Who Really Lives That Way?

Who Really Lives That Way?
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. -- 
1 Corinthians 11:1


The stories that follow are true. They tell of people who sought to live 
their lives fully surrendered to God. Some are still alive; others have 
finished
their race. Their examples differ vastly from one another, but each bears 
the mark of a person distinctly transformed by the beauty and reality of God’s
love and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.


In His letter to the church in Sardis, Jesus said, "You have a reputation of 
being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.... Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their 
clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy" (
Rev. 3:1-2, 4-5).


Jesus commended the few who were faithful. Likewise, there are a few in 
every generation who offer examples worth following.


Will your name be among the few that follow?  



Simpson Rebbavarapu

Simpson was given his English name when he arrived at a missionary-run 

orphanage around the age of four. His parents had not yet named him, which 

happens

often among the younger children of poverty-stricken, lower-caste families 

in India.Simpson’s mother was married as a child bride around the age of thirteen, a 

practice still common in Indian villages. Simpson was her sixth child, and

the women in the village gave her herbs to end her pregnancy so that she 

wouldn’t have to stop working and have another mouth to feed. But the herbs 

didn’t work.



Other villagers suggested that she try the “English medicine." But when she 

went to the doctor to have him abort her baby, he did not come to work that

day. So Simpson was born, and eventually his parents took him to the 

orphanage because they knew he would have a better life there, including an 

opportunity to be educated.



Simpson believes that God has always had His hand on his life, because if it 

had been up to his mother, he would never have been born. Currently, Simpson

splits his time between an orphanage that he started and an evangelism 

ministry that brings God’s Word to illiterate villagers through audio 

Bibles.



When asked how he lives and where he gets a salary, he answered in the most 

simple and humble manner, "I live by faith.... I don’t have a family or a 

wife,so what do I need a salary for?" He would rather have that money go to 

supporting another program to help people or to expose more people to the 

Word of God.



Simpson says that by living this way, he has to trust that God has His hand 

on his life and will keep taking care of him. He also says his dependence 

keeps him in prayer and close to God. To learn more about what Simpson does, check 

out www.beumin.org.



Jamie Lang
When Jamie was twenty-three years old, she flew from the United States to 
Tanzania with $2,000 from her savings account. She planned to stay until she
ran out of money, at which point she would come home.

Jamie was overwhelmed by all of the need that she encountered, so she 
started praying that God would allow her to make a radical difference in one 
person’s
life. After about six months, she met an eight-year-old girl at church who 
was carrying a baby on her back. Jamie learned that the baby’s mother was 
dying from AIDS and that she was too weak to care for him. Jamie began to buy 
formula for the little boy, Junio, to provide him with the nutrition he 
desperately needed. At the time, he was half the size of a healthy baby.

Jamie fell in love with baby Junio. She wondered if she was being foolish--a 
barely twenty-four- year-old, single, white American entertaining thoughts
of adopting a baby. Besides, she didn’t even know if Tanzania allowed 
international adoptions. Eventually, she discovered that the country didn’t 
allow international adoptions; however, because she had lived there for over six 
months, she could establish residency.

Before Junio’s mom died from AIDS, she came to Jamie and said, "I have heard 
how you are taking care of my son, and I have never known such a love. I 
want to be saved." Just before she died, she said, "I know that my son is taken 
care of, and I will see him in heaven someday."

Jamie spent six months going through the adoption process and then five more 
months working with the American embassy to get Junio a visa. When she 
finally came home, she had been gone for a year and a half.

Junio is now five years old, totally healthy, and HIV negative. When Junio’s 
mom was pregnant with him, she took a "morning- after pill" late in her 
pregnancy in order to abort him. But instead it induced premature labor, and because 
Junio was so small, no bleeding occurred during his birth. Thus, he did not
contract HIV from his mother. What was intended to end his life, God used to 
save it.
Since adopting Junio, Jamie has gotten married, had a little girl, and is 
moving back to Tanzania with her family to work with Wycliffe to translate 
the Bible for a group that has never heard it before.



Lucy
If you met Lucy at church, you would probably think she was somebody’s 
innocent, dear grandmother. She is the kind of woman who will come and give 
you a huge hug and then introduce herself.

You would never guess that Lucy is an ex-prostitute. When she was in her 
teens and early twenties, drugs and prostitution dominated her life. Through 
an older Christian woman who reached out to the prostitutes, Lucy met Jesus and 
her life was completely transformed.

To this day, almost forty years later, Lucy lives near the same streets 
where she once worked as a prostitute and consistently opens her home to 
other young women who are caught in prostitution. It is common knowledge on the 
streets that if you need anything, you can come to Lucy’s house. She doesn’t
have a lot, but her home is always open. Prostitutes, pimps, drug users, 
dealers, and anyone else who most people avoid--Lucy invites them in. This 
isher way of loving people who are in desperate need of the hope and love that 
Lucy found forty years ago.

I hope these life stories have done more than encourage you; I hope they 
have eliminated every excuse for not living a radical, love-motivated life. 
I hope they have challenged the multitudes who “feel called to the rich†and 
ignore the poor. If biblical examples seem unattainable, hopefully these 
average, everyday people give you hope that you, too, 
can live a life worth writing about.



Questions to Consider
list of 4 items
• Do you know anyone like the people described above?
• Do you think that somebody observing your life would be amazed at the 
intensity of your love for Jesus?
• Do you think you could ever live a life like that? If not, what prevents 
you?
• Think about the needs and struggles in your community--your neighborhood, 
your church, your family, your workplace. What opportunities are there for
you to show Christlike love to those around you today?
list end

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All content drawn from Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God and 
Living Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Used by permission. All rights reserved 
worldwide.
Dean Masters, owner of the Masters List

"I would rather walk in the dark with Jesus than to walk in the light on my 
own."
Wayne Watson

We will not always live as Christ should because we in the flesh but, living as He would should be something we attempt to always do.