Food for Thought from the Past Week
Good afternoon from Managua, Nicaragua!
Over the past week, Jen and I have had the opportunity to serve with a team from our home church in Maryland, Crossroads Community Church. We truly enjoyed our time with the team and the chance to serve in a slightly way. It was really cool to be with twenty other people whose main goal for a week was to love the least of these. It was a very refreshing time and blessing to me and Jen.
Being with the team and serving in this way reminded me of a chapter of the Bible that resonated deeply with me when I first started this journey in Nicaragua almost two years ago. The excerpt comes from the book of Isaiah and speaks to the type of sacrifice that truly honors God. In the midst of convicting the people of Israel of going through the motions when it came to serving God, he says, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7, NIV) Isaiah then goes on to talk about how living and sacrificing this way is what truly brings glory and joy to God.
The last seven days have been a living example of the truths of Isaiah’s words. From the kids at the orphanage, to the community of El Canyon, this group of people from Maryland served the exact people Isaiah talked about and the world is a better place because of it. My hope is that we can continue to live these words out on a daily basis and not allow the past week to become an experience we file away. How different would the world be if we lived this way every day? How many more people would want a relationship with God through Jesus Christ if his followers loved people the way He calls them to? My guess is quite a few. Maybe it is about time we, the Followers of Christ, gave it a try.
– James Belt
In2theRiver 