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“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it. But, I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”

A thought by Brandon Hatmaker, (2011-10-18) from his book, Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. The truth is He has.   Take food for example.   There is enough food in the world to feed everybody in the world.    The problem with most all the problems of the world is that when God created us He gave us a free will and He is not going to go back on that.   Some people are so afraid to not have enough food that they choose to hoard it and so others are deprived because of it.     I like an illustration that Pastor Scott Daniels at Pasadena First Nazarene Church gave yesterday.   He bought out one roll of toilet paper and also a package of 30 rolls of toilet paper.   He said that so many people have a one toilet paper view of life and they are so afraid that they will run out so they do all they can to make sure they don’t run out. Back when Johnny Carson was on the Tonight Show he made a joke in his opening monologue

“We often confuse the heart of compassion that requires a response with the feeling of sympathy that remains idle.”

A thought by Brandon Hatmaker, (2011-10-18) from his book, Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. I was just reading a story about Jesus over in the 20 th chapter of Matthew in the New Testament.   It seems that He and His disciples were leaving this particular town and a crowd was following them.   And a couple of blind men disturbed the group and the crowd rebuked them and told them to be quite.   But they continued yelling and Jesus finally stopped and asked them what they wanted and they said, “We want our sight.” Now I’m sure these guys had been there for a long time and the sympathy of the crowd who walked by them every day turned to annoyance and then ignoring them.   But these two blind men had heard that Jesus was going by and they shouted, “Have mercy on us” and it says that Jesus didn’t have sympathy but He had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight and followed Him