Naked
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness....?" Romans 8:35
The farther we drive down the back roadways of Nellore, we see more and more nakedness. We have grown accustomed to the sight of children lingering near edge of the street with nothing on except perhaps a string tied around their waist. Inside the villages they run freely, unashamed and "untethered" by clothing.
While the base cause of their lack may be poverty, I am reminded of something I have heard often by those who grew up with little material goods, "we didn't know we were poor." I know these children do not KNOW they are poor. They are simply living, running around, playing with siblings, and naked. We take no offense or embarrassment - this is just part of their life and living out one day at a time.
With so much material need confronting us each and every day, we could easily lose focus - but we don't. We came to India to share the love of Christ and the Message of salvation. For us that includes our faith in the verse found in Romans 8. There is nothing that can separate THEM or US from the love of Christ. Paul goes on to say just two chapters later "how can they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent?
Today, you sent two pair of beautiful feet into an isolated church amidst a Muslim community, a schoolhouse run by a Hindu school master sympathetic to the Christian cause, and at the end of the day, our feet walked into a Leper-Beggar community of 19 families. This is the third time I have met with these people and the older women smiled, bowed with folded hands and thanked us for returning again. We gathered them all together and presented a short version of our program.
When it came time to make the "Good News" bracelets, there were those in the crowd whose diseased hands could not thread the beads. I knelt down beside a deaf and mute leper and as he held out his hand, I tenderly took the beads and said the meaning of each of the colors. "Yellow is for Heaven where the streets are paved with gold. Black is for the sin that separates us from God. Red is for the shed blood of Christ who took the punishment for our sin. White is for being made pure and righteous, and Green is for new life growing in Christ. Although I spoke a language he would not have understood even if his hearing was not impaired - I illustrated something he could understand, the love of Christ, who comes and sits and eats with the lepers. Who treats them with dignity and humanity and grace. Can leprosy separate them from His love? No. Can nakedness or poverty? No.
The only thing that separates them is no one going in His place - no one telling them, no one showing them - no one willing to clothe them with His grace and mercy.
There in the dust, in front of their thatch huts tied together with whatever materials they can scrounge out of the trash heaps - we tied Gospel bracelets around their wrists.
They called upon His Name today
They have believed in the One they heard of
They heard the preachers because you have sent.
"When saw we Thee a stranger and took thee in? Or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw thee sick, or in prison and came to thee? And the King shall answer...". Matt 25:38-40
Waiting for the voice
Until then in His service
The farther we drive down the back roadways of Nellore, we see more and more nakedness. We have grown accustomed to the sight of children lingering near edge of the street with nothing on except perhaps a string tied around their waist. Inside the villages they run freely, unashamed and "untethered" by clothing.
While the base cause of their lack may be poverty, I am reminded of something I have heard often by those who grew up with little material goods, "we didn't know we were poor." I know these children do not KNOW they are poor. They are simply living, running around, playing with siblings, and naked. We take no offense or embarrassment - this is just part of their life and living out one day at a time.
With so much material need confronting us each and every day, we could easily lose focus - but we don't. We came to India to share the love of Christ and the Message of salvation. For us that includes our faith in the verse found in Romans 8. There is nothing that can separate THEM or US from the love of Christ. Paul goes on to say just two chapters later "how can they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent?
Today, you sent two pair of beautiful feet into an isolated church amidst a Muslim community, a schoolhouse run by a Hindu school master sympathetic to the Christian cause, and at the end of the day, our feet walked into a Leper-Beggar community of 19 families. This is the third time I have met with these people and the older women smiled, bowed with folded hands and thanked us for returning again. We gathered them all together and presented a short version of our program.
When it came time to make the "Good News" bracelets, there were those in the crowd whose diseased hands could not thread the beads. I knelt down beside a deaf and mute leper and as he held out his hand, I tenderly took the beads and said the meaning of each of the colors. "Yellow is for Heaven where the streets are paved with gold. Black is for the sin that separates us from God. Red is for the shed blood of Christ who took the punishment for our sin. White is for being made pure and righteous, and Green is for new life growing in Christ. Although I spoke a language he would not have understood even if his hearing was not impaired - I illustrated something he could understand, the love of Christ, who comes and sits and eats with the lepers. Who treats them with dignity and humanity and grace. Can leprosy separate them from His love? No. Can nakedness or poverty? No.
The only thing that separates them is no one going in His place - no one telling them, no one showing them - no one willing to clothe them with His grace and mercy.
There in the dust, in front of their thatch huts tied together with whatever materials they can scrounge out of the trash heaps - we tied Gospel bracelets around their wrists.
They called upon His Name today
They have believed in the One they heard of
They heard the preachers because you have sent.
"When saw we Thee a stranger and took thee in? Or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw thee sick, or in prison and came to thee? And the King shall answer...". Matt 25:38-40
Waiting for the voice
Until then in His service
