When I became a worshipper of God 34 years ago, I very quickly started to receive God's heart of compassion for people in need.
After all, don't we sing and pray "give me your heart" and "make me more like you"?
When we really see Jesus, we are compelled to join his cause to bring justice and mercy to a hurting world.
Caring for the poor is basically Christianity 101. It's one of the very first things on God's list for us.
In Jesus' opening statement at the beginning of his ministry, he said 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18,19
Jesus had a bias towards helping the poor. So did John the Baptist. When some people came to be baptized by him, John knew they weren't truly repentant. They asked him what they
should do to show the fruit of repentance and John told them "share your food with the hungry" (Luke 3:11).
Through the years I've found many simple ways to help the poor. I've never done anything heroic, I've just tried to take small steps of generosity, sharing my time, money and energy to help
people in need.
I am privileged to be partnering with Compassion International to link together the world of need with the world of plenty. I was very impressed by what I saw in El Salvador in July of 2009
as I visited numerous Compassion projects. I saw lives being transformed, young children from broken homes being enfolded into caring relationships with Christian mentors.
Compassion's partnership with the local church is a beautiful thing. Not only do the kids get food, academic training, and medical care, they get JESUS.
It's totally amazing the impact that we in the first world can have by sponsoring a child from an underprivileged country. With a monthly donation of what might equal casual coffee money,
we can absolutely change the life of a kid overseas. Check out the picture below of six children from El Salvador that my family sponsors. What a great time it was visiting them last
July.
You might not feel like you have much to share, but many of us feel that way. If you're looking for a way to help the poor, I urge you to prayerfully consider sponsoring a child through
Compassion International.
If you'd like to check out the details of how that works, here are two Compassion websites to check out, one for residents of the United States, and the other for Canadians.
Compassion International United States
Compassion Canada