The Poor are Truly Rich

Question: Why is it my responsibility to help the homeless

Answer  : ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.

Lev25:35

I have never struggled with loving the poor,the hurting,the afflicted and addicted.

I have however struggled with people who do . To truly love the way Jesus loves, requires us to allow Him to love through us. 

I can't ask God to let me love like Jesus and then pick and choose who I am going to love. Its easy to love people who are the same as you,that do what you do and like what you like.To love like Jesus you have to love deep ,looking past the surface and see people finished.

I love poor people. I love homeless people and so does God. 

I love that the poor are always the first ones to give and there the most generous and that doesn't surprise me.

The poor and needy appreciate the little things, they don't waste and they don't take things for granted like a clean pair of socks.

Right now we are living in a world full of uncertainty. In a time when we don't know what disaster will come next or what tragedy will befall us. We are living in trying times even as I write this I don't know whether my Government will or won't shut down tomorrow.

But I can't help but think that the poor are going to come out on top. The wealthy and other unsuspecting people could loose there income and may very well be facing some of the same hardships as the poor and many will undoubtedly be homeless and lets face it the poor and needy are better prepared.

 They won't sweat it, they won't panic, they already know how to survive. Poor people come by faith so much easier. After everything they have been through they have such a need and desire for hope. Jesus is that hope and the way they get to SEE Jesus is through those of us who choose to love like Him.

I see Jesus in people everyday. I see Jesus in my circle of sisters who love each other and meet one an others needs on a daily basis.

I see Jesus in Shane and Shay of project 50/50 who are not only poor ON purpose but poor WITH a purpose.

"There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches." - Proverbs 13:7

Love when its not easy, love when it costs, love when it hurts. That's where the Jesus love is.

Bottom line: The rich and the poor have this in common,The LORD is the maker of them all. - Proverbs 22:2

       

Gods Solution to Homelessness, Isaiah 58

Isaiah 58

Your Prayers Won't Get Off the Ground

 ^1-3 "Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, 
   face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship, 
   and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people— 
   law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' 
   and love having me on their side.
But they also complain, 
   'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? 
   Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' 

 ^3-5"Well, here's why:

   "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
   You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
   You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
   won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
   a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
   and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
   a fast day that I, God, would like?

 ^6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
   to break the chains of injustice,
   get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
   free the oppressed,
   cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
   sharing your food with the hungry,
   inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
   putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
   being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
   and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
   The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
   You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

 ^9-12"If you get rid of unfair practices, 
   quit blaming victims, 
   quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry 
   and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, 
   your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go. 
   I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— 
   firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden, 
   a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, 
   rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything, 
   restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, 
   make the community livable again.

 ^13-14"If you watch your step on the Sabbath
   and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
   God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,'
   making money, running here and there—
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!
   Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob."
   Yes! God says so!

I love Isaiah 58 in THE MESSAGE version because there is no denying what God is saying, no doubt.

There are many things we don't understand about homelessness. How does it happen and what should we do about it? We may not have all the answers but its perfectly clear what God expects our role to be. In Isaiah 58 He is basically telling you that if you take care of your brothers and sisters He will take care of you. But first He calls us out on our bullshit facade of righteousness. God's just keepin it real people.

 I find when you ask people  for help and get involved or participate with serving the homeless they become fearful and say things like "Ok well let me pray about it". Just to let you know thats basically christianese for  "phuck you". Pardon my french but it is what it is. You pray, about things like uprooting your family from one city to a third world country or  leaving a job. Isaiah 58 clearly states that you DO NOT have to pray about wether or not to feed a hungry person or give them a home. You do not have to pray about clothing them or giving away something as simple as a pair of socks.You do not need permission from God to LOVE.

As a matter of fact God does not suggest that we love, He commands it. Those familiar with project 50/50 (those who aren't www.project50-50.com  ) there is no way you will ever convince me that God would  say to a  newly married couple, that travels around the United States feeding and caring for  needy people, " I wish you would have asked first"! Its easy to say love, it is right to DO love.

Love Letters

Tonight at bible study we talked about trusting God. Which is essential because the two things you will find yourself having to do most as a believer is waiting and trusting.
During worship,when the last song played, I found myself prostrate on the floor face down.I was so overwhelmed with His Holiness and His presence that I couldn't get my face close enough to the ground.Than something happened and I will have to get back to that because it was sparked by something that happened earlier today.
As I was purging my closet I came across an old journal that I used to write God letters in. Love letters just between my Father and I. I couldn't get over how transparent ,honest and lovely they were. I also wondered why I didn't do it anymore.To understand what I mean I want to share this journal entry with you.
February 03,2003
Father,
I fall prostrate at your feet with my face to the floor where I belong. Once again asking for things I don't deserve,can never earn,or payback.
I am indebted to you forever for the sacrifice you've made for my pathetic excuse of a human being. I am an absolute mess in my own shallow existence. But, in your presence Oh Lord I am precious in your sight .
I am your diamond in the rough and all my flaws you see finished. You love me too much to leave me this way.You love me too much to trust me with myself for I am your most sacred treasure and you don't trust anyone else to watch over,guard and protect your treasure.Because if you want something done right you have to do it yourself,right God? In your arms I am safe. Nothing or no one can harm me and with you as my fortress who would be foolish enough to try. Such wonder I have seen. Such wonder I have yet to see. There is so much to wonder about there is so much to know about you and I have eternity to find out.You are The Lilly of the Valley, The Rose of Sharon,The Bright and Morning Star.You are the fragrance in my favorite flowers, the cool and gentle breeze in my favorite season.You are the love my husband shows me, you are the smile my children give me and you are the joy in my laughter.  Goodnight  Love ,Lori


What a coincidence that in my entry , I was face to the floor just like He found me tonight. That is the position I needed to be in to hear Him . For two reasons, one so I am not distracted and two to let the enemy know that not only am I willing to bow before my King but also to lay at the feet of my Master.
What happened to me was a rekindling . A  reigniting of  a fire I allowed to be quenched by circumstances, selfishness , and excuses . He was telling me He missed the intimacy between us we shared in those letters. I missed trusting My Father so freely. I feel like He wants me to share some of these letters with you. Over the next few days I will but take them for what they are or what they could be A love letter,a prayer,a journey.I look forward to our correspondence again God and mine and I believe it is fair to say we have a love /hate relationship.He loves me always and I never hate Him.

Now or Never

Ever get the feeling that something is about to happen you just don't know what?
My mind has been going a mile a minute. This past weekend was a turning point in my life.
Some people are going to be excited,some will shoot it down and most will just think I'm nuts but I've never been one to ever let
that stop me much less give a damn. I met a woman and her husband who goes from state to state collecting everything from
canned food to ,clothes to, you name it and hands it out to the poor and needy.The side of her truck should have Isaiah 58 painted on it.
They eat mostly at shelters and sleep in there truck.Their provision comes from God and they want for nothing that they NEED.
There's a lesson all its on.What a concept, to live only with what you need. When I start adding up the amount of money I spend
on the wants I am amazed I didn't see it before or maybe I didn't want to see it before.
I can't justify having a 50" flat screen or a 400.00 PlayStation when I live in a neighborhood filled with poverty and despair.
When people are hungry and sleeping in abandoned houses or homeless woman are sleeping in my dads broke down pick up truck in my front yard.
I am so sick of hearing people profile and stereotype the homeless. I guarantee you if you ever took the time to find out how this cycle gets started and why it is steadily growing you would have a different opinion because given the perfect storm of circumstances it very easily could happen to you. If your that unteachable and closed minded because you know everything,than don't do anything that's fine. But don't judge those who are committed to caring for other human beings. Just politely stay out of the way and shut the hell up!
If we would stop waisting our breath complaining about it we could do alot. People have REAL solutions and ways to sufficiently deal with homelessness but nobody wants to listen and one of the first to turn a def ear is the American church. Oh they will support the idea but the "Not in my backyard" mentality is always in the forefront.
We clothe them,feed them, maybe even offer a shower and a warm blanket but never any real solutions.We treat them like a number or just another bum in line waiting for a hand out.
The homeless and the poor don't need your pity they need your help and compassion.Its not enough to open our hearts we need to start opening our doors.Needy people don't want to hear about Jesus they want to SEE Jesus.
If you have a space available to you for non profit and you only utilize it one day a week,think bigger.
Everybody can do something. Here's the bigger picture,in all honesty the mentality of most Americans is that to be successful you have to have it all and more of it. It doesn't make sense,to work your whole life to have things you cannot carry with you from one life to the next.Nobody ever says on their death bed "I wish I would have spent more time at work".There is no u-haul behind a hearse and I for one have no intention of leaving my kids anything to fight over.
My inheritance to them is my legacy.My giving legacy,my make a difference legacy,my love one another legacy. I can't take my flat screen and my PlayStation with me to Heaven but I can take people.
We waste so much in this country and we take so much for granted.We feed starving children in other countries but not our own.
We adopt children from other countries when there are millions of children that are without families here.
We cannot rely on the government to feed the hungry and care for the poor,widowed and orphaned. The American church needs to step up in a big way and practically . Stop conforming to attract newcomers by compromising.
Homelessness and poverty doesn't have to exist,we allow it. We the church should not have church but BE church.Rethink your fundraisers and building funds and purpose them to the Glory of God. I would rather sit outside in a park and have church in the heat instead of having a million dollar sanctuary with a great sound system if it meant people would eat and be warm and have shelter.Isn't that a better picture of Jesus?

Tiff in a Box

My husbands cousin is 27 years old and as I watched him hold his wife's ashes in his hands all I could think about was that he was going to go home to an empty house full of her "stuff'". Not her just her stuff. Little reminders of her everywhere but no Tiffany. Her clothes,her purse,her pillow,its funny how the little things all of a sudden become very significant. I wondered if he played there last conversation over and over in his head I mean he knew it was coming because she was terminally ill but when it happens NOTHING can prepare you for it. He looked so lost and alone but I know God has his back. I think about her 4 kids and how they must feel because I know what it is like to loose a parent but not at 17, 10,13 or 16. When we arrived at the funeral home they had just finished the service and I saw her mother , her children crying and her husband listening to all the usual "call if you need anything", "If there's anything I can do" and my all time classic favorite the ever faithful "Are you o.k.?" Just once I wish he would have said " MY WIFE IS @#$&*N DEAD DO I LOOK OK TO YOU?" I walked up to the front and all I saw was a poster board with some pictures and a box with an angel on top which I came to realize was Tiffany because we were under the impression that she would be cremated sometime after the viewing. But there she was in a white box with a gold top . After we went to the "Re pass " which is something I had never heard of before . Apparently that's what its called when everybody meets somewhere to go eat after which I never understood that concept but that's another blog for another day. After we ate we stood outside in the smoldering heat and just sort of chit chatted and observed. Now don't take this the wrong way but black people at a funeral is an experience all its own. Totally different from white folks. They are for real no putting on what you see is what you get and if they don't know you they will ask you who you are, how you know the deceased , and explain to you how they don't want to go inside just yet because they want to finish the beer they bought at the store down the street to help them deal with the relatives they don't necessarily care to run into. A funeral is nothing more than a family reunion in which the party responsible for getting everybody together didn't do it on purpose. We left and went home and his cousin came over after and said "Hey I got Tiff in the truck wanna see ?" " Sure" I said thinking he was talking about a picture he took of Tiff in the truck but when he came inside with the white box with the gold top I knew he meant he literally had Tiff in the truck. So he very gently took her out of the box and held her for a few seconds than handed her to me. This did not bother me at all. In my hands I was holding someones wife, someones mother, daughter,sister. I was holding someone that I had long ,deep, conversations with. I was in awe how the ashes in this bag used to be a person and is now dust. As I gave her back and watched him gently and lovingly put her in the box I wondered about my own relationship with Tiffany. I should have done this and could have done that. Why didn't I ? The more I think about it the more I am convinced that people just can't handle finality. Even if you know someone is going to die you think you have all the time in the world to say what you want and do what you want and its just not true. Just like salvation , for those of us who know the truth most of the time we think its somebody else's job to tell people the good news. We procrastinate and we put things off waiting for someone else to pick up the ball and run with it. Man I know it is such a cliche but life really is too short. I read about a sermon where a pastor described the dates on a tombstone and the dash between your arrival and your departure the dash representing your life and what you have done with it in that small length of time and let me tell you that really put it in perspective for me because it counts. When I stand before God He is going to ask me what I did with my dash. I would rather give an account of a life well spent than to try to justify a life wasted. Let all the stupid crap go and DO something and in the words of John Mayer "Say what you need to say".

Sticks and Stones

Today my son told me that people he once respected had said about him that he wasn't good enough for his girlfriend. They also said he dressed like a thug, had no ambition,was a negative influence and wasn't good enough to be with her and mentioned he needs to get a job. The truth is he does wear baggy pants, a t- shirt and sneakers now whether that qualifies him as a thug or not I don't know we would have to ask the thug police. He does have trouble trying new things to be interested in and he doesn't have a job. He doesn't have a job because the places he applied would rather him be 18 instead of 17 for liability reasons. My son will be graduating this year and does have a plan after graduation pertaining to his future. Now as far as him not being "good enough" this is what I told him. I said they are absolutely right. You are not good enough ,none of us are but we are LOVED enough to die for. Why do we have this preconceived idea of what we think are good standards for our children when most of us can't even set a good example for them to follow much less set good standards. We should be setting Gods standards! Some of my sons character qualities include loyalty, faithfulness, selflessness and wisdom. If he died tonight and stood before the Lord do you think they would be discussing his wardrobe and his intentions on doing a followup at ChuckyCheese? Or do you think they would be discussing his heart?Now does character pay the bills? Maybe not but the character of Christ is worth more than a paycheck. Right now I am more focused and concerned about his relationship with God than I am about him having a job to support a wife he doesn't have. My desire and prayer for my son is to partake in his relationship with God and graduate from high school . As a mother I want to be angry and offended bc my child was hurt but I know that it is how I respond that God will use me to show my son that your self worth doesn't come from man but from God . " I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made"....Psalm 139:14

What If?

I don't know if any of you watched the movie "Legion" but I just did and though it was not a good movie. It did get me to thinking though. For those of you who haven't seen it (SPOILER ALERT) The movie purposes that an attack on mankind is ordered by God Himself because He has lost all faith in mankind and sent his angels to kill off the inhabitants of the earth. Keeping in mind that all of this is fictional because that is not what the bible tells us and we know that His love for us is everlasting but I wonder what would happen if He gave up on us? God created us out of love and a desire to be loved in a fellowship based on unconditional love an faith. But what if he gave up on us? It has happened before when His patience wore thin and he destroyed the earth with a flood. What if he grew tired of listening to us complain about such petty things such as money and stuff and keeping up with the Jones's? What if His heart couldn't bare another minute of watching us kill one another in His name? Killing each other over property and territory that rightfully belong to Him in the first place. Killing each other over 5 dollars or some harsh words and worse yet, over nothing at all. What if He grew weary over all the bickering, the gluttony, the selfishness?What if He couldn't stomach to watch us killing the humanity in our own children by emphasizing the importance of going to the right schools and getting the highest grades and getting into the best college without ever making it a priority to emphasize the importance of being a good human being? What good is an educated kid if he grows up to be an asshole, he might be a rich asshole but an asshole non the less.(Pardon my french,that description is too perfect to pass up)What if He's grown tired of His heart breaking for the children we neglect, ignore and abuse, after all children where always intended to be a gift not a burden?What if He was tired of seeing the people He entrusted with His church where the same ones defiling it? What if He was sick of people who confess His name with there lips and deny Him by there lifestyle? In most other countries they are inhumane by what they do in this country we are inhumane by what we do not. If you watch the news it is day in and day out of suffering and tragedy most man made. It is a wonder He hasn't had His fill quite yet. Perhaps there is still hope for us in the fact that we are still here being allowed to carry on as if we have no one to answer to or to whom we must give an account. We have failed miserably as a human race and believers who know God , who accept the cross and there belief in Jesus Christ know that its why we need Him because God knew we would fail. Yet maybe it is the little victories that keeps Him holding hope for us. The simple acts of kindness, the small insignificant gestures that go unseen and unnoticed accept for the giver and the recipient. Its funny how we as a people fail horribly at conquering the small stuff but when it comes to catastrophes, tragedies , and great suffering it is then when we seem to shine the brightest. What if we stopped backbiting denominations, races, cultures, religions and stopped fighting over who's right and who's wrong?What if we didn't pick sides democrats/republicans , black/white , men/woman? What if we just chose to love and accept one another ? What if we chose not to get divorced but stayed and stuck it out ? What if we chose right over fair? What if that's where the good stuff was? I have a feeling that's where the good stuff IS ! I could be wrong about all of it but what if I'm right?