i want to live a life that replicates the impact that Jesus had on this earth
a comment i made and figured after writing it, that it was more worth it's own post:
i am trying to figure out what do i need, and how much do i need. what things can i do without and will i and the mission God has on this earth be better off with very little, and where is the balance of how well i live and how much i give to those who have not even close to what i have.
really i am not interested in giving the money God has given me to a church that does not much more than waste it on itself. i want to spend it wisely, and help those who have little.
i think about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and knowing of how many people accross the world living in poverty makes me question why i have what i do, and how can our society waste so much money and let so many people die, because we want to be comfortable.
i am confused about our mission and the best way to go about it. would it be better if we gave up all our worldy riches and just made do with much much less. because i know when you have much less you just make do and get used to it and it isn't such a big deal.
i know Jesus said we would always have the poor but i don't think he meant that we should just sit by and do nothing about it. i know that our mission is to Go make Disciples, but i also know that our mission is to Love our Neighbour. and i know that above all we should Love God, and to Love God is to obey his commands and they are not a burden.
i cannot place any boundries on my thoughts and understanding of what it truly means to follow Jesus. to to compare it to any other person is not do able. there is no greater benchmark, and that benchmark is way beyond anyone i know. i want to see God do so much in Australia, and i want to live a life that replicates the impact that Jesus had on this earth.
i am trying to figure out what do i need, and how much do i need. what things can i do without and will i and the mission God has on this earth be better off with very little, and where is the balance of how well i live and how much i give to those who have not even close to what i have.
really i am not interested in giving the money God has given me to a church that does not much more than waste it on itself. i want to spend it wisely, and help those who have little.
i think about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and knowing of how many people accross the world living in poverty makes me question why i have what i do, and how can our society waste so much money and let so many people die, because we want to be comfortable.
i am confused about our mission and the best way to go about it. would it be better if we gave up all our worldy riches and just made do with much much less. because i know when you have much less you just make do and get used to it and it isn't such a big deal.
i know Jesus said we would always have the poor but i don't think he meant that we should just sit by and do nothing about it. i know that our mission is to Go make Disciples, but i also know that our mission is to Love our Neighbour. and i know that above all we should Love God, and to Love God is to obey his commands and they are not a burden.
i cannot place any boundries on my thoughts and understanding of what it truly means to follow Jesus. to to compare it to any other person is not do able. there is no greater benchmark, and that benchmark is way beyond anyone i know. i want to see God do so much in Australia, and i want to live a life that replicates the impact that Jesus had on this earth.
posted by John M @ 11:02 pm
7 Comments:
At 02 November, 2005 19:20,
kelgell said…
I agree it's hard to find a balance or rather know what is best. It's not wrong to have money and things (and I know that's not what you are getting at) but we do so easily slip into the consumerism lifestyle. I guess it has more to do with motives and such. Where our heart is at. We do buy so much more than we need. Much much more. Still, I want to reaffirm (for myself) that this doesn't make us failures and hopeless cases. We should simply aim to be like Jesus amongst the mess of our lives and let Him change us bit by bit. The whole topic is challenging to think about.
At 02 November, 2005 19:23,
kelgell said…
I guess it comes down to God's judgement. Holding everything with an open hand. Give up what God asks when He asks and spend wisely.
At 02 November, 2005 21:34,
Susan Barnes said…
I think God wants us to wrestle with some things like the poverty/wealth issue. It gives us the opportunity to think through the many issues. One of the things it makes me think about is: why does Australia have the worse suicide rate in the world when we are such a "rich" nation and what can I do as Christ's representative to reduce the suicide rate? And is having a dreadful suicide rate a worse problem than poverty?
At 02 November, 2005 21:53,
John M said…
Susan i don't think that is a question to ask at all, is it worse, suicide rate or poverty. It has nothing to do with which is worse, both are extremely bad, how can you weigh peoples lives. I am not sure you quite ment that.
But yes suicide does worry me and forget about the rate or how many. One thing that drives me to work with young people is that i figure if i can show love to young people and that someone does care that it could somehow help them to have a better self esteem and hope in this world. And yes we do need to do much more to address this issue in Australia. You can probably include depression in that as well, often a highly contributing factor in suicide.
At 03 November, 2005 12:03,
Trav said…
Hey i've been reading matthew and i feel really sorry for Jesus disciples. In Matt 25 Jesus talks about the end of the world and a lot about our responsibility...10 virgins...3 dudes with the talents etc and talks about whatever you did for the least of these people you did for me. Then in the next chapter this woman pours mega expensive perfume on him...how dare she! Jesus has just talked about "the least of these" and now compliments her on wasting perfume!??! The disciples must of felt like they can't win.
I think what's important is the this Woman worshipped Jesus and gave her the best she had (just like the woman with the 2 copper coins gave the best she had) Both worshipped Jesus. I think some Christians will be rich and some will not be rich. I think all are asked to be generous and all are called to lay down everything they have for Jesus' cause to bring good news to the poor.
Good news to the people i think does include people with no money...but i think i consider most aussie's extremely poor because they are without God.
(End of long comment(
At 03 November, 2005 23:39,
Susan Barnes said…
I tend to use questions in a rhetoric way meaning they are not meant to be taken literally but rather meant to make people think. I have only had my blog a few months and have been absolutely amazed at the high number of posts about the poverty/wealth issue in the wider blogsphere world. I was hoping to direct people's attention on to other issues.
At 04 November, 2005 14:52,
John M said…
oh ok, yeah, i just don't like comparing things much, not that you were meaning to compare, but i get frustrated by people who do compare things that are different. which is to me quite a silly thing to do, it's like comparing ice cream to apple pie.
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