What I've done is probably going to cause a lot of controversy amongst my readers.  Some of you guys may be shocked and angered.  You may call me a hypocrite, and you may say that what I've done is sacrilegious and blasphemous.  On the other hand, I think that a lot of you will be positive about what I have done, and you may even want to do this yourself. 

What I've done is cut up a Bible. 

Now before you start to feel indignant, I would like you to stay seated and keep reading what I have to say.  I did not cut up my Bible because I was angry with God or because I disagreed with things that the Bible has to say.  No, the reason I cut up my Bible was to make a point. 

I cut out every verse in the Bible that has to do with poverty and helping the needy.  The reason why I did this was partially to prove to myself exactly how much importance that God places on serving the less fortunate.  I also did this so that I could have tangible and physical evidence to show people and be able to honestly say, "Look at what our Bible is, at what our faith is, without us serving the poor and the destitute." 

I suspected that there would be many sections chopped out of the Bible after this experiment- big holes eradicated from God'sWord- but I was shocked to discover what was left of my Bible after I had removed the verses about helping the poor and the needy.  My Bible was completely tattered.  There was little left of its pages.  It was unreadable, unusable. 

When Christians do not serve the needy, we are not putting into practice what the Bible so strongly emphasizes that we need to do.  We are ignoring these huge sections of God's Word when we should be obeying them with every fabric of our lives.   

The Christian church today does not put nearly enough emphasis into service .  Don't get me wrong- some churches are focused on helping the needy in their communities and around the world, but most churches are more focused on other things.  These things are also important, but Christians too often overlook the needs of so many people across the globe, and that gives Christ a bad name.  There are people dying of hunger, thirst, lack of medical care, and poor sanitary conditions every single day.  There are so many people who are living without shoes or a home and who are going through life without an education.  This is a huge problem. 

As children of God, we should be following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the One who said, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me."  (Matthew 25:40, TNIV)  Service was so important to Jesus, and this is reflected throughout the Bible, in the New and Old Testaments. 

What makes me cringe is the fact that there are so many more secular efforts to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless than there are Christian efforts.  Why do the big rock stars who are into drugs and sex and worldly things do more for the poor than we as Christians- who are supposed to do what Jesus did and live how He lived on earth- do for the poor?  This puts Christians in a bad light when people think to themselves, "I'm doing more to help the hungry than the people who love God do.  Why would I want to be like them?"  This needs to change right now.

Over the next several weeks I am going to be expanding on this vitally important issue.  I am going to be talking about the greatest needs of the world today in regards to poverty.  I will also talk about what you can do as a Christian, right now, in your community and around the world.  Don't allow your faith in Jesus to be tattered and torn like my Bible because of the fact that you ignore one of His most important commands: to help those who are in need. 

Please leave your comments below or send me an email.  I want to hear your feedback about this.  What do you think about this topic?  Do you believe that the church has been greatly apathetic in regards to helping the poverty-stricken people throughout the world?  What do you think about my physical evidence (the ripped Bible)?  What do you plan to do to serve the needy in your community?
 

Recently, for those of you who have not noticed, I seem to have come to a dry spell with my writing.  My stories, my songs, and even my blog entries have unfortunately become few and far between.  I've lost my inspiration over the past several weeks.  I need a new muse to reawaken that writer's fire that I'm used to feel burning deep within me.  Despite this frustration, I am confident that I will soon find that part of me that will give me the inspiration to pick up a pencil and write away into the night once again. 

I think that we as Christians sometimes go through these "dry spells" as well in our walks with the Lord.  Sometimes it may seem unusually difficult to force yourself to sit down and open your Bible or pray for more than a few minutes at a.  It can be easy to become so focused on our own busy lives and our own struggles and our own sorrows that we lose focus on our almighty, all-powerful, all-loving God. 

If you are going through a dry spell in your walk with God, I want to encourage you with the verse I have provided below. 


In this passage, King David was feeling lost and alone.  He was searching for God in a place that seemed to be void of strength and hope that comes with the Lord.  And when he was actually in a dry place- hiding in the desert from his enemies- he probably felt spiritually dry at that moment.

The world in which we live is sinful and filled with people who do not understand what we are going through as children of God.  We live in a dry and weary land.  As Christians, it can be incredibly difficult to get through a single day without feeling like our hope is fading away.  We search for God, we long for Him, but the anxiety and pain of the world continues to pull us further and further away from that goal.  And that makes it so much more difficult to stay strong in Him. 

The next three verses in Psalm 63 are impacting and thought-provoking.


I think this is beautiful.  Despite the fact that David was alone in the desert, both spiritually and physically, despite the fact that his enemies surrounded him, and I'm sure that he felt void of hope, he still trusted God.  He was struggling so hard to find the Lord in this difficult, difficult situation.  Despite all of that, he trusted God.  He had seen God's work before, and He knew that God wasn't going to leave him.  David said confidently, "I will praise You as long as I live." 

How amazing.

As Christians, we should strive to be like David.  No matter what trial we are going through in our own lives, let us strive to praise Christ for as long as we live, because truthfully, His love is better than life, and His security will overcome every struggle we have. 

Psalm 63:7 says, "Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings."