How to Give Away a T-shirt

Ok man - so I've seldom been so excited about such an awesome ministry opportunity... I'm really pumped up about it! and I've got a strong feeling right now that we're on to something good here.

It's something that's evolved from our homeless ministry, but to be honest, I was kind of starting to doubt our homeless ministry to begin with (which we've been involved with for more than 2 years now), just because I wasn't seeing loads of people coming to Christ or being added to His church.

...Every once in a while we would see someone decide to leave the streets and ask us to take him or her to a rehab center (like Duvan in the middle of the picture on the right, for instance) which is great - but it's just that I wanted God to do so much more...

I mean yeah, sure - I was really glad that my friends and I were being intentional in meeting together every Friday to go and share the gospel in a holistic and incarnational way (and that in and of itself is commendable) - but I honestly just wasn't seeing tons of results... I was discouraged, and I even went so far as to stop going out to the Center every Friday just so I could save my energy and focus instead on preaching the next day at a rehabilitation center a couple hours outside of Bogota, where at least I had the benefit of preaching to people who weren't high on drugs. 

Sharing from the Word at the Milk and Honey Foundation (2 hours outside of Bogota)

...But then one of my friends who kept going to the Center told me that one night he got to talk to and pray with about 10 Venezuelans who happened to swing by our street ministry the night before... We had talked to and shared the gospel to a few Venezuelans on a couple other occasions, but he told me that this time it was different - that they were really attentive, and that he honestly thought some of them might even make it out to our church gathering that coming Sunday. 

The first time we spoke with various Venezuelans

I believed him. And then I gave him some money so he could go pick them up, and bring his friends over to our meeting the very next day.   

...Sure enough about 10 Venezuelans showed up at 4:30 for our evening service that Sunday, and afterwards a few of us got together and prayed for them, that God would help them find jobs, and that He would be their refuge in this time of uncertainty and doubt... and that God would guide them - as they had immigrated to Colombia in hopes of finding a better future, but were stuck here in a really tough situation with barely no resources, and very few friendly people willing to help them out.  

...Well bright and early the next day my friend Hugo and I (Hugo is the main guy who befriended them originally) - we showed up at their low income residency to sing a couple of songs and share a devotional with them as an encouragement for the day that lied ahead... It was so cool how when we got there they were excited to see us, and then when we started singing - a few people even started tearing up a little as the gospel-centered lyrics just penetrated straight into their hearts.

...I thought about it and felt convicted about my lack of faith in what we were doing in the Center, but at the same time I was so thankful for friends like Hugo who persevered even when I started to doubt, and consequently became the key connection in that precise moment, to catalyze something big - right when God wanted to use us most.

Well, I went back again on Wednesday morning, and then Hugo went back again on Friday morning, and then I picked up our Venezuelan friends again on Sunday afternoon for a special gathering with lunch included, where I spoke from Matthew 22 about the parable of the wedding feast...

The main similarity between this parable and what we were experiencing in real life is that, despite the fact that we had invited a lot of people to our gatherings previously - many of them would just make up lame excuses or assure us that they would go, but then never actually show up (v. 1-5)... Clearly this parable has a lot to do with Israel and how they were the first to both be invited to and also reject the invitation that the prophets gave them to be a part of Jesus' Kingdom - but I also think that it can be applied to us, in challenging that same attitude of indifference that anyone may have now a days when they think they have more important things to do than accept the indispensable invitation to believe in Christ and enjoy the fantastic relationship that God offers us with himself through his Son.
          

...It's the most precious gift in the whole world! And it's completely ridiculous that so many people reject it...

  

Ok, but so what's the right thing to do whenever that happens? Well, the right thing to do is to just go out into the streets and invite absolutely anyone you can find! (including Venezuelans), so that Heaven will be full of appreciative guests! 

...Seriously man - sometimes it's like we get so caught up in being so selective about who we share the gospel with, that we end up wasting a lot of our efforts by practically begging indifferent people who don't even give a care about Jesus, instead of proclaiming and sharing him generously to those who are desperately dying to know him.

...It's crazy. But anyway - back to the parable - and there's something really key about this and it's that surprisingly, of the guests that make it to the banquet - of those who enter, there are both good and bad people (v.10)... this shows that when it comes to salvation, moral performance has nothing to do with anything, and what is truly at stake has everything to do with what comes next... that as we'll see in a second - it's all about our clothing.

Our clothing?

Yeah - and having had a little head start on what was to ensue later on that day - as I was getting dressed that morning I decided to wear my St. Louis Cardinals T-shirt (because I knew that Venezuelans are big baseball fans), and also because I wanted to use that T-shirt as an important illustration in my message... 

Can I tell you why? ...because what happens next in this parable is really shocking. 

...It so happens that in this startling story there's this random guy that manages to sneak into the alleged wedding banquet without wearing the right clothes, and successively the King notices him and calls him out about it, yet the miserable creature is found speechless... Having no defense, he is then tied up and thrown into hell and the story ends right there. Just like that - abruptly.

Wow.

Now, why in the world are clothes in this parable such a big deal? Well the reason I find, comes from Genesis where Adam and Eve are likewise found ashamed - but in this case it's because of their nakedness, and they unsuccessfully try to cover it up, by putting on loincloths that they sew together from fig leaves (Genesis 3:7)... 

But fig leaves will never suffice! and so after explaining their punishments, God is then the first to kill a few innocent animals, and from their skins - create garments for Adam and Eve with which he clothes them (v.21)...   

Those skins, and those animals who had to die for those garments to be produced, imperfectly but so powerfully point to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he underwent to save us! ...It's the substitution of our shame as it were, or the outlandish exchange of his innocence for our guilt. And it's the clothing, interestingly enough, of his righteousness that is replaced for our iniquity... You see, it's only by Jesus' death that we are saved! and we're saved, in a sense, only by putting him on! (as it says in Galatians 3:27 or Romans 13:14 for instance).  

...Ok, but to really get my point across, what I did next was to tell my Venezuelan friends about a hypothetical situation where one of them was imprisoned for a terribly atrocious crime he'd committed (and at this point I arbitrarily picked someone at the table who's name happened to be Jose), and so Jose see, he was lying in his prison cell completely terrified about his own execution that was going to happen... mmm, let's just say the following day... and then, mmm, now, supposing Jose and I were twins (and at this point everybody laughed because clearly Jose and I don't look anything alike)... but supposing Jose and I are twins nonetheless haha - let's say I sneak into his cell and take off my civilian shirt (which I actually did, mind you - I took off my really cool bright red St. Louis Cardinals T-shirt and gave it to him, just like that); and then say he takes off his prisoner shirt and we exchange roles and no one is the wiser... Well, what happens is that the free man takes the place of the criminal, and the criminal inversely, takes the place of the free man.

And boom! just like that, Jose goes free, and along with his freedom he also has an awesome T-Shirt to prove it... By the grace of God salvation has come! And by the grace of God I somehow managed to share the gospel in that instance to more than 10 people in such a way that they joyfully understood it, and eagerly wanted to accept it. 

So praise the Lord for that. 

So yeah - I mean anyway - this week I went and visited my Venezuelan friends again on Monday morning, and the idea is to keep meeting on Wednesdays and Fridays as well; so that we can keep digging into Scripture together, and discover more of these types of beautiful truths which are able to save and refresh our souls, as we get to know both God and each other better, and slowly (or quickly! hopefully) start to become our own new church...

...And so the point of all of this is to be relevant, you know? because when you really think about it, that's what the gospel at it's most basic definition is, right? ...That God became relevant to mankind by taking off his garments of glory, and making himself nothing by wearing our flesh and coming into this world to relate to us, and to serve us, and to die on a cross to rescue us so that anyone who puts his trust in him might be saved (Phil 2:6-8) Hallelujah!... Jesus did all this because he loved us, and he gave himself for us, not because we deserved it, but because God considered us that valuable! ...so that all of us who believe in his Son should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). 

...So that said - if by being relevant God decided to save anyone who would believe in his Son - shouldn't we likewise want to be relevant as well, to anyone we can, so that by preaching Christ in various contexts and to various people we might save a few through any and every means possible? (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). 

Yeah - you better believe we should want to.

So please God, help us be better evangelists.

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This blog post is dedicated to Hugo Muñoz who is an awesome evangelist that has encouraged me tremendously, and has been an excellent partner in starting this new ministry for our Venezuelan friends currently living here in Bogota, Colombia. 

Galatians 6:9 says, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.