I Was Poor And Did Not know it.
I was poor and I didn’t know it… I was happy and they said I was sad… I was ignorant until they taught me…
Then I saw that I was poor and became sad… and that my happiness was denial and my ignorance made me a victim…
I have seen the world… where children sit naked in a puddle… their bellies swelling from lack of nourishment… but, with such a smile it would make an angel cry.
I have seen the ignorant living in squalor… their hovels of mud, with thatched roofs, baked by the sun… but, they did not know they were victims until I had come.
I have seen the ocean breach the shores where dark-skinned women… wade in the brine, as they have since the beginning of time.
I watched as their children danced, beneath the palms… I saw their dirty faces… As the wind blew through their hair I could hear the muffled sound of laughing… in the air.
As I drew nearer… they could see clearer. And, what was once a cry of joy… in their happy souls… Became the woeful morn of victims
By: RA Nelson'
With all its knowledge, the Western world often acts in ignorance… and with their arrogance… proclaims the cry of joy... the voice of victims. Are we our brother's keeper.... the stewards of God's power, on the earth, to do good? Is true happiness determined by the weight of our purse or the baggage the world calls wealth?
What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Our savior
In Matthew 16 asks what good it is for a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul (Matthew 16:26). The world can only offer an empty soul and a cold grave—money, fame, pleasure, power, prestige, etc. shall all perish in time. However, to lose one’s soul is to die without Christ and to spend an eternity in a lake of fire.
What then shall we do with the abundance God has given us as a people and nation...Shall it be spent to pursue endless wars and the destruction of mankind, or shall we use our God-given riches to end poverty and rescue a world bound for destruction? Have we reached a bridge to far and a world bound for self-emulation?
Know this: Where your treasure is there also is your heart... The true measure of wealth is found in the eternal... things that do not perish with time and the grave.
Replies
And the silence reached Heaven's gates ... to speak of man's neglect for his own...The poor shall always be with us... if we refuse to use our abundance to bless others...
Does the good shepherd close the gate before all have entered? Does he let the lost sheep perish for lack of sustenance... or will he retrieve them and train them to follow his voice, ans to follow the path to green pastures? (work)
Are we our brother's keeper? Are we the steward of God's wealth or is it ours to do with as we please... Do we have cattle on a thousand hills? Do we lack any good thing? Then why do so many of the world's children lack sufficient stores of food and clean water?