Remembering the Poor

For the past 2 months, we have been focusing at All Nations on God's heart for the least in our world. It has been a stirring season at All Nations to dig into God's heart for the poor, for the unborn, for the prisoner, for the sick, etc. We've looked at the call to justice in the Bible and the call to loving the least in our world. I feel that God has been bringing into greater focus this aspect of the good news of Jesus.

Last Sunday, Pastor Gregory Bangura spoke on the topic of "ministry to the poor." One of his scriptures was Galatians 2:10 with the key phrase "continue to remember the poor." I've been struck by the wider section of Gal. 2:9-10 as well. Paul writes, "James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabus the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."

Paul was driven by the call of God to bring the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles (people of non-Jewish ethnicity across the world). But helping people discover who Jesus is should never exempt one from caring for the poor. Yes we are to meet the spiritual need that people have of entering into a relationship with God through Jesus that brings true life. But this should not be done in isolation, ignoring the physical needs of people.

What strikes me about these verses is that Paul says James, Peter and John (who were the pillars, the key leaders of the church headquartered in Jerusalem at the time) encouraged Paul to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles but specifically charged him to continue to remember the poor. To continue means that Paul was alreading doing this, and he indicates that he was eager to keep on doing it. Its very important that James, Peter and John gave this charge to Paul. It denotes how important this is in the life of the church and in the lives of the followers of Jesus. James was the brother of Jesus and Peter and John were disciples of Jesus for three years. They were so moved to emphasize this because Jesus' ministry to the poor had made such a deep impression on them. They remember Jesus telling the rich young ruler to go sell all he had to the poor and come follow him. Why? Because Jesus loves the poor. Usually we focus on the fact that this man loved money more that God, but we miss the point of God's love for the poor, and Jesus call to sacrificial giving to the poor. They also remembered that Jesus was not willing to send the crowd away hungry after listening to him for three days. He had fed them spiritually but that was also compelled to feed them physically. So he multiplies the loaves and fish to feed a crowd of 5,000 on one occasion and 4,000 on another occasion. Disciples suggested to Jesus they didn't have enough money to feed to crowd. Jesus took the food that they had and multiplied it. This begs the question: What do you have? Would you give it to those in need? Jesus healed numerous people because of his compassion for people suffering with sickness. Jesus loved the least, not just the lost and we are to follow in his footsteps.

A week ago, a family in our church, made a commitment to feed 100 children for one year through the organization Feed My Starving Children. They are inviting others to consider helping them in this. You might want to read about it on their blog and do as Paul, "continue to remember the poor" the very thing I know you are eager to do. They have a link to donate to the project on their blog as well. Check it out at http://gillispiefam.blogspot.com/2008/10/help-us-feed-100-children-for-1-year.html.