ministry

Who We Are.

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At Love In the Name of Christ, we have a set of Core Values… things the ministry places of utmost importance. You can find them on our website www.LoveINCSAW.org. Our second core value is:

Prayer is an integral part of who we are.

We begin each work day in prayer… for our neighbors (those in need we encounter), for our loved ones, for our volunteers, for the ministry, for specific churches and The Church, for our country, and, if you’re reading this, we have most likely prayed for you, too. We have seen God miraculously answer one prayer after another.

We also pray with our neighbors in need when we deliver the items they’ve requested. Our team also prays with folks when they pick up a donation from a generous soul who thinks of Love INC before parting with a sofa, a washer and dryer, or some other household item someone else could use.

Last Friday was a day full of blessings for our delivery team. Our team delivered a sofa, a table lamp, some bed sheets, and tableware to a gentleman in Staunton suffering from a mental illness. After delivering the couch and other items to the top floor of an apartment building, everyone circled up with the gentleman for prayer. When asked what to pray for, the gentleman asked that God would help him find a job.

In his apartment was one chair, a table, and presumably, a bed. He had nothing. He was relying on food pantries for daily sustenance. He wasn’t a freeloader, preying on the kindhearted. He was hurting and humble. He was truly in need.

Is he capable of holding a job? Possibly. However, he wasn’t content “working the system.” He desired to be productive. Our team was privileged to pray with him. We expect God to find a way for him to be productive.

Then the team went to another part of the county to pick up a small donation. When they arrived, they found a cheerful elderly mother and her adult daughter pointing the way to the place to load up the donation. After loading, the mother and daughter were asked, “How can we pray for you?”

The mother immediately broke down in tears, telling the team that she had just lost her husband of many, many years, who died suddenly, eight days after a diagnosis of a tumor. Of course, this was the father of the daughter as well, and through tears, they both told of their heartache. Again, everyone circled up in prayer for the privilege of going to the Throne of Grace together.

As they left each precious soul on Friday, they knew they had ministered love in the name of Christ.

Prayer is an integral part of who we are.

Structured Persistence

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I’m a regimented person. I know it. I like structure. A lot. To a fault. Sometimes this quality serves me well; sometimes it doesn’t.

One of the ways it doesn’t is when I’m in a season of life or in a situation in life where things are chaotic. My new job at Love In the Name of Christ (Love INC) is like that right now. They’ve never really had someone doing the things I’m doing (and going to do), so there’s no blueprint on how to do the job. There’s no job manual and no job description, per se. That really doesn’t mesh well with my structured personality, but with God’s help, I’m adapting.

But one of the ways this trait works well for me is when I participate in structured programs, like memorizing Scripture while reading a 30-day devotional book which coincides the memorization. I’ve succeeded at others that were similar, like 40 Days of Purpose by Rick Warren, 90-day exercise programs, and now, The 40-Day Prayer Challenge – Draw The Circle by Mark Batterson.

Tomorrow will be Day 1 on this 40-day journey, done with all the folks at Love INC, all of whom also have the book Draw The Circle. We are doing it together, believing that God will do great things in us and through us. We expect to be different on Day 40 than we are on Day 1.

Mark Batterson, the author of Draw The Circle says:

“The goal of the 40-day Prayer Challenge isn’t to get what you want by Day 40. In fact, the goal isn’t to get what you want at all. The goal is to figure out what God wants’ what God wills. Then start circling it in prayer and don’t stop until God answers.”

That’s what I’m going to do and that’s what we’re going to do at Love INC.

(Love In the Name of Christ [Love INC] is a national network of non-profit organizations which are committed to meeting needs and transforming lives by the love of Christ through the Body of Christ, His church. To find out more, visit our local ministry Facebook page HERE, or hear the story behind the ministry HERE)

Click HERE to find the book, Draw The Circle by Mark Batterson on Amazon.com.

Significant?

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We all want to do something in our lives that is significant. We all want our lives to count for something. For some, this desire goes to a different level, and they want to be famous. For others, significance comes in the form of being a good parent.

For me, I wonder sometimes if my desire to live a life of significance is a matter of my pride coming to the forefront. I have to ask myself questions such as:

1) Would I be content living a life where I wouldn’t be recognized or respected?
2) Would I be content living a life where my only contribution to ministry in this world would be as an intercessor, behind the scenes?
3) Is my desire to be “significant” about me feeling good about myself or about helping others?

Certainly these aren’t the only questions to ask, but they are the first to come to mind. My answers to those questions and those similar aren’t glowing, to say the least. But I’ve come to realize a few things about our God:

1) I am profoundly significant to God. You and I are priceless in the eyes of the Father. We are worth the price of His Son, Jesus, dying for each of us in order to enjoy an intimate relationship with us, both here and now, and for eternity. Because Jesus is the epitome of significance, I am free to be insignificant by the world’s definition.

2) When it comes to being significant, valuable, or loved by God, my performance doesn’t matter. Whether I fail or succeed, I am loved, valuable, and significant. My value or significance to God is not determined by what I do, but by Whose I am. I am free to fail because Jesus succeeded.

3) God not only loves me, He likes me. He knows my flaws, baggage, and hang-ups. He knows my pet-peeves, my idiosyncrasies, and nervous habits. He knows the secrets from my past and my secret thoughts from yesterday. And He still likes me! He knit me together in my mother’s womb and knows every thought that crosses my mind. He knows how I am made… because He made me! Because He likes me (and of course, loves me), I am freed from living to please people. I am freed from always thinking about what other people think of me. I am content to be loved by God. I am content to be liked by God. Because Jesus was and is perfect, I am free to be imperfect. I am also free to allow others to be imperfect. (I’m still working on that one)

Living a life of significance is something I desire. It’s something that I think we all desire. But growing up in a performance-based culture has skewed our definition of significance.

We are significant not by what we do, but by Whose we are.