This is an inter-cultural post as you hear from a Brazilian pastor expressing appreciation to JEMS for our years of service to the community there. It is also an appeal to us to consider donating our time and presence to the work of God's kingdom in South America. In a world where priorities are so easily turned upside down, we are reminded of the importance, nay, the necessity of putting God's priorities in first place.
My thanks to South American pastors for their faithful partnership with JEMS over the years. Their willingness to serve together with us has enabled JEMS to have a fruitful ministry in Brazil (and South America). And yet doors remain open for volunteers to offer anywhere from two weeks to several months of their time and abilities for the service of Christ in South America. Please listen (with captions) to one such appeal for your presence and participation.
With the increasing competition for grades, jobs, homes, together with the economic downturn, and accompanying concerns about healthcare costs, the long term care of our family members, we imagine that we have to be about taking care of ourselves. We measure life in terms of dollars and cents rather than eternity. In doing so, the words of Jesus seem to be more and more distant.
Do the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-26 ring hollow?
"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"
Are these mere niceties or do they in fact challenge us to place God in first place? Jesus pointedly asks us in Matthew 6:30-33:
"If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
A bit closer to home, Pastor Francis Chan has an exhortation to consider living a life that is worthy of the One who has called us, using a gymnastic balance beam as an illustration.
