Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Missio Dei

Gotta love this, it paints a picture of counter-cultural radical Christian behaviour that should be normal for us!

Steve B
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“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
~ Matthew 6:10
As long as I’ve been a Christian, I’ve noted two things that believers routinely get riled up about. One is the role of the Spirit vs. the role of the Scriptures. Christians seem to fall off one side of the horse or the other on this issue.
Over the years, I’ve watched countless fruitless Word vs. Spirit debates that descended into noise. They are fruitless because both the Scriptures and the Spirit work together. And what God has joined together shouldn’t be separated. When I watch people debate this issue today, I quickly begin yawning.
In the same way, I’ve watched countless Christians get roped into fruitless outreach vs. inreach debates. Some maintain that the church exists for outreach (these churches tend to have a rather thin and spiritually shallow community life). Others object that the church exists for community (these churches tend to be insular and ingrown).
The outreach vs. inreach debate is fruitless because it virtually always ignores two things. (1) That an authentic church will pass through seasons (I’ve discussed the seasonal nature of the ekklesia at length in Finding Organic Church), and (2) There are four chief aspects of the church’s mission on earth, all of which are vital.
It is the latter that I wish to focus on in this post. I almost broke this post up into two parts, but right or wrong, I decided to keep it all together. It will be easier to share that way.Future posts will be shorter.  
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The big sweeping epic of God’s timeless purpose is centered on a bride, a house, a body, and a family. These four elements make up the grand narrative of the Bible. The mission of God—the Missio Dei—is wrapped up with each of them.
God’s mission demands more than a theological head-nod of agreement. It demands practical expression. The Lord wants a people who embody the bride, the house, the body, and the family in every city on this planet.
In this post and the next, we will briefly explore the practical question of what it looks like when a local fellowship of believers fulfills what God is after and His eternal purpose moves from eternity to here.

Communion

As the bride of Christ, the church is called to commune with, love, enthrone, and intimately know the heavenly Bridegroom who indwells her.
Churches that excel in the bridal dimension give time and attention to spiritual fellowship with the Lord. Worship is a priority.
Seeking the Lord, loving Him, communing with Him, and encountering Him are central.
The means of love-filled communion are many: prayer (in all of its forms), meditation (contemplation), worship through song, taking the Lord’s Supper, interacting with the Lord through Scripture, etc.
Such means are not only to be practiced by individual members, but by the church corporately and/or in small groups.
Imagine a church where the members pair off during the week—brothers with brothers and sisters with sisters. They seek the Lord together. Sometimes they will do this in groups of three, four, and more. What are they doing in these groups? They are allowing Christ to love them and they are turning that love back to Him.
They are also learning how to live by divine life. The church lives by the life of Christ. Jesus Christ is the source of the bride’s life. God’s purpose is that Christians live by His indwelling life.
This is something that must be learned and practiced. The bridal dimension of the church makes such living a concrete reality. In fact, this dimension of the church can be seen as the engine that drives all of the church’s activities. It is love from Christ and for Christ that is the church’s motivation, energy, and life.
The bridal dimension of the church is not peripheral. It’s central to the church’s life and mission.

Corporate Display

The church is called to gather together regularly to display God’s life through the ministry of every believer. How? Not by religious services where a few people perform before a passive audience. But in open-participatory meetings where every member of the believing priesthood functions, ministers, and expresses the living God in an open-participatory atmosphere (1 Cor. 14:26; 1 Peter 2:5; Heb. 10:24–25; etc.).
God dwells in every Christian and can inspire any of us to share something that comes from Him with the church. In the first century, every Christian had both the right and the privilege of speaking to the community. This is the practical expression of the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.
The open-participatory church meeting was the common gathering of the early church. Its purpose? To edify the entire church and to display, express, and reveal the Lord through the members of the body to principalities and powers in heavenly places (Eph. 3:8–11).
Today, many churches are stuck with only one kind of church service where a few people minister to a largely passive audience.
But such services do not display Christ through the every-member functioning of His body.
Equally so, they don’t display the Headship of Christ, because He is not leading the meeting by His Spirit. Instead, human headship directs what happens, who participates, and when.
I’ve written on this extensively in my book Reimagining Church. Suffice it to say that every church should have a venue for the free-yet orderly functioning of every member of the house of God whereby each Christian offers spiritual sacrifices to God and ministers to the body.
Through such meetings, God in Christ is made visible and the whole church is built up.
This dimension of the church is not peripheral. It’s central to the church’s life and mission.

Community Life

Properly conceived, the church is a colony from heaven that has descended on earth to display the life of God’s kingdom.
By its way of life, its values, and its interpersonal relationships, the church lives as a countercultural outpost of the future kingdom—a kingdom that will eventually fill the whole earth “as the waters cover the sea.”
God’s ultimate purpose is to reconcile the universe under the lordship of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:20; Eph. 1:10). As the community of the King, the church stands in the earth as the masterpiece of that reconciliation and the pilot project of the reconciled universe.
In the church, therefore, the Jewish-Gentile barrier has been demolished, as well as all barriers of race, culture, sex, etc. (Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:16).
The church lives and acts as the new humanity on earth that reflects the community of the Godhead.
Thus when those in the world see a group of Christians from different cultures and races loving one another, caring for one another, meeting one another’s needs, living against the current trends of this world that give allegiance to other gods instead of to the world’s true Lord, Jesus Christ, they are watching the life of the future kingdom lived out on earth in the present.
As Stanley Grenz once put it, “The church is the pioneer community. It points toward the future God has in store for His creation.”
It is this “kingdom community” that turned the Roman Empire on its ear. Here was a people who possessed joy, who loved one another deeply, who made decisions by consensus, who handled their own problems, who married each other, who met one another’s financial needs, and who buried one another.
This community was living in the presence of the future. It showed the world what the future kingdom of God will look like, when Jesus Christ will be running the entire show.
The church’s allegiance was exclusively given to the new Caesar, the Lord Jesus, and she lived by His rule. As a result, the response by her pagan neighbors was, “Behold, how they love one another!”
We live in a day when the Western church has enshrined rugged individualism and independence. As such, many modern churches are not authentic communities that are embodying the family of God. Instead, they are institutional organizations that operate as a hybrid of General Motors and the Rotary Club.
The spiritual DNA of the church will always lead its members toward authentic, viable community. It will always lead Christians to live a shared life through the Holy Spirit that expresses the life and values of Jesus Christ. In other words, it will live as the family of God.
In this way, the church becomes the visible image of the triune God. By sharing in the communion of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, the church puts God’s love on public display. It becomes His family in the earth in reality.
The family dimension of the church is not peripheral. It’s central to the church’s life and mission.

Commission

When Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, He chose to express Himself through a body to continue His life and ministry on earth. As the body of Christ, the church not only cares for its own, but it also cares for the world that surrounds it. Just as Jesus did while He was on earth.
The pages of history are filled with stories of how the early Christians took care of the poor, stood for those who suffered injustice, and met the needs of those who were dying by famine or plague.
In other words, the early Christian communities cared for their non-Christian neighbors who were suffering.
Not a few times a plague would sweep through a city, and all the pagans left town immediately, leaving their loved ones to die. That included the physicians. But it was the Christians who stayed behind and tended to their needs, sometimes even dying in the process.
One of the Roman emperors, a pagan, publicly lamented that the pagan temples were losing customers because “the Christians not only take care of their own needy, but ours as well!”
The book of Acts and the epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and John abound with examples and exhortations of how the church cared for the world. This particular theme is peppered throughout the New Testament documents. (Quoting all those texts would demand another book.)
In short, the early church understood that she was carrying on the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. She well understood that He was the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).
That ministry is enunciated in Luke 4:18–19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We meet it again in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”
Throughout His ministry, Jesus showed what the kingdom of God was all about by loving outcasts, befriending the oppressed, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, caring for the poor, driving out demons, forgiving sins, etc.
If you peel back His miracles, the common denominator underneath them all is that He was alleviating human suffering and showing forth what the future kingdom of God looks like.
When Jesus did His miracles, He was indicating that He was reversing the effects of the curse.
In Jesus’ ministry, a bit of the future had penetrated the present. Jesus embodied the future kingdom of God where human suffering will be eradicated and there will be peace, justice, freedom, and joy.
The church, which is His body in the world, carries on this ministry. It stands on the earth as a sign of the coming kingdom.
The church lives and acts in the reality that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the world today. It lives in the presence of the future … in the already-but-not-yet of the kingdom of God.
For this reason, the church is commissioned to proclaim and embody the kingdom now—to bring a bit of the new creation into the old creation, to bring a piece of heaven into the earth—demonstrating to the world what it will look like when God is calling the shots. In the life of the church, God’s future has already begun.
This dimension of the church’s mission has to do with how she displays the Christ who indwells her to those outside of her. It has to do with how she expresses Christ to the world.
Jesus fulfilled the mission of Israel in His earthly ministry (Gen. 18:18). But since His resurrection, He has commissioned the church to continue that mission.
Hence, the church exists to fulfill Israel’s original calling to be a “blessing to all the nations,” to bring “glad tidings, good news [the gospel] to the poor” and to be a “light to the world” (Gen. 22:18; Isa. 49:6; 52:7).
The church stands in the earth as the new Israel (Gal. 6:16). And she shows forth that the Jesus who walked this earth is the same Christ who has taken up residence within her members.
This dimension of the church is not peripheral. It’s central to the church’s life and mission. 

Summary

So how does a local church carry out the Missio Dei . . . the ageless purpose of God?
Very simply: by loving the Lord Jesus as His bride and learning to live by His indwelling life (communion).
By edifying its members through displaying the Lord Jesus as functioning priests in God’s house and as participating members of Christ’s body (corporate display).
By living a shared life as the family of God, visibly demonstrating what the kingdom of God is like to a broken world (community life).
And by expressing God’s image and exercising His authority in the earth—the very things that the first Adam was charged to do in the garden (commission).
What then is God’s end? What is His grand mission?
It’s to expand the life and love that’s in the Trinitarian Community. It’s to increase the fellowship of the Godhead and reflect it on earth. This is the goal of evangelism. This is the goal of all of the church’s activities.
This is God’s dream, His eternal purpose. To obtain a bride, a house, a family, and a body that is by Him, through Him, and to Him.
The kingdom of God, which is the equivalent of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, is toward that end as well. This ought to give us a new view of the church and of God’s mission for the planet. And that view should lead us to a complete recalibration of how the church expresses herself in the earth.
As I have said elsewhere, God’s ultimate purpose begins in Genesis 1 before the fall, not in Genesis 3 after the fall. Failure to understand this has been the fundamental flaw of evangelicalism and much of the modern day missional movement.
To meet the beating heart of God, we must go back before the fall to discover afresh God’s original intent. Doing so will change everything.
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This post is Chapter 27 of From Eternity to Here
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Frank Viola: Following Your Spiritual Instincts Regarding the Poor

Here's an article from someone I respect; Frank Viola. Frank has really tried to walk the talk, and majors on being a follower of Jesus Christ. See what you think...

Steve B
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Following Your Spiritual Instincts Regarding the Poor

Those who know me well are aware that helping the poor is something that’s very close to my heart. When I cut my teeth on organic church life over 20 years ago, our church began a ministry to the homeless. It was an enlightening experience for all involved, and God used it to teach me many lessons.
Beyond the lessons I learned about the nuts-and-bolts of working with street people, three other lessons come to mind:

* One was that church outreach projects (just like in-reach projects) are seasonal. If they are done out of season, they will bear little fruit. (I discuss the seasons that a Christ-governed, Spirit-led church passes through in Finding Organic Church.)

* Another lesson has to do with following our spiritual instincts versus trying to follow an external command. From the beginning, my ministry has been centered onlearning how to live by the indwelling Life of Christ. We know the indwelling Life of Christ by spiritual instinct. The nature of that Life is love . . . treating others the same way we would want to be treated if we were standing in their shoes. Love, therefore, is how the Life of Christ operates and functions in and through us (see 1 John).

If you are hungry, you want to be fed. If you are thirsty, you wish to be given a drink. If you are being attacked or oppressed, you want someone to stand for you, etc. Therefore, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Like everything else in the Christian life, helping the poor is a response to Divine life. It’s an organic outflow of following Jesus rather than a self-directed, self-energized adherence to an external command.

Unfortunately, bad teaching can cause us to ignore and suppress our spiritual instincts. This is why sound teaching is so vitally important. Sound teaching is designed to awaken us to the Life of Christ within by the Spirit and help us to recognize and yield to our spiritual instincts.

One of the things that separates the Old Covenant from the New Covenant . . . and Old Covenant living from New Covenant living . . . is that those under the New Covenant have the Spirit of God within them. Consequently, Christians follow the Lord’s indwelling Life (which will always be in harmony with Scripture and will always embody love) rather than trying to keep the letter of the Law. This is the central teaching of 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 7-8, and Hebrews 8-11. In fact, it’s the central teaching of the New Testament.

“The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

* A closely related lesson to the above is how important the poor are to the heart of God. More on that in a minute.

Last year, Michael Hyatt blogged about Soles for Shoes, which I’ll pass on as just one way to help those in need. I trust that it will not only awaken your spiritual instincts, but give you one practical handle on how to help others in need.

Back in 2008, Relevant Media Group interviewed me on the subject of Christians helping the poor. Here’s the interview with some Scripture texts on God’s heart for the poor added at the end. I hope you find it of help and encouragement. There’s a question for my blog readers at the very end.
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From Relevant
Frank Viola really astounded me with how he kept bringing the conversation back to Jesus. It wasn’t about the trendiness of social justice or even re-inventing cool, new ways to do church. It was all about loving God and allowing our love for neighbor to flow from that. He really made it sound pretty simple, and maybe that’s what makes following Jesus sometimes so hard. He doesn’t fit into any of our boxes; it was a pleasure to glean some wisdom from Mr. Viola, a seasoned follower of Christ.
Here’s the interview with Mr. Viola:
In your opinion, is the Church doing an adequate job of responding to the problem of poverty?
I think some churches are, and some aren’t. Equally so, I think that some Christians are, while some aren’t.
Generally speaking, do Christians in American care about the poor, needy and oppressed? Should they?
I think they certainly should, as this is one of the Magna Cartas of the Church of Jesus Christ as she continues the ministry of Jesus on earth (Luke 4:18–19). Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, make clear that this is very much on God’s heart.
Perhaps the man to ask regarding if Christians in America care about the poor, needy and oppressed is George Barna, since he’s an expert in crunching numbers like that. The believers and churches that I associate with certainly do, but I can’t speak for the rest of the Christian world.
In Pagan Christianity, you and George Barna talk about what Christian “revolutionaries” are doing to spread the message of Jesus in a seemingly unconventional yet effective way. Does this include ministering to the poor-the widows, orphans and beggars of the world?
Absolutely. We dedicate several chapters to exposing the huge overhead costs of religious (“church”) buildings and clergy salaries. For instance, we point out that Christians in America spend over $10 billion a year on church buildings. And in the United States alone, real estate owned by institutional churches is worth over $230 billion.
For the first 300 years of its existence, the Christian Church did just fine turning the Roman Empire on its ear without the help-or hindrance-of church buildings. Just think about how much God’s people could help the poor, the needy and the oppressed if all the money we pour into church buildings (let alone clergy salaries) was redirected to help them. For that reason, the organic churches I’ve worked with and been a part of over the last 20 years have helped the poor and needy in some incredible ways.
Glimpses of God’s Heart for the Poor in the New Testament
Matt 19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.
Mark 10:20-21 And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.
Luke 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Luke 7:20-22 When the men were come unto him, they said, “John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Are you he that should come? Or should we look for another?” … So he [Jesus] replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Luke 11:41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
Luke 12:33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Luke 14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
John 13:27-29  And after the sop Satan entered into him [Judas]. Then said Jesus unto him, What you are going to do, do quickly.  Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spoke this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, “Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.” [The fact that the disciples assumed that Jesus wanted to give to the poor here reveals that giving to the poor was a habit for Jesus.]
Gal 2:10 They only asked us to remember the poor–the very thing I also was eager to do.
Gal 6:10  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
1 Cor. 16:1-4 Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem [a church struggling with poverty]. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.
2 Cor. 8:1-5 Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, 4 begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, 5and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
2 Cor. 9:9-11 As it is written, ”HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER.”10Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; 11you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.
Philippians 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 2:5-7 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
James 2:15-17 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Glimpses of God’s Heart for the Poor in the Old Testament
Psalm 9:9-10,12,18 The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; 10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. 12 For He who requires blood remembers them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted. 18 For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
Psalm  10:12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted.
Psalm 12:5 Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.
Psalm 22:24, 26 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from him;  26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!
Psalm  68:5-6, 19-20 A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. 6 God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. 19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. Selah. 20 God is to us a God of deliverances; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.
Psalm  69:33 For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise His who are prisoners.
Psalm  72:4, 12-14 May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has no helper. 13 He will have compassion on the poor and needy, and the lives of the needy he will save. 14 He will rescue their life from oppression and violence, and their blood will be precious in his sight.
Psalm 73:8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; they speak from on high.
Psalm 74:21 Let not the oppressed return dishonored; let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.
Prov 14:21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy [is] he.
Prov 14:31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.
Prov 17:5 Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: [and] he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.
Prov 19:17 He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.
Prov 21:13 Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
Prov 22:9 He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
Prov 22:16 He that oppresseth the poor to increase his [riches, and] he that giveth to the rich, [shall] surely [come] to want.
Prov 28:27 He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.
Prov 29:7 The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: [but] the wicked regardeth not to know [it].
Prov 29:14 The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.
Prov 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Prov 31:20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
Exodus 23:10-11 Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Exodus 22:22-24 You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Exodus 22:21 You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:9 Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 25:35 Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
Leviticus 25:39-40 If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. 40He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.
Leviticus 19:10 Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 23:22 When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
Numbers 35:15 These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. 18 He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. 19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29  At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow whoare within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. (See also Deuteronomy 15:1-11; Deuteronomy 16:9-15; Deuteronomy 24:10-22.)
Deuteronomy 27:18-19  ‘Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’  ‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
What are some other practical ways you know of or have been involved with in helping the poor?

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