SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, most of us have awakened today in a warm, comfortable bed, with a roof over our heads, food in the fridge or the pantry, clothes on our backs, free from serious illness and disease, plus several other amenities that make our lives fairly easy. But my beautiful Friends in Christ, do we realize that almost two-thirds of the earth’s estimated population of 6 billion souls don’t have most of the stuff we take for granted?  That’s four billion lost souls who can’t get a proper roof over their heads to protect them from the ravages of the weather. Four billion of God’s children who can’t even get sufficient junk food to fill their bloated, hungry stomachs, much less nourishing food to make them grow strong and healthy. Four billion of our brother’s and sisters in Jesus that don’t have clean water to drink and bathe with. Many of them have never even seen clean water. Obviously they can’t practice proper health and sanitation habits, even if they know of them, because of the aforementioned lack of clean water. Consequently, they live, hungry, malnourished, unhealthy, sick and diseased lives. Just think about the number of refugee camps there are around the world, the poor ghettoes, favelas, slums or whatever they’re called in different countries, where many are situated right next to or in big cities with a much better way of life. Consider the many poor communities around the world which have recently suffered natural disasters, like floods, famine, hurricanes, earthquakes etc. You name it, we’ve seen it recently. But what’s going to happen to those poor, unlucky, hapless people eh? What are we doing to help them? Are we doing enough? Are we sincerely obeying the Lord’s command, which our Bit so clearly and irrevocably states? ‘For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide (freely, generously) unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.’ Or are we simply paying lip service to the Lord’s command? I’m sorry Friends, but I get the distinct impression that we’re only paying lip service, because too many are truly suffering while so few are living high on the hog, with enough to still live high, but to also offer sufficient to alleviate the crushing poverty and misfortune of others. Note too that in all the disasters, it’s the poor who usually suffer the most. The rich are either able to avoid them, or rebound because of their wealth, but not so the poor. Just look at two recent disastrous events in our own backyard; Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake in Haiti. Five years later, New Orleans is still far from recovered, even being a part of the world’s richest and most powerful nation. Why? Because most of the inhabitants were poor minorities, and even during the height of their need never got the treatment they truly deserved. A treatment say like that of the political capital of Washington D.C or any wealthy enclave would receive. The same goes for Haiti. It’s the poor who mainly lost what little they had and some eight months later, still can’t get proper aid and planning to rebuild properly because there’s no serious, long term planning or guidance at the top. The wealthy and corrupt politicians favour the status quo; keep the poor, poor. So despite the large amounts of help promised, precious little is getting through to those who really need it. And that’s the way it usually goes for most of these relief campaigns. For one reason or another, those who desperately need the help seldom seem to get it. Can you imagine the sorrowful plight of those millions of Pakistanis who were displaced by the recent flood? Hn! I shudder to think of what will happen out there! Most of them were poor to begin with, barely eking out a subsistence living. Now, with even that low level of livelihood gone, their future seems non-existent. That is unless we, the more affluent generously pitch in and help with whatever we can. My people, I know that there are all sorts of problems in doing so, that it’s much easier to put forward the theory than to accomplish it. However, I’m still convinced that we’re not doing enough, or as much as we can to help the impoverished and more unfortunate souls of our world. And I’m not even talking about only those suffering in far away places, but also about the poor and beggarly who live right around the corner from us. There’s no real good reason for so many people to be going around genuinely hungry, homeless and sick in our wealthy society. Oh Friends, the only reasonable solution seems to be us believers leading the way, doing what God commanded us to do long ago: ‘Thou shalt open thine hand wide (freely, generously) to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land,’ Yes my brethren, if we want this world to change, to return to some semblance of godliness, then it’s us who truly believe in God that have to take the lead and perform those godly tasks, because the iniquity worker will not, since he’s only interested in his own  preservation and aggrandisement. I know too that many of us don’t have a lot, but remember it’s not really how much we contribute, but more how much of what we have we contribute. Like Jesus said to His disciples when the poor woman contributed two mites (a farthing). ‘Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance (surplus); but she of her want (out of her poverty) did cast in all that she had, even all her living (her whole livelihood).’ (Mark 13:43-44) Friends, we don’t have to contribute all our living, but we can all do a little better than we’re currently doing. Let’s sit down this weekend then and take serious inventory of all that we have; whether it be time, talent, physical possessions or money, and try to find a way to help those in greater need than our selves. Remember the word for that is spelt, LOVE! And also that we’re the beneficiaries of the greatest LOVE that’s ever been shown: that of the Lord sending His only Son, Jesus to die for us when we were in a very sad plight of sinfulness. The least we can do is help someone else less fortunate than us, and in so doing, we’ll not only do God’s will, but also pile up rewards for ourselves in heaven. Now what can be better than that eh mih people? Absolutely nothing! Much LOVE!…to help another in need…through our unselfish actions…is to truly show God’s LOVE and compassion…