Feeding The Multitude

This is a guest blog.

I’m grateful and fortunate to have met a fellow Christian blogger, Terra Newsome, who has a beautiful spirit and a hunger and thirst for God’s direction in her life. Those qualities are poignantly obvious in her writing.  I recently read Feeding The Multitude on her site and I wanted to share it with you. It touched my heart for the homeless, and I’m confident it will touch your hearts as well. I encourage you to visit her blog at Living Simply In Abundance.

Typically this is not like me to write a random post without the leading of the Holy Spirit but then again, this could be such doing and my emotions and compassion for the lost, broken, and hungry have stepped forward in a bold moment. This message in regards to Feeding the Multitude applies to those who need physcial nourishment AND spiritual. We are called to go out and tend to them. The widows, the orphans, the sick and all. Believe me when I say that I am speaking to myself as well as you, because we all need to pitch in and help. We are instructed to do this in an act of obedience and love.

The Outworking of Love

“By this we know love, because He laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” ( 1John 3:16-18 NKJV )

I could easily throw up a Thanksgiving Day picture fully decorated with all the delighful looking food and  happy people, but I choose not to. The foundationof this celebration is about giving thanks to the Lord for all he has done, bringing people together in fellowship and enjoying a meal. At least that is what I think it is. This is what I have learnt over the years as an adult. I didn’t grow up knowing that I was to give thanks unto the Lord and being grateful for my family and friends. It was just food cooked out of TRADITION and we ate and went our way year after year, in my eyes and opinion. I am not, in no way throwing my parents under the bus, so to speak, because maybe they didn’t know any better, but it wasn’t until I married that I learned the true meaning. It took some getting used to. ( and I still have a hard time getting in the swing of festivities believe it or not for that very reason ) Ok. Enough with the digressing. Back to getting on track with what I was saying.

Jesus is calling us out to go boldy in his name to preach the Gospel to the world and to take care of those in need. This place we live in isn’t getting any better and more lives are being lost daily. People are becoming more and more selfish by the minute. Where is the love? Where is the compassion? Do you really think it is good enough to look at the television or newspaper or the man standing on the corner, to read the ” junk mail ” that asks you to consider sponsoring a needy child over in another country, to drive past a food bank or shelter and say ” Lord bless their hearts and provide for them ” and so on? NO it’s not good enough.

Many of us can honestly say that we are blessed enough financially that we have a roof over our heads, a job, clothing on our back, good health, a good and sound mind to take care of ourselves and our loved ones, but how about the ones who can’t. Do we just rely on the state to take care of them? The volunteers willing to give their time willingly to help those who have less than? No. Who is looking our for their spiritual health at the same time? I am sure that some of them are richly blessed in spirit than some of us. They may not have a dime in their pocket but their hearts are rich in faith. That’s something to think about.

I am not trying to convict anyone at all and if I have offended you, please forgive me, but realize that any given day your life could go from being on top to hitting rock bottom. Then what?? You will be that very same person that the world turns a deaf ear to and a blind eye. We reap what we sow. Now it’s up to you what you can give whether it’s financially or spiritually but  being a bench warmer isn’t going to get it. It’s time to get proactive. Not just during the holiday seasons but during every day life.

This painful post is because I was sitting down eating dinner and my eyes began to well up with tears because of a story I read. A man lost everything and is now living under a bridge. Wife left him, he’s without a job and a home. But he was thankful for whatever food the shelter/ sponsoring businesses that rallied together to feed and clothe the homeless. What caught my attention more than anything was that despite his situation, he was willing to share the Gospel with anyone willing to listen to him. In the mean time, he is holding on looking for that day to come when he can get back on his feet.

Prayerfully, I want the Lord to direct my footsteps in the direction he wants me to go to minister to the lost. I can say that I know that I know that I KNOW that He is preparing me for something greater in my ministry. It’s all about Christ. Living who I strive to be in Him and taking care of those less fortunate however it may be. To God be the glory. May I be stripped of anything that is not pleasing to Him so that I may live a righteous life through him and be an example to those living in darkness.

Dear friends, I am not asking you to do a thing except pray and ask the Lord to direct your thoughts and footsteps. Think for a minute if you would and try to imagine yourself in the shoes of a sinner without repentance and salvation as well as the homeless person without. You can think back to the lost sinner you once were before Christ came into your life, but can you just imagine how you could live if you didn’t have the basic needs?

This is just Food for Thought.

May the God is Who is able to do all but fail bless you and keep you always……