Something that I have become painfully aware of while working in the city is the amount of homeless people asking for assistance, walking the streets and/or sleeping on street corners. I am aware of the vast majority of people that ignore them and wish they were not part of society or at least part of ‘their’ society. On very rare occasions is my heart gladdened to see people talking to them and offering assistance. When I see this in action it reminds of what God is all about.
When God created Israel to be a Holy Nation God did not intend for them to alienate themselves to the nations around them. God did not want Israel to have a superiority complex but rather be a lighthouse of God to the nations. There is a passage in the Bible were Isaiah is telling them what God wants His people to do; it says:
Learn to do right! Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
God wanted His people to help those less fortunate to be a light to those around them.
Jesus Himself even condemns those that regard themselves as religious but are neglecting those around them. In Luke 11 we see Jesus slamming the Pharisees and he tells them:
Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
Now Jesus is telling them that they are unbelievably zealous for God so much so that they will obey even the smallest part of the law but when it comes to helping others, showing justice and the Love of God they fail.
Now Jesus has infinite patience for those that are weak and oppressed that are struggling with Sin, but to those that regard themselves as religious but neglect the oppressed and the fatherless Jesus is relentless. He even calls these people Sons of Hell.
When I see a homeless person I am constantly reminded of what Isaiah said. But I struggle to find answers, I struggle to know what to do. And it saddens me that most of the time I do neglect these people. I do not have the answer I can not say “Ok this is what you should do” all I know Jesus would not do nothing. I am not sure what Jesus would do but I am confident that my Lord of Love would not just walk passed them and do nothing.
Please feel free to leave a comment I would love to hear from you and together let us bring Jesus to those neglected.
a.
Isaiah 1:17
We were talking about how we could do things for the homeless once at chick chat, and kirra suggested, that since it can be hard to go talk to them on your own, if we wend tas a group and gave them sandwitches (something healthy) and talked to them. And if we did it regularly, we could get to know them
I hope you don’t mind my publishing this inn our bulletin?
You must have known we were thinking the same thing! Out of the blue on christmas eve, 2007, Damian rang me up mid-afternoon with the suggestion that some of us from Hunter Valley Christians East Maitland go into the Newcastle foreshore to put on a BBQ and find some homeless people to feed and share the gospel with. So we did! From 9pm till midnight 5 of us (2 young, 3 old – some did the cooking and some the looking) found a BBQ near the footpath on the foreshore near Newcastle station. We coaxed one old aboriginal man and 2 young fisherman over, fed them, talked with them, encouraged them, shared Jesus with them and prayed with them. A great experience and outreach. We plan to improve on this and do it again.
David Carr, Metford, Hunter Valley.
It’s encouraging hearing of that ministry David, thankyou for sharing it
I’m reminded of the last city-wide scavenger hunt – part of the theme was about nourishing the spiritually blind… and hence, some of the tasks were simply that: buy someone a coffee; listen to someone else’s story etc.
At the end of the day, being an ear to someone is more than many people in these unfortunate situations get… maybe if we started there, as an individual, it’d lay a good platform for more.
I also have a heart for the homeless. I went downtown once to see them, and after talking to them, I grew even more of a heart for them. It’s amazing how they live on nothing, and yet we need so much to keep us happy.
Anyway, your heart is definitely in the right place!
God Bless!
I really enjoyed this post! If I had a bulletin I would want to publish it, too. I might put it on my blog at some point if that’s okay.
I like what Tabi said Kirra suggested. I’ve never done that with sandwiches, but once I went with my neighbor on a really hot day in Memphis to a place where a couple of people were begging, a man and a woman. We brought water and one can of Sprite. The man was a little untrusting at first, but when he realized we weren’t there to judge him or give him money, he seemed almost overjoyed. I remember him saying, “I blew it all on alcohol–lost my job, family, and everything, and now I have to do yard work at my sister and brother-in-law’s house just to sleep on their floor, but they don’t like me.” The woman said, “I usually sleep under a bridge.” I thought of that Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song. We just stood there and talked with them for about 45 minutes, listening to their sad stories and trying to encourage them with the thought that their story may not end there.
One thing I noticed about the two homeless people . . . they didn’t start out together, but as drivers would hand loose change to them out their air conditioned windows, the man or the woman would put it together and always divide it up evenly, no matter which of them had collected it. I was wanting to be a light to them (and probably was with my neighbor’s help), but they were also a light to me with regard to sharing and receiving joy over some loose change, some water, and some conversation.