Moved With Compassion!

Rescue those being led away to death;hold back those staggering toward slaughter.If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?Does not he who guards your life know it?Will he not repay each person according to what he [or she] has done?

Proverbs 24:11-12 (NIV)

This proverb shatters the concept that the best way to live is to not get involved, just mind our own business. When God asked Cain, “Where is your brother,” Cain answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (see Genesis 4:9). The answer to that is, he should have been.

The whole message of Jesus’ life is that he did get involved. “When He saw the [people in the marketplace], He was moved with compassion for them, because [he saw that] they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36, NKJV). So the question is, do I? Do you? First John 4:17 tells us “as He is, so are we in this world” (NKJV). We are called to be his arms to hug the lonely, his hands to lift and help the fallen or weak. We are to be his shoulder to cry on when others need comfort. Sometimes we feel like we shouldn’t even try; the world is so needy. But just because you can’t do everything, don’t let that be your excuse to do nothing.

Philippians 2:4 says, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (NKJV). And Jesus said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12, NKJV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

This is a topic I am very fired up about. Are you sitting on the sidelines while the enemy is ramping up his armies and resources? He is holding nothing back in his war against the truth, the innocent, youth, women, and children. God is rallying his people to make a difference.

Will you volunteer at a pro-life pregnancy center, invite an unchurched child to Sunday school, tutor a dyslexic student, reach out to a troubled teen, send a care package to a missionary? Ideas are flooding my head. Won’t you answer the call to stand in the gap and share his love in a tangible way?

One Year Bible Reading

Isaiah 60:1–62:5; Philippians 1:27–2:18; Psalm 72:1-20; Proverbs 24:11-12