Standing on a street corner for Jesus!
What is the greatest desire of my heart?
To be used up in the doing of His will! To give myself along with others to furthering His purposes in this life. To make the glory and wonder of His person known to others through our lives. To march shoulder to shoulder with other Christians into the greatest adventure of them all. Experiencing the Living God at work in and through our lives.
Ironically the greatest discouragement of my life is the very opposite of my greatest desires.
The greatest discouragement of my life has been and continues to be the lukewarmness and lack of faith among those who profess to be Christians around me in our North American culture.
The world is going to hell in a handbasket and the Christians sit around in their fancy church buildings singing some wonderful songs while enjoying dougnut fellowship after their services. Then they go home and enjoy their lives and their fellowship even more as they interact mainly with each other the rest of the week.
Jesus is out among the people but He has no hands, no feet, no mouth, but ours!!
If we do not speak out for Him and about Him to those around us…who will? I ask you…WHO WILL? If it not you WHO?
We talk up a storm about the reality of heaven and hell, of forgiveness, of the life to come, of the comfort of His Presence in our lives, of Jesus being alive, but we live as though these things are not true at all.
Paul said he believed and that therefore he spoke.
What do we believe? If our beliefs are to be seen by how we live and what we do in line with what we profess to believe…then most professing Christians don’t believe a word that comes out of their mouth!!
And the world rightly rejects what amounts to nothing more than just another religion.
Why should anyone give up their lives to a God whose professed followers do not give their all to?
That is the greatest source of discouragement to me! Bar none.
I want to get out there and reach the lost (I’ve done that by myself before but that is not the best). But Christians to do that with are nowhere to be found. I want to get involved in becoming the Body the Lord meant us to be but professing believers are more content to continue being the body of their own creation. Church leaders won’t let me join with others to be all that God might us to be.
But this post is not so much about what discourages me as much as it is about how the Lord is opening doors for me to potentially allow me to realize my deepest desires in Him.
But first…once again I have seen how short I fall in trusting God as I ought.
I am locked out of my Food Stamp card!
Yesterday was the day my food stamps were to start up again (whatever you may think about a Christian being on food stamps, consider this…there is a difference between someone who is abusing the system and milking it for every dollar they can get for free and those who, like me, are using the helping hand offered by the government to help them stand on their own two feet again. I am no different than those who get financial aid Pell grants, unemployment benefits, and otherwise. All these programs can indeed be abused but they also help greatly in times of need).
I had been told by the social worker who certified me as qualified for food stamps again (I had been using them a while back until I foolishly lost them by missing an re-certification appointment) that I could enter the PIN number for my food stamp card as often as needed to remember the PIN I had previously had.
I took them at their word and did just that. Entering PIN numbers hoping to remember the one I had previously used as often as I needed. Well, the truth is that after my third attempt failed…the card got locked and I could not access the benefits.
Very frustrating.
The greatest frustration was that as a result of the misinformation that I was given…another day would be wasted having to travel back and forth for hours to get to a church feed so that I could eat. Since losing food stamps I have had to literally spend 8 or 9 hours a day just to survive being homeless and to eat! I got trapped in a never ending cycle having to take time out of my day to be homeless with barely any time left to effectively get any work done!
Food stamps is a way out for me to be able to squeeze more time into my day in that I can go to the food store, buy food quickly, and then munch on that food for the rest of day at the Library while pursuing web development or other work.
This morning I decided to go to the food store on the chance that my card might have reset itself (which I was told would happen by the card company but where I was told by another social worker over the phone that I would have to go to an office and sit around waiting yet more hours for the card to be reset at a Food Stamp office).
Turns out the social worker was wrong once again (what’s with these social workers giving out wrong information??) and the card did indeed reset itself.
Before I got to the food store however I had to transfer between buses.
At the intersection where the transfer was to take place…
Some Christians were holding signs with verses
Please note that yesterday was the very day that the Lord seemed to lay on my heart the idea of doing that very thing with other Christians (assuming I could find any to do that with me) on the street corners of San Diego (along with the possibility of preaching the Gospel out loud on those same street corners)!
So to me…that was an unmistakeable sign from God that the misinformation I was given that led to me being locked out of Food Stamps was intended by Him to lead me to this very corner, on this very day. To meet these Christians and to pick their brains on what they were doing.
And pick their brains I did!
It was a great encouragement to me. I mean these guys are living all out for Jesus!! Giving their all. The way we ought to live.
The one I spoke with the most had done this type of thing by himself for nearly two years before others joined him!!
A great part-time job?
Aside from the great info I got on what they were doing this brother also told me of how he supports himself. A way that I may be able to do as well.
Essentially it involves working as a dummy helping to train U.S. soldiers by pretending to be Afghans and others in mock situations that mirror the kinds of encounters soldiers will have with real Afghans in Afghanistan.
I don’t want to get into the details of what this brother shared with me publicly here but essentially he works very few days a month doing the above, gets paid well, and involves himself in ministry work with others the rest of the month.
This next month he is heading to Brazil where he will hold up signs for Jesus again.
Signing for Jesus
That’s what he does.
What a wonderful way for the Lord to encourage my heart and what a wonderful way for me to potentially get some work that will allow me to make enough to provide fully for myself. Without food stamps!
I will be applying today.
Of course the Lord will have to provide me with a way to get to the “missions” but this brother knows of two others that would almost certainly be willing to give me rides so that need may be provided for already!
Truly…another circumstance that seemed to be no good and which seemed more in line with frustrating my desire to make good use of my days (through a lack of ability to use the Food Stamps I had been given and saving time thereby) turned out for the good!
I should have trusted the Lord to work all things out for the good instead of focusing the eyes of my heart on yet another day’s hours taken up trying to survive and get anything done while homeless.
The Lord knew that I needed to be at that street corner on this very day. I would not have been there had it not been for my Food Stamp card not working as I was headed early to test the card at the grocery store and from there, in the event it had not worked, to the Food Stamp office. He knew that I needed to hear what I was told and God knows I needed the encouragement of seeing with my own eyes some Christians stepping out of their comfort zone to be all that God wanted them to be. Out among the people and in this case on a street corner. Standing up for Jesus!
Jesus freaks one and all
I count myself blessed and honored to have stood there on that street corner as though I was one of them. Talking freely under a sign with God’s words emboldened as though on a flag. Standing for Jesus.
Throwing caution to the wind and not caring one whit about what others thought of me for doing so.
Doesn’t get much better than that!
Carlos
