Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to walk with Jesus during His earthly ministry and witness first-hand the miracles he performed?
Matthew 9 contains an amazing string of ministry events from Jesus’ earthly ministry. In this chapter Jesus forgives and heals the paralyzed man, He recruits Matthew to follow Him, addresses the religious mindset of the Pharisees, heals the woman with the issue of blood, raises the young girl from the dead and heals a blind and mute man.
This passage of scripture shows Jesus teaching throughout the city and performing miracle after miracle. Then in Matthew 9:36 it says, “BUT, When He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
This must have been a moment in Jesus’ life on earth when He had a realization of why He had come to earth and what His mission was – to become the required sacrifice to restore mankind’s relationship with God and ultimately become the head of the Church.
Jesus was moved with compassion. The miracles Jesus performed were a result of a deep feeling of sympathy, pity or affection towards the suffering. This is what compassion is. The feelings were so deep they moved Jesus to do something to alleviate their pain.
Sometimes I think we fall into the trap of believing our emotions should not be a motivating factor in our lives. This simply is not true. God created us in His image and gave us emotions. There are both negative and positive emotions, but how we act upon our emotions is what is important.
Jesus experienced an emotion of compassion that came out of His obedience and love toward God and us. That emotion was a motivator that moved Him to die for our sins. It was Jesus’ act of Compassion that rescued and saved the lost. Compassion is Love in action.
This is what World Compassion is all about – helping the poor, the rejected, and the lost so they experience genuine interaction with the love of Christ and are compelled to follow Him.
This genuine interaction is happening now In Kurdistan (northern Iraq). My father, Dr. Terry Law, and a team were recently in Kurdistan conducting food distributions for refugees and training ministry leaders. World Compassion also hosted a medical team from In His Image (a wonderful ministry partner) who treated hundreds of patients throughout the week.
It was a tremendous time of ministry. Hundreds of refugees received food, The Story of Jesus booklets, and Bibles in addition to medical treatment. My dad and the team also had the opportunity to present the director of this particular group of refugees with the Gospel message.
A relationship had been established with him over the past several months because of World Compassion’s consistent relief efforts in the area. While in a casual meeting, my dad felt prompted to ask the director if He wanted to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He responded with a confident yes!
After praying with him to receive Jesus, the team noticed another influential leader and friend of the camp director, look as if he had been left out. They asked if he wanted to receive Christ as well. With a confident smile, he also said yes!
God works through this ministry of compassion. As we share the love of Jesus, it compels those we reach to open their hearts to the truth of Jesus Christ. Our local pastor in Iraq, who visits the camp regularly for ongoing ministry, will now help disciple these men and other refugees as they lead more to Christ and plant new churches.
As we go through the busyness of our daily lives, let’s not forget to allow ourselves to be moved with compassion – to put love in action. Many people feel compassion, but only few respond to those feelings with real action. If each one of us carries this heart of compassion to a place of action, we can together change the world.
We are God’s compassion to the World.
We are World Compassion. #iamworldcompassion
