Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
" 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.” Leviticus 25:35-38
The Lord has a heart for the poor. I can make that statement with confidence because the scriptures validate it. Point in case is thus passage from Leviticus, Chapter 25.
God is still establishing guidelines under the Year of Jubilee when He begins to talk about how the poor should be treated in the Israelite community. His words are pretty clear. 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.” In other words, the Lord wanted everyone to have a decent lease on life and expected those who were not poor to help those who were. The community was expected to be a place where everyone could live and co-exist with one another. It could be that way as long as there wasn’t segregation between those who had and those had not.
Sometimes, people needed loans to get buy financially. And everyone had to eat. And the community was expected to support those in need by not placing any more financial burden on them as needed. This is why the Lord commanded that money was to be lent interest-free and food sold at no profit to the needy. It’s not that the Lord didn’t expect people to repay their obligations. He did. But He didn’t want any additional burden placed on the debtor to the point where they would never be able to free from their deficit.
Question: How well do we support the poor today? Have we become a society of haves and have nots? Do we actively seek to help people elevate over their indebtedness or poverty to a place of financial security and stability?
I think if we took an honest look at how well we care for the least of those in our world today, we would come out with mixed reviews. Published by the United Nations Development Program, the 2007 Human Development Report stated that “There are still around 1 billion people living at the margins of survival on less than US$1 a day, with 2.6 billion—40 percent of the world’s population—living on less than US$2 a day.” Did you hear that? 40% of the world’s population living on less that $2 a day. This would translate to 2 out of every 5 people in the world living in abject poverty. And in the midst of these statistics, do we hear the words of Jesus when He said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me?” And conversely, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me?” (Matthew 25:40, 45)
World Vision, a wonderful Christian relief organization that my wife and I have been affiliated with for many years as child sponsors, came out with a very interesting article in the Summer 2006 magazine. (http://www.worldvision.org/resources.nsf/main/2006Spring_Magazine.pdf/%24file/ 2006Spring_Magazine.pdf) In the article, “End of Poverty, 50 cents a day”, the author, Richard Stearns, states that America alone could defeat the world’s poverty problem if each American would contribute 50 cents a day or $15 a month. Just everyone doing their part to ensure that no more brothers and sisters in the world die of hunger, especially children who are dying at a rate of 16,000 a day. Can we live with a clear conscience every day and not do something about it?
Friends, the problem of world poverty seems to be bigger than any one person, and it is, but collectively, we can make a quantum difference when we all give a little back that God has given us. Let’s all pray about the matter and consider seeking God’s will for us to deliver others just as he delivered Israel from Egypt in today’s scripture and delivered us from death to life through His Son Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
Mark
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