No PATHS lead to God.  There, we started this blog off with a bang!  Most world religions teach that whatever religion we follow, they’re all essentially the same.  There may be a few differences here and there in the rules and regulations we should follow along the way, but all agree that the key is to just keep climbing that mountain.

But what if God is not at the top of that mountain.  What if all those religious activities we do get us all the way up to the top, only to find out we’re no closer to God.

One of the most troubling verses in the Bible for many people is Matthew 7:22-23 says, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

What went wrong?  Didn’t they do enough for God?  The problem is we can’t get closer to God through anything we do.  Until we understand the depth of our depravity, that our hearts are inherently far from God, and that we are lost, we will never learn to appreciate the incredible price Jesus paid in taking on all of our sin.

Without that understanding, we can’t experience true brokeness.  Without brokeness, we will likely miss God’s greatest desire for us…absolute surrender.  Short of that, we’re just doing religion.

God is not at the top of the mountain.  He came down to us.  No paths lead to God.

No one can do enough to earn their way into His presence…God did not overestimate the cost required for humans to be reconciled with Him when He sent His Son to die for us.

Meet The Need was established to reach those individuals with that message…we can’t save ourselves and we don’t have to.  We need a Savior and we have a Savior, and it is Jesus Christ!

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Yesterday, I asked God this question.  I was reading 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 and saw how God values love above all else – more than faith, spiritual gifts, giving to the poor, sacrifice, etc.  But those verses don’t define what love is.  Even verses 4-7 only describe characteristics of love, not what love really is at its core.  So I prayed and asked God to reveal to me what love is.  Through the circumstances of the day yesterday (which I could write a small book about), God revealed to me maybe the most important lesson I’ll ever learn – because it’s what is most important to God.

If you ask 1,000 people what love is, you’ll get 500+ answers.  You’ll hear things like, “I just feel it”, “I just knew”, “I don’t know – there are no words to describe it”.  Many never truly understand what love is.  I don’t think I did until yesterday…

What is Love?

2 Great Commandments:

1. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and strength” – The most important way we can showing our love for God is to be like Jesus Christ and follow his commandments (Joshua 22:5).  To be like Jesus and obey Him means thinking “what would Jesus do”.  What would Jesus be thinking in a situation like this? It’s loving what God loves and hating what God hates (Psalm 97:10) because we (strive to) have the mind of Christ.  Using our own sinful minds to figure out how to love God or show love for God is futile – we will fail because we’re doing it apart from Him.
2. “Love your neighbor (which is everyone according to the story of the Good Samaritan) as yourself” – “Love your neighbor” is nebulous, general and undefined.  “As yourself” is the key – it gives the context and definition of what it means to “love” someone else.  We “love” ourselves (whether we really like ourselves is another story) because we are always “in” our own minds and empathize with ourselves – we have no choice!  And we take action to give ourselves what we need.  So “love your neighbor as yourself” is seeking to put ourselves in someone else’s place to understand what they’re experiencing and thinking (just like we do with ourselves every moment of every day, by necessity).  To use the same example of the Good Samaritan, he showed love to his neighbor by empathizing with the beaten man and taking action.

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Ten years ago, when God gave our founder the vision for Meet The Need during a drive from Jacksonville back to his home in Atlanta, he envisioned churches and ministries in a large city connected, providing help and hope to the needy and lost.  He imagined church members able to find opportunities to serve the community in whatever ways God had gifted them.  He pictured pastors and church staff members able to provide a “window” to the outside world – a portal through which members could be mobilized to vastly increase the Church’s impact in the community.  God showed him that it was possible to unite the Body of Christ, to empower them to join forces by leveraging a common platform to demonstrate God’s love to a hurting world. 

It has been a long road, but we’re blessed and excited to see that the vision has now been realized! 

Over a roughly 40 mile expanse from Clearwater to Lakeland, many churches and nearly all ministries are now part of a single giving network.  Through Meet The Need, churches now show their members chances to volunteer at their local ministry partners and opportunities to give used items to families who need those exact same items.  Ministries now display their volunteer, resource and family needs on their own web sites, and those same needs appear on many local church sites.  Needy families who used to walk from church to church asking for help, are routed back to a “home” church because local churches are now on a common benevolence system.  Needs that would never have even been seen within the “4 walls” of churches are now being met by those willing and able to help.  And church members are provided more chances to share not only their time and belongings, but also their faith, with those in need.

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Driving to work a few days ago, I heard a discussion on the radio about a book written recently by Pastor Tim Keller.  According to the reporter, Pastor Keller believes many Christians see helping the poor as optional – something we do “out of the goodness of our hearts”.  And something that if we do, we should be commended for… 

Charities play to that line of thinking.  Either through guilt or compassion, they try to engender in us a desire to make some small difference.  To feel good about ourselves for having done anything to help those in need.   As a result, many people volunteer at a local charity or donate a little money, particularly during the holidays.  But how much are we thinking about the poor during the other 10 months of the year.

Keller’s point in all this is that according to the Bible, helping the poor is NOT an option.   It is not charity, it’s our responsibility. 

It’s not about our spare change or a couple days of our lives each year. 

And it’s not an event.

It’s a lifestyle.

Meet The Need exists because we, like Keller, believe there’s a Biblical mandate to help the poor.  We believe it’s wrong for Christians to buy luxuries for themselves while doing nothing to help those dying of starvation and preventable diseases.  At the same time, we understand that many more Christians and churches would do more to help the poor if they know more about the actual needs. 

Before Meet The Need, there was no way for churches to gather, filter and communicate opportunities to help those less fortunate to its members.  That’s why Meet The Need set about fixing that broken process – there is now a communication channel for sharing and selecting ways that Christians can make a difference in the lives of others that fit each of our God-given skills, interests and possessions.

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Christianity is unique among the religions of the world.  Only Christians believe in the need for a Savior.  That concept, very simply, defines who we are and what we believe.  Personally, it is the reason why I am absolutely certain that my faith is not in vain…because I know that I’m a sinner in dire need of a Savior! 

Christianity forces us to admit that we cannot earn our salvation because we are not worthy of God…no matter how many good works we do, no matter how kind and considerate we are.  Only those humble enough to recognize their frailties as humans can accept that they need the sacrifice Jesus made for us to bridge the enormous gap between our sinful nature and the holiness of almighty God!

It follows that humility is probably the single most important trait of any Christian.  Conversely, arrogance is the trait that does more to separate people from God than any other.

My wife recently pointed me to an article in a fitness magazine about a famous model who wrote a book about yoga.   A few quotes from the article caught my eye:

•  “I truly believe that we have the answers within us, but it takes incredible discipline and hard work to find them.”
• “Yoga has taught me that health and well-being are where true beauty lies.”
• “Being receptive to different views and perspectives allows for unlimited horizons of spiritual potential.”
• “Align yourself with the universe, becoming conscious of your inner self as well as everything around you.”

Eastern religions put forth some very attractive notions.  That we are in control, that we don’t need God or a Savior, that have no accountability except to ourselves, and that we possess limitless “spiritual” powers, which we can uncover if we look deep enough inside ourselves.  All other religions I’ve studied have a similar undertone…a message that says “YOU can control your eternal destiny by living a certain way or doing certain things”.  It certainly is an enticing message, one that people want to believe because it elevates humans, focuses on controllable actions, and removes faith from the equation.

Relatively speaking, Christianity is an “unattractive” religion to most people.  Who wants to hear that they are a sinner who has no say in their salvation except to accept the gift of Christ’s sacrifice for us?  The answer…only a humble person!

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