“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27.

 Here are some searching questions for you to think about.  Are you an instrument of Love in the Master’s hands?  When you look at people and ministry, what do you see?  Just what is pure and faultless religion?  Do you love with God’s unconditional love?  I have a hard time answering these questions truthfully, knowing there’s always room for improvement!

We just completed a cycle of GriefShare.  One of my favorite contributors was Dr. Paul Tripp.  He had wonderful insights into the grieving process and touched my heart again and again.  I read an interesting story about him and want to pass it on.

Professor Tripp was teaching future pastors in a seminary class.  To give them a clearer picture of what the life of a pastor looked like, he recalled his own experiences of late night emergencies, relational catastrophes and accounts of people and marriages crashing.  He wanted them to get a clear picture of the challenges they would encounter as a “shepherd.”

Finally, one exasperated future pastor stood up and blurted out, “All right, we know we are going to have these projects in our churches.  Just tell us what to DO with them so we can get back to the work of the ministry!”

A hush came over the class.  The student had said it out loud!  He had referred to people who were difficult, who had significant issues in their lives as projects.  He had a serious but common problem.  His concept of ministry lacked love.  Lost and struggling people were “hindrances” to what he was “called” to do.  The time he would have to take out from real “ministry” was an annoyance.  His view of ministry was:  well-delivered sermons and well attended programs that produced a thriving, growing church.  He wanted a church that was well designed, well-led and successful.

Imagine a doctor saying, “Sick people, sick people, all I see is sick people!  Why don’t healthy people ever come to see me?”  What is church?  What is ministry?  Is church a place for people who are well?  For programs and music and teaching?  Or is it a hospital for the hurting, the weak and the broken?  Is it a place for people who are dealing with the effects of sin, people who are not yet fully formed into the image of Jesus Christ?  Are the people themselves the ministry and your ministry is to love them?

Love is what caused Jesus to seek and save those who were lost….to love them and intercede for them until every man and woman, each one of His children is transformed into His image!  Real ministry is people! It’s doing the hard work of investing in people’s lives, of entering their world with the love of Christ and seeing the transforming power of the gospel impact them.  And it’s hard and messy!  Someone has said, “We would prefer to lob grenades of truth into people’s lives rather than lay down our lives for them.”   Something to think about!  When you look at fellow strugglers, do you see a “problem person” or a friend with problems that only God can solve?  We are called to the kind of love that lays down our lives for one another, to reflect Jesus to a broken world.  “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?…..If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?…..If you lend to those whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?….love your enemies, do good to them, lend without expecting anything back.  Then your reward will be great, you will be children of the Most High……Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:32-36

Your friend Jean  (from one of Terry’s sermons)