Some people are poor because they are lazy. They need to get off their duffs. Others, however, are poor because parasites weaken their bodies, or they spend six hours a day collecting water, or rebel armies ravaged their farms, or AIDS took their parents.
Couldn't such people use a bit of help?
Of course they could. So....
Let the church act on behalf of the poor. The apostles did. "So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers" (Acts 6:2). They assembled the entire church. The problem of inequity warranted a churchwide conversation. The leaders wanted every member to know that this church took poverty seriously. The ultimate solution to poverty is found in the compassion of God's people. Scripture endorses not forced communism but Spirit-led volunteerism among God's people.
Let the brightest among us direct us. "And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility" (v 3).
The first church meeting led to the first task force. The apostles unleashed their best people on their biggest problem. The challenge demands this. "Poverty", as Rich Stearns, president of World Vision in the United States, told me, "is rocket science." Simple solutions simply don't exist. Most of us don't know what to do about the avalanche of national debt, the withholding of lifesaving medicines, the corruption at the seaports, and the abduction of children. Most of us don't know what to do, but someone does!
And one more idea. Get ticked off. Riled up enough to respond. Righteous anger would do a world of good. Poverty is not the lack of charity but the lack of justice. Why do a billion people go to bed hungry every night? Why do nearly thirty thousand children die every day, one every three seconds, from hunger and preventable diseases? It's just not fair. Why not do something about it?
No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
By: Max Lucado
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