Click to download the audio version of “Holistic Understanding of God’s Vision: Part 1”

Focus Area: Pursues a ministry vision that integrates discipleship, evangelism, and social action, working toward a kingdom vision that brings together spiritual and social transformation.

I have a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son. As their father and someone who loves them dearly, I spend a great deal of time before God praying for Him to build their character, to encourage them, to give them perseverance through hardships and mostly, that they would have a renewed love for Jesus every day as they grow older. We talk everyday about how Bible relates to their everyday problems, we pray together, study scripture, and talk about the character of Jesus. But as I look at their development, I notice something; that while studying, praying and teaching of the Word is highly important, they learn the most from everyday application of the Bible in everyday activities and problem solving. They are learning that Jesus is present not only in church or when I sit them down to talk about Christ, but in every task they work at, every social situation they find themselves, every moment of every day.

As a team of leaders in ILF, we have talked a great deal about the coming together of Christian ministry and social action (programs, school, farming, etc.). We know without a doubt that Jesus cares about how the gospel impacts every aspect of your lives. This is why the Bible tells us to “cast all our care on God, for He cares for you” (1 peter 5:7) and “my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ” (Philippines 4:19). There are many examples of Jesus healing or working, when he could have been teaching in a church setting. But Jesus knew that the example of servant leadership, as Roland shared with us last week, and demonstrating the love of God had an important role in people coming into salvation and for the building of discipleship.

Just think of the calling of his disciples. When Simon Peter and a few others were fishing. They did not catch anything all night long, then, when they were weary, they came up to the shore and Jesus met them there. He told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and when they did this, they brought in more fish than they could handle (John 21)! Jesus could have just told them to follow him, that God loves them, and here are a few bible verses to back it up. But he did not, he chose to use work to bring them closer to God.

It’s intentional that Jesus asks the disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. He’s making a clear distinction between effort and faith-filled-effort. Make no mistake, effort is always a part of the process. But how much more free and enjoyable and fruitful are our effort is when paired with faith!

So let’s look at this practically. What does it actually look like to integrate the gospel into everyday life.

Teachers: think of the opportunity you have to demonstrate the gospel! When children become undisciplined or do something that provokes anger, will they see the gospel through your response? And when you make a mistake (as we all do!), you have the opportunity to demonstrate the biblical principle of humility, seeking forgiveness from your students. Demonstrate the power of prayer, allow their young minds to experience your passion for Jesus. How does He relate to writing? To math? To play?

Headmaster, nurse, security, secretary: Let us look for opportunities to show Jesus through grace, humility, truthfulness, and care for others when it is not convenient, when it takes a sacrifice of our time, or effort. What did Jesus do when he was walking down the road? He stopped to rub dirt in someone’s eyes to bring sight! To pray with people, to love when he did not have to love!

Farming: Jesus spoke about farming many times. Some examples of how Jesus started a story: “a good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit,” “a sower went out to sow”, “consider a grain of wheat,” and so on. Jesus used everyday life to teach and show gospel principles. Are the farmers in ILF led fields understanding not only that God created the field, but that he is loving them through the provision of it?

Every day is an opportunity to engage and demonstrate the gospel to our communities and those around them. The holy Spirit in each one of us shines brightly through our distinct roles in ILF. Matthew 5:14-16 states “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

My prayer for you today is that you will use whatever your role is to engage the world by showing Jesus through work AND action.

Please take a moment to pray, then a moment to listen to what Jesus may speak to you. Then please share that with the group.

Remember that we love and miss you all. We look forward to hearing your responses and may God bless each one of you this week.

Click to download the audio version of “Holistic Understanding of God’s Vision: Part 2”

Focus Area: Recognizes both the individual and the systemic sources of problems and solutions to those problems.

Today’s discussion topic is: Holistic understanding of God’s vision recognizes both the individual and systemic sources of problems and the solutions to those problems. To start, we should take a moment to clarify the difference between individual and systemic problems.  A systemic problem is a problem due to issues inherent in the overall system, rather than due to a specific, individual, or isolated factor.  This might include problems in a region such as corruption, racism or discrimination, access to educational opportunities, access to clean drinking water, access to enough food and so on.  When we’re referring to individual problems, we could be referring to problems that are specific to a person, such as alcoholism, drug abuse, physical abuse, mental illness, lack of hygiene or an unbelief in Jesus.

Individual and systemic problems exist anywhere you go in the world.  The sources of these problems will vary, but it’s so important to identify what the root cause or source of the problem is.  Without an understanding of what is causing the problem, it will be nearly impossible to come up with a solution.  Some problems are extremely complex and difficult to diagnose.  So where should we start?

As followers of Christ, we know that we can bring any problems or issues in our life before Jesus and He will listen.  Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.”   In Philippians, 4:6, Paul reminds the Church at Philippi, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Don’t these scriptures also apply to problems that are not our own, but problems that we see in our community, or in other individuals?  In 1 Timothy 2:1 (NLT), Paul writes to Timothy concerning the care of the church at Ephesus and says, “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.  Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them.”  God calls us to bring individual and systemic problems that directly affect us, or those around us, to Him in prayer.

As we lift-up the problems that we encounter, both individual and systemic, before the Lord, there are four questions that we should look to seek answers to.  Ask the Lord to identify:

1. What is going on?
2. Why is this going on?
3. What ought to be happening, or what is the desired result?
4. How might we respond?

If we can ask the Lord for help in answering these questions, finding solutions to the problems that we encounter in our communities and in our daily lives will be much easier to identify.

I’d like to close by reminding everyone that God loves us so incredibly much, despite all the problems we have created for ourselves.   Yes, He loves you, me and others we meet, so much that He would sacrifice His one son, to die, so that we could come back into a right relationship with Him (God the Father).  You see, He did this because He saw a problem with our lives: SIN.  God had a solution to our problem of sin and that was Jesus.