PROVOKING

Some provoking questions for consideration:

Abstracted from the 40-days season prayer booklet

The great buffet

Have we reduced Christianity to a great buffet & ourselves, the self-serving customers? Do we pick & choose whatever we fancy from the Word & skip the parts we don't like?

The great trap

Are we merely going thru the motions of church, cell group, community outreach, conference & so forth, running hither & tither, just for show, just to stay in line & appear involved, but our hearts aren't really in it anymore?

The great farce

Are we hot heads & cold hearts? Are we in the crisis of inconsistency, sheer hypocrisy or spiritual schizophrenia? Are we promoting & pleasing ourselves rather than God?

The great reality

Are we working on our salvation, not as a ticket to heaven but as a force for personal & community transformation?

The great promise

1. Remove the yoke from among you
2. Stop pointing the finger & speaking evil
3. Feed the hungry, satisfy the afflicted

THEN

1. Your lives will glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
2. The Lord will guide you continually & satisfy your needs in parched places.
3. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.
4. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

Friends, ask the Lord to help you prioritise your time, energy & resources for the benefit of the distressed poor. Ask for eyes to discern felt needs. Beyond words, ACT! Go, MEET THAT NEED.