Genuine Service? Oh Really!

Man's needs provide the opportunity for service and care.  The question arises then on what level do we provide that care? 

Prominent in the arena of social problems such as poverty, discrimination, fractured families, substance abuse, community problems, crime, and so many others are those who seek to provide answers.  Some through some government program or another.  There are those who believe their political party can "fix" these issues.  Some invest their hope and trust in a politician.  Oh, do not forget the community activists who think by marshaling people to some cause or another they can create change--generally they tend to produce more rebellion than results.

Time is the test of change and I am willing to wager that if you study the history of the above mentioned movements over the long-haul not much is different.  However, there is a much more successful "program."  It has been termed variously over the years--renewal, revival, repentance, etc.  It is so because it goes to the central core of the issues listed above, man's heart.

Any of a number of faith based change agents could be cited.  One example is the Teen Challenge Drug Program. Another is the Catholic Charity Hospitals.  How about those with Christians beginnings that though wandering still do lasting work in the lives of those they serve.  The Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) and the Red Cross are but two of the many.

The point is that it is coming to a personal faith that changes one on the inside is the kind of change that makes a person different, such changes his family, such changes the neighborhood, such changes the community.  Go ahead and seek change--maybe you will succeed but if you leave God out of change, it will not long endure not will it change people in such a way so that the change remains over the long term.

As one goes about serving others in the various venues of life, unless one goes beyond simply meeting the symptoms which are the manifestation of the basic needs, there is no end to the meeting of the symptoms.  One must come a point at which one deals with the deeper issues that caused the symptoms.  As they say, to do otherwise is to “…put Band-Aids on cancer….”

One must have at least a moral framework for change but that is not enough.  If such change does not alter the religious-ethical framework of others, such change will be temporary.  The problem is that without such change on the part of the caregiver, there is little from which to lastingly serve others.  To have change other than mentioned is to do less than serve others.  

"Journeying Onward to Change by Faith or Sight"

Attempting to live out our faith in the strength of our own resources has the disadvantage of blocking our view of the spiritual.  How easy we find it to walk by sight (understanding, our own human enlightenment) and not by faith and yet Paul under the direction of the Holy Spirit challenges that notion when he writes the following.

2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight --NASU

 Most certainly this is but a small part of a greater thought.  However, as with many things in Christian faith, the small and simple are profound and broad in impact.  The point is that we, like those believers of that day  in the Church(s) in the City of Corinth along with Paul were challenged by God to walk not in their human understanding of this thing we call Christianity but by faith.

In comparison to faith, how easy it is to walk through life moving here and there based upon feelings.  In comparison to faith, and though more difficult than feelings, how easy it is to walk through life based upon what we know.  Or, again compared to faith, how difficult it is to live out life in the strength of one's will.  The degree to which we live out our lives based upon these things, is the degree to which living out lives out in faith pays the price.

In other words, when called upon to follow some course of action or another which makes no sense, and if we rely upon our understanding, our feelings, or our will to take action, it very often is at the expense of a decision made out of faith.  Walking by faith in the uncertainties of life is God's design for the one who would follow Him.

However, that is not God's plan for the Christian.  Remember that,

Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Though often quite difficult, it still remains the task of the Christian to step out in faith.  It seems then that the hope and conviction to which this verse refers is a much deeper hope and conviction than something one's conjures up out of one's will, belief, or feeling.  These are spirit level activities that come only as the Holy Spirit of God move within the human spirit and create these things in the face of what seems possible.

Finally, all live by faith of some sort.  The question to consider at this juncture is just what is worthy of your faith.  In particular one does well to not place his faith in those things that are temporary--things that will pass away.  For example, there are those who place their faith in governments, yet one does not look far to see that governmental power corrupts (e.g. the disparity between the benefits that the Congress has voted for themselves and what they have voted for the military, other government workers, etc.).

Then too consider the governments one finds across the world where corruption and graft are a way of life.  How deep the disappointment must be for those who place their trust in government.  However, there will come a day that there will be only one government--that presided over by the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Indeed His rule will be fair and just.

We also find people place their faith in movements such a the climate movement, environmental-green movement, equal rights movements, etc.  Though some of have produced change, such change is neither genuine nor is it deep.  There is one exception that is found throughout the history of the world.  It is spiritual revival.  Over and over, culture to culture, and people to people when the social movement is occasioned by spiritual revival (e.g. Billy Sunday, D.L Moody, Charles Spurgeon, etc) there is genuine deep and lasting changes.

Again it all comes back to the question of where I place my faith.  A faith that comes from hearing and that hearing which comes is in conformity to what God's Word says (Romans 10:17)