nd failing health, you probably have HIV or AIDS as well, you are 6 years old and you are hungry.Imagine you are an 18 year old girl in Russia. You don't know your father, and your mother abandoned you when you were born. You grew up in an orphanage that was only able to provide enough for you to survive. Now that you are 18 you can no longer live in the orphanage. With no where to go you wander the streets looking for a job. The mafia keeps trying to entice you to a life of prosperity, but you know all they offer is slavery in a prostitution ring. You find friends who have joined them, and they seem so lifeless and empty. You don't want that life, but you have no money, and you haven't been able to eat in 3 days. You know there is a likelihood of contracting AIDS among other diseases, but you don't know where else to turn. You are on the brink of starvation, and feeling that the mafia is your only hope for survival.
This is our world. These are real people. Did you look at the picture above? This is a child living in a nation riddled with famine. He is trying to crawl to the nearest food bank, where all they can serve is a bowl of porridge like stuff, which is nearly 3 miles away. The child himself is enough to draw you to tears, but look in the background. Did you notice the vulture waiting for him to die so he can pick whatever meat he has left on him?
Over 60% of our world is dying. 25,000 people a day die of starvation. Every 5 seconds a child dies because they were hungry. That means by the time you finish reading this blog roughly 120 children will have starved to death. It is hard to see these tough facts living in our country of convenience with ample food and every luxury we could ever want...or not want. It is hard to understand how over half of our world is literally starving to death when Americans are spending over $1 billion a day on fast food and eating out. $1 billion a DAY! There seems to be something wrong with this picture.
Last night we brought these hard facts to our students in a joint large group meeting with Pitt and CMU. We had about 35 people come to join us for a broken bread meal. We began in worship and were then instructed to get in line and get a bowl of porridge. We had instructed the students to fast for dinner so the experience would be more felt. We were given a card that had a true story of someone who was starving, and/or had AIDS. It
was a sereal moment as we ate the odd tasting food, that was not enough to satisfy our hunger, and knowing that this was all most of the world gets to eat every few days was heart wrenching.We heard startling facts of the state of our world, and our spirits were troubled and challenged. We lit candles in prayer for those who are hungry and dying, as well as softened hearts for those who have ample and are able to give. We then taught how, in general, the church is not doing the American Christian any good. We preach a gospel of salvation, which it is, but that is all. We leave it there. What the church is saying is that it's all about your own relationship with God. But what about clothing the naked, helping the poor and widowed, and feeding the hungry? What happened to sticking up for the oppressed and caring for the children? We as a nation, and more frightening as a Christian body, have forgotten the oppressed. There is more to being a Christian than our own salvation and needs. Is that important? Of course it is, but what is also important is what you do with your salvation. Does Isaiah 58 not say:
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? ... 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
My friends we are not doing our jobs as Christians. We need to begin a new era of feeding those who are hungry and clothing those who are naked. We need to be the voice for those who have none, and fight for those who are too weak. How easily we forget that Jesus himself surrounded himself with the untouchables and unwanted. Look what he did in only 3 years! how much more can we do now? You may say, "well of course he is God". Yes this is true, but does he not dwell within us? Are we not his children? Did he not say:
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." (john 14:12-13)I don't know about you but it sounds to me that Jesus has given us the power to do great things in this world. If we truly believe in the gospels, and what he has done, if we honestly say that he dwells within us, and the power of the Holy Spirit is among us, how can we say we can do nothing? God gave us a duty to feed and clothe and care. We are to take care of those who need help. We are to spread the good news to the ends of the earth. All of this must be done with God of course. I am not saying that we as people are able to do these things. I am saying that we as children of God can! As long as the Lord dwells within our being we can do great things, and not of ourselves, but of God.
Please know that I am not diminishing the message of salvation, or elevating our abilities as humans. There is no hope for the world without salvation. We need to couple our spiritual needs, as well as physical needs. We must always give God the glory, for we can do nothing apart from Christ, and it is only by his power that we can do anything. What I am saying my friends is that this world is a sad hopeless place. We were made to be change agents of the world and take the light of Christ to its corners. This is what we as IV staff are praying for. This is what we are training our students to do. This is what I pray that you will be challenged to begin. We are not called to solve all the world's problems...that's God's job...we are called to do what we can do to spread the gospel and share Christ's love.
So...what are you doing with your salvation?
**If you want to get invovled to be a change agent, but are stuck on what you can do to help feel free to contact me. There are several things that can be done...and giving money is only 1 of many ways, so don't feel that giving is the only way to help!**
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