GLEANINGS 30dec15

Leviticus 22:23

And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system

Gleaning can also be gleaning information, attitudes, lessons, I glean all I can, but in our ministry’s case, it’s the souls and minds of kids, and anyone else that bumps into us along the way.  We look for those who feel pretty bad about themselves, and give them a future and hope.

Happy New Year! this is a little dated, but it is a quick overview of our ministry:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tGFxEQRqWhLEoONT0eBFu0dJMNbJA_MpkC7syiMoy7E/edit?usp=sharing

Well, we are on the edge of the end of 2015, going into 2016 we look back at a spent year. A field that hopefully we have sucked all the juice and life out of.  IF we have lived at all it should be a barren waste land.  God said, don’t harvest it all… leave some behind intentionally for the poor and to the stranger.  A field in the Bible is often a reference to the world.

They say that when you share a goal or a passion with someone it makes it easier to know them and to become their friend.  I know that for a fact because of the way I have bonded with our ministry’s board members and with my co-servants at our ministry in Nicaragua. I also know that when I read things like that, my heart beats harder for my Lord Jesus Christ.  It bonds me even more with Him.  His heart is for the poor and the stranger.  He loves the widows and orphans.

I read a story in the newspaper years ago about how a diamond fell off of a lady’s ring  in NYC and she dug through two tons of garbage, until she found it.  This devotional is dedicated to people who are willing to dig through the garbage of this world to find that one precious gem.   She knew there was something in there that was worth it.  The garbage collections did not, or they would have been looking too.   God always has had a heart for the poor.  They are worth it, wish more people realized it.

There is a population explosion world wide.  While we all love cute little babies that smell like baby shampoo, the population explosion is not happening in the suburbs.  It is happening in the garbage dumps of developing countries.  Although this is alarming, it’s not all bad news however.  God loves the people in the garbage dumps and slums.  That is why He sent people like us; to glean.

There are valuable gems among this garbage.  While the people we work with make a living by gleaning from what others throw away, these same people are considered ‘throw aways’ in their own culture.

Children from the streets or bad neighborhoods in any city in the world, are looked down upon.  So while they they are gleaning from the refuse of the cities, WE are gleaning from the refuse of society and religion.

What we glean is the knowledge, wisdom, heroics and encouragement from the many kind children and adults we find in our work there. Our desire is to get other more fortunate people to roll up their sleeves and start gleaning the poor and the stranger no matter where they are.  If you look, you, too, will find diamonds in the mud. Gems in the workplace, on the streets, in the slums,  in the jungle, in the developing 3rd world’s garbage dumps, —or even in your home. You just have to look.

As your heart goes out to the poor and to the stranger, may your heart go out to the Creator of the Universe and Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chirst.  I think you will because that is where His heart is as well.