"The life that Jesus calls us to is absolute craziness to the world. Sure, its fine and politically correct to believe in God, but to really love Him is a whole different story. Yeah, its nice and generous to give to the needy at Christmas or after some disaster, but to sacrifice your own comfort and welfare for another may look like madness to a safe and undisturbed world."
What if we, as Christians, did that? What if we really LOVED Christ? What if we sacrificed our own comfort for another? What would the world think? (Wow, and to think I haven't even started the book yet!)
"How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the church are missing it? Don't worry -- this isn't another book written to bash churches. I think it's far to easy to blame the American church without acknowledging that we are a part of the church and therefore responsible. But I think we all feel deeply, even if we haven't voiced it, that the church in many ways is not doing good."
I'm reading the Bible straight through! Right now, I'm in Exodus chapter 18, Moses led the Isrealites out of Eygpt. God provided mana for them to eat and gave them water from a rock...let's see what God will do next!!
"This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They'll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They'll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they'll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you'll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also."
Wise words spoken by Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. We can not do it alone. I have seen this in the past few years in working with the youth ministry. We have to appoint small group leaders and others over our students, we can't take on every challenge. Some challenges we have to let the leaders handle, others the leaders bring to us. I love the line "you'll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you," if we are wise and remember not to take on every task, but remember to deligate, than God will supply us with enough strength to carry out His plans, but if we are foolish and try to take on too much ourselves, we will surely burn out.
It's amazing how much you can take away from one chapter in the Bible and a few sections from a book! Good stuff to chew on for awhile and pray that God contiues to help me to LOVE Him with a crazy love!
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