How the Past Affects Our Present

Why did Jesus want to come to Earth and become human? Didn't Jesus know what he was going to have to go through? Why would anyone want to come down to Earth instead of sitting in luxury in Heaven? These are some of the questions that we tried to answer today.

One of our members started us off with a story about a homeless man who regularly attended a church. Once a week, the church held a meal for the homeless people in the community, and not once did anyone see this man eat a "meal" at any other time during the week. One day, a teenage boy showed up for the homeless meal, but he was too late and there was no food left. The homeless man who probably ate a meal only on that day of the week got up and gave his food to the boy, then left, apparently in a joyous mood.

Another of our members told a similar story afterwards. The point that the stories make in relation to our questions about Jesus is that Jesus wanted to experience the misery of humans for himself. It is much easier to show sympathy for a person, or a race, if you have personally felt what they feel. Jesus wanted to show that he was with us, as he still is, and that he is not so high above us that we are unable to reach him. Yes, God is all-powerful, but that does not mean that he is going to push us away because we are unclean and sinful; Jesus' trials on Earth are tributes to God to show that there is still hope for us as humans.

After our stories were told and discussed, we read the passage about the rich young man seeking eternal life. In the passage, the man claims to have followed all the commandments, but Jesus tells him that to truly inherit eternal life, he must sell all he owns and give it to the poor. There are many lessons to be learned from each passage in the Bible, including this one, but we are going to focus on only one today.

You can follow all of the commandments for all of your life, but that won't get you into Heaven. Everything you do has to be to glorify God, as the Bible indicates when it tells us to pray without ceasing. Collecting riches and using time for your interests and relaxation doesn't do anything to help the needy or proclaim the good news and the word of God, which is what God expects and wants us to do.

Here in the US, we live well and have opportunity. With God on our side, we can do anything! In places like Haiti, however, this view is turned more into "with God on our side, we can survive anything." Poverty and poor government structure can cause many people to lose the chance to do what they want and send them into hard times. Jesus came down to Earth to show that he was and is willing to help us, even in our darkest times. In Haiti, for example, many children become domestic servants with less than 2% of all children graduating secondary school. To those people, the only way to accomplish or survive anything is with God on their side.

Reaffirming what we have constantly written throughout our posts, it is our duty as Christians to spread the word and show the world that things can improve if they believe in God and his greatness, which he showed to the world by sending Jesus into the world.

Our discussion went full circle and turned back towards what we do with our money, which we discussed after the parable about the rich young man. In our culture nowadays, we are constantly tempted to buy more than we need; one of our members commented that Americans are the most wasteful people in the world, which is probably true. Our member further told us one of her quotes, which we thought was a good little saying: "Stop being Americans!" In other words, stop wasting what you don't need.

The next nearly fourty days are Lent, so this is a very good time to give up something. This is the time to give up something that distracts you from doing God's work and to remember him and his mercy. Jesus is never too far away to help you!