From time to time I feel prompted to republish a past post.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.
I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.
I have no clue why.
So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.
So here goes.
A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.
Most days I take a walk around the streets.
As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.
I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.
On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.
As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.
I laughed to myself!
But didn't laugh for long.
As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.
I didn't know why.
I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.
I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.
I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.
I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.
You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.
Your eyes will show you.
Your heart will show you.
The Spirit of God will show you.
I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?
I heard six words drop into my thoughts.
"You are humbled by the need."
Humbled by the need?
I understood that sentence straight away.
Yeah.
Humbled by the need.
Being effective out on the mission field requires it.
Becoming humbled by the need.
Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.
But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.
I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.
What it means to be humble.
If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?
My mind hit on a scene from the bible.
Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.
Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.
It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.
He was humbled by the need.
He didn't need to try to be humble.
He just was.
For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.
But are we humbled by the need?
Do we feel it deep inside?
Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.
A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?
God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.
I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.
People moved with compassion.
Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?
I think so.
The time is now.
To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.
To be humbled by the need.
