The Least of These

James 1:27New International Version (NIV)

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 2:14-17English Standard Version (ESV)

Faith Without Works Is Dead

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good[a] is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Galatians 6:2English Standard Version (ESV)

2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

I've noticed in big-budget disaster movies I can watch the end of the world as we know it but be undone by a pet dog or cat in peril.  I can do that in real life too.  The broadcast news with all its stories of violence and suffering can desensitize me by the sheer volume of images, but I let this little pathetic kitten cuddling someone's shoe break my heart.  Maybe God uses his weakest creatures to open my eyes until I see what He wants me to see and act as He wants me to act; and now that I've seen I am without excuse

Children of Our Time - Jason Upton 

Matthew 25:40-45New International Version (NIV)

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’