If you are reading this then I believe God has bought you here and He wants to use you. Please read this article and consider what you already know: The situation that children are facing in Africa and other parts of the world right now.

By the time you finish this article, about 70 children will have died of starvation around the world. That’s 14 per minute, and about 1 every 4 seconds.

As I’m sure everyone has seen by now, Kony 2012 has really swept the world and is hopefully leading to positive change on this issue.

Another issue that almost everyone is aware of, is starving kids in Africa.

The problem is simply that due to various reasons, the people in most parts of Africa do not have the economic resources or infrastructure to support themselves.

It’s not becuase they are lazy or any other reason that might be in their control- the fact is that due to their leader’s mismanagement of their nations, they have been left with no opportunity.

 How can you help?

It seems impossible. It seems like whatever you could do probably wouldn’t contribute much.

Not to mention the fact that you have alot of things going on in your own life which need your attention. Your own money is not easily earned- you probably work 40 long hours a week for it, and even so you are still on a tight budget to make ends meet with the rising cost of living.

Consider however, what some of the field-workers in Africa and in South America have to go through.

I know of one family in south america, where the father works long days in the heat, working in the fields, and only earns about US$2 per day. This man had a wife and a daughtor.. How is he supposed to keep them alive on US$2 a day.

Yet what options does he have? Not many: All he can do is work as hard as possible and pray for opportunity to come along.

 You are the answer to these people’s prayers

So how much does it cost to change one life in Africa?

Less then you think!

Lets take one popular charity and see how far your dollar can get with them.

With World Vision, the cost of sponsoring a child is about $43 per month.

You simply go to their Child Selection Page and you can select a child based on many criteria, or you can just select the child who has been waiting the longest.

$43 dollars a month is roughly $11 per week, or $1.10 per day.

$1.10 per day.

Have you noticed how most of us have this natural habit, where we see that people are literally starving to death in another country, and our heart goes out to them, and we genuinely WANT to help them.. but we decide “When I’m in a better situation financially, I’ll help them” or even “If I was rich, I’d definitely help them.”

Remind yourself of the widow who gave her last 2 coins as a donation. Jesus said she had given more than the rich people had.

If we think we are facing tough economic times, consider the women who gave her last 2 coins. Consider the Africans and South Americans who are working themselves harder then we’ve ever worked- but are only getting paid $2 a day for it.

Even if you are considered “Lower class” in a western country, you are still thousands of times richer then the people who can’t scrape together any food!

Here’s what you get for sponsoring a child at $1.10 (Cheaper then a can of soda here in Australia) per day, which is paid as a monthly payment of $43 (there’s no contract or commitment- you just start paying and whenever you need to stop, you can stop.)

What you provide by sponsoring a child:

• Clean water
• Nutritious food
• Heathcare
• Education
• And more!

The money you donate also helps the town your child lives in. You can literally change many lives just by sponsoring one child.

This child is not unaware that they are being sponsored. Within a couple of months of sponsoring a child, you will receive a letter written by your child. You can also write back to the child, and when it’s almost that child’s birthday, World Vision will send you a card which you can write in and send back to them, and they will bring it to your sponsored child.

Sometimes your $1.10 a day could be the difference between life and death.

If you saw a man laying on the side of the road in your city, and you knew that he was going to die unless you gave him a few dollars for food, would you give him the money or would you keep it for yourself?

I believe that if this situation was put in front of you, you would probably give him some money! Indeed you would even give him your own lunch for the day, and you would go hungry for the day if it meant saving this man’s precious life.

What an amazing, God-given opportunity that would be, to save a man’s life!

This exact situation is before you right now. There are children who right now, literally have no food to eat. It doesn’t matter where they go or what they do- no food will be getting to them. There are children right now who will literally go to the grave because there is noone around to give them food, noone in any of our much wealthier countries who could just put up the $43 a month to save a child’s life.

You can be a lifesaver. You can be a true hero. And it’s not by your own grace that it can be done.

If we are left to ourselves, we can find excuses 100% of the time not to help others.

We can come up with millions of reasons to justify why we shouldn’t donate. Why we can’t part with our money “right now”.

When we learn about God, however, and when we learn what Jesus had to say about giving to the poor, and how the Bible says that giving to the poor is like lending to the Lord, and that Jesus considers doing nice things for the poor the same as if we were doing it for him personally, God’s word opens our heart to the true importance of helping whoever we can help.

Take a look at this image- but DO NOT let your desensatized mind let you push it away.

Maybe pictures like this are designed to make you feel something- but nonetheless, this picture reflects what is actually taking place on this earth right now.

Let the picture sink in. Store it in your heart and never forget it.

This poor child knows nothing but suffering. If you havn’t sponsored a child yet, is there something you are waiting for?

Waiting till you’re rich? You already are. If you earn minimum wage, you earn nearlly 1000% of an average African’s wage.

Waiting till the right moment comes? This is that moment. You’ve come across this article, you’ve read about it, you’ve seen the images and you know what’s going on.

Most of all, if you have read this far then you probably have a heart for this issue and helping to bring an end to this problem. I believe God wants to use YOU to save someone’s life.

Head here and you can choose a child to sponsor right now: http://www.worldvision.org/

If God has put this on your heart then I absolutely recommend that you find a charity and donate to them. Don’t be too skeptical or worried- once you donate to a charity you have done the right thing and it’s their responsibility to do the right thing with the money you have given them.

Click the link above if you would like to sponsor a child in Africa- it’s a gift that will mean more to that family then you could imagine.. If you think God has led you to this article becuase He wants you to provide for a poor family in another country, then don’t be afraid! Go forth and do what God wants you too!

Do not be afraid of “not having enough!”

Jesus said that if you put first the Kingdom of God, all the other things you need in life will be provided for you.

Trust in Him! He knows where every road leads and he will only lead you along the best ones.

God bless you!

I’ve noticed lately how easily we can all be mislead.

We all have our own specific beliefs about the Bible and about what God thinks and how He will judge us.

Yet most of the time, we have simply come up with these ideas ourselves, or have inherited them from other people.

A classic I heard a while ago was from someone who said they were not sure if God exists or not.

“I figure that if there is a heaven, as long as I’m a good person I’ll get in”, he said something to that effect.

He was right in a way- but “good enough” according to the Bible means sinless. If he could remain sinless from the moment of conception to the moment of death, sure, perhaps he could get into heaven on his own merits. We all know that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” though, meaning that none of us can make it on our own merits.

The idea that you can qualify for heaven based on deeds and not accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is not Biblical. But it’s easy to believe. It sounds really good.

 ”If I help people out sometimes, and I don’t murder, then God will forgive me. Afterall, the Christians are always talking about how loving and forgiving He is.”

It’s easy to believe nice-sounding fallacies such this.

The reason we can easily fall into this kind of trap is simply because we do not read the Bible enough. The Bible dispels all the common “myths” surrounding what is true and what is not true regarding the Christian faith.

Another example is the concept of “purgatory”.

Catholics believe that “purgatory” is a real place, and some will enthusiastically tell you that “There’s scriptures in the Bible that show that it’s true!”

Yet when you take a look at these scriptures you become very aware that somewhere along the line, someone has taken a scripture or a parable from Jesus and distorted it’s clear meaning to try and support their own idea. Then, the idea gets passed along and people assume it’s truth simply based on the fact that their predecessor handed it down to them.

Another Catholic example is the idea that mother Mary is someone we can pray too, that she can be an intercessor for us and Jesus.

Not too many Catholics will be able to show you where in the Bible this doctrine comes from, but when they do, they will point to Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding in Cana.

When the wine at the wedding runs out, Mary tells Jesus that they have ran out of wine. Jesus then proceeds to turn the water into wine.

Catholics believe that this shows that Mary can serve as an intercessory figure to Jesus.

Anyone reading the Bible for the first time would never get this perception after reading the story of the wedding at Cana. I believe the problem is that people sometimes come up with their own ideas, they make a god in their own image and simply label him as the same God from the Bible, but he is not. Then, when they become emotionally attached to their beliefs, they will seek to defend them at all costs. Of course, the Bible doesn’t actually support their man-made theology, so they must twist the Bible’s arm in order to make it appear as though it does.

The moral of the story here is simply to always drop your pre-conceived beliefs during Bible studies. Read the Bible and let it teach you it’s knowledge, don’t try to impose your knowledge onto it.

 

 

Abortion is one of the tougest decisions you’ll ever make.

Consider for a minute how you’ll feel once the baby is born.

The nurse hands you a baby and says “it’s a boy.” For the first time, he wraps his tiny hand around one of your fingers.. As you hold him, you know you feel unconditional love and you know you would do anything to protect this bundle of joy in your arms.

And you think to yourself, “thank God I didn’t go through with it.”

Before you know it, it’s already he’s first birthday. Some of his playgroup friends have come along, and you watch as he eats the cake and gets it all over his face. You love him so much that you almost get some tears, but you hold it off becuase your friends are there for the party too. As you watch him, you think to yourself, “thank God I didn’t go through with it.”

Then, when he’s only 5 years old, it’s christmas morning and he’s been looking under the tree at that big box you put there for him. He opens it, a big smile lights up his face and he cries “Yes, a nintendo! I love you mom!”

And you’ll say, “so you only love me when I buy you a nintendo?”

And he’ll smile and say, “I always love you, mom”

And as he runs over and wraps his arms around you in a big hug, you hug him back and think “thank God I didn’t go through with it.

Then, before you know it, he’s turned 18. He’s passionate about things now, he he has own personality. Even though he’s heading to college, you still feel protective of him like you did when you held him for the very first time. Even though you know he’s too old for it, you dust-down his shirt and pack him a lunch for the long flight out to college.

You try to hold back the tears at the airport- just like you did on his first birthday- but this time they can’t be held back. He hugs you and says “Don’t worry, I’ll be back for the holidays. I love you mom.”

As he walks through the terminal with a smile and a wave, you can’t help but think, “He’s all grown up..” but he’s still just a little boy to you. As he dissapears through the gate, you can’t help but think, “thank God I didn’t go through with it.”

Later that year, his facebook status changes and he posts a picture of himself with a girl you havn’t seen before. He tells you all about her- and you are very happy for him, she sounds very sweet- but deep down you know that no woman could ever be quite good enough for your little boy. But you’ll have to go easy on her, becuase he’s said he wants to bring her home this thanksgiving, so she can meet you.

Abortion is one of the biggest choices of your life. Your precious child will either have a life for itself, or it’s life will be uprooted before it gets a real chance.

As that mother, the baby depends on you in every way. It’s very life depends on your love and nuture for it.