by Evangelist Ella Townsend

Once there was a little city, and only a few men lived within it. And a great king came up against that city, and besieged it, and built a great bulwark against it. Now there lived in that same city a poor man who was very wise, and he by his wisdom he delivered and saved that city, yet, no man in that city even remembered to help that same man, who was poor.

What do you have that wasn’t given to you? It is the Most High God of Israel, who makes one poor and another rich. It is He who brings one low and another high, it is He who exalts one to success and brings down another from success. It is He through His marvelous mys-terious ways and wonders to preform, that He has chosen the foolish things of this world to express His power and love by confounding the wise and the rich of this world. It is God’s perfect LOVE that is to work through us, His creations, whom He has chosen to lift up in high places, those whom He has chosen to exalt with much ad to be His helping hands, in order to help bring the poor and needy and the homeless, up from the dust heaps, and lift the beggars from off the streets.

Have you not heard?: The poor will be with us always” Do you not know?: The poor will never cease from out of our land? Therefore, we who are the have’s, are to open our hands wide to our brothers and sisters who are the have not’s, those who are the poor and needy, and homeless and helpless in our land, willingly providing them with those things that will meet their spiritual and personal needs, whatever the need. Thus, giving them hope through our love and kindness with grace. For what does it profit our brother or sister who has a need, and is destitute of daily necessities such as , food, shelter, and clothing, for you to say to them, “God bless you, go in peace, be warm and filled”, but you do not give them the things they have need for their body?

The poor and needy, and the homeless, are reviled and all manner of evils are said and done against them. They are hard pressed and troubled on every side, many are crushed, and perplexed, and many are in despair, and persecuted. Yet, God has not forsaken them, nor has He cast them down, and they still remain unconquered or destroyed, for God has so decreed that the poor and needy will be with us always, and has charged us to help in caring for them.
LOVE: What is the truth about LOVE? The truth of love is that it lies within what we say and in what we do in our conduct and behavior toward others. The nature of LOVE has been imputed in us, it was given to us as an inheritance as part of our nature and characterist from God, whether we show it forth or not. If someone says, “I love God”, and hates the poor and needy, he is a liar. How can you say you really love God, when you see people daily begging on the street, and you do nothing to help them? How can you say God is in you, and that you love God whom you have not seen, and yet, there is no time for you to stop to offer a helping hand to your brother and sister on the street, whom you see daily? Is this how we LOVE our neigh-bor as ourselves works, by rendering lip service, as a sayer? Should we not be freely giving as workers who are doers of LOVE, with true hearts service as a reflection of God’s LOVE inside of us?. Love your neighbor as yourself, our neighbor is that man or woman or child on the streets who is in need of your helping hand. Search me O, God and know my heart!

JUSTICE: The test of the sincerity of the love in our hearts defines JUSTICE! To execute true JUSTICE is to show grace, mercy, and compassion as Jesus did toward the multitude of people whom He feed. JUSTICE defends those who are bowed down in anguish, it does not afflict troubles on them. JUSTICE delivers the poor and needy and homeless from the hands of hardships, and views poverty as an evil enemy of society. God through His LOVE for us became poor, so that we through HIS poverty might become rich, and He shut the mouth of “INJUCTICE” forever on our behalf, thus, giving us eternal hope. Lest anyone should boast. Even so, the breath of your very life, is given to you daily by God, who justified us by giving of His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ on the cross. Has JUSTICE turned back? Does righteous-ness stand afar? Has truth in LOVE fallen in the streets, leaving equity with no hope or place to enter? A false balance is deception. Search me, O, God and Know my heart.

Moreover, in that great day of judgment of the nations the Lord will say, “Depart from me you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For when I was hungry, you gave Me no food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take Me from the streets; I was sick, and you did not visit me; I was naked, and you gave Me no clothing for My back; I was in prison, and you did not pray for Me.” Notwithstanding, those who are full now, may one day lose what they think they own, and will have a need to hire themselves out for food and shelter. And those who are poor now, may one day cease from being poor, and needy, and homeless, and have more than those who could have taken time to lend a helping hand. True LOVE and sincere JUSTICE are deeds not only during the Holidays, but year round… Search me, O, God and know my heart!

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!… the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.