Before I reblog this deeply moving article, let me tell you why by sharing the comment I left at the end of it:
Thank you for this sobering story of reflection and excellent scripture verses.
For decades I have abstained from attending church because they wouldn’t open their doors to the poor and needy.
1) I used to serve food once a week at a local church my family and I attended until the pastor ended the program because someone was in fear about the ladies safety who took turns driving the church van to transport the homeless to the church and back.
2) Churches typically blame their insurance companies for not allowing them to keep their doors open 24×7 to those in need of ministry or place to sleep.
3) A coworker who desperately needed counseling one day, left our office to walk across the street to a church. She got in a side door. When the priest approached her he asked how she got in! She told him and after escorting her out he proceeded to lock the door behind her!
4) When a hurricane struck Florida years ago, my parents and my children (who had been visiting them for a weekend), went to our church (ironically, that my mom cleaned each week of her own good heart, not for money), and they slept on the floor because mom had the key. They needed to stay there because my parents lived in a mobile home. The church found out the next day and kicked my parents and my children out. We were stunned and never went back.
SAD to say! Our churches are NOT serving God anymore. Look at how they closed during Covid!!!
Watching the latest episode of The Chosen actually brought all this back up for me. Jesus would drive many people and pastors out of the churches if He was walking the earth today.
Now, here’s the article:
I quoted this passage a few years ago, but the reference to it being from Eugene Peterson’s rendering of the New Testament only appears at the end. I…
The Bible on the Plight of the Homeless
Integrating the Spirals 