Christine, a young lady of 20 years, has just returned from a 3 month "Missions Awareness Tour" with 17 other young people, during which time they witnessed on the streets of Hong Kong, cared for orphans in China, worked in a Hong Kong drug rehabilitation centre, worked with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, visited various World Vision and church missionary work in northern India, and worked in outreach to the prostitutes of Bangkok.
This is what she shared.....
To a small or large extent, I experienced every one of these qualities of God on this trip. I also learnt a lot about myself and about my life in Australia.
There are many frustrating things about India. But what I hated, is the way it makes me feel about myself - I feel opulent. I feel rich and I feel like a foreigner. India doesn't let you forget that you're different and that you're rich. This is evident in every little thing you do. From walking down the street, to trying to buy train tickets. When you're shopping they hike the prices because they count either on your ignorance or your laziness to just give up, because it's probably only a matter of A$1 anyway. You have to struggle and fight every time to be treated like everyone else, because you cannot hide the fact that you're a foreigner. You can wear their dress and even speak their language, but they never let you forget that you're different. The thing I hate most about all this, is the fact that India is right.
I am different, and I am rich.
How else is it that I, a student on Austudy (Australian Study Program), can sit in an elite restaurant across the other side of the world, order a coffee and still pay less than I would at Eastland (local shopping mall). How is that possible if I'm not rich?
On the way home from the Missionaries of Charity one-day, Jannah and I, too lazy to walk, decided to take a man-pulled rickshaw `for the experience'. It was the first and last rickshaw we'll ever take. How opulent did it make us feel to be sitting up there as an old, thin, barefoot man pulled us through the pot-holed streets of Calcutta?
Proverbs 31:8-9 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."
Psalm 82:3-4 "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."Why don't we do this? I believe that one reason is because in Australia, the weak and needy, the poor and oppressed are a much more hidden part of our society. And they're easy to ignore. India is a very confronting place. It's an `in your face' society. We have the same problems here as they do there. We have homeless; we have the poor. But in India, it's `in your face'. It's hard to ignore the homeless when they are scattered on every street, every night. It's hard to ignore the hungry as they watch with longing eyes through the restaurant window at you as you eat.
It's hard to ignore the poor when they come to your taxi window and plead for money for milk for their baby.
It's hard to ignore the crippled when they pull themselves along a train carriage floor, in hope of a coin or a piece of fruit.
You see, India is just hard to ignore.
Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me, will do what I have been doing." (John 14:12)It doesn't take much reading to find out what Jesus spent time doing. He spent His time on behalf of the poor, the sick and the lost. If we honestly seek after God, the things that concern Him will concern us also.
Psalm 140:12 "I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.""What you do for the least, you do for Me!"Proverbs 29:7 "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern."
Jesus was so adamant that we care for each other, that He attributed whatever we do for someone else, as being done for Himself.
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40)I remember my first day working at Missionaries of Charity. To get there was about a 45 minute walk through the streets of Calcutta. Everything happens on the streets. From people bathing, to selling, to begging, to living. It's amazing to see your compassion grow. The more I walked, the more I saw, the more I needed to do something. By the time I got to Prem Dan, the house for destitute, ill and mentally handicapped men and women, I was willing to do anything. To wash clothes, to clean floors, I would even cut toenails. My compassion had become a compulsion to serve. This is what happens when you ask Jesus for His heart. He gives it to you in ways you never dreamed.
I was also surprised to discover how much appreciation we think we deserve. I longed to do a task that `counted". In the washing process, the clothes are rinsed in water, then wrung, then washed in soapy water, then wrung, then beaten and rinsed and wrung again, and eventually hung out to dry. Each day I would be part of that cycle somewhere and meanwhile just yearning to do something that wouldn't be repeated.
But I have no right to demand to do something that counts, and no right to be appreciated for doing a thankless task. I think some of the people who know best what it's like to be unappreciated are parents. I 'unappreciate' my parents every day.
I heard some people say that it's a shame they let people that aren't Christians work there. I thought, "No way". The fact that most people who volunteer aren't Christians says more about the apathy of Christians than it does about anything else. It is a Christian's duty to do good.
"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10)Most of the volunteers volunteer not because they ought to, but because they want to. They have chosen to do it, and this puts me to shame.
I felt so hopeless. We want to go in and change things and see results of our labours. But you can't. There are no visible results. We're not meant to change anything; we're just meant to be there. Because I'm not used to this kind of thing, it felt like I was doing nothing. But my presence didn't mean 'nothing' to these women, and it didn't mean 'nothing' to God. As you enter Prem Dan, there's a path that leads to a courtyard just in front of the buildings. At the end of this path, there is a statue of Jesus; underneath are written the words, "You did it to me". Every morning I read those words and was encouraged that just being there was something.
Again and again in the Bible, if concern is shown for those in need, God regards this as kindness shown to Himself. This is how deeply He cares for the poor, to say that whatever you do for them, you do for Him.
Proverbs 19:17 "He who is kind to the poor, lends to the Lord".But it doesn't stop there. Not only should we care about the poor because God does, it is also our responsibility to look after them.Proverbs 14:31 "Whoever is kind to the needy, honours God".
Proverbs 21:13 "If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered".Shutting our ears to the poor is not actively oppressing them; it's ignoring them. I don't believe we actively oppress the poor, but we do ignore them. And this should cause us to be afraid, because if we ignore the poor, God will ignore us.
Proverbs 28:27 "He who gives to the poor will lack nothing".Do we honestly believe this? If we truly believed this, we would be a much more giving people.
1 Chronicles 29:11 "Everything in Heaven and earth is yours".The things we own are God's; we are only looking after them. This is a difficult concept to learn. It's hard, but I believe so necessary, to systematically give everything we have back to God. From our clothes, to our beds, to our cars, to our health, and our relationships. We need to give up the belief that we have a right to have these things. We don't have the rights to anything. Even our next breath is a gift from God.1 Chronicles 29:14 "My people and I cannot really give you anything, because everything is a gift from You, and we have only given back what is already yours".
When we choose to follow Jesus, we must give up our rights.
Jesus said, "Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be my disciple". (Luke 14:33)Jesus doesn't just want our possessions, our money; He wants our time, He wants our talents and gifts, He wants our very lives.
Our possessions get in the way of our relationship with God. We spend far too much time acquiring and maintaining things. They take our time and money. They hinder our relationship with God because they shift our focus. They become the centre of our world, our priorities and concerns.
I remember waiting for a taxi and my pack was extremely heavy. I was inwardly whingeing to God, and He said, "You make burdens for yourself". It was true. For the first time, my material possessions literally translated into the burden on my back. Whatever I bought, I had to carry. Our possessions are as much a spiritual burden as they were a physical burden for me that day. Just like a pack hinders you from running, our possessions burden and hinder us from running the race.
Hebrews 12:1 "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked for us".
Why are we so reluctant to give our wealth to God?
Jesus said, "Give and it will be given to you" (Luke 6:38)When we give, God will bless us.Proverb 11:24 "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly but come to poverty"
This is something I hadn't really taken in before. And it struck home when I heard Zac, who Les spoke about earlier, talk about his life. He said, "You cannot out-give God". His life is proof of that.
Malachi 3:7-10 (NIV)If we're not receiving blessing like this, then we're robbing God. God knows how reluctant we are to give Him our money. He says, "Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven".
But we shouldn't give in order to receive, but because we can give. God has blessed us to bless others. Not only can we bless others, but we ought to.
Luke 12:48 is as much a warning as it is anything, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded."I know that much is demanded of me. But this doesn't stop with possessions; it extends into every aspect of our lives.
We need to be generous people. We need to learn to give and how to share. We are a people of wealth and the Bible commands us to give.
1 Timothy 6:17 "Command those who are rich in this present world....to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share".Jesus said, "The man with 2 tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same". (Luke 3:11)
Proverbs 22:9 "A generous man will himself be blessed".Proverbs 11:25 "A generous man will prosper, he who refreshes others, will himself be refreshed".
Deuteronomy 15:10 "Give generously, without a grudging heart, then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to".
One day, Jesus went to eat at a Pharisee's house. They were horrified that He didn't wash before the meal. Jesus said, "You clean the outside, but the inside is unclean". He was talking about their lives, that outwardly they did all the right things, but their hearts weren't in the right place. They gave because the law said they should, not because they wanted to. Jesus said to them, "If you give from your hearts to the poor, then everything would be clean for you".
2 Corinthians 8:12 "If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have".If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable. Not only should we give, but we should want to give. Jesus implores us to give. And we should, because God has given to us, and as a people with many things, it's our responsibility and our privilege to share with those who don't.
We need to earnestly seek our God, we need to care about what He cares about, and we need to give everything we have, and everything we are, to Him.
Beg His forgiveness and seek His will.
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