Today is less of a thought and more of a rant as I reflected on Sunday nights theme of standing up against poverty and then I reflected on me. Read the following scriptures...
Matt 6:2 ‘So when you give to the needy....’
Micah 6:8 ‘....And what does the Lord require of you? To act Justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’
Matthew 25:40 ‘The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’
Matthew 28:19 ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’
I stood up. I then sat down again. How many people did that with me across the church and across the world. We stood up. We sat back down. We were stirred for a moment, and said ‘yeah I want poverty to be history’, and then we sat down again, relatively unchanged. We even got excited about the prospect of breaking a Guiness World Record for the amount of people standing up..... standing up?? We can stand up, we can talk, we can even have amazing thoughts or ideas but if that’s it, poverty is not going anywhere. This email is not directed at those who do act.... but if we are honest those people are the minority.
The reality is, if all those people around the world instead of standing, stayed seated and gave just $1, the debt problem is solved, yet we just stood. Basically if we all stand and none of it is backed up with action, we should’ve stayed seated, because standing should be more than just.... well standing.... shouldn’t it???
This got me thinking. Why should we be standing and acting against poverty? And then more than that, what should it look like? I think the answer is found in Matt 28:19 – when Jesus said go and make disciples.... our faith is based on Love. Love in word and deed, not just in intentions. When we become a disciple of Christ, we then share in his burden for this crooked and depraved (Philippians 2) world. We should want ALL to know him and his Love and display this love by caring, by giving, by speaking, by doing what it takes, to show them how much God loves them, and what lengths Jesus went to save them from hell.
God gives us so much in money and talents not so we can live better, but so can give better.....
Non-Christians all around the world, serve the world, stand up against poverty, and do countless other good deeds. So what make us different? We are concerned about more than just their physical well-being but their spiritual well-being as well.... We desire to show the world that Jesus loves them.... Jesus didn’t say in Matthew 28.... ‘feed the poor, cancel debt’ no! he said ‘make disciples’ – and as we show the love of God that is when lives are changed, healed, mended.... and poverty of spirit is broken. God’s priority is to have all people reconciled to him, not just improve their standard of living. He calls us to give (Matt 6:2) he calls us to act (James 2:14-26) he calls us to love justice and mercy (Micah 6:8), and we do this to show them who Jesus is.... so they can come home with us!
What a world it would be if Christians not only stood up, but acted. Not for any self-righteous reason but in response to wonderful and amazing grace shown to us through Jesus Christ....
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