THE SACRED ACTIVITIES - CARE FOR THE NEEDY
THE SACRED ACTIVITIES – CARE FOR
THE NEEDY
“The second (commandment) is like,
namely this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself…’” Mark 12:31
“Then shall the King say unto those on His right, ‘Come you blessed of 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 drink; I was a stranger and you
invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me…’” Matthew
25:34-36 NAS
“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of
you say unto them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled;’ notwithstanding you
give them not those things needful for the body, what does it profit?” James
2:15-16
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has
no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not
love with words or tongue, but with actions in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18
Using the title ‘the Sacred Activities’ for this topic seems almost inappropriate. How
sacred is helping and caring for the needy? Most assuredly it is not a ‘religious
duty’, but it is sacred and so close to the Father’s heart! Let this be
clarified, it is a duty that is expected of us. How can we, who say we believe
in Jesus, claim to have the Spirit of God (Who is Love) in our hearts, love
God, and yet ignore, walk away from, or be unconcerned about the needs and
plights of those around us? If this
is the case then it can truly it be said of us, “How dwells the love of God in
us?”
Let
us set a few things straight first:
- WE ARE NOT SAVED BY GOOD WORKS - but we are saved unto good works Ephesians 2:8-10 -
We must
get this into our heads and hearts - we are not working to be saved, in Christ Jesus we are already saved. Because
we are saved, as we have opportunity to express His love to people and see
the Father’s Kingdom come and will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven, we
reach out in love. Throughout the last few centuries, missionaries and Christians
have not only brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to the nations of the
world, but helped make major reforms in the societies where cruelty and
injustices were prevalent starting with their own societies. Great examples of
Christian reformers were William Wilberforce who fought in England to end the
slave trade and its horrible brutality. William and Catherine Booth, the
founders of the Salvation Army, fought to set free the alcoholics and help the
homeless in the streets of London, who along with others fought to end child
labour and giving alcohol to children. Amy Carmichael dedicated her entire life
to rescue children from cult prostitution in India. David Livingston, who
wanted to be a missionary to Africa, instead was hired as an explorer by the
Geographic Society, and he dedicated the rest of his life to three causes,
preach the Gospel to every tribe in Africa, end the slave trade, and to find
the source of the Nile. They and untold numbers more throughout the last few
centuries built hospitals, schools, orphanages, promoted prison reforms, brought kindness
and loving care for the deformed, the insane, the handicapped, and strove to
bring the love of Jesus to peoples everywhere. It is true that the church has
been guilty of doing very evil things which the world justly brings up, but all
those things are contrary to the character, nature, and instructions of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The untold number of wonderful things brought by the Christians is
rarely mentioned. That issue is unimportant, but what is important is that we
are to carry out His will in the world around us, showing His love and goodness
to everyone as He gives us opportunity.
- WE ARE NOT ALL CALLED TO BE LIKE MOTHER THERESA - who was a most
amazing Disciple of Christ in this generation. Along with many nuns, they devoted
their lives to help rescue the poor and needy in the slums of Calcutta –
If we get the message of the Gospel of Grace
wrong, we can torment ourselves and drive ourselves mad (and everyone else for
that matter) running around trying to ‘serve Jesus’ by helping whoever we think
may need help. That can be fine to a point, but even Jesus did only as the Father
directed Him. Notice in Acts 3 when Peter and John entered the temple through
the gate Beautiful and healed the crippled man. Even Jesus Himself may have
passed him by, perhaps more than once. The Bible says that they laid this man down
daily at the gates to beg.
We ourselves are not God and cannot do
everything, nor does He expect us to, but as the Scriptures say, “…therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of
believers.” Galatians 6:10 NIV. So when a situation arises, that is our chance
to bless someone and glorify God. These opportunities can come to us at any
time as we carry out our daily activities. Now if we wish to invest more of our
lives doing so, that is great, and may the Lord bless. There is so much need in
the world around us, and with Jesus Christ in our hearts, how can we not extend
a hand?
- WHEN IT IS TIME NOT TO GIVE? –
The expectations of the Lord are
always within reason and justice, and never to bring a yoke of bondage or
oppression on us (but that does not mean the situation will not be demanding and even difficult). There are times when we walk away, and the Holy Spirit will
direct or give us wisdom to discern that. I will relate two personal instances
where I had to learn these lessons.
One super charged evening service people were
called up for prayer. A strange fellow went up to the front to be prayed for,
but no one went over to pray for him. There was something about him, but I figured
that it was not right that the leadership was seemingly ignoring him. Defiantly I went
up and laid hands on him to pray for him. I felt sick almost immediately. Later on one
of the elders told me, after I informed him as to what had happened, that he did not
feel to pray for him, which is why he avoided him. This brother always impressed
me because of his faith and confident ability to hear the Lord. The Scripture the Lord
gave me concerning this is, “Lay hands
suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins.” 1 Timothy 5:22
The next incident that drove this home was that I had
a tendency to “give to everyone who asks
of me” as Jesus told us to, which we should. One of the old Christian
ladies I knew in town gave me a big lecture not to go around giving money just
to anyone (I don’t know how she knew, I did it discretely). She irritated me
with her ‘long winded’ lecture. I thought I knew better than her, and my way was
more Biblical than hers. Sometime later, as was his tendency, Wayne, a street
guy, came barging into my house asking for money (the door was usually unlocked in those days
with just us single guys living there). Typically I reached into my pocket
to give him a bill, and the Lord spoke to me and said, “You are partaking of his sins.” I did not know what to do, and I
was ashamed to turn him down. So I said, “I can’t. The Lord told me that I
would be partaking of your sins.” To my amazement, he simply turned around without any anger and walked out. I, or
should I say, the Lord called his game (and showed my folly). To my surprise, Wayne did get saved sometime later, though. Praise
the Lord!
- THE GOOD SAMARITAN – Luke 10:25-37
This wonderful example of loving your
neighbour that Jesus taught is a challenge to all to this day. Samaritans were
regarded by the Jews as squatters on Israeli Land, and not true citizens. The
priest, God’s ‘holy’ servant who should be an example of godliness avoided the
dying man who fell victim to robbers. The Levite, who was next to the Priest in
status, did the same and disregarded the plight of the dying man. In contrast
the Samaritan could not pass him by, but took it upon himself to heal and help
the man. Furthermore, when he had to leave and could spare no more time for him,
paid for this fellow’s continued care. What would you and I do? Dear Lord
Jesus, help us give our best when we are given the opportunity, (and forgive us
when we fail).
ISAIAH 58:1-12
In this passage of the Scriptures, the Lord is
confronting the hypocrisy of their religious ambitions to which they had
devoted themselves diligently. And yet in their daily lives they carried on in
social injustices and total disregard for the needs of the poor and needy, even
among their own people. In this instance He points out something we often
wonder about, “Why does He not seem to hear when we call out to Him? Aren’t we following
Him and doing as He directed us?” Here again we can apply this verse to our
ignorance, “…how dwells the love of God
in him?” Dear friends, listen. All sin is rooted in selfishness, and
typically expressed in our eyes as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, lying, drunkenness and the like,
but if we do not care for, or walk away from someone who has need when we can
help, is that any better? Does not neglect, inconsideration, and rejection, hurt people as do these other sins? And do we then expect that all our super spiritual
activities and services will impress and please Him?” “To him that knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” James
4:17 Again I will refer to the
Church in Ephesus in Revelation 2, who were doing everything right as to what
we think should be expected, but what was Jesus grievance against them? “…but you have left your first love.” Vs 4 Loving
Jesus should be the heart of all that we do, and if we do love Him, that love will
automatically spill over into the world around us.
CONCLUSION – Dear
friends, I in the fear of God, do not wish to put another oppressive duty or
guilt yoke on anyone, but rather to encourage each of us to not hold back when
God gives us opportunities to reach out in love to those around us.
Comments
Post a Comment