check the box

Do you guys remember when we were wee little bitty guys running around on the playgrounds during recess time, just hollering out YOU’RE IT, GOT YOU…..YES I did, shirt is part of the body! Or the times when you muster up enough nerve to write a letter to that someone that caught your eye and you wanted that person to respond to your question “do you like me”? and there were two boxes for that person to check or place their “X” ….sometimes the third box was given with a “maybe”. Man for me that should have a big ol question mark behind it! hahaha….

We still check boxes in our society, I mean think about filling out applications, or ordering things on line, or even now some sandwich shops have you checking boxes of the items you desire on your sandwich. In high school and college bring those #2 pencils and start darkening in the circles to reflect for me my best guesstimate.

Depending on the polls, surveys, research engines you read over, the number of folks that checked the Christian box is really pretty staggering. Here is what I mean. In recent surveys and numbers taken from the most recent census, when asked about religion roughly 70% responded with Christianity, yet on a given day of worship 23% will not stick a key in the ignition, or get on a bus, or walk to a local place of worship. It does make me wonder why? It’s almost like if I dressed up in full Tennessee Titan football gear, face painted up, chest painted up with the Titan flames, got the Titan number 1 fan finger and I start talking about how much I love the Dallas Cowboys. Yea kinda crazy uh….you would look at me and think man o man he really has gone whacko now….looking like (checking the box) for the Titans, yet saying a totally different message.

In preparing for a topic of discussion recently, I noticed that Rutherford County (TN) has over 260,000 residents and those residents live in 103,000 housing units, yet of those 260 plus thousand residents, 12.4% or over 32,000 live at or below the poverty line. At this point you’re thinking what does this have to do with checking boxes bivo? Well, my thoughts are this, that what if we took the time to find out where the other folks are that checked the box are. Yea remember we stated earlier that roughly 70% have stated or checked the box for Christianity yet only 60,000 of the 260,000 participate in serving Christ by gathering with other followers of Jesus….200,000 people that are made in the image of God are wandering, maybe looking, some maybe not….and in that number are folks that lay their head down in tents, on bridges, in parks, in libraries, shelters (if there is room).

So here is my point or what if moment…what if the believers, the followers, the lovers of Christ, lived out of the box they/we checked when surveyed. Heck what if just 50% or 130,000 folks really started living out Matthew 25:40 NLT 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'

Or what if the 130,00 really believed 1 Peter 4:10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another…
Or that we learned that we really don’t Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law. (Romans 13:8) And that we, yea we the 130,000 that checked the Christianity box really did (Hebrews 10:24-25) think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. and not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

would we eventually change that 12.4% number to 0%? I believe so. So what do we do first bivo? Man I’m glad you asked, let’s find out who checked the box.

Can you imagine if every street in Rutherford County had at least one house that had the Jesus light on. Phillipians 3:20 confirms that by faith we live on Jesus’ culdesac…OK OK it doesn’t say culdesac, but it does say we are citizens of heaven. What if 50% to 70% of the housing units had their Jesus light on. Yep since Jesus is the light HE will leave the light on for ya…. That’s 51,500 to 72,100 housing units living out love, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. That last one, self-control, is a biggie and for another day for us to discuss. Let me close with this.

In order for Jesus to be famous in your community, or at your work or in your home, HE must be famous for you first. If you have a desire to learn or find some folks that are learning how to do just this, let us know by sending us a note or replying to this email and let’s start plotting out the houses within our county that are safe places for people to come to in the name of Jesus Christ.