We woke up a few weeks ago on Oct 7, to hear about Israel and Hamas/Palestine being at war. We watch CNN and Fox and the others and get the feel-ing that the sky is falling, and the end is near.
Matt 24:6-8 “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Nation will rise against na-tion, and kingdom against king-dom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
“These are the beginning of birth pains”…the start of the waiting for the Messiah to re-turn. These things going on shouldn’t shock us or alarm us in the respect that much more and much worse is to come be-fore Jesus re-appears.
To be honest, if we become emotionally invested in these kinds of events, we will find our-selves either frozen by overload or driven insane by all the pain.
We cannot prevent these events, nor can we do much to eliminate the pain involved for the billions involved.
The same can be said for the 5.7 billion unbelievers in the world. 2 of every 3 people in the world have no saving faith in Je-sus. Staggering and overwhelm-ing. And immensely sad.
We can’t stop wars or famine or the results of earthquakes, but we can help those near us. We can help the lost, the hun-gry, the homeless, the sick, those in prison. We can help the broken hearted.
The mentally unstable, the lonely. We can help the abused, the children being aborted, those whose color skin is unique to NWO.
We can help the underprivi leged and the ones without a voice in NWO. Not only can we help them, but we are also called to help them.
While we might like to ignore them and to deny they even ex-ist, we can’t. We can’t because first, they do exist and second, because we as believers have an obligation to be involved in solv-ing their problems.
First, we don’t get to pick and choose who we help. That kind of decision making, that kind of favoritism, is sinful James 2:1-4,8-9.
My brothers and sisters, be-lievers in our glorious Lord Je-sus Christ must not show fa-voritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.
If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are con-victed by the law as lawbreak-ers.”
The unemployed guy uptown is just as lost and just as impor-tant as a lost millionaire. They both need Jesus, and we are called to minister to both.
Truthfully, the rich guy is harder to reach because he doesn’t know his need as much as the lost beggar. Remarkably, the rich, the middle class and the poor all have about the same goals and problems.
They all want to live in peace, to have a happy home life, to have enough to pay the bills and some leftover for fun. They all want their children to grow up healthy and to do good in their future endeavors.
It is harder for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom because they have so many resources to rely upon before they hit bottom and turn to God.
Second, besides not get-ting to choose who we help, we don’t get to ignore those who are needy right here in NWO.
James 2:14-18 “What good is it, my brothers, and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
Suppose a brother or a sis-ter is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by it-self if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith with-out deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” I doubt that it surprises anyone that there are poor right here within blocks of where we live. We all know that physical poverty ex-ists around us.
I also know that as Believ-ers we are willing to take on the challenge of meeting those kinds of needs. I have little doubt that people living here would help be-cause it is in our DNA to live out the gospel in practical terms.
We can’t solve the world’s problems, but we can save the needy in our area. We can change lives for the rich, the poor and all those in between simply by deciding to do the work of the gospel in NWO.
I truly believe that God is call-ing us to become THE CHURCH that hurting, lost, hopeless peo-ple can turn to when they are in need.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Com-munity Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compas-sion (free) Medical Clinic.