This booklet is not just a string of verses from the Bible. It is an outburst of my emotions that started some years ago to build up in my innermost being, gradually gained momentum and burst out to flow like hot lava. My parents taught me to care for people in need. I wish to express my gratitude to brother Gunasekaran for preparing the numerous drafts and getting the booklet ready for the press. I thank my friends Haema Henry and Sugirtha Livingston who corrected the manuscript. Many thanks to my dear husband for designing the front cover and making necessary corrections. May God work in the hearts of those who read the booklet and help them to express their love for others in a practical tangible way. God bless everyone who contributed towards the printing of this booklet!
On a most usual day, I started off for my evening walk. As I stepped from our lane into the main road where four roads meet, my pulse raced at the sight. It was a hit-and-run case. The victim was a decent man in his motorbike lying on the road unconscious. The traffic was circumventing him and making a beeline for the other side as if a dead donkey were lying there. It was an intersection with lots of shops, an auto stand and teeming with people. Nobody seemed to bother. I was shocked beyond belief. I don’t know what came over me. In anger I stood in the middle of the road, drew myself to my full height, stretched my arms and stopped the traffic. Then I called an auto and took him to the hospital. Relatives got the news and were there when the doctor was seeing him. I handed over to them and came home.
I couldn’t believe what had happened. How could people do this to a fellow human being? What are our values? Where are we going? Are we the human beings created in the image of the compassionate God?
Passion for God and compassion for people are the two dimensions of spiritual life. Wherever we go we hear dynamic messages on passion for God. Go to church or a spiritual camp or turn on the TV; messages about love for God blast you. But the equally important commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves has sadly taken the backseat; or should I say, conveniently locked up in the dicky?
Solomon puts it in black and white—
“And look! The tears of the oppressed but they have no COMFORTER” (Eccl 4:1).
I want to give a wake-up call to those who have ears to hear, to look at the tears of the oppressed and to comfort them. What Solomon said thousands of years ago is still true. There are few who care for the unfortunate, who feel for the oppressed, who ache for the marginalised. We need Barnabases, and Noahs, sons of comfort, to embrace the poor and needy, that the world may know that Christianity is a religion of love and that Christians are disciples of Christ. We need Christians who will put their faith in action.
In the Old Testament we see two groups of people—the Hebrews and the Gentiles. As against the habits of the Hebrews the habits of the Gentiles were very different. The Gentiles were ruffians who harassed the weaker section of the community so much so that the strangers were even afraid to lodge in the city square; whereas the Hebrews took in strangers and helped those in need. No command was given to Abraham, Lot or Rebekah to entertain strangers but it was in their nature, driven by their conscience. Politeness, gentleness and compassion were the hallmarks of the Hebrew community.
That’s how Abraham, on seeing visitors compelled them to rest a bit and have a meal. Lot would not allow the strangers to stay out for the night for fear of the wicked Gentiles. Rebekah ran and drew water for ten camels. Joseph said that God sent him ahead of his brothers to “preserve life” (Gen 45:5). Though through adverse circumstances he was catapulted to heights, his explanation was that God sent him “to save many people alive” during the world-wide famine (Gen 50:20). Later on laws were given by God so that they won’t pick up cruelty towards underdogs from their Caananite counterparts.
As the Israelites settled down comfortably in Canaan the distinction between them and the locals became fuzzy and they merged with them. During the days of the Kings, concern for the poor was conspicuously lacking. The prophets kept on warning the kings. When they turned a deaf ear, God gave them over to their enemies. For what cruelty of the Gentiles God brought the Israelites in, for the same cruelty of the Israelites God kicked them out of the land.
In the New Testament the two sections of people were the Christians and the non-Christians. The Christians were taught by the apostles to remember the poor. Today what is noticeable to the world is that Christians show mercy. They help the lepers and lift up the weaker sections of society. In a world badly lacking in common courtesies, nobody can deny the fact that it is Christians who love their neighbours. One day while my daughter and I were travelling, some men got into the train in a station. We moved over and gave them place to sit. One man asked us, “Are you Christians?” When we said, ‘Yes’ he said, “Only Christians do such things,” I was surprised. Another day in Hubli we saw an insane man walking naked on the road. We stopped the car, bought some clothes and put them on him. The policeman on the beat smiled, “You must be Christians. Only they do such things.” Once in a journey we shifted an accident victim onto our car to take him to the nearest hospital. A crowd was on the accident spot but no car had stopped. We could hear the crowd whispering, “These people must be Christians. Who else will do such things?”
We must be different. We should not behave like people who do not know Christ. Sadly, we see Christians also ignoring the downtrodden. Once a friend of mine was involved in a terrible road accident. The car overturned and the doors were jammed. Her husband was unconscious on the road. She begged passers by, trapped inside the vehicle. A van full of ministers of God wearing white dresses stopped to see the sight and plight. As she continued to plead with them they quickly moved away. She described the scene to me in agony. All of us Christians need to repent of our sin of neglecting the neglected and all of us need to make a commitment to love our neighbours as ourselves. Would you like people to say ‘tata’ to you and move out when you are crying for help? I would like to discuss compassion for people under three headings: WHY, WHO and HOW.
When I go to church regularly, give my tithe, read the Bible and pray, what is the need for me to do social service? Are there not certain people to do it? Are not some Christians specially gifted to help the needy? These questions may arise in your heart and you may think you have no time for such activities. However listen to what the Bible says.
The very first reason why we should stoop down to the uncared for is that God loves them.
“He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and LOVES the stranger, giving him food and clothing. THEREFORE love the stranger…” (Dt 10:18,19).
Does not the father say to the children, “This is my friend; treat him well”? Much the same way God tells us, “I love them, so you love them too.”
“A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation” (Psa 68:5).
The fatherless may be good children or bad children. The widow may have a good testimony or no. The very fact that a child has no father or a woman has lost her husband brings them under the shadow of the Almighty. We need to love them regardless of their character and do our best for them.
Many of us are not aware that it is a commandment given to each child of God. It is our unshirkable responsibility.
“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, according to all your COMMANDMENTS which you have commanded me; I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. … I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven and bless…” (Dt 26:12-15).
If you read the book of Deuteronomy you will understand how many times God reminds us of our responsibility to the less privileged.
We need to take this matter seriously that God may bless us.
“At the end of every third year you shall bring out tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may BLESS you in all the work of your hand which you do” (Dt 14:28,29).
“Gates” does not mean the gates of your compound. Those days cities had a wall around them and a gate. So it means the people of the city. When we help the poor and needy of our village or town or city, God blesses whatever we do. It gives the Midas touch. Whenever we pray, we pray for God to shower His blessings upon us. Have we anytime examined ourselves to see if we have fulfilled the condition? Sometimes we wonder why we meet with failure after failure. Try helping the poor.
We are all too familiar with the Matthew 25 judgment scene. Those who cooled dry mouths, those who catered to hungry stomachs, who clothed the naked, visited the sick and prisoners are called “BLESSED of the Father.” What counts most? It is the blessing of the Father. Do what He says and enjoy His blessings. “It is more BLESSED to give than to receive.”
“The people will curse him who withholds grain, BLESSING will be on the head of him who sells it (Prov 11:24-26). Once I was talking to a Marwadi merchant in the train. We were discussing business. What he told me made me understand this verse better. It seems a minister wanted one crore from the sugar merchants. He said, “I will give you two crores; you give me one crore.” So he passed a new law that sugar merchants can hold any amount of sugar with them. So merchants hoarded sugar.
Sugar was in short supply in the market and so the price soared. Within a month the merchants earned two crores and gave one crore to the minister. Then he reversed the law to the original that sugar merchants can stock only so much sugar and the prices dropped again.
We are blessing seekers. Jesus showed a simple way to be blessed. He once told His host, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be BLESSED, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:12-14). Another guest picks up the word “blessed” and says, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven (v15). Then Jesus talks about a man who invited many people for his feast. They gave excuses and didn’t turn up. So he sent his servants to gather the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. For the rich our feast is a burden on their time. But for the poor it is a rare treat. That’s what Jesus meant.
There is no doubt that when we show mercy to others it gives us happiness.
Everybody is a happiness seeker; but many do not know where to find that hidden treasure. Though you may not be immediately rewarded it is hard to describe the feeling when you help someone. It sings and soars in your heart.
“He who despises his neighbour sins; but he who has mercy on the poor, HAPPY is he” (Prov 14:21).
You may become dirty; your car may become bloodstained if you carry an accident victim to the hospital. But you will be transported to ecstacy. Once I was travelling from my native town to a nearby city by bus to catch a train to my place. On the way we all saw an overturned auto, a man thrown on the roadside and another man throwing fits on the road. I was chilled to the bone. Our bus did not stop. I cried to the driver, “Please stop the bus and get me down. I am a doctor and I want to help the victims.” So the driver stopped the bus and I got down with my luggage. The first miracle was that even though it was a deserted road, there was a thatched police booth where I got down. The sub-inspector, on hearing my plea asked me to put my luggage inside the booth and get behind his bike. He took me down one kilometer to the spot.
The man on the roadside sat dazed. The one on the road was continually throwing fits. I had nothing in my hands and didn’t know what to do. I knelt down beside him, placed both hands on him and started pleading, “Lord, what do You want me to do? How can I do anything with nothing? Please guide me.” As the minutes ticked by, his fits gradually subsided. As we waited with some trepidation he opened his eyes. We told him, “Sir, you are lying on the road. Move over to the side.” Slowly he moved on all four to the side of the road. The sub-inspector told me, “Madam, he seems to have come round. I’ll put you in the bus so you can continue your journey. I will take care of him.” So he stopped the next bus and put me in. I caught my train and reached my place. My heart thumped with excitement. I didn’t think of what I would do if I missed the train, where I’d stay or how I would book my next ticket. God made it all possible. See, you can do everything with nothing. My joy knew no bounds. What if I had not got down to help? Guilt would be eating me like a caterpillar even today and I would have missed witnessing miracles.
Take the first step next time you see someone in need. You will see God leading you step by step and you will experience the incomparable joy. Let no opportunity slip by.
We honour God by loving the poor. More than all our offering it is the care we shower on the needy that honours God.
“He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who HONOURS Him has mercy on the needy” (Prov 14:31).
“He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker” (Prov 17:5a).
Once three beggars came to our house. I told them to come on the first of every month when they will receive some money and a meal. The person who was standing by my side said how beggars give their money for usury and advised me not to encourage them. So I told him how one day I dropped a 10 rupee fivestar chocolate inside a beggar’s bowl and how he tossed it away on the road when he saw it was not money. As we were swapping stories one of the beggars remarked, “Just because some people are doing it why are you blaming us also?” Imagine the poor man’s consternation. I was pricked in my heart. Had I mocked his Creator? Not all are bad. It is true we should be wise in the distribution of our wealth. But we have no right to mock those we think are cheats.
Paul, while writing to the Corinthians about the Lord’s supper writes, “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you” (1 Cor 11:22). If you read the preceding verses you will understand that in those days the Lord’s supper used to be a Fellowship Meal. People used to bring their supper and share it with others. However some brought sumptuous meals and ate it, not caring for the poor believers. Paul comes down heavily on them. It is a very sensitive issue. We need to care for the poor in the church and see that they don’t feel awkward in the company of the rich congregants.
James tells us how we dishonour the poor by showing partiality. We reserve the best seats for those who appear rich and mats for those who look poor. But they are chosen by God to be “rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. But you have dishonoured the poor man” (Js 2:1-9). Partiality is sin, he says.
When we show mercy to the poor we receive mercy.
Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).
Not only you will positively receive kindness if you are kind, the negative of the same truth is also emphasised in Proverbs 21:13.
“Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.”
“With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you” is an eternal truth (Mt 7:2). You reap what you sow.
No one can say that he will face no times of crisis. Life takes dips all the time. What do we do then? Cry to God for help. How will God help you if you have not helped God’s friend in the time of his trouble?
During the days of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, people were wicked. Yet they sacrificed to God and made many prayers. God’s reply came through prophet Isaiah.
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?… an abomination to Me… when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.”
What was the reason God denied them mercy and what did He demand from the people?
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away evil from your doings from before My eyes.” Remember, God was seeing all their evil deeds. They were “before” His eyes. How were they to change? “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
What now? What if the people do these things? “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isa 1:11-18). Before begging God for mercy, you show mercy. That was the lesson God was teaching them.
The people under the kings had misplaced values. They were religious alright. They sought God daily, delighted to know God’s ways and took delight in approaching God. They fasted and prayed. But God was the least impressed. God is explicitly explaining the reason for shutting His ears and lays down His demands.
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Do you see what God’s heart is longing to see in our lives? Is it to forego a meal and climb up on the weighing machine to see if you have lost any weight? Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read. Have you ever set free a bonded labourer or a girl forced into prostitution? Have you ever brought home a poor man to feed him? I am not talking about thrusting a 50 rupee note, clucking your tongue in sympathy and walking away. If you do these things there’s a big deal with God.
“THEN your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily… Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am’… If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, THEN your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail…” (Isa 58:1-11).
Show mercy and enjoy mercy. God keeps His promises. When you call, He will stand before you saying, “Here I am.” Are you groping for guidance and not finding it? Now you know why the Lord let you walk in darkness like a blind man.
Caring for your needy neighbours is the way to prosperity. ‘Get rich quick’ is today’s craze. ‘Run ahead of others to reach the top’ is what we are taught. But God’s ways are different. He wants you to go slow so you can take notice of the Lazarus sitting on your street corner, scratching himself. Do you notice, he needs to see a skin specialist for a simple treatment to cure him but nobody has the time or guts to take him? While others are running, you stop to see a victim on the road. God says yours is prosperity, not those who run to their business meetings.
Nebuchadnezzar was prosperous like a banyan tree. Doom was pronounced on him. Daniel’s counsel was, “Break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your PROSPERITY” (4:27). I wish, he immediately repented and arranged for a rice distribution programme for the poor. God waited for one full year and then struck him. Why should you seek only to improve yourselves rather than strive to help the less fortunate?
Jesus taught the same. “Give, and it will be given to you” (Lk 6:38).
“There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing and one who makes himself poor, yet has GREAT RICHES” (Prov 13:7).
There are people who save every pie to buy a car or build a house. They desire, they run; but forget that it is God who shows mercy.
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” (Prov 19:17).
God is no man’s debtor. For one thing, you will become rich in faith on this earth and richer in rewards in the world to come. Do not hoard money in banks. Do not build house after house and increase your business investments. You will become the target of robbers. They may kidnap your child for ransom. Tsunami may take away your riches. “Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves moneybags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys” (Lk 12:33).
I heard during the Gujarat earthquake that they dug up a rich man’s dead body clutching his treasure chest. Gone here and gone there. There’s a perfect bank which will never go bankrupt. It is the poor man’s hands. Put your money there. You will get it back in heaven with rich dividends (Mt 6:19,20).
Jesus said to a young man, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mt 19:21). He went away sorrowful because he was extremely rich. When he enters heaven what will be his reaction? “I wish I did what Jesus told me to do. Today I’ll be so very rich. My short years on earth would be a forgotten past. I am a poor man in heaven now.” Oh, how sad!
“The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Prov 11:25).
A very important fact which many of us conveniently forget is that love for the poor leads us to our Eternal Life. I would like to bring the scene before you.
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”
“Then they also will answer Him saying ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into ETERNAL LIFE” (Mt 25:31-46).
Let’s take some lessons from this passage.
We are clearly taught here that the righteous are not the ones who go to church and give big offerings or those who preach or write or do 101 things but those who care for their neighbours in trouble. “But the righteous will go into eternal life.” How easy it is for Jesus to decide who is righteous and who is unrighteous.
It is going to be a terrible Day with all the nations gathered together. He will pick up one person and put him to His right and another to His left till the whole crowd is divided into two. Goat’s meat is tastier ofcourse, but sheep’s spirit is sweet. A welcome address is given to the sheep and they are ushered into the kingdom. This kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world. But many did not walk worthy of it. Even now it is not too late for you to become a sheep. There is still time if you make your decision today.
This sheep one day goes for a walk in a nondescript neighbourhood and finds a man sitting alone. He passes him by; but his conscience pricks him. So he comes back and asks him if he needs anything. “I have not eaten anything since morning” says the poor man. So the gentleman walks up to the nearby food centre and buys him something and gives some money too. In this cold and uncaring world, surely God will be pleased with such bravado!
A mother is working in the kitchen. School children ring the door bell. “Water” they say, “We are thirsty, please.” Her baby is crying. She drops the kitchen spoon, picks up the baby and with difficulty pours water for all the children with a serene smile and says, “Ta, ta.”
The gentleman turns his car to the road. His wife cries, “Look, there’s somebody there on the roadside.” They stop the car and feel the man’s pulse.Theblokeisnearlyatdeath’sdoor.He’sdirty and smelly but a l i v e a n d c o n s c i o u s . “Let’s informthepolice” says t h e m a n . “We will take him home” says the wife. So they lift him up into the car and bring him home. They feed him.Word goesround.Neighboursbringhimcoffee,teaorameal.He is nursed back to health and walks home. Well, where can guardian angels come from except through you?
A youngish society lady goes shopping. She sees an insane naked woman in the middle of the town market. Many see her but no one does anything. Everybody turns away. She has an urge to buy a nightie in the shop which is right there, walk up to her and put it on her. But she can’t bring herself to do it. Back at home she can’t bear the pangs of guilt. She is mortified. She cannot forgive herself for her egotistical, narcissistic attitude for the rest of her life. (I am sorry, this lady is me).
A team of women used to visit the Government Hospital once a week to pray for the sick and preach the gospel under the leadership of Prema Hastings. They testified that if they went regularly, the wards would get empty soon. If they did not go for a week two the wards would overflow and they would find patients on mats in the passages. Many become squeamish at hospital sights. There is no room in a Christian for such squeamishness.
Prisoners! Did the Lord mean we are not to minister just for good people alone but for murderers, rioters and criminals? Yes, ofcourse, to the riff-raff too!
The goats look in amazement. They wonder why they were sent to the left side. Maybe I will be given a different reward. I have been a loyal member of the church; I read my Bible and prayed everyday. I taught the Sunday school and now and then preached a sermon too. But the King’s accusation sends him into cold shivers. He remembers the time when he got down at the central station and hurried along with the pushing crowd. He was to preach in a meeting and he was just on time. His eyes fell on an old anaemic sick lady sitting on a bench. He went closer. She was begging for a cup of tea. He could not walk the 50 feet to the tea-shop. He’d be late. So he hurried away thrusting a good sum into her hands. (Again this is myself in camouflage. I kept crying to God to forgive me for almost a year. I lamented, “Lord all You wanted was a cup of tea and I denied You that.” Then one day I saw a very sick girl near our house. I asked her what she wanted. She said, “All I need is a cup of hot tea.” I brought her home, made her a cup of tea and gave other helps too. My conscience was eased. I believe God gave me another chance to wipe away my guilt.)
The goats are stunned at the verdict. If the King had come in His royal robes, complete with the resplendent crown they would have given Him a VIP’s treatment. They missed it all. Their life is over. No more opportunities. They leave the judgement throne screaming, beating upon their head to enter everlasting punishment. The poor are not the cursed ones. It is those who do not help the poor who are cursed.
Are you a sheep or a goat?
“I think America’s greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don’t abide by the basic precept in the Bible—Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for Me” said Mr. Barack Obama in a speech.
Warning the rich, Paul says, “Let them do good that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on ETERNAL LIFE” (1 Tim 6:18,19). When the rich man turned away and left having no mind to give his all to the poor, Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD!” Again Jesus said to the astonished disciples, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD” (Mk 10:23,24).
Beware, your money may land you in hell. This man was sad at the words of Jesus, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Mk 10:22). Remember, his question to Jesus was, “What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal life?”
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money). Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money also heard these things and they derided Him” (Lk 16:13,14).
Jesus warned not the rich but those who trust in riches (Mk 10:24). Paul implies the same when he writes to Timothy to command the rich “not to trust in uncertain riches” (1 Tim 6:17).
“The merciful man does good for his own SOUL” (Prov 11:17).
Yes, when you are merciful your soul will live forever and ever in the heavenlies.
We speak so much about the Good Samaritan and our love for neighbours. But have you ever thought why Jesus told this parable? It was the plain answer of Jesus to the lawyer who asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit ETERNAL LIFE? (Lk 10:25). Jesus concluded, “Go and do likewise if you want to inherit eternal life” (v 37).
For inward cleanliness Jesus recommended alms. “Give alms of such things as you have, then indeed all things are clean to you” (Lk 11:41).
When you entertain the poor, it is quite likely that you entertain angels. We read of epiphanies. Abraham and Lot showed hospitality to strangers who were in truth angels or the Lord Himself. “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained ANGELS” (Heb 13:2).
We were in Berhampur (Orissa) for more than two years. Once we travelled from Berhampur to Sunabeda. I packed an extra packet of rice as my parents used to do for any poor person we might meet on the way. Just a few days ago I had prayed, “Lord, I want to see You.” I quickly reversed my prayer saying, “It’s OK Lord, anyway I will see You in heaven.” I forgot all about it. Our van was crossing a hilly jungle when we spotted a man lying on the roadside in the hot sun. I cried, “Stop, stop, please stop the van.” Brothers in the van said that those people were usually drunkards. But I wanted to make sure. So we came on reverse gear.
To my horror I found that man dried up in the sun, dehydrated and hungry. Brothers pulled him to the shade and gave him water. He must have drunk atleast a litre. Then asked for food. We gave him whatever food we had. He gobbled them up like one who had not eaten for days. Then brothers gave some of their clothes to him and asked him if he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. His answer stunned us. “Who doesn’t know Him?” he asked us and shouted, lifting one hand up, “He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.” We were taken aback. Just then a bus came. Our missionary brothers stopped the bus and put him in. They bought his ticket and gave him some money too.
We arrived at Sunabeda, the incident slipping away from our memories. Suddenly like a flash I realized it was my birthday and God’s voice was unmistakably clear in my heart, “I came to see you on your birthday.” Oh how my heart jiggled like jelly. It is now more than twenty years yet whenever I think of it I am ecstatic. You carry such memories with you for the rest of your life.
This has happened to me more than twice. Once in Jabalpur and another time in Vellore I ran from pillar to post to get help for a person. When I finally arrived on the spot to take the person, there was no one. The people there on the spot denied the existence of the person of my description.
My great grandfather Abraham Pandither was wooed to the love of God by early missionaries to Tamilnadu. God blessed him and he became very rich. Once during the wedding of his son he prayed earnestly and invited the Lord to attend the marriage function. On the wedding day, during the feast he laid out a plantain leaf for the Lord and sincerely hoped for the Lord to come. He had strictly instructed the servants not to let anyone take that place. The wedding feast was over and ‘Pandither Thatha’ as we called him was utterly disappointed. It was then time for the poor to come and feast. The servants still kept shooing away people from the honoured seat. My ggpa sat there watching disinterestedly the waves of poor pouring in for the feast. At one unguarded moment, a little boy with running nose, wearing no shirt but only a dirty torn shorts squeezed through the crowd and sat in the seat. When the angry servants pulled him up by one arm my ggpa felt sorry for him and instructed them to serve him food there. “We can always place another leaf ” he said. The boy ate to his heart’s content and got up and ran away. Ggpa shouted, “Hey, boy, what’s your name?” He could only hear the faint voice of a child. “I am Mary’s son” as he disappeared like lightning into the mass.
May be you have a story to tell too. Do not miss opportunities to entertain angels. Your child will pick up your habits.
God loves us if we love His friends. “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the LOVE OF GOD abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17).
God loves us alright. But for that love to abide in us we must be ready to part with our worldly goods. If we see someone in dire need and turn the other way, we can be sure we are hurting the heart of God.
It goes without saying that judgement and curse fall on you when you turn away from the poor and needy. It is terrible to read about God’s anger when we mistreat them. Ignoring them is mistreating them isn’t it?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in anyway and they cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless” (Ex 22:21-24).
“Cursed is the one who makes the blind wander off the road … cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless and widow” (Dt 27:18,19).
Ignoring them is the sin of omission. Negligence is equal to afflicting them.
On the great throne judgement day the King will say to the goats, “Depart from Me you cursed.”
Who are our beneficiaries? It is not just the poor. It is anyone in need. Take for example the man helped by the Good Samaritan. Obviously he was a rich guy in need of help.
The Lord brings our way someone in need almost everyday. We must be able to discern who is worthy of our help. While meeting the social needs of people we must rise above caste, creed and character. Why do I add character? Because our tendency is to help the good people only.
When we talk about prisoners, with exceptions they are convicts incarcerated for some bad reason. But the Bible has a heart for them. “Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You. According to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die” prays Asaph (Psa 79:11; 102:20; 146:7).
“ The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to … proclaim liberty to the captives” read Jesus (Lk 4:18). “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also” reminds the writer of Hebrews (13:3). Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited Me.”
A moving incident in 2 Chronicles 28 plucks the strings of our heart. At the instruction of prophet Oded, “The men who were designated by name rose up and took the captives, and from the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them and gave them sandals, gave them food and drink and anointed them,and and they let all the feeble ones ride on donkeys” (v15).
Strangers are people we do not know. In the early days, travellers used to request accomodation in homes. But that is no more. Still we meet them everywhere especially when we go on a journey. I met a man in the railway station whose wife was so sick that she couldn’t walk. He was trying to carry her with luggage in one hand. I offered to carry the luggage but he was unwilling to part with it. The platform was teeming with people but nobody even stopped to see him. I felt so sorry for him and didn’t know what else to do. Later in the day I thought I could have carried her feet end while he held her shoulders. I kept wishing I had thought of it earlier. We need quick wits. In emergencies our mind must be firing on all cylinders.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to reach Everest’s summit in 1953, chimed in with disgust when he learned that 40 climbers passed by Britain’s David Sharp who was left to die. “People have completely lost sight of what is important” said he.
One day last year (2009), there was a knock at our door. It was a Hindu lady who had come from far to attend a wedding in the church next to our house. She wanted a place to change her dress. We invited her in and showed her a room. She wanted a scissors and we had only a very big one. She had to cut off the blouse piece from the new sari she had to wear. My daughter was scared to give it to her. “What if she attacked me with it?” she later told us. She went out and half an hour later she came back. This time we were terrified. She told us, “I just came to tell you that very few in this world take in strangers!” Trusting strangers is not without hazards.
Accident victims are a common sight. Very few stop to help. You can call the ambulance or police for help in severe cases since more damage can be done to the victim by improper shifting. We see people in crisis everywhere. Now that there is trouble in some States, people move out to other States for survival. With no language to communicate and frequently, no skills at hand, their future is bleak.
Then there are the widows. Throughout the Scriptures the treatment of widows is a yardstick of community justice. “This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on” (Mk 12:41-44 NLT).
Jesus was a keen observer. He watched who gave and what he/she dropped into the offering box. By the by, how did Jesus know she was a widow? Have you ever thought about it? Well, she was a well known congregant. Everybody knew her. They all knew she had only two mites for her livelihood.
She was no stranger to Jesus. How did anyone know she was poor? Easy. Ulcers at the corners of the mouth betraying vitamin deficiency, thin frame, torn faded dress, head hung. You know, the poor do not walk head held high. People were regularly seeing her in the temple and knew her. Yet nobody cared. There were so many rich liberally contributing to the church, to God; but she was lonely in the crowd. There was not a merciful soul who could extend her hands to this lady. She continued to be poor. The condition is the same in most of our churches.
Widows are widows and fatherless are fatherless. Don’t ask whether they are good or bad. God doesn’t care. The very fact that a woman has lost her husband makes her vulnerable in many areas. A fatherless child is highly disadvantaged. We cannot judge them harshly.
In the book of Acts we read, “No one lacked anything because people gave liberally (Acts 4:35). This is what James says in 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about widowers. They may remarry and go ahead with life. But a widow’s plight is very different, especially if she is poor. In the Tamil language there is no word for the male counterpart!
The fatherless and orphans are severely handicapped in life. They have a lot of emotional problems. Relatives often take advantage of them rather than helping them.
My maternal grandfather was an orphan. He grew up in a relative’s house. There was another orphan relative in the house who worked like a servant. One day while she served him food, drops fell on his food as he sat on the floor and ate and he looked up to see: those were tears from her eyes. He thought he should marry the girl and give her a future.
When he left the house for higher education he had Rs. 7/- with him. Those days seven rupees was a big amount. A relative met him and squeezed the money out of him saying that his father owed him seven rupees. My grandfather, Mr. Daniel Thomas struggled through life and became an advocate. Later he became a minister in the State Government and was the first Indian to be included in the Simon Commission. Of course he married the orphan girl, my grandmother and gave her a royal life.
God loves orphans. Let your heart go out to them wherever you may see them. Street urchins are as good as orphans. Prisoner’s children, children of drug addicts and the divorced need special attention. There are children forced into prostitution, abused children, victims of human rights violation, thrown away babies…. The list is inexhaustible.
“The poor will never cease from the land” says the Bible (Dt 15:11). Jesus said, “You have the poor with you always” (Mt 26:11).
There was a rich man dressed in safari suit who used to drive in his car to work everyday and eat in the finest restaurants till his buttons popped. He had cooks to prepare finger-licking dishes. Even his pet alsatians were fed on a rich diet. He used to see a beggar outside his home, a dirty fellow infected with scabies who smelled awfully. Whenever this beggar saw this man, he would longingly lift both his hands hoping for something. But this man would think, “Why can’t the Government do something about these beggars? They are an eye sore to our city. Look at him foraging the hotel leftovers, ravenously fighting the dogs. What will foreigners think of India?” and paid him scant attention without a twinge of guilt.
One day the rich man had a heart attack and died. His cholesterol was very high you know. He was obese too. To cap it all, he had severe diabetes. He had a grand funeral. Business sharks stood in the queue to see his face one last time. The pastor spoke of all the good things he had done, the fans he had provided for the church, how regular he was in Bible reading, etc, etc.
The beggar (let’s call him Lazarus) died of malnutrition. The municipality took him and threw him in a pit and covered him.
The rich man found himself in hell and argued, “What did I do to deserve hell? Get me out of here. I was not a robber or an adulterer or a liar.” His voice drowned in the crackles of the fire. Then he saw someone like the beggar he used to see everyday, at a far distance on Abraham’s bosom. Oh yes, he was the same man, now healthy and clean. He begged for a drop of water from the dirty fellow who he even gagged to see. Now he understood. He had read so many times in the Bible to care for the poor. But he never took it personally, seriously. He regularly read from Genesis to Revelation, the Books of Moses and Prophets. Isaiah was his favourite. He even read a daily devotional. But he hardly had the time to meditate or put what he read to practice.
He thought of his five brothers, famous for their parsimony—business magnates, doctors and engineers! They were good people, highly respected in society but had no time for beggars. He had a flashy idea. The testimony of a man visiting heaven and going back to earth would put his brothers on red alert. He could tell them how to escape the torments of hell fire by caring for the poor.
“Father Abraham, please send Lazarus. Let my brothers repent of the sin of despising the poor.”
Father Abraham was gentle but firm. “They have their Bibles. Moses and the prophets speak so much about caring for the poor. Let them read that, repent and obey. If they don’t listen to the Bible, neither will they listen though one goes from the dead” (Read Luke 16:19-31).
Enough said.
There are many helpless and needy people. Take for example the old, deserted by sons and daughters. The blind and disabled are everywhere. Once, some 30 years ago, I got down at a bus station at 3 am and proceeded to catch another bus. I saw rickshaw pullers beating a mentally retarded boy of about 20 years. I was stung to the core. My feet stopped. But I couldn’t muster the courage to stop them. I walked away like a dumb fool. Even today when I think of that I hang my head in shame. I knew for sure if I had raised my voice I could have sent the goons running. But I failed. The scene comes to haunt me now and then. The upside is that my failures have given me courage and determination.
“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezek 16:49).
“Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road” (Dt 27:18).
Have you anytime taken the hand of a blind man and guided him? If you want a foretaste of ethereal joy try it next time you get an opportunity. We often see blind men vending hankies and trinkets in the train. One day I saw a passenger bargaining with one and gave him a hot lecture. Was he going to build a mansion out of the profit he gets? Sometimes we can become downright silly when we don’t put ourselves in the shoes of a disabled person.
I had a surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my hand and my hand was bandaged for three weeks. Oh, so much I didn’t understand about my daughter who has a partially paralysed right arm, as I learnt in that short span.
Poverty is a frustrating fact of life. The thirsty, hungry, nakedand sickareatarm’slength.Make it a habit to visit the Government Hospital. You can talk to the doctors for s o m e ; buy medicines for some, pray for others. Whenever you have birthday to you celebrate or r e c e i v e a bonus, go to the Government Hospital where you can spend all your money and return richer. We wait for angels to do certain jobs. But we often forget that we could be those angels.
“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted” (Lk 4:18). There is no dearth for broken hearts. Only bandages and ointments are in short supply. Try talking to the beggars who visit your home. Their need is not just money. They need comforters, someone to wipe their tears. A few words of encouragement may mean more to them than the pittance you give them.
If you have a tender message
Or a loving word to say
Do not wait till you forget it
But whisper it today;
The tender word unspoken
The letter never sent
The long forgotten messages
The wealth of love unspent
For these some hearts are breaking, For these some loved ones wait, So show them that you care for them Before it is too late.
—Frank Herbert Sweet
Once while talking to the beggars who come to our house, a lady shyly told me her problem. Her uterus was out of her body, ulcerated. I took her to a clinic for poor where she was referred to
the CMC Hospital, Vellore for surgery. So I got her admitted. When the doctors came on rounds, this lady Vijaya told them all that had happened. The doctor arranged to return all the money I spent
for Vijaya and did everything free for her. Even before this she and her companions had trusted in Christ. My parents were my guiding stars since my girlhood and I just do what I have seen them
doing.
Servants need to be treated with dignity. The indignities borne by domestic workers in our society is sometimes inhuman.
“You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your
gates” (Dt 16:14).
The principle is: What you and your children enjoy, let your servants and the rest mentioned enjoy. Never exploit your servants or treat them harshly. Give them the right wages and some extra
benefits. Don’t be stingy. Let them be clothed properly. When you make a nice dish let them taste it too. When they fall sick don’t hesitate to give them leave or get them treated.
“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy,whether one of your brothers or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let
the sun go down on it; for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you” (Dt 24:14,15).
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbour, “Go and come back tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with
you”(Prov 3:27,28).
Last but not the least are servants of God. “He who receives you receives Me and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall
receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of
cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward” said Jesus (Mt 10:40-42).
Now and then someone comes knocking at our door trying to explain what kind of ministry he is doing and his need. We don’t want to be cheated.
These are ‘little ones’ requiring only a cup of “cold water.” If you know them you can help them. If not anyone can give cold water or a cup of coffee. That’s a good deal. But don’t treat them with
scant respect. If you know for sure he is a genuine man of God, a righteous person, a disciple, he deserves your all out help.
“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brothers and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner
worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth”
(3 Jn 5-8).
The list is endless. Your conscience will tell you whom to help and the Holy Spirit will guide you. Have you ever had the experience of the Holy Spirit grabbing you by the collar?
Now we come to the practicality of the whole matter. What do we do and how do we do it? I cannot tell you everything. Each person must decide according to his situation, ability and grace but everybody must do something.
As the apostle John says in his epistle, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (3:18).
We may preach sermons or write articles but do we put our love in action? After seeing the tears of the oppressed and that there was no comforter, Solomon, instead of choosing to become a comforter decided that it was better for them to be dead. There is no record of his philanthropy (Eccl 4:1,2). We must be practical Christians.
The first thing I would like to elaborate is GIVING. Mammon has got hold of us like an octopus. Most Christians are in its cruel clutches. They cannot think of parting with their money. A boy was to be baptized. After getting into the middle of the pond he requested the pastor to let him go back and come again because he had forgotten to leave his money purse on the shore. “It doesn’t matter” said the pastor, “Your money purse also needs to be baptized.” How true! Until and unless your purse is converted, you are not converted.
When Zacchaeus was converted his purse also was converted; for he said, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor” (Lk 19:8).
We must spend GENEROUSLY for the poor and give liberally for such causes.
“If there is among you a poor man of your brothers, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs … You shall surely give him and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying,
‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy in the land” (Dt 15:7-11). Don’t harden your heart, don’t close your fist tight but open your hand wide, willingly lend, sufficient for his need, whatever he needs! Yes, that’s how God wants it. Don’t worry. God will bless you for that. There is no talk of tithe here.
Note that it is for the poor brother not the rich one; sufficient for his “need” not “greed.”
“He who gives, with liberality...” (Rom 12:8). “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked…and they distributed to each as anyone had need” (Acts 4:32-37).
The practice of having everything in common during the early apostolic days sounds Utopian but was soon discontinued due to impracticality. You keep giving to a man in need and you kill his motivation to work. We make people lazy by too much giving. Rather teach the able bodied to work and earn.
Cornelius gave alms generously to the people (Acts 10:2). “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6).
The man had kept all the ten commandments from his youth. He wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus said, “One thing you lack; go the way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me” (Mk 10:17- 27). If you take a closer look at the passage you will find that he led a comfortable crossless life, trusting his riches. Jesus wanted to break his trust in his riches. When the disciples exclaimed, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (v 27).
If perchance you are trusting in your riches and flaunting your wealth, come to God. He will deliver you from this sin so you can enter the Kingdom of God.
Paul writes to Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19).
Don’t penny pinch. Give away what you can give away. Even though the chill winds of recession are blowing across the world, God’s promises to the lovers of poor will always hold good.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God” (Lev 19:9,10).
“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after-ward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow” (Dt 24:19-21).
It is difficult to understand this passage in today’s context. Understand the spirit of it. Once, when I wrote the shopping list and gave to my helper to buy, he bought 2 litres of milk instead of 2 packets of ½ litres, because I had written, “milk 2.” When I opened the fridge I found I could not squeeze in the extra two packets. I tried here, there and everywhere, but there was absolutely no place. Suddenly the above verses came alive in my mind, I walked out of the house and called two women construction workers and gave them each one.
Surprise and joy lit up their faces. But the truly happy person was me. I am learning not to be calculative these days. You can give away the old newpapers, bottles, tins, dresses, etc. to the poor, instead of converting them to money.
“He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of HIS bread to the poor” (Prov 22:9).
John the Baptist’s teaching was akin to it. He told his congregation to bear fruits worthy of repentance, “Tell us in practical terms what we should do. This fruit bearing worthy of repentance goes above our heads” was their sincere prayer. So he brought his message down to earth.
“If you have two dresses and find someone without a proper dress, you have one too many. Give one away. When you sit down for your lunch and a hungry beggar calls out, give away half your lunch. Or if you have dinner in the fridge, warm it and give it away. Don’t worry about what you will do for the night. You have two, he has none” was his explanation (Lk 3:8-11).
Jesus’ teaching on giving is laudable: “Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Lk 6:38).
Nowadays it is all readymade packets in supermarkets. Things were different when we were children. My father never allowed us to bargain with vendors. “God has blessed you. Why do you want to gain 50 paise by bargaining? Is she going to build a castle with your 50 paise? Give what she asks or don’t buy.” So we would give the peanut vendor’s price. In gratitude for her non-bargaining customers, she would take the big measure and fill it up with peanuts. Then she would press the top and shake the measure. When the peanuts settle down she would scoop with her hand and top it up with more and pour it down in our vessel with the bonus peanuts spilling over. Be generous to the poor then God and people will be generous to you.
We must give ACCORDING TO OUR ABILITY; according to what God has given us.
“Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers dwelling in Judea (Acts 11:29,30).
So, we understand that God doesn’t demand everyone to sell all they have and follow him. If your wealth is hindering your entry into heaven He may ask you to. But the general principle is to give according to your ability. So then how do you determine your ability? Simple living is the key word. Don’t spend too much on yourself, your house and your car. Cut down luxuries, keep family members comfortable. We need to enjoy life with the family. But be prudent in spending. We believe many go hungry because we don’t have enough food. In truth it is just a myth.
“You shall REJOICE in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you” (Dt 26:11)
“…God who gives us richly all things TO ENJOY” (1 Tim 6:17).
It is God who makes us rich and He expects us to enjoy life. But we must know the limits and realize our responsibility towards those in need. You don’t need to become a recluse.
What we give, we must give CHEERFULLY, not because the offering box is thrust on us.
“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
One more thing I observe today is how money can be wasted is giving to the rich. We visit the rich with a parcel of sweets. Already they are suffering from over eating. We take expensive gifts to birthday parties. Unless you have the poor and needy in mind and plug all the leaks, you will be wasting a considerable portion of your money.
“He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty” (Prov 22:16).
Let’s see how else we should help people. Sometimes we must go out of the way to help. Jesus went about doing good. He healed the cataract patient. If you cannot do that take him to the eye camp or eye hospital. Both are same. If you can’t heal a leper take him to a leprosy hospital and pay for him. You can get lepers healed in leprasoriums. You can buy a wheel chair for a crawling polio victim or educate a poor child. Offer a cup of cold water on a hot day to the postman, courier boys or vendors who come to your house.
What we need is a willing heart.
Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him (Lk 5:13).
If you have the mind, if you are willing, you can do it. Recently during my walks I noticed a leper woman. I talked to her and she wept. I started buying her food. After a few days I asked her if she would like to be in a Home. She said, ‘ Yes.’ So I started exploring the possibility. Though I knew it was next to impossible I phoned here and there and finally zoomed in on the Social Welfare Department of the CMC Hospital, Vellore. The doctor wanted to know if I can arrange for someone to lift the patient on to the ambulance. The next day the ambulance arrived and our staff Kumaresan who was waiting there helped them take in the lady.
She happily went. Many of us throw a few coins and be done with it. But if we take one step more, I believe God will take us all the way.
Love must be the motivating factor. Jesus was moved with compassion. Paul says that eventhough we may give all our goods to feed the poor, if we do it without love it profits us nothing (1 Cor 13:3). How brazenly we tell beggars to work or child beggars to go to school without even talking to them! For many it is not easy to get a job. Once when I told a child he should be in school instead of begging he said, “My mother eloped with another man and our father too left us.” My heart went out to him. We don’t bother to ask them about their situation or even touch them. Try talking to a street child next time you come across one.
Showing mercy includes lending your things or money to those in need. It is hard on us. Sometimes we lend and keep worrying if we will get back what we gave. Listen to the CD of Jesus: “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful” (Lk 6:33-36).
Sometimes the ungratefulness of our beneficiaries or their cheating may pour cold water in our faces. Do not be discouraged. Your reward is not here but high up there.
Wherever possible give the gospel. Don’t be ashamed. Let the gospel be at the tip of your tongue anytime. While explaining His mission to John the Baptist, Jesus said, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Lk 7:22).
People who are very time conscious find it difficult to respond when demands are made on their time. The Good Samaritan spared his time, money, energy, talents... Please note that he took care of the victim that day and the night in the inn and only the next day handed him over to the inn-keeper (Lk 10:34,35). Doctors and paramedics of the Medivision Team take time off to go to various States to treat the poor and operate on them.
Dorcas could make garments. She was full of good works and charitable deeds. She spent her time with widows making dresses for them (Acts 9:36-42). That was how she preached the gospel and brought many to the church. Paul testifies, “Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me. I have shown you in every way, by labouring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts 20:34,35).
If we can work hard and earn money we can give more. Even housewives can spare some time to talk to the poor and help them.
“She extends her hands to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy” (Prov 31:20). “If only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in the world, there would be no man dying of starvation” writes Gandhiji in his book “India of my dreams.”
Our faith must turn into action. “The hands that help are holier than lips that pray” said Mother Teresa. If we all can become little Mother Teresas in our own place, we can turn the world upside down.
One outstanding example is Job. He did not publish his compassionate heart. But when his friends charged him of mistreating and oppressing the poor, in defense he talked for himself. His concern for the poor makes anyone to take his hat off.
He delivered the poor, the fatherless and helpless when they cried out to him. The widow’s tears were wiped and joy filled her heart when Job offered all support to her and her husband breathed his last, blessing Job. He guided the blind and lame. When a wicked man exploited the poor, Job patiently studied the case and got justice to the poor man. He was like a father to the poor (29:12-17).
He wept for anyone in trouble and his soul grieved for the poor. He satisfied the desires of the poor and shared his food with the fatherless. Even when he was a young man he brought up the fatherless. The fleece of his sheep went to clothe the one shivering in cold (31:19-21). No wonder God stood for him. In our never-ending craze to move forward, it looks like we don’t have time anymore for such most basic of gestures.
Our missionary Vinolia Thomas was smitten in the heart to see tribal children in Sitteri Hills. It was way back in the 1970’s when the Government Tribal school building was found stacked with potatoes when the School Inspector made a surprise visit. The children wandered the hills all day. She gathered the children and started teaching them. Then she found that the children rarely bathed or brushed their teeth. So she started bathing them and brushing their teeth. She picked the lice and combed their hair. Emotion bloomed on their faces. She appealed to the mission for permission to start a school. Thus was born the Tribal School for Sitheri Hills children.
After Vinolia retired, Esther Swamidoss took over. She was equally passionate. She would tell me how even five year old children walked upto five kilometers in the rain to reach the school, all soaked up and books drenched. And the tears would freely flow from her eyes when she said they needed school bags. Today (2010) atleast three have completed B.Ed., and some have joined the school as teachers. One has finished B.E. and another is doing a catering course in Australia. Countless students have found the Lord. I understood that when someone cried for the poor, the
tears of the poor were wiped.
You also motivate the poor to take hold of their own lives. “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own”—said Benjamin Disraeli.
If you are keen on extending a helping hand, you can even think big—start a destitute Home, Old Age Home for poor, Orphanage, Relief Programme in a disaster area like earthquake or Tsunami; or go to serve in Ethiopia or a war-torn country. Think big. The opportunities are world- wide. Grab them with both hands. Fight for people who don’t have a voice. You must give to life more than what you take out of it. There are children born into impoverished ghettos where they grow up with absolutely no chance to escape the downward spiral of despair. Children herding scrawny goats are a common sight in India. You have to stand up for those whose voices have been silenced. You can lobby with the authorities whenever, wherever necessary. Do you know philanthropy can be a calling?
King Lemuel’s mother taught him these things: “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Prov 31:8,9).
“Open your eyes
To the world around you;
The world is much more
Than the things that surround you. "
—sang someone.
If each of us care for the poor around us we can make a dent in the world.
Let us conclude with the counsel of the Apostles: “Remember the poor” (Gal 2:10).
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
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This booklet is not just a string of verses from the Bible. It is an outburst of my emotions that started some years ago to build up in my innermost being, gradually gained momentum and burst out to flow like hot lava. My parents taught me to care for people in need. I wish to express my gratitude to brother Gunasekaran for preparing the numerous drafts and getting the booklet ready for the press. I thank my friends Haema Henry and Sugirtha Livingston who corrected the manuscript. Many thanks to my dear husband for designing the front cover and making necessary corrections. May God work in the hearts of those who read the booklet and help them to express their love for others in a practical tangible way. God bless everyone who contributed towards the printing of this booklet!
On a most usual day, I started off for my evening walk. As I stepped from our lane into the main road where four roads meet, my pulse raced at the sight. It was a hit-and-run case. The victim was a decent man in his motorbike lying on the road unconscious. The traffic was circumventing him and making a beeline for the other side as if a dead donkey were lying there. It was an intersection with lots of shops, an auto stand and teeming with people. Nobody seemed to bother. I was shocked beyond belief. I don’t know what came over me. In anger I stood in the middle of the road, drew myself to my full height, stretched my arms and stopped the traffic. Then I called an auto and took him to the hospital. Relatives got the news and were there when the doctor was seeing him. I handed over to them and came home.
I couldn’t believe what had happened. How could people do this to a fellow human being? What are our values? Where are we going? Are we the human beings created in the image of the compassionate God?
Passion for God and compassion for people are the two dimensions of spiritual life. Wherever we go we hear dynamic messages on passion for God. Go to church or a spiritual camp or turn on the TV; messages about love for God blast you. But the equally important commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves has sadly taken the backseat; or should I say, conveniently locked up in the dicky?
Solomon puts it in black and white—
“And look! The tears of the oppressed but they have no COMFORTER” (Eccl 4:1).
I want to give a wake-up call to those who have ears to hear, to look at the tears of the oppressed and to comfort them. What Solomon said thousands of years ago is still true. There are few who care for the unfortunate, who feel for the oppressed, who ache for the marginalised. We need Barnabases, and Noahs, sons of comfort, to embrace the poor and needy, that the world may know that Christianity is a religion of love and that Christians are disciples of Christ. We need Christians who will put their faith in action.
In the Old Testament we see two groups of people—the Hebrews and the Gentiles. As against the habits of the Hebrews the habits of the Gentiles were very different. The Gentiles were ruffians who harassed the weaker section of the community so much so that the strangers were even afraid to lodge in the city square; whereas the Hebrews took in strangers and helped those in need. No command was given to Abraham, Lot or Rebekah to entertain strangers but it was in their nature, driven by their conscience. Politeness, gentleness and compassion were the hallmarks of the Hebrew community.
That’s how Abraham, on seeing visitors compelled them to rest a bit and have a meal. Lot would not allow the strangers to stay out for the night for fear of the wicked Gentiles. Rebekah ran and drew water for ten camels. Joseph said that God sent him ahead of his brothers to “preserve life” (Gen 45:5). Though through adverse circumstances he was catapulted to heights, his explanation was that God sent him “to save many people alive” during the world-wide famine (Gen 50:20). Later on laws were given by God so that they won’t pick up cruelty towards underdogs from their Caananite counterparts.
As the Israelites settled down comfortably in Canaan the distinction between them and the locals became fuzzy and they merged with them. During the days of the Kings, concern for the poor was conspicuously lacking. The prophets kept on warning the kings. When they turned a deaf ear, God gave them over to their enemies. For what cruelty of the Gentiles God brought the Israelites in, for the same cruelty of the Israelites God kicked them out of the land.
In the New Testament the two sections of people were the Christians and the non-Christians. The Christians were taught by the apostles to remember the poor. Today what is noticeable to the world is that Christians show mercy. They help the lepers and lift up the weaker sections of society. In a world badly lacking in common courtesies, nobody can deny the fact that it is Christians who love their neighbours. One day while my daughter and I were travelling, some men got into the train in a station. We moved over and gave them place to sit. One man asked us, “Are you Christians?” When we said, ‘Yes’ he said, “Only Christians do such things,” I was surprised. Another day in Hubli we saw an insane man walking naked on the road. We stopped the car, bought some clothes and put them on him. The policeman on the beat smiled, “You must be Christians. Only they do such things.” Once in a journey we shifted an accident victim onto our car to take him to the nearest hospital. A crowd was on the accident spot but no car had stopped. We could hear the crowd whispering, “These people must be Christians. Who else will do such things?”
We must be different. We should not behave like people who do not know Christ. Sadly, we see Christians also ignoring the downtrodden. Once a friend of mine was involved in a terrible road accident. The car overturned and the doors were jammed. Her husband was unconscious on the road. She begged passers by, trapped inside the vehicle. A van full of ministers of God wearing white dresses stopped to see the sight and plight. As she continued to plead with them they quickly moved away. She described the scene to me in agony. All of us Christians need to repent of our sin of neglecting the neglected and all of us need to make a commitment to love our neighbours as ourselves. Would you like people to say ‘tata’ to you and move out when you are crying for help? I would like to discuss compassion for people under three headings: WHY, WHO and HOW.
When I go to church regularly, give my tithe, read the Bible and pray, what is the need for me to do social service? Are there not certain people to do it? Are not some Christians specially gifted to help the needy? These questions may arise in your heart and you may think you have no time for such activities. However listen to what the Bible says.
The very first reason why we should stoop down to the uncared for is that God loves them.
“He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and LOVES the stranger, giving him food and clothing. THEREFORE love the stranger…” (Dt 10:18,19).
Does not the father say to the children, “This is my friend; treat him well”? Much the same way God tells us, “I love them, so you love them too.”
“A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation” (Psa 68:5).
The fatherless may be good children or bad children. The widow may have a good testimony or no. The very fact that a child has no father or a woman has lost her husband brings them under the shadow of the Almighty. We need to love them regardless of their character and do our best for them.
Many of us are not aware that it is a commandment given to each child of God. It is our unshirkable responsibility.
“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, according to all your COMMANDMENTS which you have commanded me; I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. … I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven and bless…” (Dt 26:12-15).
If you read the book of Deuteronomy you will understand how many times God reminds us of our responsibility to the less privileged.
We need to take this matter seriously that God may bless us.
“At the end of every third year you shall bring out tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may BLESS you in all the work of your hand which you do” (Dt 14:28,29).
“Gates” does not mean the gates of your compound. Those days cities had a wall around them and a gate. So it means the people of the city. When we help the poor and needy of our village or town or city, God blesses whatever we do. It gives the Midas touch. Whenever we pray, we pray for God to shower His blessings upon us. Have we anytime examined ourselves to see if we have fulfilled the condition? Sometimes we wonder why we meet with failure after failure. Try helping the poor.
We are all too familiar with the Matthew 25 judgment scene. Those who cooled dry mouths, those who catered to hungry stomachs, who clothed the naked, visited the sick and prisoners are called “BLESSED of the Father.” What counts most? It is the blessing of the Father. Do what He says and enjoy His blessings. “It is more BLESSED to give than to receive.”
“The people will curse him who withholds grain, BLESSING will be on the head of him who sells it (Prov 11:24-26). Once I was talking to a Marwadi merchant in the train. We were discussing business. What he told me made me understand this verse better. It seems a minister wanted one crore from the sugar merchants. He said, “I will give you two crores; you give me one crore.” So he passed a new law that sugar merchants can hold any amount of sugar with them. So merchants hoarded sugar.
Sugar was in short supply in the market and so the price soared. Within a month the merchants earned two crores and gave one crore to the minister. Then he reversed the law to the original that sugar merchants can stock only so much sugar and the prices dropped again.
We are blessing seekers. Jesus showed a simple way to be blessed. He once told His host, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be BLESSED, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:12-14). Another guest picks up the word “blessed” and says, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven (v15). Then Jesus talks about a man who invited many people for his feast. They gave excuses and didn’t turn up. So he sent his servants to gather the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. For the rich our feast is a burden on their time. But for the poor it is a rare treat. That’s what Jesus meant.
There is no doubt that when we show mercy to others it gives us happiness.
Everybody is a happiness seeker; but many do not know where to find that hidden treasure. Though you may not be immediately rewarded it is hard to describe the feeling when you help someone. It sings and soars in your heart.
“He who despises his neighbour sins; but he who has mercy on the poor, HAPPY is he” (Prov 14:21).
You may become dirty; your car may become bloodstained if you carry an accident victim to the hospital. But you will be transported to ecstacy. Once I was travelling from my native town to a nearby city by bus to catch a train to my place. On the way we all saw an overturned auto, a man thrown on the roadside and another man throwing fits on the road. I was chilled to the bone. Our bus did not stop. I cried to the driver, “Please stop the bus and get me down. I am a doctor and I want to help the victims.” So the driver stopped the bus and I got down with my luggage. The first miracle was that even though it was a deserted road, there was a thatched police booth where I got down. The sub-inspector, on hearing my plea asked me to put my luggage inside the booth and get behind his bike. He took me down one kilometer to the spot.
The man on the roadside sat dazed. The one on the road was continually throwing fits. I had nothing in my hands and didn’t know what to do. I knelt down beside him, placed both hands on him and started pleading, “Lord, what do You want me to do? How can I do anything with nothing? Please guide me.” As the minutes ticked by, his fits gradually subsided. As we waited with some trepidation he opened his eyes. We told him, “Sir, you are lying on the road. Move over to the side.” Slowly he moved on all four to the side of the road. The sub-inspector told me, “Madam, he seems to have come round. I’ll put you in the bus so you can continue your journey. I will take care of him.” So he stopped the next bus and put me in. I caught my train and reached my place. My heart thumped with excitement. I didn’t think of what I would do if I missed the train, where I’d stay or how I would book my next ticket. God made it all possible. See, you can do everything with nothing. My joy knew no bounds. What if I had not got down to help? Guilt would be eating me like a caterpillar even today and I would have missed witnessing miracles.
Take the first step next time you see someone in need. You will see God leading you step by step and you will experience the incomparable joy. Let no opportunity slip by.
We honour God by loving the poor. More than all our offering it is the care we shower on the needy that honours God.
“He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who HONOURS Him has mercy on the needy” (Prov 14:31).
“He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker” (Prov 17:5a).
Once three beggars came to our house. I told them to come on the first of every month when they will receive some money and a meal. The person who was standing by my side said how beggars give their money for usury and advised me not to encourage them. So I told him how one day I dropped a 10 rupee fivestar chocolate inside a beggar’s bowl and how he tossed it away on the road when he saw it was not money. As we were swapping stories one of the beggars remarked, “Just because some people are doing it why are you blaming us also?” Imagine the poor man’s consternation. I was pricked in my heart. Had I mocked his Creator? Not all are bad. It is true we should be wise in the distribution of our wealth. But we have no right to mock those we think are cheats.
Paul, while writing to the Corinthians about the Lord’s supper writes, “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you” (1 Cor 11:22). If you read the preceding verses you will understand that in those days the Lord’s supper used to be a Fellowship Meal. People used to bring their supper and share it with others. However some brought sumptuous meals and ate it, not caring for the poor believers. Paul comes down heavily on them. It is a very sensitive issue. We need to care for the poor in the church and see that they don’t feel awkward in the company of the rich congregants.
James tells us how we dishonour the poor by showing partiality. We reserve the best seats for those who appear rich and mats for those who look poor. But they are chosen by God to be “rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. But you have dishonoured the poor man” (Js 2:1-9). Partiality is sin, he says.
When we show mercy to the poor we receive mercy.
Jesus said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).
Not only you will positively receive kindness if you are kind, the negative of the same truth is also emphasised in Proverbs 21:13.
“Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.”
“With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you” is an eternal truth (Mt 7:2). You reap what you sow.
No one can say that he will face no times of crisis. Life takes dips all the time. What do we do then? Cry to God for help. How will God help you if you have not helped God’s friend in the time of his trouble?
During the days of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, people were wicked. Yet they sacrificed to God and made many prayers. God’s reply came through prophet Isaiah.
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?… an abomination to Me… when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.”
What was the reason God denied them mercy and what did He demand from the people?
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away evil from your doings from before My eyes.” Remember, God was seeing all their evil deeds. They were “before” His eyes. How were they to change? “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
What now? What if the people do these things? “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isa 1:11-18). Before begging God for mercy, you show mercy. That was the lesson God was teaching them.
The people under the kings had misplaced values. They were religious alright. They sought God daily, delighted to know God’s ways and took delight in approaching God. They fasted and prayed. But God was the least impressed. God is explicitly explaining the reason for shutting His ears and lays down His demands.
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Do you see what God’s heart is longing to see in our lives? Is it to forego a meal and climb up on the weighing machine to see if you have lost any weight? Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read. Have you ever set free a bonded labourer or a girl forced into prostitution? Have you ever brought home a poor man to feed him? I am not talking about thrusting a 50 rupee note, clucking your tongue in sympathy and walking away. If you do these things there’s a big deal with God.
“THEN your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily… Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am’… If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, THEN your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail…” (Isa 58:1-11).
Show mercy and enjoy mercy. God keeps His promises. When you call, He will stand before you saying, “Here I am.” Are you groping for guidance and not finding it? Now you know why the Lord let you walk in darkness like a blind man.
Caring for your needy neighbours is the way to prosperity. ‘Get rich quick’ is today’s craze. ‘Run ahead of others to reach the top’ is what we are taught. But God’s ways are different. He wants you to go slow so you can take notice of the Lazarus sitting on your street corner, scratching himself. Do you notice, he needs to see a skin specialist for a simple treatment to cure him but nobody has the time or guts to take him? While others are running, you stop to see a victim on the road. God says yours is prosperity, not those who run to their business meetings.
Nebuchadnezzar was prosperous like a banyan tree. Doom was pronounced on him. Daniel’s counsel was, “Break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your PROSPERITY” (4:27). I wish, he immediately repented and arranged for a rice distribution programme for the poor. God waited for one full year and then struck him. Why should you seek only to improve yourselves rather than strive to help the less fortunate?
Jesus taught the same. “Give, and it will be given to you” (Lk 6:38).
“There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing and one who makes himself poor, yet has GREAT RICHES” (Prov 13:7).
There are people who save every pie to buy a car or build a house. They desire, they run; but forget that it is God who shows mercy.
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” (Prov 19:17).
God is no man’s debtor. For one thing, you will become rich in faith on this earth and richer in rewards in the world to come. Do not hoard money in banks. Do not build house after house and increase your business investments. You will become the target of robbers. They may kidnap your child for ransom. Tsunami may take away your riches. “Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves moneybags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys” (Lk 12:33).
I heard during the Gujarat earthquake that they dug up a rich man’s dead body clutching his treasure chest. Gone here and gone there. There’s a perfect bank which will never go bankrupt. It is the poor man’s hands. Put your money there. You will get it back in heaven with rich dividends (Mt 6:19,20).
Jesus said to a young man, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mt 19:21). He went away sorrowful because he was extremely rich. When he enters heaven what will be his reaction? “I wish I did what Jesus told me to do. Today I’ll be so very rich. My short years on earth would be a forgotten past. I am a poor man in heaven now.” Oh, how sad!
“The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Prov 11:25).
A very important fact which many of us conveniently forget is that love for the poor leads us to our Eternal Life. I would like to bring the scene before you.
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”
“Then they also will answer Him saying ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into ETERNAL LIFE” (Mt 25:31-46).
Let’s take some lessons from this passage.
We are clearly taught here that the righteous are not the ones who go to church and give big offerings or those who preach or write or do 101 things but those who care for their neighbours in trouble. “But the righteous will go into eternal life.” How easy it is for Jesus to decide who is righteous and who is unrighteous.
It is going to be a terrible Day with all the nations gathered together. He will pick up one person and put him to His right and another to His left till the whole crowd is divided into two. Goat’s meat is tastier ofcourse, but sheep’s spirit is sweet. A welcome address is given to the sheep and they are ushered into the kingdom. This kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world. But many did not walk worthy of it. Even now it is not too late for you to become a sheep. There is still time if you make your decision today.
This sheep one day goes for a walk in a nondescript neighbourhood and finds a man sitting alone. He passes him by; but his conscience pricks him. So he comes back and asks him if he needs anything. “I have not eaten anything since morning” says the poor man. So the gentleman walks up to the nearby food centre and buys him something and gives some money too. In this cold and uncaring world, surely God will be pleased with such bravado!
A mother is working in the kitchen. School children ring the door bell. “Water” they say, “We are thirsty, please.” Her baby is crying. She drops the kitchen spoon, picks up the baby and with difficulty pours water for all the children with a serene smile and says, “Ta, ta.”
The gentleman turns his car to the road. His wife cries, “Look, there’s somebody there on the roadside.” They stop the car and feel the man’s pulse.Theblokeisnearlyatdeath’sdoor.He’sdirty and smelly but a l i v e a n d c o n s c i o u s . “Let’s informthepolice” says t h e m a n . “We will take him home” says the wife. So they lift him up into the car and bring him home. They feed him.Word goesround.Neighboursbringhimcoffee,teaorameal.He is nursed back to health and walks home. Well, where can guardian angels come from except through you?
A youngish society lady goes shopping. She sees an insane naked woman in the middle of the town market. Many see her but no one does anything. Everybody turns away. She has an urge to buy a nightie in the shop which is right there, walk up to her and put it on her. But she can’t bring herself to do it. Back at home she can’t bear the pangs of guilt. She is mortified. She cannot forgive herself for her egotistical, narcissistic attitude for the rest of her life. (I am sorry, this lady is me).
A team of women used to visit the Government Hospital once a week to pray for the sick and preach the gospel under the leadership of Prema Hastings. They testified that if they went regularly, the wards would get empty soon. If they did not go for a week two the wards would overflow and they would find patients on mats in the passages. Many become squeamish at hospital sights. There is no room in a Christian for such squeamishness.
Prisoners! Did the Lord mean we are not to minister just for good people alone but for murderers, rioters and criminals? Yes, ofcourse, to the riff-raff too!
The goats look in amazement. They wonder why they were sent to the left side. Maybe I will be given a different reward. I have been a loyal member of the church; I read my Bible and prayed everyday. I taught the Sunday school and now and then preached a sermon too. But the King’s accusation sends him into cold shivers. He remembers the time when he got down at the central station and hurried along with the pushing crowd. He was to preach in a meeting and he was just on time. His eyes fell on an old anaemic sick lady sitting on a bench. He went closer. She was begging for a cup of tea. He could not walk the 50 feet to the tea-shop. He’d be late. So he hurried away thrusting a good sum into her hands. (Again this is myself in camouflage. I kept crying to God to forgive me for almost a year. I lamented, “Lord all You wanted was a cup of tea and I denied You that.” Then one day I saw a very sick girl near our house. I asked her what she wanted. She said, “All I need is a cup of hot tea.” I brought her home, made her a cup of tea and gave other helps too. My conscience was eased. I believe God gave me another chance to wipe away my guilt.)
The goats are stunned at the verdict. If the King had come in His royal robes, complete with the resplendent crown they would have given Him a VIP’s treatment. They missed it all. Their life is over. No more opportunities. They leave the judgement throne screaming, beating upon their head to enter everlasting punishment. The poor are not the cursed ones. It is those who do not help the poor who are cursed.
Are you a sheep or a goat?
“I think America’s greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don’t abide by the basic precept in the Bible—Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for Me” said Mr. Barack Obama in a speech.
Warning the rich, Paul says, “Let them do good that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on ETERNAL LIFE” (1 Tim 6:18,19). When the rich man turned away and left having no mind to give his all to the poor, Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD!” Again Jesus said to the astonished disciples, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD” (Mk 10:23,24).
Beware, your money may land you in hell. This man was sad at the words of Jesus, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Mk 10:22). Remember, his question to Jesus was, “What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal life?”
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money). Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money also heard these things and they derided Him” (Lk 16:13,14).
Jesus warned not the rich but those who trust in riches (Mk 10:24). Paul implies the same when he writes to Timothy to command the rich “not to trust in uncertain riches” (1 Tim 6:17).
“The merciful man does good for his own SOUL” (Prov 11:17).
Yes, when you are merciful your soul will live forever and ever in the heavenlies.
We speak so much about the Good Samaritan and our love for neighbours. But have you ever thought why Jesus told this parable? It was the plain answer of Jesus to the lawyer who asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit ETERNAL LIFE? (Lk 10:25). Jesus concluded, “Go and do likewise if you want to inherit eternal life” (v 37).
For inward cleanliness Jesus recommended alms. “Give alms of such things as you have, then indeed all things are clean to you” (Lk 11:41).
When you entertain the poor, it is quite likely that you entertain angels. We read of epiphanies. Abraham and Lot showed hospitality to strangers who were in truth angels or the Lord Himself. “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained ANGELS” (Heb 13:2).
We were in Berhampur (Orissa) for more than two years. Once we travelled from Berhampur to Sunabeda. I packed an extra packet of rice as my parents used to do for any poor person we might meet on the way. Just a few days ago I had prayed, “Lord, I want to see You.” I quickly reversed my prayer saying, “It’s OK Lord, anyway I will see You in heaven.” I forgot all about it. Our van was crossing a hilly jungle when we spotted a man lying on the roadside in the hot sun. I cried, “Stop, stop, please stop the van.” Brothers in the van said that those people were usually drunkards. But I wanted to make sure. So we came on reverse gear.
To my horror I found that man dried up in the sun, dehydrated and hungry. Brothers pulled him to the shade and gave him water. He must have drunk atleast a litre. Then asked for food. We gave him whatever food we had. He gobbled them up like one who had not eaten for days. Then brothers gave some of their clothes to him and asked him if he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. His answer stunned us. “Who doesn’t know Him?” he asked us and shouted, lifting one hand up, “He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.” We were taken aback. Just then a bus came. Our missionary brothers stopped the bus and put him in. They bought his ticket and gave him some money too.
We arrived at Sunabeda, the incident slipping away from our memories. Suddenly like a flash I realized it was my birthday and God’s voice was unmistakably clear in my heart, “I came to see you on your birthday.” Oh how my heart jiggled like jelly. It is now more than twenty years yet whenever I think of it I am ecstatic. You carry such memories with you for the rest of your life.
This has happened to me more than twice. Once in Jabalpur and another time in Vellore I ran from pillar to post to get help for a person. When I finally arrived on the spot to take the person, there was no one. The people there on the spot denied the existence of the person of my description.
My great grandfather Abraham Pandither was wooed to the love of God by early missionaries to Tamilnadu. God blessed him and he became very rich. Once during the wedding of his son he prayed earnestly and invited the Lord to attend the marriage function. On the wedding day, during the feast he laid out a plantain leaf for the Lord and sincerely hoped for the Lord to come. He had strictly instructed the servants not to let anyone take that place. The wedding feast was over and ‘Pandither Thatha’ as we called him was utterly disappointed. It was then time for the poor to come and feast. The servants still kept shooing away people from the honoured seat. My ggpa sat there watching disinterestedly the waves of poor pouring in for the feast. At one unguarded moment, a little boy with running nose, wearing no shirt but only a dirty torn shorts squeezed through the crowd and sat in the seat. When the angry servants pulled him up by one arm my ggpa felt sorry for him and instructed them to serve him food there. “We can always place another leaf ” he said. The boy ate to his heart’s content and got up and ran away. Ggpa shouted, “Hey, boy, what’s your name?” He could only hear the faint voice of a child. “I am Mary’s son” as he disappeared like lightning into the mass.
May be you have a story to tell too. Do not miss opportunities to entertain angels. Your child will pick up your habits.
God loves us if we love His friends. “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the LOVE OF GOD abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17).
God loves us alright. But for that love to abide in us we must be ready to part with our worldly goods. If we see someone in dire need and turn the other way, we can be sure we are hurting the heart of God.
It goes without saying that judgement and curse fall on you when you turn away from the poor and needy. It is terrible to read about God’s anger when we mistreat them. Ignoring them is mistreating them isn’t it?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in anyway and they cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless” (Ex 22:21-24).
“Cursed is the one who makes the blind wander off the road … cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless and widow” (Dt 27:18,19).
Ignoring them is the sin of omission. Negligence is equal to afflicting them.
On the great throne judgement day the King will say to the goats, “Depart from Me you cursed.”
Who are our beneficiaries? It is not just the poor. It is anyone in need. Take for example the man helped by the Good Samaritan. Obviously he was a rich guy in need of help.
The Lord brings our way someone in need almost everyday. We must be able to discern who is worthy of our help. While meeting the social needs of people we must rise above caste, creed and character. Why do I add character? Because our tendency is to help the good people only.
When we talk about prisoners, with exceptions they are convicts incarcerated for some bad reason. But the Bible has a heart for them. “Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You. According to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die” prays Asaph (Psa 79:11; 102:20; 146:7).
“ The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to … proclaim liberty to the captives” read Jesus (Lk 4:18). “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also” reminds the writer of Hebrews (13:3). Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited Me.”
A moving incident in 2 Chronicles 28 plucks the strings of our heart. At the instruction of prophet Oded, “The men who were designated by name rose up and took the captives, and from the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them and gave them sandals, gave them food and drink and anointed them,and and they let all the feeble ones ride on donkeys” (v15).
Strangers are people we do not know. In the early days, travellers used to request accomodation in homes. But that is no more. Still we meet them everywhere especially when we go on a journey. I met a man in the railway station whose wife was so sick that she couldn’t walk. He was trying to carry her with luggage in one hand. I offered to carry the luggage but he was unwilling to part with it. The platform was teeming with people but nobody even stopped to see him. I felt so sorry for him and didn’t know what else to do. Later in the day I thought I could have carried her feet end while he held her shoulders. I kept wishing I had thought of it earlier. We need quick wits. In emergencies our mind must be firing on all cylinders.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to reach Everest’s summit in 1953, chimed in with disgust when he learned that 40 climbers passed by Britain’s David Sharp who was left to die. “People have completely lost sight of what is important” said he.
One day last year (2009), there was a knock at our door. It was a Hindu lady who had come from far to attend a wedding in the church next to our house. She wanted a place to change her dress. We invited her in and showed her a room. She wanted a scissors and we had only a very big one. She had to cut off the blouse piece from the new sari she had to wear. My daughter was scared to give it to her. “What if she attacked me with it?” she later told us. She went out and half an hour later she came back. This time we were terrified. She told us, “I just came to tell you that very few in this world take in strangers!” Trusting strangers is not without hazards.
Accident victims are a common sight. Very few stop to help. You can call the ambulance or police for help in severe cases since more damage can be done to the victim by improper shifting. We see people in crisis everywhere. Now that there is trouble in some States, people move out to other States for survival. With no language to communicate and frequently, no skills at hand, their future is bleak.
Then there are the widows. Throughout the Scriptures the treatment of widows is a yardstick of community justice. “This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on” (Mk 12:41-44 NLT).
Jesus was a keen observer. He watched who gave and what he/she dropped into the offering box. By the by, how did Jesus know she was a widow? Have you ever thought about it? Well, she was a well known congregant. Everybody knew her. They all knew she had only two mites for her livelihood.
She was no stranger to Jesus. How did anyone know she was poor? Easy. Ulcers at the corners of the mouth betraying vitamin deficiency, thin frame, torn faded dress, head hung. You know, the poor do not walk head held high. People were regularly seeing her in the temple and knew her. Yet nobody cared. There were so many rich liberally contributing to the church, to God; but she was lonely in the crowd. There was not a merciful soul who could extend her hands to this lady. She continued to be poor. The condition is the same in most of our churches.
Widows are widows and fatherless are fatherless. Don’t ask whether they are good or bad. God doesn’t care. The very fact that a woman has lost her husband makes her vulnerable in many areas. A fatherless child is highly disadvantaged. We cannot judge them harshly.
In the book of Acts we read, “No one lacked anything because people gave liberally (Acts 4:35). This is what James says in 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about widowers. They may remarry and go ahead with life. But a widow’s plight is very different, especially if she is poor. In the Tamil language there is no word for the male counterpart!
The fatherless and orphans are severely handicapped in life. They have a lot of emotional problems. Relatives often take advantage of them rather than helping them.
My maternal grandfather was an orphan. He grew up in a relative’s house. There was another orphan relative in the house who worked like a servant. One day while she served him food, drops fell on his food as he sat on the floor and ate and he looked up to see: those were tears from her eyes. He thought he should marry the girl and give her a future.
When he left the house for higher education he had Rs. 7/- with him. Those days seven rupees was a big amount. A relative met him and squeezed the money out of him saying that his father owed him seven rupees. My grandfather, Mr. Daniel Thomas struggled through life and became an advocate. Later he became a minister in the State Government and was the first Indian to be included in the Simon Commission. Of course he married the orphan girl, my grandmother and gave her a royal life.
God loves orphans. Let your heart go out to them wherever you may see them. Street urchins are as good as orphans. Prisoner’s children, children of drug addicts and the divorced need special attention. There are children forced into prostitution, abused children, victims of human rights violation, thrown away babies…. The list is inexhaustible.
“The poor will never cease from the land” says the Bible (Dt 15:11). Jesus said, “You have the poor with you always” (Mt 26:11).
There was a rich man dressed in safari suit who used to drive in his car to work everyday and eat in the finest restaurants till his buttons popped. He had cooks to prepare finger-licking dishes. Even his pet alsatians were fed on a rich diet. He used to see a beggar outside his home, a dirty fellow infected with scabies who smelled awfully. Whenever this beggar saw this man, he would longingly lift both his hands hoping for something. But this man would think, “Why can’t the Government do something about these beggars? They are an eye sore to our city. Look at him foraging the hotel leftovers, ravenously fighting the dogs. What will foreigners think of India?” and paid him scant attention without a twinge of guilt.
One day the rich man had a heart attack and died. His cholesterol was very high you know. He was obese too. To cap it all, he had severe diabetes. He had a grand funeral. Business sharks stood in the queue to see his face one last time. The pastor spoke of all the good things he had done, the fans he had provided for the church, how regular he was in Bible reading, etc, etc.
The beggar (let’s call him Lazarus) died of malnutrition. The municipality took him and threw him in a pit and covered him.
The rich man found himself in hell and argued, “What did I do to deserve hell? Get me out of here. I was not a robber or an adulterer or a liar.” His voice drowned in the crackles of the fire. Then he saw someone like the beggar he used to see everyday, at a far distance on Abraham’s bosom. Oh yes, he was the same man, now healthy and clean. He begged for a drop of water from the dirty fellow who he even gagged to see. Now he understood. He had read so many times in the Bible to care for the poor. But he never took it personally, seriously. He regularly read from Genesis to Revelation, the Books of Moses and Prophets. Isaiah was his favourite. He even read a daily devotional. But he hardly had the time to meditate or put what he read to practice.
He thought of his five brothers, famous for their parsimony—business magnates, doctors and engineers! They were good people, highly respected in society but had no time for beggars. He had a flashy idea. The testimony of a man visiting heaven and going back to earth would put his brothers on red alert. He could tell them how to escape the torments of hell fire by caring for the poor.
“Father Abraham, please send Lazarus. Let my brothers repent of the sin of despising the poor.”
Father Abraham was gentle but firm. “They have their Bibles. Moses and the prophets speak so much about caring for the poor. Let them read that, repent and obey. If they don’t listen to the Bible, neither will they listen though one goes from the dead” (Read Luke 16:19-31).
Enough said.
There are many helpless and needy people. Take for example the old, deserted by sons and daughters. The blind and disabled are everywhere. Once, some 30 years ago, I got down at a bus station at 3 am and proceeded to catch another bus. I saw rickshaw pullers beating a mentally retarded boy of about 20 years. I was stung to the core. My feet stopped. But I couldn’t muster the courage to stop them. I walked away like a dumb fool. Even today when I think of that I hang my head in shame. I knew for sure if I had raised my voice I could have sent the goons running. But I failed. The scene comes to haunt me now and then. The upside is that my failures have given me courage and determination.
“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezek 16:49).
“Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road” (Dt 27:18).
Have you anytime taken the hand of a blind man and guided him? If you want a foretaste of ethereal joy try it next time you get an opportunity. We often see blind men vending hankies and trinkets in the train. One day I saw a passenger bargaining with one and gave him a hot lecture. Was he going to build a mansion out of the profit he gets? Sometimes we can become downright silly when we don’t put ourselves in the shoes of a disabled person.
I had a surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my hand and my hand was bandaged for three weeks. Oh, so much I didn’t understand about my daughter who has a partially paralysed right arm, as I learnt in that short span.
Poverty is a frustrating fact of life. The thirsty, hungry, nakedand sickareatarm’slength.Make it a habit to visit the Government Hospital. You can talk to the doctors for s o m e ; buy medicines for some, pray for others. Whenever you have birthday to you celebrate or r e c e i v e a bonus, go to the Government Hospital where you can spend all your money and return richer. We wait for angels to do certain jobs. But we often forget that we could be those angels.
“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted” (Lk 4:18). There is no dearth for broken hearts. Only bandages and ointments are in short supply. Try talking to the beggars who visit your home. Their need is not just money. They need comforters, someone to wipe their tears. A few words of encouragement may mean more to them than the pittance you give them.
If you have a tender message
Or a loving word to say
Do not wait till you forget it
But whisper it today;
The tender word unspoken
The letter never sent
The long forgotten messages
The wealth of love unspent
For these some hearts are breaking, For these some loved ones wait, So show them that you care for them Before it is too late.
—Frank Herbert Sweet
Once while talking to the beggars who come to our house, a lady shyly told me her problem. Her uterus was out of her body, ulcerated. I took her to a clinic for poor where she was referred to
the CMC Hospital, Vellore for surgery. So I got her admitted. When the doctors came on rounds, this lady Vijaya told them all that had happened. The doctor arranged to return all the money I spent
for Vijaya and did everything free for her. Even before this she and her companions had trusted in Christ. My parents were my guiding stars since my girlhood and I just do what I have seen them
doing.
Servants need to be treated with dignity. The indignities borne by domestic workers in our society is sometimes inhuman.
“You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your
gates” (Dt 16:14).
The principle is: What you and your children enjoy, let your servants and the rest mentioned enjoy. Never exploit your servants or treat them harshly. Give them the right wages and some extra
benefits. Don’t be stingy. Let them be clothed properly. When you make a nice dish let them taste it too. When they fall sick don’t hesitate to give them leave or get them treated.
“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy,whether one of your brothers or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let
the sun go down on it; for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you” (Dt 24:14,15).
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbour, “Go and come back tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with
you”(Prov 3:27,28).
Last but not the least are servants of God. “He who receives you receives Me and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall
receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of
cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward” said Jesus (Mt 10:40-42).
Now and then someone comes knocking at our door trying to explain what kind of ministry he is doing and his need. We don’t want to be cheated.
These are ‘little ones’ requiring only a cup of “cold water.” If you know them you can help them. If not anyone can give cold water or a cup of coffee. That’s a good deal. But don’t treat them with
scant respect. If you know for sure he is a genuine man of God, a righteous person, a disciple, he deserves your all out help.
“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brothers and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner
worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth”
(3 Jn 5-8).
The list is endless. Your conscience will tell you whom to help and the Holy Spirit will guide you. Have you ever had the experience of the Holy Spirit grabbing you by the collar?
Now we come to the practicality of the whole matter. What do we do and how do we do it? I cannot tell you everything. Each person must decide according to his situation, ability and grace but everybody must do something.
As the apostle John says in his epistle, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (3:18).
We may preach sermons or write articles but do we put our love in action? After seeing the tears of the oppressed and that there was no comforter, Solomon, instead of choosing to become a comforter decided that it was better for them to be dead. There is no record of his philanthropy (Eccl 4:1,2). We must be practical Christians.
The first thing I would like to elaborate is GIVING. Mammon has got hold of us like an octopus. Most Christians are in its cruel clutches. They cannot think of parting with their money. A boy was to be baptized. After getting into the middle of the pond he requested the pastor to let him go back and come again because he had forgotten to leave his money purse on the shore. “It doesn’t matter” said the pastor, “Your money purse also needs to be baptized.” How true! Until and unless your purse is converted, you are not converted.
When Zacchaeus was converted his purse also was converted; for he said, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor” (Lk 19:8).
We must spend GENEROUSLY for the poor and give liberally for such causes.
“If there is among you a poor man of your brothers, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs … You shall surely give him and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying,
‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy in the land” (Dt 15:7-11). Don’t harden your heart, don’t close your fist tight but open your hand wide, willingly lend, sufficient for his need, whatever he needs! Yes, that’s how God wants it. Don’t worry. God will bless you for that. There is no talk of tithe here.
Note that it is for the poor brother not the rich one; sufficient for his “need” not “greed.”
“He who gives, with liberality...” (Rom 12:8). “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked…and they distributed to each as anyone had need” (Acts 4:32-37).
The practice of having everything in common during the early apostolic days sounds Utopian but was soon discontinued due to impracticality. You keep giving to a man in need and you kill his motivation to work. We make people lazy by too much giving. Rather teach the able bodied to work and earn.
Cornelius gave alms generously to the people (Acts 10:2). “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6).
The man had kept all the ten commandments from his youth. He wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus said, “One thing you lack; go the way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me” (Mk 10:17- 27). If you take a closer look at the passage you will find that he led a comfortable crossless life, trusting his riches. Jesus wanted to break his trust in his riches. When the disciples exclaimed, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (v 27).
If perchance you are trusting in your riches and flaunting your wealth, come to God. He will deliver you from this sin so you can enter the Kingdom of God.
Paul writes to Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19).
Don’t penny pinch. Give away what you can give away. Even though the chill winds of recession are blowing across the world, God’s promises to the lovers of poor will always hold good.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God” (Lev 19:9,10).
“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after-ward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow” (Dt 24:19-21).
It is difficult to understand this passage in today’s context. Understand the spirit of it. Once, when I wrote the shopping list and gave to my helper to buy, he bought 2 litres of milk instead of 2 packets of ½ litres, because I had written, “milk 2.” When I opened the fridge I found I could not squeeze in the extra two packets. I tried here, there and everywhere, but there was absolutely no place. Suddenly the above verses came alive in my mind, I walked out of the house and called two women construction workers and gave them each one.
Surprise and joy lit up their faces. But the truly happy person was me. I am learning not to be calculative these days. You can give away the old newpapers, bottles, tins, dresses, etc. to the poor, instead of converting them to money.
“He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of HIS bread to the poor” (Prov 22:9).
John the Baptist’s teaching was akin to it. He told his congregation to bear fruits worthy of repentance, “Tell us in practical terms what we should do. This fruit bearing worthy of repentance goes above our heads” was their sincere prayer. So he brought his message down to earth.
“If you have two dresses and find someone without a proper dress, you have one too many. Give one away. When you sit down for your lunch and a hungry beggar calls out, give away half your lunch. Or if you have dinner in the fridge, warm it and give it away. Don’t worry about what you will do for the night. You have two, he has none” was his explanation (Lk 3:8-11).
Jesus’ teaching on giving is laudable: “Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Lk 6:38).
Nowadays it is all readymade packets in supermarkets. Things were different when we were children. My father never allowed us to bargain with vendors. “God has blessed you. Why do you want to gain 50 paise by bargaining? Is she going to build a castle with your 50 paise? Give what she asks or don’t buy.” So we would give the peanut vendor’s price. In gratitude for her non-bargaining customers, she would take the big measure and fill it up with peanuts. Then she would press the top and shake the measure. When the peanuts settle down she would scoop with her hand and top it up with more and pour it down in our vessel with the bonus peanuts spilling over. Be generous to the poor then God and people will be generous to you.
We must give ACCORDING TO OUR ABILITY; according to what God has given us.
“Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers dwelling in Judea (Acts 11:29,30).
So, we understand that God doesn’t demand everyone to sell all they have and follow him. If your wealth is hindering your entry into heaven He may ask you to. But the general principle is to give according to your ability. So then how do you determine your ability? Simple living is the key word. Don’t spend too much on yourself, your house and your car. Cut down luxuries, keep family members comfortable. We need to enjoy life with the family. But be prudent in spending. We believe many go hungry because we don’t have enough food. In truth it is just a myth.
“You shall REJOICE in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you” (Dt 26:11)
“…God who gives us richly all things TO ENJOY” (1 Tim 6:17).
It is God who makes us rich and He expects us to enjoy life. But we must know the limits and realize our responsibility towards those in need. You don’t need to become a recluse.
What we give, we must give CHEERFULLY, not because the offering box is thrust on us.
“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
One more thing I observe today is how money can be wasted is giving to the rich. We visit the rich with a parcel of sweets. Already they are suffering from over eating. We take expensive gifts to birthday parties. Unless you have the poor and needy in mind and plug all the leaks, you will be wasting a considerable portion of your money.
“He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty” (Prov 22:16).
Let’s see how else we should help people. Sometimes we must go out of the way to help. Jesus went about doing good. He healed the cataract patient. If you cannot do that take him to the eye camp or eye hospital. Both are same. If you can’t heal a leper take him to a leprosy hospital and pay for him. You can get lepers healed in leprasoriums. You can buy a wheel chair for a crawling polio victim or educate a poor child. Offer a cup of cold water on a hot day to the postman, courier boys or vendors who come to your house.
What we need is a willing heart.
Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him (Lk 5:13).
If you have the mind, if you are willing, you can do it. Recently during my walks I noticed a leper woman. I talked to her and she wept. I started buying her food. After a few days I asked her if she would like to be in a Home. She said, ‘ Yes.’ So I started exploring the possibility. Though I knew it was next to impossible I phoned here and there and finally zoomed in on the Social Welfare Department of the CMC Hospital, Vellore. The doctor wanted to know if I can arrange for someone to lift the patient on to the ambulance. The next day the ambulance arrived and our staff Kumaresan who was waiting there helped them take in the lady.
She happily went. Many of us throw a few coins and be done with it. But if we take one step more, I believe God will take us all the way.
Love must be the motivating factor. Jesus was moved with compassion. Paul says that eventhough we may give all our goods to feed the poor, if we do it without love it profits us nothing (1 Cor 13:3). How brazenly we tell beggars to work or child beggars to go to school without even talking to them! For many it is not easy to get a job. Once when I told a child he should be in school instead of begging he said, “My mother eloped with another man and our father too left us.” My heart went out to him. We don’t bother to ask them about their situation or even touch them. Try talking to a street child next time you come across one.
Showing mercy includes lending your things or money to those in need. It is hard on us. Sometimes we lend and keep worrying if we will get back what we gave. Listen to the CD of Jesus: “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful” (Lk 6:33-36).
Sometimes the ungratefulness of our beneficiaries or their cheating may pour cold water in our faces. Do not be discouraged. Your reward is not here but high up there.
Wherever possible give the gospel. Don’t be ashamed. Let the gospel be at the tip of your tongue anytime. While explaining His mission to John the Baptist, Jesus said, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Lk 7:22).
People who are very time conscious find it difficult to respond when demands are made on their time. The Good Samaritan spared his time, money, energy, talents... Please note that he took care of the victim that day and the night in the inn and only the next day handed him over to the inn-keeper (Lk 10:34,35). Doctors and paramedics of the Medivision Team take time off to go to various States to treat the poor and operate on them.
Dorcas could make garments. She was full of good works and charitable deeds. She spent her time with widows making dresses for them (Acts 9:36-42). That was how she preached the gospel and brought many to the church. Paul testifies, “Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me. I have shown you in every way, by labouring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts 20:34,35).
If we can work hard and earn money we can give more. Even housewives can spare some time to talk to the poor and help them.
“She extends her hands to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy” (Prov 31:20). “If only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there would be no pauperism in the world, there would be no man dying of starvation” writes Gandhiji in his book “India of my dreams.”
Our faith must turn into action. “The hands that help are holier than lips that pray” said Mother Teresa. If we all can become little Mother Teresas in our own place, we can turn the world upside down.
One outstanding example is Job. He did not publish his compassionate heart. But when his friends charged him of mistreating and oppressing the poor, in defense he talked for himself. His concern for the poor makes anyone to take his hat off.
He delivered the poor, the fatherless and helpless when they cried out to him. The widow’s tears were wiped and joy filled her heart when Job offered all support to her and her husband breathed his last, blessing Job. He guided the blind and lame. When a wicked man exploited the poor, Job patiently studied the case and got justice to the poor man. He was like a father to the poor (29:12-17).
He wept for anyone in trouble and his soul grieved for the poor. He satisfied the desires of the poor and shared his food with the fatherless. Even when he was a young man he brought up the fatherless. The fleece of his sheep went to clothe the one shivering in cold (31:19-21). No wonder God stood for him. In our never-ending craze to move forward, it looks like we don’t have time anymore for such most basic of gestures.
Our missionary Vinolia Thomas was smitten in the heart to see tribal children in Sitteri Hills. It was way back in the 1970’s when the Government Tribal school building was found stacked with potatoes when the School Inspector made a surprise visit. The children wandered the hills all day. She gathered the children and started teaching them. Then she found that the children rarely bathed or brushed their teeth. So she started bathing them and brushing their teeth. She picked the lice and combed their hair. Emotion bloomed on their faces. She appealed to the mission for permission to start a school. Thus was born the Tribal School for Sitheri Hills children.
After Vinolia retired, Esther Swamidoss took over. She was equally passionate. She would tell me how even five year old children walked upto five kilometers in the rain to reach the school, all soaked up and books drenched. And the tears would freely flow from her eyes when she said they needed school bags. Today (2010) atleast three have completed B.Ed., and some have joined the school as teachers. One has finished B.E. and another is doing a catering course in Australia. Countless students have found the Lord. I understood that when someone cried for the poor, the
tears of the poor were wiped.
You also motivate the poor to take hold of their own lives. “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own”—said Benjamin Disraeli.
If you are keen on extending a helping hand, you can even think big—start a destitute Home, Old Age Home for poor, Orphanage, Relief Programme in a disaster area like earthquake or Tsunami; or go to serve in Ethiopia or a war-torn country. Think big. The opportunities are world- wide. Grab them with both hands. Fight for people who don’t have a voice. You must give to life more than what you take out of it. There are children born into impoverished ghettos where they grow up with absolutely no chance to escape the downward spiral of despair. Children herding scrawny goats are a common sight in India. You have to stand up for those whose voices have been silenced. You can lobby with the authorities whenever, wherever necessary. Do you know philanthropy can be a calling?
King Lemuel’s mother taught him these things: “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Prov 31:8,9).
“Open your eyes
To the world around you;
The world is much more
Than the things that surround you. "
—sang someone.
If each of us care for the poor around us we can make a dent in the world.
Let us conclude with the counsel of the Apostles: “Remember the poor” (Gal 2:10).
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
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Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
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