I've tried this once before...more luck in round two?

Every week I hear something I feel like sharing with the world. However, I seem to have trouble following through when I start something. For the first week or two everything is great and then I get bored with whatever it is that I'm doing.

But I am determined to succeed this time.

I have been making an effort in various aspects of my life to become more consistent and this is going to be my dumping ground for how that's going and what God is doing in my life.

With that said, here is this week's inspiration;

I go to Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV) and as a church we are going through a series called A Tall Order.

Evangelism. That's the tall order. Everyone loves to hear about whole prisons full of genocide inspiring murderers in Rwanda coming to Christ. What about people who are in just as much pain who live across the street from you? Evangelism seems a lot like dieting in that regard; you love it when it happens but don't know if you want to make the sacrifices in order to make it happen.

In church this evening we were talking about a guy named Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector, which in his time and day was just about as scum level as you could get. He was the worst of the worst, no one could be further from God. One day he's sitting there collecting taxes and Jesus comes up to him and says "Follow me." Then he does. Amazing right?

The very next thing he does is throw a big party. He figures he's not too great with words but there's been a big change in his life and in order to tell his friends from his old way of life he'll just invite his friends from his new lifestyle and hopefully they'll walk across the room and let talk to each other about it. He took the steps to connect the lost with the found.

What's the point you say? Here it is, THE CHURCH IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD! The problem here being this - Holy Huddle Syndrome (HHS) or Christian Ghetto Syndrome (CGS). Christians have a bad habit of only being friends with other Christians. Now, tell me this, how on earth is the world going to know Christ if all of his followers are only hanging out with other Christ followers? Jesus was called a friend of sinners...not an acquaintance of sinners but a friend.

One other thing to remember, when you walk across the room the Holy Spirit walks with you and is working on the hearts and minds of those who are lost and dying. So my challenge for you this week is to walk across the room. Be it walking across the office and asking a co-worker to coffee once a week or having a neighborhood BBQ and inviting a few Christ followers to be there too. Take a few steps in faith to reach those around you who are searching and desperately
crying out for hope.

In Matthew 9:12 Jesus says "It is not the healthy people who need a doctor but the sick. Go and learn what this means: I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices. I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners."

It's not the religious people who need a savior but the lost. The sinners. The prostitutes, drug dealers, and that lady who sits in the next cubicle at work, your roommate or neighbor or the guy who serves you coffee in the morning.

Who is it in your life?

Do you love them enough to help save their life?

I hope this inspired and challenged you as much as it did me. To hear the actual teaching click on www.ccvnow.com