If you have not read my previous blog posts called, Not Alone part 1 & 2, I encourage you to go back and read those, as they will give you a greater framework for understanding this post. 

So God created us to need an intimate relationship with Him and with people. That gives us some interesting insight into how to reach out to our world around us and impact people that are not currently Christ followers. If I know that God created my neighbors with both spiritual and relational needs, then how might I weave these together to advance the Kingdom of God. Lets look at how the Master did it. 

When faced with a lying, cheating tax collector, Jesus connected with Zacchaeus first in a relational way, by eating with him, and accepting a man that no one liked. I think he was startled by Jesus love, and he was radically transformed. When faced with a Samaritan woman at a well, Jesus didn’t avoid or shun or condemn her, as most Jews would, but he startled her with love, and then spoke truth to her. And she was radically transformed. In other words, Jesus met a valid need for respect, comfort, attention, appreciation, approval, support, acceptance (all from the “one another” passages) and then introduced the person to the God who desires to startle us with his love. May we have eyes to see people the way Jesus sees them so that we can love them the way He loves them. And then may we be bold to proclaim His great name and what great love would suffer and die for us that we might live for Him.