"Here's the Church, and Here's the Steeple. Open the Doors and See All the People."

Our churches today are filled with the rich while the poor sit on our doorstep.  Where do the poor go when needing help?  Who do the rich give to when writing checks?  Thanks to the welfare system, all involved can now ignore their own spiritual condition.  Those in need never have to step inside a church to receive help, and those inside the church never have to step outside of it to give it.

Let's step out and see who we can help!

A Parent's Love

It's been awhile since I've last posted - that'll happen to you with an 8-month-old high needs baby who doesn't sleep through the night yet!  However I've stumbled across yet another awesome short film from Ellerslie called Depraved Indifference.  I actually heard Eric Ludy give a similar message at the homeschool conference I attended a couple years ago - it was amazing.  Please watch and pray.

Cheerful Giving Requires Humble Taking

A common theme in our conversations lately has been about seasons of giving and taking. We all go through these seasons - sometimes we need to be able to humbly accept what is being offered to us and other times we need to be able to give from our abundance to others in need. I would venture to say we are much better about giving than taking. Giving makes us feel good, fulfilling a God-given and innate need for us to offer our things and ourselves for the good of others. God loves a cheerful giver, right? Taking makes us feel vulnerable, weak and useless. The Bible never mentions God loving a cheerful taker. Yet with all the mention of widows, blind men, lepers, the hungry, the sick and the ever-present poor, they all had to be takers at some point in their life.

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19

The thankful leper didn't compare himself to the other nine lepers and think he wasn't as worthy to receive Christ's healing as they were. Who knows how afflicted he was compared to his fellow lepers? Maybe he had more skin lesions than they did, maybe much less - it doesn't matter though. He obeyed Christ's command, realized he had been healed and came back to thank Jesus. He not only received complete physical healing, but in coming back, he received spiritual healing as well. In our seasons of need, let us not refuse to take the offerings of others. Instead use these times for reflection on our ultimate dependence on God and recognizing and thanking those He uses as instruments of His charity and grace. 

As Christians, we are commanded to take care of each other and "to love our neighbor as ourselves."1 If the world judges our faith by how we treat each other, we must take great care in watching out for each other and providing for each other. By loving each other and acting like the early church, we will be greater witnesses of Christ's love to those inside and outside our Christian community. So let us love each other. Let us need one another. Let us meet each others' needs "and so fulfill the law of Christ."2

1. From Mark 12:31a

2. From Galatians 6:2

Paradise Foreclosed

One of the biggest questions of the human race has been, "How does God allow such pain and suffering for humans?" If He were a good God, would He not prevent the tragedies that continually befall our race? We see pictures of those less fortunate than us all around the world living in shacks in the middle of a place that looks like our local trash dump. We hear about those who are sick and diseased because of unclean water, infectious mosquitoes, contagious viruses. People die by the millions everyday from starvation and sickness. But I think the real question is, "How do we as a people deserve anything more than that?" Living in tin shacks next to a river of sewage is the perfect example of the only lifestyle we can spiritually afford. Our souls are bankrupt when it comes to righteousness, and we gave up the good things of Eden when we chose knowledge over God. Once sin entered the world, our proverbial bank accounts emptied, and Paradise handed us a foreclosure sign. Since when do we deserve anything but tragedy and misery? When did we start thinking that God's blessings were a right of ours?

The Scriptures are full of accounts of God's mercy and grace to those undeserving. How many times did Moses plead for God to stay His hand of judgment from the Israelites? And countless times, God showed mercy instead.

"Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee" Psalm 63:3

We sit in our furnished homes and drive our luxury cars and eat our organic foods. God's blessings have been poured out on us abundantly. If we have a roof over our heads, we are blessed. If we are healthy, we are blessed. If we have food to eat, we are blessed. If we are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, we are more than blessed. If our children are without distended empty tummies, they are blessed. If we have a Christmas tree this season with gifts underneath it, we are abundantly blessed. If we have one dollar in our pocket to give to someone else, we are richer than most.

"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful" Luke 6:36

Misery is what we traded paradise for, and yet God continues to shower us with His grace and mercy. Our life's wages can only afford us a life not worth living. Yet God took us out of our garbage dump existence and handed us a mansion. The world gives pain and suffering to us freely. But more than occasionally, God raises us up out of this existence to give us glimpses of Heaven.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:5

God allows pain and suffering, because we chose it. It is not the right of His people to live like we do surrounded by every conceivable blessing; it is our ultimate privilege that God grants us the gift of His mercies and blessings. So the question truly is, "How does God allow us the tender mercies and bountiful blessings of which humans experience (even those with nothing to their name)?" How did we get so lucky in all that we've been provided and given? The answer is a simple one: "Because He first loved us..."

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." John 3:16 (The Message)

In this season of Love, may the blessings you've received flow over into your charity to others so that those who are living in poverty, misery and poor health will see and experience Christ's love and mercy through you and be blessed. Merry Christmas!!