Crash and Burn

This post is a part of a weekly book discussion hosted by Jason Stasyszen of Connecting to Impact and Sarah Salter of Living Between the Lines. I encourage you to check out the other posts, on their sites. The Book we are discussing is The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

. This week, Chapter Nine: One Hundred Crashing Jetliners.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” Flannery O’Connor

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, (15) Whom every family in Heaven and on Earth is named.” Eph 3:14-15

I have a small nation of seven that I am ultimately responsible for, and they are my greatest challenge to father but they are not the only ones. I take my role of Daddy very seriously and know that I must succeed at home before all else. Josh, Sarah, Matt, Mike, Daniel, Isaac and Becky deserve the best dad that God can make of me. However, my influence as “Father” goes beyond that arena, not in importance but in need. I need to reach out to other children…ones I don’t even know. The Hole in our Gospel describes them as…

Somebody Else’s Kids, all 26,500 of them.

Everyday that awful number, that horrific number of somebody else’s children die, not from 100 jetliners crashing, but from poverty related causes. My heart crashes and burns when I read this, because I know that I have fallen short in caring about them.

“The righteous care about justice for the poor, the wicked have no such concern.” Proverbs 29:7

“He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” Proverbs 28:27

Millions of somebody else’s kids need fathers to rise up and give hope. This is the power given to us by Father God; we can supply hope. Webster defines a Father as:

He who creates, invents, makes or composes any thing; the author, former or contriver; a founder, director or instructor. God as creator is the father of all men.

Fathers are the authors of change that God uses to make an impact, to make a difference and change the course of someone’s life. That just may be somebody else’s kid. Many of you are way ahead of me on this and have positioned yourself as a hope provider and I am blessed and challenged by you all. Here are just two examples of what I mean, please visit these sites and pray.

Hope for Change My friend and brother, Paul Grimsland, who I written about before, (and a few other friends) have this tremendous ministry to the poor. Read the stories about the lives that are being touched by Hope for Change.

Thrive Church Pastor, blogger, friend…Herb Halstead is cool. Herb’s church has this terrific vision to supply clean water to a village, read more to see how you can partner with His church,

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Blessings,
Jay

LiveJournal Tags: Hole in our gospel,fathers,children