Pure and Genuine Religion…

Wow.  I just spent a week with the wonderful people of Honduras.  People that are completely different than us…and exactly the same.  I spent a week digging clay and mixing and hauling concrete.  I spent a week trying hard to communicate with people that did not speak my language.  I spent a week sweating 24 hours a day.  I spent a week with sore muscles, blisters, ringworm and little sleep.

It was a great week.

I spent a week learning first hand what James meant by pure and genuine religion:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. – James 1:27 (NLT)

The kind of religion James speaks of here is religion that serves those in need.  It is the kind of religion that gives to those who cannot get for themselves.  It is the kind of religion that reflects what Jesus did when He came and lived and died for us.

I spent a week carrying dozens and dozens of buckets of concrete past a little old lady who was soon to get a new house.  As I walked by her over and over again, the words of Jesus kept ringing in my head from our morning devotions:

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NIV)

I pray that she will remember the gringos that carried those buckets in the name of Jesus Christ and will praise her father in heaven!

I spent a week trying to follow Paul’s instructions to the people in Thessalonica:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)

This week was very much about living a simple, hard-working life.  All the other junk in life was stripped away as we worked hard for the benefit of people we did not know.

It was a great week. 

It is a week I hope I can somehow replicate back in the USA.  I pray I find a way to serve the poor around me in some meaningful way.  I pray that service will help others praise my Father in heaven.  I pray my life remains a bit simpler than it was before.

Thanks to all those that prayed for me and the team last week.  It was a great week!