I posted an excerpt from this article the other day. But I feel the urge to re-post given the facts, urgency and relevancy of the message. So in case you didn’t read it before, please take a moment now.

Painted Soul: God and the Poor (Just One Perspective)

An Excerpt==

“…considering the fact that Americans are suffering untold pain, stress, and tragedy, makes this topic even more timely.  Facts that include:

1 in 5 Americans are Underemployed;

1 in 10 Americans are Unemployed.

“These are not mere statistics.  Far from it, for these “numbers” represent millions of people: Families, Veterans, Children, Single Mothers, hard working Men and Women.

“The numbers are numbing.

“I once attended a ‘mega church’ outside of Philadelphia in the 1980s and they had a million dollar campaign to raise money for a bigger parking lot.  I used to question some of the pastors asking them how could they justify such a thing when less than 10 miles away 25% of the children of Philadelphia were living in poverty?  I received many answers about accommodating the “needs” of the congregation. Since when did a parking lot become a Biblical issue? Not one answer was satisfactory for me.

“Why do we people of faith spend so much time and energy on the things of this world when we are told to only be in the world but not of it?

“How can we ignore the call of God to serve and aid the poor and needy when it is one of THE most written about topics in the Scriptures?

“And why does it take a catastrophe to inspire compassion?”

— Niles Comer, www.paintedsoul.org. Read the full article at this link.