What is Good?
So has the time been good, in ‘Christian vernacular,’ fruitful? This is a subjective question, right? Each of us has ideas of what is good, better, and best. But I hope we would agree that some of the work being done here is considered good by all.
Your support has helped many men, women and children: overcome hunger; cloth people that had only tattered clothes to wear; paid for schools fees when parents couldn’t or the child had no guardian; been used to rebuild a home destroyed by fire; paid for medical bills and provide medicine to those who would have done without because they couldn’t afford them; paid for clean water to those that were very thirsty; supplement incomes that couldn’t cover basic needs; buy text books to help a poor women learn to read; help people start small businesses that will sustain them without help; and so much more! We would all agree these are good, wouldn’t we?
Would we all agree that giving someone hope is a good thing? I think we would all agree that even though hope is intangible, it is real for those that possess it. The reason I am in Ghana is not just to help people raise their standard of living or provide relief from a calamity. All physical help is temporary, but I want people to have lives that will always be full of joy and abundance. A deeply satisfied and abundant life is only experienced through spiritual attainment. Would you agree? Having all the “things” the world has to offer without loving relationships is a cold and useless life?
I am so sorry to report that many people’s hardships here will never be alleviated without death. So the hope I have to offer must be able to even overcome death! I believe it does. God’s love; His desire to be reconciled to those He intimately created for a good purpose to live before Him in joy forever, is the only real hope for people living in such straits. People here readily recognize the need for forgiveness. They know to escape God’s punishment for their sins and to be accepted by Him; a perfectly sinless life must die in their place to satisfy the justice of God.
When they hear me explain where Jesus came from, heaven, it makes real sense that He is the only One who can show them how to get to heaven and God. When they hear about Jesus Christ’s perfect life, His humility and the poverty, beatings, and isolation He felt; they see in Him someone who understands them and can be trusted. But when they hear that the One who should have never died, shed His blood in their place simply because of love, they run to Him to give Him their very lives.
In Jesus Christ, they see real hope of everlasting peace and joy, not by the transitory things of the world, but with God Almighty Himself for eternity! They understand that new life begins the day they give their life to God through Jesus Christ; so even though their life on earth will be plagued with physical challenges, they are looking for a better day and better life after death which itself has been defeated! I walk with many great people here, people of great faith; but the world is not even looking at them because they are hungry, poorly clothed, homeless, and of no reputation.
I call them my friends, you have made them your friends by sacrificially sharing your prayers and support on them. Instead of passing them by, you have stopped, looked into their eyes, and said, “yes I love you; here let me help you up.”
May you too choose God’s love everyday over what the world offers. Remember, we only have Today to come to Jesus, because who knows what tomorrow will bring?
God Bless,
Joe