Good Deeds

“I was hungry and you fed Me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you gave me clothing. . .” Matthew 25

We took the opportunity to do things just like this the past 2 weeks, but I get ahead of myself.

Jesus spoke these words during the last week of His life and sketched a clear portrait of what His Kingdom should look like and how His people should live. It's like Jesus was giving a declaration of His Kingdom values. Simply stated, He said, “Do the things you’ve seen Me do. You saw Me live life for a few years; now you go and live like I did.” He expects His people to do what He did. We are to believe what He said and act like it’s true. We honor Jesus as we put His Words into action.

How unlike other religions which require recitations, dress codes, certificates or extreme sacrifices of their adherents. Jesus didn’t ask us to recite a creed, fill out a form or pay an assessment to become one of His followers. You know there’s a reason for that, right? It’s not like He was trying to cut corners to easy street. No, He was cutting to the chase.

The most profound evidence of real faith is acting on the truth you profess to believe. Good deeds can never earn a person’s way to Jesus but they are certainly an indication that Jesus is present and working in a person’s life.  People who know Jesus live like they know Jesus.

What we do indicates what we believe. It’s just like Jesus said, “A good tree produces good fruit; a rotten tree produces rotten fruit. . . you will know people by their fruit.” Mt7:17,20.

As we hosted the Cold Weather Shelter the past 2 weeks our Shelter guests gave us some precious gifts. Perhaps the best gift our new friends gave our Covenant Family was the opportunity to do some genuine good. Not kind of good, but real good. Those who served by *unloading shelter materials and setting up rooms for our guests, *preparing food for 3 meals a day, *providing transportation, *serving food at breakfast or dinner, *making lunches, *cleaning bathrooms, showers and living areas, *providing comforts through guest services, *staying overnight to provide security, *doing laundry, *providing a joyful concert of popular music, *being shelter hosts and *packing up our new friends’ things and loading up shelter materials: you all shone like stars. You didn’t just talk about the problem that homelessness is; you chose to do something about it. It’s just as Jesus said the last night of His life-Jn13:17, “If you know these things, you are blessed when you do them.”

It’s almost like you took Jesus seriously: “Do the things I did.”   

Oh, wait a minute: You did take Jesus seriously and do you know what happened?

Good deeds happened. And one more thing: “Let your light shine before people in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father Who is heaven.” Mt5:16

Yes. That happened. I saw evidence of it. Just like Jesus prayed: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven.”

Good Deeds. Well done.