Thought on Haiti

I have been sitting here thinking and praying deeply about what has happened to Haiti. So i wanted to give you all some thought on what we as Christians should be doing.

First off let me throw out some facts about this earthquake that you may not have herd.
• quake struck on January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.
• The 7.0 magnitude quake's epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants
• 3 million people are in need of emergency aid after major earthquake
• The major quake sent 33 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 4.2 to 5.9
• Fear Hundred of Thousands of people may be dead

So what are we as followers of Christ supposed to do? First lets look at scripture.

Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age"

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

First I think it is important to understand that scripture does call us to go to the ends of the earth and to make disciples. To us as Americans we need to understand that Haiti is the "Ends of the Earth" as it says in Acts 1:8. We as "Christians" need to understand that if we are not going and making Disciples we are out of Gods will for our lives. The final command God gave us before leaving this earth and going up into heaven was for us to go out and be his witnesses.

Acts 2:44-45 "All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need"

The context of this verse is that it is right after Pentecost and the believers are meeting together everyday and learning from the apostles. These verses come to my second point in that we should be giving to those in need. Scripture talks a lot about giving to the poor and those in need and i picked out this one verse because it is talking about the church. We look at a place like Haiti and we should know that they are in need and we should be willing to help in whatever way we can.

I look at my life and I am a college student (which means poor in American terms) but I am honestly very blessed. I have payed off my rent until June and only have a small cell phone and insurance bills to pay. If i break down how much money I have left over each month after these bills i have plenty of money to be able to give to help out.

Understand I am not some kid who is well off whose parents give him everything, I pay my own bills and work to be able to pay my bills. And I have to admit that I have to much, I own over a hundred DVD's have lots of possessions that honestly are meaningless. I think we are all in this boat, even if we say we have nothing we honestly have more then most people in other countries understand. A few more quick facts

- According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
-Number of people in the world living on less than $2 a day: 3 billion
-Number of people in the world who went hungry last year: 852 million
-Number of people in the world who are going hungry this year: 854 million

I wrote this to hopefully make you think about some of the things I have been thinking about. We are called to go and to help those in need, so during this time let us pray about what it is God wants us to give. For some of us he may ask for surrender, others he may ask to give everything we have to help those in need, and others he may tell you to go and help. Let me leave you with one final scripture to ponder on

1 John 3:17-19 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him