Seeing a beggar on the street always bothers me.
I don’t know about you, but I always wonder which ones are legitimate, and which ones are shams. I know that both exist. I want to help the former and avoid the latter; the question is how to actually tell the difference.
My wife and I were getting into our car in a parking lot one afternoon, and we happened to observe a lady who had been begging at the intersection roll her wheelchair away from the corner and behind a large tree. Out of interest, we sat and watched her. Once her wheelchair was safely out of sight behind the tree, she got out of the chair! She spent some time walking about, smoking a cigarette. I guess it was time for her afternoon break! She no more needed a wheelchair than a fish needs a bicycle. It was just a prop.
In the weeks before Christmas I saw a man with a small violin playing music outside one of the larger stores in a shopping area. He had the instrument plugged into a small, battery powered speaker. His sign indicated that he had lost his job, and was playing in public to raise the money he needed for his family. I gave him a generous gift that day. Then yesterday we saw a different man in the same place who was also playing music on a violin, and my wife told me about an article she read detailing how some use this as a scam.
It seems that “performers” have been seen all over the nation, setting up in parking lots near large stores and pretending to play music; encouraging passers-by to drop money into their open instrument cases. There are YouTube videos of real musicians showing up with their instruments and calling their bluff. There are news stories posted by local television channels catching scammers and warning notices posted by multiple police agencies attempting to make the public aware.
It’s sad really, because the scammers detract from the ones who really need the money they are begging for.
Today’s verse is about a beggar. That beggar is me.
SINCE GOD HAS SHOWN US GREAT MERCY, I BEG YOU TO OFFER YOUR LIVES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE TO HIM.
I’m not too proud to beg. Sharing the message of the gospel has been compared to one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread. I’m one such beggar. You’re one too.
Now you may not THINK you’re a beggar. You may be reading this and saying to yourself, “I’m not a beggar; in fact, I’m wealthy. I have all that I need and more. I don’t need anything!” That was actually the response of the entire church in Sardis, one of the seven churches that received a direct message from Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation. I’m sure they were shocked at His message.
Jesus told them, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” Oops! They thought they had everything covered, but found out they were naked. Imagine walking down main street and not being aware that you’re naked. That’s embarrassing! They didn’t see what the truth was, but that’s because they were blind. They went from proud to pitiful, from thinking they had plenty to realizing they were destitute. The very things they THOUGHT provided their wealth were useless.
I was in the same boat. On the outside I was handsome, strong and fit. I was a United States Marine. I was an accomplished black belt in karate. I had placed second at the MASTER’s LEVEL of a large competition, beaten only by my own instructor. Some would have looked at my life and thought I had it all. But INSIDE my life was falling apart. Sometimes I could convince myself that all this pain was just part of living life; but most of the time I knew better. Much better. I was a beggar – emotionally and spiritually. I was starving to death, and had no idea where to find bread.
And I was looking.
Personal accomplishment wasn’t the answer.
I had been meritoriously promoted four times in less than two years; which is all but unheard of.
I was still starving.
Physical prowess wasn’t the answer.
I was training Marines in quick and silent kill techniques as we headed to the Philippines to quell a conflict.
I won the shipboard martial arts competition, a series of staged matches among every martial artist on the ship.
I was still starving.
The Bible wasn’t the answer.
I had one, and read it regularly. Some of it made sense in my head, maybe a bit of it touched my heart.
But I didn’t understand most of what I was reading, or how to apply it to my life.
I was still starving.
Even church wasn’t the answer.
I was going to two different church services every Sunday morning; one Catholic mass and one Protestant service.
But I already knew the rules about what was good and what was not. I just couldn’t keep them. The rules didn’t help.
I was still starving.
I found the answer when I found Jesus. Or, to be much more accurate, when Jesus found me.
The answer wasn’t rules, the answer was a RELATIONSHIP.
The only solution that could stop me from starving to death was meeting the one who is the Bread of Life.
I stopped starving when another beggar showed this beggar where to find bread.
SINCE GOD HAS SHOWN US GREAT MERCY, I BEG YOU TO OFFER YOUR LIVES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE TO HIM.
Jesus has shown us — you and me — amazing mercy. He’s searched for us and offered us more than we deserve. He’s offering us everything we need. Like the church in the biblical book of Revelation I mentioned earlier, He’s willing to give us beautiful white garments so that we can be clothed and our shameful nakedness not exposed. Covered with grace and honor instead of shamefully exposed. He’s offering the perfect medicine for our eyes so that we can be healed of our blindness and see. He’s actually offering LIFE !! And we need it, because we’re dead without Him.
Your life for His.
You can give up begging in the streets for a place in the palace.
You can exchange nakedness for covering, lack for abundance.
Most importantly, you can exchange death for life. Abundant life.
I’m just a beggar telling another beggar where there’s fresh hot bread in abundance.
And I’m begging you to listen.
Isn’t it time you stopped starving, too?
SINCE GOD HAS SHOWN US GREAT MERCY, I BEG YOU TO OFFER YOUR LIVES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE TO HIM.
