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What causes us to give aid to relieve suffering in an "unthinkable situation?"

The Christian's rationale for helping a person in need

Read Eph.2:10

WHAT MADE THE SAMARITAN 
A GOOD SAMARITAN

What In His Name Ministries does and  ~  How we decide who to aid  ~ Abusers  ~ Ministry -What's That ~  Stories of needy persons  ~  Great Commandment.  Tips on what to tell others about IHNM ~  39 scriptures  

~ The Ed Bailey Hope Box

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The culmination of our Christian experience shows us that in this realm we can represent God to others.  Not just to tell them what He did at the Cross, but show  (in our behavior) how we have been changed. We can now look beyond our selves to care more about others. Our response to human need becomes part of our 'witness'..

Because of our faith in the resurrected Christ, and as we study the Bible, pray, and have fellowship with other believers, we become new people. 

The Christ experience 

• makes us more gracious, more forgiving, 

• enables us  to overcome our skepticism about others, 

• makes us more willing to share with another -- even a stranger, whose suffering can be alleviated by my gift.

Many Christians, I fear, believe they are known as a Christian by the church they attend, or by what they do in fellowship with others. Or even by the things they ARE AGAINST.

But these are not our primary means of  identity. 

Christ says we are known by our love. 

Love comes from God and translates into action.   

His beloved disciple wrote, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence."
(NIV)  I Jn 3:17-19

This almost sounds like a litmus test, doesn't it?  We can tell who we are. So can God by what we do in the face of human need.

When Nancy Nutter read on these pages about an elderly cancer patient who was suffering in the August heat in his home, she referred to it as, "an almost unthinkable situation."  She sent $50, then later seeing (on our web) that others were slow to respond, sent another $50 a few days later. 

For one of us to see his suffering as an "unthinkable situation," we only have to pause for a moment, step out of our own agenda and allow God to minister to us.  He will help us "feel" the need of the other and to respond as He would. 

-- Dee Stribling 

The poor will always be here!  

We cannot help each one, but the one(s) we do aid may be God’s ‘choice’ too . . . if we  pray first.