My daughter Becca spent nearly a month working with children in Indonesia this summer. It was a great experience and one that did amazing things inside of her. I would heartily recommend it for any teenager or for any of us old people for that matter. Anyway, she has been organizing the photos she took. It is interesting to hear the love still in her voice as she tells me about each child. The children remind me of the children I have seen all over the world. Jet black eyes, dazzling smiles, runny noses, and distended bellies. I remember being in the Dominican Republic and hearing a worker tell of a child who came to the orphanage. The child's belly was bloated and she was experiencing painful cramps. Eventually they figured out the problem. The little girl had been going to bed hungry. She would be placed on a little foam pad. She was so hungry she had been nibbling at the foam during the night to fill herself with something. I tell you this for two reasons. One is to encourage you to do something to relieve hunger. We have all kinds of trustworthy organizations you can use to provide food for people like that little girl. Jesus intended for his followers to bring the kingdom of God with them wherever they went. This is part of that. The other reason I tell you this story is to let you know the danger we all are in. Every day you and I wake up starving spiritually. We will eat. There are times when I have filled myself with nothing more nourishing than spiritual foam rubber and you have too. God pleads with us to come to him. "Ho, come to the waters. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money on what is not bread and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in the abundance of fair."Isaiah 55:1-3 So, today, make sure you help someone else to eat physically and make sure you fill yourself up spiritually with the richest of foods.
6 comments:
Thank you for the analogy...praise God that He gave us physical hunger so that we could have some basis to understand spiritual hunger.
Great entry, Joe! DM.
I have been reminded recently of what it does to you when do not nourish your spirit with god's love and that of your church regularly. Life is a battle of wills, decisions, actions and implementation. You are what you eat, spiritually or physically. Thats a fact that no one can run from. I recently read an article about a bill board in FL promoting people who do not believe in God's love. I would be ashamed for my children to see that billboard. I was enriched this weekend at a fair when someone spoke to me and said that my children really seem to be filled with the holy spirit. You are what you eat.... spiritually or pyhsically.
Even this title of your post is sobering. When life is chuck-full of t.v., movies, meetings, shopping, ball games, and all other genre of entertainment and STUFF, where is God in the priorities? Full up, and totally empty. And unfortunately, it is deemed normal.
God seeks for a people who dwell in Him. O that we could be that.
I can't think of anything that gives me more spirtual joy than giving without expectations. God does repay you two fold in return .
Joe you are blessed to have children who love to give, I wish all teenagers would see the satisfaction that giving can bring you,instead of focusing on who is getting cheated on American idol.
My 17 yr old son went to the D.R. this summer on a missions trip and came home a changed man. It's an awesome thing to see your children hungering for the Lord and thinking of others. He was so moved he is sponsoring a little boy in the Dominican, through Compassion International. My son does not have a job but is happy to give his savings, birthday $ or he said he'll ask for money for christmas to give to this little boy. His sister has even offered to help pitch in.
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