January 2013
All In: Loving, Serving, Growing
Ministry Matters, January, 2013
As we begin a new year, I believe that God has been opening doors for us to minister to a hurting world all around us. As we join together, as in an “All In” fashion, we can make a great impact in the Name of Jesus. I’m asking myself these type of questions: How can we “love” on people more this year? How can we “serve” God better, increasing our volunteer core? How can we help people “grow” more by connecting them to our great small groups? All In: Loving, Serving, Growing!
On Saturday, I shared how we need to be more like Jesus – especially in the way he had compassion on people and loved on them. Matthew 9:35-38 says, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
How are we to respond to people who God sends to Fortress Church who are hurting this year? Perhaps they may not look like us or dress like us or think like us. How would we respond? Perhaps they come with life’s baggage. Perhaps they come with sin. Perhaps they come with issues. How would we respond?
There’s an old song I used to sing and the words go something like this, “He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.” Can we do the same, i.e. look beyond people’s faults and see their needs?
Let’s respond like Jesus would. When it came to ministering to hurting people, He was “All In.” The scripture above tells us that we are to have compassion, love, work and pray. Let’s respond with a Jesus kind of love and compassion. Let’s be more like Him!
SCRIPTURE TO MEDITATE ON:
“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it . . .” Luke 19:41