Passion

Today is our first Christmas gathering at Genesis. After the service we will be wrapping gifts together and taking them out to a number of families in our community who could use a little help this season. It was neat how so many of you took the names of those families that were on the board so quickly that first Sunday enabling us to add more people the following week.

All this got me thinking about what we’re doing and have done in the short eight months that we’ve been together. Now if what I’m about to share seems a little like bragging, well, I guess it is, but I intend for it to be taken in the same spirit that Paul spoke about those at Colossi, Philippi or the other churches when he said, he was thankful for their love, faith and partnership in the work of the Gospel.

Since we have been meeting together, you from Genesis have been a part of three trips to Mexico and are continuing support down there every month. You have helped out with relief work in Mississippi and Texas. You have gone into the prisons, juvenile halls and are ministering there regularly as well. So many of you helped out over those weeks to renovate the apartment where we will be starting another study to reach that neighborhood next month. Of course not everyone has been able to go to Mexico, Texas or work at the apartment, but all of you who have given financially are a part of each of these works as well.

Many of you of also help out every week pulling the trailer, caring for the kids, setting up the sound & video, making coffee, flyers and all the details that make things happen every week after week, but the reason I mentioned the previous items is because they are all directed outside toward others and not toward ourselves. It is easy (natural really) to cater to our own interests and though there is nothing wrong with doing things to strengthen and encourage one another, all too often that becomes the majority of what we are about. We can have our gatherings, seminars and luncheons, but if we’re not careful we can become a community that just preserves itself and has little passion to reach those outside our walls, which is so unlike Jesus who was most passionate for the lost, the outsider. We see Jesus most angered (anger is a passion) in the Temple where he threw out the money changers. He quotes Isaiah 56 and says “My house shall be called a house of prayer for ALL nations…” (Mark 11:17). Those verses in Isaiah from 3-7 are all about the foreigner, those on the outside. Jesus was passionate when people were hindered from coming to God by those who were supposed to reach out for them and instead pursued their own gain.

When Genesis began, it was my desire that we would be postured towards others and I have to say, that standing here right now and looking back I am overwhelmed with emotion and inspired by all of you who have taken the words of Jesus and made them a living example so that people are able to see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. I am so grateful and humbled to be a part of all of this with you.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now

Philippians 1:3-5 ( NIV )