I came to the church to take photos during the last GRACE Ministries Saturday, and I was struck by the efforts made by the volunteers to be welcoming and friendly towards the clients, with warm smiles and personal greetings offered to each person they encountered.

They were extending their love, Christ’s love, to another one of God’s children.

I recently learned someone I care deeply about has been homeless for over two years. He had been living in his truck, using the small amount of money he earned at his part-time job to buy food and stay at a local motel one to two nights per week. People are currently working to help him get back on his feet.

There are many things about this situation that break my heart, but one of the biggest is how emotional he now gets every time someone tells him they love him.

Many living on the margins feel isolated and unlovable. We at CUMC get to counter that through our actions and our words. We get to share Christ’s love with them in tangible ways. We get to show them they are not alone and they are loved.

John Piper likens those who experience the Gospel as only about finding forgiveness and the hope of eternal life and being transformed through the Holy Spirit to become a better parent or child or friend, as people who have missed the bigger point of it all. They are “like batboys at Yankee Stadium who think the great point of the World Series is to hand the players a bat.”

We are called to missional lives, to share Christ’s love with all those around us. Tremendous work is being done at CUMC to address the needs in the community, to share the love of Christ with others.

“For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10