Our Street Family

Yesterday, I went to Prattville with Sharon.  We'd planned to see two different people in the hospitals, but one was sleeping and the other was having a MRI.  Along the way we decided to stop because we saw a bunch of our people sitting in their usual spot.
I can't tell you how good it felt!
We came out of the truck talking about, "Hey, we just came down here to tell you we love you and to give everybody a hug."  Hugs and I loves you's ensued.  Lots of smiling faces.
They were drinking beer and one guy as soon as he saw us went and sat his down.  I was like, "You don't have to hide the beer, I like beer too."  They loved that!
Why did he hide his beer?
Why do they do that?
They've been programmed that it's bad.  God's people have a great way of making others feel condemned although Jesus doesn't condemn them.
It's like that totally offensive question, "If you died tonight, do you know where you're going?"
Sure, I'm going to the coroner's office, so they fix my time and cause of death, that's where I'm going.
We've missed the mark so badly people are turned off to the church.  Even I'm turned off to those kinds of people.
My heart was so full, hugging each and every one of them, telling them I loved them, Sharon giving them an option of what they wanted to eat this coming Sunday.
Somewhere along the way someone said, "Let's scare them into it."  Let's tell them all about hell and how they are going to suffer for all of eternity if they don't accept Jesus as their personal savior.  "We'll warn them."
This kind of thinking has hurt and destroyed many lives.
How can you believe someone loves you who is going to torment you for eternity if you don't love Him back?
He's not a love me or else God!
Love does not torment or hurt.
When I was in the streets I dreaded seeing churches come down there.  I didn't want anything they were selling or giving away because none of it made me feel good, it always made me feel more condemned and I knew exactly how bad my life was.
I've seen people when we've been out and it made me cringe.  They've got this guy backed up against the fence, who doesn't want to talk to them in the first place, asking him if he died tonight does he know where he's going.  The saddest part of all is they think this is evangelism and they are doing a great work for the kingdom.
Now don't get me wrong.  I'm no better than anyone else, but love is so much better than what those cats are offering.  Love doesn't make you feel condemned or worse off than you were to start with.  Love doesn't make you feel uncomfortable and turn you off to the people presenting it.
It's exactly why we don't preach to them.
We love them.  We show them love, we hug them, we hang out with them.
Given a choice, who do you think they'd rather see?
I'd rather see folks like us coming.
They know we love Jesus.  They know anyone crazy enough to come down there, week after week, unafraid of the drugs dealers, the addicts, the police, those kinds of people have to love Jesus, because regular people don't do those kinds of things.
I've never in my life asked anyone that stupid question.  I've never walked someone through the "sinner's prayer", or done all the things others have done to me, in the name of the Lord.
John 13:35 says by this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.
They know we belong to Jesus, no one has to tell them.
We love one another and we love them.
Love wins, love saves the day, love heals and hurt and broken places in other's lives.
When God calls me to preach to them, then I'll preach, in the meantime, I'm just going to walk around loving on people, being their answer to prayer and knowing they know I'm His disciple.
I'm going to keep doing what we do and developing relationships with them.
I'm going to keep loving them without all the weird church stuff everyone else has brought along.
The best thing in the world was getting out of that truck and loving on everyone.  They wanted to know what time to look for us Sunday and told us it was okay we didn't come out in the rain the Sunday before.
The best thing in the world is loving people.
There's nothing like it!