Seven Cities Outreach

February 14, 2012

Blessings to you on this day! Today I am thanking God for His blessed assurance that He has given me in knowing without a doubt that I am His child! I want to share this writing with you that the Lord has impressed me to put down. I hope it blesses you the same way that it has blessed me! Blessings! -Casey Brown

No Fire=No Smoke

Smoke does not cause fire, just as good works do not cause a move of God. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith never had life.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”(John 14:15)

In this statement that Jesus made, a common if/then situation that He often used is demonstrated. With this He is saying “if you love me” (if you have a relationship with me-If I change you), “THEN you will keep my commandments.”  Not if you keep my commandments, you will love me. The love of Him comes before keeping His commandments.   In further pursuit of this idea, what about our works, or, how we act in everyday life?  Actions are a result of the heart. What the body does originates from the heart.

In today’s age, to be a Christian means ONLY to be a good person, to fit within the standards of what a Christian, in this context, should look like (C.S. Lewis explains this much better than I in the preface to his book Mere Christianity).  However, what if it is even deeper than that? The church is facing a bombardment of accusations that its actions do not reflect its doctrine. In this thinking, does the question not arise in our mind: “Who are they to judge what the church should look like? That’s why we are the church and they are the world.” Even on a more personal level: “Who are they to tell me how I live my life?” You see, I italicized the term “they” for a reason. This is, I think, an obvious symptom of a big problem that we don’t even realize that we have. We are putting “they” or “them” on a lower level than us, which is not true love.

I know that I, and I suspect that you have too, noticed an immense anger that envelopes inside of me when someone tries to correct one of my behaviors that they do not see as “Christian.” One thing that I have never explored, until now, is the root of that anger. I have been around Seven Cities long enough to finally realize that one of the main causes to anger is fear. Knowing that, what am I afraid of? I’m afraid that I will be exposed of what I really am: A SINNER!! This is obviously a futile effort because the Bible tells us in Romans 8:28 “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Well, I’ve been exposed. I guess I should just give up and stop trying. OF COURSE NOT! When did Christianity become a contest of who is more polished, clean, and unscarred? It’s a facade! A hoax! -I really hope that the emotion was captured in this because I am pounding my keyboard at this point….

But wait! Aren’t we called to “Be holy, as I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)? Jesus calls us to be perfect. What I have found that I have missed in this is that I am not holy because Jesus is holy, like I am trying to mimic Him. That is impossible because I have already failed at living the life that He led. I CAN’T be Jesus! Actually, what I believe Jesus is saying is “let me make you holy.” It is the Spirit inside us that changes us from the inside out. We cannot change our heart by our actions. We change our actions by the Holy Spirit changing our heart. That is this “transformation” that we talk about with Seven Cities!

There is a practical application to this. What if we quit pretending to be perfect, focusing on how we are performing, and focus on the ONLYONEthat can make us perfect? Even further, what if we LET Him make us perfect? This is by no means easy. This is not a one-step method. This is something that takes a lifetime to come into full effect and still might not be completely perfect at the time of our death. But do not be frightened at this, because God judges the heart. How delighted do you think He would be if He were to look at our heart and see HisSONat work? Realizing this has completely revolutionized the way I think about God. I have realized that He is not holding all of the things that I have done against me, simply because He sees Jesus at work in me. What a relief!

Now that we have learned this, let’s look at the topic from the other side: the world. We have all done it at some point in our lives, and if you haven’t I apologize for my assumption. We have looked at someone who does not know Jesus and based our view of their heart on what we see them do. I am extremely guilty of this. When people, outside and inside the body, see this, do they not always (they’re right) call us on “judging them?” When I look at the way I have handled things in the past, I realize that this has been true of me. This causes the same reaction of anger in the people that we are “judging” that we experience when the same happens to us. The difference is, there is no one to show them that this is not the right way to handle relationship. There are literally tens of thousands of people inAmericaalone that have feelings of bitterness and hatred towards the church for this reason, and often it goes on for lifetimes unresolved.

Do we not base entire mission fields on what each group “does” or how they “live?”  Again, I apologize for my assumptions if I am wrong. I believe that we may be going about this in a completely skewed way. The solution to this, and pretty much all, problems is love! Jesus loves people. Not the believers. Not the non-believers. He loves people. I think once we can get over the fact that we are not loved by God more than this other person or group of people, then I think that we can truly see the Church –I capitalize here because this is what the true Church is- come together. Not only that, but we will see people whom have some type of anger towards the Church delivered from that anger and finally healed of all of the junk that holds them down. The entire idea is loving people the way that God loves them…the ONLY way that they should be loved. The revolution of God’s Love is coming into full effect, and I want to be a part of (and want everybody to be a part of, for that matter)! AMEN?

LET’S LIVE OUR CHRIST’S LOVEANDSEEWHAT HAPPENS!!!

November 30, 2011

Brothers and Sisters,

As I sit here and try to figure out what ministry looks like for myself, this thought has occurred to me, and I wanted to pass it on to you as well:

As a good friend and mentor that you may know (it’s not hard to spot him in a crowd) pointed out to me, our ministry or any other ministry is directly correlated in the book of Nehemiah as the people rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem. As I read, there are certain “highlights” that stick out to me and I believe have warning and guidance to anyone who pursues any type of ministry. The first group of items that I want to point out here is the order of events that Nehemiah went through in the process of rebuilding.

1. Nehemiah had a heart for his people. (Nehemiah 1)

Nehemiah wept on behalf of his people. He recognized the vulnerability of the people in the city with the walls broken down. He spent many days and nights in prayer and fasting, making intercession for his people. He recognized and confessed that they had broken God’s commandments and deserved death, but he continuously prayed Divine Grace unto them. As people within God’s ministry, do we have this kind of heart for the people that we want to reach? Is the burden that we carry for them so heavy that it brings us to weeping for them? If we do have any kind of heart for these people, are we making any kind of conscious effort for intercession on their behalf?

      2.    He Planned. (Nehemiah 2:1-9)

Nehemiah planned his trip. When making his case to his king, Nehemiah asked for favor not only from his king but also from the other governors of the regions that he would be traveling through and the keeper of the king’s forest because he would need the lumber to rebuild the gates of the city. What is my/our goal in ministry? What do we need to do to prepare ourselves for the actual work that we will be doing? Are we seeking the help that we need to complete our short or long-term goal(s)?        

       3.    He had help. (Nehemiah 2:17-18)

Nehemiah made an appeal to the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the others telling them what he wanted to accomplish and that he needed help in accomplishing his goal. He did not beg, but he simply presented his goal before the people. “Then they set their hands to this good work.” (Neh 2:18).  There were people who rebelled against what they were doing. “They laughed and despised us and said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?’”(Neh 2:19). Nehemiah answered, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem” (Neh 2:20). The ones whom fight or rebel against what we are doing have no right to engage in it.

       4.    He (and his team) WORKED  (Nehemiah 3)

Everybody had a part. Each smaller group of people, from all walks of life, had a section of the wall that they were working on. This split up the work and made a seemingly impossible goal achievable by everybody working as one unit in different areas of the goal. Everyone has something that they are good at. Human nature conditions us to think that some things are more significant that others. Kingdom thinking (the mind of Christ) is everyone’s talents that are used for building the Kingdom are equally significant. Is there something holding you back from working in the ministry?

       5.     They defended against imminent attack

In 4:1-2 we see that Sanballat heard what they were doing and was brought to anger. He mocked them. He talked about them to the people around them, saying that what they build will fall. Sound familiar? Sanballat did not just get angry and go attack Nehemiah for what he was doing. There was verbal sabotage that happened first. As a ministry, we need to remember to be building with one hand and wielding a sword in the other. If we are doing something that is righteous for the kingdom, attack will happen. This has proven true time and time again to ministry after ministry. Notice that Nehemiah did not take the fight to them, but he defended what he was doing.

As a ministry, we all have different talents, interests, and abilities. Some abilities that we do have in common, no matter what is that we all have a heart for the younger generations, we all have something that we can physically bring to the table to do outreach, and we all have the ability to pray for ourselves, each other, and the people that we are trying to reach. That’s why this unity that we talk about is so important. Nehemiah had people from all kinds of different social classes, occupations, and genders working toward a common goal: building the wall. With the group that we have brought together, working as one, we can accomplish great things. Now imagine if the Church is so impacted by a wave of God’s Loves that it begins to do the same.  This would spark a revolution of Jesus that the world has never seen before. So, what are WE working for?

It is vital to our ministry that we work together. No one person is more important or more influential than another. I urge you to pray and seek what God has given you to bring to the table in ability, but more importantly, what workcan I do to benefit the kingdom. Idle hands do nothing. It is vital that we pray for what to do and be Spirit led, but prayer without action is dead. Let’s go to work.

With Abundant Love,

Casey Brown
(Casey is a student at Asbury College, Wilmore, KY. He is 21 years old and from Paintsville, KY.)