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Justice Mission
You care. You have been hard-wired by God to care.
Envision excited expectant parents living in an urban city in China. A beautiful healthy baby girl is delivered. But her parents don’t celebrate. Why? There’s one-child policy in China and it’s believed that boys will provide better for parents in their old age. So, the parents want a boy, not a girl. And this precious newborn girl is taken to a local dump and left among the stinking, rotting trash… to die – cold, hungry, and alone. Outraged? Yes. Grief-stricken? Yes. Because you care. But how?
In the Bible, God commands us to care (Isaiah 1:17): Do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. This series – justice mission – is designed to help you learn how to better reflect the heart and hands of God for the oppressed. We can be courageous missionaries cleverly disguised… bringing hope, transformation, and salvation to people in need.
Have you experienced a time when something great happened to you and you knew you had nothing to do with it? Or you were blessed in some way for no apparent good reason?
You just had a sense that “intervention from above” showed up in your life in some unexpected way.
The Bible refers to surprising displays of grace as the favor of God, and it’s filled with examples of people who clearly experienced it.
People throughout the Bible watched God work through their lives powerfully. Even though they knew failures, disappointments, and discouraging times, God was personally involved in their lives in dramatic ways.
No matter where you’ve been, God can show you His favor. It doesn’t depend on your credentials.
God wants to lift you up, renew your passion, and put you on a path to fulfill His purposes for your life. Don’t settle for anything less than the favor of God.
What we believe is foundational for how we love.
This was even true for Jesus, the One who arguably bi lived the greatest life ever. He came into this world for relationships, not religion.
In fact, He resisted the rules, regulations, and rituals of the organized religion of His day. He came to set us free to love God and to love each other.
There are foundational beliefs that Jesus held about truth, about God, about humanity, about sin, and about many other things that enabled Him to love God deeply and love others truly.
When we more closely hold to the beliefs that Jesus held, we, too, can be better equipped to love God and each other more like Jesus.
Foundations. If it’s not about religion, but relationship, then truth matters.
We make decisions every day.
Some are more important than others. Who should I date or marry? What should be my career path? Should I make that move or buy that house? Where should I serve on mission for Christ?
We want to be sure we have God’s guidance, especially when the decisions are life-changing.
God isn’t playing “hide and seek” when it comes to His will for our lives. He knows the best paths for each of us. He makes His guidance known through the Bible and through the leading of His Spirit. He directs us through opened and closed doors. He gives us good counsel through godly friendships. He sends us His peace when we walk in His ways.
“Guidance: Discerning and Doing God’s Will” is a series that will help you live with greater confidence and fruitfulness in the new year. He will not forsake you. He will not abandon you. He will be your Guide.
Christmas: The stress. The mad rush. The chaos. The absurd amount of spending and accumulation of debt. The tilt toward selfishness and consumerism.
Is that what God had in mind for us when He gave mankind the gift of His Son? Maybe the best way to experience Christmas is to take the way our culture drives us to celebrate it and flip it upside down!
Does your perspective on giving, getting, compassion and humility need to be flipped? Plan to make this year’s Christmas unique and meaningful.
Celebrate Christmas with us as we consider how to turn Christmas upside down so that we experience it right side up.
The challenges we face in our lives and the headlines we read in the news can create a sense of powerlessness in our hearts, producing a mindset of despair.
We wonder, “Can things really change for the better? Is there any hope?”
Throughout history, the Light found in the promises of God’s Word through the hope of Jesus has helped people through dark times. And today this Light is as relevant as ever.
When we learn how to access God’s promises, we’ll find our needed Hope for each day throughout our lives.
God promises strength in weakness, justice when wronged, guidance when lost, and recovery in defeat.
Discussing how to claim His promises will give us all opportunity to deepen and energize our own lives with the hope God desires us to have.
Find hope.
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