Do we have compassion for the poor?

Do we have compassion for the poor?

I saw this link in the YC newsgroup; it is the text of a speech by Apple's Steve Jobs.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

I did not know he was adopted:

My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final
adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

A few days ago, he was listed in Forbes as one of the world's richest men.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it.

I couldn't help thinking that if a Christian family had shown him kindness and hospitality when he was poor and hungry - instead of the Hindu temple, I wonder what could have been?

There is no proof that the Bible is true. However...

There is no proof that the Bible is true. However...

(October 2005)

Gopal and I were classmates and friends in high school; I had lost touch with him 17 years ago and could not locate him until a few days ago. He is now a successful international businessman. At one time he said he believed in Jesus (usually very difficult for a high caste Hindu brahmin to be saved). Some years later when I met him again, he said those beliefs were childish (at which point I too, had stopped believing). I sent him the following email. He is quite intellectual. I pray that God will draw him near.

Gopal:

... Your earlier question on what I believe in now. I assume you are talking personal faith. The answer is - definitely not in purposeful divinity! That seems to be your cup of tea now?

Anil:

Hello Gopal,

You asked about whether belief was my 'cup of tea'. In college I was an agnostic but after several years of wandering around, I have come to realize that the Bible is true. There is noway to 'prove' that it is true (no matter what some may claim).

There are no proofs but simply indications to show that it is true. It is like a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing; we do not have those pieces but looking at the rest of the parts that do fit, we feel good about it that it is actually a designed and complete puzzle and that someday in eternity (heaven), the rest of the pieces will be given to us to prove that our faith was valid.

Why do I assert that it is not possible here on earth to get this proof? The Bible itself says that "We walk by faith, not by sight". It also says that "Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that He (God) exists and rewards those who earnestly seek him. So God himself requires faith as a prerequisite; if there was a proof all laid out, then perhaps all scientists would become Christians by using some logic theorem which they had discovered or formulated, because I think most are sincere seekers.

But God will not accept us through the pathway of our tools that make us proud - our Mathematics, our Logic and our Mind - He wants us to come humbly by the pathway of Faith in His son Jesus who died for us. Which is why the Bible again says that God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (or'intelligent'). I am not saying that we should not be thinking, but that to approach God, only faith in Jesus will reach Him. Only Jesus could say of himself, "I am the Resurrection and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me".

Unlike what Catholics and several religons believe, Jesus is the Only pathway to God. If you are interested in seeing some of the logical and scientific indications (again, not proofs) why what I believe is true, here are some good websites.

Ravi Zacharias:

http://www.rzim.org/radio/archives.php?p=JT

Hugh Ross: http://www.reasons.org/http://www.reasons.org/resources/hotline.shtml

-Anil
P.S. Another indicator that the Bible is true is a person's transformed life when he becomes a follower of Jesus.