Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine.

Paul is a stickler for getting it right. Don’t get caught up in the law, run after the Spirit. Make sure you know where you are placing your trust.

Sitting here in the interior of Brazil, I have to ask myself: what are my motives, what is my mission?

Is the goal for orphans to find parents or the homeless to find homes? Is feeding hungry little bellies or purging them of worms the mission Jesus has in mind? Is teaching folks to read or giving them skills to earn a living what I’m here to do? Is that the reason thousands of hours and dollars have been spent? Is this the reason I’m here?

I’m more convinced than ever that the answer is “NO!”

That is an exclamation point. Emphasis intended.

THE mission supersedes anything, including helping the impoverished. If people do not come to know Jesus in an intimate, life modifying manner, it doesn’t matter how much “humanitarian” work we do.

If I meet the temporal needs of folks but miss the eternal, I have failed. No matter how successful the effort, no matter how many people are fed, clothed, taught a trade, learn to read… if that is the best I can offer, I need to get out of the way.

It is all about Jesus, making him famous so that folks have a legitimate opportunity to know him.