Is Helping Strangers, the Poor and the Needy Just an Old Testament Thing?

[Ugly]

I didn't read all of that excessively long rant, in part because much of what you claim in the beginning sounds nothing like any Christian I've ever known, yet you make it sound common.
I know not one Christian who is against the legal entry of immigrants coming to the US and getting work and being a functioning member of society.
I know many who are against letting people break the law to enter the country and be rewarded with free help that no American born citizen could hope to get.

America is in no place to be helping others any longer. With an already well established history of racial division that's growing worse. Child hunger skyrocketing. Violence exploding. Increasingly corrupt government... and citizens. Homelessness. And on and on, not to mention the insane level if national debt we are no longer able to take care of ourselves, let alone throwing more resources into illegal immigrants.
And adding into the mix the risk of flooding the country with terrorists so they can begin taking over, as they've already proven to do in other countries that let them in freely.

Anyone that thinks America today is the same America 200+ years ago needs their head examined.

I've been homeless. I've served the homeless. I've read about the ministries serving the homeless and struggling to meet the demand. I don't need some self righteous blowhard with a bunch of misquotes and a sense of pride in himself big as, well, the statue of liberty, to come busting down my door telling me that I, and everyone I've ever known, are doing things wrong when you don't have the first clue. I'd encourage you to quit being a lower orifice ostrich, stop exaggerating and falsely accusing, stop long winded rants accusing everyone and pretending your own crap don't stink and get a grip.

If you think this sort of message is a way to change anyone then you actually Are as dense as you come across. So go back to Obama and tell him that.

 

[HeRoseFromTheDead]

If illegals weren't constantly coming into this country to work in the farm industry, not only would food be too expensive for all but the wealthiest to afford, but even they would be starving, because the average "legal" American won't do such hard work for such low wages.
Having worked with illegals, I know they're some of the hardest working people in the world, and that the work they do is brutal and severely underpaid.

They're not flooding into this country to work on farms.

 

[graceNpeace]

Under God, help is given to strangers and to the poor and needy.

At the foot of the Statue of Liberty is a poem called ‘The New Colossus’ by Emma Lazarus. Within that poem are these words: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” The Statue of Liberty is found in, of all places, the U.S.

Is the U.S. in this day and age deserving of such a statue? Consider those who have looked upon “the huddled masses” with disdain. Instead of looking for ways to help them here, they work on doing away with laws that have protected many of them and have given them sanctuary from the lands that they, and/or prior generations have come from.

Many of those who look upon them with disdain, claim to be God-fearing. Oh, they have worked hard to keep abortion at bay, because under God abortion is murder. They have worked hard to keep homosexuality at bay because the Bible categorically says that homosexuality is an abomination.

But all of them ignore the parts of the Bible that says to welcome the huddled masses who’ve been oppressed or have been wanting in the countries they came from. They ignore the parts of the Bible that says to help the poor. And as regard to helping the poor and needy, when you show them that the Bible says to help the poor and needy, they say, ‘Oh that’s what I pay taxes for.’ But the irony is that today there are many in government who have been voted in precisely because they promised not to spend tax dollars on the poor and needy!

If there is any doubt that the Bible says to help strangers and the poor and needy, submitted for your approval is the following: Leviticus 19:33-34 says, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, FOR YOU WERE STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT: I am the LORD your God.” Yes, the House of Jacob were strangers in Egypt, and they prospered there, before those of Moses generation left there.

Now if some were shown this passage, they might say ‘Oh, but that is part of the old Law, the Law that Jesus fulfilled and therefore relieved us of the responsibility of abiding by. We go by the New Testament, not by what is said in the Old Testament.’ Fair enough. So, from the New Testament is this passage which contains a caveat of sorts: Hebrews 13:2 which says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” What does this passage reference? It references Genesis 19:1-3, which says the following: “The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, ‘My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.’ They said, ‘No; we will spend the night in the town square.’ But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.”

Lot, who was related to Abraham, did not know that the strangers he welcomed into his house were angels. Consequently, we don’t know which of the strangers that some try to wall off or kick out have been blessed by God and at least are of God in their hearts. Some of those building a wall against some of them and rounding up the troops against others, may say, “So what? Who or what are they to me?” And the people they voted for, ask the same questions on their behalf. Those of us who are familiar with Sodom and its destruction by God may respond that Ezekiel 16:49 says, “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, BUT DID NOT AID THE POOR AND NEEDY.” Your listener might respond, ‘But that’s in the Old Testament. I don’t concern myself with the Old Testament, I believe in Jesus.”

Really? Where do you think Jesus’ teachings came from? When he was in Nazareth, he said the following, as written in Luke 4:18- “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” You think Jesus just made that up? Well, look at what Isaiah 61 says: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…” (Sound familiar? Re-read the passage from Emma Lazarus’ poem above!)

If we are to believe in Jesus, then to the extent of our capabilities we must act in a manner that Jesus would have acted, in the way we lead our lives. Did Jesus reject strangers? Did Jesus tell the poor and needy to get lost?

Now there may be some among those who reject strangers who might say, ‘We have nothing against strangers coming into our country, but how can we control them?’

Let me offer you up a parable of sorts, from my own experience. Make it two parables. Here is the first: We have a neighbor who has a boy who thinks nothing of coming into our house unannounced to visit, for the purpose of seeing a puppy that the neighbor gave us. My wife told me she doesn’t mind him visiting, but she would rather he knock on the door first, so she knows that he’s around. It’s a sensible request, no? My wife is not looking to kick him out, but she’d like that he comply with a sensible rule that respects her privacy. She didn’t ask me to BUILD A WALL around the house so he can’t come in. She didn’t call out the troops or kick him out once he was in, since she didn’t have to. Eventually he leaves on his own. Who loses there?

Here is the second parable which might get some to thinking, I don’t know…My daughter gave birth to a boy, and she and the boy live in our house. In a certain respect, that boy is a stranger in the context of a stranger coming into our land, is he not? How is he different from strangers who were born elsewhere? He and they could both benefit under God from Jeremiah 29:11 as the rest of us benefit. In Jeremiah 29:11, it is written “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Who are we to thwart God’s Plans for others?

Oh, but some who are against strangers and the poor and needy might say, ‘There you go again, quoting from the Old Testament that Jesus liberated us from!” Really? Did not Jesus say that the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself? Doesn’t Leviticus 19:33-34 pretty much say the same thing?

So, if someone tells you they believe in Jesus but they don’t want strangers coming into our country, and that they have no obligation in helping the poor and needy, you should ask them, ‘What do you really believe in?’

I agree with the principles that helping the poor and the needy is an essential Christian enterprise...

However the conclusions that are drawn in this post are just so wrong, and limiting, on so many levels.
I completely disagree that the only way of achieving this is for sovereign countries to admit the poor and needy as refugees.
Perhaps you did not mean this but it is what has been said...

By far the best way to help people is to help them WHERE THEY LIVE!
Furthermore, the expectation that sovereign countries and governments do the "right thing" is a pipe-dream!
If this is a Christian imperative why try to involve the governments of countries, whose interests will be at cross-purposes to the Christian imperative.

In particular, any suggestion that the US government has Christian interests at heart is just so completely laughable as to defy rational thought!

Just that everyone knows I am not against people helping refugees coming into any country....
However, I am of the strongest possible opinion that that the best way way of helping those people is create an environment, where they live, so as to preclude the need for them to become refugees or economic migrants in the first place.

I currently live in Australia, but grew up on the African continent, and so have a very different take, based on practical experience and reality, than many from the Developed World!

 

[soberxp]

[FONT=微软雅黑][FONT=微软雅黑]Usually meet homeless people, i give them food,but i can't let them to my house, even I know my heart says pls let them live in your house , [/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Exegete]

Matthew 6:1-4; Luke 10:25-37. Enough said.

 

[Nehemiah6]

.By far the best way to help people is to help them WHERE THEY LIVE!

You are absolutely right. Migrant invasion is not a solution, but the creation of another problem for the West, by the globalist elites, particularly George Soros, who has money to burn, and believes in doing as much mischief as possible before he dies.

To really help the poor and needy, they must be enabled to do something productive in their own countries. But because the political leaders of the poor nations are evil to the core, they prefer to ship their problems to North America and Europe, while they block or sabotage the efforts of anyone who could start fixing the problems.