Daily Devotional For Thursday, July 24, 2025
Good morning my fellow Southsiders! We have been looking for some time what it means to follow Jesus. We were saved and called to make disciples – every single Christian. Disciple making involves being part of a community who has the same goal to show love for another and the world Jesus died for on the cross. We do this all for the glory of God, not for numbers or our own glory. This is who we are.
I remember growing up struggling with others around me who were racists and bigoted just because of someone’s skin color. I never understood that, especially from those in an all white church who taught me to sing as a child, “Jesus loves all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they’re all precious in His sight.” I remember one time my all white church was having a revival and our pastor invited a black evangelist. I have never forgotten what he said about him. Intending to make a joke he said this, “If you don’t like him, you can take him out and hang him afterwards.” I was shocked as a teen and embarrassed. How could a pastor, who claims he loves the Lord, say such a thing?
If we go back in time, Christians in churches in the South fought and died for segregation and slavery. These were people who attended church, sang hymns and praises to God, studied God’s Word and were only hearers of the Word, not doers of it. This frightens me because it tells me that we can have good intentions, regular worship, and even studies on the Bible and be blinded to God’s truth in it. This means we all can do all the “Christian” disciplines, thinking we are good little Christians, and still turn a blind eye to evil. All of us have blind spots.
For example, 22,000 children die every day due to starvation and poverty around the world. To personalize it for me, that is 22,000 Emmie’s, our daughter. Today, more than 1 billion people in the world attempt to live on less than $1/day. Another 2 billion attempt to live on less than $2/day. That is 3 billion people struggling to simply live on less than I spend on tea in a local restaurant. Let me add some perspective to this. This means for my one neighborhood, that every single child would die in the next 2 days if they had to live this way. If we are going to follow Jesus to share the Gospel, we cannot turn a blind eye to this. Consider these verses:
- Proverbs 21:13, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, Will also cry himself and not be answered” (NAS).
- Proverbs 14:31, “He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him” (NASB).
- Proverbs 19:17, “He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, And He will repay him for his good deed” (NASB).
Jesus in one of His sermons stressed and gave warning to us about how we treat those in poverty and need. You can read His words in Matthew 25:31-46. Jesus says how we treat those less fortunate than us we are doing the same thing to Him personally. To those who do this, Jesus says on Judgment Day, He will say this to them in Matthew 25:44-46, “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ (46) These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (NASB). We do not care for the poor as a means to acquire salvation but as proof of our salvation. Jesus makes it clear that caring for the poor as a believer should be one of the natural acts of love we do. If we do not have this artesian well flowing out of us for the poor, it may indicate we are not even saved. Jesus made it clear as well as the New Testament that care for the poor is one way we bear fruit. Look at James 2:14-26 and 1 John 3:11-24.
If you are a Christian, then are you aware of what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10? We read this and we see clearly why these kinds of people will never enter heaven. So, why do those who do not care for the poor not enter heaven? The first involves an immoral taboo and sin in the local body of Christ and the second involves conforming to a social norm in the church. We understand how someone who claims to be a Christian but continually ignores the Word of God to repent, that makes sense, doesn’t it?
The same is true for those “Christians” who make the acquisition of wealth, money, and possessions their goal while ignoring the poor. I believe the #1 blind spot in the church in America is materialism. We look back at the years of slavery and ask ourselves, “How in the world did these people who called themselves Christians treat people of color the way they did?” I wonder if 100 years from now, the church of the future will ask, “How could those “Christians” have turned a blind eye to the poor?”
Churches today will spend millions on new buildings with the justification, “We have outgrown our building. We are tired of multiple services. Let’s build bigger.” They can raise money almost instantly for this but very little in comparison to build a church in a poor country. I think Jesus told a parable warning us about what happened to the man who decided to build bigger barns in Luke 12:16-21. I know of churches that raise $9 million, $20 million or more to build buildings for themselves. Members benefit in many ways: they get a tax right off and they get newer facilities – all for themselves. Now I am not against buildings. I have pastored in them. Churches have to maintain, repair and update facilities. Things break, quit working, and become outdated. I know I may have hit a sore spot in some of you or offended you, but all of us have to ask ourselves: does my discipleship, my desire to share the Gospel include the poor?
Now in case you are thinking, “Ok, PK, how about you ?” You have the right to know how the Stanley family is doing this. If I teach it and preach it and don’t live it, I am a big hypocrite. I am not tooting my own horn but letting you know our household models this. Every week money comes out of our checking account and goes to our denominational mission board, the International Mission Board (IMB) to go into their Children's World Hunger Fund. Every month, we give money through Stephen Curtis Chapman's Show Hope Adoption Fund. This provides money to people wanting to adopt a child from a poor country. We also financially support a little girl in Africa in her orphanage through Compassion International. We get letters for her and we write her back. We also buy items for shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child (OCC).At Christmas, we give money to the Baptist Children’s Home and Waccamaw Home For Boys & Girls. This is not our tithe. It is separate and above our tithe to our church.
Assignment: Take a moment and reflect on how you could spread the Gospel by helping the poor, especially poor children. Pray to God how you could do this. Pray how you might adopt a child from a poor country or how you could financially support children with the basic needs and the Gospel. In Luke 12:48, Jesus says this, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (NASB). We have been given much by the Lord in this country. Therefore, He expects much from us as well. The wealth is not ours, but God’s gift to us. We are only to be stewards over it. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it” (NASB). Listen, you are not taking it with you. I have done many funerals and I have never seen a U-Haul in a funeral procession to the grave. So, why not pass it on to those who really need it for the glory of God and the Gospel?
Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 28:27, “Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to help those who are poor with the basic necessities of life and the Gospel. Everything I have is by Your hand. I do not want to build my kingdom, but Your kingdom. Please show me how I can do this for your glory and the Gospel. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly