Where the gospel is GOOD NEWS

I spend my time sharing the gospel in a lot of different settings.  But most of the time these settings are pretty similar -- mostly white, mostly upper middle class, mostly teenage.   And I love these people!  A LOT!!  They are the people God has given me to walk w/ every day and it is a great joy.  However, the plain truth of the gospel is that when Jesus meets people like me and the people I spend most of my time w/, a lot of times the good news doesn't sound so good.  A lot of times Jesus says things to me like, "give that away and follow me."  "I'll show you how much you have to suffer for my name." Man, its gonna be hard for you to enter the kingdom of heaven!"

But recently a friend of mine, Torey introduced me to the Friendship Mission, here in Montgomery.  They serve the homeless and poor by providing meals, a place to sleep, and a community to worship Jesus w/.  

I went over there w/ Torey for lunch last week.  They do a little bibles study each day and I told the guy who usually leads it that I would love to help out w/ that sometime, thinking that he would say, "Sure, I'll get back to you about that."  Instead he said, "How's next Thursday for ya?"  

So this Thursday I will be leading a Bible Study w/ the homeless.  I've never read the bible w/ a homeless person before.  And as I have begun to prepare for it I have been reminded how much Jesus loved to tell the empty handed and poor about the kingdom of God.  And the temptation for me is to go in there w/ a verse or passage where I could tell them how they should stop drinking or smoking or doing drugs or try harder to get a job.  But instead I think I will read Luke 15 in a place where the gospel is nothing but GOOD NEWS!  

I'm pretty nervous but excited about this!  I'll let you know what happens.