Open Hearts

1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But f if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Most things in life are really pretty obvious. As a father of four, I now know that if a baby is crying and isn't sick or in need of changing, it needs to be fed. God designed it that way and it is obvious to those who look into such scenarios.

Having just returned from celebrating Christmas with my family in Honduras, where there is 70% unemployment and poverty and 54% abject poverty, God has reinforced some more things that are obvious. God used the scripture above to reinforce my convictions about caring for the marginalized, because they are His children and are made in His image. Looking at babies being raised in dusty shacks without a father, money, water, education or security breaks my heart and it should. This scenario is rampant around the world and is a result of man's sin.

Rampant, broken poverty is not how God planned for His created beings to be raised. He always has a victorious plan to overcome our sinful drifting away from His will. His plan to lift up our brothers and sisters is clear in the passage above and is initiated and activated by Christ. John is very clear and directly implies that if Christ is in you, you will not close your heart against those in need. He charges those that follow Him should not do so in an empty and stale religious role with only lip service, but in their actions that are an overflow of their awe with Christ! The bible is clear that He found each of us in our spiritual poverty and fed us because of His love. If we have Him and His love, we will act as He did. Our actions follow our salvation they do not create it.

Before Christ saved me at age 34, I was not as aware of the needs of the world as I am now. Why is that? I used to spend the majority of my life trying to make enough money to insulate myself and my family from it! I wanted to create a world within the world, were we would live in complete happiness as we travelled and enjoyed all that the world could offer us. If you read the end of 1st John chapter 2, you will see John's charge that anyone who loves the world and the things of this world does NOT have the LOVE of the FATHER. Pretty straight forward. Either we cherish Christ and his will or we cherish the world's temporary vanity and ignore the fact that many thousands of people die daily from preventable diseases and lack of food. His blessings are to be shared as we serve those in poverty.

Choosing to ignore the facts of what is going on in the world and God's plan to minister to it doesn't make it go away. Just like a baby that is lying in its crib doesn't stop crying in hunger just because you ignore it and hope someone else takes care of it.