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How You Can Help Homeless People

By Jeremy Myers
13 Comments

How You Can Help Homeless People

how to help the homeless

There are homeless people all around.ย You live near them, walk by them, and see them almost every day.

But what do you DO about them? What can you do?

If you give them money, will they spend it on drugs and alcohol? Aren’t they homeless because they don’t want to work? Shouldn’t they just go get a job? Isn’t the government taking care of them?

There are so many questions about homeless people. And so few of us have any answers.

Learn the answers to these questions and learn how to love homeless people from someone who spends large amounts of time with the homeless every week.

Learn how to help the homeless

Sam Riviera has been loving and serving the homeless people in his area for many years. I have recently been trying to begin showing love and service to the homeless in my own area, and asked him for suggestions and advice. In response, he wrote 13 blog posts on how to love the homeless.

The stories Sam shares are often heart-wrenching, but more than this, Sam’s deep love for Jesus and how he wants to share this love with those who rarely see it is truly beautiful.

If you have questions along the way about loving and serving the homeless, Sam is quite active in the comments on this blog, and will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

I have been helped by reading these posts, and believe that if you want to learn how to love the homeless in your area by meeting their needs and showing them the love of Jesus, you also will benefit from reading these posts.

And it is super easy to read them all! Just sign up to have them sent to your email inbox. There are 13 emails total, and you will receive a new one every Friday. Sign up below to learn how to love and minister to the homeless.

There is so much need in the world!

And YOU can help.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to love and serve the poor and homeless.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Featured, Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, homeless, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, ministry, missions, poor, Sam Riviera, Theology of the Church

Homeless people are pretty much just like you and me!

By Jeremy Myers
9 Comments

Homeless people are pretty much just like you and me!

homeless neighborWhen I was a kid, “homeless” meant that you had lost your job and couldnโ€™t pay your rent so you took turns living with relatives until you found a job. No one I knew lived on the street, under a bush, or in a tent in a canyon. I had never heard of such a thing.

When I grew up, I got married and moved to California where I discovered that there were people literally living in the street, under bridges, and in the canyons surrounding our city.

One fine summer day I decided to go to my favorite beach to soak up some rays. When I arrived I ran into an old friend I hadnโ€™t seen since the previous year.

โ€œHey Rick. I havenโ€™t seen you around.โ€

โ€œYeah, I kind of fell off the map. I lost my job last fall and couldnโ€™t find another one. I lost my apartment and ended up on the street.โ€

โ€œYou didnโ€™t have a place to live?โ€ I asked.

โ€œNo. I was living in a sleeping bag under a bridge behind the Warehouse restaurant and spending the day in a park a couple of miles away.โ€

โ€œAre you serious?โ€

โ€œYeah. Iโ€™m serious. But it’s worse than that. I almost died in January.โ€

โ€œYou did? What happened?โ€

โ€œRemember that ice storm we had?โ€ Rick asked.

โ€œYes, I remember.โ€

โ€œI was at the park when it started to rain. By the time I got back to the sleeping bag I had stowed under the bridge I was soaked to the skin. I crawled into the bag and got it wet too. The temperature was dropping and it started sleeting. I started shivering and shaking and couldnโ€™t get warm.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s terrible. What happened?โ€

โ€œSometime during the night I passed out. The next morning someone found me under the bridge and thought I was dead. They called the cops, who checked me and found out I was still alive, but unconscious. The cops called an ambulance and I ended up spending five days in the hospital. They told me I almost died. My body temperature had dropped below what itโ€™s supposed to be to keep you alive.โ€

I wanted to cry. How could this have happened to my friend? โ€œRick, you could have stayed at our house!โ€ I told him.

โ€œI lost your phone number. I didnโ€™t want to bother anyone. I thought it would be a temporary thing. When I started sleeping under the bridge it was only getting down in the sixties at night.โ€

โ€œAre you still living under the bridge?โ€

โ€œNo. Someone I know ran into me in the hospital and he helped me get a job at a fast food place. After I worked there a couple of months I found another job in my field. Iโ€™m back in an apartment and doing good now.โ€

โ€œWasnโ€™t there some organization or church that could have helped you when you were on the street?โ€

โ€œThere were these people who fed us lunch every day in the park downtown. Iโ€™m not sure who they were, but I donโ€™t think they had any place for me to get off the street.โ€

โ€œThey fed us lunch? Who is โ€˜usโ€™?โ€

โ€œMe and the other homeless people around here.โ€
Homeless living under a bridge

โ€œYouโ€™re saying there are other homeless people here?โ€

โ€œUh huh. Lots of them.โ€

โ€œWhere are they?โ€

โ€œLiving in the cracks where you donโ€™t see them. Go downtown and youโ€™ll walk right by them. Some of them are dressed a little shabby. Some of them look like anyone else. If you really want to meet some of them, go to the park downtown at noon. Theyโ€™ll be there lined up for lunch.โ€

I was shocked. Homeless people in my town? How had I missed them?

Rick and I spent a couple of hours lying in the sun and talking. That evening at dinner I told Rickโ€™s story to my wife.

After that, we didnโ€™t think much more about it.

A couple of years later a friend asked if I could prepare lunch one day the following week for the homeless. The idea made me uncomfortable. What if I caught a disease from one of them? What would I do if one of them wanted money, or wanted to stay at my house?

feeding homeless peopleReluctantly, I agreed to make lunch for about sixty people. I was about as enthusiastic as I would have been if I had been planning to go to Calcutta to visit the slums. I did not know what to expect when I would actually meet sixty homeless people.

When the day to feed the homeless arrived, the people I met, people who had been unknown and faceless to me suddenly were sitting beside me as we shared stew, bread, and cherry cobbler.

I had expected filthy, stinking drunks with whiskey bottles in their hands and baggies of weed in their pockets.

Instead, the homeless people I met were not that much different from a lot of people I knew.

Some were poorly dressed. Some carried a backpack and sleeping bag. A few had shopping carts filled with their belongings. Several were probably under the influence of drugs or perhaps alcohol. But most of them looked and acted like I thought I might look and act if I were down on my luck.

How can I help people like these? Should I even be helping them? Maybe helping them just encourages them to continue living under bridges. I donโ€™t have the resources to help them get into permanent housing. Shouldnโ€™t the government take care of them?

โ€œThanks man,โ€ one man said after finishing his lunch. โ€œI want to let you know how much I appreciate this. This is the only time Iโ€™ll eat today and you gave me plenty to fill my stomach until tomorrow.โ€ Many of the people who ate the lunch I had prepared said “Thank you, the food was good.” They had good manners, were respectful, well-spoken, and kind.

The homeless people were not that dissimilar to me.

This was quite a shock to me, and I began to ask questions that changed my view of homeless people forever.

How did these people end up on the street?

Do I know people who have ended up on the street?

Do I know people who are in danger of losing their homes?

I thought the poor and homeless lived in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. How many live in my own “backyard”?

Something I had heard somewhere popped into my mind: โ€œIf just a cup of water I place within your hand, then just a cup of water is all that I demand.โ€

I canโ€™t give what I donโ€™t have. But I do have a cup of water and I like these people. Thatโ€™s a good place to start.

I knew that while I couldn’t save them all, and maybe I couldn’t even save any, I could at least give them a warm meal, a cup of water, or a new pair of socks.

But how do I figure out who among the homeless needs the most help? And how can I determine what the best way is for me to help?

In the following posts we will look at how my wife and I along with a few friends have been answering those questions.

Until then, what sorts of questions do you have about loving the homeless? Leave your questions in the comment section.

There is so much need in the world!

And YOU can help.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails about how to love and serve the poor and homeless.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, following Jesus, homeless, looks like Jesus, love like Jesus, ministry, missions, poor, Sam Riviera, Theology of the Church

Sunday Smiles

By Jeremy Myers
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Sunday Smiles

Many people paint a fake grin on their face on Sunday when they enter the doors of their local church building. They are dealing with loads of guilt, pain, fear, suffering, and doubt, but the church they attend does not allow them to show any of these things because it’s not “spiritual.”

So here are a few comics from ASBO Jesus to put a real smile on your face today. Enjoy!

Nice to see you

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship

Do We Only Hope we Have Eternal Life?

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

Do We Only Hope we Have Eternal Life?

hope of eternal lifeEvery so often, I answer Bible Questions and Theology questions that people send in by email. I not only answer them by email, but also try to post the answers on my blog, since I am sure that others might have similar questions.

Question about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is a theology question that a reader sent in last week:

I am a new convert to the truth in God’s word of eternal security, therefore I was once a “conditional” securist but I no longer believe in this false doctrine. However something has been bothering me and I am having trouble understanding it, I have searched your website for the answer and was unsuccessful.

In the book of John in many places it is recorded as Jesus having told us we “have” eternal life now in the present, however elsewhere it the scriptures it seems to say we have the hope of eternal life but we don’t actually posses it.

This has confused me, does the Bible mean we have eternal life now, we just enter into it when we die? Or does it teach that we don’t yet have eternal life, but we will obtain eternal life in the future? The latter one sounds to me like conditional security (which I know we both do not believe in). However I am having trouble with this.

Could you perhaps help me to understand this?

Answer about the Hope of Eternal Life

Here is my answer:

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Theology of Salvation

When You Cannot Pray

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

When You Cannot Pray

cannot prayThough God freely forgives all our sins, past, present, and future, this does not mean that there are no consequences for disobeying God.

One consequence of sin is that it damages our relationship with God and our ability to take things to Him in prayer. Jonah again is a perfect example of this.

One of the curious contrasts between Jonah and the sailors in Jonah 1 is that Jonah, a prophet of God, a member of the chosen people, refuses to pray to God when his life is threatened, but the pagan, idol-worshiping sailors not only pray to their own deities, but also pray to Yahweh when they learn that it is He who sent the storm. While we could certainly chalk their prayers up to โ€œfoxhole conversionsโ€ (though I do not believe they were actually โ€œconvertedโ€), this only amplifies the fact that Jonah himself does not pray! Everyone prays when their life is threatened, but Jonah does not.

Instead, Jonah sleeps. He sulks. He gives half-hearted answers to the desperate cries of the sailors for information.

Why? Because Jonah was in rebellion against God.

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, Discipleship

No Sacrifice for Willful Sin is Left

By Jeremy Myers
347 Comments

No Sacrifice for Willful Sin is Left

sacrifice for sinMany people believe that Hebrews 10:26 teaches that people lose their salvation for willful sin. This passage has perplexed Christians for centuries.

Hebrews 10:26 says that โ€œif we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sinsโ€ (NKJV).

Many people believe Hebrews 10:26 is teaching that intentional, willful sin causes them to lose their salvation. It is sometimes taught that God forgives unintentional sin, but not intentional. That is, if we know something is wrong, and we do it anyway, we lose eternal life because according to Hebrews 10:26, there is no sacrifice that covers willful sin.

Part of the problem with this way of thinking is that there are very few sins which are not willful. When most people sin, they know good and well that what they are doing is wrong. So if Hebrews 10:26 means what some people claim, then nobody has eternal life, or at least, nobody is able to keep it for any length of time.

Furthermore, we have numerous examples of biblical saints who knowingly and willfully commit terrible sins. All the fathers of the faith committed willful sin, include Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So also, some of the best kings of Israel, like David and Solomon, performed terrible deeds of darkness. Even some of the prophets, like Jonah, behaved in ways they knew were terrible acts of rebellion against God. But we fully expect to see all of these people in heaven.

So what about Hebrews 10:26?

Well, it says what it says: there is no sacrifice for willful sin.

And this was true under the Levitical law. If you go through and read all the different sacrifices that are described in Leviticus and Deuteronomy for all the various types of sin, you will see that God never provides a sacrifice for willful sin. All the sacrifices are for sins that were committed in ignorance (since the law was so complex, many people transgressed the law without recognizing it until later), and for regaining purity after something in life caused uncleanness. But if someone purposefully, knowingly, and willfully transgressed the Law of God, there was no sacrifice available to them for such sins.

So was there nothing they could do?

Of course not! They committed willful sins just as frequently as we do today, and God loved them just as much as He loves us today, and God did not want to abandon them to despair any more than He wants to abandon us today. So what avenue was available to people who committed willful sin?

The same avenue that is available to us today: falling completely and solely upon the grace of God.

Forgiveness for Willful Sin

Forgiveness for willful sin has always been received through the grace of God.

Today we know that this grace is available to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but prior to His death and resurrection, the grace of God was still available, but they just did not understand the means by which God made it available. Instead, they just had to depend, rely, and trust on the goodness of God and His grace extended to them.

Sacrifice for willful sinWhen the author of Hebrews writes his letter, he is writing to people who want to reject the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as sufficient for our sins, and return to dependence and reliance upon the Levitical Law. In numerous warning passages (Heb 2:1-4; 3:7-19; 5:11โ€“6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29), the author of Hebrews tells his readers that if the life, death, resurrection, and High Priestly ministry of Jesus is not sufficient, then we have no hope, no forgiveness, no grace, no mercy, and no eternal life.

When the author of Hebrews writes that there is no sacrifice in the Mosaic Law for willful sin, he means exactly what he says. Hebrews 10:26 means that there is no sacrifice in the law for willful sin. All depends solely on grace.

If we reject the complete and all-encompassing sacrifice of Jesus, no sacrifice for willful sin remains. If we reject the means by which God extends grace and mercy to us, and want to depend instead on the blood of bulls and goats, then there is no chance of forgiveness, but instead have only a โ€œcertain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignationโ€ (Heb 10:27).

So thank God for Jesus, and thank God for grace!

One final note about Hebrews 10:26

As I pointed out in my study on Hebrews 6:1-8, the book of Hebrews is written to Hebrew Christians who were facing severe persecution for being a Christian. Some of them were thinking about returning to Judaism in order to avoid persecution.

By stating that no sacrifice for sin is left in Hebrews 10:26, the author of Hebrews is making a very similar point to that made in Hebrews 6, namely, that the Hebrew Christians came to recognize that the Levitical sacrificial system did not grant them eternal life or forgiveness of sins. This came only through Jesus.

So now, the author of Hebrews says, if these Hebrew Christians return to the sacrificial system, then there is not sacrifice there which can offer forgiveness of sins or eternal life. And if they reject forgiveness through Jesus, then where will they turn for forgiveness? If forgiveness isn’t in the Law, and by returning to the Law, they announce that forgiveness isn’t in Jesus, then “no sacrifice for sin is left.” Where else can they go to receive forgiveness? Nowhere!

Nowhere is the author making the point that if people sin willfully, or even if they return to an empty form of religion which accomplished nothing, that this proves that they do not have eternal life, lost their eternal life, or never had it in the first place. No, the author pretty clearly states throughout this letter that he knows his readers do have eternal life. So this warning passage in Hebrews 10, like the others in this letter, should be read as an invitation and encouragement for the Hebrew Christians to stick with Jesus Christ through thick and thin, come what may.

For the worst life with Jesus is far better than the best life without Him.

Only in Jesus is eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. If people rejected their religion to come to Jesus, but then later reject Jesus, what is there to go back to except for empty religion? So it is better to stick with Jesus.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, forgiveness, Hebrews 10:26, law, sacrifice, sin, Theology of Salvation, Theology of Sin

Is Jonah Saved?

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Is Jonah Saved?

Jonah in heavenDo you expect to see Jonah in heaven?

Of course you do.

I have never heard anyone suggest that Jonah might not be regenerate. Yet there are large swaths of Christians today who believe that if a person commits grievous sin, such as adultery, murder, suicide, or lives in a state of rebellion against God, then that person either loses their salvation or proves they were never saved in the first place.

The Sins of Jonah

Jonah committed many of the worst sins.

First, he committed one of the worst possible sins in his day, that of refusing to defend Godโ€™s honor. Suicide and murder were more honorable than this!

But Jonah does it blatantly, and even when he is forced to obey, he does it grudgingly, and never asks for forgiveness, never really repents, and is angry at God until the very end of the book. This does not sound like the way a child of God should act!

Furthermore, in the process of rebelling against God, Jonah attempts suicide. He boards a ship which he know is doomed by God and goes down into the deepest part of the ship and falls asleep, waiting for death to come upon him. Numerous elements in the story of Jonah (including his own words in chapter 4) indicate that Jonah wants to die. Sure, he doesnโ€™t actually go through with this death wish, but he does have suicidal tendencies.

[Read more…]

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Commentary on Jonah, Theology of Salvation

My Problems with Historical Criticism

By Jeremy Myers
5 Comments

My Problems with Historical Criticism

historical criticsmI have never been enamored with the process of historical criticism when it comes to the text of Scripture.

What is Historical Criticism?

Historical criticism is the process by which modern scholars examine the text of ancient documents and try to determine when they were truly written and whether or not they were authored by the person whose name is on the document.

When applied to Scripture, the usual results of historical criticism are that most of the books of the Bible were not authored in the time they claim, nor by the authors whose name they bear. So Genesis-Deuteronomy was not written by Moses and not during the time of the Exodus from Egypt. 1-2 Chronicles was not written during the era of the Kings of Judah. Jonah was not written by Jonah. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not write the Gospels that bear their name, etc., etc., etc.

I recently read a book called God’s Word in Human Wordsย by Kenton Sparks, which is purportedly an evangelical defense of critical biblical scholarship. I suppose it was one of the best defenses of critical scholarship I have read, and if someone is going to adopt the practices and conclusions of historical criticism of the Bible, they should follow the practice proposed by Kenton Sparks.

I, however, was not convinced.

My Primary Problem with Historical Criticism

My problems with this book are the same problems I have with nearly all books about biblical criticism: I believe the presuppositions of most of those who engage in biblical criticism are inherently flawed, and as a result, short-circuit the creative thinking that is necessary to discover solutions to the so-called problems in the biblical text.

Let me put it another way…

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study

The Critical Need for Contextualization in World Missions

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

The Critical Need for Contextualization in World Missions

contextualization of the gospelIn Roland Allen’s excellent book on missions, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, he tells the story of a Siouxย Indianย chief ย named Big Hunter who wished to become a Christian. The problem was that Big Hunter was a polygamist. He had several wives, as was customary in Sioux culture.

The Presbyterian missionaries who were working with Big Hunter told him that if he wanted to follow Jesus, he had to put away all of his wives except one. This is what the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ expected from those who were children of God.

Big Hunter was now faced with a dilemma. One the one hand, he really wanted to become a Christian, but on the other hand, he knew that any wife he got rid of would starve to death. So, not knowing what else to do, he hanged all of his wives except the one he decided to keep. Then he came to the missionaries and told them that he had done what they wanted.

They were shocked and outraged at his actions, and drove him away as a murderer. Big Hunter despaired of ever becoming a Christian, married two new wives, and lived as an unbeliever for the rest of his days.

Did the missionaries do the right thing? If not, what should they have done instead?ย 

How you answer those two questions is called “contextualization.”

What is Contextualization?

Contextualization is the way which mission workers apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the truths of Scripture to the various cultures in which the missionaries work.

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship

A Cold-Case Detective Investigates the Murder of Jesus

By Jeremy Myers
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A Cold-Case Detective Investigates the Murder of Jesus

J. Warner Wallace was a homicideย detective who specialized in solving cold-case murders. His work on cold-cases has been featured on numerous popular television shows and have revolutionized the way capital offense trials are presented around the country.

One year, though he was an atheist, he decided to take up the biggest “cold-case” of all time, the alleged murder of Jesus Christ some 2000 years ago. As a result of his investigation, he became convinced that the claims within the Gospels are true, that Jesus really did live, die on the cross, and rise again three days later from the dead.

cold case christianityAnd he recently wrote a book about how he used his training and experience as a cold case detective to verify the truths of the claims in the Gospel accounts. His book is calledย Cold-Case Christianity,ย and he recently sent me a copy of his book for review on this blog.

If you have ever read Lee Strobel’sย The Case for Christ,ย this book is very similar, except that rather than the research performed by an investigative journalist, the research is done by a cold case detective. I really enjoyed Lee Strobel’s book when I read it about several years ago, and I enjoyed J. Warner Wallace’s book, ย Cold-Case Christianity, for many of the same reasons. Apparently, Lee Stobel likes the book too, since he wrote the foreword.

One of the things that makes the book the most interesting, is that Wallace begins each chapter explaining some of the tools and approaches he used as a homicide detective, and then he goes on in the rest of the chapter to show how he used this tool or approach to investigate the claims of the Gospels about Jesus Christ.

So, for example, chapter 8 ย is titled, “Respect the ‘Chain of Custody.'” This is basically the idea that when evidence is passed on from person to person in an investigation, there needs to be a paper trail to show who had the evidence, what they did with it, and where it went after they were done with it. Using his experience as a detective, Wallace showed the “Chain of Custody” of the evidence which was recorded in the New Testament Gospels and how they went from the actual life of Jesus to the “courtroom” or the Council of Laodicea in 363 AD where the four Gospel accounts were officially accepted into the New Testament canon.

[Read more…]

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading

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