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January 17, 2013

Today as we were going into a store there was a young boy, about 11 , begging. We passed by to go into the store. As I watched from the store window I looked at him closely. Dirty, unkempt clothes, his nose was running and a look of sadness, rejection on his face. His hood was up to keep warm, his hands shoved in his pockets and he spoke to people passing by. Some stopped and spoke with him, and gave him money. Some kept walking.

When we left the store I said to John, please give this child some money. We stopped and in Bulgarian John asked him his name.
“Angel”.
John said, so you are an angel?
“Yes” he said.
As John handed him the money he said again in Bulgarian, “Angel, Jesus loves you.”
This small, neglected, sad boy broke out into the biggest smile I have ever seen. His eyes lit up and beams of joy were all over his face. Not from us. Not from the money. But to know Jesus, the King loves him. An incredible moment.

Was he really an angel? I don't know. But I will never forget that smile.

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Matthew 25 verses 34-46

I have been puzzled by what Jesus said in verse 40 of this passage of scripture. What does it mean when He says , "you do it to me?"

It seems to indicate that when you give food or drink to someone, you give it to the Lord as well. If I give something to someone in need, is the Lord standing there chalking it up as a good deed, or is He standing there receiving it also? Scripture says, "The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart, and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent." (The Amplified Bible).
He is close to those who are brokenhearted. The definition of brokenhearted is, "overcome by grief or despair, sad, cast down, dejected, depressed, despondent, downcast, downhearted, heartbroken, heartsick, heavyhearted, inconsolable, joyless, miserable, wretched" - and more. Even better He saves them.

Is He so close to His creation that He continues to walk among and with those who are poor and broken
and those who are wretched, miserable and joyless? And when we walk among those people and minister to them are we also ministering to the Lord in a way we don't even realize?

While we were in Bulgaria the weather was hot, and we were going through a lot of water. We had spent three days in the capital Sofia and had been buying easy to carry 500 ml bottles of water regularly. By the time we got back to Stambolovo, where the mission house is, we were back to large bottles, carrying them in the van wherever we went. One morning John and I and two other team members had to go to Pavlikeni, which is the closest main town to the village we are in. As we started out an old woman crossed our path in front of the van, bent over and struggling in the heat. We let her go past and continued on our way, when John suddenly realized he had to go to the post office in Stambolovo, so we turned around and he jumped out and went in to the building. As I was waiting in the van, the same old woman we had passed minutes earlier walked up the steps to the post office and sat on the concrete with her back up against the wall, to rest and find some shade from the heat. I could hear her struggling to get her breathe and compose herself from the strain.

As soon as she sat down I heard the words “give her some water”.

Now I have to tell you, I didn't immediately jump out of the van and run over and shove water at her. I actually went into a complete panic, not knowing the language, not feeling very confident of myself, and not quite knowing how to do it. Duh.

I had a large bottle of water which I knew she wouldn't be able to handle, so I found an empty 500ml bottle from Sophia and poured the water from the big bottle into the smaller bottle and thought I would wait for John to come out of the post office to ask this lady in Bulgarian if she would like some water. As he come out of the post office I met him and said “ask this lady if she would like some water”, which he promptly did. She indicated yes and I took the top off the bottle, bent over and gave it to her and held her hand and blessed her. She waved as we drove away and we of course waved back. Simple eh?

As we continued on our way all I could say was Lord thank you for not letting me miss giving this lady a drink of water and I burst into tears as I realized how I had been honoured with the privilege, how God had allowed me to minister to this woman in such a way.
Did I feel I had done something great for the kingdom? No. I felt great compassion and love for this woman. What about the feeling of honour for such a privilege? Was it because I handed her the water? Or was it  because I was also in the presence of the King. I don't know. All I know is that in some small way I'm changed.

A great ending to this experience is that I had another empty 500ml bottle from Sofia. As I looked at it I saw that it was from a town called Hisar which is a spa town, known for the health benefits the mineral water brings. The label said it was pure drinking water. The name, in bold letters, was "Living Water."

Blessings.

Jane

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With great power comes great responsibility. (Spiderman)

This is what Peter Parker's uncle said to him just before he died and just before Spiderman made his appearance on the scene.

I have heard the Lord saying,

Everywhere in the body of Christ there is a longing for the Holy Spirit to be released in a greater more powerful way. It is like we know that God is up to something and that soon and very soon there is going to be something that we have not yet seen or even dreamed of.

Make no mistake, we are about to see great power released in the body of Christ. There will be great power, because He is powerful, He is the Almighty, He is God.

But God is asking us, do we as the church know that with great power comes great responsibility. Do we know what that responsibility is and how we are to use it. Who are we responsible to and what does that look like.

The Lord is saying that our first responsibility is to Him. He is our God, and we have a responsibility to

Him as our God. Secondly, we have a responsibility to each other. To our brothers and sisters, the body of Christ, His church. And thirdly, we have a responsibility to “out there”. Those in the world who do not know Him, who need to know Him and who He wants to know Him.

Yes, with great power comes great responsibility. We have to ask the Lord what that looks like and what He expects of us and how we are to wield not just the power of His Spirit but the responsibility also. Then He can release what we have been waiting for, longing for and standing for in His name.