Our theme for this month: Take care of each other”
Our Bible verse for today: “My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:19-20 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “Lead them back to Jesus.”
This past Sunday our church was at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission. Once each quarter we hold our Sunday evening service at the Mission rather than at the church. While we’re conducting the service in the chapel, we also have a crew in the kitchen preparing the meal. After everyone is served, our folks then get plates and sit down and eat with the residents.
We’ve been doing this for years and one of the things I’ve noticed about the majority of the people staying the Mission is how many of them profess to already have faith in Jesus. That’s probably true for the majority of the residents. For most of them the story is that they were in church as a child and teenager, but then drifted away from the Lord and ended up making a mess out of their lives as adults.
That being the case, for them, the focus of our ministry isn’t about leading them to place their faith in Christ, but rather to lead them back to the Lord. Our job is to remind our straying brothers and sisters that God can and will bless the life that is lived within Biblical boundaries. When we stray outside of God’s commands, we’re choosing to live life outside of the boundaries within which He can and will bless us.
A big part of the ministry of the Bread of Life, and of the churches such as ours that partner with them, is to love our straying brothers and sisters back into fellowship with Jesus. We meet their physical needs by providing food and shelter, but we also minister to their wayward souls and attempt to lead them back into a healthy relationship with the Lord.
We can all use that same approach when dealing with the straying Christians we encounter in our families, in our neighborhoods, in school, and in the workplace. There are many professing Christians who have strayed far from the Lord and who are living well outside of the boundaries within which He can and will bless them. The best way you can help them is to lead them back into a healthy relationship with Jesus. Often that will entail blessing them by meeting some physical need they have or helping them in some other way, so you can then have a conversation with them about their spiritual condition.
A Christian living in a broken relationship with Jesus is usually a miserable person with lots of problems. The greatest act of service you could provide for such a person is to help lead them back to Jesus.
Oak Hill Baptist Church