Great Book

Highly Recommended Book:  Hope Lives - A Journey of Restoration by Amber Van Schooneveld

I recently ordered this book online and could not be any more in love with it.  Many of you are probably aware either from talking with me in the last few months or reading my blog that I have been wrestling with many tough questions since I moved here like:  Why are there so many poor people?  How does God feel about the poor?  Why does He allow half the world to live off of less than $2.50 a day?  What am I supposed to do about this?  Does this ever go away?  Can I do anything to make a difference?  I was looking for any sort of book or bible study on poverty and God's heart for the poor and I came across this online, over looked it a million times, kept coming back to it and reading more reviews, and then finally I gave in and just ordered a copy.   This book is very very similar to Shane Claiborne's book Irresistible Revolution in subject matter and presentation - tons of awesome photos throughout and is made to look like a scrap book of sorts - but different in ways that I love.  This is a 5 week bible study journey looking at what Scripture has to say about the poor written by a woman who has traveled extensively with Compassion International.   I have been challenged everyday, encouraged and uplifted with each reading.  

The whole first week is about understanding poverty.  Growing up in beautiful Cocoa Beach, Florida - I've never seen real poverty.  Sure I've seen American housing projects, homeless people and those who can't afford to buy the latest fashions but honestly, I've never been face to face with people who have no running water, no electricity, live off of less than $5 a day, and who live in shacks made of trash in a slum until I moved here.  I'm becoming very convinced that only America looks like America - the rest of the world (with few exceptions) lives very very differently than what we are accustomed to.  The author has led me through Isaiah 58.  This chapter of Scripture describes a time when the people of Israel were complaining to God saying that they pray all the time and go to church everyday and offer all these sacrifices but that God isn't really paying attention to them.  So God responds back with this:

"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

only a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed

and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?

Is that was you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not 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?

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?"

-  Isaiah 58:5-7

I don't know about you but that hits me hard.  God was not impressed with the Israelites and I'm pretty sure He's not at all impressed with my religiosity either.   So what is it that God wants from us?  What pleases him?  Feeding the poor, caring for the oppressed is not easy - it's messy, it's hard.  Perhaps though, what God is asking of us - his people - his church - the body of Christ - is something different than sitting at home and "perfecting myself."  God knows I'm incredibly guilty of that.  Don't get me wrong-  that is important - but I think there is more.   This is crushing.  I love thinking about it.  What do you think?

If you'd like to read the book for yourself - visit my friends at the Family Christian Bookstore for a copy http://www.familychristian.com/shop/product.asp?ProdID=57241