The Least of These
Matthew 25:44
44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Greetings Saints,
Please read the below article, unless you own your home outright you could be one of these people. In Wichita it is too bad the churches are not doing what they are supposed to, this problem is not a government problem but a spiritual one.
When Messiah came he said some things like is recorded in
Matthew 11:4
4Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
Messiah spent his time traveling around to the poor preaching the gospel he even made sure those that heard him were fed as all of you I am sure know about Yeshua and the fishes right?
He even warned us what would happen when He the King would return and how we would be judged, example?
Matthew 25:31
31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
You know I complain about people not using the whole Word of God but alas they do not even do what Messiah says in the New Scriptures. In order to be saved we have to be doer’s of the word, we cannot just say I am saved then sit down on the couch.
I mean when is the last time you got up and instead of asking God for this or than asked him WHAT Can you do for him today? You see that is the point as it shows here, love thy neighbor as thy self. It is one thing to say but you must be a doer of the word.
James 1:19
19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Luke 6:43
43For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 44For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. 46And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 47Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
So are you a doer of the word? Is your church? Does the church you attend encourage you to spread the gospel to the poor? Do they call the poor in for service? Just opening doors does not count they are supposed to be as Messiah was and go to where the sinners are at. They is many clear passages in the New Scriptures that speak of this.
Do they have people going to the hospitals and jails? Instead of building programs do they have building the kingdom programs?
Do they feed the hungry? Paul said he gave everything he had to the poor, Messiah said sell all and give to the poor and follow me, word after word on and one the gospel is centered around the Love of the Father and Love of Man Like Yeshua said: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
He Also says judge them by their fruits? I hear from many on the net about this ministry or that ministry, but man if those ministries or churches are adding people to the kingdom are the complainers making disciples of all men? Have you helped anyone to be saved to know the King?
Sound harsh? I am just showing you how the church and the people that are supposed to be saved are falling down.
So say well I donate and pay tithes as I cannot go out and do this for one reason or another? If the church or ministry you are supporting does these things then you did well, but remember you have personal responsibility to help others by showing love and kindness, talking about your savior Yeshua Messiah, or the translation Jesus Christ….
One more scripture then I pray you read the article below.
James 2:14
14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
People say, I do not know what the Lord’s will is in my life it is simple, Love him first and Love your neighbor second, I just showed you what the Lord’s will is in everyone’s life, accomplish these things and in the time of trouble the saves places to be in in the Lord Yeshua’a will…… I know I am are YOU?
Lift us in prayer and help if you can, we are in great need of people to support what we do, of course if you are doing it on your own all the better, but anything will help.
In His Perfect Peace, Pastor Dan Catlin
11/17/05 The Love of Many Shall Wax Cold Pastor Dan and wife Sister Linda Website Listen
——————————————————————————–
DO NOT FORGET THE OVER 200,000 VETRANS ON THE STREET!
——————————————————————————–
US Housing Crisis Pushing Up Homelessness
by Sherwood Ross
Global Research, February 1, 2009
Every Christmas season a large electric star visible for miles is illuminated on a mountainside overlooking Bethlehem, Pa., to commemorate the time the holy family of Christianity took refuge in a manger on the night of Christ’s birth.
This past Christmas, this city of 71,000—whose principal landmark is the rusting remains of the once thriving Bethlehem Steel Corporation—was unable to shelter its own growing number of homeless families from bitterly cold weather.
As in the New Testament account, there was no room at the inn for some and the city, citing “liability issues,” turned down requests to house the homeless on freezing nights in its jail or in the parking garage under City Hall.
“Here is what we are facing in the Lehigh Valley,” writes Marcie Lightwood, a social worker at Trinity Episcopal Church in the local Morning Call:
“Thousands of jobs have been lost in the past six months. When this happens, renters (and some homeowners) have two or three months before they get evicted. Then they may have another month or two of living in a vehicle (if they have one) or sofa surfing with friends and relatives. If they had foresight, they got on one of the waiting lists for one of the shelters, which are full…” The churches alone, she notes, can’t do it all.
“We also have the chronically homeless, people whose income will never allow them to pay rent, who may have had mental illnesses, substance abuse or criminal histories.” And she warns many others “are fast approaching homelessness.”
Bethlehem is no isolated example. As Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless and reporter Lizzy Ratner write in the February 9 The Nation magazine, “Long before subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and the most recent stock market crash, the United States was in the grip of the longest period of sustained mass homelessness since the Great Depression.”
Even as George Bush’s war of aggression forced 4-million Iraqis from their homes, triggering what the United Nations termed a “humanitarian crisis,” there were nearly as many Americans, 3.5-million, including 1.4 million children, “that experienced homelessness in the course of a year,” Markee observed. Surely, their plight also qualifies as an “humanitarian crisis,” yet public indifference left many, as in Bethlehem, to sleep in the cold.
“As people have lost their paychecks, or as the homes they were renting were foreclosed—most of today’s homeless foreclosure victims are renters who were evicted, even though they paid rent, because their landlord had not kept up with the mortgage—their tenuous grip on stability has slipped away,” Markee wrote.
Last year, 3.2-million foreclosures were filed nationally, the magazine said, and Markee predicts “the number of homeless families will likely continue to spike.”
According to the Los Angeles-based Institute For The Study of Homelessness and Poverty, Los Angeles leads the nation with 91,000 homeless, followed by New York City with 48,000, Detroit with 14,000; Houston with 12,000; and San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia, all with about 6,000.
Markee traces the homeless surge back to the early days of President Reagan who “set about systematically dismantling federal housing programs, (and) slashing funds for federal rental vouchers and public housing. He also initiated the shift in federal low-income housing policy away from subsidized development to tax-credit programs, which fail to help the poorest families.”
And even as President George W. Bush “made a show of doling out small increases to the homeless services budget (though never enough to meet the need),” Markee writes, his administration “hacked away at public housing, Section 8 vouchers and other housing programs, undermining any attempt at reducing family homelessness.” The housing expert added that since 2004 funding for affordable housing programs declined by $2.2 billion.
Bush’s mean-spirited Federal philosophy has been echoed nationally by cities that enacted laws to criminalize the homeless by arresting them for panhandling or even sitting, eating, and sleeping in public places. Some towns even ticket them for trivial offenses. “When you are giving out trespassing and jaywalking tickets to homeless people, it’s just harassment,” Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate in Las Vegas, Nev., told The Review-Journal.
Apparently, a good many people regard the homeless as drifters and bums. House The Homeless, an Austin, Tex.-based advocacy non-profit, however, found 38 percent of the Austin homeless are employed. “Presently, there are over one million minimum wage workers experiencing homelessness on an annual basis,” HH reports. “The current minimum wage structure does not elevate the minimum wage worker to a level where they can afford basic housing and other core necessities of life.”
Although a majority of the Austin’s 4,000 homeless are unemployed, 89.7 percent told HH that they want to work but gave health issues, disability, or inability to find work as barriers. Twenty-three percent said they are veterans.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition, with 40 other policy groups, is urging Congress to enact a $45 billion proposal to create permanent housing with support services for the mentally ill and to provide housing vouchers or low-income housing to homeless families. According to The Nation, the plan calls for a minimum of 400,000 new rental vouchers as well as a $10 billion infusion over two years in the recently created National Housing Trust Fund—“a move that would jump-start construction of badly needed low-cost homes.”
The plan also urges expanded aid for foreclosure victims, $15.4 billion to upgrade and improve the energy efficiency of neglected public housing, and to devote $2 billion to homelessness prevention. “Taken together, these initiatives will help more than 800,000 vulnerable households and create more than 200,000 jobs,” Markee writes.
“Cleaning up the wreckage of three decades of failed federal housing policy will take more than one stimulus,” he concludes, as “these measures are just the beginning of what’s needed. But if change is the order of the day, dismantling the Reagan-Bush legacy of modern homelessness would be a promising way to start.”
Sherwood Ross formerly reported for the New York Herald-Tribune and the Chicago Daily News. He currently directs a public relations firm that serves colleges, non-profits, and publications. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com
Sherwood Ross is a frequent contributor to Global Research
