GOOD NEWS! IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ARE MANY ROOMS
The Problem
My friend Dirk is part of our new and developing Gospel Community network. He knows somebody who is out of work and has recently lost his house because he was not able to pay the bond.
The Prayer
Dirk and his wife were thinking how they could help. Could they really afford to take this family in when they only have a small house themselves? What to do!
‘Lord, how can we help’?
The God Who Hears Us
Dirk and I and our families went away for a weekend with the other South African Kingfisher co-workers just a few weeks ago. It was there we were challenged to recognize our ‘blind spots’.
The speaker at the one session said that we can look back 100 years or so and be astonished at what Christians did and what they tolerated without thinking twice about it – like slavery and so on. BUT if people looked back 100 years at our generation of Christians, what are the things they would be astounded at? What are our ‘blind spots’? As an example he said ….
‘How many of you have a room in your homes fully furnished, nice curtains, a bed always made up, cupboards … but most of the time it is empty – no-one uses it? It is just in case someone sleeps over. Yet there are people just down the road sleeping under a bridge or in a shack’. Silence ….
‘How many of you have a car? How many of you have built a house especially for your car to sleep in? Perhaps big enough to have both your cars sleep in their own house? While down the road people are living with a family of 5 in a one-room tin shack with no water or electricity’! Silence ….
but the Lord had provided an answer to the problem and to the prayer of Dirk and his wife.
The Answer – A New Creation Begins
A short while later I called Dirk. He was renovating his garage! All the garage equipment needed to be moved into a shack in his back yard. The cars now sleep outside. But the Good News has born fruit once again! We are being restored into the human beings God created!
The Gospel Is Seen
The house has now got two families staying in it sharing the same bathroom and kitchen. An adjustment for sure. But God has taken us into His family at great cost to Himself. Unlike Dirk’s friends, we are not the easiest people to have taken in. We are so different to God and take his hospitality and kindness for granted … as if we deserve it!
But as we watch Jesus with His Father and grasp His love for us, we are changed … and we start to become like Him. We start to share a family likeness.
What is the Spirit saying to the Church today?
This could be an interesting discussion for me – in my Missional Community I have 3 homeless guys, 2 of whom are regular. All the expert advice of people working with homeless people would say you need to help them formulate their own plan, and help them to get themselves off the street. If we simply hand them something like a place to stay then they are likely to never get back on their feet as a contributing member of society or end up on the street again?
I am not sure what Jesus would have me do, what are your thoughts? (and I realise that in one sense this can only happen at an individual case level)
Individual case level- yip. I am not sure.
In this case it was not a homeless family in the typical sense. It was friends who are hitting hard times and had lost their house.
I suppose there are no hard and fast rules in following Jesus which apply across the board. Just as you said. But each situation seems to challenge our hearts … and that’s good.
But I think in these situations corporate decision making is helpful.
If we believe Jesus loves the people in your MC, then prayer is vital. Reading Scripture and calling on God for wisdom – he will give it.
I look forward to hearing how things go …