“It’s as if God is saying, ‘The thing that has happened to you – go make it happen for others. The freedom from oppression that you are now experiencing – help others experience that same freedom. The grace that has been extended to you when you were at your lowest – extend it to others. In the same way that I heard your cry, go and hear the cry of others and act on their behalf.”
“God measures their faith by how they treat the widows, orphans, strangers – the weak – among them. God’s desire is that they would bring exodus to the weak, in the same way that God brought them exodus in their weakness.”
So, I started reading this book this week and Ive read only 40-something pages and I’m already blown away. Rob Bell is one the world’s most influential pastors and leaders in the community of Christ and it never ceases to amaze me how he brings the word of God to life.
This particular passage is following Rob talking about God telling the Israelites about the Ten Commandments. Rob is explaining how important the Ten Commandments are to the Israelites of that day and the Christians and followers of God today. As I was reading this last night a couple of feelings and thoughts just struck me.
This is everything that God is, his entire being, why he loves us and why he needs a body. God cares like no one in the history of the world that he created could ever fathom to care. He is a God who hears, who cares, loves, delivers, and the list goes on and on. This is the calling of all believers around the world to help the helpless. At the exact time that I was thinking about helping the helpless I had a disturbing thought. Most people in the world don’t know that God is calling us to help the helpless because 40% of people between the age of 16 and 29 view Christians, followers of Jesus as hypocritical, judgmental, and everything that Jesus isn’t.
As you can see these thoughts collided with each other. Major Collision.
“God’s desire is that they would bring exodus to the weak, in the same way that God brought them exodus in their weakness.”
You can go one or two ways when following Jesus, you can either follow his desire or run from it, it seems that 40% of America thinks that we have run from it. You can choose to do what you want with this information that I have presented to you, but as for me I intend to learn more about God’s desire for my life.
I love to talk about Jesus and the full life He calls us to