Biblical Counseling
for Today’s Christian Family
By Rev. Judith T. Lester, B.Min., M.Th.
The Bible contains the timeless Word of God which is as applicable today as it was when it was first written. While times change, the Word of God never changes!
Consider the parables of Jesus. Spoken over 2,000 years ago, Jesus used the parables to help His followers understand spiritual and moral truths.
In the parables Jesus used common everyday events to explain aspects of the kingdom of God. This month, let’s creatively engross our imagination and get a taste of how Jesus often challenged
His followers to think outside of the box. I will use a well-known parable, the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus, contemporize it by using a similar modern scenario to discover how the principles taught in the parable are still relevant today.
Read – Luke 16:19-31:
Every day, an executive of a successful business, who wears nothing but tailored made suits, walks from the parking structure to the entrance of his downtown high-rise office building.
The less than a ½ block walk takes the executive by a homeless man who sits on a bus shelter bench. Every day the homeless man asks the executive if he could spare some change.
The executive ignores the homeless man and is very careful to avoid eye contact with the panhandler.
This modern scenario is very similar to the story of the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus. While the definition of the rich and the idea of homeless may have changed since this Bible story was first spoken; the context has not.
It’s about a person with money who walks by a poor person and ignores him.
Every day the beggar, named Lazarus, sat at the gate of a rich man longing only to eat what fell from the rich man’s table, literally the scraps that were thrown away. Lazarus was not asking for much, only that which the rich man considered as waste.
If the rich man had shared his scraps, it would not have lessened the rich man’s wealth. But even the garbage seemed too much for the rich man to share.
How do you relate to the homeless? Sadly, many regard the homeless as invisible.
That desensitization is an attitude that prevails all across our nation.
Beloved, like many major cities in the U.S., Milwaukee deals with homelessness and through research on this issue, it has been unequivocally established that poverty and homelessness are co-related. A literal homeless person is defined in part as an “individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence
which means the individual or family has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not meant for human habitation; or is living in a publicly or privately-operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements.”1 With the sizable wealth our nation enjoys, it’s very troubling that the unhoused still suffers from a lack of support, and in some cases, resources.
May we pray that our local, state and federal governments continue to look for solutions to the underlying causes of homelessness that will truly help our unhoused neighbors.
And, may we all pray for the widespread apathy towards the homeless and the desperately poor in our society that we do not become insensitive to the plight of our homeless and poor brothers and sisters.
Next Month: The Declaration of Independence
General Disclaimer: The writer has used her best efforts in preparation of this information.
No representations or warranties for its contents, either expressed or implied, are offered. Neither the publisher nor the writer shall be liable in any way for readers’ efforts to apply, rely or utilize the information or recommendations presented herein as they may not be suitable for you or necessarily appropriate for every situation to which they may refer.
This information is for educational purposes only. In some instances, this article contains the opinions, conclusions and/or recommendations of the writer.
If you would like to contact Rev. Lester, write to her c/o P.O. Box 121, Brookfield, WI. 53008.
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