Serving God and the poor sacrificially

I heard something from a group of Christians about their heart for God and the poor. The following is my paraphrase of what they said.

First, what they do.

• Provide vocational training, health, education and community based services
• Personal support for addicts in drug rehabilitation
• Social services for marginalized groups such as the homeless and those living with mental illnesses
• Support children living with disability

Second, their motivation and ethos.

"Serving the poor is the desire of our heart. We seek to follow Christ's example of humility, sacrifice and a self-effacing lifestyle. Serving the poor means for us serving in places where we do not expect to be honoured, acknowledged or rewarded. We believe that in Christ's example, we can sometimes feel being humiliated and trampled on. Our heart's desire is to serve among the poor everywhere."


This attitude is the kind of Christianity I got to know when I came to faith in Christ many years ago, and is the type of Christianity I find in the Bible. I understand that this group of Christians are more than keen and willing to share the gospel whenever they are given the opportunity. They go to remote villages to serve the poor, and make every opportunity to share the gospel with them. Their desire is to live with them and identify with their pain and suffering. I really appreciate this kind of commitment and authenticity in their lives.

Paul as a herald of the Kingdom of God

I am reading Timothy G. Gombis' Paul: A Guide for the Perplexed. Here is a good quote.

"Paul is a herald of the Kingdom of God and of the victory and Cosmic Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is an intensely political vocation, since Paul is proclaiming the emergent reality of a radically new political order— the Kingdom of God—along with an alternative ruler; the crucified, risen, and exalted Jesus. This calling as a herald inevitably involved a pastoral task, since Paul's aim was to see the creation and establish­ment of Kingdom of God communities throughout the world." (page 23)