helping the poor

Two weeks ago the Innsbruck team visited one of the local churches to share about its refugee ministry. (The church is called Kik -Kirche im Kino "church in the cinema"- because it meets in a cinema for sunday worship.) I preached from Proverbs 14:21,31 about helping the poor. One of our basic assumptions for refugee ministry is that refugees are the poorest of the poor.

The proverbs have a lot to say about this subect -just like it does about other subjects such as the things we say or the fear of God. Yet, our default response often to the idea of helping the poor is that -for whatever reason- we are not qualified! For example we might say, "it's not my gifting. I am not called." Through our fine reasoning we somehow maneuver ourselves outside of God's commands. This whole subject quickly becomes an area to examine in our own lives.

Of all people we are the ones most able to help. Imagine that! Our help for the poor is part of God's strategy to reach the nations. It is not an option. God blesses us for this help. Likewise, it is not some effort on our part to prove our status with God. Rather, our help flows out of our own relationship with God. This preaches.