We Can Change the World

God has been working in my heart in several different ways lately. He has mainly been birthing a passion that has been inside of me for some time now. A passion for the hopeless, the brokenhearted, the homeless. And it is a passion that I want to bring home to Phoenix, because I believe God is placing a dream in my heart that needs to be fulfilled. This morning as I sat in our Street Teams training, I realized how comfortable we live. Sorry if I may be blunt, but the truth is sometimes hard to hear. Right now all over the world, (just think about your city) there are children starving, there are women giving up their body and soul to prostitution, there are teens contemplating suicide, parents surrendering to drugs and alcohol. There are girls and boys being physically beaten, mentally abused, and sexually assaulted. These are all things we've heard before, these are situations that we know are out there in the world, but I think sometimes we feel that there is nothing we can do. Streets are filled with people sleeping on benches, people who have to beg for food and money daily. The reality is that these people are living amongst us while we lay comfortably in our beds. They live around the corner from us, we walk past them everyday. They are starving while we indulge ourselves in satisfying meals. Now, I'm not saying that we should not live comfortable or be able to eat nicely, but we ought to be giving to others who don't have what we have been blessed with. Everybody has needs, but if we have something to give, why not offer it? Whether that be our time, our finances, a listening ear, a helping hand, or simply an understanding heart. The core issue with these people is that they hardly have anyone in their life who actually cares about them. These beaten and bruised children have never even heard anyone say "I love you" to them. The drug infused parents have never had the opportunity to entrust their lives with someone; no one to hear their story. You as an individual and we, as a church can be that listening ear. We can be that helping hand. We can be that person in a prostitute's life who looks upon them with value. We can lend a caring heart to a child who never had the heart of their father or mother. Every person on this earth deserves to have value placed upon them, whether they choose to believe it or not.

I guess this blog is just to open your eyes and encourage you to do something for someone. Start by giving a smile to that homeless person begging for money as you walk by. You may be the only person in their life that makes them realize someone cares. All these people need is a friend, someone to care about them, a familiar face for them to trust. Consistency is the key. This is what they told us at Street Teams. The families we come in contact with open up their lives and hearts to our teams each week as they see the same faces. We can give them hope through Jesus Christ. I really am anxious to come home and do something with this passion. I feel that there is something back in Arizona for me, whether it be just volunteering at various shelters around the valley, or getting involved with the ministries at Central. Or possibly opening some type of organization, or even starting Street Teams at church. I don't know yet, but I know God is placing a dream in my heart. I just need to figure out what it is and how to go about it!

Matthew 25:35-36 (NIV)-For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Matthew 25:40 (The Message) 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'