the church that we are members of to start a church program before we as individuals even start doing anything ourselves to come in line with the challenges in Psalm 82:3 and Isaiah 1:17. We as individuals can ask God for power from His Spirit to lead us to those we can be a blessing to.
Our Church needs to be leading the way in sharing the Gospel in Urban African-American communities today. The Nation of Islam, radical Muslims and other Satanic forces are working very hard to create hate and anarchy in the African-American youth communities today. Preaching the Love of Christ and His Gospel along with Law Enforcement is the way to stop this violent behavior.
And remember that Prayer is a Powerful Force against all manner of evil. One of the churches that I was a member of, in the 80's, use to have several Prayer Bands that would go out into the communities to pray with the them. The church needs more members to form Prayer Bands to go into those communities to show the darkness that God's Light is still here and in control!
I have read this week's lesson and concluded that we should be kind,passionate and helpful to the poor. The church should help us in forming community ministries. However, Isaiah 58 is somehow challenging especially when it says that people have forms of worship without faith. This more challenging as majority of us just go to church but not to know God. Kalulu Ronald-Uganda.
Brother Mark E rightly identifies a community that truly needs the gospel. "The Nation of Islam, radical Muslims and other Satanic forces are working very hard to create hate and anarchy in the African-American youth communities today. Preaching the Love of Christ and His Gospel along with Law Enforcement is the way to stop this violent behavior."
These societies are deprived of many basic needs that the lesson highlights, which can result in violence and crime. The lesson admonishes us to be PRACTICAL in supplying these needs, not just preaching to them.The church needs to cry out loud for true justice, father the fatherless, house the homeless, feed the hungry,visit those in prison and the sick etc.Doing these thing will reflect God's Character.