how can we really b god's hands & feet

in thinking about discussions that will take place in our annual gathering where we talk about what we want to do next year and what we did last year that we thought we should continue to do, i wonder what are the kinds of new things we should be trying to do? i wonder what kinds of things that jesus would involve himself in, and how we can try to involve ourselves in things that really matter in the scheme of eternity. too often we just do the things we like to do or that will get us noticed but we fall short of doing the important things. i know what you are thinking-what are the important things-to which i say i'm not really sure.??. i don't even know what types of things will be suggested this year-we always have a huge variety of things mentioned-the next problem is getting them to happen-and getting people to be in charge of them.

the people do pretty good about getting behind an idea as long as someone else has thought it out and did the planning. so how do you get people to think outside the box and really start to do the things that they think are important?

anyway that is beside the point-i really want to be sure that the things that come out of this meeting are the things we need to be doing-plus i want honest feedback on the things we did last year whether they think they were good-whether they think they were things that god would be pleased with, whether they were things they think are useful in reaching people for the kingdom of god. the big question to be answered is how can we live and be god's hands and feet in our community and world. how can we make a difference in the lives of the people that we come in contact with.

our story for the morning is out of acts where peter raises tabitha from the dead and she had a reputation for helping the poor and for doing good. i want to challenge our church to be known for these types of things (helping the poor and doing good). but how do you get a reputation for doing that? tabitha apparently had made clothes for the people, and i'm sure many other things but it mentions that many of them had coats that she had made. i mean how do you actually go about loving people as yourself-i mean what does it look like in action-more than just the words and fancy descriptions-which we have tried to make some of our own descriptions by doing a number of things. just to name one-we collected diapers and wipes to give to the crisis pregnancy center, or to give to people in need. word got out that there were diapers at my house for people in need and people literally stopped by (people i really didn't know) and said i hear you have diapers for mothers who need them and it was truly a blessing to me to be able to give those diapers to those people (even a few dads stopped by). rather interesting-but i wonder would jesus be pleased with this type of thing (i think so, or at least i hope so).

the quest is always to do something new and exciting to help people with needs that we don't even know about yet-to try to meet some new needs rather than just do the same old thing all the time (there is nothing wrong with doing the same stuff over and over, just people like new and different it seems like). how will you be god's hands and feet this year? would you share some ideas with me (i could really use them)?