Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Meeting Needs

Recently, I attended a symposium on immigration sponsored by our Eastern District of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). The focus of the symposium was to discuss the issue of the presence of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States and the response of the church. The symposium recognized the tremendous problems that these millions of undocumented immigrants have on our society. But the focus of the symposium was on how we can reach these immigrants with the Gospel. Yes we need to know that those who are here illegally are causing huge problems for local schools and hospitals. Local governments do not have the financial resources to meet the growing needs of this growing segment of our society, but the church can meet at least one need and that is to help them find Jesus as their Savior. As a result the EFCA will be starting Immigrant Hope to help immigrants and especially to help them find Jesus and get connected with Christians in a local church. You can read more about this at their website Immigrant Hope.

You've all no doubt heard about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan (2/11/2011). In response to this crisis TouchGlobal, the crisis response ministry of the EFCA, asks us to:

• Ask God for mercy upon the people of Japan, especially where tsunami waters have done great damage.
• Ask God to help officials make contact with an EFC Japan pastor and his wife who have not been heard from.
• Ask God to give us, as His church, wisdom and sensitivity to know how to move quickly to give aid and comfort to the many who have been affected.

TouchGlobal asks also that we might give to the disaster relief. You can read more about this at their website: Japan Earthquake Relief.

As we think about how our church might respond to just these two needs--the plight of immigrants in the U.S. and the tragedy caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we are reminded of one of the great purposes of the church--ministry. Jesus says,

'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; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' (Matthew 25:35-40) ¹

As we think about these and other needs, let us remember that our church exists to minister to the real felt needs of people who above all else need Jesus.

Your servant in Messiah Jesus,

Pastor Steve
March 12, 2011

¹ Matthew 25:35-40, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

Find more afterthoughts at Pensamientos (afterthoughts).

You can read recent sermons by Pastor Lorenz at Featured Sermon.