Our busy lifestyle often prevents us from enjoying these resources, just as we have no time for materials in libraries, or exercise to maintain our health. We only have time for the absolute necessities, or what is at a critical warning level.  Our personal spiritual advancement often gets postponed because we think, "Though it is not spectacular, at least I am doing OK spiritually."   

The problem is that we often focus our Christian faith only in a narrowly defined area between God and ourselves, AND we measure how we are doing in that area by our own standards.  So if we recognize and respect God, go to church, and are nice in our daily routine, and do not commit major crimes or sins, then we are spiritually OK.  Even if we stumble in minor personal sins, we are good at rationalization and readily excuse ourselves.  We are very good at giving ourselves an inflated grade.   

This is the same fallacy committed by many non-Christians, as they similarly state: "I respect Christianity and God, but I don't have a need for Him.  I can do good deeds on my own.  I am doing OK."  This line of thinking is further susceptible to the problem of “the slippery slope”- since no one can possibly be perfect, we can and do label "OK" any level we feel is not the absolute spiritual abyss.  Then we will always feel justified to consider ourselves spiritually OK, and not sense our dire need for God.  

Until we expand the vision of Christianity, as applied to our lives, beyond self-centered piety (e.g. the righteousness of the Pharisees), to a truly heart-felt higher calling that we can commit to, we can not grow in our faith nor have powerful personal witness and evangelism.  The only thing we can offer in our testimony is at most the stereotypical "I believe in Jesus, and see what He did for me, in the area of personal comfort, success, ..." Yet these are the areas that our friends often easily brush off as "I too am quite successful, I am already happy with my life, hence I don't think I really need God ,..." 

It is with these issues in mind that I picked up Tim Keller's recent book, The Ministry of Mercy, (incidentally the only book of his sole authorship,) and find many issues resolved.  As I read the initial chapters, I was convicted of the role that God calls all of us to play in this world.  Passages throughout the Bible, like James and John, speaks about the kindness and compassion that we need to extend to the rejected in society, as a sign for God's love living in us. 

While our Christian faith is about our vertical relationship with God, enabled by salvation through Jesus Christ, the true measure of our spiritual health is not by our estimates, but through the horizontal relationships we have with other people.  God has given us the higher calling, to show His love spectacularly in all circles and people in our lives: our spouse, family, coworkers, friends, and people in distant lands.  Note that we are not simply called in one specific area, such as missions, but are called in all spheres.  Like a crystal reflecting sunlight, the love we offer others reflects the true condition of our relationship with God, and we need to display the entire spectrum of human interactions for the beauty to stand out. 

The world recognizes and yearns for the self-sacrificing kind of love, as our recent Care Group study on 1 John showed, because such love has a tremendous degree of beauty that captivates our eternal desire. After all, why would most people think of Mother Teresa as a primary example of a loving person?  Why are young people so hyped up about making a difference in Third World developing countries, fighting global poverty and disease?  God already gave us these higher callings.  When we live them out, people will be universally attracted by our actions, and recognize the presence of God's power in our lives.  Perhaps then our examples can influence their view of a full life worth living, and find the need for God through our testimony. 

With this new focus, the Resource Ministry will exhibit materials in the area of social witness and local outreach in the upcoming months.  We will experiment with a new system to enhance participation:  The Resource Ministry will only charge half price for a book, and will refund even that if the book is completed within a month, and you get to keep the book if you wish!