We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

7238087616_35883243a9_z

Speaking of “the Poor”

D. L. Mayfield wrote this guest post on Love is What You Do titled The Language of Poverty. How do we think of and interact with “the poor” on a daily basis? Here’s some good insights should impact our lives as Kingdom people.

From the article:

Words like “the poor” mean something. They are rich, compelling phrases that ask us to stop what we are doing and sit for a minute in the real world. For there is a veil here, one that we have been building up ever since the beginning of time: that the whole world is a set of isolated peoples, far-away issues, unknown and unavoidable tragedies. We are ourselves oppressed by our own world which is manic in its pursuit to ensure us that yes indeed we are happy with things the way they are. But some of us are not convinced. Because, deep down, we know. There is still the divide to bridge, there is still the call for the people of God to rise up and take notice, to welcome, to care for the poor.

Image by Alex Proimos. Sourced via Flickr.

Category:
Tags: ,

Related Reading

The Purpose of the Church

Concerning the preaching of the Gospel, Paul wrote that God’s intent was that “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places … in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord”…

Poor and Black in America

 Marco via Compfight Drew Hart is someone with a rare voice. I’m sharing the bio from his blog in its entirety because I think knowing some of his story gives authority to his words. Drew Hart has been shaped by both Black Church theology and Anabaptist theology. Drew was raised in an African American Church…

Life to the Full

What does it mean to live life to the full? Greg addresses this question in this short video by The Work of the People.  

7 Ways to Join the Kingdom Revolution

In the previous post, I introduced in short form the call to participate in the kingdom revolution that Jesus began. What does this mean for us today? Let me offer seven ways we are called to the Jesus revolution: When Jesus set aside the riches of his divine prerogatives and sided with the poor and…

How We Are Defined

 Burstein! via Compfight Zack Hunt wrote a piece called Abortion, Gay Marriage, Immigration, Gun Control, and the Church over at A Deeper Story. He points out that we have a big problem on our hands when it comes to the ways we have come to be defined by these issues. Christians are primarily defined in…

How Judging Blocks Love

What keeps us from fulfilling the law of love that is exemplified by Jesus and laid out in the Scriptures (Matt. 22:39-40; Rom 13:8,10 Gal 5:14)? In a word, we like to pass verdicts. To some extent, we get our sense of worth from attaching worth or detracting worth from others, based on what we…