When something bad happens I see so many of my Christian friends sharing how we all just need to relax and know that God is in control, that He has a plan and purpose for the awful thing that has happened. While I agree with you, there is something you desperately need to know.
What most Christians don't seem to understand is that if basic needs are not met, that plan and purpose is irrelevant to the unbeliever or even to believers who are in the throws of a crisis.
Jesus demonstrated the importance of meeting basic needs when He fed the 5000 in Matthew 14:13-21. If God’s Word were enough, why would Jesus stop and feed people? Why would He interrupt His teaching to make sure that people were not hungry?
I, as one who has been hungry, will tell you, He did it because He knew that until basic needs were met they could think of nothing else.
There is this really life changing episode of South Park, which is a particularly crass and terrible adult cartoon show, that I am honestly embarrassed to say I watch. Anyway, in this one episode that I saw, the Christians were handing out bibles to the children in this African village and the children were EATING them. Wow. Think about that.
We are trying to share God’s word and people are hungry, lonely, angry, sad, tired, without the most basic of needs…they can’t see our God if they are worried about the basics. We tell them God loves them and then condemn them for who they are. They can't trust God loves and cares for them when His people do not demonstrate that love. We hand them a bible and they will eat it out of hunger.
That is why Jesus stopped, why He chose to feed the 5000. That is why we must stop. Why we must meet the needs of the 5000. They need us. That is why we must stop trying to share Jesus while denying humans basic rights…they will NEVER hear us.
No comments:
Post a Comment