Monday, May 17, 2010

Hello everyone! 
Sorry it's been so long since my last post, life seems to be leaving little time for blog posts these days! 
But I decided I'd share some of what's been on my heart lately, so... here goes! 


I've been reading about the poverty and brokenness in other countries and even in places within the borders of our own "wealthy" and "free" country , and it has been stirring something in my heart lately...
I've asked God to give me the desires of His heart, and these desires are often accompanied by such pain!
He's given me a love and compassion for the poor and lost, and I am beginning to feel like -what I believe- Jesus might have felt when He looked into the eyes of the lame man, when He looked upon and heard the desperate cries of the blind, the deaf, the orphans and the widows, when He saw tax collector or the harlot bound, captive in their sins, desperate for the taste of freedom.
And in the midst of these "stirrings" I am becoming unsatisfied with my own lifestyle and the lifestyles of many Christians I see in America today as I realize how little we are doing in comparison to how much we COULD be doing to spread the gospel and the love of Christ, to further His kingdom.
It seems we often distance ourselves from anything that causes us discomfort, that stirs our hearts and compels us to take action. This is very dangerous! Why? Because if we are not exposed to it- how can we take part in changing it? It is much harder to ignore the pleading look in an orphan's eyes than to simply know they exist somewhere far away in the distance.
Unless your heart has been hardened against the very ones God's heart aches for, you WILL want to make a difference, if you are aware of them and have not accepted the lies satan has so often used to trap us into complacency and stunt the growth of God's kingdom. 
We hide those uncomfortable, painful scenes, so that we don't have to deal with the responsibility of changing them, we distance ourselves from them making it easier to ignore God's call.
How could one NOT be touched at the sight of little child, who has never known the joy and happiness of having parents who love and care for them? Often we take these little things for granted, but their are many who have never known such love and would give much to experience it!
I don't understand how we, claiming to know and love the Father, claiming to be followers of Christ, could care so little -if at all- for the person struggling to survive, or the poor widow living all alone everyday without any hope for a change or for any comfort and love in her grief. How could that be? Jesus spent much of His time among the poor and broken during His time on earth! 
And not only the poor, the orphans and the widows, but the "disreputable sinners." The people EVERYONE knew had been up to no good. They had a BAD rep, and with good reason. The sluts, whores, tax collectors, etc- those people.
But what do we do? We shun them as if we were somehow better than them, as if God loves us more than them! We are all -or at one time were- sinners in need of Savior, regardless of what sins we committed! None is righteous but for Christ's payment on the cross! We Christians seem to see ourselves as too high and mighty to associate with sinners, somehow forgetting the fact that once upon a time we were in their place.
Thankfully, somebody somewhere cared enough about us to share the love rather than shun us and turn us away like we have gotten in the habit of doing.


So I guess my point is this: Let's stop ignoring and running from God's call to reach out to those who don't know His love, whether it be the orphans, widows, homeless, or the "disreputable sinners" of our time, and be willing to go wherever God leads! And let me say this: we should not because we "have to," but because we love our Father and desire to please Him, because He has taught us how to love as He loves- because the apple does not fall far from the tree, so to speak. 
Let's rise up and be who we are called to be- living witnesses of Jesus Christ and His amazing love! It's time to share the love!


Thanks for reading what I have to say, I hope I didn't take up much of your time, that I didn't bore you, and that you were challenged and/or blessed in some way! God bless!


-Victoria Christine Bullock