40 Days of Praise - Day 15

Day 15

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
John 1:14a

We put a contract on our current home around July of 1991. For a whole host of reasons, it took 6 months for the buyer of our house to close the deal. During that six months, Federal police action removed the top leadership of the two gangs that operated in the Austin Neighborhood. When we moved in, the younger members of both gangs were competing for territory. Gang members were on all corners and middle school-aged boys were carrying handguns up and down the street.

It hadn’t been like this when we had looked at the house!

We prayed. We strategized. We prayer-walked our property and our street. Our family walked to church most Sundays – a block away. We greeted the drug dealers as they walked the block (they started crossing the street to avoid us.) A few gang members came to Christ through the outdoor services that our church – the Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church (AKA “Rock Church”) – held during the summer. Lives were changed.

We saw it first-hand. We were learning the neighborhood. Kids from nearby played basketball in our yard because the gangs had taken over Columbus Park. We met their parents and guardians. We participated in the block club, helped with the summer clean up on the block.

For several years, I had worked for Circle Urban Ministries, with which Rock Church shared a building and partnered in ministry. I was the program director. In a conversation about the need for leadership that came from the neighborhood, the leader of our shelter ministry commented that while I was a good leader, I wasn’t from the neighborhood. That stung. It happened during the 6 months that we were waiting to close on our house. I felt like it was unfair… until I moved here. Then I got it. When you’re from here, you see differently. You feel the neighborhood. You see things that you didn’t notice before you moved in.

Minister Charles Lyons, Leader of City Hope International and a member of Hope Church, posted a series of videos on social media under the theme, “Jesus didn’t commute.” He didn’t just become one of us and then live a safe distance away. He dwelt among us, got an apartment in the building with us, ran into us at the park and in the grocery store, helped man the grill at the block club party.

John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed, “’Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples [of John] heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’” (John 1:36b-39)

Jesus lived in the neighborhood, and He invited folks in. He was approachable, touchable, relatable. God was no longer invisible and unapproachably holy. Now He was truly “God with us,” Immanuel.

One more reason to adore Him!

Pastor Charles M. Butler