Monthly Archives: February 2016

God Made Noah Work

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NoahMost of our Christian service to the poor is based on giving and not equipping. I’m not sure why we have taken this approach because that is not the example we see in Scripture. God always made man do everything that was within his abilities. God always required man to work to care for his own needs. There were no hand-outs in God’s Plan. Below is a short example of God’s requirement when a hand-out would have been much easier.

In Genesis 6, we read that mankind had grown wicked and all their schemes were evil all the time. God was fed up. He decided He was going to destroy all living things from the face of the earth. He was going to wipe the plate clean and start over, but not completely. There was one man that God would save.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. (Gen. 6:8-9 HCSB)

God would start over with Noah, but how did God do this? He flooded the entire earth and destroyed every living thing, but saved Noah and his family. God could have made it easy on Noah. He could have had Noah go into the woods, where he would find a big boat that was filled with all the food and supplies he would need. The boat would have been completely ready to go. All Noah would need to do is load up and ride out the storm.

God could have had all the tools drop-shipped to Noah’s front porch. He could have had the materials delivered to the side yard. That’s the way it happened in the Hollywood movie, but that is not what God did. God worked within the Plan that He had established in the garden. Noah had to do the work himself.

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Jesus Never Set Up a Food Pantry

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WMIcrowavee live in a microwave society. We don’t like to wait. We want things fixed and we want them fixed quickly. We rarely spend the time investigating to discover the underlying reasons behind behaviors or situations. If a child’s behavior is not acceptable we want immediate change, so we give that child a pill.

Some friends of ours have tried a new approach to training their son. When he disobeys, talks back, or is rude, they stop; they calm the situation down and then ask, “Where is your heart right now?” They want to get to the reason behind his behavior.
They want to get to the cause. This question has led them to some incredible conversations about how we represent Christ in our everyday lives.

Our desire for the quick and easy fix has also infiltrated our service to the poor. Most of the time, energy and money spent is focused on the symptoms of the struggle. That’s not what Jesus did. Jesus always addressed the reasons and not the results of the struggle. Jesus didn’t give away clothes, set up food pantries or homeless shelters. He healed people, because if the cause is corrected, then the symptoms take care of themselves.

Before I am labeled a heretic and people are calling for my head, let’s set the record straight. Felt-need assistance must continue to be available. Scripture requires us to provide for people who are physically or mentally unable to provide for themselves. It’s necessary to deliver services to people who live in areas of the world where the land cannot produce enough food and water for those living there. We also need to offer assistance to those who are going through hard times, but this must only be available as a stop-gap measure.

I am not saying that providing these services to hurting people is a sin. They are necessary, but they must be done in the right way and with the right motives. Doing something poorly is often worse than doing nothing at all. The systematic, long-term provision for people who are physically and mentally capable of caring for themselves must stop. It must come to an end. These services have a detrimental effect on everyone and in no way display the love of Christ. If your service has a singular focus on the symptom, are you really meeting the need or are you adding to the problem?

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