The Gospel and the Poor

This is helpful article by Tim Keller about how the gospel transforms our view of ministering to poor people. Enjoy!

T is for Tuesday and all its craziness

This will be quick...What a night! We had three random encounters with people on the street, all of which resulted in some funny stories. Ask Katrine, Bethany, or I about them some time.

Bethany got to speak with Franklin, who looks like a completely different person without his massive beard. Katrine spoke with a guy named Chris, and I spent my time with Toni and her husband. She lives a few blocks from Triune and is considering going back to school because she is so bored all the time.

A guitar was lying around, so somebody picked it up and started playing the blues. It reminded me that healing can start to come through music, as well as through narrative, or telling your story.

Continue to pray for these people and the entire Food for Life ministry.

Sharing Christ with Greenville's Urban Poor

Explain the way things were meant to be:
-God loves us.
-He wants a relationship with us.
-We were created to live in His world to honor God.
-We were created to be dependent on God.

Explain what has gone wrong: 
-We have chosen independence from God our Father.

-The things we think will give us freedom actually enslave us.

-God is offended that we would seek to be independent of Him.
-His response is to cause our independence to be ultimately destructive and enslaving.
-Independence is expressed through specific acts of rebellion. What are some examples?
-The outward acts of rebellion stem from a fundamental problem with our heart (such as selfishness and pride).
-Because it is an issue of the heart, they cannot correct it by themselves.
-We need the offenses of our heart to be removed and our lives to be freed from the slavery of our rebellion so that we can live as we were meant to live, in a right relationship with God (dependence, joy, pleasure, etc.).

Explain that we cannot fix the problem on our own:

-We cannot do it ourselves because we have cut ourselves off from the source that can make us right with Him.
-Because He is the life-giving source, when we cut ourselves off, we can't find our own way back. 

Explain how things can be made right again:

-God must fix the problem Himself.

-God wants to fix the problem, but God cannot ignore how He has been offended because it is a personal offense and because He is perfect. 

-The personal offense must be paid for. 

-Only someone who had not offended God could pay for the offense.

-Only God could be perfectly pleasing, but only man could make the payment.

-God must take on human flesh. 

-Jesus claimed to have been both God and man.

-Jesus' life is the only one that fits with his claim.

-He lived a life perfectly pleasing to God.

-He died to make the payment that we owed to God for offending him.

-God raised Jesus from the dead to show that he approved of Jesus' payment.

-God removes our offense and reconciles us to Himself when we trust Christ alone.

-We must trust that Christ's life makes us pleasing to God and not our own.

-We must trust that Christ's death frees us from the offenses.

-We must trust that Christ's resurrection promises us that things will one day be as they were intended.

Spring break!

I hope everyone's break is going well. Since you have some time on your hands, I thought I'd pass on a video that deals with some of the theological issues surrounding mercy ministries such as ours. You will probably recognize John Piper, pastor and author of Don't Waste Your Life, and he is joined by Tim Keller, a pastor in Manhattan and Don Carson, author of over 50 books from Reformed Seminary in Illinois. Enjoy!

Caleb Says Goodbye to the Impact Team Leadership

Three years ago I had no idea what the Downtown Impact Team would look like today. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to serve the team through two years of leadership. And the thought never crossed my mind that God would grant to our little team such great influence over hundreds of lives in multiple cities around the country. How gracious God has been! I am so thankful to have witnessed God do so many incredible things through the Downtown Impact Team. He has shown his gracious faithfulness, he has advanced his gospel-kingdom, and we have had the joy of participating with him. What a joy it has been.

Many needs remain in Greenville, though. Countless neighborhoods and apartment complexes suffer from material and social poverty. Thousands of citizens wander the streets without any knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you attended the impact team meeting on Tuesday, you remember that I stated that the mission to Greenville will last far longer than our short time at college. We belong to a small movement; God's mission to rescue the people of Greenville from eternal suffering involves more missionaries than we could ever know. This truth makes our efforts significant. God is working in the city, and we believe he has called us to join him in his work.

As God's work advances, the leadership of the Downtown Impact Team must pass to others. Serving the team through my leadership has brought me such overwhelming joy in Christ. Your love, commitment, and passion for the advance of the gospel has humbled and challenged me every week. However, the team has much to gain by my stepping down from leadership. God is calling others to lead. I am honored and overjoyed to hand leadership of the team over to two very qualified men. Paul Conner and Zach Willis will lead the team in ways that I never could. Imagining how the Downtown Impact Team will grow thrills me with excitement.

Those of you on the team, I thank you for your faithfulness. I ask that you receive the leadership of Paul and Zach with enthusiasm and prayer. I love these men, and I have full confidence that they will follow God's leading for the team's future. Center your lives on the gospel and remain faithful to your calling.

For the fame of Christ,
Caleb Murphree