this past weekend was amazing...
God was really working on my heart in several different ways
what I have learned is that the DTES zip code is the most impoverished zip code in N.A.
I went through the weekend asking God to show me what he is doing, and I wanted to see God in the people.
What he showed me was shocking...
I have learned to hate the brokenness.
I hate the circumstances that the people are born into.
I hate that the foster system is a joke and is used like a bad business.
I hate that they have addictions that they most likely they will die with.
I hate that they will most likely never escape the bondage that sin and addiction are in their lives.
I hate that they know their Bible better than me
I hate that they are the most evangelized people in N.A.
I hate that they have been evangelized without love because people don't know how to reach out to them and accept the reality of sin and its separateness from the person.
I hate that people can go give them a cookie, say "Jesus loves you" and then walk away with a clean conscience.
God made me fall in love with his people there.
I don't see the sin any more, I just see his image born into a life of poverty and choices that had to be made for survival.
people very easily pass judgment on the people down there, they say things like "they made the choices in their life that has put them there..."
A few of them have, but mostly they were given no choices
They didn't have parents who loved them and gave them the affection they needed.
They didn't have someone to tell them that God loves them and created them and cares for them
They didn't have homes to come home to and feel safe in
All they had was severe pain, pain from many different things, pain that children are never supposed to know
Pain that drives them to either suicide or escape by other means.
Other means usually means heavy addiction to whatever thing can get them away. In their conscious moments they are searching for love, but when they never find it, they search for a way to not feel anything.
The leaders who work down there are amazing people. Many of them are Christians.
They have had to realize that the gospel message that they were most likely raised on, is not the message that will reach out to these people.
they live with the harsh reality that most of what they do down there will never be noticed or appreciated.
The rest of the world tells them that they are wasting their time, not understanding how anyone could possibly see the image of God in these people.
The world tells them that they are stupid for trying to work there, that they should go some where else if they want to work for God.
Many of them have changed the way they dress, walk and talk, they even let their hair get greasy (things that don't matter to God) just so that the people won't be afraid of them, or hide from them.
They just try to be real.
To do this honestly, they have to be real all the time, not just when they are in the DTES.
What does this look like?
When they go home, when they go to a restaurant, when they walk the streets of gas town and pass the trendy and expensive shops, they have to be real. They face real shame for the sacrifice they are willing to make for Christ.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Col 2:8
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col 3:2
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... Col 3:14
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but nunder the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Cor. 9:19
The next time you see a homeless person, don't think "what choices did this person make to end up here?"
think "what severe hurt and trauma has this person been through that has left them in such bondage and hurt?"
People shouldn't be defined by their sin. They should be defined by their creator
As for the workers, they don't get rewarded and honored by the world, they have to make peace with that.
What does this mean for our church?
Are we worried about our image to God? or to the world?
How can we be different, so that the broken and lost in our neighborhood can feel truly, I mean TRULY welcome here?
DO we hand them clean clothes and offer them a shower?
Or does that send the wrong message.
What does it really mean to accept them as Christ would accept them?
Can we be truly unashamed of the gospel, and the Christ that we serve?
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