We Go to the Homeless

by Les Reading

We go to the homeless.

We go to the homeless not to make their lives easier but rather to build meaningful personal relationships. Without personal relationships, nothing and no-one is going to change.

We go to the homeless to take them the Gospel of Jesus … not in books, tracts, or speeches but in the personal evidence of our own transformed lives.

We go to the homeless not to endorse their choices or their lifestyle but rather to show them the hope of the gospel of Jesus, the hope that lies within us.

We go to the homeless not to persuade them to change their lifestyle but rather to demonstrate in person that there is still enough hope and love in the world as displayed in our own lives.

We go to the homeless as a father or a mother would go to a lost child because we are, for a time, an agent of God’s love and mercy for them and for all of God’s children, no matter how badly they have fallen.

We go to the homeless to invite them to embrace the difficult steps necessary for major personal change … to leave behind the kingdom of darkness and enter into the kingdom of Light where there is hope and love for them.

Our most powerful tool is we, ourselves. We are the evidence of the power of the gospel of Jesus and we are called to put that evidence on clear display “so that they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and I would heal them.”

God is in the business of healing lives and transforming those who are lost in sin and rebellion into those whom Jesus is not ashamed to call His brothers and sisters.

We know this is a long journey and that there are many steps involved in moving from the gates of hell into a loving and supportive relationship with God and His people. There is not one step, but rather many steps to move from a deranged life of drugs, crime, violence, and death to a supportive life of kindness and generosity that evidences the aroma of Christ.

We go to the homeless and our sole tool is Jesus in us. Our objective is to build meaningful personal relationships through which God’s grace can begin to flow and the lost can be healed.

We go to the homeless because we are sent, and we are empowered with wisdom and the love of God for the lost. There are barriers to be overcome but God is sufficient, and He will provide because we are “sent ones” who have surrendered ourselves to the Lord and Master of our souls. Our trust and our dependence is in God alone, to whom we belong and who is our only provider and our sole reward.