Gospel News — Jun-Aug 2012

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partly through their own fault, this identity of God with "the poor" is a deep insight into His grace. Indeed, despite this, God appears to be on the side of the poor; His word warns insistently that the possession of wealth, whilst not sinful in itself, is likely to lead us away from salvation, whereas it is "the poor" who will comprise the majority of the redeemed (Mk. 4:19; 10:17-30; Lk. 12:21,33,34; 14:13,21).

If we are truly influenced by the fact that God came into our lives and sought to save us, working extensively through providence to bring us to His Son, our generosity will not simply be to those "poor" who come to our attention. Job could say that he was not only a father to the poor, but "the cause which I knew not I searched out" (Job 29:16). Further, Job wept and grieved for the poor (Job 30:25), seeking to attain real empathy with them. Each of us are to think how we might be generous to the poor- to take initiative. This is a step beyond putting coins in a beggar's hand. When was the last time you actively thought out how you might be generous to the poor, searching out the real need behind that begging hand, and what you could do about it? "The righteous consider the cause of the poor; but the wicked don't want to understand it" (Prov. 29:7). We are to try to understand "the poor", when our natural reaction is to walk away from those whom we consider to be in a hole partly because they dug it, or to quickly respond to their need with a few coins or words- without engaging with them. God's response to our need wasn't tokenistic- it was the very deep engagement with human need which climaxed in the death of His Son on the cross.

The Last Days

The parable of the great supper suggests that in our last days, it is largely "the poor", both economically and spiritually, who will be

called to respond (Lk. 14:21). A latter day congregation of new converts will typically be "the poor"- the divorced, abused, asylum seekers, HIV positive, hopelessly indebted, smokers, illegal immigrants, one time whores and busted gamblers, those with aspergers, inhabitants of the night shelters, the irritating, the mixed up... the types no respectable Protestant church can really cope with. "The poor" are there, on the internet, on the street, in the ecclesias, in the workplace... and their very existence is to test whether we have really perceived our poverty and cried to God in it, and known His gracious, saving hand.

--Duncan Heaster

Moderation

Bro Ambrose Tanyepana (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe)

"Let your moderation be known unto all men" (Philippians 4:5). These words of exhortation were from our brother, the apostle Paul many years ago, but they still mean the same to this day. Because of our belief, teaching and faith, we ought to be well- behaved, disciplined at home, work-places and neighbourhood, as well as at our gatherings.

Unfortunately, it is not always so, as we have noticed; we tend to have double standards (2 Cor 10:1; Gal 5:22). As Christians we should avoid those old ways of this wicked and corrupt world of which we used to be part. Most brethren and sisters have failed at times to make their moderate and reasonable lives a testimony to the gospel which they believe and teach. They pretend to be hard workers in their Master's field, but serve him with a hidden agenda, such as popularity. The shepherds seem not always to be interested in the care of their flocks. Preaching is not taken as a command from Jesus