Everything

God asks us for everything. Think about it. Everything is a big word if you really grasp what that is saying.  As we prepare for our trip to Ethiopia in February, our group from Lakeside Church is reading A Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns – current CEO of World Vision. I’ve read it before, but as I work back through it, passages pop out and I wonder – what does that have to do with me and what am I going to do about it?

“Christ calls us to be his partners in changing our world. If your personal faith in Christ has no positive outward expression, then your faith – and mine – has a hole in it…Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”

Lauren took a recent class in general epistles at APU and shared with me some statistics…there are 560 direct commands to care for the poor in the Bible. In the New Testament, 1 out of every 16 verses talks about the poor and in the gospels it is 1 out of every 10…Luke 1 out of 7 and James  1 out of 5.

Dr. Phillip Harter of Stanford University School of Medicine wrote the following: If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of only 100 people, there would be…

57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 North and South Americans

8 Africans

30 white

70 nonwhite

6 people would possess 59% of the world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer malnutrition

1 would have a college education

1 would own a computer

When I first visited a poor section of Mexico years ago, I was filled with emotion. My tears flowed. Just like this book, I felt guilt – Lord, I didn’t know. But I did. I knew about the poor and suffering in the world. I’ve seen it on tv, read about it in papers. But I must admit – it is different actually seeing it. Yet I have lived in my insulated bubble and looked the other way. It’s easy to do.  “Twelve million orphans, and no one noticed? Where was the church?”

“The kingdom of God, which Christ said is within you (Luke 17:21) was intended to change and challenge everything in our fallen world in the here and now. It was not meant to be a way to leave the world but rather the means to actually redeem it.”  We’ve been going through the book of Ruth at Lakeside Church and Brad’s message this past week focused on the word “redeem”.   Jesus is our redeemer. Christ came to redeem the world. And if we are to bring his gospel to this world – we need to help him redeem it. “We are also commanded to go into the world – to bear fruit by lifting up the poor and the marginalized, challenging injustice where we find it…and loving our neighbors as ourselves.”

I am a full time missionary. My mission is to carry out his gospel daily in my life. Right now, that’s as a teacher at Capital Christian School, a neighbor in El Dorado Hills, a driver on highway 50, a person in line at Costco.  Many of you who know me know I would love to work as a full time missionary in Africa or some remote part of the world unreached by His gospel. But, at this point in my life God hasn’t called me to that. He has called me to CCS and EDH. And – for two weeks, Ethiopia. There is that longing on my heart to do more – to reach the unreached, to give to the poor, to spread his love. I can’t turn my eyes away. I need to look farther than my own bubble and go where he sends me…whether it’s only for two weeks or longer.

God asks us for everything. That’s a big call. It’s a whole life. It’s everything. I’m still pondering how that looks…and I’m so thankful for His patience.


Would you like to partner with me? I need prayer and financial support. I'd love to hear from you!  If you would like to pray for our trip and receive information by email, please email me at jimison4Him@sbcglobal.net and I'll add you to my info list. You may support me financially by going to http://www.lakesidechurch.com and click the giving tab.  Click "missions" and sub-folder "Pam Jimison - Ethiopia '11" . Or, you may mail a check made out to Lakeside Church with Pam Jimison/Ethiopia in the memo line to: 

Lakeside Church

ATTN: Gina MacFarlane

745 Oak Avenue Parkway

Folsom, CA  95630