"Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel." - Matthew 15:29-31
During the years of attending Bible College I ministered with a number of other students doing open air preaching and witnessing. We would often set up our equipment in the worst part of the city and talk with drunks, prostitutes and addicts. When they would actually stop to talk, their stories would break our hearts. Yet, while we would be sharing the gospel with these outcasts, well dressed church people would drive past us in expensive cars to attend a large well-known church just around the corner. They drove by quickly, because they had no heart for the broken.
Our Lord never preached in a large, finely decorated church. He never traveled to speak at large conferences where very important people attended. He was never called upon to be an after dinner speaker for the rich and famous. Jesus spent more days than not with the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and societies outcasts. He never moved by quickly to better neighborhoods because he had a heart for the broken.
My life was marked forever by those broken lives that I met on the back streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a result I have always been concerned for the broken and downtrodden of our world. Jesus said we would always have the poor with us and there are far more hurting people than well-to-do. How about you my brother or sister? Do you share the Lord's compassion for the outcasts? Do you love them like Jesus? Or do you slip by quickly and quietly because you still don't have a heart for the broken?
No comments:
Post a Comment