Spreading a Passion for God from a Right Heart

Over the last several months, we have been meditating together on the mercy of God in Christ. And one of the things we’ve seen is that God intends for us, not to be reservoirs of his mercy, but to be rivers of his mercy to the nations. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).

During this same period of time, we have been preparing ourselves to “go public,” if you will, with this new church. We have been praying and shaping vision and developing leaders and forming ministry teams and many other things. Now the time has come for us to go to the surrounding communities and begin to share the good news of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

And from the outset, I want us to understand that our outreach ministries are less about programs and more about a way of life in Christ. They are less about planned activities and more about the state of our hearts before God. Of course, we will have programs and planned activities, but the real questions are these:

Do we share God’s heart for the lost? Do we share God’s heart for wandering and starving sheep, that is, Christians who don’t have a church or who are not being taught the truths of the gospel wherever they are? Do we share God’s heart for the “least of these” who need basic things like food, clothing, advice, and companionship. Do our hearts break over the same things that break the heart of God?

It’s time for us to think outside of ourselves and go across the street and around the world with the good news of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. But let us never forget that God is most concerned with the state of our hearts before him. All of the right religious activity in the world will not please God if it comes from a wrongly motivated heart.

Pursuing right motives with you,
Pastor Charlie