Nobody has immunity against disability? Disability is no respecter of persons. It could happen to you, so treat the disabled with love and respect. Don’t say, “that won’t happen to me”. Life has it’s way of proving us wrong. Those who treat others as second-class citizens are making a first –class mistake. A man’s greatness is shown in the way he treats little people. No one knows tomorrow. Kings are not always born in the palace; some are born in the manger. Do you know how Portipher and his wife felt when Joseph became governor, next only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt? Those that serve you today may become great like you or even greater than you tomorrow. Nobody is self-made. Prophet Moses was used to make Joshua; Elijah was destiny helper to Elisha, as Naomi was used to make Ruth. Mordecai helped Esther and Apostle Paul helped Timothy. The Creator used someone to help you to grow. We can never fully repay those who helped us, the only way to show a little gratitude is by helping those whom we can help. Be always ready to help those who are physically or economically disabled. If you have riches, remember that riches are a blessing only to people who make it a blessing to others. “Take this and share it among yourselves”, is the King’s command. The Almighty Father comforts us to make us comforters not just to make us comfortable. Let no Lazarus sit outside your gate, eating the crumbs that were thrown to dogs. Provide for him. When you are more fortunate than others, build a long dinning table not a taller fence. The divine plan is, “I will bless you… and you shall be a blessing”. When you share sorrow it divides but when you share happiness it multiplies. Of what use is joy that is not shared. Money in your hand is valuable if there are people on the other side to receive it. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a candle and yet the life of the candle can never be shortened. He who has not learned the blessed art of sharing his blessings with others has not found the true path to enduring happiness, for happiness comes mainly from sharing of one’s self and one’s blessings. You can make more friends in a month by becoming helpful to other people than you can in ten years trying to get them help you. Faith’s way of gaining is giving.
Doing good to others is not a duty, it is a joy, for it increases your own happiness and health. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessing and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used. The motive for giving one’s food would make no difference to the hunger of the poor man but when given in love it blesses the giver. A forced kindness deserves no thanks. It is despicable as respect based on fear. Giving out of love is the way to experience joy. Joy is expressing love. Love expressed brings joy experienced, herein the giver is blessed.
A person with one clock is always sure of what the time is, but one with two clocks is often not sure. To stop this self-made confusion, remove one clock and give it to your brother who has none. Keeping things of this world more than is necessary creates confusion in life. Niggardliness is not a heavenly tradition. It causes dyspepsia. Be fat enough to be healthy, not too fat to be sick. There are many who have accumulated much wealth for their condemnation. The more your life centers on I, me, mine, the more insecure you will become. Ego believes in acquiring more and more. If we today are simple in our habits, living in harmony with nature, as did Adam and Eve in the beginning, there would be an abundant supply for the need of humanity. Selfishness, avarice and ostentation have created scarcity. Excess in one hand leads to wants in the other. Selfishness is death. In the day of final judgment, men’s hoarded wealth will be worthless to them. They will have nothing they can call their own. Those who spend their lives laying up worldly treasures show less wisdom, less thought and care for their eternal well-being. But life is too solemn to be absorbed in temporal or earthly matters. Any organ in the body that fails to supply to others, develops problem and dies off. Give and take is life. It is more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe. Obey the natural law. The appetite for pleasure, power, sex and money is insatiable. But more and more doesn’t make anyone happy. It leads to isolation since you are getting more at the cost of someone else. It forces you to fear loss. You become attached to the external and become empty inside. Satisfaction does not come from getting more but from wanting less. The trouble we have in the world today did not start in the wilderness where there was scarcity, but in the beautiful garden of abundance. The fruit of the Spirit is not push, drive, climb, trample and grasp; life is more than a climb to the top of a heap. A wicked rich man is nothing but a poor man with cash. It is not everything that works that has divine approval. Life is a tragedy for anyone who has plenty to live on but nothing to live for. When the good things of this life become our main focus, they cease to be good because they have become god to us. Money, for an example, should be seen as it is.. just a tool for getting things done. It is merely a means to an end and not the end itself. Meaningful and authentic living is only when a man begins to fear his Creator, otherwise life becomes an endless search for reality, a grope in darkness. Our ecological responsibility rests in our prior responsibility to obey “Him who spoke and it was done”. People whose minds are renewed by the Spirit of Truth do not see relationships as opportunity to get from others but to give. Loyalty to the divine covenant includes loyalty to fellow sharers in the covenant.
But in helping people do not be sugar but salt so that people will not lick you up. Do not be generous to a fault. A good soldier fights and runs away that he may live to fight again. Give wisely. Just because you can does not mean you should. Elshaddai can do all things but it is not everythying that he does. It is right for you to desire to help, but your compassion must be subject to the control of the Holy Spirit. A jailor even though he has the prison cell keys with him (power), cannot open it and release a prisoner (out of compassion) without receiving authority to do so. If he uses this power without authority, he will be punished. The Messiah neither raised all the dead in Israel nor cleansed all the lepers. Even our Heavenly Father helps only those who qualify for His help. Indiscriminate helps promote laziness and over dependence that tends to crime. People should be taught and encouraged to catch fish themselves instead of giving them fish. Breaking the cocoon for a butterfly (chrysalis or pupa) makes it to die. Breaking it by itself gives it strength to survive in the world. A good teacher does not solve the arithmetic problems for his pupil rather he makes him to “do it yourself”. This is real love. It empowers and liberates rather than enslaves. You may be right but wrong, if you do a lawful thing that is not helpful. We should not encourage idleness. The devil tempts some people but an idle man tempts the devil.
We love because the Eternal Father commanded us to love. “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself”, He said. How true are you to this commandment? When the Day of Judgment comes, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done, not if we gave fine teachings but if we lived fine lives. Unless there is practical self sacrifices for the good of others in the family circle, the church, neighborhood and anywhere we may be; whatever we may profess, we are not true worshippers. We are worshiping Him, who gave His only begotten Son. Answer this question from Elder Job; “how have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength?”. If you do for your brother what he cannot do for himself, your Maker will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. He will not be held guiltless who neglects to relieve his fellow suffering lack of life necessities. Helping the poor to live is the kind of offering that pleases the Most high. The more you have, the more you should give. When helping the poor, leave your camera at home. Teach your children that they should give to the poor. But let no man rely upon a promise of help given to him by another man. A promise which has no better foundation than a human resolve will fall to the ground. A man’s resolve with divine care can come to fruition, but if left to itself will fall to the ground with the first wind that moves the bough.
It is better to be hidden and take thought of oneself than to neglect oneself and work miracles or preach great sermons. This life is full of choices and we are free to choose. But after we have chosen the choice turns back and controls us. It is in the power of each man to choose the kind of life he will live. The Supreme Judge said, “Choose you this day whom you shall serve”. And again “I set before you this day life and death, choose life that you might live”. He would not propose to judge a man at the end of his life if He did not leave it in his hand in the first place. There are some things which only the Creator can do, and for us to attempt to do them is to waste our efforts; and there are other things which only man should do, and for us to ask Him to do them is to waste our prayers. Before you are light and darkness; choose one, the choice is yours. The power to choose is one indisputable privilege deposited in man from the day of his creation. It is available to all humans irrespective of race, age and status. So, make your choice today. To choose between good and good is not easy. Choosing between good and evil is easy. But one who has to choose between two evils is to be pitied. It is a dilemma. He is like a sick man who was asked by his physician whether he would like to be buried beside his father’s grave or next to that of his mother. The task before you is an easy one. Don’t be deceived. Choose the way of righteousness. Be firm in your work of faith, labour of love and patience of hope. That it shall be well with the righteous is as true as truth can be. You know these things, happy are you if you do them. Note that, no one is allowed to rest from doing good, even on the Shabbat day
REMEMBER THE POOR
-BKC YAHKA
How Do You Treat The Disable?
