Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

(The River Raisin) 

In my estimation there is no greater thing that God is doing in Monroe than the Godworks Soup Kitchen. Real followers of Jesus feed the hungry and reach out to the poor in systemic ways. While it’s common for people to give food to the hungry a few times a year, I have found it uncommon for a community to band together to provide daily meals for the hungry and needy.

Why just give out meals around Thanksgiving and Christmas? I don’t think that’s bad, but if I were without a job I know I’d get hungry the other 363 days of the year too.

If you consider yourself a Christian and a follower of Jesus (the two are the same thing), then look with me at Matthew chapter 25:31-46. This is our Lord Jesus speaking. And he says: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’…   ”He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ ”Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

These words are RADICAL. How clear can it be that Jesus is saying his REAL FOLLOWERS will feed the hungry and will clothe the naked and will look after the sick and will visit those in prison. This is not just for “pastors.” The ramifications of you not doing this are, from Jesus’ viewpoint, devastating.

Thank God that here in Monroe a number of Christians from a variety of local churches work together to live out Matthew 25. And thanks to Jeff Weaver and the other Godworks servants for their great labor of love. Personally, I know of no greater thing God is currently doing here in Monroe.