Friday, April 4, 2014

When grown men weep. . .


This month the Faith based self-worth class I teach for the homeless grew to 31 people!  (We started in January with 9 people).  As exciting as that was for me it also opened my eyes to how little I truly have to offer.  When we minister to the middle class there is not a whole lot of risk involved.  If someone has lost a job and a bill is late, the Sunday School class can take up an anonymous offering to help out with the need.  If a friend has a teenage child that is rebelling we can go have coffee, listen and pray.  (All of these are good things BTW!)  But ministry for those who are TRULY destitute is a whole new ball came.  After my class I had two grown men break down weeping.  One had been attacked on the streets and severely beaten.  His leg was broken in three places.  He has no access to re-hab and lives in constant pain.  The other has been in a battle with intestinal cancer for the past 13 year and has just been denied all medical aid for treatment.  He is only 29 years old and separated from his family.   I look into the eyes of so many others that have no hope.  I felt , in a small way, as Moses must have felt with the armies of Pharoah on one side and the Red Sea on the other.  Moses had nothing in him that could save the Israelites.  This was a God moment.  It was a position that if God did not move, they faced certain death.  The needs Downtown can never be met or filled by my human efforts.  The man with cancer cannot get medical aid.  If God does not heal him supernaturally, he faces certain death! I hear this and feel helpless.  Then I realize, I am!   God has not asked me to free any of them from bondage; that is His job.  My job is to be a yielded vessel for Him to flow through.  When giants come will I stand firm in Christ, or will I surrender to the flesh and either run away or try to solve the impossible on my own? 

 What is He asking you to surrender to?  What mighty act might He be ready to do through you? Will you surrender to Him or run from Him?