Foundations for Christian Mission, Student Workbook, SW04

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F O U N D A T I O N S F O R C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N

II. The City Is a Magnet for the Oppressed, the Broken, and the Poor

God loves the city because that is where the teeming millions of his compassion reside.

A. God’s heart for the poor: a spiritual mandate

As goes the city, so goes the nation and the world!

1. The Scriptures reveal the God and Father of our Lord Jesus as a God who loves and has called the poor to himself, and the cities of the world are brimming with masses of people who are poor, and weak, and despised.

2. Jesus said in Luke 6 that the poor, those who wept and were hungry, those who were hated on account of his name were the truly blessed ones in this life.

3. 1 Corinthians 1.29 says God chose the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, and the things despised to shame the things considered great.

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4. Religion that is pure and undefiled in the Father’s sight is to visit widows and orphans in their distress and keep oneself unspotted from the world, James 1.27.

5. Psalm 10.14 says that God is the helper of the helpless, and that he does justice for the fatherless and the oppressed, and the true fast according to Isaiah 58 is to bring the homeless and hungry into your midst and minster to them.

6. James 2.5 says that God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him.