Friday, May 9, 2008

May Update


Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke . . . .Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter . . . . and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday(Isaiah 58:6,7).



He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).



In the past year, God has continued to impress upon my heart His passion for the needy, and the role He expects believers to play in meeting needs in His Name. I have been blown away by the intensity of God's feelings about this. Over and over again, throughout Scripture, God demonstrates His righteous wrath toward those who inflict injustice, and His earnest desire for His body of believers to be vanguards of peace and altruism. God not only desires it; He commands it.



As my mother said to me out of the blue a couple of weeks ago during a telephone conversation. "Simi, give. Don't wait until you have a lot; give now from whatever little you have." I think this applies not only to material giving, but to "spending ourselves" on the behalf of others by giving time, encouragement, love . . . even when we don't have a lot of these commodities, ourselves. Seeking ways to obey God in this has been a joyous experience for me!

In the time since I began writing this particular blog, I found out that my dear cousin, one of my greatest "spiritual heroes", passed away. He was a partner in ministry, and he was instrumental in affirming me when I had doubts about being called to ministry. I pause now to reflect on his life and his love for God. My "Uncle Philip" is an example of a man who spent himself on behalf of others, and he encouraged me to do the same. "Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death" (Isaiah 57:2).

Gearing Up for Summer
In a few weeks, high school students in the Dallas area will be out of school for the summer. This summer, Student Venture Dallas will be inaugurating a summer-long ministry initiative called "Summer Venture". We will kick off with GetAway, our summer conference in Colorado, and continue through the summer with metro-wide outreach events, Bible studies, and one-on-one discipleship. I look forward to what God is going to do this summer.

Please Pray . . .
  • That God will be sovereign over all our upcoming end-of-school-year activities.
  • Next Monday, students will have the opportunity to bring their friends who are "seeking" to CiCi's pizza after school and participate in sharing the gospel of Christ with them. Ask that God will open up hearts to receive Him.
  • We will be having a GetAway pre-party to next Friday to spur enthusiasm for the summer conference. It will be a time for students going to the conference from different cities to meet one another, and for those who have not committed to attend to be convinced, if God wills for them to attend.

Thank you for your friendship and partnership in ministry. I am grateful to God for all of you! God bless you.

1 comment:

Adam M. Jones said...

Simi,
In case we have never said it, we are so proud of the work that you do for God's kingdom with high school students!