Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t
have a stingy heart. The way you
handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you
do, all your work and ventures. There
are always going to be poor and
needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and
hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.
God brings death and God brings
life, brings down to the grave
and raises up. God brings poverty and God brings wealth; he lowers, he also
lifts up. He puts poor people on
their feet again; he rekindles
burned-out lives with fresh hope, Restoring dignity and respect to their lives— a place in the sun! For the very structures of earth are God’s; he has laid out his
operations on a firm foundation. He protectively cares for his faithful
friends, step by step, but leaves the
wicked to stumble in the dark.
No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle! God’s enemies will be blasted out
of the sky, crashed in a heap
and burned. God will set things right all over the earth, he’ll give strength to his king, he’ll set his anointed
on top of the world!
“Have I ever left a poor family shivering in the cold when they had no warm clothes? Didn’t the poor bless me
when they saw me coming, knowing
I’d brought coats from my closet?
“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in
heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s
obvious, isn’t it? The place
where your treasure is, is the
place you will most want to be, and end up being.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the
stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no
matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t
want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when
others grovel, Takes pleasure in the
flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps
going to the end.
She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve
it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even
belong here!
Why
do we help the poor?
Most of you who read my blogs know
that we are Christians and we are living in Brussels to help start a church
that is relevant to the people of Belgium.
We are not the pastor who preaches and we do not lead the music. We work in the community, mostly outside the
doors of where we meet, doing whatever we can, whenever we can, to do what we
believe Jesus would do if He were here walking
ahead of us. So, one of the main things
we do is to work with the poor and disadvantaged. We do it because it is a main concern of the
Bible. We don’t do it because we have to
- it is not on a master checklist to be a Christ follower. We do it because Jesus and his disciples
helped the poor. We do it because we love Jesus.
“Give freely and spontaneously.
Don’t have a stingy heart. The
way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in
everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be
generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.”
You can’t work yourself out of a job.
We understand that if we help one person
out of their situation there will be two or more to take their place. We serve the unfortunate for God’s blessing,
and we don’t expect that it will be money or possessions. It is not quid pro quo; it is more like doing
things our children or spouse appreciates - we are deeper in love because of
it.
We do it because of the concept of grace
- something that you receive that you did not earn. In the story of Ruth in the
Old Testament, Ruth is a poor widowed, foreign girl living with her destitute
mother-in-law. She meets a wealthy in-law, a pillar of the community, and he
comes to her aid.
“She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve
it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even
belong here!””
That verse really sums up how the
people that are helped should feel - how we want them to feel. But if they
don’t, does that mean we should not help them?
We have raised two boys who are adults now and we are very proud of
them. They are nice men, kind and honest
with wonderful wives and families.
Sometimes though, when they were growing up, they did not always do what
they should have, but we still loved and cared for them.
We love people - not a special group
of people, just people in general. It is
easiest to love people who look and act like you, who have the same values and
culture. If we only loved those who it
is easy to love, we would not be loving like God does. You see if God was not
willing to love those who are not exactly like him (perfect, Holy) we would
never be loved by him. That is why we
help the poor.
