Luke 16:19-31

These past few months I haven't been going out on Thursdays.
I have been doing a lot of things with my kids, family and extended family.
Basketball, holidays, friends, nieces and nephews, school functions, you name it, I've been busy.
Have I had time to minister?
Absolutely.
Have had friend's children in our home constantly, family constantly, adults, mothers, teenagers in particular.
Have I led anyone to the Lord?
No.
Have I been discouraged?
Yes.

I remember a brother asking me or saying (don't really know if it was a question or a comment) over a year ago, something like, "But isn't the hurting for of a hungry, poor child without the LORD the same as another rich person who isn't poor living without the Lord the same?" As in, should we be ministering to the "rich" as well as the "poor."
My first reaction was NO!!!
I had been on the streets constantly, packing rice in my home, gathering clothes in my front yard, my car overflowing with toys and bibles and 24/7 hitting the streets and/or preparing others to do so...
I had seen the garbage dumps, the tenderloin, skidrow and papago...
My heart was broken for what I saw and I was humbled.
A hungry child who is poor and living in the garbage dumps I told the brother needed the LORD so much more than the rich person who had "everything" but felt hurting... That was my reaction.
Really? Was his reply. Hmmm...

Fast forward to today at Starbucks.
Since I haven't been out on the streets, missed Mexico, missed Mardi Gras and have been doing home to home witnessing among my well to do peers and frustrated as heck with this NO FRUIT ministry I've gotten myself into... so to speak... I asked Pastor Rudy that same question.
I've seen marriages falling apart, children broken hearted and teenagers living for this world rather than for God... I still see hurting people but "comfortable" hurting people...
Pastor Rudy had just read a passage about 1/3 of people will get saved... 2/3's won't.
And I was talking to him about how difficult it is to witness to the rich people I know because they seem to be filled with so much abundance (my opinions) and they seem not to feel the need for Christ... at least not to need him as much as the people we witness to out on the streets... but yes, I think everyone needs JESUS... they don't.
I actually was told that by a friend at the club when she asked what Rudy was up too and I told her he was a pastor and she replied, "Oh, some people need that."

He read me the following scripture but in a different version.
It's about the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus.
It brought so much revelation to me.
I've heard Rudy preach on it and I guess I didn't really get it like I do today until this morning because I've been struggling with who the LORD has put in my path recently and am brokenhearted that no matter what I say or do, they still think I'm weird and that they don't need the LORD! My heart breaks for them just as it does for the hungry child... and this scripture really needs to be broadcast around the east side of town:

Please read it and then pray with me! Ready?


19-21"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

22-24"Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'


25-26"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'

27-28"The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'To

29"Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.'

30"'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.'

31"Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'"

Father God, I come to YOU on this day praising YOU that all of us need your presence in our lives and despite our sin YOU remain unwavering with love for each of us.
I thank YOU for your holiness, for your constant love and abiding Spirit within us.
Hallelujah for your love reigns!
Lord, forgive me for my selfish ways and my lack of character that is displeasing to YOU. Forgive me for my speech and actions that sinful and not of YOU. Help me turn away from things of this world and draw me closer to YOU on this day.
Help me oh God to not deny YOU and your love no matter how difficult it may seem to preach your word. Help me get from it's too hard to preach your word on the eastside to I must preach the word on the eastside. Let my friends and family who don't declare YOU LORD of their lives not be like the rich man in the parable. Use me, give me the boldness and the opportunity and the patience to love them enough that I don't care what they think of me when I continue to preach the word to them. Lord, it's very difficult because I don't have a lot of patience. So please help me see them as you do. Also Lord, help me focus on the rich and poor as you see them... whether that means I am to stay where I am or whether I am to go... whatever your plan is, I submit to it and ask for discretion, discernment, wisdom to know the difference.
Here am I dear God, send me, renew me, change me, help me not deny YOU. My heart cries out to YOU oh God that my friends and family would turn their hearts away from things of this world and focus their attention and seek YOU first in all that they do. This passage breaks my heart! Give me the words to speak that they would repent and live a life pleasing to YOU oh God, have mercy upon us all in the name of Jesus I pray, AMEN.

I am stuck without a clear answer to my own question and marvel at how when asked the same question I had an immediate answer and today I don't... yes and no I guess... Yes, hurting people rich or poor need the LORD... no, it couldn't possibly be the same level of hurt because one is hungry and the other is comfortable... may the LORD be magnified. Today I feel like I must not turn my back on either of them... the rich or the poor... but it is way easier to give up and that's not an option. The LORD removed the scales off of my eyes and used people to get me there... I thank my husband Pastor Rudy and my children Anthony, Maddie and Cece, the ravens on the westcoast and around the nation and streetwise ministry to get me out of my comfortable place and have an opportunity for the LORD to work in my heart and remove those scales. It took for me to get out of my comfortable spot in life to be broken hearted for things of the LORD and not content with things of this world... to live to seek the LORD first... and as I am back with the rich it's agonizing to see the brokenhearted there too who don't feel a need to have the LORD. If the LORD reached me, HE can reach them. I just don't know when and it's frustrating. Lucy, Rudy took this pic of me for you while we were at Starbucks getting into the word over a white chocolate mocha w/ whipped cream.