Piercing Me

From this morning's read... James 5

Come now,you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ²Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

and from last week's read... 1 John 2: 28

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

I am pierced with these words. We are talking about changes we need and earnestly desire to make to give more. We certainly are fans of giving to westerners to be able to live and work among the poor doing all sorts of good works for them, but we also want a good portion of our giving to go straight to the poor and aim to not just give them fish but, as the saying goes, teach them to fish. One of the ways we are glad to get to give for this is through Kiva.

I just saw this article reviewing David Platt's new book Radical: Taking Back your Faith from the American Dream, that also hit me pretty hard... here's a quote:

Today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day …. Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth must consider not only how to declare the gospel verbally but also how to demonstrate the gospel visibly in a world where so many are urgently hungry.

What is the difference between someone who willfully indulges in sexual pleasures while ignoring the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully indulges in the selfish pursuit of more and more material possessions while ignoring the Bible on caring for the poor? The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and the other involves the social norm in the church.

We look back on slave-owning churchgoers of 150 years ago and ask, "How could they have treated their fellow human beings that way?" I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, "How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn't have food or water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn't even exist?"

I want to live streamlined for his kingdom and that will surely mean different things for each of us in the body of Christ. But a common theme between us all- wherever God has called us- will be humble service and sacrificial giving that extends to and reaches beyond the church.

Ouch.... I want to be wounded with and changed by the truth here so as not to stand ashamed at his coming... Thank you Lord for piercing me and piercing us with your Truth.