Last year at this time I wrote a seminary paper on what the Old Testament says about the treatment of orphans, widows and the needy, entitled “What Our Treatment of Them Says About Us.”

The foundational verse from the paper was Proverbs 29:7, which states, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”  This verse makes clear that an individual’s relationship to God is demonstrated in his attitude toward the needy.

God’s Word states that a “righteous man” will:

• “share his food with the poor” (Prov. 22:9)
• “lend to the poor” (Prov. 19:17)
• “help the powerless” (Job 26:2)
• “save the arm of the feeble” (Job 26:2)
• “refresh others with his generosity” (Prov. 11:24-25)
• “open their arms to the poor” (Prov. 31:20)
• “extend their hands to the needy” (Prov. 31:20)

Job, who was described as “blameless and upright,” noted, “Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?” (Job 30:25)

But his grief grew into action and he:

• “rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him”
• “made the widow’s heart sing”
• “was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame”
• “was a father to the needy”
• “took up the case of the stranger”
• “broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth” (Job 29)

The video below demonstrates an example of “grief growing into action” on the part of Dominican and American believers together, “extending their hands to the needy.”

Our ability to further “rescue the poor who cry for help, and the fatherless who have none to assist him” is limited only by those who would choose to offer financial support to “helpus2helpthem.”

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/49910789 w=500&h=281]

In 1947, Robert Pierce worked for a religious non-profit organization called Youth for Christ. Its mission was to evangelize the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The young evangelist started toward China with only enough money to buy a ticket to Honolulu. On the trip, he met Tena Hoelkedoer, a teacher. She introduced him to a battered and abandoned child named White Jade. Unable to care for the child herself, she asked Pierce, “What are you going to do about her?” Pierce gave the woman his last five dollars and agreed to send the same amount each month to help the woman care for the child.

Pierce eventually made it to China, where thousands made public commitments as followers of Christ during four months of evangelistic rallies. While there Pierce saw widespread hunger. He felt intense compassion for these people.

Pierce later wrote these words in the flyleaf of his Bible:

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”

Dragging a movie camera across Asia – China was soon closed – Pierce showed the resulting pictures to church audiences in North America. He asked for money to help children. He showed their faces and begged Christians to “adopt” one. In 1950 he incorporated this personal crusade as World Vision.

It was said of Robert Pierce,

“He prayed more earnestly and importunely than anyone else I have ever known. It was as though prayer burned within him…he functioned from a broken heart.”

– From a sermon by Rick Ezell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Greer, South Carolina, entitled “Let Your Heart be Troubled”