Tag: Need

Living in the Image of God, What The Lord Has Given Us

Assessing Capability to Intervene

Living in the Image of God M06S09

We discuss Christ disciples feeding a crowd of thousands in the wilderness as an example in assessing capability to provide goods or service to address a need. The disciples recognized a need and cared about feeding a large crowd that had come to see Jesus. They assessed their capabilities and realized their resources would be overextended. They consulted with Jesus, in his dual role as their human leader and as God. They presented him with the problem and a proposed solution. Jesus challenged them to feed the crowd and provided a miracle, using the disciples’ human effort as channel for the miracle, by multiplying food that they provided, in a way beyond human imagination. To assess your capabilities regarding a need: evaluate your personal resources, provide opportunities for others to contribute, and include their potential contributions in the assessment. Focus on what you can humanly do, because God may use your human effort as channel for a miracle.

When you recognize a need that calls for your intervention and you are interested in doing what you can to alleviate the need, start by understanding the need and assessing your capabilities to intervene. Your capabilities include what you can raise from your personal resources and contributions from others. Although you consult with God in prayer continually and have faith of his potential intervention with miracle, you should not include miracles in assessing your capabilities.

The disciples did not count on miracles when they assessed that their resources would be overextended by feeding the crowd: “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” [Mark 6:37]. Based on their assessment, they presented their leader with a proposed solution: “Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” [Mark 6:36].

Jesus asked them to show what they could do, which they presented as a few loaves of bread and fish [Mark 6:38]: “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” He blessed and multiplied the bread and fish to more than needed to feed the crowd, illustrating that God would often use your human effort as channel for miracles.

Therefore, to commit to doing what you can to alleviate a need, understand the need and assess your capabilities, counting what you can personally provide and what you can raise from contributions by others. However, count only your human capabilities. Do not include miracles, because only God will determine if and when to intervene with miracles.

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Living in the Image of God, What The Lord Has Given Us

Opportunity for Positive Impact—Peter and John Heal Lame Man

Living in the Image of God M06S04

We discuss Peter and John interactions with a lame man at the Temple gate, to understand recognizing a need and an opportunity to make positive impact by addressing the need; assessing your capabilities to provide goods or service to address the need; and preparing the beneficiary to understand what you can offer them and how the offer will address their need. Your capabilities are “what the Lord has given us” that you control: to serve the benefits of self, others, and community by addressing needs that God will show you. Peter and John recognized that the lame man presented them an opportunity to make positive impact using their capability to heal the sick. The man had asked for money but they offered him healing instead, to make lasting positive impact on the healing recipient and others that may witness the events or learn about them later.

This bible study discusses Peter and John interactions with a lame man at the Temple gate. The man was lame from birth and was carried and placed at the temple gate daily to beg from people going into the temple courts. Peter and John recognized the need and cared about the lame man. They assessed the need and their capabilities and recognized an opportunity to make lasting positive impact on the man and others that may witness the events or learn about them later. They recognized they could make such impact by healing the man, thus making him a visible beneficiary of their healing capability.

Their healing capability, after all, was a gift of God, given to each of them for the benefit of others: that is, a special case of “what the Lord has given us” that you control. In general, your capabilities—physical, mental, and spiritual—are “what the Lord has given us” that you control: to determine how to respond to needs that God will show you—to choose when and how to address the needs—needs of self, others, or community. In choosing to heal the lame man instead of giving him money, Peter and John illustrate that a person presented with a need can choose how to address the need, based on understanding what is needed and assessing his or her capabilities to provide for the need.

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Living in the Image of God, What The Lord Has Given Us

Are You My Neighbor: Individual Responsibility in Call for Assistance

Living in the Image of God M06S01

This study begins a series on understanding God’s intentions for “what the Lord has given us.” We will learn through the series that every gift of God comes with three attributes: full ownership, total control, and a mandated communal purpose. We begin with a discussion of Christ teaching on the individual responsibility regarding a neighbor’s call for assistance, whereby God transmits a call to compassion via a human channel to a human recipient. He informs the recipient regarding circumstances of a person needing goods or service that they cannot provide for themselves. The call recipient is to use what God has given him or her to provide assistance to the needy. God charges the recipient to recognize the need and needy; care about the needy; commit to doing what you can; and, motivated only by care, persevere in seeking to alleviate the need. We discuss the Parable of Good Samaritan to understand the individual responsibility to recognize and respond to a neighbor’s call for assistance.

This study begins a series focused on understanding God’s intentions for “what the Lord has given us.” We will understand through the series that God’s gift to every person comes with three attributes. The first attribute is full ownership: that is, every person has full ownership of what God has given him or her. The second is full control: that is, every person has full authority to determine when, where, and how to use what God has given to him or her. The third is a mandated communal purpose: that is, every gift of God comes with a mandate to understand the value and purpose of the gift regarding the needs of others and needs of the community; and use the understanding to determine when, where, and how to use “what the Lord has given you.”

A gift of God could come to a person as an increase in his or her physical or mental resources. The purpose of the study series is to understand that God calls every person to recognize and honor the communal purpose of what God has given to him or her. We will provide the study in ten sessions: one session every month in February through November of 2025.

In this session of the series, we discuss Christ teaching on the individual responsibility regarding a neighbor’s call for assistance, through the Parable of Good Samaritan. Are you my neighbor? This question announces God’s call for a person to recognize circumstances of another person needing assistance from others. God calls every person to recognize a neighbor’s call for assistance and respond positively. Christ provides a deliberate teaching to prepare every person to recognize a neighbor’s call for assistance and respond effectively using “what the Lord has given us.” We describe the Parable of Good Samaritan in detail to understand the teaching.

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Compassion, Living in the Image of God

Call to Compassion Example—Good Samaritan

Living in the Image of God M02S03

The parable of the Good Samaritan provides an example of a call to compassion and explains that such a call presents opportunity to recognize a neighbor and demonstrate love of neighbor: care about the neighbor in need, commit to providing goods or service to address the need, and persevere in seeking to alleviate the need. God uses such interactions to direct human service to points of need and fulfill his purpose for provider-receiver relationships among people.

Living in the Image of God Module 02 Session 03 (7:58)

The parable of the Good Samaritan explains potential human behavior in a call to compassion. Potential response to such a call could consist of outright refusal, thus declining the responsibilities; or accepting the call and completing the responsibilities. Furthermore, the parable uses the events of a call to compassion to define love, neighbor, and “love your neighbor” in the context of recognizing another person’s need and accepting and completing responsibility to alleviate the need. Also, the parable defines need and needy in relation to a call to compassion.

We discuss the parable of the Good Samaritan and the explanations of human behavior provided in the parable to further understand what God expects from a person he calls to provide goods or service to alleviate the need of another.

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Following God's Schedule

Compassion—Sensitivity to Needs

Recognize – Care – Commit – Persevere

Compassion is important to following God’s schedule: based on David’s early interactions with Saul and on Christ teaching in two parables—God uses call to compassion to direct a person to blessing he has ordained. He calls the person regarding a need and expects them to recognize the need, care about the needy, commit to providing, and persevere in seeking to alleviate the need. Earn blessing by completing the call or incur punishment by declining. Illustrations from David show he completed three calls to compassion early during his period as king in waiting and each completion led him to accomplish a goal and key step toward becoming king of Israel.

Teaching love through compassion [Luke 10:25–37]
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The bible study series on Following God’s Schedule examines David’s interactions during the period between his anointing to be king and his confirmation by the people of Israel. The study focuses on understanding his following God’s schedule toward kingship notwithstanding the schedule was not revealed to him a priori. His path to kingship after the anointing included a transition from King Saul, kingship training for David, and preparing the people of Israel to accept David as king. God had a plan and schedule for each of these, required David to follow the schedule, but did not reveal the plan or schedule to him.

The study is applicable to everyday life because David’s situation is quite similar to common human experience. As we discuss in Prayer of Joseph from the Dungeon, God at times grants a prayer with a promise to be fulfilled to fit his overall plan for the recipient, sets a schedule for fulfilling the promise, requires the recipient to follow the schedule, but may not reveal the schedule or plan. The recipient needs to follow the schedule to receive fulfillment of the promise just like David needed to follow God’s schedule to become king.

Victory parade from killing Goliath
Victory parade from killing Goliath
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God provided his schedule to David piecemeal, as a series of preparatory and precursory events: preparatory events are those that prepared him for future occurrences, whereas a precursory event is one that is necessary to trigger a future occurrence. David’s choices regarding the events determined whether he followed or departed from God’s schedule. The study series focuses on understanding his choices in various events in the context of Christ teaching. We discuss David’s choices as they illustrate God’s purpose for human interactions and relationships, which Christ emphasizes in his teachings presented live several generations after David.

This session of the series focuses on compassion, based on David’s early interactions with Saul and others and on Christ teaching through two parables: the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Through the teachings, Christ explains that God uses a call to compassion to direct a recipient to a blessing, such as an achievement step toward fulfillment of a promise. The recipient earns the blessing by completing the call to compassion or incurs punishment by declining. Illustrations from David show he completed three calls to compassion early in his interactions with Saul and each completion led him to accomplish a goal and key step toward becoming king of Israel.

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Famous Families, Ruth and Naomi

Consistent Godliness Opens Opportunities—Ruth Meets Boaz

GODLINESS OPENS OPPORTUNITIES Ruth’s interactions with the community during her first season in Bethlehem highlight humility, politeness, respect for authority, sensitivity to needs around her, and persistent effort at contributing what she could to alleviate the needs. The interactions opened opportunities for her to step into the life for which she is known today. As we discuss in a subsequent bible study, the events that happened during this time led to Ruth marrying Boaz, becoming the grandmother of David, therefore, a grandparent in the lineage of Christ. Ruth’s Godliness opened opportunities for fulfillment of a grand blessing in her life.

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This installment of our study series on Ruth focuses on events that occurred during the first season after her arrival in Bethlehem. Her interactions with mother-in-law Naomi and with family relative Boaz highlight the value of humility, politeness, respect for authority, sensitivity to needs around her, commitment to doing what she could to alleviate the needs, and persistent diligence at accomplishing her task.

Ruth in Boaz's Field
Ruth in Boaz’s Field
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Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem during barley harvest. Having been away for a long time, they likely faced economic hardship because they did not have any farm to harvest. Ruth recognized their hardship and determined to do what she could to alleviate the condition. With the approval of her mother-in-law, she decided to go gleaning (i.e., picking grains leftover from regular harvesting) in any farm that would accept her. She was accepted at the first farm she applied, which happened to belong to Boaz, a close relative of Naomi’s husband. Boaz did not only welcome her in his farm but also offered her protection and preferential gleaning access, because of her humility, politeness, positive work habbit (diligence and persistent effort), and his prior knowledge of her positive interactions with Naomi.

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The Gospel

Call to Compassion—Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

A Christ Teaching on Earning Blessing through Human Service

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This is the second of a two-part bible study on Christ’s teaching on the call to compassion. As we discussed in previous bible studies, God creates every person to be his provider assistant and assigns responsibilities to each of us through a call to compassion. Through the parable of the Good Samaritan (first part of the study at This_Link), Christ illustrates the circumstances of a call to compassion and what is expected from the chosen provider assistant. This bible study focuses on the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, where he provides a more general teaching on God’s call to compassion.

A mutual provider-receiver relationship results from God creating every person as his provider assistant. Through calls to compassion, he provides opportunities for every person to be a provider sometimes and receiver at other times. Christ uses the parable of the Sheep and the Goats to describe the responsibilities of a provider assistant, rewards for accepting a call to compassion by performing the assigned service, and punishment for declining the call by denying a service.

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HUMAN SERVICE God’s call to compassion is about human service. He assigns tasks to individuals to provide them opportunities to help others. A person earns blessing by providing the service or incurs punishment by declining. As we discussed previously at This_Link, earned blessing and incurred punishment accumulate and coexist as parallel promises from God, which he fulfills at his time, except that he will forgive a promise of punishment if the sinner repents and asks for forgiveness. Christ uses the parable of the Sheep and the Goats to explain that he will judge each of us based on our performance as his provider assistant. People that accept God’s call to compassion by providing services placed in their path will inherit eternal life. In contrast, people that decline the call by denying services placed in their path will inherit eternal punishment.

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The Gospel

Love through Compassion—Parable of the Good Samaritan

A Christ Teaching on Love, Compassion, and Neighbor

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Christ used the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach us about love, compassion, and neighbor. As we discussed in several previous bible studies such as at This_Link, God creates every person to be his provider assistant. He assigns responsibilities to each of us as his provider assistant through a call to compassion.

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LumoProject.com FreeBibleImages.org

Christ uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to describe potential circumstances of a call to compassion and what is expected of the provider assistant. Also, he uses the parable to underscore our freedom of choice to respond to a call to compassion by providing the needed service or to disobey by declining the call. Of course, there are rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience that we will discuss in a future bible study.

In this bible study, we focus on Christ’s teaching through the parable of the Good Samaritan. We learn the meaning of a call to compassion, what is expected of the chosen provider assistant, and who is a neighbor. We also learn about the manifestation of love through compassion. In fact, one could say that Christ defined love through the parable. At the very least, he defined compassion as an effective manifestation of love. We discuss the meaning of compassion and its relationship with love. A call to compassion is an opportunity to perform our function (fulfill the purpose of our creation) as a channel for God’s compassion. Although he can do things for people in a supernatural way, he often prefers to use a natural approach by channeling his compassion through a human provider assistant. The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates typical interactions between the service receiver and the provider assistant in a call to compassion.

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