Love Without Deeds Is Worthless.

“Faith without deeds is dead” {2:20b}; love without deeds is worthless.  It’s a simple enough premise.  It should be intuitive, understandable, easily comprehended.  And yet it’s not.  So ...what happened ...why does this seem so foreign to so many of us ...and why would it stir up such controversy in the Body of Christ?  The natural progression of our intimacy with Abba, the fullest flowering of our faith, our trust in a Father greater and more gracious than we can humanly imagine, more faithful and forgiving than is humanly possible, is love for those around us.  And the easiest expression of love is to do good for others— quite often, whether they deserve good done to them {because ‘deserve’ has got nothing to do with it!}.  This means seeking Jesus’ Kingdom in tangible, practical, real-time ways on their behalf and desiring His presence and power to reign over them.

If compassion is commanded of the Children of God, if compassion is what opens our eyes to the individual worth, the incalculable value, of every last sister or brother in the Body of Christ, if one of the main indictments brought against the Church over the past 60 or so years has been its lack of compassion for the poor and oppressed— the black, the red, the brown, the yellow, the homeless and the heartbroken, the wounded and weary of our world {all the loveless and lonely, the downtrodden and deserted?}— i.e., all those ‘others’ in society ...then how do we put this into practice?  I suggest we take a simple, inexpensive, deeply relational cue from someone who’s been there, down and out on the dusty Texas streets of Fort Worth for well over two decades.

“When I first got to Fort Worth, I remember a lotta times wishin that instead of given me money, somebody’d just ask me my name.  But after a while, when I figured out city folks thought I wadn’t no better than a speck a’ dust, my heart began to grow a tough hide over it, like a orange that’s been left out in the Sun.  My heart got harder and harder.  Pretty soon, all I wanted was for folks to gimme that dollar and leave me alone.

That’s when homeless folks that ain’t drinkin or druggin already make themselves a new friend.  Them half-pints and beers and little packets a’ white powder becomes their friend, their pastor, their storm shelter— a deep, dark, hummin hole they can crawl into to escape from themselves even if it’s just fo’ a little while.  They tryin to drown their problem— or burn it.

Now whatever drove them to the streets from the get-go is a problem, and whatever they is usin to escape is a problem.

So now they got two problems.”— Denver Moore in What Difference Do It Make?

When it comes to following in the Master’s footsteps the possibility, even the probability, of getting killed is part of the deal.  Apprenticeship to Jesus is a high-risk endeavor.  And sometimes our dying is to our own suffocating selfishness.  Amen?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously