written by Rob BailesThere was a time when helping someone in need came as a second nature to me and there wasn't a question of should I or would I help, but rather, "how can I help someone else who wasn't able to help themselves?". It was when I was young that I learned this from my father and mother, but mostly I remember my mother always willing to do for others when there was a need and showing her compassion on them in their time of suffering. Dad was compassionate too, but many times mom would notice someones need before dad would.
I guess this was where I learned to be this way with people without even thinking about it and as I grew older, I began to go about demonstrating this for my kids so that they would have a heart and compassion for others and actually do something good for the needy, instead of only aware of the fact that they existed and in the world.
I would find a family to help at Christmas and carry trees to poor people at the last minute when they went on sale. We would carry groceries to poor people when we heard they needed it. We'd help with food drives at our church and even collect food sometimes. I helped with volunteer work following some of the really bad storms and helped my neighbors out when I was able to do something they couldn't do.
I would find a family to help at Christmas and carry trees to poor people at the last minute when they went on sale. We would carry groceries to poor people when we heard they needed it. We'd help with food drives at our church and even collect food sometimes. I helped with volunteer work following some of the really bad storms and helped my neighbors out when I was able to do something they couldn't do.
All in all, I felt like I was a good guy and so it made me feel pretty good about myself. I felt that I wasn't lacking in anything in my own life and therefore I focused on others and their needs. I really believed I was well cared for as a result of doing so much good for others. Someone just yesterday referred to this as getting some good karma for sending some good karma out. I thought about how strange it sounded for them to use a basic Biblical principle, but change the words a little to sound so wise by man's view.
That's the thing that I had found myself doing when I would go and do for others. I would talk about how excited they were and how we enjoyed it and how it is so much better to give than to receive, which is in the Bible, but I never mentioned the Bible or God to anyone. Why not? Well, I wasn't really even looking at the Bible, except on Sundays when the pastor would tell us to open our Bibles to a certain passage.
Let's look at a passage recorded by Solomon in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs,
Prov. 31:8-9
8 Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
The dumb refers to the one's who cannot defend themselves or speak up for themselves when being accused of something they aren't guilty of doing. We are told to take up for them and then in verse nine it says we are to plead the cause of the poor and needy. When I first read this many years ago, I remember thinking about how I was surely doing this and I felt that, if I was doing what Solomon said, that I was alright with God for sure! I'm sure there are many people who, just like I did, feel like they are good people and that God doesn't expect anything more from them, just as I felt. The thing is that I had stopped at that verse when I read this, because the next thing we guys see here is a verse about women. Well, I figured the rest of this chapter was for the wife so I skipped it altogether.
The thing I missed when I didn't read this was that it also talks about the woman reaching out her hand to the poor and the needy in verse twenty. But the most important verse is way on down in the chapter where in verse thirty it says "Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the LORD, she will be praised."
Guys, gals, teens and children, this applies to all of us! Not only will she be praised by her family and friends, but all of us will be praised, not only because she has fear for God, but also because her family will learn this from their mother, as well as the husband and father of the home. I realized that my hands had been busy helping, but my heart had not shared a hope for living with those in need.
I needed the hope in my own life before I could give it to others and that is why I began to search for the meaning of God, the Bible, church and fellowship with believers. I hadn't understood, even though my own father was a minister. I had not listened and studied the Bible like others when I was approaching my adult life and so I went on for many years living a good life; being a good guy who helped everyone out. Most people thought I had received the grace and mercy of God into my life and had believed on the Son of God, Jesus as my Savior because of the way I lived.
Let's all check our hearts, like I did the day that I realized that I hadn't really ever repented and accepted the gift of God's forgiveness. It made such a difference after that unforgettable day in February 2nd of 2004 while reading the Word and realizing that I had been trying so hard for so long to be a Christian, when it was already done for me by the gift of God through His Son Jesus. All I had to do was receive and repent. The presence of the Spirit of God in my heart has opened so many doors where I not only was able to help the poor and the needy, but I also could share my hope for their hopeless hearts. When their heart received that hope, the needs gradually vanished as they saw the blessings of God upon their lives. Trust in the LORD and honor Him, for He is our Almighty Savior and our Jehovah El-Shaddai, who alone can sustain us.
A Word for the Heart
Romans 8:1-17
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Let's look at a passage recorded by Solomon in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs,
Prov. 31:8-9
8 Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
The dumb refers to the one's who cannot defend themselves or speak up for themselves when being accused of something they aren't guilty of doing. We are told to take up for them and then in verse nine it says we are to plead the cause of the poor and needy. When I first read this many years ago, I remember thinking about how I was surely doing this and I felt that, if I was doing what Solomon said, that I was alright with God for sure! I'm sure there are many people who, just like I did, feel like they are good people and that God doesn't expect anything more from them, just as I felt. The thing is that I had stopped at that verse when I read this, because the next thing we guys see here is a verse about women. Well, I figured the rest of this chapter was for the wife so I skipped it altogether.
The thing I missed when I didn't read this was that it also talks about the woman reaching out her hand to the poor and the needy in verse twenty. But the most important verse is way on down in the chapter where in verse thirty it says "Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the LORD, she will be praised."
Guys, gals, teens and children, this applies to all of us! Not only will she be praised by her family and friends, but all of us will be praised, not only because she has fear for God, but also because her family will learn this from their mother, as well as the husband and father of the home. I realized that my hands had been busy helping, but my heart had not shared a hope for living with those in need.
I needed the hope in my own life before I could give it to others and that is why I began to search for the meaning of God, the Bible, church and fellowship with believers. I hadn't understood, even though my own father was a minister. I had not listened and studied the Bible like others when I was approaching my adult life and so I went on for many years living a good life; being a good guy who helped everyone out. Most people thought I had received the grace and mercy of God into my life and had believed on the Son of God, Jesus as my Savior because of the way I lived.
Let's all check our hearts, like I did the day that I realized that I hadn't really ever repented and accepted the gift of God's forgiveness. It made such a difference after that unforgettable day in February 2nd of 2004 while reading the Word and realizing that I had been trying so hard for so long to be a Christian, when it was already done for me by the gift of God through His Son Jesus. All I had to do was receive and repent. The presence of the Spirit of God in my heart has opened so many doors where I not only was able to help the poor and the needy, but I also could share my hope for their hopeless hearts. When their heart received that hope, the needs gradually vanished as they saw the blessings of God upon their lives. Trust in the LORD and honor Him, for He is our Almighty Savior and our Jehovah El-Shaddai, who alone can sustain us.
A Word for the Heart
Romans 8:1-17
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Thanks for sharing this, Rob. This past Sunday evening, my pastor preached a message about God's mercy. Mercy is defined as an outward manifestation of pity; it is used of God Who is rich in mercy. Since God has shown us mercy, He expects us to show mercy to others. It's one thing to feel sorry for someone and another thing to actually do something about it. Mercy gives help to those who are hurting and forgiveness to those who are hurting us. Mercy not only gives, it also acts. Mercy is love in action. God has given us a motivation for showing mercy: Matthew 5:7 - "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."
ReplyDelete