GRM Believes in Effective Charity

Every time Jesus did a miracle it was a New Beginning.?What must it have been like to be blind your entire life and then Jesus touches you and you can suddenly see? It has to be like a new beginning to life. When Jesus shared a story that touched your inner being, your life was suddenly new. What about when you see Jesus provide a meal for over 5000 from a sack lunch. That kind of security would give you a new way to look at life.

One of Jesus’ most powerful stories of New Beginnings is?the story of the prodigal son. You know the story. A young man asks for and receives his father's inheritance while the father is still alive. The son then goes out and squanders that inheritance on wild living.?Right about that moment a famine comes into the land and the young man gets desperate. A little note of observation here, he is not desperate enough at that point to go back to his father.

As his desperation grows, he determines to do whatever it takes to survive THAT IS NATURAL?THE SURVIVAL INSTINCT IS STRONG in people?But shame is typically more powerful. That might be part of the reason that he refuses to go back to his father.

What does wild living look like?? I imagine it was then much as it would be today.?

• Addiction?
• Rabble rousing?
• Promiscuous Relationships?

Yet today we pay would pay our prodigal to stay in that life style.? You ask: How do we pay him?? That answer is coming in a future article so you will need to keep reading this series to hear that.

Our prodigal friend is desperate, but again not desperate enough to go back to his father. What are we to do with him and others like him in our community.?

Marvin Olasky in The Tragedy of American Compassion tells the history of American compassion and shares how charity was done before the Great Depression when the focus was on effective charity. Effective charity has a long range impact. Olasky communicates that unfortunately much of our modern charity is based on quick fixes. In chapter 6 he gives us 7 Marks of EFFECTIVE Charity and the this series will cover all seven of those so join us in weeks to come to learn more and to make changes in your community that might actually make a difference.