In HOPE

 

 

 

  In HOPE 9.22

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David Timms  

 

 

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 Prayer for Today

Lord Jesus, how often have I passed by You? How often have I walked on the other side of the road and neglected You? Forgive my complacency. Open my heart and my eyes to see You in Your most distressing disguises. Soften my calluses and form me with Your compassion. Amen. 

Hope Happenings

Please continue to pray for our President and his wife -- John & Jane Derry. Mrs Derry has been diagnosed with a stage 3 rare and aggressive cancer. She continues to recover from the removal of an affected kidney and will begin chemotherapy as soon as possible.


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Keeping in Touch

www.growingdeeper.com
Twitter @growingdeeper
[email protected]

“I was hungry and you fed Me, thirsty and you gave Me a drink,
a stranger and you invited Me in, naked and you clothed Me,
sick and you visited Me, in prison and you came to Me.” 
(Matthew 25:35-36)

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His Distressing Disguise

Mother Teresa had no doubt. “[We] are touching Christ in His distressing disguise whenever [we] are helping and touching the poor.”

Her words echoed the plea of 17th century Jesuit priest, Peter Claver, who ministered to the wounded, broken, and brutalized African slaves as their sea-borne hell-holes arrived in Colombia, South America. “It is Christ.”

Our view of the poor, the homeless, the marginalized, the abused, the beaten, and the crushed is often paternalistic. “If they would just ….” “Don’t they know that ….” “Why don’t they ….” Our condescension and complacency distances us from their need and we respond with increasing indifference, disinterest, or disgust.

Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need around us, we toss ten dollars here and there, and then complain about corruption, laziness, irresponsible life choices, and failures—theirs.

And from time to time—very occasionally—just enough to assuage an irritating pang of conscience—we support a charitable cause and ride high on our generosity for a season.

Of course, not all of us are so callused or so hardened.

Some softer hearts and more sensitive spirits find themselves deeply moved by the injustice and brokenness of our world. They pour themselves out with varying degrees of abandon. They serve and sacrifice for the forgotten and the sidelined. They reach out with love and hope. After all Jesus died for the afflicted and the neglected.

But how might we all change, how might we all respond if we saw the down-and-out, the disheveled, the disheartened, the dispossessed, and the dishonored through the lens of the Gospel; Matthew’s gospel?

It is Christ … in distressing disguise. “For as much as you have done it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." (Matt 25:40)

Not for Me, but to Me.

Perhaps when we want to see Jesus, we’d do well to look where we usually close our eyes … and our hearts.  He sits in the slums and skid-rows of this world. He lives in the hovels and the halfway houses. May He heal our blindness.

In HOPE –

David

 

 

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You can find back issues of "In HOPE" (2005-2009) at http://www.hiu.edu/inhope/ .

David Timms serves in the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. "In HOPE", however, is not an official publication of the University and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Administrators or Board. "In HOPE" has been a regular e-publication since January, 2001.