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Devotional For the Week 29 August 2005

A World Without Strangers (4)

Scriptural Text: Hebrews 13:1 – 3

Antidote for the World Today

There is a stark and unequal distribution of starvation and poverty in the world today. Why is this so? The main cause is not climatic or economic reasons but selfishness. If the world is not driven by profits, and helping each other is made the primary goal of our lives, then starvation and poverty may eventually be wiped out.

The Calling unto the Church

The Bible says: “Love one another…” We are reminded not only to love those who are known in our community but to love strangers too – as if they were our brothers and sisters. It means to love everybody as one in God’s family.

Jesus never drew lines of love. He loved everyone without prejudice. We should follow His example and go beyond our lines of love.

We are reminded in the Bible to welcome strangers amongst us – “for some who have done so, have hosted angels unawares…”

We are shy or afraid to extend our warmth to strangers. Perhaps we are more concerned about what they will think of us. Instead reverse our thinking, ask ourselves – What will happen to them if we did not extend our help, not what will happen if we helped them.

“Remember those who are in prison…” – those who are captives not only in the physical prison cell, but who are ensnared in the mental, emotional and social prisons. As Christians, we have to continually work for their freedom, for their correct treatment and think and feel as if we are one of them.

A World Without Strangers

The Church – the Family of God exists to model the kind of love God has intended for the world. It is not discriminatory, but one that is passionate and caring.

Let the Church preach, teach, and speak for – and model the kind of Kingdom that will come one day…so that all will have a foretaste and anticipation of His coming.

For after all, it is written in Luke 4.18-19: “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” (Isaiah 61.1, 58.6, 61.2)

If the Church does not point the way – who will?

- Ps Joel Yong

Prayer Response

Father, use me to tell the Good News to the poor and the captives. Open my eyes that I may see strangers as You see them, to love them as though they are my brothers and sisters, for the World to be without strangers begins within me.

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