To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Andrew Hicks and I picked up Thom Wolf from the airport tonight in Birmingham and were treated to an incredible blessing. He had just flown over 24 hours from New Delhi, India and was pretty tired. But, we got him talking, and before long, he was teaching us from the Word. As we drove through the cool Alabama night south along I-65, we asked questions about how The Church on Brady was so successful at raising up and sending people out to the ends of the earth (at one point in the late 80's, early 90's, The Church on Brady in East L.A., now Mosaic led by Erwin McManus, was sending more missionaries to the IMB than any over SBC church - around 500 people and over 50 missionaries on the field, I believe).  Thom began to tell us that they followed God's prescription to raise up people who followed Micah 6:8, He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  This parallels what Jesus summed up as being important in Matthew 23:23, But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

God wants us to bring justice to those who are are oppressed. This is the attitude that we should take toward the lost and those who, all their life, have known that things are wrong in the world, but they have no idea how to make them right. We are to bring justice by bringing the Kingdom of God. We are to show mercy to those in need by doing good deeds for the physically and spiritually poor. We are to love people just because God loves them, not wanting to get anything out of it ourselves. And, we are to live lives of faithfulness before the Lord. Faithfulness is the outflowing of our faith. We are faithful to God because our faith is IN God. Thom said that they looked for people who were living out this ethos and they sent those people out to the far reaches of the world.

Beyond what he said, was how he said it. He spoke with compassion about the man in prison who committed murder because of what the victim had done to his little sister. The murderer knew that what he did was wrong, but he had to take care of the man who abused his little sister. The man was crying for justice and did not know what to do. He was led to Christ and found that God knew what to do. He found forgiveness in the arms of His Savior.

Thom travels all over the world, but we have him with us this week. I praise God. I have always learned so much from him, and God has always used him to ignite my soul with a passion for His Word and the lost. When we prayed before we left him to sleep, I thanked God that He was going to download something into us that He had prepared for us this week since before the beginning of time. It's awesome to think about our daily lives that way. I learned to think that way from Thom Wolf.

Comments

[Nomad]

I have known Bro. Thom for 20 years now. I have to put some of the blame on him for my being on the field.

Ask him to tell you about the time he nearly killed Mother Teresa.

[Marty Duren]

Alan-
I hope your conference goes wonderfully; I'm just not going to be able to make it.

Please keep us updated.