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How to Be Like Jesus
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Proverbs 18:23 The poor are polite when they beg for help. The rich are rude with their answer.
Listen to the radio broadcast of How to Be Like Jesus
Download audio fileThe problem we have with helping the poor is that … well, there are so many of them that frankly, we can’t make a difference. It’s true, isn’t it? Well, no … actually, it’s not.
Here’s a disturbing fact. The eight richest men in the world have a combined net worth that exceeds the net worth of the poorest half of the world’s population. That just boggles the mind, does it not? The eight richest men have more than the poorest 4 billion!
The truth is that we live in a world that exploits the poor. If there’s money in it, someone will find a way of profiting from the misery of others.
Many of the clothes, shoes and household goods that we buy and happily use in affluent countries were produced in near slave labour conditions.
Of course, there’s nothing new in any of that. I was taken the other day by a short passage in the book of Proverbs:
Proverbs 18:23 The poor are polite when they beg for help. The rich are rude with their answer.
You know, one of the most Christ-like things that we can do on this planet is to show mercy, kindness and generosity to the poor.
Sadly, I used to judge the poor so harshly. “Well, if they just went out to work, they wouldn’t be poor.”
Yet where I live, 90% of all street people are either mentally ill or drug addicts or both. If you and I were in that place, wouldn’t we want someone to show us some mercy? If you and I were in that place, wouldn’t you and I want someone to show us some kindness?
Come on, if you and I were in that place, wouldn’t we want someone to show us their generosity?
Be like Jesus.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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