EP 7 : LEAST IS GREATEST
Lauren Alexander shares her crazy and inspiring journey in becoming a foster and adoptive mom and helps us see how Scripture commands everyone to care for the widow and the orphan in some capacity. This episode will help us all explore Jesus’ paradoxical teaching that in the upside-down kingdom of God, the leaders must become the servants, and “the least” among us are really the greatest of all.
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Our Guest
Lauren Alexander
Lauren is a conference and event speaker specializing in making connections with women from every walk of life and discipling them toward greater maturity in Christ. She is a pastor’s wife, mom to many, and community leader for All the Things with Lauren Alexander. Lauren has a special affection for the local church, especially rural areas that are under-resourced. She is also the Executive Director of The Stand Up Foundation—a regional nonprofit that helps resource foster families.
NOTE: Featuring a guest, resource, or organization on The Holy Shift does not necessarily constitute a blanket endorsement of their entire body of work.
We’ve highlighted some key points from this episode below. Feel free to share these on your blogs/feeds with proper attribution to the writer/speaker/podcast. Or stay tuned—we will be posting several of these verses and quotes, along with clips from this episode, on our IG page and you can save/share from there.
Scripture
Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
Luke 9:46-48: Then an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the thoughts of their hearts, had a little child stand beside Him. And He said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me. For whoever is the least among all of you, he is the greatest.”
Luke 22:26: But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.
Matthew 23:11-12: The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Matthew 25:34-36: Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’
John 10:27: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
2 Peter 1:3: His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Quotes
“Kingdom metrics are not the way that world metrics work. In this upside-down kingdom of God, the least is the greatest.” Christine Chandler Prater
“We can represent Christ in all the spaces where we lay our feet.” Lauren Alexander
“We actually experience Jesus through the eyes of the least of these. And Christ comes more alive to us as we lay down our lives for the least of these.” Lauren Alexander
“We are the blessed ones because we are encountering Christ through this child.” Lauren Alexander
“Sometimes the way that Jesus wants to introduce himself to us and we meet him and make him fully part of our lives is by meeting and seeing him in the face of the least of these.” Lauren Alexander
Resources
SPECIAL THANKS TO Show Notes Creator: Laurie O’Brien | Podcast Editor: Tammy Munson
Questions or comments about this episode? Contact Christine here or leave a comment below.
