Pastor Ryan is out of town for a funeral and asked me to write this blog in his absence. Enjoy. — Jonathan Howe, webmaster, J1M.info
While our current economic climate in America is in direct contrast to that of a few years back, I think it is healthy for us to not forget our need to reach out to those in our own community and around the world. We have some CrossPointers without jobs, some on the verge of losing their homes, and some who have already lost both their home and their job.
, some on the verge of losing their homes, and some who have already lost both their home and their job.But we must be reminded that in many places around the world, their greatest worry is not their next job or home, but their next meal.
To follow up on this, here are some shocking stats from the Population Reference Bureau:
- More than one-half of the world’s people live below the internationally defined poverty line of less than U.S. $2 a day—including 97 percent in Uganda, 80 percent in Nicaragua, 66 percent in Pakistan, and 47 percent in China, according to data from the World Bank.
- Nearly one-third of rural residents worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.
- The use of modern contraceptives is more common among wealthy women than poor women in nearly all countries, and the gap is particularly pronounced in the poorest countries, in places as diverse as Uganda and Nepal
- Africa’s infant mortality rate is nearly 15 times that of the developed world.
- The more developed world uses over 5 times the energy per capita used by the less developed world. North America uses over 8 times as much energy per person as does Latin America.
We live in a society with luxuries that are totally foreign to much of the world. Unfortunately, we also worship and serve a God who is just as foreign to those same people. Many of us have the means to make a difference both in the stomachs and in the hearts of not only those overseas, but in our own community also.
What will you do to reach your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth for Christ?
A pastor friend of mine who ministered downtown said, “People don’t need a handout, they need a hand up.” Our public welfare system is a testimony to the failure of simply providing food for the stomach without providing food for the soul. The body of Christ is Biblically commissioned to provide for the needs of the poor and suffering, not the U. S. government. The government stepped in because the Church wasn’t doing its job due to prejudice, indifference and selfishness. The Church has not improved and the government’s intervention isn’t working. The body of Christ still does not represent the New Testament fellowship that erases cultural and economic divides and distrbutes their corporate wealth so all needs are met, therefore the body is still crippled in its effectiveness.
If the U. S. church is going to have a Biblically international impact, the impact is going to have to be demonstrated at home first. Otherwise, what example are we sending? Only 5% of the lower economic class in the U.S. claim church affiliation! We have our own mission field at home, in Birmingham, AL, that must be included in our overall missions strategy. Our members are going to have to leave their comfort zones of sameness and make a concerted effort to reach out to, embrace and provide for our own needy and afflicted. A good place to start would be those who are already members of our church. Love reaches out, not in. It does not seek its own and it is not selfish. May our actions show it.
1 John 3:16-18 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.