MY Brother's Keeper

I had the chance to attend a concert last week with the recovery group and two of our youth Markus and Logan. It was an awesome time and I loved every minute of it. There we heard an awesome song called Hold us Together from Matt Maher simply talking about how God is the one that holds us together.

It don’t have a job Don’t pay your bills Won’t buy you a home
In Beverly Hills Won’t fix your life And find easy steps
Ain’t the low or the limp Or the government

But as soon you needed

As I was listening I was just amazed with how I have a hard time understanding what it means to be your brothers keeper. I must go ahead and say in this blog I might make a few people upset. But these are truly things I feel. I feel many times we believe being your brothers keeper is simply encouraging them, that is a part but I believe it is more. I believe you are your brothers keeper to be a light in a dark world not to treat a person like they are a charity case. To be our brother's keeper is pointing them towards God for the answers and not having all the answers. I mean I could go on and on, but as I read my Bible the more I see Jesus just simply saying and doing things different from you and I. He brought aide when aide was needed, but he also directed to the source.

The woman at the well is a perfect example is the woman at the Well in John 4

¹⁶He said, "Go call your husband and then come back." ^17-18"I have no husband," she said.
   "That's nicely put: 'I have no husband.' You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough." ^19-20"Oh, so you're a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?"  ^21-23"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
 ^23-24"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." ²⁵The woman said, "I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story." ²⁶"I am he," said Jesus. "You don't have to wait any longer or look any further."  ²⁷Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.  ^28-30The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, "Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?" And they went out to see for themselves.

We also know that the story goes on and because of this woman all of these people come to see Jesus. As I read that I can't help but think about the love of Christ and him knowing what she needs, but not playing games. Now in 2010 life is so different and in many ways complicated. My question is how close are we to living the way Jesus did?

I had a talk with a student last night as I was driving home. It started of with small talk and ended with the student telling me some pretty crazy things. As he was talking his main focus was getting a job and his family situation. I will not go into the details about the conversation and the details. But I will say as I was listening to him I was thinking the whole time that what this young man needs is the love of Christ. As we talked about camp and him not having the money, I knew I could find away for him to go. As he talked though I could see he wanted to do things on his own and earn it. Now I know we will get into the whole you can earn God's grace...I know you can't, but I wanted him to make an investment.

Long story short today I get a phone call about a service project and God put this young man on my heart. I knew for a fact that if he was to go, this was going to be apart of the deal. My point is I couldn't allow him to become my charity case because of his situation but I could help him have an open door. I hate to say it but I believe it is true, there will come a time to where we will be no other person other then Christ to bail us out of our situation. I believe teaching people to make an investment into their faith and where they will go for eternity. You might ask...where are you getting this from?? Well from a crack baby who went to camp last year. One of our church people met him halfway if he came up with the rest. He came up with it and it was hard, but he took camp serious.

My point is simple we can count on our government to bail us out! But in all reality I believe it is about teaching young people to do what is right. It's all about allowing people to screw up and learn and about simply being there and pointing them to the cross.