Poverty, Injustice and the Environment
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 27 Feb 2011 in From Steve's Study ::
Three huge issues! These are the issues we will be tackling at this year’s Weekend Away.
In my reading and research this week, I was shocked to hear that 1.2 billion people in the world live on less than a dollar a day. Now of course, food etc in the developing world is much cheaper than here, I thought, so perhaps $1 would buy much more there. However, this statistic is adjusted so that it is actually describing what it would be like if we had to live on $1 a day here in Australia. Imagine only having $1 to pay for all the food, health care, clothing, housing, schooling that you would need in a day! Yet that is how 1/3 of the world’s population live.
Of course, we cannot hope to understand all the complex issues that surround these areas, but we do hope to be able to start a conversation that will help us to see what we, as Christians, can begin to do about them. We also hope to be able to come away with some very practical actions that we can all be involved in. To help us achieve this we will look briefly at the problems themselves & then at what the Bible has to say about each of these issues.
It seems to me, that our response to each of these major issues must flow out of Jesus’ command to love one another. Of course it is easy (and more comfortable) for us to sit back and just allow our lives to go on as they always have. However, in doing this, we become complicit in the every-growing struggles faced by the majority of the world’s population. It is simply unloving for us to sit back and ignore their pain.
Of course we cannot hope to solve these problems on our own, but they will certainly not be solved if we do nothing. So, let me encourage you to read, think and pray about how you can act in ways, no matter how small, that express your love for the poor and marginalized in our world. For those who weren’t able to come away with us, please grab one of those who did and talk about some of the ideas that have come from the weekend. And for all of us, let’s begin to pray as a matter of urgency that God would help us to act in ways that show the love of Christ to all people, not just those we see each day.
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