What if Christians Could End Poverty? Would We Do It?

(Image courtesy Wikimedia, public domain.)

Anywhere you go--on any street, highway, and back road--you'll see church buildings. Sometimes several on one block. In an earlier three-part blog post on tithing, I discovered that as little as 0-8% of the money we give to our local houses of worship actually goes to help the "orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27), despite that the New Testament does not teach that Christians need to tithe--rather, they are primarily supposed to use their wealth to help the widow, orphan, and foreigner. Instead, though, we've consumed our own resources, spending them on church buildings, clergy salaries, and programming that mostly serves us.

So, now, as I drive past all these churches, I can't help but wonder how much we've spent on ourselves and, if we were to spend that amount on the needy people of the world, would it make a difference?

According to The Borgen Project, it would cost us $175 Billion per year for 20 years to end global poverty. Get that? GLOBAL poverty, not just poverty in the US or Canada.

According to the article, 14 Church Statistics You Need To Know for 2020, by Reach Right, despite reduced church attendance, "Donations to churches and other types of religious organizations rose by 3.3% in 2019 to $131.5 billion. This number is in the United States only.

So, Americans are giving $131.5 Billion and the worldwide financial need is a mere $43.5 Billion more. What does that tell us? That if ALL believers worldwide stopped paying for church buildings and clergy salaries, we could end poverty... for EVERYONE.

Granted, this is a rather simplistic perspective. Since poverty is a multifaceted problem, which includes a variety of cultural and social phenomena, it's a bit naive to assume just throwing money at the problem would solve it. True enough. However, if Christians:

... no longer just slapped a check in the plate

... stopped passing God's command to help the poor onto others

... set aside our religiosity (that is so often used to disguise our sin)

... learned to personally reach out to real people in the midst of their pain and suffering

... learned to trust the Holy Spirit to use us to meet the needs of others

... and used our resources--not just our money, but also our compassion, time, skills, wisdom, and grace--to show this severely hurting world God's love and mercy, we wouldn't just have the power to end poverty. We could end human trafficking, pornography, abortion, jail overpopulation--and a host of other terrible things.

But would we?

Or are we too dedicated to doing things the way we always have? Is it too easy to simply show up at a nice building, listen to a religious performance, shake hands with a few respectable people, place our 10% in the plate, and go home feeling like we've done our Christian duty?

How God Turns Places of Fear to Places of Blessing

"The Lord said to Cain, 

'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  

If you do well, will you not be accepted? 

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. 

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.''  

Genesis 4:6-7

    These are the words God said to Cain shortly after Cain killed his brother, Abel. This was the first murder, and it was a cold, calculated act against an innocent person. Yet, though God holds Cain responsible for his choice, He does not turn on Cain or abandon him. He speaks to him, offers wise counsel, and even puts a mark of protection on him. God has shown this characteristic before, with Cain's parents, Adam and Eve. Though they suffered the natural consequences of their sin, God did not abandon them, either. He still spoke to them and cared for them by making clothes for them to wear. (Genesis 3:21)

Sin is Crouching At the Door

    But there is something just as valuable to be learned from this passage, and it is an insight that is often overlooked. In fact, I've not heard it taught elsewhere, as it requires an understanding of the cultural significance of the phrase: "...sin is crouching at the door." 

   Moses recorded this tale from the oral traditions of the Hebrew people. At the time Moses lived, among the Mediterranean people groups, there existed a particularly interesting superstition. The pagan people of that region believed that evil spirits congregated at the doors of people's homes--at the threshold--and waited there to attack any who dared linger there. For this reason, Mediterranean peoples considered it bad luck to step on the threshold and, in fact, were very careful to step over it entirely. They moved quickly, so as not to draw the negative attention of any spirits who might be crouching in the shadows.

  The description here of God's words to Adam reflect the ingrained fears of the people who would be reading and meditating on this story. God is meeting Cain at the lowest point of Cain's life, but He is also warning Cain of the dangers in the world--not just evil spirits, but Cain's own evil desires. Moses's description would have been particularly powerful to his hearers--a sound warning to beware of the forces in the world that seek to destroy us. 

The Significance of the Mezuzah

   However, the Bible is not a simple, flat text. One verse or passage cannot encompass all that God is or His entire plan for humankind. It is an unfolding tale of hope and redemptive grace in the face of fear and despair. This passage shows one side of the story. The other side comes much later--also meted out through Hebrew tradition. 

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up. 

Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Genesis 6:4-9 (emphasis added)

    That command to write this promise on their doorframes is something practicing Jews have taken seriously for a millennia. They attach a small, narrow box, called a mezuzah, to their doorframes, within which is a tiny scroll bearing the words: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." I've heard that it's tradition to kiss one's fingertips and then touch the mezuzah upon leaving for the day and upon returning. This small act of reverence indicates that God is central to all they do, both indoors and out.

    God commanded His people to always remember that He is to be first and foremost in their hearts and minds--in their getting up and lying down, in their coming and going. So though the people around them have traditionally feared the threshold of their homes as a place of fear and curses, the Jewish people see it as a place of remembrance of the love and blessings of their Heavenly Father. This is just one more way the Jews have been "set apart" as God's people--to be a witness to those around them of God's goodness. (Deut. 14:2)

   Another biblical example of how God has made the threshold a place of peace and protection is in Exodus, at the time of the first Passover. When the angel of death was passing over the land and putting all the firstborn sons to death, God instructed His people to butcher the sacrifice lamb, dip a hyssop branch in the blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts. When the angel of death saw the blood, he passed over that home and did not harm anyone inside. (Exodus 12:1-30)

   

The Things that Make Us Tremble

    What are the places in your life where you experience the most fear? What is hiding at your door, crouching in the darkness, waiting to leap out at you and destroy you? What are the rooms of your life you're afraid to enter and be fully present? 

Your marriage?

Your relationships with your children?

Your sexual identity or desires?

Your trauma?

Your abuse? 

Your addiction?

Your loneliness?

Your future?

Your finances?

Your grief?

Your health?

Your death?

    What makes you tremble when you think of it? What do you avoid? What places do you move quickly through, refusing to linger? 

God is Not Afraid of the Dark.

   No matter how terrifying certain areas of your life are to you, they do not scare God. He has already conquered them on your behalf, and He wants you to invite Him into those places and learn to dwell in His presence in those places. He wants to help you conquer those scary places and show you, by walking through those "valleys of the shadow of death," that He is bigger and more powerful than the worst things the world throws at us.

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you.
Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

    What was once a place of fear, God can make a place of blessing. When you place the blood of His sacrifice over the threshold of your life, His protection is also yours to claim. He can give you victory and turn the dark, scary places of your life into places of light and peace.

Remember: 

"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all."

I John 1:5

Should I Experiment With Homosexuality to Find Out if I'm Gay?

Absolutely not. No. Not even once. It's unnecessary, dangerous, and more likely to convince you you're gay than otherwise.

Fact: Your behavioral choices actually remap the physical and chemical structure of your brain. 

That is to say, the chemicals released in your brain during certain activities will strengthen the synaptic pathways associated with that particular activity. For example, if you want to learn to play the piano, you must practice, right? What does piano practice do in your body and brain? It strengthens the "piano-playing synaptic pathways" in your brain through repeated use. The more you practice and utilize those brain pathways, the stronger those pathways become, and the easier it gets to play the piano.

The same goes for everything else you choose to do, including sexual activities and porn use. However, because sexual activity releases such powerful chemicals (dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin), the resulting mental pathway creation happens far faster than with less-impactful activities. That means that even a small amount of sexual pleasure associated with homosexual activities or materials may, in fact, create enough of a homosexually-linked mental pathway in your brain, that you may quickly come to believe you are gay and you may quickly begin to crave those things again. Click HERE for the resource.

Because drug use behaves in an almost identical fashion in the brain, many people can become addicts the very first time they use. The same may very well be possible for one's first exposure to homosexually-produced sexual pleasure (whether with another person or with pornography). If you are able to experience sexual pleasure in a homosexual way, that fact may indeed have the power to instill in you the belief that you are, in fact, gay/lesbian/transgender. That is not true, however. Keep in mind that your body is designed to function in certain ways. When your body is stimulated in a certain way, it may very well react with a release of sexual energy, producing a sense of sexual pleasure; however, that does NOT mean that you yourself are a homosexual.

For example, a woman who is being raped may experience a release of sexual energy--merely because her body is reacting according to its designed biology. That doesn't mean she asked to be raped, enjoyed being raped, or benefited from being raped. Neither does it exonerate her rapist (although that excuse has been used by rapists to avoid conviction.)However, it can mean that she ends up feeling guilty for the rape--as if her biological response somehow means she wanted to get raped or liked getting raped. More on that HERE.

The same emotional and psychological responses are often present in cases where someone experiments with sex or is sexually assaulted by someone of their same gender. Only, in this case, it can make the victim believe that their sexual response is a clear indicator that they must be gay. But the mere experience sexual pleasure in a homosexual way is not enough to make you a homosexual or bi-sexual being. Anyone's body could operate that way merely because our bodies react to certain stimuli. Becoming a homosexual/bisexual/transgender person happens when you choose to make that your identity.

This choice may not happen all at once. It may feel like something you simply grew in to, but it is always coupled with a mistaken understanding of what "makes someone gay." It's not any one thing you do. And it's not what happens to you (in cases of sexual molestation or rape). And it's not even those feelings of sexual attraction that feel like they're coming from inside you. It's when those things become "who you are" to you.

I fully believe that a biologically natural person can experience periodic homosexual attraction without allowing him/herself to give those things too much attention, pursue them, engage in them, or identify with them. Now, I say this like it's easy. It certainly may be very difficult. And it may not be something that one can accomplish outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. However, it is possible, at least, according to many who have walked this path. More on that HERE.

Let me leave you with the following verses:

"Avoid sexual immorality! Every sin that a person can do is committed outside the body, except those who engage in sexual immorality commit sin against their own bodies" (I Corinthians 6:18).

"God’s will is that your lives are dedicated to him. This means that you stay away from sexual immorality and learn how to control your own body in a pure and respectable way. Don’t be controlled by your sexual urges like the Gentiles who don’t know God" (I Thessalonians 4:3-5). 

"Our weapons that we fight with aren’t human, but instead they are powered by God for the destruction of fortresses. They destroy arguments, and every defense that is raised up to oppose the knowledge of God. They capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (II Corinthians 10:4-5). 

"But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong" (I John 1:9). 
  
"I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live..." (Deuteronomy 30:19).