The Open Door
The Open Door... that’s the name of the drop-in shelter I’m volunteering at on Mondays… my tasks have been varied, but in each God teaches me something new!Last week, I had the opportunity to really be challenged to serve. Ramone, the director, asked if I would be able to clean up their food storage room in the basement, sort through and throw out stuff that is overdue, and tidy up and organize everything else. “Absolutely disgustingly nasty” would be a nice way to describe the state of that room!! Amidst cobwebs, spider webs, and stickiness was packaged food that expired in 1998, opened bags of rice, beans and unidentifiable goods, AND a whole floor under a shelf with cases of canned beans that had gotten wet who-knows-when and had rotted through, leaving puddles of black grossness that smelled even worse than it looked. As I mopped up the mess, I did it as joyfully as I could, even though it was sometimes like holding a smile for a group picture that takes forever! I couldn’t help but think “I came to Montreal to serve, but this is really not what I had in mind!” but at the same time remembering God’s call to “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23
Chatting with my team later about the yuckiness of that room, one of the guys mentioned “That must be what Jesus sees when he looks at us.” So true! How much worse and hurtful are our sins to God than a can of rotten beans! Yet God sent Jesus and Jesus willingly chose to clean out those sins from our lives…so voluntarily and willingly… not even like me smiling through gritted teeth. Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away…. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep… I lay down my life for the sheep… no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (from John 10: 11-18). At least a hired hand gets paid... Jesus didn't and yet not only chose to, He desired to lay down his life… (not just a mop!)... to clean up the ugly ugly mess that is my sinfulness through His death, so that I can be clean before God. Thank you Jesus!
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Today, I had the “nicer” job of serving hotdogs and talking with some of the people who came in. Most of them are homeless or very low income… I’ve had the privilege of talking with one lady and one man in particular, who have both come to know Jesus in the last few years through reading the Bible, and God’s words having a deep impact on their addiction to alcohol. They were really cool to talk to, they honestly could say that they have tried everything and not found what they were looking for until they met Jesus, and that they are happy and have learned to be really content in their spiritual richness now, even though they are considerably poor in money and eat at a drop-in shelter every day. The lady is thankful that God has given her (lack of) material circumstances, and shared with me Proverbs 30:7-9 “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?” What a great testimony to us students, working towards an unknown future career with an unknown salary, or even those already working! Let’s thank God for exactly what He has given us, and ask of Him to keep in us in that state of "just enough" to need to depend on Him and always to have a thankful heart!
Today, I had the “nicer” job of serving hotdogs and talking with some of the people who came in. Most of them are homeless or very low income… I’ve had the privilege of talking with one lady and one man in particular, who have both come to know Jesus in the last few years through reading the Bible, and God’s words having a deep impact on their addiction to alcohol. They were really cool to talk to, they honestly could say that they have tried everything and not found what they were looking for until they met Jesus, and that they are happy and have learned to be really content in their spiritual richness now, even though they are considerably poor in money and eat at a drop-in shelter every day. The lady is thankful that God has given her (lack of) material circumstances, and shared with me Proverbs 30:7-9 “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?” What a great testimony to us students, working towards an unknown future career with an unknown salary, or even those already working! Let’s thank God for exactly what He has given us, and ask of Him to keep in us in that state of "just enough" to need to depend on Him and always to have a thankful heart!
posted by Rainbow Choi =) @ 9:09 PM
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