In Colossians 3 Paul describes the new clothes that we are to wear as new creatures in Christ. The old rags of sin and lust and flesh are to be put off and instead we are to daily be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He gives a list of our new duds in vs. 12-14 and included is something called tender mercies–I dig the King James which simply says, “put on bowels of mercies.” This seems strange to us because we connect love with the heart but the Hebrews identified emotions with the part of the body where they are actually felt–in the abdomen. (Highly charged emotions trigger sensations in the pit of our stomachs.) What Paul is saying is that we should live in relation to the suffering of those around us with sympathy and compassion, and we should allow those emotions to move us to action.

Living green and doing philanthropic relief work today is mainstream (as it should be) even trendy, but it was extremely countercultural at the time when Paul fired off this old school e-mail to the Christians in Colossae. Commenting on this verse R. Kent Hughes said, “The ancient world, apart from Biblical revelation, was merciless. The maimed and sickly and aged were discarded: the mentally ill were subjected to inhumanities. But Christianity brought compassion, and it still does. The gospel brings with it sympathy and tenderness of heart. That is one of its great glories!”

This truth came to life this past week as the earthquake that devastated Haiti made us sick to our stomachs with God-given compassion. It has been so heartbreaking to see the pictures and stories coming from what is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There is no way I can even fathom what they are experiencing. And yet I have been so inspired to see God’s people mobilize and respond to the pain. The next day after the earthquake I felt lead to take up an offering at Skull Church to support the BGEA rapid response teams that were already en route with relief materials and chaplains who would bring the gospel and I was blown away by the generosity that was shown that night.

I have also been super blessed by the way James McDonald and Mark Driscoll have been trying to rally the church in America to specifically help the church in Haiti rebuild. They launched a website called, churcheshelpingchurches.com and the Lord opened doors for them to go down there personally this week (I have been following their trip on twitter here and here and they are on their way home now)  Mark described it as being in hell. They took a film and photography team with them so that they can show us how critical it is that we help our brothers and sisters in Haiti out.  I love what they are doing and encourage you to check it out and pray about supporting this ministry.

Posted in ministry, raw thoughts