Newsletter - November 2006

Dear Friends:

I just brought in the mail and, as usual this time of the year, find it to be pretty evenly divided between catalogs and requests for donations. Makes the question of the season fairly clear: Do I buy stuff? Or do I give stuff away?

There are so any needs in the world that it is hard to figure out where to start in trying to meet them. So, in many cases, we are tempted just to do nothing. It seems that our little bit won’t help much anyway. We all relate to that thought, don’t we? But let’s think about meeting needs in light of the way Jesus lived.

The overarching concept we see in Jesus’ life was His compassion. He cared. He saw suffering all around Him and reached out to fix what had been broken by the Fall. Isaiah 53:4a says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” He was touched deeply by the sadness and pain in the world and took the needs of the suffering upon Himself.

Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, used to say, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” Maybe more of us need to pray that prayer. We need to let God show us the world through His eyes. We need to allow His compassion and mercy to fill us so we will not only see the pain, but also be willing to do something about it. Broken-hearted Christians will make a difference in this world.

Let’s look at some specific things that caused Jesus to respond in empathy and love to those around Him.

The Grieving
We see in Luke 7:13 that Jesus had compassion on the Widow of Nain whose only son had died. He cared about those who have experienced great loss, those who are lonely and are in mourning.

The Helpless
In Matthew 9:13, Jesus looked the crowds who were following Him and said that He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. He desired people to live a life of purpose and meaning and felt compassion for those who didn’t seem to know how to do that.

The Sick
In Matthew 14:14 we read that Jesus took a look at the large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick. Jesus didn’t seem to let an opportunity go by to make someone whole again. His heart broke with their physical suffering.

The Hungry
A chapter later in Matthew (15:32) the crowds have been following him for three days and Jesus told His disciples that He had compassion on them because they were hungry and had nothing to eat. He had known hunger after His 40-day fast so could relate to their condition. He was not about to send these folks home on empty stomachs!

The Spiritually Blind
At the end of chapter 23 in Matthew we have a touching account of Jesus addressing Jerusalem and telling how He longed to gather the people there as a hen gathers her chicks, but they refused to recognize Him, refused to let Him be their Lord. He was heartbroken at their rejection, because they were missing out on the true and eternal life that He offered.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but I think it gives us enough to understand the kinds of things that brought Jesus’ tender compassion to the forefront. Maybe our challenge this Thanksgiving season is to look around us and see who there is in our circle of influence

• who is mourning a loss and needs companionship and understanding,
  
  
• who is helpless and in need of guidance or good counsel,
  
  
• who is sick and in need of a touch of mercy, support, or healing,
  
  
• who is hungry and needs some good meals or some bags of groceries, or
  
  
• who is spiritually blind and needs to have us to share the truth of Jesus’ love for them.

If we agree together that we will reach out to those near us, Jesus’ compassion will be multiplied many times over, lives will be touched, and our little areas of the world will be changed.

Luke records part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount teaching in chapter 6 of his gospel.

Here are excerpts from verses 31 through 38 that may be of encouragement to us as we attempt to show Jesus’ compassion to those around us:

“Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. . . . I tell you, love your enemies.

Help and give without expecting a return. . . Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind. . .

Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back – given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” (taken from The Message).

Maybe these thoughts are best summed up in Luke 6:30b, where it says (again, in The Message), “Live generously.” What does a generous life look like? I think God will let us know if we open our eyes to see the needs around us and open our hearts to let His compassionate love be poured in and through us.

Yours for generous living!

Bev

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