"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. "Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me Therefore I removed them when I saw it. -Ezekiel 16:49-50I thought this article in the "Inlander" was a thought provoking and deserved some wrestle among us believers and especially Spokcompton Christians, since our alternative paper wrote it.
9 comments:
Good passage out of Ezekiel, the church garden looks awesome and congrats on the anniversary! Andy and I get to celebrate our 10th this August.
Settling into a completely different way of life- weird, too normal, awesome, familiar, yet we feel a little like we don't belong. Please pray for us as we continue to pursue what God has for us here.
You're right, the article is most definitely thought-provoking. Two of the people I've been most fascinated with lately, St. Francis and Ghandi, chose the route of living in poverty themselves and serving people in every other possible way. What would I do? If someone was drowning and I was safe and warm on the beach? I don't know, but I HOPE I would jump in and do my best to rescue them. Read "The Unthinkable" by Amanda Ripley. I think you'd like it.
Regarding the issue of poverty, I think it's up to us, as representatives of God's Kingdom, to find the solutions that will finally bring global poverty to an end. I believe that even now God is raising up a leader or leaders who will be instrumental in this move, and I pray that He will use me and my family and church, too, in some small way.
Serenity: You have the greatest challenge...living out the gospel as a mother, wife and sister...right in the normal routine of life. The challenge is finding what "Kingdom Normal" is for you and resisting the "World Normal". Normal life is defined by who? There are many ways to live life...finding your family path in light of all you have seen and experienced will happen.
It reminds me of Romans 8:22-25:
"The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Mel:
The whole subject is an interesting one...Old Testament aside...read the words of Jesus and the Apostles and see what you come up with...it might surprise you and liberate you.
Interesting thought. Do we pray for the one world leader, knowing that person will be the antichrist? On the one hand, the antichrist will usher in the return of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom here on earth. All tears will be wiped away and we will live in His presence forever. On the other hand, the antichrist, by his very nature is set against God. Do we pray for God's enemy to rise up? It is foreseen and preorchestrated by God to happen. Interesting connundrum.
-Charity
PS-I do not intend to offend, so I hope no offense is taken. It is a question I have been pondering for some time.
I only read the cartoon and the other comments but i will say that it is a VERY thought provoking question. The words of Christ is that the one to usher in world peace is the anti-christ. But i dont remember any mention of ending poverty. Ending poverty may be a tool the antichrist uses to rise to power but it wont last long when those that do not accept the mark cannot buy or sell. So the question is still, do what do we, as the body of Christ do for those who live in poverty? Will we or anyone, apart from Christ end poverty? no, i dont believe so. But I do believe that we can help as many as we can by giving and doing as much as we can NOW. Wirh or without a leader. Let His Spirit lead us. Let Him meet those needs through us. We first need to seek Him and then step out in obedience.
Joe
I tend to think that discussions that tie the issues of compassion and justice to eschatology end up getting side tracked from the the basic outworking of love.
If we follow the line of thinking that to do good and work towards caring for people and creation is a waste of time because the world is going to burn...I think that shoots us in the foot. Feeding the poor isn't the work of the anti-christ it was the command of Jesus (Matthew 25: 31-46)
For me these verses out of James are my compass concerning the issue of poverty and caring for those in need:
James 2:14
Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, and you say to him, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do? So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all--it is dead and useless.
But someone may well argue, "You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can't prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act."
Are there still some among you who hold that "only believing" is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too--so strongly that they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that "believing" is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.
James does a good job at cutting to the heart and exposing our tendencies to wiggle out of the call to serve and make it a "Well who is my neighbor" kind of excuse.
As far as the article...Im not sure I buy all the linking of poverty to wealth...there is a huge economic and political philosophy behind that line of thinking. But there are some good points that we should all wrestle with, especially as churches and Christians, aiming to serve and love our communities.
I apologize, I was not trying to turn this into an eschatological discussion. I agree with you completely. However, the question I asked, in context of the cartoon and the previous discussions, does make it seem as though I am making excuses. Mel said something that niggled at my brain and I digressed.
~Charity :)
You said..."niggle"
he he :)
Yes I did. It's a fun word. But now you've got me stuck on it and its rattling around in my head and it sounds funny. Don't you hate that?
~Charity :)
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