SHOWING COMPASSION
By Pastor Mark Taylor
This past week I was with a group of people who showed compassion. A group of 30 of us took a week of our lives and paid our ways to the country of Honduras, one of the poorest countries in Latin America. We were doing what our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ did while He was on the Earth.
"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things." (Mark 6:34)
We raised money ahead of time and sent enough down to Honduras to buy over 700 bags of food to deliver to hungry and poor families. This feed over 5,000 people for several days who would not have had food if it were notifier the compassion of this group. This group consisted of several teenagers, married couples, single young adults, middle aged and senior citizens who decided this week to show compassion. The group also took many suitcases of clothes, medicine, and toys to these families. The money for the food came from a variety of churches and individuals who could not come but wanted to help. They were as much involved in being a blessing to those we reached as we were in delivering the food.
“He that has pity upon the poor lends unto the LORD; and that which he has given will He pay him again” (Proverbs 19:17).
We participated in several worship services in which people were baptized and others were encouraged to stay faithful in their service to our Lord Jesus. We prayed with sick people and gave money toward buying a wheel chair for a person who had a crippling disease.
in Mark 8:2, we hear Jesus say, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat." It can't be overlooked that while the Lord may be primarily interested in spiritual nourishment for the soul, He was not unmindful of the needs of the body as well.
God blesses us in order that we may be a blessing to others. All of us have been given something that we can share with others. If we don’t take the opportunities we have to be a blessing and squander or hoard these for ourselves, they will eventually be taken from us. Sometimes we think if we do something for somebody else we will run short ourselves. Proverbs 28:27 says, “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing.”
The Lord asks us to give compassion on those who may not deserve it, because we did not deserve His compassion. When a woman is caught in the act of adultery, she is brought before Jesus. Jesus said “neither do I condemn you.” (John 8:1-11) All of us have asked God for compassion when we have failed Him. King David prayed in Psalms 51:1 “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions.” He has blotted out our sins by his compassion! “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.” (Psalms 30:18).
The life of a Christian from God’s perspective is to be a life of service, worship, and praise. We are called to serve. We will be judged by our willingness to help those less fortunate than we are, those who have been cast down, or have been orphaned by society. We will be rewarded by willingness to help those who are spiritually, physically and economically handicapped. God has not called us to focus on ourselves, but has called us to “do unto others, as we would have others do unto us”.
If only we had known that helping others was helping Jesus. If only we had known that serving others was serving Christ. How differently we would have lived our lives!"
Well, now you know.”
