Calling...

Deut. 15:10-11 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’


Prov. 19:17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.


James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.


Isaiah 58:6-14 "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,  If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. "If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don't use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God's holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,' making money, running here and there - Then you'll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I'll make you ride high and soar above it all. I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob." Yes! God says so!


I've been feeling a stirring.  God is doing a work in me and I can't ignore it.  There is a pretty little phrase that is being flippantly thrown around in the Church today: Be the hands and feet of Jesus.  I agree, wholeheartedly, but what does that really mean?  I don't think many people know, or care.  It's just become a catch phrase- Christianese- the Sunday school answer.  


But think about it-  "Be the hands and feet of Jesus."  Not the mouth, not the heart, not the mind- although those things are important too- but the HANDS and FEET, that is calling us to DO something, to physically do "something".  


To me, its not just a pretty saying.  Its a challenge- a command.  Jesus didn't just sit on the temple steps and just tell everyone the good news.  He didn't just hear about the needs of the people and offer up a prayer to the Father.  He didn't just "feel" broken hearted for the lost, dying, hungry & poor- it didn't just "move" Him to tears...


Jesus was a doer.  He walked through the dusty roads, crowds in tow, teaching & preaching.  When He learned of desperate needs, He sought those people out and changed their lives.  He went to the places that no one else would, He spoke to the people that everyone else had forgotten, He LOVED the ones who were the most unlovable. 


If Jesus Christ is the perfect example of what our Father in Heaven asks of us, and desires from us in our life on earth, then the phrase