I drove through one of Montgomery’s most impoverished sections of town this morning (Rosa Parks from Downtown to Fairview Avenue) and then I stayed on Rosa Parks all the way to the South Blvd.
Those not from Montgomery only need to know that this area of town is rough. Once beautiful homes are in disrepair. People are standing around with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I drove by a drug deal, I think. (Parked car, money exchanged, you tell me). There are several housing projects in this stretch.
The whole time I felt like God was moving me to make this drive. I did not have to go down Rosa Parks as it was not even the fastest route to my job from where I had a meeting downtown. The whole time I was moved to compassion for a destitute area with very little hope.
Except…
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has hope for these people and for this community. Ultimately, people are selfish and even the best among us will revert to selfishness but for the work of Jesus Christ in the hearts of people.
The Bible says:
For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. – Psalm 9:18.
Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. – Proverbs 14:21.
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. - Proverbs 14:31.
These samples are just part of an overall picture in Scripture of a God who loves the poor and calls us to love them as well. Yet we who are privileged have a tendency to sit in our ivory towers and look down on the world. We say that they have done this to themselves.
We are probably right in some cases, but God has not called us to pass judgment on the poor. He has called us to help the poor and to love them as he loves them. He has called us to take his truth that changes the soul to these people.
The sins of pride and selfishness affect the wealthy as much as the poor. The Gospel changes our hearts and moves us to seek a higher goal, Jesus. He is the solution for poverty. We can trust government programs that may fill the belly temporarily, but true and lasting change only comes from Jesus.
Do we have a heart for this city, for Montgomery, Alabama? Do we understand what it means to love our neighbors?
I do not, but I pray that God will continue to turn my heart toward the poor.
Thanks,
Jeff Moody
I noticed that your church does not have one single ministry dedicated to those items listed by Matthew in the separating of the sheep and the goats.
Matthew 25:31 And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty.
32 And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.
34 Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
36 Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.
37 Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee?
39 Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee?
40 And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.
41 Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink.
43 I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.
44 Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee?
45 Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.
46 And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.
I wonder about churches such as yours.
No ministries for the hungry.
No ministries for the naked.
No ministries for the thirsty.
No ministries for the sick.
No ministries for the imprisoned.
If Christ comes back in the night, how will your members fair in the sorting process since your church does not do anything listed in Matthew 25 on a regular basis.
Pax
Posted by: Joey | August 27, 2009 at 10:31 PM
You said: "The whole time I felt like God was moving me to make this drive."
Now the question begs asking since God has shown you something. "How will you respond to this event?"
Will the memory of it just fade away over the course of time?
Or will you be moved to start some mission/ministry to help this impoverished area?
God is no doubt testing you. Will you fail the test or will you pass the test?
Jesus knocks on the door. Was the door opened or was it left closed?
God has placed the ball in your court. Drop the ball or shoot!
Posted by: Joey | August 27, 2009 at 10:40 PM
Joey,
My apologies for not responding sooner. Thank you for your challenge to both me and to Gateway Baptist Church. I believe we all need to take time to address the needs of our communities.
To briefly respond to your criticism, Gateway does a lot to follow Jesus' call in Matthew 25 and has a heart to reach our community. We continue to pursue God as he leads us to touch these people's lives. I believe the area of your concern is that we do not have any "one single ministry dedicated to those items."
I am not a staff member or elder of this church, but I feel confident as a frequent contributor to this blog to say that we spend more time focusing on the hearts of people to reach out to the community than developing programmed ministries. Read through the rest of this blog and you will see many of the community ministries we do as a part of bringing the Gospel to Montgomery. So we may not have what you would like to see as "stated ministries," but I trust that this church truly follows the leading of Jesus in presenting the gospel.
That said, your criticism does not go unnoticed and we will continue to present ourselves to God for his leading and not trust in our own understanding.
By way of response, please link or suggest ways that you feel we could better reach the community.
Peace.
Posted by: Jeff Moody | September 10, 2009 at 10:01 AM