Do we give money or food?

[Coconut]

Kenwyn, if you hadnt preceded your "giving to charity" with such uncharitable assumptions about those in need of charity, I wouldnt have taken issue with your message.

The homeless, who are so lucky to have you "share" your sandwich, have not likely heard you say, "I wont give you a whole sandwich, or give you money, because then you will have no incentive to move on"... I`m rather sure if you fed a homeless man such cultch, it would leave a more bitter taste in his mouth than the hunger you are professing to be concerned about...

Why not tell them while you are allowing them to eat your crumbs, how much you care that they will not have to go hungry someday, if they just show some initiative and move on with their lives...you might find they will be less polite in the face of such condesending speeches than I am, and rightly so.


Pardon me, but thats like telling your dependant child, that he will eat tomorrow, or maybe next week, because you are working hard to see that he will...but shifting the blame to him because he has needs TODAY, due to the fact that hes not showing your wonderful initiative by doing something for himself...it is a fact, that a child can no more take care of his own needs, no more than the majority of the homeless can.

Tell me, is Christ being too harsh here?

Mat 25:40 And the King will make answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Then will he say to the goats, "Go from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which is ready for the Evil One and his angels:

For I was in need of food, and you gave it not to ME; I was in need of drink, and you gave it not to ME:

I was wandering, and you took ME not in; without clothing, and you gave ME no clothing; ill, and in prison, and you came not to ME."

Then will they make answer, saying, Lord, when we seen you in need of food or drink, or wandering, or without clothing, or ill, or in prison, its not that we didnt care...we thought maybe you were faking needing help...or that maybe you would spend our (please excuse us, YOUR money) in ways we didnt approve of... we just thought you could be better helped by our giving to a charity, even tho you were standing right in front of us tattered, hungry, and homeless. We would have given you OUR lunch if we had only known it was you Lord...and why Lord we would have even taken you home...you know we would have done ANYTHING for you Lord...LORD?

Mat 25:45 Then Jesus will say to them, 'Truly I tell you, in that you did not do it for one of the least important of these, you did not do it for ME.' These people will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

Please pardon the sattire...some of the comments in this thread (not just yours) called for it...

God says He is angry with the wicked every day, and the wicked He is talking about are not the poor man who begs on the street because He has no place to call home, or steals a loaf of bread because he is hungry, nor the man who numbs the pain of his plight with a bottle...or a drug...not even the man who cant cope with a 'normal' working mans life because of the demons hes trying to run from...these, like Lazarus that laid at the rich mans gate, will surely rise up on judgement day and condemn us.

Luk 16:25 "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."

If the people who call themselves the people of God would only learn to say, " there, but for the GRACE of GOD, go I!"

NO...its impossible to say, when we think we have shelter and food and clothing and jobs, and education, and mental and physical stability, and all the rest of the things the world thinks makes a man worthy, not because of Gods grace, but because we are so good at taking care of ourselves.

 

[Chad]

Neither.

But not because I am mean. Charity handed out on the street can have an unfortunate side effect that it actually keeps people on the street. While there is a source of money or food for people to beg, there is less incentive for them to move on and start to put their lives back together.

I give to a homeless charity and I support the Big Issue magazine, which is a form of employment for homeless magazine sellers.

And stopping for an occasional chat and sharing a bag of chips with people on the street does no harm.

I pray GOD disciplines you and teaches you a lesson so that your blindness is lifted and your filth cleansed. Its apparent you never were poor or hungry. If you said otherwise, I wouldn't believe you by now. How about you trying your best to imagine if you were homeless and hungry and someone walked by with food in his hand or perhaps, glittering jewelry of fine gold, silver, whatever it may be? The person is apparently blessed. You? Your starving to death literally, filthy, homeless. What if that person walked by and said the same thing you just said after you asked for a little change or food?

Hey that sounds a bit harsh.

My point is that I want my money to go to where it can help people the most. And my money goes to projects that look to the longer term - training in interview skills for jobs, advice on accessing benefits as well as meeting the immediate needs of food and shelter for the night.

The bag of chips comment may have sounded flippant, but I prefer to eat my lunch in the park whenever I have the chance. Quite a few homeless people gather there and sometimes I end up in conversation and share a sandwich.

The people there may think I am an arrogant driveler, but so far they have been too polite to tell me to my face.

Not everyone is heartless to say anything to anyone's face. Some people, unlike others are humble and not arrogant.

You are the one that is harsh but your blindness won't let you see this. Your post made me sick to my stomach. I hear a lot of "I" in your comments and excuses of your comments. I cannot even comprehend your mentality that you would not feed a homeless on the street. A homeless and hungry person is right in front of you and feeding this person won't help them "most"?

What if they died after you left?
What if that hungry and homeless person was your own family member?

What would Jesus do walking by the poor?

Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Mark 10:21
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

Matthew 15:32
[ Feeding the Four Thousand ] Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

 

[kenwyn]

I take these comments seriously.

You are right that I am not poor, nor have I ever been poor or homeless. And I agree with a lot of what you say Coconut. The verses that you have quoted have been on my mind for some time, and they do trouble me.

If I have given the impression that I think that people are living on the street are there because they are too lazy or lack the initiative to sort their lives out, then please let me correct that.

Every individual who ends up homeless is different, but there are a few things that are common to most people on the street: a huge proportion suffer with some kind of mental illness, most have chronic problems with their self-esteem, many have been abused or very badly hurt by their family members. There is also a high proportion of ex-servicemen living on the street.

People often end up on the street because these kinds of problems get too much, people find that they cannot cope with "normal society" and may end up on a downward slope towards living on the street.

I support projects that address these problems, because I think that in the long-term they have a better chance of restoring people to dignity.

My other reason for not giving on the street is that I don't really trust my judgement on who to give to. I am not so much worried about professional beggars ripping me off as I am about the most needy going completely unnoticed. I trust that established charities can make the right call better than me.

Development charities face the same kind of problem in a different situation. They find that they can raise money to treat water-borne diseases (£1.00 can save a child's life!) much more easily than they can raise money for waste water disposal (£1.00 can buy 5cm of sewage pipe!). Actually in the long-term the sewage pipe would do more for the health of the people than addressing the immediate need.

These are issues of judgement and wisdom. The question here is simply: how will my money be best spent - by handing it to someone in the street or by channelling it through a charity. If I have got it wrong, then of course I want to be corrected so that what I give can be more effective.

The issue of conscience is how much do I give and how much do I care about people in deep need. And I think that at the moment I am far too complacent.

 

[Spreadtheword]

Where I live there isin't any beggers or homeless people.
I will say money so that they could pick the food they want.

 

[Son Worshiper]

I just give them money and if they use it for drugs or alcohol then I leave that between them and the Lord. He knows why I gave them money. And even if I bought them food, they can sell that for cash.

In the neighborhood I used to live in, which was high crime, there were a lot of drug addicts (heroine and crack cocaine) and they would ring my bell all night long trying to sell food, clothes, stolen DVDs, CDs, you name it. It got so bad that I had to buy a dog and let him roam the yard at night to keep them off my bell all hours.

That said, I'm not saying all people who ask for handouts are addicts. But I believe the majority of them are, based on my own experiences.

 

[pixie]

Wrong side of the tracks

I agree with you coconut. "Therefore but the grace of God go I." Your heart is beautiful faithin1. There is a lot of drug addicts out there Son Worshipper.

The mentally ill make up a large portion of the homeless. The are unable to access facilities for help, because they are "ill". They just can't pick up and move on, with limited mental facilities. Hospitals house them for a while and then they are turned out on the streets, with no home to go to. Hospital cutbacks all over the world, cause the mentally ill to leave a stable environment and they end up on the streets.

It is a shame that folks dress up as poor and ask for money. But I urge all of you to give more than a crust of bread. This is our own third world country, where people who are genuinely in need of food and shelter, have no where to go. As coconut stated, the Lord spoke of the poor. And it is true that when we give to the poor, we are giving to Christ Himself.

Lobbying for the poor is also something that we as "home" people can do.
And I encourage all of you to show sympathy and prayer for those in need, lest our "home", becomes just a "house"

Here is a passage from Isaiah 58, in which our Father is telling us to help the poor. Combined with the statements of Jesus Christ, we can see clearly that God is telling us to care for these homeless. Please anyone who has experienced a "professional homeless person", do not give up on caring for the poor. They still exist.

Isaiah 58
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Amen and loveixie

 

[Phumba]

I would say food, to help the immediate needs but somehow these phrases:
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for life." and "Feed the hungry but not their hunger." keep popping up in my mind.

I live in South Africa and we have a lot of homeless people here, the majority of them are black children, If you give them money they go to the store and buy "steel bond" or methelated spirits (costs about R5-00 - less than one US dollar). The reason I mention this is because a friend of mine used to work at a take-away and at closing time (01:00) he would give all the orders not collected to the street children and he once asked them why they buy drugs and their answer where that the drugs lasts longer than the food.

I know each "case" is different but I personally believe that by supporting your church charities you help more people for the same amount of money (they use the money to buy food in bulk = more food for less money = more people fed and as a bonus they teach them the life skills they need to re-enter society and give shelter to these people while they are "rehabilitated".) Unless God tells you to help this person now. (He will tell you how to help in each instance, through the Holy Spirit!)

As a side note - I try to leave the judging to the Lord (I know I fail miserably most of the time but I try and if I catch myself judging someone I'm quick to ask His forgiveness.) So I have to ask. Who are we to judge the way another gives? Ain't friendship (Love) one of the greatest gifts you could give? Is the sharing of food with a stranger not a hand of friendship being offerd? Would you say that sharing a meal with someone (homeless person) is not a way to acknowledge their worth as a human being and in so doing you are actually lifting them up, giving them back some of the selfworth they lost in live?

Just my view of this "problem, challange, oppertunity"

P.S. I support Meals on Wheels here in SA and they do a great job!

 

[trulyblezzed]

this is a very interesting poll. I think it's best to give someone in need FOOD because if you give them MONEY you don't know where it's going.

but then again, every situation is different. There has been a few times where I helped people out both ways. I think it depends on the person in need. Do you trust them enough to do the right thing if you gave them money?

just a thought

 

[rizen1]

Jesus Saves

I give both when I can. I always have to pray about it, I love people and I can be easily taken advantage of because I always give (when I have).

I once gave this guy 20 bucks, I prayed over it and said " God if he uses this for anything other than food or his well being, let it make him sick give it a bad taste, that he'll turn from it and turn to you. "

I may be wrong, for asking for the guy to get sick, but I always use that time to share the gospel. They want money and I want them to turn to God.

Only God knows what they do with it, but last month this guy came to me asking for a quarter, I didn't have so I offered him a dollar.He came back with a snack and offered me some. He was too sweet.

God is good, great poll.

 

[Coconut]

Do you trust them enough to do the right thing...

I think we can trust those in need, at least as much as God has trusted us...
unless any one of us can say they have not foolishly or selfishly spent a dime or a day of what God has freely given us...(yes, there are those among us who surely dont know how amazing Gods grace really is, and think they somehow deserve so many blessings)

Psa 82:1 (A psalm by Asaph.) When all of the other gods have come together, the Lord God judges them and says:
"How long will you keep judging unfairly and favoring evil people?
Be fair to the poor and to orphans. Defend the helpless and everyone in need.Rescue the weak and homeless from the powerful hands of heartless people."

Mat 5:45 So that you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and he lets rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous...

 

[Christy74]

My husband used to drive a tractor-trailer over the road. He often would be asked for money for food from people. He rarely had any to spare (family at home), but when he did, he would offer to buy food for that person. If that person accepted, he would buy them food. If they didn't, he assumed they didn't want food, and so didn't give them anything. He felt strongly convicted to do his best not to be an enabler for people who wanted money for drugs or alcohol. I agree with him.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

a Week ago we sit in homecell and just talk about giving. So they started a question:" Do you give beggers money for food, or do you buy them food?"
Think this is a interestting poll.

A lot depends on the locations you are talking about. In large metrolpolitan areas of the USA, I would say "Give them food" because money will probably go toward the purchase of alcohol.

SLE

 

[MavMin]

If you give them food at least they will have something to eat but around here money is normally used for drugs, alcohol, tobacco or prostitutes.

 

[Cody]

If you give them food at least they will have something to eat but around here money is normally used for drugs, alcohol, tobacco or prostitutes.

Agreed. I'd rather give them food and know that it will help them, than give them money and worry about if they'll use it for the right purpose or not.

 

[pjnewman]

Now the last time I ran into this situation, I was at McDonald's with my kids. There was a homeless guy sitting there with a cup of coffee and a chesseburger. He was not looking at anyone around him and I never saw him ask for a handout. What I did see was an opportunity to help and to also be an influence on my kids. I went to the counter and bought a gift card which I later handed to him with a "God bless you". He took it without uttering a word; he only looked at me.


And now the Rest of the Story...
About a week later, I was in the same McDonald's and the manager came up to me and handed me a giftcard with the receipt wrapped around it saying that I had left it there. I said "thanks" and pocketed it. When I gt home later, I noticed that it was 1. not the same card (I could tell by the picture on it) which I had purchased and given to the poor gentlemen and 2. the receipt was time-stamped about 3 hours after I had visited.

 

[Coconut]

"Bag of Hope"

The Gospel Hiway wants you to get involved with those that maybe less fortunate. When the Holiday's come around we have no problem helping those that are in need. We give a little extra at church, help out at a community Thanksgiving or Christmas meal but, what about the rest of the year? When you see someone holding a sign on a street corner do you automatically want to question their integrity towards their situation? Or do you really feel convicted to help them but, you think if I gave them money they probably would use it for something besides food.

God says to help when help is needed and not to judge others especially when we really don't know their circumstances.
Proverbs 3:27 tells us to "do good to those who need it".

Here's How You Can Be a
"Bag of Hope"


Put some non perishable food items in a lunch sack like...

Peanut butter & crackers
Cups of mixed fruit (don't forget the plastic spoon)
Vienna sausage
Bottled water
etc.

Put the things you think others would want, and be creative. You might want to put a travel bar of soap or other toiletries in as well.

Once you have the lunch sacks ready, present one to a person that is on a street corner or some where you may encounter them each day. This may be while driving to and from work. This way you know that you did your part in helping that person out that may have gone without other wise.



Moving believers to action. That's what it's all about.

- from The Gospel Hiway

 

[rizen1]

=Coconut
God says to help when help is needed and not to judge others especially when we really don't know their circumstances.
Proverbs 3:27 tells us to "do good to those who need it".

Amen, I try to give when I can ,most of the time its money.
God alone knows their hearts.

 

[Pedronewt]

food for thought

I happen to agree with Kenwyn. I think he is seeing past their predicament of today as is looking toward a solution for tomorrow. I think the "money or food" answer is too simple and uncaring in and of itself. For those of you who think poorly of Kenwyn, when you give, are you doing it so you feel good, or are you thinking more than what will help today but also what will redeem them from this situation.

Benjamin Franklin on Poverty - 1766 -

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.


You see, I think God is calling us to do more than just hand out food or money. In fact I think it is quite cruel to leave people in this state of poverty, living on hand outs from others, being robbed of their honor and dignity. I think what Kenwyn was suggesting was that we provide them with a hand up, a means to better themselves. The thing that is really needed is the thing that actually "costs" us most, time. Time to build a relationship, time to heal wounds, time to train them for some sort of productivity (if needed).

What is required is more than just food or money, and i applauded Kenwyn for thinking not of just today for these people, but for a tomorrow.

In His Loving Arms,
Pedro

 

[SpiritLedEd]

It's true that the poor need "a hand up as well as a handout.", but we need to avoid the temptation to condemn those who seem to be only looking for a handout. We don't know the circumstances behind their situations. I know a young woman who was raised by a seriously dysfunctional mother with no spiritual background. The mother died a few years ago and this young woman was left to fend for herself basically with little education, little family support, and no job skills. I've no idea where she is now. The last time I saw her, she was in line for a free meal from an inner city Christian ministry.

This girl (and people like her) needs help on many different levels, but who knows if she'll ever reach out for the help she needs if we don't feed her? I pray that she reaches out for God and receives the courage to seek help. The basic needs of the poor need to be met first. Without that, they'll never be encouraged to reach for the next rung on the ladder.

SLE

 

[True Christian]

This is a very good question, and I am so happy to read the answers people gave.

In all areas of life, it is important to be led by God. Since we live in the world, yet are not of it, there are situations which arise frequently.

I lived in Los Angeles for ten years, until January of this year. I spent hours and hours with homeless people, sometimes in the roughest districts, and I also helped persons with severe mental challenges.

For most of those years, when asked by a homeless person for some money, or if Father led me to approach them, I would see who they are first. Even in Los Angeles, a most evil city, I could see that most of these people were ones who had a sense of community and that they were searching for God. That's right. I would feel the compassion of Jesus, and pray quietly, to God. Only a few did I not give money to.

Friends, it is not our money, it all belongs to God.

Some of these people were clearly believers in Jesus.

I brought bags of food to some, money to about 60 people, and shared the Gospel many times. One fellow I saw twice, exactly one year apart, at the same place. Once we promise God, to give money to the person, it is not ours to decide how it is spent. Some people, I could see they would use it for drugs or alcohol, so I said that I could not give and I didn't.

Now, happily, I am back in Seattle, yet am disabled and in great need myself. It will be interesting to see who God sends.