Fast Food (and other ramblings on pure religion & stuff)

Picture the scene in Slum Dog Millionaire where the little orphaned children are being asked to sing, oh my word when the little boy starts to sing....this movie is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES now...not because the hokey plot is great but because it hits somewhere deep deep in the core of me...I weep each time I watch it...and now I have a two year old who bursts into song throughout the week that I would swear IS this kid's song..it is NOT English and she sounds eerily like him..she is singing in earnest..I seriously have to wonder if this IS God speaking to me, orphans haunting me, my actions (or lack there-of) convicting me.....


So, this has been keeping me awake for years....I hope that hearing my burden will cause it to also become your burden. How nice of me :) I also hope that seeing my burden in print will cause me to be more forceful in taking ACTION! Know ahead of time that it would take a full book to really capture how I feel about this. I am in a constant war with myself to give up my love affair with the world and give in to my yearning for a bigger, more real, more impactful love affair with my God and His creation....this blog is more my anger coming out and my call to action. It does not do justice to the tears that flow in the early morning hours when I am only slightly cold and can easily cover me and whatever babe has crawled into bed with me..and my mind flashes to millions who will have nothing to ease their chill or even keep them from freezing-to death-literally. It will not clearly convey how I feel when I throw away leftovers, or speak a harsher than needed word to my child, or buy yet another 'sundress' for my already spoiled girls....I feel a war waging---a fight between the me I am and the me I know I was created to be. What would mom's all over the world give to be in my place, where there is 'ALWAYS MORE THAN ENOUGH'.???? This blog will shed light on some stuff that most of us do not want to hear let alone be moved to do anything about............I hope through the anger and ramblings you will glimpse a Wife, Mom, Daughter and friend who is no longer comfortable in her own skin, in, in her own life ..who prays daily for God to break her heart.

FAST FOOD? "Why have we fasted and You have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?" the people say. .....Fast forward to the end of God's reply.....

"Is not this the kind of fast I have chosen : to loose the chains of injustice & untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer shelter- when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

(Isaiah 58)

I am wondering how many of us equate fasting with abstaining from food or maybe some other 'thing' for a set period of time? What about these verses from the Truth? This is straight from God's mouth...I know that most of the Church does NOT practice this kind of fasting! (BTW if you want to see what God promised to those who practiced this type of fasting, go check out the 'rest of the story')

I was blown away the first time I cam across those verses. Wow. God expects this kind of 'fasting'? I am no Bible scholar so please do not mistake this as some theology letter/review etc. This is just my heart being pricked by some words that say to me, "hey that whole don't eat for a few hours deal,  that's not getting to the heart of the matter...you Americans, well frankly you could afford to skip a few meals all the time...I'm looking a little deeper than that..I'm looking at your heart Kim Reeves and seeing if your actions will match up with your words. You really wanna fast..try this!".."this will get my attention" (Please don't hear what I'm NOT saying..I am not saying we earn God's merit by doing good works..I'm saying by my fruit you will know me, and know what I believe, and know what God has broken my heart with because I am so in tune with His heart! )

Now, I am reading a book called 'The Hole In Our Gospel" ( for some he aligns himself w/toooo much social gospel and it's too watered down) I am not here to make that call..I am just using all the truth and the Truth he has written about to write my blog :) If you read his story it's hard NOT to think he's got wayyyy more right than most of us and he is refreshingly honest about the struggle to maintain the right God kinda heart towards the 'oppressed, the wanderer, the fatherless, the widow etc'

So, since he has done most of my work for me I am literally about to 'copy/paste' a junk load of quotes from his book. Reader beware..this may make you feel like doing some hard sacrificial things!

"The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Good News is preached to the poor" Jesus talking! (Is this what we do all day, I'm pretty sure He told us that we should follow Him...we should be about the Father's business...that by our fruit we'd be known. Read ALL of what Jesus did while here...if HE thought it was important to link His Good News with meeting physical needs and to care deeply for those who were hurting SHOULDN'T WE?????? Where have we gotten the idea that living out our  Faith is ALL ABOUT US!   

Soap box time- common things heard by 'us'. 'Lord, let me just get that close parking space.' 'Lord, please let lil Bobby get into the next little league level' 'Lord, if You will just let me get that job I'll give You a tithe from my new income or I'll go to church every time the doors are open.' (I am NOT belittling our prayers or desires..I am trying to illuminate where our focus IS vs where it maybe SHOULD BE.) And, how many programs/activities  do we have to fill up our church and social calendars? You can get most of your calendar filled if you just attend church a few days a week, go to a few extra classes (scrap-booking, ladies Bible study, have your kids in one/two/three activities, make it home after church every week for the Big Game and so on....) We have filled our calendars so full of 'US' time there is no time left for 'THEM'. The Great Commission tells us to do what?

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have  commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the     very end of the age.”   (Matthew 28)                                                        

and Jesus Himself said He came to do what?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"

(Luke 4)

When will we be FULL enough of the Truth, Bible studies, Fellowships, Seminars etc  to ACTUALLY stop eating all the time and start Feeding others?????? Fulfilling the Great Commission??? Walking as Jesus walks?? Our 'religion' is not a crutch, a feel good philosophy...it is a way of life..a mission..something meaningful BUT oh so hard and impossible really with out His power..IT (being a God-follower) was never meant to be easy or fix all our problems (sorry Joel, the prosperity gospel is about as far from the Truth as you can get)....re-read the Luke verses above...IF He has truly changed our life it will be obvious by the fact that we have HOPE, that we are FREE, that we are aware that everything is different when looked at through the filter of TRUTH and then when our life is radically changed by it's intersection with Him we will WANT to GO and share what has happened and disciple others, proclaim the freedom that they too can have and so on.....

Back to the book, here is a picture that I know shocked me....

"Imagine that all 6.7 Billion people on earth are represented by 100 people. .....

Out of 100 people:

60 would be Asian

14 would be African

12 Would be European

8 would be Latin American

5 would be American or Canadian

1 would be from the South Pacific

51 would be male;49 female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

67 would be non-christian;33 would be christian

We might summarize this by saying we live in a world that is non-American, non-white, & non-Christian. (By some of our actions and beliefs you'd think WE were the chosen people!)

 Now, let's let's compare the  'HAVES and the HAVE NOTS'  (defining by income) Average American lives on  about $105. dollars a day btw.

Less than $2 a day = 40 % of world

Less than $1 a day = 15 % of world

$105. a day = 4.5% of world (us)"

MAGINE living on one or two bucks a day, go ahead......I'll wait. What does that make your grocery budget? Your housing budget? Your car payment budget? Your Starbucks, ice-cream, or Disney budget?..............Many believe this is the biggest problem in eradicating the problem's of the poorest. Since we, the rich,  just can't picture what 'they' live and since we don't have to face it each day we don't have to help or have our hearts broken picturing a mom foraging through a dump to find worm infested trash to feed her family or watching her children starve or die from easily treatable issues.  I have a good friend who recently said she just tries to pretend those things don't happen.....out of sight, out of mind.....uggghhhhhh, what must our God think of how we treat the 'least of these?' I am so guilty of NOT laying down my life for them, I personally do not consider it a sacrifice to sponsor a child or two or three WHEN I still can take a vacation to Disney, crank the A/C down when I feel like it, drink clean water, eat fresh food.....and so on. When will I consider the welfare of others as important as the welfare of my own family?????? 

"The Bible is clear from the Old Testament through the New that God's people always had a responsibility to see that everyone in their society was cared for at a basic needs level." Did you know the Bible is FULL of verses that speak the heart of our God for the poor/the helpless/the needy/the orphan and widow? As a matter of fact the name of this book came from an experiment. Several guys marked and cut out every verse in the Bible that has to do with this and what they were left with were LOTS OF HOLES IN OUR GOSPEL, a Bible that could barely stay together because so much was MISSING! Why do we cut and paste the Truth to make our God into what we can handle instead of allowing Him to have free reign??? To do things His way instead of our ultra-watered down wimpy version of Him? "We have shrunk Jesus to the size where He can save our soul, but now don't believe He can change the world" (anonymous)

"The true gospel is  a call to SELF-DENIAL not a call to SELF-FULFILLMENT"MacArthur 

We MUST wake-up Church. this is NOT the world's problem it is OURS!!!! When will we accept the whole of God's word as worthy and not just that which pacifies us? I think of the Switchfoot lyric "This is your life, are you who you wanna be?" Is this, ignoring the pain of the world, what we want to be remembered for????? 

"We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies-but WILL WE BE THAT GENERATION? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy & indifference murmuring softly in our ears?  15 THOUSAND PEOPLE dying needlessly EVERY DAY from Aids/TB & malaria. Mothers, fathers, teachers, farmers, nurses, mechanics, children. This is Africa's crisis. This is NOT on the nightly news, that WE do not treat this as an EMERGENCY-----that's OUR CRISIS.

Future generations flipping through these pages will know whether we answered the key question. The evidence will be the world around them. History will be our judge, but what's written is up to us. We can't say our generation didn't know how to do it. We can't say our generation can't afford it. (Even in 'these tough times') And we can't say our generation didn't have reason to do it. IT'S UP TO US!!!" -Bono

These are the things that haunt me. Do I love God with EVERYTHING if I can sit by and be okay with THOUSANDS of people dying EVERY DAY????? I leave no stone unturned when it comes to the health and well being of  'my kids' . I buy supplements for them that cost more than a month's wages for billions!!!! This is why I can't sleep well at night anymore---the question is---WHAT AM I DOING ABOUT IT????

Over 150 MILLION Orphans world-wide!!! 

In one stat that I  found there are supposedly over 150 million Christians in America....what if we, the Church eradicated the need for govt. programs like foster care...what if we became the Rescuers of ALL the orphans??? WHY do we allow people like Angelina to get the spotlight? (and God bless her for what she does!) But she puts us to shame folks!!!! Oh, it's because she has money and power right??? Again, back to putting God in the box!!! Do we really have so little faith that if we mobilized as the Rescuers that our God would not step in and provide the ways???? This IS His heart after all! How can we sit by and know they are stuck in horrible conditions/orphanages/institutions/kids who are listed as 'child head of the home' because they are 8 and taking care of their 3 younger siblings..grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....this is NOT what I want to be remembered by! How about you??????

Think about this, we love it that God accepts us as His own..we are adopted into His family and treated as if we were His true children (Chosen people vs us). What if He left us as orphans???? We LOVE belonging, knowing we were rescued, that Someone saw us in our emptiness/alone-ness/need/sin and thought we were worth EVERYTHING.   Now, picture an orphan rocking themselves to sleep because there are not enough workers to hold each child or even most children. Don't we want to be the one to bring Hope to that child or children? To tell them they are worth it!!!!!

"But some will say "You have faith; I have deeds" Show me your faith with out deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do"

(James 2)  

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do"(Eph.2) 

Some more interesting quotes..."The contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is a arch defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.".."All too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows."..'So, the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind will we be? Will we be extremists for hate or for love?"..."Often in history there are voices in the church speaking up for truth & righteousness, but they were often drowned out by the majority, who had become comfortable with or profited from, the status quo. (Think Slavery, think money for missions vs money for amenities at the country club (aka the church) and so on)  

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ" (Gandhi)

OUCH! So true huh? We are known more now for what we hate or disagree and don't do than what we DO and LOVE and STAND FOR!!! I do not want that label. I do not want to be that kind of follower of my God. I want to hear 'Well done good and faithful servant"..not..."Well, you sure enjoyed that life, great use of your time, resources, and love" (Not that God has a sarcastic voice:), that's just how I hear it)

Anyways..last quote....

"Our Christian habit is to bewail the world's deteriorating standards with an air of rather self-righteous dismay. We criticize it's violence, dishonesty, immorality, disregard for human life, & materialistic greed. "The world is going down the drain" we say with a shrug. But whose fault is it Who is to blame? Let me put it like this.  If the house is dark when nightfall comes, there is no sense in blaming the house ; that is what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is 'Where is the light?' Similarly, if the meat goes bad & becomes inedible, there is no sense in blaming the meat; that is what happens when bacteria are left alone to breed. The question to ask is 'Where is the salt?'. Just so, if society deteriorates and it's standards decline until it becomes like a dark night or a stinking fish , there is no sense blaming society. That is what happens when fallen men and women are left to themselves and human selfishness is left unchecked. The question to ask is 'Where is the Church?' Why are the Salt & Light of Jesus not permeating and changing our society?" It is sheer hypocrisy on our parts to shrug our shoulders, or wring our hands, the Lord Jesus told us to be the world's salt and light. If therefore darkness and rottenness abound, it is largely our fault and we must 

accept the blame." (Stott)

I am not saying we will cure the world of all evil. We know the world is decaying and evil is rampant BUT right now do we do anything about it????? Or do we stay inside our homes and 'Country Clubs' aka churches and soak up the amenities while the world goes to Hell in a hand basket? Where are the hands and feet of our Jesus??? What do we do each day with our time? What do we do with our money? Our talents? Our resources? Our Love? Our prayers???????? Do we really need ALL that we have? Does each kid need a bedroom to himself? Do we need to be at church three times a week or could we be helping somewhere? WHERE would we find Jesus if He were here today?????

I'm NOT saying I have all the answers. I'm not saying I'm NOT a HUGE part of the problem..I am! I admit it..I have confessed it to my God that I want to 'cross the line from innocent bystander to hardcore participant'. I am just saying we have a choice, we have a responsibility....we have a God who loves us more than we could possibly ever grasp..and He wants us to love Him and share that love with the world.

Who can we 'go' to, who can we disciple??? What 'least of these' can we welcome into our safe comfortable world and recklessly share our 'Have's' with?????? What do we want to be known for and remembered for?????....How much Truth do we actually know & LIVE or is there a HUGE hole in our Gospel???

For the Reeves', well..He is up to stuff in our hearts...we are pursuing adoption in Florida first (where it's FREE, how crazy is that?)...and we are seeking ways to get outside of our tiny lil world and into His!....We are no model for great Christianity..we've KNOWN the Truth a LONG time....oh, the blood that is on our hands, the souls, the eternal things we have missed with our selfishness..I am ashamed.

I leave you with this song:

On our city streets they run Searching for shelter There are homes broken down People's hopes have fallen to the ground From failures This is an emergency! There are tears from the saints For the lost and unsaved We're crying for them come back home We're crying for them come back home And all your children will stretch out their hands And pick up the crippled man Father, we will lead them home Father, we will lead them home There are schools full of hatred Even churches have forsaken Love and mercy May we see this generation In it's state of desperation For Your glory This is an emergency! Sinner, reach out your hands! Children in Christ you stand! Sinner, reach out your hands! Children in Christ you stand! And all Your children will stretch out their hands And pick up the crippled man Father, we will lead them home Father, we will lead them home

Oh God, let our hearts be broken with the things that break Yours. Let us be desperate to share Your Hope with the oppressed, broken, homeless....(no matter what fashion or form that comes into our life as....)

Please excuse my ramblings and odd train of thought..there at least a hundred other things I want to say, more scripture to share..but hopefully you see my heart and get what I'm trying to say....thanks for reading!......

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die, so that you can live as you wish" Mother Teresa