Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you so much for partnering with me as I serve with Word Made Flesh. I hope that in our relationship and through this partnership, we will discover more about God's heart for our world.
About a year ago, our WMF office took a Gallup “Strengths Finder” Test together. This test is designed to help participants discover their talents and turn them into strengths. I discovered five of my top talents from this test, one of which was ideation. Ideation for me, means that I love big ideas. I love reading magazines and seeing new trends. I love reading about change agents in the world and how they positively affect our world. I even love asking big questions that focus on theory and ideas.
I believe I was called to Word Made Flesh to participate in at least one “big idea”. And I believe that any Christian is called to participate in some way in this same idea.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
I believe in the idea that God has a heart for those who are suffering and believe this is one of those ideas that has changed the world in the past and can change the world now. I believe that this world is an unbelievably poor reflection of what He wants for us. We have people all over the world dying of obesity and also dying of starvation. We need each other.
We know that God is eternal and never changing; however, there are times in history when the outpouring of His Spirit has drastically changed the order of things. We can look back at the Great Awakenings in US history, the abolition of the slave trade in England and in the US. We can look at South Korea, China, etc. for many more examples. A number of people have said that there are whisperings of His Spirit that are evident today. There is also a longing for more.
Jesus' death and resurrection is for us all. We all come the same before Him, sinners in need of grace. But our world is tilted in favor of certain people. Depending on where you were born, you are either highly likely or highly unlikely to survive infancy, eat three meals a day, have more than 2 pairs of clothes, get clean drinking water from your faucet, sleep on a mattress, own your home, be able to read, have survived rape or war, had to seek refuge in another land, or been persecuted for being a Christian.
I believe that there are counter-currents which we must participate as Christians: to oppose torture, to be good stewards of the environment, to care for those who are suffering and vulnerable, to die to ourselves and live selflessly. To not see our gifts, opportunities, and resources as “ours” but which we are loaned by the Father.
We had a guest speaker at Beggar's Society a few months ago, and he shared the importance of being no more than one degree removed from those who are poor. I think this is an important concept. My friends who are poor are not better people because they are poor….but they often don't succumb to the same kinds of self-deception as me. They can't put on a nice suit and pretend that everything is fine. When I am in relationship with them, I lose some of the artifices that I have built up to make myself look better.
We need each other to come closer to Jesus.
I believe that unless His Spirit moves, we are doomed. We can see that the world increasing in knowledge, but not in wisdom.
Word Made Flesh is but one way to respond to this big idea. To care for those who are suffering in the world.
Let's continue to partner together.
Lots of love,
Brent