In Acts 3:1–10, we have a very moving story of a beggar who – like many other beggars – is standing in front of a temple gate. This is not just a regular point of entry, but is so wonderfully built that it is aptly named The Beautiful Gate. It is covered with Corinthian brass, shiny and brilliant, ornate and decorative trim sets it off. Against this magnificent background we have these beggars, filthy, grimy, smelling of sweat and waste, wearing rags and covered with flies.

Passing around these miserable men are the wealthy and the prosperous, prepared to praise God with their gifts and certainly not willing to waste any of it on some god-forsaken creatures who most likely are in their condition because of sins they have committed. Just a moment, please. There just happens to be a cripple by the gate who is given the miracle of healing. Why he was chosen to be blessed and all those other beggars ignored is not for me to guess. Allow me some literary freedom to say that Luke, the writer of Acts, was most likely a physician and for him the most necessary miracle was not a fleeting gift of coins, but the permanent gift of being able to walk without pain or crutches.

What a mixture of wealth, reality and possibility unwilling to share even a pittance with the unfortunate mass of humanity. Not in today's world! Really?

We are surrounded by so many distractions like phones, computers, AI and digital noise that demand our attention that we have lost the ability to think about problems and can't focus on the true needy facts in front of us.

There are overlooked victims of crime, children with learning disabilities, retired people who are ignored, homeless crowds. The list is endless, and not treated but accepted as normal and commonplace.

It is so easy to see God when the morning sun greets us as we drive to work or are surrounded by friends and not very easy to see God in the rags, filth and flies that overwhelm so many strangers who are lost in the ghettos.

The reality is that we are not able to keep up with the demands because of our limited resources. It seems that there are more fund-raising requests than ever before, more need for volunteers, more people calling for help, emergencies, diseases and holocausts than ever before in our history, and we seem to be in the same positions as those apostles with empty pockets. I must turn to what I know best, the church. When the world turns its back on the helpless and needy, where else is there help, where else is there life in abundance, which has been demonstrated and acted upon by the church, which has been commissioned to do the almost impossible by Almighty God!

When Jesus commissioned us to be His representatives, He gave us directions in the language of His century when there were no such things as the technology, science and resources of today. However, the solutions of the first century are the same as this century. The answer is so simple that it can be missed.

The beggar asked for money, but his need was to be able to walk. He was given what he had to have. A school doesn't just give diplomas, it gives knowledge. An optometrist doesn't just give glasses, it gives sight. A doctor doesn't just give medicine, he gives health. The church gives the example!

If the need is money and we have it. Then we give. If the need is to fight and we have the courage, then we fight. If the need is knowledge and we have the wisdom, then we teach. If the need is love, support, strength, hope. This is what we give ... that which gives life!

Our world cries out, "We want more, a different government, autonomy, and the list goes on." The world doesn't know how to ask the right question. The right question is, "God, can You give us what we need?"

How did God answer our question? "I give you what I have. Here is My Son Jesus. He answers every need!"

Thanks, God!