Exit 43, Exit 55a, Exit 1 Jesus

Lub-Dub. Lub-Dub. That's the sound of a healthy human heart beating. But what happens when our compassion for others flatlines? When we lose the beat of God's own heart for those on the fringe? If your passion for a broken world has flatlined, this hope-filled series will get your heart beating again.

And so began our new series at church and we couldn’t just sit back and watch the heart wrenching videos and listening to a moving sermon from our pastor in Africa without getting into some local action. So my local Life Group took up the call.

Exit 43 – we worshiped and were convicted to serve.

Exit 55a – we shopped for groceries and cooking supplies.

Exit 1 – we cooked, served and dined with the 55 residents of Bailey-Holt House (NYC’s first residence for people living with AIDS).

　


Isaiah 58: and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,like a spring whose waters never fail.

Exit 35 Rte 287 Morristown Jesus

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Morristown’s Green has the biggest, brightest, tackiest and most wonderful Christmas decorations of any public square in the state. And while St. Nick (yes, he is referred to this way in Morristown) was being hoisted down Fire Engine #3’s ladder to the sounds of Bruce Springstein’s (of course) Santa Claus is Coming to Town, something else was discretely going on the Green over on South Street.

A group from Morristown’s own Liquid Church, fresh from spending the early part of the day handing out coats to the homeless in New Brunswick, was busy cooking up grub in the name of Jesus for the residents of The Eric Johnson House, Morris County’s transitional house for people living with AIDS.

Dance instructor, 2nd grade teacher, landscaper, photographer, safety guy, accountant and student were cooking up gorgonzola & walnut-stuffed stuffed chicken, home-made spinach gnocchi and corn bread. Though Crystal has been making the corn bread for the past few months, I still needed to maintain a close eye on her in the kitchen, after all, as the cornbread goes, so does the meal. I think Savannah’s Paula Deen would strongly agree.

Now we’re not the most overtly Christian bunch (as perhaps you may surmise from the hammer and knife photo) but the residents all know we’re from Liquid, the church with the funky name and oddly conservative theology. Though we seek to be a little light to the residents, sometimes God’s intended audience is not the same as ours.

As we began eating, the house nurse turned to me and told me quite a little amazing story. She belongs to the county’s Interfaith group and because the residents of The Eric Johnson House spoke so much of our volunteers and food, that the group thought they’d pop in the Hyatt one Sunday and check us out. Now as she’s telling me this, I’m thinking, "Oh no, Interfaith….there-is-no-right/there-is-no-wrong left-wingers, they must have hated worship." On the contrary, she said the group was very impressed with the church and couldn’t believe that so many young people attend. What she said next, blew me away.

"Our staff brought their kids out to Liquid and those kids have been coming back every Sunday. Our parents really still find it hard to believe their kids have any interest in Christianity at all."

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

***photo by elbaliz mendez, daily record

Exit 43A-B Route 80 - Morristown Jesus

Morristown is known as the "Cradle of the Revolutionary War." In 1773 George Washington slept here. On this particular Saturday it was known for something else: water.

The Green in the town center was transformed into a 2008 version of Water World, but without Kevin Costner. Sponsored by Liquid, this local Morristown church is having global influence by raising awareness for clean water in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Waterwalk: For each local resident who carried canisters of water down the waterwalk, Liquid provided access to clean water for a child for the next 20 years.

Waterslide: Not just for kids, this slide told a story of well, water waste.

Water bottles: To remind us that unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

Liquid’s tag line, "Living water for a thirsty world," is derived from Jesus’ words: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

There were lots of believers, streams of living water and streams of just plain water as the skies opened and the water flowed.

Matthew 10: And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."