Willing hands and walking feet

"She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy."  Proverbs 31:20
Another repost from 2010...

There she is again...that Proverbs 31 lady.  Was she nearly perfect or what?  Out of everything else she does she has time to volunteer!  She makes a difference to others in her community.  In the online communities I follow there has been a lot of talk about making a difference in the lives of others.  I mean truly making a difference.  Not just sitting around watching distressing things on TV and thinking, "Man, I really hope someone comes along and helps these people."  No, YOU are actually the one making the difference.  What?  Me?  I don't have time for that!  I don't have extra money to give to that cause!  You've gotta be kidding.  God wouldn't ask that of me...but He does.

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.  And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt."

Deuteronomy 10:18-19

What God loves we should love.  He loves, defends, and cares for the fatherless, widows, and aliens.  Shouldn't we do the same?  I think the "alien" here applies to us in New Testament days as someone who doesn't know Christ.  Not a foreigner to our land, but one to our God.  We were aliens to God before we came to know Christ.  He could not accept us as we were into His heavenly kingdom because of our sin.  Therefore, He sent Jesus to represent all of our sin and to provide our acceptance into the heavenlies by His death on the cross.

So what does this mean for us as Christians?  It means that we should love our fellow man and our hearts desire should be to help others in their times of need.  Take the people of Haiti for example.  When the massive earthquake and destruction hit there were people coming out of nowhere to help with money, time, and resources.  Most of them were not Christians.  But what about those that were?  The Christians were able to donate the same thing the non-believers were, but they were able to give something even better--the message of Hope!  The gospel...Jesus!

You don't have to go far away to make a difference in someone else's life.  There are plenty of people in our own towns that need help.  There are soup kitchens, homeless shelters, food pantry's, children's homes, drug rehab centers, and I could go on.

You don't have to be rich or have a lot of time on your hands to make a difference to someone else.  You just have hands that are willing to serve and feet that are able to walk where He sends them.  I don't want to just sit around in my comfortable little life and let the world of opportunity God has given me pass by.  I want to do what Jesus instructed before He was taken back to Heaven to wait for His return!  What about you?

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  Acts 1:8 

Or a translation that we got at World Changers 2009:  You will be my witnesses in Belton (your hometown), and in all South Carolina (your state)and America, and to the ends of the earth.