Day 30 - Who cares about the Poor?

Lord help me give my life to the poor!

Day 30 Who cares about the poor?
Proverbs 29 – I chose to separate this proverb from the psalm readings due to the length and great importance to psalm 119.

We want the righteous to prosper! Why? Lets read this great Proverb 29.
2 When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice;
when the wicked rule, the people groan.
7 The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern.
13 The poor man and the oppressor have this in common:
The LORD gives sight to the eyes of both.
14 If a king judges the poor with fairness,
his throne will always be secure.

Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian in New York has a great teaching on this passage, I believe it is prophetic for the church today.
The righteous person brings joy to all the people because they care about justice for the poor. It is great when you have someone ruling fairly for the poor because the Lord will bless the land since He cares so much for the poor. That is why a nation that has justice for the poor, will be strong.
When we look at a passage we must define terms first in the biblical context. The terms we must define include the word “righteous”, “poor” and “justice”. The reason we must define them is that I believe that many in the contemporary church have defined them according to their own context not the biblical one.
In the Old Testament “Righteous” describes the ones that care and act for God, the poor and forgotten. They are not “self-righteous” religious people. They are people that live in humility, generosity and justice. They will fight for the ones that can’t fight, they will protect the weak and they will tend to the hurts and needs of the poor. For Jesus, the good Samaritan would be considered righteous verses the religious leaders who passed on helping the beaten man would not. When the rich man came to Jesus and asked how can I be truly righteous, He answered “Sell all you have, give it to the poor and follow me.” So a “righteous” person was not one that has theological congruence to Hebrew religion alone but one that had life congruence to Hebrew religion also. It wasn’t an accent to a belief but a living of that belief in practical love to your neighbor.
In contemporary theology, we describe “righteous” in terms of salvation and eternity. “by faith we obtain righteousness through Christ”. So we become “righteous” according to Romans and Ephesians “By grace and through faith”. Since its nothing we do to earn this righteousness, we just believe.
There is a problem when we go and interpret OT passages by Pauline theology, we miss the point of the texts. Yes, salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. No argument there. There is a big BUT though.
The big BUT is that today, we reinterpret those OT passages with a meaning of Roman “righteous”, therefore some would say, “When Christians rule, the people rejoice” or we say, “We are already righteous in Christ, I don’t need to earn in by helping the poor.” Some will say, “faith credited for righteousness is an Abraham concept”. I agree. But a righteous person in the OT acted out his faith by fighting for and giving to the poor.
In addition, we wrongly reinterpret “poor” to mean, “poor in spirit”. So if we believe that if we only help the humble then we are acting in righteousness. We also reinterpret “justice” to mean it in a legal terms only without any daily practicality.
The conclusion is that we end up spiritualizing these passages of the OT without putting them in the forefront of our Christian action. Our Christianity becomes limited to bible study, Sunday church and evangelism. Helping and acting for the poor is left to more “liberal” groups and government agencies. Unfortunately, many in Christianity believe that if they give to an agency that feeds the poor, that is all they have to do – their duty is complete.
Most of our churches keep starting new programs for the church members and nothing for the poor. What about closing down most of our church programs except Sunday morning worship and give the rest of our week to help the poor? Will never happen.

This is some of what helping the poor could be for the church:
1. We must not just feed them but empower them to feed themselves. This requires relationship, commitment and a strategic plan. We should be about helping the poor by training them how to get a job, keep a job and succeed at a job. Job training and finding programs are necessary.
2. Financial literacy and debt consultation. Many of the poor go to “Payday Loan” type of places and pay from 20-40% interest on loans. ITS ROBBERY! We need training of the poor in investing, saving and setting up emergency funds. In addition, we should fight to close down every “Pay day Loan” that takes advantage of the poor. Write letters to our local and state government officials, protest these loan sharks from preying on the poor. How about starting "Financial Peace University" in West Dalals, East Dallas, South Dallas, South Carrollton, East Plano, South Ft. Worth, Irving, Grand Prarie, Farmer's Branch?
3. The poor can’t get loans from regular banks to start businesses. They are not supposed to “redline” the poor but they do. Though they have a desire to start their own businesses they can’t. Go to West Dallas, you can’t find banks there, you have to drive miles upon miles to find a bank.
We must launch fair and sensible “micro-loan” non-profit organizations in our churches for the poor. We have so many bankers in our churches, get them together and brainstorm a strategy for the poor.
4. The poor can’t fight against abuses and neglect by their landlords, utility companies and government agencies. We need advocates to go for them. Can we get our social and legal experts in our churche to target one or two apartment complexes?

5. The education system is failing poor students and keeps the fat cats rich. We must fight for the school districts to get it right. DISD has a drop-out rate of 68% among Hispanic freshman. This is wrong! We must inspire parents and the teens to stay in school and be rewarded for it. (See what LINC NT is doing with schools in Carrollton and moving to DISD soon) Can our churches try to tutor and get involved in public schools?

6. Poor families are being destroyed by society vices and financial pressure. It’s a cycle that keeps hurting kids and families. We must fight for the family, train parents and reconcile relationships. We need our church families to teach these families how to live.
7. The undocumented workers that don’t break laws need a way to become legal that is fair and not impossible to reach. The current system costs thousands and requires expensive legal help. Many of them are abused by employers. We need lawyers in our churches to volunteer some of their time to help them.

There are many things Christians can do, this is just a start. Its time for us to take the Bible in its entirety. When we rule righteously, the people of our land will rejoice.

Lord, help me fight for the poor, help me care for those you care about.