THE NEED IS THE CALL
Catherine was well-known as a skillful Bible teacher, and was often
asked to speak around the country. But her husband, Bill, did not know
what he was called to do and for the first ten years of their married
life he did not know what God expected of him. One time, when Catherine
had been invited to preach in London, Bill took a late-night walk
through the slums of East London. He noticed that about every fifth
building was a pub. At the entrance to most of them, he saw steps
leading up to the bar so little children could order their gin. That
night when he went back to their room he told Catherine, "I seemed to
hear a voice sounding in my ears, ‘Where can you go and find such
heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labors?’
Darling, I have found my destiny!"
Later that year, the couple moved to London and opened the first "Christian Mission" in the same area where he first saw the need. Their vision was to reach the "down and outers" that other Christians seemed to overlook. The vision grew as they responded to need at hand. Today, there are about three million members reaching out in 91 countries through the Salvation Army, started by William and Catherine Booth.
As I invite people to become involved in our outreach, many assure me
that they will respond as soon as God tells them to. Others assure me
that they will pray about it, now that they have learned of our need.
Both of these seem like spiritual responses, but they often leave me
with a sense that many Christians misunderstand something fundamental
about the will of God. I never want to minimize the importance of
seeking God, nor do I want people to be prayerless about these things,
but sometimes I feel Christians are hiding behind these spiritual
responses. This must have been the case in James' day, as he challenged
the believers to act on the needs they saw. He wrote, “If a brother
or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to
them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them
the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also
faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will
say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:15-18)
Would it not be just as true to say, “Praying about it by itself profits
nothing.” Here is an interesting story from Mark 6:34-44, which supports
this idea and sheds more light on what our response should be:
A
vast crowd greeted Jesus as he stepped from a boat, igniting the
compassion of His heart because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So he taught them many things. Late in the afternoon his disciples came
to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and it is getting late. Send
the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy
food for themselves. "But Jesus said, "You feed them."
"With what?" they
asked. "It would take a small fortune to buy food for all this crowd!"
“How much food do
you have?" he asked. "Go and find out." They came back and reported, "We
have five loaves of bread and two fish."
Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down in groups on the green grass. So
they sat in groups of fifty or a hundred. Jesus took the five loaves and
two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked God's blessing on the food.
Breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to
the disciples to give to the people. They all ate as much as they
wanted, and they picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.
Five thousand men had eaten from those five loaves!
THEY WERE
RESPONSIBLE ONCE THEY SAW THE NEED
There are several important points in this story that can be applied to
situations today.
The disciples saw the need of the multitude and told Jesus about it.
Today, we call this prayer or intercession. Jesus then put the need back
on them and told them to do something about it. This must have shocked
them. Would it shock you if you learned that you are responsible to do
something about the needs you see? It was obvious to the disciples that
their limited resources could not put a dent in the need. We often feel
stumped by the same dilemma. They reminded Jesus of this, but He simply
told them to give what they had on hand. When they did, He blessed it.
This is the indispensable part of any outreach. Jesus also gave them
additional direction about how to manage the feeding program. We really
need this kind of practical wisdom. They told everyone to sit in ranks
of hundreds and fifties. Notice the food was not multiplied until it was
given away. It multiplied in their hand. Take note that their
intercession by itself was incomplete. We need to intercede physically,
as well as in prayer. One without the other cannot meet the needs we
see.
Have you ever played chess with someone and waited a long time between move? Did you think it was the other person's move, only to find out it was yours? I think that someday the church is going to discover that while we have been waiting on God to meet the needs of those around us, it was our move all along. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the entire church believed this and decided to get God’s blessing on their outreach? Can you imagine the impact this kind of evangelism would have? We need to ask Him to bless our limited resources, and wait upon Him for wisdom to know how to manage the needs of the people, but I believe it is our move, not God’s.
