Jesus is under the bridge

Mother Tersea once that it is among the poor and destitute that you find Jesus in the most distressing disguises. My Friends and I found Jesus under a bridge last Friday night in the form of two elderly homeless people. The entire group knew these two people, being that they had reached out to them in the past. In an effort to put flesh on the scriptures we went to show these folks what the Love of Christ looks like through clothing and something warm to eat.

I have found in the past that it is through the these types of people that God chooses to speak, and this night was no different. These two fellows were so grateful for the food and clothing that we had brought that night, they continued to thank us and tell us how great we were because of what we were doing. I finally responded to there grateful thanks by saying that we were not anything great or special, that we were the same as them. To this one of the drunken homeless men responded, "Yes you are something great and special and we are too, because we are His children. It is God that gives each of us every breath we take, it is God who gives us Life. So if we are alive it is because God wants us alive and that makes us special." After this man said this another drunken homeless man prayed for the group. I stood in awe of how God spoke and is speaking through people like this. These are truly the types of people who Jesus said would be first in His Kingdom.

Is it not true though? The words of this Homeless man? For those people who are children of God, we are special, we are His. His children have the Holy Spirit living inside of them! This is something the scripture make clear, if the is the case though why do so many times we neglect the fact that the Holy spirit lives inside of us? We rely on our own strength, when we could be relying on His. We so many times live like unbelievers who have no Holy Spirit inside of them. When I look through the book of Acts I see followers of Jesus who through the Holy spirit healed the sick, walked away from stonings (which should have killed them) and even raised people from the dead. They did this through the strength of God and people came to repentance because of the strength that was displayed! May we not rely on our own strength, may we rely on God's strength. May we begin to live radically like the early church did. They relieved that God's ways, power and plans were higher than their own and God used them to "turn the world upside down".