What can you do to reach out beyond the walls of the church?Today's Scripture:
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; defend the rights of all those who have nothing.
Proverbs 31:8
"Religion is great, but it has no business in society." Nice sentiment, and often a popular one in society, but is it true?
Robert Raikes didn't think so. In the early 1800s in England, he became concerned about children running in the street while their parents were at work. So he used his faith to make a difference in their lives-by starting what we know today as Sunday school.
Evangeline Booth didn't think so. Her whole family left the official church structure to reach out to the needy in England. When their ministry, called the Salvation Army, spread to the United States, Booth oversaw it. She personally helped, in Jesus's name, with unwed mothers, soup kitchens, and the forlorn (the outcast) of society.
A young man named Phineas Bresee worked in a Pasadena church. But Bresee felt God's call to work with the outcasts of society as well. He was kicked out of his church for this interest in "bad characters" - and he became the father of a denomination, the Church of the Nazarene, that focused both on honoring Jesus and on making a social difference.
Selah people' and friends these are just a few stories of people who've changed society by refusing to let someone make them keep their faith off the streets.
People who love God go ahead. They speak out for the poor, the needy, the unborn, and others who can't speak out for themselves.
"If you feel called to serve God or to be a witness in a social arena, go for it. Let your faith change your life and change your world."
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