think about this…

my dad sent me this attachment which i think is really powerful. read slowly and think about what this really means to us…the love of Christ blows my mind…

 

He Pitched His Tent Among Us

By: Greg Herrick Th.M., Ph.D. (Bio) 
 
Also available in:  
Also available in: French Indonesian Dutch 

When narcotic’s squad detectives recently raided a loft apartment in a depressed area of New York City, they came on a scene straight out of “The Beggar’s Opera.” Every square foot of the long, dingy apartment was crowded with human derelicts who were sleeping on the floor, or sitting huddled in corners; dimly visible overhead were a number of gay paper ceiling ornaments, left over from the days when the loft had been a dance hall. After searching the crowd, the detectives arrested six men who were carrying hypodermic needles and packets of heroin; they also arrested the derelicts’ host, a mild, weedy-looking man who was charged with harboring drug addicts in his apartment.

At police headquarters, the weedy-looking man claimed he was actually well-to-do, but that he had chosen to live among the homeless in order to provide them with food, shelter, and clothing. His door, he said, was open to all, including a small minority of narcotic addicts, since he had not known it was against the law to feed and clothe people with the drug habit. Checking his story, the police found that the man was neither a vagrant nor a drug addict. He was John Sargent Cram, a millionaire who had been educated at Princeton and Oxford, and whose family had long been known for its philanthropies.¹

So it is with God in Christ. He too, though rich beyond measure, left His penthouse dwelling and made His home among the homeless, destitute, and morally shunned of this world. He left His palace of gold to walk streets of mud…and he did it to rescue us (Gal 1:4). He left a drug-free zone to live with pill pushers and drug dealers, determined to feed, clothe, and redeem them. As John said, Jesus pitched his tent among us and we have beheld his glory, the glory of the One and Only, Son of God (John 1:14).

Have you ever given serious meditation and prayer to the thought of the incarnation, that is, to the fact that God somehow clothed Himself with human frailty in order to live among those with unclean hands and tainted hearts? It’s as mysterious as it is wonderful that God Himself should visit His planet and pitch His tent among us-among the Pharisees, tax-collectors, prostitutes, and the poor and needy. Like a breathtaking sunset, clothed in rich purple, orange, and blue, the thought of the incarnation is marvelous, utterly mysterious, and majestic. That my God should leave the richest fair to eat with those on the street is utterly wonderful and incomprehensible.

Toady, as you go about your business, think deeply about Jesus Christ, especially about the cost he paid to dwell with us as the God-man. Ask yourself some questions: (1) Would you have made the sacrifice? (2) What are some implications that flow from the truth that the eternal Son of God has forever clothed Himself with humanity? Have you considered that? The second person of the trinity will forever walk with us as the incarnate Son of God. At no point in the eternal state will he give up His glorified body. (3) What does the incarnation say about God’s desire to fellowship with us? (4) How was Jesus’ first coming both a revelation of who God is, but also a veiling at the same time? (5) What does the incarnation say about God’s view of creation? (6) How does one reverently worship God in light of our knowledge of the incarnation? 

¹ Charles R. Swindoll, ed. The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1,501 Other Stories (Nashville: Word, 1998), 111.

the church – the hospital for sinners

during my time out here on the street i’m reading the book Ragamuffin Gospel and i really encourage you all to read it. he talks so much on grace and what it means to live by grace and how the church should respond to sinners. it breaks my heart that the church is not a place where hurting and desperate people feel comfortable to run. we tried 2 churchs sunday, and let me tell you neither were a welcoming place. why is economic status such a barrier between people? i know it breaks the heart of Jesus because He loves them all so dearly. God is stretching us out here and bringing many interesting people accross our paths, but He is watching over us. we are eating well and have been safe thus far. continue to pray, and continue to be more like Jesus by loving people as He would. don’t get stuck on the color of their skin, or the size of their wallets, look deeper and you are sure to find a treasure. its easy to show Jesus to people on the street. Just treat them with respect and love them like you would anyone else; cause after all we’re the same. love you all 

ben

 

p.s. we met these really weird “normal” people on our bus trip down here to philly. this weird and lonely girl said she liked my dimples and then Big Pappa Brown (aka samuel l jackson’s brother) started calling me dimpsy. then, as the two of them tried to think of some name for ben, big pappa brown said that ben reminded him of shaggy from scooby doo. strange people out here. -tim

a life of luxury.

dear moms,

ben and i have eaten like kings, slept on a really comfortable bed and brushed our teeth before we went to bed… at least sometime before we went to bed. to be honest, we did eat like kings. our first day on the streets and we had a foreign couple buy us dinner at kfc and if you change your appearance somewhat the free samples of chinese in the food court can really fill you up.

we’ve met some really interesting people out here. that’s all we can really say about that. some of them smoke “whatever god puts in front of them” and others just don’t really know what’s going on however in the metropolitan area of philly life is very safe. the most trouble we’ve had was when we sat in some vietnam vets “territory” trying to make some money. unfortunately, he had a cane and he started swinging it around like a mad man. he did say that since we were so nice that he would be nice and let us go. some info that you don’t want to hear… we didn’t go to the rescue mission last night. we went there and it seemed shadier than the downtown area so we just got breakfast there yesterday morning and haven’t been back. our trip has been accelerated a tiny bit, but we’ll survive. it’s what we do, and we’re quite good at it.

we’re in an internet cafe that gives you 30 minutes of time when you buy something so it will cost us 1.50 to use the internet… unless we can jump on a computer that somebody left early. just so you all know…

please don’t forget us.
it’s a tiring life.

tim & ben

picking up pennies…

friends and family,

this is just a quick note to let you all know that we are alive and … well? breakfast this morning at the rescue mission was slightly less than par and lunch has yet to appear. don’t be worried if we don’t write that often as the “free” library won’t let us get on the computers without a current philly address… however, we’ve heard of another library on the other side of town we’re hoping for. we love you all.

dimps and shaggy (we’ll explain that later)

24 hours from now…

it’s hard to imagine the uncertainity that looms around the corner. 24 hours from now life as we know it will be totally different. after all these months of planning, it’s hard to think the journey is about to begin. it’s been difficult having to say goodbye to friends and loved ones, but i thank God for those special people He has given to me. as a person who loves to hav a plan and know what is going on, these months will really stretch me. i ask for prayer as we begin to plan our journey. here’s some requests….

1. our families and loved ones who will worry about us while we are out

2. that we would learn the leasons God hopes to teach us while we are out

3. that we would be an example of our Savior to those we meet

4. that our relationship with God would grow…despite how easy it is to forget Him when we switch into survival mode

5. that we would learn to love God and be content solely in our relationship with Him

6. our safety

thank you all for your prayer and encouragement these past couple weeks leading up to this journey. without people like you influencing my life i could easily be living on the streets not by choice. thanks be to God for His grace and provision!

ben

Philippians 4:11-13

show me the river

show me the river
that leads to my home.
-eastmountainsouth

friends and family,

three weeks from today benjamin and i will be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. the question that i keep hearing is “aren’t you scared?”, and for whatever reason, i am not. i am not afraid of what will happen in philly. maybe it is because i don’t know the danger you may think. well, i do know the danger. i’ve been reading and hearing about philly and DC lately. welcome to the city. things get ugly, but that is why ben and i are going. that is why we mustlearn first-hand. honestly, yes, i realize the dangers that we will rub up against, but if we plan our trip in order to avoid those then we might as well not go. i’ve been thinking today about the fact that we have been planning our trip. somewhat ironic, isn’t it? because we all know that a man that loses his job, is kicked out of his apartment and has no place to go actually planned all of the insanity that is now his life, right? okay, maybe not. so, we will be writing here for you, mom, and you dad, and you grandma and grandpa and sisters and brothers and my wonderful nephew who i will miss so much (nothing personal to the rest of my family oh and (for ben) jess too… and when i say mom and dad and so on i mean for ben as well because it would be quite unnatural if anyone related to either of us wasn’t the slightest bit nervous. we’ll be writing here to calm your nerves. if you believe in God then trust that we’ll be in his hands. if you don’t believe in God then know that we’ll leave this world doing something we needed to do. again, if you believe in God disregard that last statement.

moving on… another question i hear all the time is … “why would you want to be homeless?” personally, i love this question. it really just makes me laugh, and most of the time i laugh out loud. sometimes i am able to contain myself and i only laugh on the inside, but most of the time … no, i merely lol if you will. yeah, and that was corny. anyway, when i was quite young, my older sister answered a question for me (something she does often… and actually it is something that a lot of people do for me… hmm…) someone asked me a question, and mindy said something to the effect of “timmy doesn’t understand people very well,” but what she meant was that i don’t express myself very well. if i get into an argument i achieve nothing but anger. i yell and blabber, but nothing intelligible comes out of my mouth which is why i love to write. i have time to process my words before they come out of my mouth. genius. anyway, most people ask me “why?” and i have a line that i have memorized due to practice. it is the following: i am going to be homeless to experience the lifestyle first-hand because i feel a deep need in my heart to help these people and i want to look into their eyes and know from where they are coming. honestly, the words have never left my mouth so eloquently, but you get the point. anyway, it is hard for me to digest my thoughts and convey them on command which is one reason i’ll be writing about our journey.  

in order to ramp up for our adventure, i have been living out of my car for a couple weeks now. “huge, magnificent freedom! itty bitty living space!” a quote from Aladdin… slightly modified. i’m realizing how much of a shock this is going to be because even while living in my car, i have several blankets, two pillows, a consistent living space away from other people, and locked doors… even if they are merely car doors. soon, i will have one small blanket, a concrete mattress that changes daily, no privacy, and no protection other than having a person next to me. crazy.

another reason i am going on this journey is because i need to escape the consumerist world of america. i’ve been thinking and talking about this with my friend tony who is kind enough to have me stay in his home this weekend while he is out of town. so many people cry and gnash their teeth over not having enough while they put a huge flat screen tv, an extra computer, a massive house, a hot tub, a few brand new cars and a movie ticket on the weekend on the list of possessions and activities. however, i see friends who have nothing but get along in life and are as happy as can be. i wonder why we as a culture get so caught up in keeping up with the joneses, called it providing for our families and in the process… we’ve lost our happiness. yes, you can may say i’m young and that i don’t know what it is like to raise kids and so on… but speaking as one who believes in Jesus… why has the typical american christian lifestyle come to look so much like the rich american lifestyle? why do we pay ministers 6 figures to preach God’s word when Jesus and his disciples had no place to lay their head because they had work to do? why are the churches fighting over the worship and the color of the curtains while the poor need money for food? this is why i am choosing to live with the homeless…. because the churches that i have grown up in have lost sight of the goal, and i realize that they are not solely to blame because they have lost sight over the generations, but it is time not for revelations, or new church furniture, but for revolution. christians fight with each other, spend ungodly amounts of money on church cosmetics, and wonder why one who doesn’t ”believe” doesn’t want to come in and join them. hmm… no thanks.

won’t you help to sing
these songs of freedom.
-Bob Marley

timothy

The Unknown

Friends and Family,

In a few weeks, Ben and I will be leaving on a journey. We will be taking a trip in order to change our lives. Some do and will not understand it, but it something we feel we must do … in order to reach the people God has put on our hearts … in order to become who we want to be. For me, this trip is sort of a right of passage. I think that as a gender, men feel the need to be free … unchained to anything we know for the purpose of seeing if we can … make it. Many guys head for the military, and although you don’t want to be on the other end of scope when I have a rifle, I’d really love not to take the life of another. Our trip has many other purposes though. The main purpose that is shared by both of us is so that we may look into the eyes of a homeless individual and know where they have been. We want to be able to know where they are coming from, why they do what they do, and why they say what they say. We also realize that in general, the church has had a very poor response to the poor. Ben and I would like to change that. We’re not sure how, but it’s a goal.

The best way you could help is by your support. We know the risks. We aren’t stepping out into the unknown without any protection, backup or support. We also believe that we haven’t forced this trip. We have been planning for several months and the idea has been on our hearts for much longer so we ask that if you believe God plans our paths that you would trust God’s plan for our path and simply pray that he would teach us what he has for us to learn. We haven’t been promised safety but life.

Ben and Tim