Saturday June 9, 2012

How can your cell be helping the poor and needy?

Talk about it this week and resolve to do something.

 

Read Deuteronomy 24:10-22

 

The Israelites were to go to great lengths to care for the fatherless and widows - those who were most disadvantaged in society. The Israelites were to pay particular attention to the poor and needy, making sure that they were not living in squalor and misery. Loan pledges were to be returned by nightfall. Hired men were not to be taken advantage of. Farmers were to leave food in their fields for the poor and needy. They were not to go back to get sheaths of wheat that were missed. They were not to beat their olive trees a second time or return to get missed grapes from the vines. These were to be deliberately left for the poor.

 

The bottom line is simple. God cares for the poor and needy. He cares for the fatherless and the widow. Does your church care for them too? If God cares for them, we should. Unfortunately, though most churches have a heart for the poor and needy, the widowed and fatherless, they may not have a wallet for it. Many churches are struggling to pay their own bills and simply cannot afford to give, let alone give generously, to anyone else.

 

What is needed is a return to faithful tithing and free will offerings. If everyone in the churches tithed, the churches could start a welfare program that would sweep across this nation and bring poverty almost to a complete end. Thousands, if not millions, would come to Christ as they hear and see and experience the love of Christ emanating out from the church. What a powerful witness it would be if churches in each community worked together with their abundant resources to end poverty, to promote justice and to seek to care for those on the fringe of society.  Let’s start the ball rolling by giving our tithe to the Lord, by being liberal with our free will offering and by stepping out in faith to help those who can’t help themselves.

 

Prayer:

¥ Pray that the Holy Spirit would raise a spirit of generosity in our churches and that people would tithe sacrificially. Pray that all the churches would be blessed with funds for poor relief, for the needy and so on.

¥ Pray that churches would work together to end poverty, to bring justice and to minister to the world. Ask God to bring people into His kingdom through this joint effort. Pray that Christ’s name would be lifted up and glorified in this unity and cooperation.